mantis help

I've been playing alot of 1v1s versus my friend. Both of us are longtime RTS players and have played FAF before, but not as much until recently. In the past few days, we have played roughly 12 or so games. I play UEF, he plays Cybran.

Famously, Mantis spam was broken and as far as I can tell, it remains broken. The games I have won have inevitably been on maps where the rush distance is longer, the gaps easier to defend, or when I also played Cybran. Otherwise, I just get steamrolled by hundreds of mantis. He has a few radar and artillery in there to be sure, and if I get bombers he's smart enough to get AA.

Like I said, when I played Cybran (in a fit of pique, to make a point), I flattened him.

At this point, it's unclear what I'm missing. Mantis eat my Strykers for breakfast. He generally does runbys, so even if they destroy a bunch, a few get through. Arty misses as often as the Strykers. The ACU can only be in one place at a time, and if it is protecting the core base, the outskirts get eaten anyway. Even reclaim does not seem to be enough.

I suspect I'm not getting gun upgrade fast enough? But I'm just straightforwardly asking how to beat the t1 mantises

Mantis are not particularly stronger than any other T1 tank, just a bit faster.

Without replays it's impossible to say why exactly you're having so much trouble against Mantis specifically.

Well they're fastest with highest dps and miss less than other T1 tanks. Always been the best T1 tanks particularly on open maps with dispersed mexes

If mantis eat your strikers, you
A. Have way less strikers
B. Are taking bad trades
Mantis are not broken

In addition to what others have said, if you’re losing to “hundreds of mantis”, taking that at face value without replays, then you probably should have gone t2 a long time ago

I'm sad to say no one here has been helpful. Luckily, I continue to trade well with him as Cybran myself. The internet fails me, as always.

Maybe next time include a replay instead of some anecdote no one can actually review or verify because you’ll add some “um actually” for why the advice doesn’t apply.

Just git gud

You need to make sure you trade well in battles. Make sure your rally points are not trickling units into groups of Mantis who have got across the map faster and got the numerical advantage. It's general advise for all factions but against Cybran all the more important as it can snowball that much faster. You also need to have good Intel and play zoomed out so you can intercept run bys. I think playing Cybran is more forgiving at T1 because you can react later and Mantis speed will help out. You can also finish facs which are half built (cos the engineer building them died) using any nearby mantis. This makes it easier to expand quickly.