How to expand?

Expand can be learned.

I've always been a porcy player and learned that you can expand in steps. Light porc + commander is actually quite strong in the early game. You can quite comfortably push commander forward about a third of the map, stop and build 2 lotus + radar. That's your fallback position. Then you push on another bit till you are just short of mid and build another 2 lotus or 3 lotus depending on what the threat profile looks like. Your aim is to get to mid or just past it until there's too much enemy junk coming at you. I usually erect a wall and hunker down behind it as my army catches up from the factory.

Usually I don't have to hold out for too long before the team also comes up and joins the fight. If I get outgunned I try fall back in steps to each fallback position. The fallback positions have the added advantage that they catch any detritus from the front like lone, damaged vehicles or little groups of glaives.

Alternatively if you don't like porcing up what you can do is to plan to have just one forward line.

Rush a significant group of raiders as your very first action. Send them off and plan out an eco and expand as they are going outward. I usually use my commander for that aiming to reach the midline. You should get this rapid expand plan done before the raiders reach the enemy. Then using the raiders you look for the gaps in the enemy line and try to break through to the rear. The aim now is to pick off mexes, solars and wind, making them have to pull back their own expand to chase down your raiders. YOU DONT FIGHT their offensive elements, but run away. The sole aim here is to kill their expand by making them waste units and time chasing your raiders. The longer these rushed raiders live the better. I find 3 kodachi works quite nicley.

quote: - The AI is extremely eager to kill expansion, Coop games I've seen is almost tower-defense mode.

The CCR macro challenge is essentially about this:

- Play against bots on Comet Catcher
- As rovers
- You are only allowed to build these mobile units: mason, dart, scorcher, ripper, ravager, crasher and maybe fencer
- No turrets
- No terraform
- Not even a single level of commander morphing.

The classical hard mode version is played against three bots, so you have to come back through raiding and expansion already starting from behind. But for learning the mindset, going 1v1 against Brutal should work.

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If you want to improve, you need to not play the coop games. Most people don't want to improve but want to just have fun at whatever skill level they are. If you improve you will leave them behind, and to improve, you have to leave them behind.

quote: - Expanding in lobpot means going up against the strongest players on the other team.

Expanding in lobpot is mostly just noticing that there are unclaimed mexes on the map at this moment, and claiming them, or doing whatever necessary to claim them; as well as rebuilding after destruction, and quickly building-up controlled but not mexed territory.

It's surprisingly easy to get the expansion award just doing this maintenance task alongside whatever else you are doing.

The macro challenge above kind of aims to drill this into a mindless instinct. With all the micro needed to counter the enemies with only mobile units, your expansion better be extremely streamlined both strategically (build order, expansion paths) and mechanically (how many seconds you spend looking at minimap, issuing the orders, and how long it takes you to notice an opportunity)

Generally, I'd advise every player on my team to make a beeline for the halfway point. Leave the juicy cluster of three mexes next to start alone, send an early builder there to claim them a little later. As soon as your commander reaches mid, dont build mexes, but rush 2-3 lotus and then build mex. From there, it's all about conserving that momentum and hopefully keeping that middle advantage for the rest of the game. As long as you are consistently attacking and being free to choose where and when to attack, you are winning.