Improved STORMS & Super heavy WASPS

In this mechabellum gameplay video RAT is playing elite specialist and picking some unorthodox cards.
We see the improved stormcaller card as well as super heavy armor.
Support me with HOLY MOLY RAT T-SHIRT: shop.mechamonarch.com/product...
Music by Karl Casey ‪@WhiteBatAudio‬
The wasp game I was talking about: • RAT in a Mechabellum T... (game 7)

[@SurreyEZ]

The other wasp game I was talking about: th-cam.com/video/0ZiBv5SeZJA/w-d-xo.html (game 7)

[@Amaroq81]

Lol, I was just describing this to my stream today!
"The way RAT plays the jump drive Wasp or Phoenix, he gets the opponent to overcommit to countering it. By Round 6, the opponent has 1,000 or more invested in countering a 250 investment. RAT, of course, is good enough to leverage that economic advantage into a game win, but at least the opponent has countered those g*dd*mned Wasps!" =D =D

[@SurreyEZ]

It's kind of funny most of the times. The enemy struggles the whole game, then he finally has everything covered and sighs in relief just before noticing the wasp are sold and his mustangs don't do anything anymore

[@cubandarknez]

very cool play, had never taken that storm caller card. But I have definitely borrowed your ideas with wasps, grabbing it from free unit rotations to get econ advantage by constantly moving the wasps around and beaconing them in. My biggest issue with storm callers is that vs good people they feel so underwhelming. Good players find ways to make the storms waste like 50% of their first few volleys, easiest being with beacon crawlers, but also other things like using the anti missile on a big swing turn (when they get a field effect or something) to have them get a huge win and then you take tons of damage from one loss.

[@enigmaenigma5986]

its funny only when it happens to others, you monsters! thanks for the content tho

[@infinitum245]

The hp boost from the first two tower levels is 400 cost, ~45%. Taking the defense card for 250 and tower 1 level is ~45% for 350. So there's a slight advantage in %/$. If I were heavy armor spec I'd consider it to get +~62% from baseline.

[@SurreyEZ]

Yea! But you get 50 if you skip. I think I buy the 300 cost level 2 defense upgrade from the tower in maybe under 5% of my games. Sometimes its good to stack them but not very often i feel like. Senior attack specialist is a little bit more cost efficient compared to the tower upgrades

[@Ilostmycactus]

I would have liked to hear what you would have done against the wasp if you were facing it.

[@willianlussin8981]

damn you rat you made me an addict to the elite spec sell for wasp...
that said i only lost 30% of the games i did it

[@TheHuffur]

In other words, you win 100% of the time it works!

[@_DarkEmperor]

I like it, very creative unconventional tactics.

[@GregAtlas]

I kind of agree that the Typhoon often feels like a bait. Stats wise it makes you think "Hey, this is basically a better Mustang" but since there's only 3 of them it just lacks the firepower to handle wasps and crawlers. Even struggles against wasps with aerial spec. I haven't tried with mechanical rage yet. Using the missiles equipment is great fun though, and does better than what the description seems to say.

[@GregAtlas]

Oh, and the main reason I haven't tried with Mechanical rage yet is because every time I consider using it, I worry about it outspeeding the units that are protecting them or just making awkward positioning. I suppose a moment that will allow for that will come with more experience or maybe some testing in the testing grounds.

[@HolgFromHell]

@@GregAtlas keep us up-to-date please!😃

[@GregAtlas]

