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Posted by: Pickysaurus 25 Jun 2009, 16:40

After playing through the campaign where tech trees are harshly limited in some places. I got creative with my approach to the GLA defensive line.

I have found the best weapon again a stinger site is actually the Chinese troop crawler... why?

Well the vehicle can detect them if stealthed and has a long line of sight. And when you send the 8 red guard against it. They almost immediately kill the 3 stinger soldiers and quickly finish off the structure.

Just thought I'd share that with y'all

Posted by: Pal 25 Jun 2009, 16:42

does help.

and guess what..we both are top posters in the forums!(by day)

Posted by: JJ 25 Jun 2009, 16:51

Troop Crawlers are also useful at countering USA Patriots, especially the EMP Patriot, which pretty much is only cost-effectively counterable by infantry.

Posted by: Pickysaurus 25 Jun 2009, 16:53

Well yeah, that's a cheap approach. Personally I use artillery

Posted by: Erik 25 Jun 2009, 17:02

Another trick:
ECM+Dragon if you dont have a TC at hand.

Posted by: Pickysaurus 25 Jun 2009, 19:41

That works too, but ECMs required a Propaganda centre

Posted by: Erik 25 Jun 2009, 21:15

yet you will unlikely have an troopcralwer included in every army, ecm happens more often. Also this combo can ho for these pesky palaces aswell. Ofcourse if you goal is only to get rid of that single stinger site go for the TC.

Posted by: accomplice 25 Jun 2009, 23:51

May I suggest an addition to the red guard vs stinger site tactic?

All 3 stinger solders will fire at the closest target and stick with it, even when it moves away and other units come closer, as long as that first unit is in its weapon range.

So I would pick exactly that one red guard at the very front and manually let him run left and right in front of a stinger site, dodging missiles all the time, while the other 7 start shooting and quickly neutralizer the stinger troopers. Then have the baiting guy join the fight.

With this technique, I can kill a stinger site even with 2 basic infantrymen if needed (happened to me once in a custom made mission lol)

Posted by: C.o.m.m.a.n.d.e.r 26 Jun 2009, 0:25

bomb them with nuclear migs

Posted by: Admiral FCS 26 Jun 2009, 0:55

TC rush is much more cost-effective than 4 Nuke Migs IMO.

Posted by: Pickysaurus 26 Jun 2009, 1:08

I was going for the non-conventional approaches

Anything can be neutralised by bombing it with Nuclear MiGs

Posted by: Shock 26 Jun 2009, 2:00

Nuke migs can also be shot down by anything that is AA. Paper armour.

Posted by: Pickysaurus 26 Jun 2009, 2:09

Maybe they'd do better with a kamikaze ability if they don't often escape the AA

Posted by: Zhao 7 Jul 2009, 7:04

3 red guards > stinger site

Posted by: Papaya Master Rai 7 Jul 2009, 7:42

Let me guess: Use Red Guard No. 1 to move around the Stinger Site, since he could easily avoid being hit by the rockets, while the other two just keep hitting the Stinger soldiers one by one.

Posted by: Admiral FCS 7 Jul 2009, 8:19

Not really. Stinger Missiles AFAIK has an explosion radius, which, when your infantry is close, will damage him.

Posted by: Chyros 7 Jul 2009, 9:48

Yes, but this only happens when they are walking really close. At normal distances, infantry can walk past stinger sites with impunity. One advice: don't buy stinger sites. They are heavily inadequate against every single kind of target, even those they are supposed to be able to counter.

Other things that can kill a Stinger Site other than artillery are one Quad, one Dragon, one RAD tank (it can actually one-shot all infantry in it at the same time), snipers, most airplanes and helicopters, maybe even a toxin tractor.

Posted by: Pickysaurus 7 Jul 2009, 14:14

I'd agree Stinger sites fail vs ground units, but I've always found them powerful vs air units.

Posted by: KamuiK 7 Jul 2009, 14:28

Same here. I commonly use Tunnel Networks and RPG Troopers for ground defense and stinger sites for AA, since AA is what they are really good about. Or Quad Cannons^^ That is also the reason I play as Death Strike most often because of his SA2 and Gadflys.

Posted by: Erik 7 Jul 2009, 15:51

The only thing that stingersites really counter is MBTs(who uses those duh) and humvees as long as they arent overwhelmed.

Posted by: Chyros 7 Jul 2009, 19:46

The Stinger Site has absolutely no chance whatsoever against the following air units:
-Raptors (metre-thick armour & countermeasures or PDL creates an impenetrable barrier, especially for Stingers)
-Stealth fighters (not even gonna bother to explain that one )
-Auroras (though more vulnerable than Raptors, they are still invulnerable)
-Stealth & Laser Comanches (Adv. Countermeasures makes them way too tough and PDLs will make Laser Comanches impervious to Stinger fire)
-MiGs when upgraded (though even unupgraded Stinger Sites can't save themselves from destruction)
-Helixes (way too well-armoured and will kill the Stinger Sites extremely quickly)
-Black Widows (typically Ironside - way too well-armoured)
-F16XLs (way too armoured AND specialised against base defences)
-Blacksharks that are either grouped or have an ECM variant with it

which comprises most of the aircraft ingame. Other units like the Phoenix will not destroy a Stinger Site but will not be destroyed by it either. The Stinger Site will effectively destroy <gasp> Littlebirds & Balloons but that's about it . Just like Erik says, the only thing they can really counter is MBTs if they don't drive around the Stinger Site. And again like he said, these are rarely used, and because of this, Stinger Sites serve practically no purpose.

