Countering hackers?

[Avallach]

The 'remove hacker' thread was a bit silly and I didn't want to add to it, but I do have a bit of a problem with the hacker as well. It's not that it 'takes control away' but that, for me, the game becomes less comprehensible in the way it plays out. The counters become less clear. This is at 1450-1550 MMR.

I know that a good way to learn counters is often to play the strategy that's beating you, and see how other people counter it - but when I play hackers myself I'm not really clear on what exactly the difference between winning and losing is. The way the rounds play out feels less predictable, more a matter of chance in terms of what the hacker connects with and how much the re-targeting slows the opponent down. If someone just gets a couple of hackers, do counters really come into it much?

Hackers are bad against shields, but taking down shields is part of the 'chaff clear' stage of the game where hackers don't have much impact anyway. A standard army with just a couple of hackers will take down shields just fine.

If you can keep them busy with chaff they're pretty useless, but 'winning the chaff war' isn't really a counter, it's just part of the normal contest. If their chaff clear is good enough (up to and including ground fire) adding more chaff might not help.

Air obviously beats them, but being forced to switch into heavy air can feel like a trap as it's too easily countered by various AA-teched units.

EMP is nice, but most of the time if you can connect with hackers you'll take them down anyway - it's getting to that point with all the distractions they can create that's hard.

When I win against hackers (or lose with them) it seems to be that the incoming army just has enough weight of numbers and damage to keep pushing forward despite all the constant re-targeting, but I don't really have a handle on how to make that happen.

Against an equally competent opponent who counters equally well, you'll have a bit more non-hacker value on the board, but not _that_ much. You have to beat the rest of his army while also beating part of your own army along the way.

Are there particular compositions you try to go for when you see hackers, or particular units to avoid? Do you let a couple of hackers change your whole approach, or mostly just focus on countering the rest of the board and hope that the hackers fall along the way?

[Doomsdave]

Hackers are the most diffuse unit... Generally its just extra chaff to the normal chaff (coming from the very back too) or big chaff like sledges.

Dependend on the levels of hackers and the targeted units, Hackers can be pretty fast. Its the time they need to lock up new targets, that you use against them. So lvl1 midsize units, wich are fast downed by yourself, are helping.

Edit: improved grammar