Since the release of patch 1.11/1.12 there are a lot of Empire players having problems in Empire mirrors. As you will see Empire mirror isn't just spamming Tengus with the extremely powerful protocol Honorable Discharge. When do you have to tech up? Is infantry useful in this matchup? Should you go for a Sudden Transport/Tankbuster rush? All those questions will be answered here.
The Dojo Rush
Get an Engineer out of the Dojo and try to capture the building. If you can get the War Factory and/or the Refinery, it is almost good game. Watch your money during all this because you also need to get your War Factory up. As soon as you get your First Tengus, you either just defend your Ore Collects or attack. Sooner or later you will have more Tengus and finish off your opponent.
The Sudden Transport Rush
It isn’t used so often anymore but it still works! The Sudden Transport rush is surely the most micro intensive strategy you can use in Empire mirrors. Start with a Power Plant and 1 Dojo. Out of this dojo you get one Burst Drone and 5 Tankbusters. Stop building them when you notice that you might get less than $2000. Those credits are for your War Factory. After your Mecha Bay Core is out, continue building Tankbusters until you got all 5, then sell your Dojo. Get a Sudden Transport out of your Mecha Bay, then start spamming Tengus when you send your transport to your opponent's base. When you get near the base get all the Tengus you have and send them with the transport.
Then comes the hard part; you need to micro your Tankbusters, Tengus, and the Tengus in your base which may have to defend against harassment from your opponent. First go for the Ore Collectors because when they both are down, it is hard to recover from.
The All-in Infantry/Tower Push
Yes, you read right. This is a new strategy in Empire mirrors on small maps. First get a Power Plant, then 3 Dojo Cores. After your third Dojo is finished, you should be able to get Refineries. After your second Refinery get another Power Plant and move your MCV toward your opponent’s base. During the MCV move, deploy your Dojos near an Oil Derrick and spam Imperial Warrior out of two and 5 Imperial Warriors and one Engineer out of the third. When your MCV passes your infantry you should have about 10 Imperial Warriors. Rush with them towards your enemy's base.
When your money is running out, sell one Dojo and continue spamming Imperial Warriors. When you have around 20 of them, start making Tankbusters. If your money runs out again, sell another Dojo. When your opponent scouts you, he will have about 3 Tengus and a couple of Imperial Warriors. Use “A + right click“ to shoot at different Imperial Warriors at the same time. When his Imperial Warriors go into Bonzai mode, don't just copy him. Shoot with your Imperial Warriors as long as you can so he will loose a few before he even reaches you. Try to run over his units with your MCV. When your opponent has no more Imperial Warriors, you have two options: either continue to run over things, or deploy it and start building Defender VXs. Unpack your MCV again and defend the tower with it.
A few tips to pull off this strategy effectively:
- Check your MCV! The empire MCV is very big and it gets stuck at cliffs, rocks or buildings. So always check if it's still moving.
- Use control groups! The MCV will not be selected if u press “Q,“ so give a group to it.
- Do not select the MCV with other units. If you give a move command and have the MCV in your selected group, the units will spread extremely far which will cut your firepower down. Press “Q“ to select your infantry and the group number to select the MCV.
