Boomer Rush: An analysis

[Teron]

Boomer Rush. Stories told to children. And now it's coming back to own you.
Most experienced players take the insane power of the Boomer Rush as a given, and speak from experience. Just from reading the forums, a new player might find it difficult to comprehend why, exactly, the Boomer Rush is so feared. You can just blow up the Boomers, right? Next, I am going to construct a scenario to show just why it's perhaps the #1 broken strat in the game.

Let us presume two players of roughly equal and relatively high skill. They need not be geniuses, but they need to know what they are doing. One of the players is Iraq, one is Yuri. The map is mostly ground-based but has enough water for navy plays to be meaningful. Most importantly, bases are within Boomer range from the shore. If the past ground-based games are of any indication, the match will be really close. The Yuri player is faced with a choice: To Boomer Rush or not. Since Boomer Rushing is the optimal Yuri strat on naval maps, the Yuri player will do the Boomer Rush.

Let's say the Boomer Rush's monetary cost is X.
Now, the Soviet player, being competent, knows that there's a huge chance of a Boomer Rush, and is faced with three choices:
1. To not make any anti-Boomer defense
2. To also build a quick Nav Yard and spit out two Typhoons.
3. To utilize ground-based anti-air measures.
He will discard the first choice as sheer insanity: A Boomer left unchecked will undoubtedly blow his base back to the stone age.
Option two seems good: Nav Yard plus Typhoons cost about the same as a Sub Pen and a Boomer. We will assume that two Typhoon subs, if grouped together, are enough to destroy a Boomer in relatively short order.
Now, as the Boomer approaches the Soviet base, the Yuri player KNOWS it's defended, purely because he's likely to build a Boomer and it has to be stopped. As both the Boomer and the Typhoons are stealthed, neither side knows where the others' navy is. This leads the subs into a game of cat and mouse, with the following scenarios:
1. Catch: The Typhoons trap the Boomer well and blow it to bits
2. Slip: The subs end up meeting each other, but the Boomer manages to escape the trap. The guessing game commences again.
3. Breakthrough: The Boomer manages to get past the defences and fire.


This will seem like a relatively fair game until you consider the stakes:

Both sides have invested X:
Yuri stands to lose: A Boomer submarine. This is worth X.
Soviets stand to lose: At worst, a key building like a War Factory, Con Yard or a Refinery. At best, something like a Reactor or a Barracks that, while easily replaced, leads to a tempo loss.
The Soviets stand to lose much, much more and their investment in Typhoons doesn't really benefit their overall strategy after the Boomer threat is over: Typhoons are solely sea-to-sea weapons, so if the Soviets win and kill the Boomer, they break even.
If Yuri wins, he delivers a blow to the Soviets' tempo, at worst crushing their game, and may even be able to attempt such a hit again.
It is these unfair stakes of the cat-and-mouse game that make Boomer Rushes so efficient. With two Typhoons, it's a guessing game. If the Soviet player invests more, he falls behind on the ground and will consequently be at a disadvantage.
What about ground-based AA? Ground-based AA:
1. Flak Cannons. Bad choice. They can't move, Yuri will simply move. If he forces you to spend more on Flak Cannons than he on the rush, he won.
2. Flak Tracks. They clog up the War Factory, and Yuri gets ahead on tanks. Not a good idea.
3. Flak Troopers. Slow, but at least mobile. Pretty cheap, too. More than 6-7 and Yuri wins again.
Both Flak Tracks and Flak Troopers also suffer from the Cat And Mouse syndrome.
In the end, the Boomer Rush is a tactic that, for Yuri, breaks even at worst and wins the game at best. Therefore, there's absolutely nothing to lose by doing it.




(This topic is mostly meant to be a single reference that explains the power of the Boomer rush in detail, so the stuff doesn't have to be explained again and again to new players. Can be left to rot if not of interest.)

[GettinGwap]

Boomer Rush. Stories told to children. And now it's coming back to own you.
Most experienced players take the insane power of the Boomer Rush as a given, and speak from experience. Just from reading the forums, a new player might find it difficult to comprehend why, exactly, the Boomer Rush is so feared. You can just blow up the Boomers, right? Next, I am going to construct a scenario to show just why it's perhaps the #1 broken strat in the game.

Let us presume two players of roughly equal and relatively high skill. They need not be geniuses, but they need to know what they are doing. One of the players is Iraq, one is Yuri. The map is mostly ground-based but has enough water for navy plays to be meaningful. Most importantly, bases are within Boomer range from the shore. Now, let us assume that both players are playing a good game and have gotten their economy going nicely. If the past ground-based games are of any indication, the match will be really close. The Yuri player is faced with a choice: To Boomer Rush or not. Since Boomer Rushing is the optimal Yuri strat on naval maps, the Yuri player will do the Boomer Rush.

