Proper use of Sentry Planes

Ever been capped by a MoS or GW user out of nowhere in a large map game? This thread is for you. Just a pretty simple tactic that I don't see too many people taking advantage of- Sentry plane spam.

Besides obviously saying to turn your visibility toggle range on, I think the best way to demonstrate would be a picture:

For the example, I covered the land portion of Iran.

The key, as you probably have noticed, is leaving as few gaps between the visibility ranges as possible. This makes it a tight net of detection in order to prevent marine, stealth or submarine spam depending on the location of the sentries. The main idea here is to cut off where you predict marines coming into your territory. A good example of where this would be useful would be Iran and the Russia's in a Eurasia game. This can also be employed on your own territory in order to avoid getting learster'd. It also works off coasts for submarines, but it will take a greater amount of sentries due to the smaller naval detection range.

This is mainly for larger games like Eurasia or World games against a GW or MoS players. Most of them have the tendency to send multiple small stacks across open land or sea in order to have low investment while creeping up over time. By spamming sentries in intelligent places you can detect their spam before it accumulates, attacking the small stacks long before they reach your territory. However, most GW/MoS players are smart enough to adapt once they notice. So don't expect one block in Iran to defend you the entire game.

I should also note that this puts a good dent on your income. This isn't for immediate use first turn, but should be initiated as soon as affordable and when applicable. Cheaper sentry upgrade does wonders, but doesn't completely fix the cost issue. Which is why I say this is mainly for large scale warfare where money isn't as much of a problem.

Hopefully you found this helpful. I've only listed a couple of the uses in this thread, the rest you can figure out yourself. Post with any reactions, questions or suggestions.

I give it a 5/5

I tried something similar to this before, it works really well when you have a lot of money, like you said. Good thread.

As a guerrilla dawg, I dissaprove of this message..

If you're MoS it'd probably be cheaper to use your own marines.
Also its pointless to set them everywhere since sentries have a wide range you'd save more money to make a wall rather than a full detection.

The best would probably to have a wall of sentries and some cheapo units to plug in the holes and slightly extend vision range

Awesome (jokes aside) I actually found this helpful man!

Thanks houdini ( )

Houdini, I just want you to know that you are sole reason I have stopped playing big map games.

I hate you, but with love.

Written by NateBaller, 03.04.2012 at 02:03

Houdini, I just want you to know that you are sole reason I have stopped playing big map games.

I hate you, but with love.

Miss you too, buddy.

Great thread, sentry planes are awesome. You just angered a lot of marine users though. Watch out for learster!

Fuk you houdini,

also as a MOS user you should be sending out sentires and peppering enemy sentries down in the process

Is stealth detection activated when you detect an enemy passing through or stopping in the detection zone?

Guess its time to go back to sky menace

Written by DesertPlah, 03.04.2012 at 11:40

Is stealth detection activated when you detect an enemy passing through or stopping in the detection zone?

They have to stop in your detection zone, which is why you create large nets of them to catch stealth units.

I love you with everything I can love with!

Now, get the money to buy all those sentry planes in a 10K whole world game. x3

P.S thx for guide!

To GW and MoS players:

There are a few alternatives you can use to counter it, but the easiers are carrying your marines by submarines, which have a way better chance to pass-by under cover, or build a few bombers and sentries to keep on killing enemies sentries.

Written by pentation, 04.04.2012 at 07:25

Now, get the money to buy all those sentry planes in a 10K whole world game. x3

It's pretty affordable late-game, which is the time they are more needed, by the way.

Written by Pinheiro, 04.04.2012 at 08:07

To GW and MoS players:

There are a few alternatives you can use to counter it, but the easiers are carrying your marines by submarines, which have a way better chance to pass-by under cover, or build a few bombers and sentries to keep on killing enemies sentries.

Fine, since everyone is giving away secrets, I will tell mine. GW always has more cash left over then any other strategy. In large map games all you have to do is use these strategies - spam sentries, detect enemy sentries, kill with stealths. It really isn't hard to counter. If you think your marines are going to be detected, you can always flower your stack using marines. When they become visible to your enemy, they will act as a defensive line. You can move large stacks of marines this way. The third option is to take large stacks of marines in wide paths to your enemy. In a Eurasia game this may mean northern Siberia or even out of map areas like Africa. It is all about not being predictable. Houdini, I hope you are not judging this on the one Eurasia game we played were it was a 2vs1, I had given up, and only stayed because of the marines I had entering Europe.

I'm not trolling, I'm a noob genuinely asking...

Wouldn't it be much cheaper to simply seal off the border with an infantry d-line? You have 12 sentry planes there. You could seal the borders of iran with a comperable number of infantry no?

Written by Belisarius, 18.04.2012 at 11:41

I'm not trolling, I'm a noob genuinely asking...

Wouldn't it be much cheaper to simply seal off the border with an infantry d-line? You have 12 sentry planes there. You could seal the borders of iran with a comperable number of infantry no?

All they would have to do is break one portion of the line and walk right through, undetected. All this does is maybe buy you a turn and let you have a general idea of where they're attacking from. Also, they can see the d-line and just avoid it if they want to. Sentry planes allow you to see their stack, and attack it when they don't know you can see it. Takes the element of surprise away from your opponent and gives it to you.

