Harkonen army a bit too overtuned?

[Ghaith]

As title states.

I was playing Ecaz, had full army of masterpiece units, lvled up from pillaging my sanctuaries, 2 champion units (comp was 2 knights, 1 drone, 1 hero, 4 fencers, some squires, rest snipers) with 3 red buildings and got absolutly roflstomped into ground by harkonen spamming executioners and cerberus. Wasnt even close. Considering my units were twice the cost I would expect to .. you know.. win? or at least not get roflstomped

[Soho]

It takes a certain Perfect Storm of set-up for Harkonnen to make this kind of push effective... so that would make my first question be, was he pushing into your main or were you pushing in to his?

The Executioner/Cerberus zerg relies on the tech at the bottom of their Red tree ('Adrenalin' something or other, the one that also gives their 2nd gear slot) which relies on stuff dying- his units or yours. Couple this with Red Fluid and the armory upgrade on Executioners which makes them use up bloodthirst to heal, and the one on Cerberus which makes them split in two when they die... on top of that have Nefud using his hero ability so reinforcements are more or less free... and fight in an area covered by an airfield (so reinforcements spawn right in the battle). It makes it so the more stuff dies, the higher the attack speed goes for his units still alive, and the executioners are nigh invulnerable. As your stuff dies, even better for him. Throw in Combat Drugs (even higher attack speed) and Sleeper Agents (free units for him when yours die) and perhaps Overlord (more free units for him to die and make his Executioners better)

If he is pushing into your main, it is about denying him airfields (as he can't reinforce without them)

If you are pushing into his main, whittle him down in battles where he can't reinforce (i.e. out of airfield range... Corrino has an easier time doing this as they have the operation that prevents using airfields) . Obviously do your best to keep from losing your army in a poor exchange (as yours is much more difficult to replace). Sniping his hero (e.g. catching him out of position) takes away his ability to reinforce without spending a lot of manpower... despite it seeming like he has unlimited manpower, he can lose a war of attrition if he cannot pin you into a decisive win for him (i.e. you keep killing his stuff effectively until he runs out of manpower, and you keep the core of your force more or less intact)

TL DR: I don't feel like it is a case of Harkonnen military being overtuned so much as this player you faced knew how to play them properly, and perhaps goaded you somehow into a fight which was not to your advantage