Red Alert 3

The wheel of RA3 metagame has rolled around again, and the phase of attacking your opponent's base with your own has come to pass again in another C&C. This tactic is extremely powerful when backed up with infantry support, and is currently very popular in the top ranks at the moment; Soviets and Allies alike. This Tip of the Week focuses on countering the two main types of tower push currently in the game.

Identifying Tower Pushes

Identifying when your opponent is going to tower push you is a key part of countering it. The easiest way to tell is that his MCV is moving towards your base rather than an uncontested expansion point. Though it’s often fairly easy to guess that he will do so, you still need to know where and when he will attack you from. The best method of doing this is by scouting and constantly keeping your scout within spotting distance of his MCV. However, the first thing to know is what tower push to expect. There are currently two that are popular, one being for Allies, and the other Soviets.

Countering Them

Multi-Gunner Turret Push



The more infamous of the two, and likely the most effective, the Multi-gunner Push is without a doubt devastating. The Allied player will likely pop down his cheap, high hit-point/high-damage, jack of all trades turrets closer and closer to you while keeping his MCV at a safe distance due to its huge build radius. Coupled with their insta-pop build method allows them to hit the frontline and start dealing damage almost instantly. Backed up by infantry, it's an almost unstoppable force to face frontally.

However, a turret push for allies will always leave their main base very vulnerable. Most players will simply have their 2 refineries, power plants and a barracks back at his base. Sending even only a few harassment units round his flank and taking out his economy can really destroy an Allied player. Tengus are especially good for this role, as are Riptides. A single Twinblade with Flak Troopers has the potential to wipe out his whole starting base if he is careless and doesn't have any Apollos airborne. If you do manage to put him into low power, go straight for his frontline, which will suddenly be very weak.

Another, rather costly way to stop a push completely is to simply have a bigger force stuck in the path of his push, including your own turrets. A supported Tesla Coil (or 2 multi-gunners) and you opponent won't be pushing along that path anymore, forcing him to reconsider.

Allies



Use Vindicators. Each turret will require 2 Vindicators to destroy it. Without any other anti-aircraft support, your Vindicators will survive. The key to this is using your 'turret windows'. There is a window of 20 seconds between each turret on either side coming up, so bring your Vindicators in at 20 second intervals should lock down his turret production completely. This then gives you free roam to push turrets straight back into his MCV.

Soviets

Tesla Coils will very effectively deal with Multi-gunner turrets. One Tesla coil will stop him pushing into you fairly efficiently, providing it is given decent back up. From that, you can concentrate on attacking his weak expansions and main base.

Empire

They really lack anything that can cost effectively hold off multi-gunners. Their best effort is to use Tsunamis to take damage and back them up with Tankbusters to deal it out. Other than that, they really need to keep the pressure on with harassment, otherwise they'll simply crumble.

Tesla Turret Push

Not quite so common, but can prove to still be very damaging. Soviets have the advantage of being able to put up 2 turrets at a time. This is also complimented by their ability to cancel a building and restart it with a full refund. However, the MCV must be closer to the frontline for this strategy to work. Not quite as brutal pushing power as the allied Multi-Gunner push, but far more inexorable, and once they have a Tesla up; they are very difficult to put back down again.

The one key to Soviet Tesla pushing is their Super Reactor. This should be your number one priority. Without it, the Tesla push simply doesn't exist, not to mention his power is completely messed up for a while. However, harassing economy is harder, as he can pop up turrets around his refineries as he pleases, so that method really doesn't work when combined with his Ore Collectors survivability.



Therefore, your only other option is to simply take out the Tesla Coils before they finish building. They take 30 seconds to put up, which is reset every time you nearly destroy one, due to cancelling then re-starting. Though this can be a grueling affair, they can't actually do any damage while they are building.

Allies

Allied Vindicators aren't quite so effective against Tesla pushes, due to cancel re-build. 3 Vindicators can destroy one Tesla Coil, but these are better spent elsewhere. Use Vindicators to destroy his Crane, which brings him down to one build queue, dramatically limiting the effectiveness of this strategy. After that, Multi-Gunner push straight through his frontline. One Tesla Coil build queue won't be able to stop your Multi-Gunners pushing through.

Soviets

Soviet mirrors don't tend to suffer from Tesla pushes as much. These are fairly easy to overcome with a simple Cash Bounty and Construction Yard sell, Hammer Tanks and Twinblades build order. Against this build order, his MCV should be the prime target. Though flak drops to his Crane and Super Reactor are nice if you get the chance, due to a lack of airfields for repairs, Terror Drones become a serious threat to a Soviet MCV. Though you're unlikely to kill it, you force it to retreat to his Crane, which is a big delay for him, meaning you should easily be able to build up enough units in that time to overwhelm him.

Empire

Simply put, the Shinobi. Get one of these in his Super Reactor, and enjoy low power for 2 minutes. This alone crushes his tower push attempts, never mind the other disadvantages got from being low on power for 2 minutes. However, if this isn't possible, or it simply doesn't work, Tankbusters microed well can destroy a Tesla Coil without losing a single soldier. A Tesla Coil takes 4 shots to kill a burrowed Tankbuster, so once it completes its charging animation, burrow your men for the shot, then jump out and repeat this process as you should get 1-2 shots off each run.