Most unbalanced race/team.

[conceptual]

The Scrin of Command & Conquer 3 have unstoppable airforces. They have shields and attack from outside of range of your AA defenses.

That's the POINT of the scrin. But then if you let them get to teir 4 tech, you're already done. as GloatingSwine said;

You would still need to let them have control of the lion's share of the battlefield, which in a game which is all about territory control means you had already lost, the tanks were just there to show you the door.

personaly, I like the fools who tech for airships as scrin. they're fun to play with, watching their massive fleets of 3000 and 4000 credit units turning into promotions for your random 1000 credit units. ahh, good times.

If you want op in C&C3, look at the NOD factions after patch 1.09. fire was suddenly anti everything and a simple bike rush was enough to take someone out of the game. and don't get me started on the stuff in kane's wrath. giant STEALTHED walkers just crushing everything? and then there's the flame UPGRADE, and a whole bunch of one-click powers that could decimate entire armies.

The other team. They always get all the breaks, they have the best units, and all the resources.

Generally, I tend to agree with that kind of thinking. what stops you from just using the same stuff? but I draw the line when 4 out of 5 people in the top 100 use said 'op' faction.

 

[Nutcase]

And that's why, as a rule, you don't use rocket guys or flamers vs an APC. Minigunners are cheap, exactly as hard to run over, and good enough for killing the engi that the APC has to take care of them.

Not many of them though. If you disgorge the engineer, click on him as soon as the sprite appears, and get him on his way to the CY, by the time he's been targetted by infantry they're probably only going to get one shot on him, so you'd need enough minigunners to do the job in one go.

No, you need enough minigunners, vehicles, and towers combined to do the job.

Remember that the first shot that hits the engineer makes him crawl, which is slow. And they are not that impossible to run over with a tank, either. If you follow the APC closely with tracked vehicles it has to be careful about where to unload. Harvesters can be used for engi defense too, and there's no cost for doing so, as you shouldn't drive them into a refinery as long as there is an engineer loose.

Creative building around the CY can make it harder, if not impossible, for the APC to deploy the engineer on the square immediately adjacent to the CY. I think the APCs had something of a habit of unloading on a square below them?

You only lose $400 when selling the refinery, so if you immediately have $2k to drop on the new refinery, there's no question that you are ahead at that point. Even if you have to e.g. sell a War Factory to be able to afford a new refinery, you'd still only be down $1400, which is pretty much even with the $1200 the rusher spent. Note that if you were to spend $2k on a second refinery the moment your opponent was buying a War Factory for his rush, you would be ahead in resources by the time the engineer attack hits, and can afford to lose one refinery to engis without even really being affected.

Selling a refinery doesn't refund you that much. You only get $300 back, because the harvester is the bulk of the cost, and it doesn't sell that.

But that's even better for you, as it means you only lose $300 worth of stuff by being forced to sell the refinery.

If you can't get the CY, and the opponent is smart enough not to end up in the <$2k money/no refinery trap *or* drive a harvester in for unloading right when your engineer is there, the best early game target for a lone engineer is War Factory/Airstrip for the simple reason that having to sell it makes the player lose $1k in one hit. Actually capping the Factory would be a jackpot, obviously.

 

[GloatingSwine]

No, you need enough minigunners, vehicles, and towers combined to do the job.

Of course, then you're back to economic disadvantage, especially if a supporting attack comes at the same time as the engineer, because you have these defenses deep in your base not available to fight an early armour attack.

Remember that the first shot that hits the engineer makes him crawl, which is slow. And they are not that impossible to run over with a tank, either. If you follow the APC closely with tracked vehicles it has to be careful about where to unload.

If the APC can get next to the target building, it is impossible to run the engineer over, because you can order him into the building before he leaves the APC's square, there'll never be a time where he's in an unoccupied square to run over. Also, whilst he'll crawl if shot at, a double click order gets crawling infantry stood back up and running.

Creative building around the CY can make it harder, if not impossible, for the APC to deploy the engineer on the square immediately adjacent to the CY. I think the APCs had something of a habit of unloading on a square below them?