Posted by: Pickysaurus 7 Jul 2009, 20:01

Chyros, you're talking on a 1 site vs 1 or more aircraft basis.

If you strategically place your anti-air it can prove much more effective.

Posted by: Chyros 7 Jul 2009, 20:41

I'm talking about any basis and any placement.

Remember that this is about hardcore online play. You don't get the chance to build tons of these before your opponent attacks. If you're quick, you can get one up before your opponent hits you. If you make it to the midgame, building defences will inevitably kill you because you can't win any game with them. Sure, a thousand Stinger Sites will probably down lots of Comanches. But speaking in realistic terms, what I posted applies. At least that's the way I feel about it.

Posted by: Stinger 7 Jul 2009, 21:14

I've seen really good ZH players use Stinger Sites to augment their forward lines so their usefulness in the late game is debatable.

Stinger Sites on their own aren't really useful, which is why you should have units in Tunnels nearby.

Posted by: Chyros 7 Jul 2009, 21:50

If you happen to have a replay at hand, please send it. Let's face it; it's really just the units in the tunnels. ZH has never had a defensive gameplay orientation. Units is what it's been about, always - defences had pathetic range, no flexibility of any kind and they were weak as well. That's why every single ZH player that plays seriously doesn't even consider any tactic that is not a rush.

Posted by: accomplice 7 Jul 2009, 22:09

As a pathetic single player focused person, I consider stinger sites relevant as in massed up defenses of a already built up AI opponent, as well as my own pathetic turtle shell against money cheating AIs

Posted by: JJ 8 Jul 2009, 13:56

GLA was good at turtling because of tunnels. By late game, you should have tunnels in pairs all over the place. Placing a Stinger Site in front of a pair can be very useful as it will either absorb the damage or damage the unit itself while they attempt to kill your tunnel units, which will probably fail because they will just go back in.

Posted by: Chyros 8 Jul 2009, 15:38

That sounds useful. I should give that one a try .

Posted by: Sharpnessism 8 Jul 2009, 21:36

Stingers are used to help quads against air not to be used alone. Against ground units, they're semi effective depending on the match up.



Almost every ZH player uses defenses in games over 5 minutes. China bunkers or gattcannons depending on match up. USA firebases (if SWG EMP pats, if lazer maybe lzr pats, regular ones are basically as effective as a firebase but cost power and more $$$). GLA tunnels, stingers if facing air units (MiGs/Lix/Stealthmanches) or to force enemies to focus it instead of a tunnel, since you cannot pop units out of a tunnel being attacked without losing most of them or having them damaged.



It's easy to camp in ZH with any GLA just with tunnels, units, and stingers. Against other GLAs it turns it into a super weapon war. Against Chinas you're disadvantaging yourself since you can probably win without camping but this also turns it into a super weapon war. Only against USA, who can just overwhelm you with vees you'll probably want to harass but even then, the general gameplay of a standard GLA is defensive with some harassing.

You want replays? I could send to a whole pack of replays of players using defenses to cover flanks or simply for defense when playing defensive but I have no idea how to upload replays on this forum (or any kind of file). Why do you not see replays of people playing defensive? Because they're boring. No one wants to watch a super weapon war between GLAs, or a USAF just spamming firebases and relying on KRs to finish off a China. I don't know where you come up with your ZH information since you haven't really shown any competitive ZH playing.

Posted by: BlitzGeneral 18 Jul 2009, 22:55

I've always found Stinger Sites to be pretty lacluster in the anti-ground role, especially against infantry.

Deathstrike EASILY has the best base defences of any GLA general, maybe in the entire game due to the Hornets which work against infantry as well as tanks, and those pesky SA-2s. >__<

Posted by: Destiny 19 Jul 2009, 1:34

Well I wonder what the Bunkster upgrade is for But then again SFs never lived long enough after firing...

Posted by: Sgt. Damien 17 Aug 2009, 19:56

I use most of the time to beat out enemy base defences some stealth fighters from the airforce general. Just 2 stealth fighters is eneough for the GLA base defences because of the bunker buster option.

Posted by: Nidmeister 17 Aug 2009, 21:12

The thing I find works really well is a Combat Chinook loaded up with 3 pathfinders and 3 missile defenders.
Pathfinders are excellent at neutralising them, while the MDs do the heavy lifting.
Of course that's only if you're playing AFG

Posted by: Erik 5 Sep 2009, 13:36

As afg? Why bother with it? get Stealth fighters with ammo upgrade and they one shot stingers. Better spend the genpoint on a spectre and level half the opponents base

Posted by: Pickysaurus 5 Sep 2009, 15:14

You might not be able to keep on top of the stinger sites though.
Stealth strikes have quite a long time between them. By the time you take down 2-3 the first one can be rebuilt.

At least with a 'nook you've got some assurance that the site isn't coming back.

Posted by: JJ 5 Sep 2009, 18:32

Just keep Comanches nearby. Attack when you feel they are out of range of other Stinger Sites. They are stealthed anyway so they are relatively safe.