Cheese

Cheese strategies are strategies that can be described as high-risk and high-reward. These typically rely on winning hard and winning early. Below we will detail some of the finest cheese known to lobster-kind.
Disclaimer: Some of these are quite bad strategies, but will probably sometimes work nonetheless.

On the use of commanders

A good rush will often include your commander. In the early parts of the game, this unit represents the majority of your combat strength. Most rushes just utilize the commander as a support unit that fills in a role that you need. However, some cheese strategies utilize the commander as a centerpiece of the strategy.

The strategies

Fencer rush

Plop rover factory, and put fencers on repeat queue. Once you have made like 2 it is time to start moving towards your opponent. Once your comm builds the starting mexes/energy move it towards the opponents base as well. Once you get to your opponent's base and see what they have been up to, choose an appropriate comm morph option. Continue streaming fencers across the map. When you have a critical mass of fencers you can just move in and kill them. But don't wait too long! If they get up significant defense you could end up losing.

• Rocket launcher is the best morph to get if they try to counter you with skirmishers.
• Riot cannon if they build lots of low-hp raiders.
• Heat ray is good if they try to make heavies.

Reaver rush

Much like the fencer rush.

1. Plop cloaky and take 1 mex.
2. Make reavers on repeat queue.
3. Move out with your comm and have reavers rally to it.

This rush is more time sensitive, and requires that you hit sooner than a fencer rush. Reavers are a bit faster than your comm so they will catch up to it.

Banisher rush

The banisher is probably the most robust riot unit in the game, with high DPS and HP. It can be quite difficult to stop earlygame, especially if it is unscouted. The banisher is capable of killing commanders by itself and it has splash damage, making it quite effective against the raiders people typically build as well. This rush is time sensitive, as if they scout you they can throw up lots of light defense turrets and hold it off.

1. Plop the HT factory.
2. Queue up a banisher, set the rally point to your opponents base.
3. Assist the factory with your commander.

This rush is especially effective against factories with no skirmishers, like HT or rovers. Factories with awkward skirmishers like spider may struggle to deal with it as well, but HT vs spider is a rare match-up anyways.

Defending against it

The best defense against any cheese is scouting, and this is true here. Build your lightest raider and send it to your opponent's base. Since the banisher is an expensive unit, by the time your raider gets there it should still see the banisher in the factory being built, or just as it moves out. Since the opponent has commited quite a bit of resources to this rush you can affort to just spam lots of LLTs and the occasional Picket to hold it off. If you have a skirmisher, that would be a good choice to make as well.

Raider rush

These types of rushes are distinct from the others in that they don't bring along the commander, and rely on overwhelming your opponent with an unexpected raider force. Below are listed some of the raiders that are most effective at rushing.

Flea rush

Plop spider factory and build your initial 500 metal into fleas. Send your first two out to scout. Once you get your flea swarm you can either attack the opponents base, or their commander. If their commander morphed to a splash damage weapon this will not work, but it should lead to a dead commander if the commander is alone and un-morphed. Alternatively, if they only built like 1 MT or LLT in their base and all their units are gone, you are able to quickly kill the defensive turrets and possibly win the game by killing all their eco structures and factory. You need to be careful with your fleas though, the death explosions from most buildings can instantly kill them. Obviously, this strategy fails if they are not very greedy and bother to build some raiders.