How do I stop AI spam rush?

[Symeon]

I was playing the Imperial Guard (Hard) and I attacked the desert province adjacent to the Necron and Tau strongholds. There the Necrons proceed to rush me with a tremendous force, I've managed to create a defensive position and pushed them back, but they just keep coming and coming until my defenses are broken. Similar story with the Boyz, the province left of the IG stronghold. The AI relentlessly spam guardsman with plasma gun upgrades. I control half of the map and have built an army but I am destroyed by their shear weight of numbers. How is this fair? How does anyone manage to win when the AI has an enormous army to rush them from the word go?

[缥缈]

I've no clue how anyone won on hard, I lost my ♥♥♥♥ when I spent over an hour trying to beat a lvl 3 province (which was my only choice of attack) and the necrons just kept spamming units and their lord kept ressurecting in my base, half the time my units didn't even seem to do anything to even a standard necron warrior. This was on normal. I frankly don't get peoples love for this game. The imbalance is insane, 5 fully upgraded IG squads with plasma should be able to AT LEAST be able to damage the necron infantry, but apparently not.
Also it's been confirmed the AI cheat... So there is that...

[Fraktal]

FYI, if the strength of an enemy territory is 6 or more, two AI players are activated, both of which are locked to maximum difficulty level regardless of what difficulty you selected at the start (which literally does nothing other than giving your units a health bonus and enemies a health penalty; at Hard difficulty, neither side's stats are changed). You're literally fighting 2-on-1.

The AI also gets superior starting equipment to you. Normally your only option is to rush one enemy player right out of the gate and knock them out early because if you let them both get a foothold, they're pretty much impossible to dislodge because the way the AI is coded, attacking one means immediately getting attacked from behind by the other. With IG that's... kinda not an option because Guardmen are just too weak to rush and you'll run out of requisition before the Necrons run out of Flayed Ones. Trust me, I tried this.

What you can do here is to go grab as many strategic points as you can before the Necrons show up, but DON'T cap them with LPs if they're on the route between your base and the Necron bases. Don't bother defending them, you can't. Upgrade your HQ as soon as you have enough resources for it. Once the Necrons show up, immediately double back to your base and stuff your Guardsmen into buildings to use the mounted guns. Infantry Commands aren't very durable so either keep repairing them or let the HQ take the hits, but absolutely do rely on those guns because they can't be tied up in melee. Don't try to engage the Necrons in infantry-vs-infantry combat, you'll lose. Let them come to you and hit them with crossfire from multiple structures filled to the brim.

While you're on the defensive, tech up and rush Heavy Weapon Teams. 3-4 HWTs are the ticket here, they are murderously effective against Necrons as-is but get even better once you give them Autocannons. Don't bother with Lascannons unless the AI hits you with a Tomb Spyder early.

Next. IG rely on their vehicles more than the other factions and their hardware is very good at what it does, so once you have your HWTs up, concentrate on those. Sentinels kill Tomb Spyders in only a few shots, Hellhounds neuter Necron Warriors by breaking their morale in a hurry, Basilisks chain-stun infantry with AOE knockdown. You won't need more than 2 of each as long as you keep them alive. If you see any Immortals, let your buildings' guns take care of them. Focus on rolling out two Leman Russes and a Baneblade as quickly as you humanly can, they are vital to holding your position.

Once you got the tank trio up front and center, get Basilisks (if you have no other vehicles, you should have enough Vehicle Cap left for 2). It doesn't matter how big the AI's army is, how much resources they have and how quickly they're getting them, if you take out all their Monoliths, that AI player is instantly knocked out of the game - and this is where Earthshaker Rounds come in. Use the HQ's scanning ability to locate the Necron Monoliths (they're always in the same location on each map), sneak one Basilisk around the Necrons while they're busy assaulting your base and keep hitting the Monolith with Earthshakers from extreme range until it goes down (it does about 1000 damage to the Monolith per hit).

With three tanks backed up by HWTs and repairs, only active Monoliths are of any direct threat to you and the Baneblade can solo it even without help from the Russes. If you've got a spare Basilisk in range, hit the Monolith with an Earthshaker. In fact, use Earthshakers liberally to hit Necron infantry whenever they bunch up, it's an instant kill against most of them.

The Necron Lord is going to be really damn annoying with Solar Flare, but there's literally nothing you can do against it. On the other hand, he likes to prioritize attacking buildings over infantry, which means he'll waste his time on your HQ while getting shot to pieces, rather than going after the HWTs like every other hero unit would. Same with the Nightbringer: it cannot kill your HQ in one go if you keep repairing, so just wait it out.

Basically, your ticket is to play to the Imperial Guard's strengths and abuse the hell out of them. They are weak in infantry offensive, but very strong on the defensive and have a crazily powerful artillery unit the AI simply doesn't know how to respond against. Absolutely DO NOT underestimate the stucture-mounted guns! I played on Hard against IG using the Dawn of Skirmish mod that lets the AI use those guns and IG bases became an utter bastard to rush down early with pretty much anyone except the Tau. They are THAT GOOD.

