Hello all!
I'm new to the forums, but I've been playing SE for a few months. I can't say that I'm all that good at it, as my rating is only 1250, but this is my strategy, and so far, its been working. Can you guys suggest any improvements, or point out any weaknesses? Thanks.

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[/HR]1. Set the 2 miners to gold, get 2 miners and a sword. Set one miner on gold and one on mana. Send the sword to the center.

2. Get miner hustle as soon as possible. As soon as the tower is captured, draw your sword back to where the tower is still visible. If they send a sword, kill it and create another sword for the tower. Otherwise, create miners until you have 2 on mana and 5 on gold.

3. Get tower spawn 1, and then a spear. Send your spear to where the other swords are. Alternate getting spears and 3 miners until you have 4 miners on mana and 10 on gold.

4. Get 2 merics, 2 magikill, and 2 giants. Get the upgrades for the giants and the magikill.

5. Get tower spawn 2 and get miner wall, and build 2.

6. Wait until they attack and you kill their army, or you have 80 population, to attack.

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[/HR]Because I have great eco, I can get several of these high gold and high mana units. The order of steps 2-5 shifts some depending on the opponent's strategy, but this is about the order I do it in. Here is a replay: http://www.stickempires.com/play?replay=replay7248872&version=2.17

This isn't the only person I've beat with it, it's just the only replay I have, because I'm not a gold player. How is it?

You'll lose quite consistently once you get toward a higher level if you continue to do this. Archer pressure will drive back your sword and will stop you from expanding with your miners. Once spears come out there really won't be any way for you to stop them.

Once you hit 1400 and higher it won't work. Don't get tower spawn if you know you cant defend/support it. It seems like your only army at that point would be 1=2 swords depending if the first one lived.

Also this strat seems and is way more complex then it should be at that rating area. Just spam swords at the 1200 point and you will win like 70% of the time (as long as the opponent didn't play campaign)

Quote from WheresMyCheetos

Just spam swords at the 1200 point and you will win like 70% of the time (as long as the opponent didn't play campaign)

Using suboptimal strategies at a lower rating level just because they work is going to develop bad habits. Instead, start learning the fundamentals of the optimal strategies, so that you will be better adapted to higher ranks. Your strategy doesn't work because a) you build no army in the early game and b) you get tower spawn before you have a strong hold on the tower. Good players will make archers in the early game. To counter that, you need to have archers of your own. And it's also probably a bad idea to get TS1 before at least making a spearton, because an enemy spear with archer support will have little trouble pushing back an army of only swords and archers.

EDIT: Was talking to the OP, not WMC. I realized that was unclear when I read my post.

Thanks, guys. Is there a way I could improve this while still using the MMS start? I really like the great eco, it helps a lot late game.

You could use it as a lead into archers on maps bigger than desert. I like to follow the build order MMS -> M -> A and go from there. It can be pretty good if your opponent doesn't have an eco to match you.

The trade off of course is that you can easily be put under early pressure by an AM or even SA start, but if you survive that you probably have a slight advantage due to eco.

Ok, thanks! I've found that archers or several swords easily win against this, but it seems like I can beat everything else just by virtue of my miners, even an early spear. I haven't had any experience with medium or high ranking players, though.

What's your code for SE? I can have some matches with you and give some pointers.

What do you mean by "everything else"? The three starts on medium maps are MSS (several swords), AM (archers), and MMS (your start). So if the other two starts can easily win against MMS, then perhaps you should try using a different start or learning to handle pressure better.

Essentially against an archer start, I think it's all right to let them get a few hits on each miner, as long as your sword comes to block the shots before the miner dies. You'd basically use your sword and miners to stall until your archer comes out, and then queue a sword right after so you can push back.

If they sword-archer started, which happens occasionally, I either
a) CA and turtle
b) mass garrison when they get to my base, because it's pretty hard to keep miners alive with just a sword against a sword/archer.

59saintdane, I meant that I can handle pressure well, except for mobs and archers. Most of the players I've encountered don't rush, regardless of whether they start with MSS or AM. Alos, isn't there MMM and AS?

IHATETHISNAME, my code is 020, but I'm not on very often, and sometimes I need to leave midgame.

Never go for three miner start. It leaves you without an army and without the tower. Any possible gain you could get economically would be negated by their pressure and the tower money.

That's what I used to do, but then I switched to MMS.

Quote from IHATETHISNAME

Never go for three miner start. It leaves you without an army and without the tower. Any possible gain you could get economically would be negated by their pressure and the tower money.

Some people I know like going for an archer sword start on med maps. 3 miners counters that nicely.

Quote from jerrytt

Some people I know like going for an archer sword start on med maps. 3 miners counters that nicely.

SA cheese will be mixed up in a Bo5 game definitely, but going 3 miners is ridiculously stupid because...no scouting, no tower, no map control, queue times etc. (aka you already know all this since you're a good player, but you're just bringing it up as a point).