Can someone explain me how to play PHC?

[Holon]

I can't win a game with PHC. From my point of view this faction has some very questionable balancing that is a clear disadvantage. Substrate feels much more streamlined in every bit of it's gameplay. I mentioned that in this forum several times but most of the comments disagreed with me. So if anyone could show me a good replay to learn PHC gameplay from, let me know.

[bbc6rgf 57 ytty5 y xy w5gt]

This online or skirmish against AI?

[ebe-a51]

Get on youtube and watch DasUnding - guy is awesome.

[Holon]

I have hard times against AI, didn't even try online.

[George The Ork]

I'm not sure if it'll apply but I have some PHC gameplay here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=846417037

It's with no orbitals or aircraft mind you, so sorry in advance.

Mabey that will help show you some stuff or somthing?

Personally I am finding it hard to play as the Substrate, as I don't really understand their units very well.

[Novacat]

subtrate tend to spam aircraft early in the game. to me its very challenging

[centaurianmudpig]

Lower the AI difficulty, it will give you a chance to learn the PHC mechanics and play around with unit comprosition for army's etc. When you feel comfortable up the AI difficulty and repeat.

Make sure you understand what each building/unit is designed to be used for and use them as intended.

[Holon]

Originally posted by centaurianmudpig:

Lower the AI difficulty, it will give you a chance to learn the PHC mechanics and play around with unit comprosition for army's etc. When you feel comfortable up the AI difficulty and repeat.

Make sure you understand what each building/unit is designed to be used for and use them as intended.

I think I understood what the buildings and units are for. And I am exactly at the jump from medium to normal difficulty. I win medium, but I loose normal. My problem comes with the ressources. The buildings to increase res-output seem to be pretty costy and drain my production. I feel like I am loosing too much speed in my production there. Also I have hard times to defend my nodes. The AI sneaks in everywhere, it can spread over the map way faster and at the same time conquer my nodes.
I managed to win against the AI when I played on a map where I could cut the AI off from it's ressource nodes. I focussed only the two or three nodes needed to cut the AI off, which gave me more time to spread and defend my nodes. But you can't do that on every map so easy ^^

[George The Ork]

Remeber to build and upgrade your radar stations! Keeping tabs on enemy movment can be very helpful for interecpting enemy forces before they cause too much trouble.

Try to only build refineries when you can afford to later on. Money is best made from map control, so focus your money into mobile units and capture the enemies resource points for extra income first before upgrading your own. Upgrade later on when there is no easily taken resource points on the map left to be had.

[centaurianmudpig]

Originally posted by Gondii:

Originally posted by centaurianmudpig:

Lower the AI difficulty, it will give you a chance to learn the PHC mechanics and play around with unit comprosition for army's etc. When you feel comfortable up the AI difficulty and repeat.

Make sure you understand what each building/unit is designed to be used for and use them as intended.

I think I understood what the buildings and units are for. And I am exactly at the jump from medium to normal difficulty. I win medium, but I loose normal. My problem comes with the ressources. The buildings to increase res-output seem to be pretty costy and drain my production. I feel like I am loosing too much speed in my production there. Also I have hard times to defend my nodes. The AI sneaks in everywhere, it can spread over the map way faster and at the same time conquer my nodes.
I managed to win against the AI when I played on a map where I could cut the AI off from it's ressource nodes. I focussed only the two or three nodes needed to cut the AI off, which gave me more time to spread and defend my nodes. But you can't do that on every map so easy ^^

The jump was considerable for me when I went to normal difficulty, given they have improved the AI it will be no easy task. Understand how the AI expands and try and copy it. Remember the AI has an advantage other you by being able to multi task much faster than any human opponent, so dont beat yourself down when you cant achieve the same number of actions as the AI.

I look for good choke points that I can use to halt the majority of the enemy advance. As you have noticed there will be roamers, but they will be easier to deal with, as they will be smaller in number, so use fast moving units or Air units to counter these when spotted with radar coverage. Also react fast to recapture any lost nodes.

