Support
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A Support Frigate from
Homeworld refueling and repairing fighters and corvettes. In this
game, anyone without effective support is basically finished:
no fuel and no repairs equals a high attrition rate and certain
doom. |
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Another area of economic enterprise that is frequently ignored by many new strategy
gamers is support. Basically, all this means is looking after and repairing
the units you've got on the field. You can keep churning out units to your hearts
content, and sure, they'll march merrily to their doom in waves, but smart players
support their units as best they can. Basically, its usually less expensive
to repair something than to let it die. When you think of base defences, don't
just think guns and walls; you need repair crews, too. It makes it harder for
your opponents if all the hard work they had to expend trying to pull you base
down is undone by those busy pests fixing it up again. At the very least it'll
keep your base or units alive long enough to buy you time to rally those reinforcements.
Maybe. Smart attackers generally will nail any workers and repairers first in
any attack.
Repairing units is basically the same as building extra ones
- the health points taken off you by the enemy are being quickly replaced. Better
still, you won't lose precious time trucking reinforcements all the way up to
the front again. Although you are sacrificing firepower for unarmed support
units, the presence of those units can be decisive in maintaining the front
line force without blowing the bank replacing casualties. This subtle
difference can swing battles, too. That surplus can then go into reinforcing
the line to further overpower the enemy (or force them to spend more of their
economy for little gain) or holding them at bay while you step up to the next
big tech. Either way, proper support contributes to keeping your options open. |