One square down-left. However, as soon as the sprite for the engineer appears you can give him orders, and he appears on the square the APC's in. Also, the most vulnerable squares are hardest to block, the ones directly above a building where it's hard to see and target the engineer (but the controlling player has a cursor change to select cursor which helps them select and order him without seeing him). They're hard because other buildings apart from guard towers have that front strip, so you can't block with cheap stuff, you'd need at least concrete walls, which are $100 a pop (the APC could run over sandbags or chain link)

(and you have to be wary of buildings with uneven backs as well, they might have a cubby hole the APC could sneak into)

But that's even better for you, as it means you only lose $300 worth of stuff by being forced to sell the refinery.

But have to pay $1700 more than you got back to have another one, and wait ~90 seconds or so to build it. That's a cost your opponent didn't have to pay, and means he has a couple more tanks than you for the next attack.

 

[Mikaze]

Tyranids from DoW2. They suck at the beginning but as soon as they have carnifexes you're kinda fucked. The fact that they are monstrous creatures, not vehicles or infantry means that there are no weapons that are actually properly effective against them, the closest is massed Space Marine Tactical sqauds with rockets and they'll still lose if it has charge. AND YOU CAN GET LOTS OF THESE THINGS!

EDIT: Oh, and CoH bots with their ability to build anything in less than half the time it would take you to build an identical unit.

 

[EzraPound]

Yuri from Red Alert 2 was stupidly overpowered. Providing you were good with him (I wasn't, my mates were, hence I lost a lot of games that way). The fact you could run units in and take over buildings with mind control and then sell them was ridiciously infuriating.
Honorable mention to the same game for Chrono Commandos. Not a race, but an overpowered unit if I ever saw one.

Not as bad as Kirov Airships. Chrono-Ivans are pretty ridiculous too.

Kirovs were ok if you prepared for them... but yeah, it was still easy to underestimate the amount of damage three or four Kirovs can take. Fortunately the RA2 expansion pack had the Force Shield.
As for Chrono-Ivans, those are superunits, but they're supposed to. They were very hard to acquire (I think you had to get a Spy into the enemy Battle Lab and have a infantry production structure of your enemy), so I think it's ok that they're really strong units.

RA2 was ridiculous:

- Korea's black eagles could take out anything, if you built enough then arbitrarily scouted the opponent's MCV (it took like 4-5 pads of them to take out an MCV, Air D. be damned)
- France's huge cannons repelled all offense short of a 150+ tank rush if you threw up a bunch around your base
- The Allies were way stronger than the Soviets; noone played Sov online. Infact, everyone played as either the U.S., Britain, Korea, or France (since TDs were useless).
- Yuri Prime could stands 400ft outside a bass and mind control all the units inside it; order them to take out key buildings way before the enemy could repel anything
- There were way too many overpowered long-range units: in a water map, you could basically blast your opponent's MCV using a missile ship before they had time to react

Etc.

 

[Nutcase]

No, you need enough minigunners, vehicles, and towers combined to do the job.

Of course, then you're back to economic disadvantage, especially if a supporting attack comes at the same time as the engineer, because you have these defenses deep in your base not available to fight an early armour attack.

What supporting attack? The engi rush is hardest to counter when you drive your first APC into the enemy base immediately after it rolls off the production line. You have no troops other than the APC plus whatever infantry you had time/money to make before the APC is ready.

Creative building around the CY can make it harder, if not impossible, for the APC to deploy the engineer on the square immediately adjacent to the CY. I think the APCs had something of a habit of unloading on a square below them?

One square down-left. However, as soon as the sprite for the engineer appears you can give him orders, and he appears on the square the APC's in. Also, the most vulnerable squares are hardest to block, the ones directly above a building where it's hard to see and target the engineer (but the controlling player has a cursor change to select cursor which helps them select and order him without seeing him). They're hard because other buildings apart from guard towers have that front strip, so you can't block with cheap stuff, you'd need at least concrete walls, which are $100 a pop (the APC could run over sandbags or chain link)

This is why you always drive the CY next to terrain features such as cliffs before deploying, preferably so that they block access to CY from above and/or from one side. The combination of buildings and a few impassable squares (whether created by wall, or parking a vehicle) can prevent access to the CY from anywhere but below. Which means 1+ square distance for the engi to cover. It's a surprisingly long trip under machine gun fire and with a tracked vehicle or several (remember the possibility of using a harvester!) actively trying to run them over.

At the point where an APC attack hits, your regular buildings include a power plant, a refinery, a war factory and barracks at least. You can do a lot with this many buildings and the terrain.

My memory fails me; can you actually force the APC to drive directly onto a square with the sandbag fence, or do you need to have empty space on the other side to issue the movement command? I'm guessing the latter, and if so, then certain wall placements are APC immune.

