Kanes Wrath

Behold, one of the most feared weapons against manspam as GDI! I present to you, the Slingshot!

Hold on, hold on, you say. You mean "one of the most feared weapons against airspam" right? Or, if you're particularly trollish, "STFU n00b, Slingshots don't shoot menz." Well, Mr. Troll, you are absolutely right; Slingshots do not shoot "menz". They don't have to. All they have to do is roll straight through the rampaging hordes of Nod infantry or Missile Squads and smear the pride and joy of the manspammer into the dirt.

I decided to write this tip after watching game 3 of the series between Technique and Bonu$_[RU] in ConquerCup #4 for Kane's Wrath. If you haven't watched the game, I'll just say that Technique used a lategame vNod manspam to devastating effect against a large force of APCs and Watchtowers. I'm willing to claim that if 3 or 4 of those APCs had been properly-micro'd Slingshots instead at certain points in the game, Technique would not have been smiling as much. There is no way that that many Slingshots attacking at once would have died before they started crushing. Now, for those of you who watched game 1 of ConquerCup #5's finals between Technique and -Schelle, I know what you're thinking and I'll address your concerns at the bottom of the page.

Anyway, Slingshots are not expected to be the primary anti-infantry weapon of GDI. I played one Black Hand manspammer who sent me some taunting messages when my Slingshots rolled out of my War Factory, thinking I had hit the wrong key and built them by mistake. He wasn't laughing thirty seconds later when my APCs were cleaning up the few men remaining after the Slingshot flanking maneuver had crushed most of them. Slingshots are so much faster than most infantry that there is no hope of escape once the Slingshots close the distance and start crushing.



Everyone knows that Nod's favorite counter to manspam is probably the Dozer Scorpion. Lots of Dozer Scorpions formation-moving across a large number of men equals a lot of squished infantry for the cost of three or four Scorpions. Well, think of Slingshots as a faster version of the Scorpion that fire at aircraft instead of ground targets.

Let's pull up the hard numbers and make some comparisons:

Slingshot:
Speed: 125
Cost: 1000
Rocket Armor: 100%
Health: 3400

Scorpion:
Speed: 90
Cost: 800 + 2000 for Dozer Blades (optional)
Rocket Armor: 75%, 64% with Dozers.
Health: 2400

It takes 14 rockets from GDI or Nod rocket infantry to take down a Slingshot (7 squads firing at once.) It takes 13 rockets to kill an un-upgraded Scorpion and 15 to kill a Dozer Scorpion. (Editor's note: These calculations were all made assuming frontal armor strikes)

What does this mean qualitatively? It means that Slingshots are faster and take about the same number of rockets to destroy as Scorpions. Since almost all forms of GDI and Nod manspam revolve around Rocket Militia or Missile Squads, Slingshots can literally roll right over the core of a manspammer's attack force and no amount of ConCab Aura, Confessor bonus, Tiberium Infusion, Composite Armor, Tiberium Field Suits, or suppression will help against it.

One thing to remember is that it takes 10 seconds to produce a Slingshot and you will need a critical mass of them to be effective (see below). Sending them in one at a time will only give your opponent experience and waste your money. On larger maps such as Tournament Rift, Dustbowl, or Decision, you should be able to start building Slingshots once you see that he is spamming men and get a decent number before he attacks, depending on when you scouted the manspam. On smaller maps such as Tournament Arena or Tower, if you do not see the manspam right away and your opponent scouts that you are building Slingshots, he will likely change tactics or immediately attack with his infantry before you have enough Slingshots to counter. This is why scouting is so important, because you do not want to overspend on Slingshots or build them too late. The tell-tale signs of a manspam are more than one Barracks and/or an infantry tech building such as a Secret Shrine.

Building one or two Slingshots if you catch him shortly after he starts manspamming and before the attack, like 1 per 10 rocket soldiers, even if he scouts your build, will not get you to a critical mass. What it will do is force him to change tactics if he sees the build, or make him attack early. In the latter case, soon as his infantry start moving, finish your critical mass of Slingshots and reinforce your other defenses with APCs, or better yet, Watchtowers hidden behind Silos or Power Plants. Don't finish the critical mass until he's on the move, because if he changes tactics, you'll be left with useless Slingshots. If you build only 1 or 2 when he first starts manspamming and he changes tactics, you'll still be even with him economically because he spent at least $1000 on the infantry tech and possibly more on an upgrade.

So Slingshots counter infantry better than APCs?

That's not exactly what I said. Slingshots counter manspam better than APCs, even those with AP Ammo. Don't replace APCs and Watchtowers as your primary counters to infantry, particularly in small batches. Slingshots should be sought only when the opponent is doing nothing but spam men. I've watched numerous replays where GDI players do all of the "right" things against a mid-game manspam. They put up Watchtowers behind Power Plants or Silos. They crank out AP Ammo APCs. And yet they can't stem the tide against a massive wave of Rocket Militia and Confessors. I give you the answer to this: the Slingshot.

If your opponent is attacking with a force of less than say, 10 Rocket Militia/Missile Squads in the midgame, then you do not need Slingshots (unless they are also building aircraft, then have at it.) AP Ammo APCs and a few Watchtowers will do quite fine against those. It's when the numbers go way up on the manspam that Slingshots really shine. Because of the suppression mechanic and the aura of the Confessor/Composite Armor, even AP Ammo weapons have a hard time killing massive swarms of infantry fast enough. Slingshot drivers don't care about any of that. In typical GDI fashion, they roll right over the opponent.

Remember that APCs and Watchtowers can shoot other ground targets as well (particularly targets named "Attack Bikes"). If your opponent is Black Hand and goes for Scorpion or Buggy/Bike spam, the Slingshots will do nothing for you at all. You only want to build Slingshots once you scout the manspam, unless you're against ZOCOM. ZOCOM is the perfect faction to use Slingshots against, because they almost ALWAYS go for aircraft and Slingshots are excellent against aircraft as well. ZOCOM players are also the most likely to manspam out of all the GDI factions due to their bugged Predators and cheap Tiberium Field Suits upgrade. Additionally, Slingshots are fast enough to dodge Shatterer shots and EMP Grenades with good micro or just scattering fast enough.