@@HolgFromHell Sure. First I gotta correct myself. It's only 2, not 3. I was thinking the fire tank for some reason. As for the Mechanical Rage, I did some testing in the testing grounds where I can keep an eye on the typhoons a little better and analyze their performance and gain some additional experience. If this gets to be a TLDR, I'll have a summary at the end.
First thing I noticed is: The homing missiles work on fast targets like crawlers even if you give them speed upgrades. Even went subterranian + mech rage + tower speed boost + 3x speed specialist for 36 m/s and the missiles wipe out over half the squad of crawlers when facing is squared up. Homing missiles provide a decent punch against medium to heavy units, too. It'll bring a squad of balls down to half health, but the balls will still kill in a 1 squad vs 1 squad situation. Against Sledgehammers the missiles only hit 2-3 of the sledges, but the Typhoons have the dps and tankyness to kill off the Sledgehammers somewhat easily. Drawback to the homing missile system is that they're a somewhat long cooldown time to where you'll only get 3-5 vollies off in extended/fairly evenly matched battles (basing that on actual battle experience.) Luckily the missiles scale with levels unlike the Fortress. Unfortunately the missiles only target ground troops, though they fire at a very nice range and there's almost always ground troops to fire at. Those missiles also don't get distracted by air units that you might want to just focus with the main gun, making it a somewhat nice pairing with the anti-air tech to keep at range.
Second, their main weapon is splash damage, which really helps when facing swarms, but it's only 5 meters, or basically the same splash as a sledgehammer. Mustangs can get better splash at 7 meters and that can be noticeable in most circumstances. Mustangs also have 12 units doing 420 damage (252 with HE ammo) as a full squad vs Typhoon's 168 damage but firing twice as fast for 336 damage in the same amount of time. It's aiming time is a little slow being that it's a somewhat large unit, so the targeting change time can be a drawback, especially if switching between ground and air units.
Mechanical Rage kind of surprises me. It's not the usual Mech Rage we're used to where it does an attack speed and move speed bonus. Instead, it's attack damage and move speed bonus. It bumps your 9 m/s speed up to 13 m/s.
Both the 9 and the 13 m/s is a little awkward, but there are some interesting advantages to those speeds. With no mechanical rage, you're slightly slower than an overlord and slightly faster than fangs. This means that you can deploy them mid field with a fang directly in front with a +1 or +2 space gap and an overlord right behind them and they'll typically engage the enemy almost exactly at the same time for most engagements. Adjust your spacing as you think you need to for optimal engagements. WITH mech rage on both the Typhoon and the fangs, I'd suggest around a 0-1 space gap because they keep up with one another quite nicely.
That spacing is almost Perfect for providing shield coverage to the fangs. the spacing I mentioned earlier is also pretty nice for protecting fangs if you never get mech rage on either. If you choose to use shield, I suggest positioning them so both typhoons will split away from one another. If they're bunched together, there's a good chance both shields will take damage from the same shots, so if you manage to split the formation you could get significantly more benefit.
Since Mechanical Rage boosts attack damage instead of attack speed, it's almost useless against swarms since you're killing in 2-3 shots anyway and they're rapid fire. The damage boost can help against leveled swarms and medium sized units though. If pairing with fangs, that could be an expensive pair of upgrades to get both units to have mech rage. Ultimately, I wouldn't get mech rage just for bonus damage to medium units and the priority would be if the opponent had leveled chaff swarms. Might be more worth it if you have level advantage against the medium sized units.
Aerial specialization is okay-ish. Definitely a tech to take if you're deploying them mid-line or rear line so you can focus on the air units. This is your primary chance to take down overlords, but they're really not good at it unless they have level advantage. Pairing it up with the Mech Rage makes taking down Overlords a little easier, but you have to be very careful not to outrun your chaff. Against Wasps you're mainly taking it for the range, though again the damage can come in handy if they're leveled wasps.
Durability wise, A squad of Typhoons are slightly more durable than a squad of sledgehammers, but since they're only 2 units, this is a boon when it comes to fighting low damage units so they will survive longer, but it's also detrimental in that they can be focused down easier. Especially vulnerable to beam weapons like balls and melters, so have counters to those prepared. They're also a fairly large unit and both units are very close together, making them vulnerable to splash damage in many instances even against minor splash like sledgehammers. They may have an awkward speed stat, but they are fast enough to avoid most missiles while on the move and will avoid them a little easier with mech rage assuming they're not stopping to fire.
A surprisingly good pairing is the hacker. The Hacker has a similar speed stat, only being slightly slower with no mech rage. Typhoon is somewhat decent at clearing chaff (especially when paired with fangs) and can kind of work as a good front line tank for the hacker, giving it more time to do its job. Since the Typhoon is a damage over time type weapon similar to Mustangs and most beam users, that makes it more likely to have successful hacks and not burst through and kill the target you're hacking. Hacker also has slightly more range than the Typhoon, but very similar range. Of course, the big drawback is the cost of both units. Would seriously consider using shields on the typhoons just to increase durability and allow the hackers do their job longer. Might be fun to try putting shields on both units where you have the hackers right behind the typhoons, but I suspect that will result in certain weapons killing all three of the shields at the same time. Needs further testing.
My summary is that it's a decent mid-rear line unit that has the potential to provide support functionality with its shields. Missiles are a top tier upgrade that you'd want almost every time, shield is a situational upgrade, aerial spec is a situational upgrade, and mechanical rage is a niche upgrade. They're expensive at 300. I feel they'd be better as 250 or maaaybe 200. 300 isn't unreasonable for what they do, but still feels a bit steep for what they do. I wouldn't front line them in most situations since their strength is damage over time, so make sure you have plenty of chaff and a properly tanky front line. This is especially true if your opponent goes balls or melters. You're probably taking this unit for its techs more than you're taking them for raw firepower or durability.

[@HolgFromHell]

@@GregAtlas wow, many many thanks for such a detailed description! hope your knowledge brings you a good top ten position in the leaderboards.

[@GregAtlas]

@@HolgFromHell lol nah. I don't play often enough to get that high up. (Yet) Thanks though.
Also, most of what I said was just from the testing grounds. Actual experience often throws theory and testing in ideal situations out the window, but at least i have more experience to put those theories to the test. This is also the unit I have the most experience using in actual matches.

[@francoisthiels4021]

Well, i also do T1 wasp .. but when i m playing Aerial Specialist not because of selling ^^

[@juliansmith7343]

It seems like the better answer to the wasp menace is to just accept that your towers will get taken, and try and do some sort of mirror to take the opponent's towers and even the odds.

[@SurreyEZ]

yes it's a solid route to take. It's usually very bad to be the reactive player in the early game. Later on it's much better

[@BuzzaB77]

is this an alt account for experimenting?

[@BuzzaB77]

is that a frank klapaki soundtrack I hear?

[@SurreyEZ]

no, but very similar sounds for sure ! music is in the description if of further interest

[@sosecherofsky7985]

What do you do if they mirror your wasp strategy?

[@SurreyEZ]

win the mirror !