But that's even better for you, as it means you only lose $300 worth of stuff by being forced to sell the refinery.

But have to pay $1700 more than you got back to have another one, and wait ~90 seconds or so to build it. That's a cost your opponent didn't have to pay, and means he has a couple more tanks than you for the next attack.

If your opponent buys tanks, he has to wait for them to finish and to roll them across the map. He does not have 2 harvesters bringing in dough; with 1 refinery and 2 harvesters, you are barely worse off than if you had 2 refineries and 2 harvesters. If he were to build just one refinery's worth of units and attack, that really shouldn't worry you. Your defensive structures and buildings self-repair (this is why, IMO, a damage-based attack so early is pretty futile), and new vehicles keep rolling off the assembly line all the time. Assuming you didn't engi rush yourself originally, this might be a good time to greet the opponent's small conventional army mid-map with an engineer APC driving the other way; it's quite possible that they don't have what it takes to stop it without turning back. You don't even have to get the CY; forcing a refinery sell or War Factory sell at this point is a very decent blow.

 

[Lukeydoodly]

Hmm. Late game Cybran on SupCom are unstoppable, especially when your churning out Loyalists (or Bricks). On larger SupCom maps, Aeon Restorer swarms destroy experimentals in seconds. The Soviet armies on Red Alert 1 were INCREDIBLY overpowered, I mean, the Allies got light and medium tanks, and the Soviets got heavy and mammoth! WTF!

Necrons and Tau in DoW are a bit too good aswell. The Tau Fire Warriors can outrange everything cept artillery, and the Necrons can send wave after wave at your front line, then fill their unit cap, then revive all their dead units at your front line, going WELL over the unit cap. Oh and the Necron Lord and Tomb Spiders are the definition of annoying; they can run past your front line with their high hitpoints, die in your base, then when they are bought again, they revive WHERE THEY DIED.

 

[Lukeydoodly]

Elven units in Battle for Middle-Earth. Fully upgraded, their arrows can kill level 10 heroes in just a few shots.

Oh, and a full Armored-specialty Axis team in Company of Heroes. No matter what your Allied team balance, or how well you play, there really is no way to counter 10 panzers and some 15 stugs coming at you, accompanied with infantry and sniper support.

Haha I forgot about SilverThorn Arrows on BFME, they make infantry FLY BACKWARDS INTO THE AIR.

 

[Locque]

Necrons were ridiculously OP in DOW.
In DOW2 Eldar were ridiculously OP in the beta, but they got patched.

 

[GloatingSwine]

This is why you always drive the CY next to terrain features such as cliffs before deploying, preferably so that they block access to CY from above and/or from one side. The combination of buildings and a few impassable squares (whether created by wall, or parking a vehicle) can prevent access to the CY from anywhere but below. Which means 1+ square distance for the engi to cover. It's a surprisingly long trip under machine gun fire and with a tracked vehicle or several (remember the possibility of using a harvester!) actively trying to run them over.

The engineer can still go direct from the APC's square to the adjacent building square if you click and order him fast enough.

At the point where an APC attack hits, your regular buildings include a power plant, a refinery, a war factory and barracks at least. You can do a lot with this many buildings and the terrain.

Depends on the terrain, of course. You still can't achieve reliable perfect blocking, and you can't block the bottom row.

[quoteMy memory fails me; can you actually force the APC to drive directly onto a square with the sandbag fence, or do you need to have empty space on the other side to issue the movement command? I'm guessing the latter, and if so, then certain wall placements are APC immune.[/quote]
Yeah, you can force move vehicles onto a sandbag or chain-link. Hold one of either shift, ctrl, or alt whilst you click. Same way you force a squash move to infantry instead of firing at them.

Your defensive structures and buildings self-repair (this is why, IMO, a damage-based attack so early is pretty futile

Depends what you hit. Early damage based attacks on a power plant are deceptively powerful, because they fuck the opponent's build times even if you don't destroy the building because damage affects power plant effectiveness, as long as you can bring it's health down a bit, and power plants are made of cardboard and tinfoil.

Remember, even if you can only delay an opponent, you can have a game-winning force before him.

 

[xXVoiDXx]

lol Elves in Lord of the rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, the upgraded arrows are the most unbalanced thing I've ever seen. Plus all the German tanks in Company of Heroes *ahemKingTigerandJagdpantherahem*.