Let's say the Boomer Rush's monetary cost is X.
Now, the Soviet player, being competent, knows that there's a huge chance of a Boomer Rush, and is faced with three choices:
1. To not make any anti-Boomer defense
2. To also build a quick Nav Yard and spit out two Typhoons.
3. To utilize ground-based anti-air measures.
He will discard the first choice as sheer insanity: A Boomer left unchecked will undoubtedly blow his base back to the stone age.
Option two seems good: Nav Yard plus Typhoons cost about the same as a Sub Pen and a Boomer. We will assume that two Typhoon subs, if grouped together, are enough to destroy a Boomer in relatively short order.
Now, as the Boomer approaches the Soviet base, the Yuri player KNOWS it's defended, purely because he's likely to build a Boomer and it has to be stopped. As both the Boomer and the Typhoons are stealthed, neither side knows where the others' navy is. This leads the subs into a game of cat and mouse, with the following scenarios:
1. Catch: The Typhoons trap the Boomer well and blow it to bits
2. Slip: The subs end up meeting each other, but the Boomer manages to escape the trap. The guessing game commences again.
3. Breakthrough: The Boomer manages to get past the defences and fire.


This will seem like a relatively fair game until you consider the stakes:

Both sides have invested X:
Yuri stands to lose: A Boomer submarine. This is worth X.
Soviets stand to lose: At worst, a key building like a War Factory, Con Yard or a Refinery. At best, something like a Reactor or a Barracks that, while easily replaced, leads to a tempo loss.
The Soviets stand to lose much, much more and their investment in Typhoons doesn't really benefit their overall strategy after the Boomer threat is over: Typhoons are solely sea-to-sea weapons, so if the Soviets win and kill the Boomer, they break even.
If Yuri wins, he delivers a blow to the Soviets' tempo, at worst crushing their game, and may even be able to attempt such a hit again.
It is these unfair stakes of the cat-and-mouse game that make Boomer Rushes so efficient. With two Typhoons, it's a guessing game. If the Soviet player invests more, he falls behind on the ground and will consequently be at a disadvantage.
What about ground-based AA? Ground-based AA:
1. Flak Cannons. Bad choice. They can't move, Yuri will simply move. If he forces you to spend more on Flak Cannons than he on the rush, he won.
2. Flak Tracks. They clog up the War Factory, and Yuri gets ahead on tanks. Not a good idea.
3. Flak Troopers. Slow, but at least mobile. Pretty cheap, too. More than 6-7 and Yuri wins again.
Both Flak Tracks and Flak Troopers also suffer from the Cat And Mouse syndrome.
In the end, the Boomer Rush is a tactic that, for Yuri, breaks even at worst and wins the game at best. Therefore, there's absolutely nothing to lose by doing it.




(This topic is mostly meant to be a single reference that explains the power of the Boomer rush in detail, so the stuff doesn't have to be explained again and again to new players. Can be left to rot if not of interest.)

Also flak troopers are extremely weak. You are right about one thing, it's nothing to lose for Yuri. Perhaps the Soviet player may try to move his conyard before Yuri scouts. It may set him back, but it won't be next to the coast. Then Yuri player wastes at least $3000, and the Soviet player can focus on the ground game.

[apple23]

Now this is good stuff, and really you know everything where it's at, but this topic alone has been beaten to death over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... you get my point?

Well, we can look at it one way... whenever a noob brings up this topic (and it will undoubtedly be brought back up in the future), we can just copy your post and paste it as our reply :p

[Fenring]

Man... this is why I always play with mods. A lot less faggoty **** in mods, or at least I always nix the Boomer rush. :p

[truefeel]

That's a relative good analysis, Teron. But there are a few shortcomings in it:

Let us presume two players of roughly equal and relatively high skill. They need not be geniuses, but they need to know what they are doing. One of the players is Iraq, one is Yuri. The map is mostly ground-based but has enough water for navy plays to be meaningful. Most importantly, bases are within Boomer range from the shore. Now, let us assume that both players are playing a good game and have gotten their economy going nicely. If the past ground-based games are of any indication, the match will be really close. The Yuri player is faced with a choice: To Boomer Rush or not. Since Boomer Rushing is the optimal Yuri strat on naval maps, the Yuri player will do the Boomer Rush.Problem here is the part in bolt. A yuri player will not concern first about economy; he will rather concern first about getting that boomer asap OR choose completely not to do it, letting the soviet player waste cash. But if he'll do it, he will certainly not wait for getting a strong economy.

Next is the assumption that 2 subs cam hold off 1 boomer. That's not true, b/c you'll most likely will have the 2 subs splitted up to have a better chance to detect the boomer, but this way it also takes a longer while to kill the boomer. A boomer can ignore a sub without a problem adn bombard the base and there you can ALWAYS assume he'll bombard one of your more critical structures (most likely your war factory).

So how you twist or turn it, a soviet player will ALWAYS have to spend more money on fending off a boomer rush IF he wants to do that (I'll explain below if not) <--- just an addition to your analysis.


Now there are a few other countermeasures while ignoring a boomer rush:
-Move your mcv away from the water and out of reach of any boomer; things you need to think about is ore, which also need be out of reach of a boomer (as you place your refinery close it. Example: Face Down (Gems are in middle and if you place your mcv well, out of reach of any boomers).
-Second what you can do is just build up like normal (no shipyard) until you have a war factory which you place out of range of a boomer. You only make tanks, no miner or anything else (or maybe a flak track for transport of fodder/engineers) When he attacks with the boomer, inmediately undeploy your mcv and go to his base with all units you have (only on maps where this is possible) (base trade). Example: Island of War (which is a small map and it's easy to quickly move to his base)

These are just desperate countermeasures, but they can work. Especially if you also decide to go lame (which is fair, seing that he boomer rushes) by engying his buildings and alting his war factory.