How to win against Tech Lab / Temple of Nod units in Rivals

The majority of players in the lower leagues play a lot of "Tech" units, i.e. decks often look like this:

These decks are not good. But that doesn't mean that it's easy to beat them. Actually, it needs quite some experience, precision and good decks to beat such decks. That's why most new players at some point usually chose to play Tech themselves, and then stick with it. That's how we end up at 90%+ tech in lower leagues. This guide is supposed to help you deal with such Tech decks.

(Note: This doesn't mean all Tech decks are bad. There's actually very good Tech decks, and very competent Tech players. But they usually have 1 or max 2 Tech units, and playing against good decks still follows the same principles outlined below.)

First, some terminology:

• Playing "Tech" means to include any unit from the GDI Tech Lab or Temple of Nod in your deck
• "Tech Splash" refers to decks that have a single Tech unit next to 5 cheaper units. Often, this is Mammoth Tank or Avatar, but can also be e.g. Artillery or Sandstorm
• "Aggro" means a Tech-free deck that relies on a set of cheap units that can win the game early, relying on a single (or sometimes even no) harvester. If you never played "Aggro" so far, I highly recommend to stop playing Tech at least for a while and try the other side of the game. At the very least it will be good for your learning curve as a player. Here's a guide on how to build Aggro decks.
• "Pop cap" refers to the mechanic of Rivals that you cannot build as many units as you have money for, but that the more units you have on the map, and the earlier the game progress is, the longer you have to wait between building units. As harvesters count as units, this means the key downside of having 2 harvesters is to have fewer units on the field. Abusing this downside of 2 harvesters is critical to beat Tech decks.
• "Charge the pads" means to ensure that someone charges the pads. Often it's you, but it can also be the opponent. If your opponent can safely enter a pad, and you occupy one other pad, you can move off the pad to keep the pads charging overall (and get control back a bit later).

I'll structure this article into three parts:

1. Scenario 1a: You play "Aggro" and the opponent goes double harvester very early
2. Scenario 1b: You play "Aggro" and the opponent plays the first nuke with a single harvester and then builds a second
3. Scenario 2: You play Tech yourself

Scenario 1a: You play "Aggro" and the opponent goes double harvester very early

This is the standard scenario if you play Aggro in lower leagues. Most Tech players in lower leagues will get their double harvester immediately, or after building 1-2 units.

In this scenario, the most important thing is: Always charge the pads! To do that, some things to keep in mind:

• Have a 10 Tiberium unit in your deck (Riflemen, Militants, Cyber Wheels, Dogs)  to build before or after your first harvester. This means you can start to charge the pads very early. Laser Troops for 20 Tiberium are a second-best choice, but they come a bit later, are slower on the pads, and get countered if your opponent builds a single rifleman.
• Scouting is key. You need to see what your opponent is doing. Actually, only this even allows you to discern between scenarios 1a and 1b, as you need to scout if/when they build the second harvester. And it allows you to see what your opponent builds and where he moves it, so you can counter this and keep the pads charging. This is another reason for a 10 Tib unit, as they all have 3 vision range, compared to most units' 2 vision range!
• Never prioritize harassing their two harvesters over charging the pads. Yes, harvester pressure can work. But it can also often be defended -- and even if you kill a harvester, this gives you 80 Tiberium, but doesn't slow down your opponent as much. So losing 10 seconds on the Nuke is usually not good even if you kill a harvester for it. If you have problems beating Tech, I recommend to switch to a "no harvester harass in the early game" rule for some time. This helps you focus on your core task, charging the pads.
• A good rule of thumb of "when to engage harvesters" is "directly after the first nuke goes off" (or a bit earlier if you have it 100% secure). This often makes your opponent spend more Tiberium on defence than they otherwise might, which can bring some valuable seconds even if your attack doesn't yield a harvester kill.
• Don't let your opponent delay the game. If they can enter the pad, step off them yourself. Try to position your units that the opponent cannot easily start fights during which the pads would not charge.
• If your opponent builds two harvesters immediately, they have the fewer units on the field for now (see "Pop cap" explanation above). This means with your early scout and more units, your opponent should not be able to keep you from continue to charge the pads and easily win the first nuke. The typical threats to this are:
• You built Rifles or Militants, and the opponent gets Shocks or Flames to overwhelm you. To deal with this, you can either ...
• Defensively set up 2 Rifles to fight the Flame/Shock trooper, beating it and not allowing it to enter the pad
• Build a unit such as Dogs, Cyber Wheels, Talon, Venom, Chem Troopers that is a good counter against the Flames/Shocks. In this case, you can move your Rifle back to a different pad to save it and keep charging the pads (e.g. your Rifle charges the back pad and the opponent Flame/Shock Troopers and your counter to them fight on the central pad)

Now you won first nuke. If things go smooth, your opponent spends enough Tiberium to (unsuccessfully) delay you so you can as easily win the second nuke. But more often than not, some Tech unit will get you, at least shortly before the second nuke. Now, it's key to keep calm and have a plan:

