Kanes Wrath

Introduction

When pitched against the Brotherhood of Nod or one of its subfactions Marked of Kane or Black Hand, you may sometimes come across an Attack Bike rush, or even a Bike spam. These usually come in three types.

1. Economy Bike Rush. Economy Bike rushes are where the opponent will not create so many Bikes that it wrecks his economy. These rushes are usually the easiest to counter, but hardest to beat in the long run.

2. Bike Rush with Backup. A Bike rush with backup is where 3–5+ Bikes will attack you closely followed by infantry or Scorpion Spam. These are hard to counter, but once countered, quite easy to beat.

3. All-in Bike Rush. This rush is the hardest to counter, but simple to beat after being countered. In this rush, the enemy sells their MCV for extra resources and just keeps spamming Bikes.

Key ingredients for countering Bike rushes

The following are key tactics to counter a Bike rush or spam.

Scout. Essential for finding out if it is coming, when it is coming and what type of attack is coming. Fix up an economy better than the opponent. Essential to pump out more units than the opponent can, effectively countering the rush.

Harvester micro-management. Essential for keeping your harvesters alive. Killing harvesters and destroying your economy early on is the purpose of this attack, so keeping the harvesters alive will stop the attack being worthwhile.

Being cost-effective. Not always essential, but always helps. Being cost-effective will allow you to counter attack the enemy with more of a force.

GDI Factions

All the GDI factions have an equally easy time when it comes to countering Bike spams or rushes, so I will address them all at once.

The easiest way to counter Bikes as GDI is Pitbulls. Pitbulls take 7 seconds and 700 resources to make and it takes 2 Pitbulls to kill 1 Bike (in a volley), whilst it takes 4 Bikes to kill 1 Pitbull (in a volley). If you can micro-manage well, 1 Pitbull can kill 2 Bikes, so if you spam Pitbulls, the Bikes will usually die. If you want to launch an effective counter-attack after you counter the rush/spam, Predators are your best option. Predators are much slower than Pitbulls, but take 2/3 of a Bike’s health with 1 volley. Predators take 11 seconds and cost 1100 credits to make, which makes them more expensive to build and you will make less of them in a given time.



Orcas can be used together with Pitbulls. Orcas can kill a bike in just one volley, when it takes three from a bike to kill an Orca. Orcas take 11 seconds and 1100 resources to make and you can make 4 of them in an airfield.

An alternate option is to build a Barracks and make a few Missile Squads. Missile Squads take 4 seconds and cost 400 credits to make, meaning they are made a lot faster than Pitbulls or Predators and cost less. 1 volley from a Missile Squad, if there are 2 men in the squad, will take half the health off a Bike. Missile Squads are very slow moving compared to both Predators and Pitbulls, though.

Another useful tactic is to build multiple Watchtowers, as Watchtowers are very effective against Bikes. Steel Talons have an extra option against Bikes: Put one Missile Squad into each Heavy Harvester and then create more Missile Squads or Pitbulls to kill the Bikes once they are damaged from the Harvesters.

Nod Factions

Different Nod factions have varying difficulty when it comes to surviving a Bike rush or spam.

Vanilla Nod

Vanilla Nod (vNod) have the hardest time out of all Nod factions when it comes to countering Bikes, not that it is a hard process. Using Bikes to counter Bikes is effective if micro-management is used and if you have more Bikes than the opponent. Bikes take 6 seconds and cost 600 credits to make. It takes two volleys from 1 Bike to kill another Bike. Bikes are the fastest land vehicle in the game, but that does not help against equally fast Bikes. Scorpions are a great way of killing Bikes, and a great way of counter-attacking with force afterwards. Scorpion Tanks take 8 seconds to make and cost 800 credits to make. Although the Scorpions are actually less effective at killing Bikes than Bikes are (it takes 4 volleys from a Scorpion to kill a Bike, opposed to the 2 that it takes another Bike), the Scorpions are a much more effective counter-attack force than Bikes. The choice between using Bikes or using Scorpions to counter depends on your style of play.

An alternate option is to build a Hand of Nod and make a few Militant Rocket Squads. Missile Squads take 4 seconds and cost 400 credits to make, meaning they are made a lot faster than Bikes or Scorpions, and cost less. 2 volleys, if there are 2 men in the squad, will destroy a Bike. Keep in mind that Militant Rocket squads are very slow moving compared to both Bikes and Scorpions, though.

Marked of Kane

The Marked of Kane (MoK) have a slightly easier time than vNod. All of the above advice for vNod also applies to MoK, but the MoK’s infantry is superior to vNod: The Awakened take 5 seconds and cost 500 credits to make, or they can be drafted from a Shredder Turret for 300 credits (but with only one single soldier in the squad). These are not very effective against Bikes (takes about 6 seconds to kill a Bike with a full Awakened squad of 3 units), but they have the EMP ability, which lasts about 5 seconds. This EMP, available right from the start, along with vehicle support, makes short work of Bikes, which cannot escape or fight back while EMPed.

Black Hand

The Black Hand (BH) have a slightly easier time than vNod because of their Confessor Cabal squads. All of the above vNod help applies to BH as well, but with vNod, when you draft a unit from a tier-1 building (Shredder Turret, Power Plant, Hand of Nod, etc.), you get a Militant Squad. With BH on the other hand you get a Confessor Cabal, which is an extremely effective unit against Bikes. Confessor Cabals can kill Bikes in about 4 seconds, but even faster if there are nearby Cabals. Confessor Cabals have a special passive ability (an "aura") that increases combat effectiveness of nearby troops within their radius. Confessor Cabals can be drafted from a Shredder Turret for 300 credits.

Scrin Factions

Almost all the Scrin factions have the same difficulty when it comes to countering Bike attacks.

Vanilla Scrin and Reaper-17

Both vScrin and Reaper-17 have the same difficulty countering this attack, except for that Reaper-17 have Shielded Harvesters, which take slightly longer to get killed. One way to counter Bikes is to use Seekers. Seekers take 8 seconds and cost 800 credits to build. Seekers can kill a Bike in 2 volleys but are easily killed by Bikes. Gun Walkers are a better counter to Bikes because they are more versatile and take longer to die against Bikes. Gun Walkers take 7 seconds and cost 700 credits to make. A disadvantage of the Gun Walkers is that they cannot attack while moving, whilst Seekers can.

Traveler-59

Traveler-59 (T-59) have a slight advantage over vScrin and Reaper-17, which sounds minor but actually helps quite a lot. Scrin and Reaper-17 both have Disintegrators, which are great against Bikes, but Traveler-59 have better Disintegrators. Normal Disintegrators are slower than Bikes, which allows Bikes to flee easily, but Traveler-59 have an upgrade: The Advanced Articulators upgrade can be accessed from the Statis Chamber (buildable in 12 seconds for 1200 credits), and Advanced Articulators takes 30 seconds and 1000 credits to upgrade. This upgrade increases the movement speed of Disintegrators, Assimilators, Shock Troopers, Ravagers and Cultists. This makes Disintegrators able to run after Bikes more effectively.


Thanks to R Schneider for editing and Gromij for advice. Join the discussion of this Tip in our forums.