Any tips for using scramblers effectively?

[zer0CD]

(02-26-2013 11:10 AM)WildMantaRay Wrote:  I just can't find a good way to use them other then turtling and spawning when your opponent finally pushes. It is especially hard when being poked by mobi play too.

Any suggestions?

You highlight the ideal situation for a scrambler. They are best when they are the 3 hex "zone of death" around a spawn point. Whenever an enemy unit comes to you, you have easier scrambles and the highest chance of ensuring that your scrambler will stay alive to scramble another unit. This fact is very important because scramblers have exponential growth. The more units 1 scrambler can convert, the higher your wit gain is for each successive mind control. So, scramblers are the best at turning a situation around.

Take this idea and apply this to offense. Scramblers are best as the "second wave of attack" after your initial forces attack the enemy's front line. If your attack was effective, then generally it is very difficult for the enemy to try and kill your scrambler. The best part of this scenario is if they cannot kill your scrambler, then you can mind control more units and make the situation even worse. This situation is ideal, but it also takes a lot of wit and pre-planning to work.

The most practical strength of the scrambler may simply be the "pressure" it exerts on your enemy. Similar to mobi who creates the pressure of a 7 hex range sniper, scramblers have a similar sort of pressure. With effective vision denial, nothing is scarier than knowing a scrambler can jump out and convert a unit in your wall and deal significant damage on your army. Wit space control is a product of this. If you fight over a wit space, then it becomes very scary for your opponent, because the unit they use to take over the wit space could very well be converted by your scrambler.

Given the glass cannon nature of the scrambler despite being a melee unit, exerting external pressure is usually very difficult for a scrambler. For example, even if you see where the bombshell is, it's still very difficult to destroy and it continues to exert pressure. If the opponent knows where the scrambler is, then setting up countermeasures are much simpler. Scramblers thrive off mental pressure and situations where an opponent is forced to move to a certain location (taking over a wit space for example). Scramblers are used best in the hands of gamblers who convert more often on their guesses than they fail.

This is what I am talking about. In this match, almost all the points I highlighted can be seen. The runner I convert entered the zone of death, and also notice that the scrambler was in a situation that it could not get killed on the next turn. This set up the situation where I got to convert another unit and get another kill. The scrambler used as the second line of attack is seen at the very end where I attack his wit space with my units. Even though he kills off a few of my units, the scrambler turns the situation around and I win the match. You'll also notice that scramblers are generally more effective when there are few units on the field. Hopefully you learned a thing or two about using scramblers.