How to deal with skirmisher spam?

So Im a bit new and I'm struggling playing pvp in 1v1 bc I like tanks and my friends play hover and jump, and time and time again I die really quickly because they spam scalpels or moderators. Scalpel bolas being another gripe entirely, I dont understand what I am supposed to do against skirmishers with the tank foundry. It seems that my entire factory is invalidated by a relatively low cost unit, and kinda discourages me in this game if a factory's balance is that one sided.
Also, yes I have tried using blitzes, I have tried tanking with minotaurs, with some success, but the cost ratio is so skewed I dont think its quite worth it, not to mention by the time I could get out a single minotaur Im already swarmed by skirmishers with a few riots, and therefore have already lost.

The tank factory is one of the weaker factories for 1v1 these days. That said, there are still ways you can win with tanks.

I recommend that you try one of these strategies:

- Use a Guardian comm and morph it up to level 2 to earn the rocket launcher and use it with some ground troops (blitzes, kodachis, or ogres) to fight the skirmishers. A comm with a rocket launcher has enough range to deal with any skirmisher.

- Use some welders or your comm and quickly build pickets (or if you have the metal, a stinger) to fight the skirmishers.

- Take some raider tanks (kodachis or blitzes) and go around the skirmishers and attack his base or mexes.


If you want detailed help, I can tutor you. DM me if you're interested.

Ogres are faster. Once you take the hit from the scalpels, don’t retreat. The scalpels have a long reload time.

As tank you want to raid and use repair to build up a force of heavier tanks. Get Welders out on the map and build some turrets as a stopgap. Skirmishers are bad against turrets if you pick the right turret for the matchup (basically, don't get outranged by Rogue), and Hover is particularly bad. With some safe ground you can pick off skirmishers with Emissary, and build up Minotaur or Cyclops to kill things before skirmishers get enough damage in.

Tank currently struggles hard against Hovers. Tank has been in a poor spot balance-wise ever since Emissary got nerfed, completely lacking in cheap raiders or a skirm making its game completely fall apart if its uber-raider (Kodachi) fails.

• I would recommend hiding Emissaries next to stingers. Gradually kill those scalpels from range, once you've pushed them back then build another Stinger closer. Maintain an army to deter them attacking the Stinger (if they push the stinger then push back).

• At your level a Cyclops will also work to kill Scalpels. Use the Cyclops to kill a couple then pull it back for repairs. Have some Kodachis or Ogres on hand to intercept if they try and rush down your Cyclops with the Scalpels.

• Lotus also works well against both moderators and Scalpel, slowing them down with its hp and doing damage. A Lotus forest can absolutely brutalize a moderator/scalpel swarm if your opponent doesn't micro well

• There's also just deciding to spend the 700 on another factory and getting a cloakbot factory for the Glaives and the Iris area cloaker (sneaking a bunch of Ogres up to the Skirmisher ball works very well indeed!). You can also just make a static area cloaker and morph it into a walking one.

A similar strategy should work against Moderators as against Scalpel: Either pure Kodachi swarms (hoping to overwhelm whatever riot force they have or just avoid the skirm+riot ball and hit the enemy base) or Emissary in a Stinger nest or a Cyclops slowly killing them all or a factory switch or an area cloaker on Ogres.


Contrary to Amnykon, I would NOT recommend Ogres. They are not a cost effective solution (seen in both real games and tested in sandbox) and will lose cost for cost.
If you are a micro god and can throw in a Welder/Minotaur to tank shots just before the Ogres come in to range of the Scalpels it may trade evenly, but if you get the timing even slightly wrong it'll backfire horribly with the Scalpels turning early and you'll lose all your Ogres without killing a single Scalpel.
Kodachis work much better against Scalpels, though even pure Kodachi will only trade evenly with a Scalpel+Bolas ball.


Contra GoogleFrog I would also not recommend sending Minotaurs against either Moderator or Scalpel (though they are good against turrets, which may have been what he means). It tends to die after killing one or never get in range to kill one at all (if you retreat early). Instead, send a single Minotaur with a retreat percentage (and retreat zone) set (or, instead, a welder or two) slightly before a big Kodachi swarm (as many Kodachis as the enemy has skirmishers should work).
Note that if you have too few Kodachis and/or the enemy has some decent rioting (Bolas or Mace or somesuch) then you could just lose everything for no gain, so this is risky... Hence me not including it in my recommended strategies above.

Some things to consider with small amounts of scalpels, you can enter their range, let them fire, then retreat. This will waist their shot, giving you the window to rush in. They also have a minimum range, so if you can get there, they will also miss. It’s too much micro once there is a ball of scalpels, but early game, it can be a free kill if unprotected.

I agree, cloaked ogres will work well, as cloaked riots are strong to begin with. Ogres are hard for hover to counter to begin with. Add cloaking to them and they can be devastating.

Lances are twice the price of an ogre, 3 x if you count the mace to protect it from raids as part of the cost.
Yes lances do counter ogres, unless the ogres are charging.