Decoy army is a tier 2 support power available to the faction and sub-factions of Nod, once the Operations Center has been constructed and deployed. This support power will duplicate selected units, although this might sound spectacular, there are some downfalls to this ability. The ‘fake’ units will appear to attack enemy units yet there shots will not do any damage. Additionally they are very vulnerable and die in a single shot.
Description of Decoy Army Support PowerSome people would say that this power is useless as the cloned units will not actually do damage. This is untrue, used correctly this support power can give you an advantage in many ways.
Offensively:
Using this power offensively will not always be easy. The aim of a decoy army in an offensive situation would be to distract the enemies units, keeping them away from the real attack force. While this may only buy you a few seconds for the real army to attack without being shot at, it is worth it as the decoy army would have only cost $500. Although this may sound like a simple thing to do, if the opponent is an experienced player they might be able to tell which attack force is real and which is fake. This is one thing that you do not want as this would have been a waste of precious credits. So to be able to fool the opponent, this decoy army has to come in from a believable position. For instance, if you use your decoy army and select a few scorpions, then drop the decoys right in the middle of his base; he will know they are fake because scorpions don’t just miraculously appear from thin air. So when using the decoys, drop them just outside the range of sight and lead them in. This way the opponent would not have seen them drop and might take a shot at the decoys rather than the real attack force.
A distraction force leading away from the actual attackDefensively:
Using the decoy army when you are on the defensive is hard to utilize. This is because when the enemy is in your base the decoys will not actually do damage. Although the fake units can give you some extra time to deploy an obelisk of pump out a few rocket squads. In the situation of you being attacked it is alright to drop the decoys in plain sight for him to see. As the units will automatically turn and fire upon them. But there are some bad ways to do this and some good ways. The best way of doing this would be to bring the fake units in from behind the enemies attack force. This is because it will force the enemy to have to turn around to fire the decoyed army. Not only will this buy you some time but it will also give the units inside your base a shot at the rear of your enemy. As most of you would already know the rear armour on a vehicle is the weakest therefore it will die quicker if shot in the rear.
Scouting:
Lastly the decoy army support power could be used for scouting. Although this is a suicide mission, it is not really going to affect your economy as it only cost $500 to use. The best ways of going about scouting with this support power is entering the enemy’s base through the least used entrances. For example on tournament decision the best place to use the decoyed units for scouting is through the small passage way located next to the north and south tiberium spikes.
Use the small enterances to scout with Decoy ArmyWhen an avatar, juggernaut or tripod is destroyed, it will leave a husk lying on the ground and a small part of shroud will be revealed around the husk until it is either destroyed or captured. Using the decoy army, you could select a group of units and drop them into this small area of shroud around the husk, therefore revealing more shroud.
Using this support power on a stealth unit will also make the fake unit stealthed as well. This is a perfect unit to scout with, as it will only cost $500, so it will not matter if it dies, compared to lets say a stealth tank which will cost you $1800.
Special thanks to KopyKat007 for helping out in this TotW!
