Strategy: Rocketlocking

My sincere thanks go to GipFace from AWN for teaching me this tactic. I think I'll just re-summarize and put it into writing.

Rocketlocking is a technique used to prevent your opponent from gaining territories/key points on the map, by pinning them with rocket units. The most brief example I can give is positioning your rockets near several cities, ensuring they are in range. Any units that try to enter the cities to capture them will be destroyed by your rocket, it's that simple. This strategy proves useful in randon online matches are games have a set amount of time and when the time runs out the player with the most properties wins the game, and with an effective rocket lock, you can prevent them from gaining properties.

So how do we do it? It's not very hard, and it doesn't involve saving funds either. Assume we're playing an online, random match with no fog. Your player one (this strategy often involves FTA), you build a couple infantry or bike units and set off to capture your properties. Your opponent does likewise and soon your into day 4 or 5 of the game with a decent income.

You each have around the same amount of properties, but there is still a neutral cluster of cities on the map. You have 18,000 funds, enough to build a rocket with some left over. Perfect. Build your rocket in the factory closest to the neutral factories and on your next turn move it in range of the cities.

Most opponents will know what you're trying to do, and will not rush in with a single infantry mech or bike unit. They will try to counter this strategy with what I call the Rocket Lock Rush (RLR). Since a single unit can only attack one unit a turn, your opponent can send 2 or 3 infantry into those neutral cities, allowing time for your rocket to only attack and eliminate 1 infantry, allowing your opponent the capture of two bases before your rocket can successfully eliminate all the infantry.

So make sure you don't just leave a rocket sitting there, so once it's in place make sure you have infantry to quickly rush in and capture the cities under the protection of your rocket.

Short post and the second today, but that's a simple strategy which involves pin-point tactics, and can give you the edge in almost any game.

For a video from the #1 ranked DoR player in the world on rocketlocking, check this out: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=idnnQmSPT9o.