Brawl -- What strategy has been working for you? Some pre-rework thoughts.

[Mivo]

In the past few days, I've been spamming Brawl games, ranging from 1200-1400. I know that Brawl is being re-worked currently, but I've been trying to figure out what the best strategy in this mode currently is. It's very different from 1v1 or 2v2.

What have you found to consistently work for you?

I usually try one of these:

- Mustang spam: Works well until someone goes into Vulcans.
- Phantom Ray spam: Works well, usually, and this is my best W/R approach.
- MM spam: Works well, until someone goes into Vulcans.
- Wasp spam: Works well, until someone goes into MM.
- AA Arclight spam: still testing, not working well for me.
- Worm spam: Works well until someone goes MM spam.
- Phoenix spam: Works well until some goes AA mustang spam.
- Hacker spam: Only seen it, seems super vulnerable to air.

Mostly, the right answer seems to depend on what your strongest opponents do, but you can't always tell early on, and there is a large RNG element depending on what AI waves you get. Sometimes, you just lose every AI wave and can't gain credits and you lose by default.

To me, the mode seems more luck dependent than the rest of the game. But some thoughts:

- Maybe I focus too much on spamming 1-2 units.
- Maybe I am not adaptable enough.
- Maybe this is just a true rogue-like mode and you win or lose based on what you decide early on.
- I believe I underestimate chaff in this mode.
- I believe I overuse missiles to win AI rounds.
- AI sucks.
- AI sucks, especially when it uses air in round 1.
- AI sucks and is too random, did I mention that?

Anyway, those of you who maintain a high MMR in Brawl, or consistently climb, what is your approach?

[Reffn]

In my opinion Brawl as a Mode is Designed wrong since day 1. You are rewarded for exactly the wrong thing : having units alive.

It's like destruction derby but your goal is not to hit other cars but to be the last one alive.

This mode rewards staying back, being passive and let everyone else kill each other.

In addition to that there is so much unpredictability that you almost can't respond to your enemies and Npcs.
This results in the most average, can kill everything somewhat builds that this game has to offer.

[Mivo]

Originally posted by Reffn:

In my opinion Brawl as a Mode is Designed wrong since day 1.

One of the new designers hired by Game River is working on overhauling Brawl, so it will definitely change.

I'm just trying to figure out how to approach the current version of Brawl that we have and what successful strategies people have been using that reliable gets them place 1 or 2 in most games. I currently go from place 1 to 4 frequently.

[the~jack]

heavy tank with hackers if on top.. and snowball + second units are flyers in the back that flank the other people... i try to snowball so the match goes not long

[Thanos]

Brawl is my go-to for casual games. When I play it I'm usually also watching TV and might even be drinking alcohol. So I also tend to spam units in this mode, to mixed success. Some of my favorite spam tactics:

- Phantom Ray Spam: My go-to if I get Aerial Specialist. High win-rate at my MMR level but I wouldn't say it's OP necessarily. But it DOES force your opponents to react because you will snowball if they don't. Some opponents will complain about Phantom Ray being OP but it is counter-able and they only have themselves to blame if they don't.

- Mustang Spam: Probably the most successful ground unit spam for me. People in my MMR range appear to underestimate it. Starts off weak but once you hit a critical mass of stangs it can really take off. I've had games where opponents attempt to counter with Vulcans late game but by then I already have way too many stangs. You need to counter it earlier.

- Crawler Spam: Probably my most meme-build thing to do. It doesn't win often but if you get lucky with card draws (the crawler specific ones can be quite good) you'll do better than you think. Fails to air (obviously) so late-game transition is necessary. I usually transition into a giant unit late-game that can deal with air.

- Arclight Spam: I had a lot of fun with this at first but it hasn't been working out lately. Also very luck dependent with card pulls. Nobody respects it (probably for good reason) but it can surprise people on occasion.

Side note: should be obvious but all of these spam tactics make heavy use of dropping additional units each round. I prioritize unit count over tech upgrades but you'll usually have enough resources by the later rounds to have all the upgrades anyway.

Edit: Also, I should note the other comment about the game mode encouraging passiveness is true. I've seen people spam units like Phantom Rays in the back and use beacons to make them hang back so they can clean up. I don't do this. Mostly because I am lazy but it's also kinda poor sportsmanship imo. I don't blame anyone for doing it, it works, just not something I want to do myself.

[J.D]

I have a tendency to always fall back on marksman. With a late game rapid reload letting them handle trash at a more decent pace while I mainly use a hefty number of fortresses as a frontline and decent single target. Bury a vulcan in there for egregious chaff swarms. It's a very slow paced army though and often you'll find yourself besieged by stormcallers and a barrage of marksman in return. The main weakness of such an army is any flyers or mustangs you build will inevitably outpace your footsloggers and die without support. So you're stuck with the waddlers or risk drip feeding your forces to your opponents bit by bit. Also if your opponent still has worms alive by the time your frontline dies? You're basically dead. Unless you're dealing with some very weak and un-teched worms they'll chew through the snipers en masse and maybe you'll be able to pop one, or maybe you'll get none and get distracted by the spawned mini worms.

Wasp spam. A wide selection of anti-air techs can counter flyer spam prettily handily so you're really going to struggle if someone builds to counter anything other than phantom ray spam and even then they're not unmanageable. Overlords and Raidan are potent, as you'd expect for giants but marksmen with some EMP will totally cripple them and then they're not too tough to bring down. Phoenix Rays are just Marksmen with the "we'll be back" rule from 40k. Dangerous in mass but not able to match the same firing speed due to no rapid reload without cutting their range down, which for a sniper unit can mean death. Tends to find itself in a last man standing match with marksmen which comes down to numbers and who has the greater range.

Worms are often a potent and unstoppable force if they get rolling. But there's a fine balance to them at times. They need enough damage and numbers to pop everything they strike in 1-2 hits to reset aggro (and melting points), heal a bit with burrow maintenance and maybe even spawn a smaller worm for distraction. But if you can't get the ball rolling your worms will pop their head out late game, die and you'll stall.

[ChiliOil]

Wasps are the single best chaff in the brawl and no one can convince me otherwise.

[Thanos]

Just won a brawl match with Crawler Spam and I feel like I just unlocked a personal achievement. Yeah okay, probably not impressive, but I'm amused.

[Glioburd]

I haven't played a lot of brawls but I've won with :
- Carry fangs with hackers shield
- Carry fangs with fortress
- MMs spam (shooting squad - range - emp - elite marksman)
- Raiden spam
- Carry arclight

I've tried mass crawlers with mass melting point with crawler production, it was terrible

[StrangeSpeeder]

Phantom ray overall is the strongest strategy imo.

Everything can work if it goes uncountered but phantoms are the hardest to deal with, speaking as somone using them often.

Armor makes them stomp what you'd expect their counter to be; mustangs.

Cloak makes sure they win against marksman, or at least don't get picked off as they close the gap

Sheilds make extra sure they aren't losing to burst damage, and stacks with Armor.

Burst fire... isn't actually all that necessary, but if your opponent is doing things like building worms you'll need it.

Aside from that I enjoy arclight games, they usually go fairly well for me actually.

I used to like fangs but they just don't do well if somone pulls out storm callers.

[Perplex]

If by brawl you mean FFA. It is the only thing i play as unit drops ruined 1v1.

Mass fang + forts works often and is the most fun IMO, but it can be easily shut down with fire.
Mass Phantoms works really well against most people but is bad vs ppl that know how to shut it down, but it is not many that do.

Those are my two go to strategies after they buffed Scorpions to completely shut down Marksman spam.