Indy DM
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:22 am
Indy DM is one of the most micro heavy battles in EE. Units to build are only bombards and dragoons and Napoleon.
And you gotta micro 2 (or did I do 3? I don't remember) balloons, to have them constantly moving in front of your army when in battle. You should try to never be moving into an area that you can't see.
So you gotta control group everything - I recommend 1 for goons, 2 for bombards, and 3 for goons+cannons to get the speed boost when microing, 4 and 5 for balloons. And a group for Napoleon to get him out of danger when needed.
For micro, indy DM is mostly about the bombards, and the goons are more like support. You wanna be constantly making the cannons all attack at once, using attack ground(constantly be attack grounding where you think their cannons - or goons, depending- are going to be when the balls hit the ground). Like 90% of the shots your cannons fire should be purely from an attack ground command. All 6 cannons at the same time, so if your shot lands, then you kill any goons or cannons that they hit. The moment you attack ground, then move your cannons back out of range, or to the side (to dodge their incoming cannon shots). Or sometimes move them forward, depending. Then a moment later, move back in and attack ground again. And your goons are basically support for the cannons and just dart in sometimes when needed or to finish off damaged goons, or dart in and kill their cannons quickly when the opportunity arises.
For instance, one of the indy dm techniques to attack ground is this: Say your armies are out of range, but moving towards each other. While your cannons are not in range yet, but close, be constantly be tapping the attack ground hotkey with your bombards selected, and then clicking a couple of inches in front of their army. So your mouse will basically be moving down the screen(as you tap t and click) as their army moves down. So that the moment your cannons get in range, they'll attack, and that attack will land where their army will be in a couple of seconds.
So these battles are all about the cannons trying to hit each other, basically. And trying to push and gain space through this method. It obviously gets more complex in practice, but this is the foundation.
And when you do actually want to move your goons and cannons together, you wanna aim the formation backwards, so hold down and pull the mouse in the direction of your army, so that the cannons lead the charge, or are in the middle of the goons. Otherwise the cannons will be too far back. This is a big part of the indy dm micro. You constantly want to be using the speed boost from grouping them with the goons when trying to gain space, so you do wanna constantly be using this, however once your cannons are close enough, switch to the attack ground technique with them.
If you can imagine doing this, pushing them all the way back to their city, where they'll be forced to not give you any more space, and then you can basically devastate them by attack grounding while they're in their own city, forcing them to come out, giving you a big advantage. So because of that, they will not just run away until they're in their own city - you'll both constantly be trying to push forward, but having to dodge each other's cannons.
And only 5 (or maybe 6, I don't remember) cannons per army! You just need enough that one hit from all of them kills a goon. If you have more than 6 cannons in your army, you don't get any improvement in damage(because you only need 6 to kill), and you have the risk of losing them all the moment the opponent manages to get 2 cannon hits on your cannons (if I remember correctly, 2 cannon hits kills a cannon. maybe it's 3).
So basically you want about 60 goons, and just 5-6 cannons, and use that army for battle. And replenish it as needed
I was to a top indy dm player(the other 2 best would be force_field and damn I can't remember the other guy's name, but he often would play with me and ff. We basically just would only lose to each other) and it's basically the best setting ever so it was fun to write this out.
And you gotta micro 2 (or did I do 3? I don't remember) balloons, to have them constantly moving in front of your army when in battle. You should try to never be moving into an area that you can't see.
So you gotta control group everything - I recommend 1 for goons, 2 for bombards, and 3 for goons+cannons to get the speed boost when microing, 4 and 5 for balloons. And a group for Napoleon to get him out of danger when needed.
For micro, indy DM is mostly about the bombards, and the goons are more like support. You wanna be constantly making the cannons all attack at once, using attack ground(constantly be attack grounding where you think their cannons - or goons, depending- are going to be when the balls hit the ground). Like 90% of the shots your cannons fire should be purely from an attack ground command. All 6 cannons at the same time, so if your shot lands, then you kill any goons or cannons that they hit. The moment you attack ground, then move your cannons back out of range, or to the side (to dodge their incoming cannon shots). Or sometimes move them forward, depending. Then a moment later, move back in and attack ground again. And your goons are basically support for the cannons and just dart in sometimes when needed or to finish off damaged goons, or dart in and kill their cannons quickly when the opportunity arises.
For instance, one of the indy dm techniques to attack ground is this: Say your armies are out of range, but moving towards each other. While your cannons are not in range yet, but close, be constantly be tapping the attack ground hotkey with your bombards selected, and then clicking a couple of inches in front of their army. So your mouse will basically be moving down the screen(as you tap t and click) as their army moves down. So that the moment your cannons get in range, they'll attack, and that attack will land where their army will be in a couple of seconds.
So these battles are all about the cannons trying to hit each other, basically. And trying to push and gain space through this method. It obviously gets more complex in practice, but this is the foundation.
And when you do actually want to move your goons and cannons together, you wanna aim the formation backwards, so hold down and pull the mouse in the direction of your army, so that the cannons lead the charge, or are in the middle of the goons. Otherwise the cannons will be too far back. This is a big part of the indy dm micro. You constantly want to be using the speed boost from grouping them with the goons when trying to gain space, so you do wanna constantly be using this, however once your cannons are close enough, switch to the attack ground technique with them.
If you can imagine doing this, pushing them all the way back to their city, where they'll be forced to not give you any more space, and then you can basically devastate them by attack grounding while they're in their own city, forcing them to come out, giving you a big advantage. So because of that, they will not just run away until they're in their own city - you'll both constantly be trying to push forward, but having to dodge each other's cannons.
And only 5 (or maybe 6, I don't remember) cannons per army! You just need enough that one hit from all of them kills a goon. If you have more than 6 cannons in your army, you don't get any improvement in damage(because you only need 6 to kill), and you have the risk of losing them all the moment the opponent manages to get 2 cannon hits on your cannons (if I remember correctly, 2 cannon hits kills a cannon. maybe it's 3).
So basically you want about 60 goons, and just 5-6 cannons, and use that army for battle. And replenish it as needed
I was to a top indy dm player(the other 2 best would be force_field and damn I can't remember the other guy's name, but he often would play with me and ff. We basically just would only lose to each other) and it's basically the best setting ever so it was fun to write this out.