The refineries are expensive, yet are a great way to boost income. Have you already boosted all your nodes before using refineries? Refineries are more mid game, and if you are struggling at that point you may as well invest as it will only give your more income as each is done. Have at least one enginer building all your refineries, then you can always get a second to build more once your income stays positive and boost production.

Dont give up, keep trying, learn from your mistakes and successes and youll be able to handle the normal AI.

[Holon]

Thank you guys for help. Finally I won two games against normal AI again. I focussed on defending my nodes and directly attac the AI to cut its nodes off. I didn't upgrade anything because I had the majority of nodes on the map at mid game. So for the first time since I play Escalation against normal AI, I was in a stronger position at this stage.
I won this because I cut the AI off its nodes though... otherwhise that fight would have lasted another hour I guess :)
I think my mistake was, that I thought I have to upgrade buildings early. Which consumed my ressources and production. I didn't even build a single refinery for those wins.

[Star Paladin]

I have been playing 2v2 teams to learn the new version of the game. Watching the replays really helps. Problem is, my PHC teammate can never win vs the Substrate on his side of the map, ever. I even tried turning his AI up one level, and the Substrate down a level, and my teammate still loses. :/

[George The Ork]

PHC AI struggles early game due to the nature of PHC units and factories VS the Substrate ones.

PHC absolutely dominates the late game however with their refinery eco and quality over quantity units.

[WarWolf]

There is diffrent stages in the game, but note sub and PHC are equaled ballanced in this meta is all stages of the game, PHC units is equally strong as substrate units but works diffrently and has other cons and pros, some units is not that balanced but nothing is broken. That one faction is superior at the any stage is not true but the AI is pretty dumb so it might seem weaker or better in some stages in the game. The sub AI is a lot better than PHC AI.

In early game it's all about securing as much teritory as you can, the reason is the natrual defenders and ressources, the natrual defenders is getting better over time so if you do it faster you can capture the node with fewer units. second is it gives you more resources to work with. My preferedd way to do this is to send the first engineer to the first metall node then while you capture it you build the factory, I don't play PHC much but 2 brutes 1 archers has worked well for me. to make it simpler set the production in loops, which also is the best way to make units. when the factory is finshed you want to boost the factory with the engineer who built the factory. When the game starts you also would have made a second engineer that you will use to build extractors on the rad/metall deposits.

Other options for early game is rushing. scounting is an option in all stages of the game

In mid game you want to focus on getting your production up by improving your economics but make sure you allways make qunata archives or whatever PHC equiliant is called. DO NOT vaste the qunata on either radar or storage, that's just a waste of ressources, use rather scouts, they do the job better and have no quanata cost, radar should be sued with radar targeting defences. Make sure to securing your nodes when playing vs Ai, you wil use anti air and orbital jammers. The AI loves to capture your nodes with orbital jammers, real players have a tendensy to use their quanta diffrently than the AI, so this is often not needed before you are well into midgame. An option to anti air is air superiority. What you should produce should be choosen to counter what the enemy makes, get this info by scouting.

In late game you want to get the game ending stuff if you have not allready killed him or he has killed you. What you choose will be highly situational if he has low anti air and low amounts of fighters. t2 bombers would be a good options. jugenuts and dreadsnoughts is also options aswell, overwhealming them by numbers (mostly tier2) is one of many things you can do, combining them is also an option.

Tips:
1. sneaky engineer, drop a enigneer in the enemy backline out of his sight and build a bunch of anti building to potensially snipe their nexus or dmg buildings. it's highly efficent and why you need propper placement of orbital jammers.
2. allways uppgrade your attack and hp/shields with qunata but you might want to save some for orbitals.
3. never stop making qunata archives or whatever PHC equliant is called
4. Do not mass up a giant army then attack... by the time you hva ethe army they have defences and and army. attack with a reasonble force when you have the edge, if you need a giant army you will be in late game, and other options should also be considered.

This aplpies both for MP ranked and vs AI. custom games there you have to add the they need ressources aswell when you have teammates... Also substrate is not aboutrt quantaty and PHC is not about quallity as white claimed that is BS. eco scales somewhat better with PHC in late game. max 1 harbinger at a time is the reason. play some sub aswell to understand how they work