• Don't panic. Keep your head cool and play your game. You might be able to either kill the Tech unit, or win the game without killing.
• You don't have to necessarily kill the opponent's tech unit. It's enough if you either block it from entering the pad, or to contest the pad against it. Contesting a pad against a tech unit is easiest if it does no or low damage against your unit, e.g. Sandstorm takes ages to kill infantry, and an Avatar can't shoot up.
• Have this pattern in mind: You control one pad, the others are neutral.  This is how you often can win the last nuke the easiest. Remember, you have more units than the opponent. So you should be able to safely control one pad (e.g. your back pad). If you now can contest the other pads in the moment that the second nuke goes off, you win it. Good to keep in mind here:
• Have Seth as commander? Can your flame pod help control/contest a pad?
• Have Liang as commander? Can you use the healing drone to contest a pad? (Must not have air defence on it, as the drone dies fast)
• Have fast air units? Can you contest pads with them for long enough? 
• React to the opponent's tech unit. Some examples: Wolverine / Widowmaker? Just build some Bikes or Pitbulls to attack & block it -- but expect a 2nd Tech unit soon (often Zone Troopers). Mammoth Tank? Dogs and Wheels can be efficient to block, as the Mammoth needs two full salvos to kill the Squads.  Sandstorm? Try to quicklybring in infantry quickly to block it from the pad.  Avatar? Build some Laser Drones or Orca if you have them to kill the Avatar, or contest a pad against it.
• Anticipate the opponent's tech unit. This is hard in lower leagues, which often field a random assortment of 3 or 4 tech units. But against good opponents, you can develop a sense. E.g. does the opponent build cheap infantry and air units? Probably, a Mammoth is coming out!
• Have a plan in your pocket. Think about how your deck wants to engage certain Tech units in a typical situation. Outside of the game, you often get to a solution that is hard to find in the heat of the moment. Example: You play Jade and Chem Warriors. The opponent gets out a Mammoth Tank or Avatar, what do you do?
• Mammoth Tank: As it can (and usually will try to) run over the Chems, a good default plan is to throw a Catalyst missile on your own Chem. This then ideally hits the Mammoth with a big explosion, heavily damaging it.
• Avatar: Avatar on the other hand can't run over your Chems, and needs a bit to kill them. So it will usually move around your Chems somehow while shooting it. In this case, nuke the field that the Avatar will engage your Chems from. They will throw a cloud on it, and if the Avatar moves left or right "along" your Chem, it will be hit by two cloud explosions (see screenshot)

Scenario 1b: You don't play Tech yourself and the opponent plays the first nuke with a single harvester and then builds a second

In principle, your goal is the same here: Always charge the pads! And to do that, you still should have a 10 Tiberium unit in your deck (Riflemen, Militants, Cyber Wheels, Dogs) and scout well to react accordingly. 

But it's a bit trickier to play this if your opponent delays their 2nd harvester. Because they can now build just as many cheap units in the early game as you, which can help them "neutralize" the pads.

A typical deck that works like this is the "Air Mammoth" deck. It usually fields: 

Jackson - Riflemen, Missile Troopers - Droneswarm, Mohawk, Hammerhead - Mammoth Tank. (You can see this deck in action in this video.)

This deck can compete for the first nuke on a single harvester. Even if your opponent doesn't win the first nuke, a significant delay can easily be worth delaying the second harvester. Why is that the case? Here, it's key to understand one of the more "hidden" gameplay concepts of Rivals: Tiberium income accelerates throughout the game. Details are behind this link, but the short version is that in the first 30 seconds, a harvester gathers 90 Tiberium/minute, whilst from 2:30 to 3:00 minutes, a harvester yields 240 Tiberium/minute, i.e. more than 2.5x! So delaying the game by 20 seconds can be worth having your harvester 40 seconds later.

As said, most of the tipps & tricks of scenario 1a (above) still apply, but with the complication that the first nuke isn't as easy to get, and there's usually at the very least some delay. Beyond just playing well and minimizing delay, there's some more things to keep in mind here:

1. Keep scouting. Seeing the exact 2nd harvester timing (or guessing it from an interruption in enemy unit production) helps you see when you need to switch gears from "fight head on" to "speed things up and prepare for the tech".
2. Identify and explore the weakness. The Tech unit(s) are not available in the early phase, still. So the opponent deck must have some leaks. Example: The Air Mammoth deck above is weak to Talons (as Hammerhead is quite expensive) and especially Slingshot (as it counters all the air, so only Rifle/Missile are left to fight with). Every tech deck has such a weakness. If you don't know what the weakness is, or how to exploit it, I recommend you to go to the offical Rivals Subreddit and ask your questions there!

Scenario 2: You play Tech yourself

In Tech vs Tech, the better Tech wins. This means that if you play Tech, ensure that you either don't need the tech always, or that your tech beats other tech units. I.e. there's mostly two options:

1. You have a deck that can beat other Tech decks, especially Avatar & Mammoth
2. You don't need your tech, i.e. you start with a single harvester and can apply the above principles against Tech decks with potentially "better" Tech units

So, the recommendation here is to basically play a good Tech deck, e.g.:

• Air Mammoth -- Dr. Liang - Riflemen, Missile Troopers - Droneswarm, Mohawk, Hammerhead - Mammoth Tank
• Air Avatar -- Oxanna - Militants, Laser Troopers - Laser Drones, Venom, Phantom - Avatar
• lessqq's deck -- Oxanna - Scavengers (or Laser Troopers) - Bikes, Chem Buggy, Stealth Tank - Basilisk, Confessor
• Other tech decks: Have a clear answer against Mammoth & Avatar in your deck, e.g. some form of Air unit that is strong against vehicles 

And if there's one thing to take away from this guide: Play 0, 1 or 2 Tech units. 3 or more is just a bad deck, and will limit your success and your learning curve.

In case you liked this article, click here to find more "Rivals Basics" articles on my blog.

Video Recommendation

And finally, a not-so-serious Rivals video I recommend to watch for entertainment value. It's 13lade playing a series of games with GDI, without using the same unit twice. I.e. he has to construct "mutually exclusive" decks. This also means he's playing some Techs, which he usually doesn't do much.