Oh, and one more thing. If the Necron Lord keeps mass-resurrecting everyone, save the game and reload. All the Necron corpses will be gone. :3

[Lucky Stralex]

Originally posted by Fraktal:

FYI, if the strength of an enemy territory is 6 or more, two AI players are activated, both of which are locked to maximum difficulty level regardless of what difficulty you selected at the start (which literally does nothing other than giving your units a health bonus and enemies a health penalty; at Hard difficulty, neither side's stats are changed). You're literally fighting 2-on-1.

The AI also gets superior starting equipment to you. Normally your only option is to rush one enemy player right out of the gate and knock them out early because if you let them both get a foothold, they're pretty much impossible to dislodge because the way the AI is coded, attacking one means immediately getting attacked from behind by the other. With IG that's... kinda not an option because Guardmen are just too weak to rush and you'll run out of requisition before the Necrons run out of Flayed Ones. Trust me, I tried this.

What you can do here is to go grab as many strategic points as you can before the Necrons show up, but DON'T cap them with LPs if they're on the route between your base and the Necron bases. Don't bother defending them, you can't. Upgrade your HQ as soon as you have enough resources for it. Once the Necrons show up, immediately double back to your base and stuff your Guardsmen into buildings to use the mounted guns. Infantry Commands aren't very durable so either keep repairing them or let the HQ take the hits, but absolutely do rely on those guns because they can't be tied up in melee. Don't try to engage the Necrons in infantry-vs-infantry combat, you'll lose. Let them come to you and hit them with crossfire from multiple structures filled to the brim.

While you're on the defensive, tech up and rush Heavy Weapon Teams. 3-4 HWTs are the ticket here, they are murderously effective against Necrons as-is but get even better once you give them Autocannons. Don't bother with Lascannons unless the AI hits you with a Tomb Spyder early.

Next. IG rely on their vehicles more than the other factions and their hardware is very good at what it does, so once you have your HWTs up, concentrate on those. Sentinels kill Tomb Spyders in only a few shots, Hellhounds neuter Necron Warriors by breaking their morale in a hurry, Basilisks chain-stun infantry with AOE knockdown. You won't need more than 2 of each as long as you keep them alive. If you see any Immortals, let your buildings' guns take care of them. Focus on rolling out two Leman Russes and a Baneblade as quickly as you humanly can, they are vital to holding your position.

Once you got the tank trio up front and center, get Basilisks (if you have no other vehicles, you should have enough Vehicle Cap left for 2). It doesn't matter how big the AI's army is, how much resources they have and how quickly they're getting them, if you take out all their Monoliths, that AI player is instantly knocked out of the game - and this is where Earthshaker Rounds come in. Use the HQ's scanning ability to locate the Necron Monoliths (they're always in the same location on each map), sneak one Basilisk around the Necrons while they're busy assaulting your base and keep hitting the Monolith with Earthshakers from extreme range until it goes down (it does about 1000 damage to the Monolith per hit).

With three tanks backed up by HWTs and repairs, only active Monoliths are of any direct threat to you and the Baneblade can solo it even without help from the Russes. If you've got a spare Basilisk in range, hit the Monolith with an Earthshaker. In fact, use Earthshakers liberally to hit Necron infantry whenever they bunch up, it's an instant kill against most of them.

The Necron Lord is going to be really damn annoying with Solar Flare, but there's literally nothing you can do against it. On the other hand, he likes to prioritize attacking buildings over infantry, which means he'll waste his time on your HQ while getting shot to pieces, rather than going after the HWTs like every other hero unit would. Same with the Nightbringer: it cannot kill your HQ in one go if you keep repairing, so just wait it out.

Basically, your ticket is to play to the Imperial Guard's strengths and abuse the hell out of them. They are weak in infantry offensive, but very strong on the defensive and have a crazily powerful artillery unit the AI simply doesn't know how to respond against. Absolutely DO NOT underestimate the stucture-mounted guns! I played on Hard against IG using the Dawn of Skirmish mod that lets the AI use those guns and IG bases became an utter bastard to rush down early with pretty much anyone except the Tau. They are THAT GOOD.

Oh, and one more thing. If the Necron Lord keeps mass-resurrecting everyone, save the game and reload. All the Necron corpses will be gone. :3

Yeah. It's that hard, for some reason.

[Kaoskopp]

Fraktal's masterful tactical advice aside get the storm base ability. Being able to tech up straigth away will net you at least 1 or 2 HWTs before the host arrives. Also, use honor guard vendicares to pin down the Lord once he goes down near you base. You can also build Priests to keep Flayed Ones and Pariahs of your Infantry. Oh, and remember to spam that Execute ofc.
In the province you described take out the AI on the west plateau first after you brace that initial assault. I've found that the additional AI is usually the more agressive and has the more developed base.