Simple send a sentry to the Place you want to jump with your Marines following turn, and your Stack is always undetected, because the sentry will find the free space...
Or it will be detected, and detects the enemy sentry too, so i can take it out and try another way.. or Later again

Written by Tzeentch, 18.04.2012 at 14:32

Simple send a sentry to the Place you want to jump with your Marines following turn, and your Stack is always undetected, because the sentry will find the free space...
Or it will be detected, and detects the enemy sentry too, so i can take it out and try another way.. or Later again

When your sentry is detected, you can replace it the same turn they take out your original sentry. Not that simple : )

Written by Belisarius, 18.04.2012 at 11:41

I'm not trolling, I'm a noob genuinely asking...

Wouldn't it be much cheaper to simply seal off the border with an infantry d-line? You have 12 sentry planes there. You could seal the borders of iran with a comperable number of infantry no?

You seal the boarder with Infantry d-line, and i send 1 marine at it to break it.. and then send one big stack((a few stacks of 10)) of marines threw, and you dont know what my marine count is, all you know is im using marines.

the Sentry is a pretty hard counter to invisible units. A Sentry wall is gay so you shouldnt do it, you should just make an infantry d-line..

Written by Houdini, 18.04.2012 at 20:19

Written by Tzeentch, 18.04.2012 at 14:32

Simple send a sentry to the Place you want to jump with your Marines following turn, and your Stack is always undetected, because the sentry will find the free space...
Or it will be detected, and detects the enemy sentry too, so i can take it out and try another way.. or Later again

When your sentry is detected, you can replace it the same turn they take out your original sentry. Not that simple : )

But i know that there is a Sentry, and my Marine Stack is still undetected, better then just run into the Trap

Written by Tzeentch, 19.04.2012 at 07:40

Written by Houdini, 18.04.2012 at 20:19

Written by Tzeentch, 18.04.2012 at 14:32

Simple send a sentry to the Place you want to jump with your Marines following turn, and your Stack is always undetected, because the sentry will find the free space...
Or it will be detected, and detects the enemy sentry too, so i can take it out and try another way.. or Later again

When your sentry is detected, you can replace it the same turn they take out your original sentry. Not that simple : )

But i know that there is a Sentry, and my Marine Stack is still undetected, better then just run into the Trap

If I know you know there is a sentry, I will put another sentry to replace it that same turn. So next turn when you destroy the original, you believe it is safe to move with your stack. The marines end up detected anyway.

The real way to counter this is by out-predicting your opponent. Knowing where they are likely to place sentries, avoiding those places with your main force, keeping them thinking they have the only paths covered, finding ways around them through peppering down their sentries. There are a lot of ways sentry use can go in a large battle. Nate and Pin named just a few of the alternatives. Overall, in my opinion, it's a lot of fun to fight marine users with this if they're intelligent enough. It brings another level of depth and complexity to the game. A big mindfuck, constantly having to think where they're coming from. Instead of the traditional buff up where you don't want to get taken and go on the offense. Charlie is in the trees.

Written by Tzeentch, 18.04.2012 at 14:32

Simple send a sentry to the Place you want to jump with your Marines following turn, and your Stack is always undetected, because the sentry will find the free space...
Or it will be detected, and detects the enemy sentry too, so i can take it out and try another way.. or Later again

Of cause i dont use this way the same turn, its just to find the free ways and make the enemy blind, even for a short time

What you could do is make an infantry wall then place one sentry right next to it, that way you can see them come in and know how many there are. I suppose you could also keep a few stealths to kill them when they walk through.

Written by Houdini, 23.04.2012 at 02:22

Written by Tzeentch, 19.04.2012 at 07:40

Written by Houdini, 18.04.2012 at 20:19

Written by Tzeentch, 18.04.2012 at 14:32

Simple send a sentry to the Place you want to jump with your Marines following turn, and your Stack is always undetected, because the sentry will find the free space...
Or it will be detected, and detects the enemy sentry too, so i can take it out and try another way.. or Later again

When your sentry is detected, you can replace it the same turn they take out your original sentry. Not that simple : )

But i know that there is a Sentry, and my Marine Stack is still undetected, better then just run into the Trap

If I know you know there is a sentry, I will put another sentry to replace it that same turn. So next turn when you destroy the original, you believe it is safe to move with your stack. The marines end up detected anyway.

The real way to counter this is by out-predicting your opponent. Knowing where they are likely to place sentries, avoiding those places with your main force, keeping them thinking they have the only paths covered, finding ways around them through peppering down their sentries. There are a lot of ways sentry use can go in a large battle. Nate and Pin named just a few of the alternatives. Overall, in my opinion, it's a lot of fun to fight marine users with this if they're intelligent enough. It brings another level of depth and complexity to the game. A big mindfuck, constantly having to think where they're coming from. Instead of the traditional buff up where you don't want to get taken and go on the offense. Charlie is in the trees.

Since you mentioned mindfucks I decided to put this here just for laughs.
http://www.cracked.com/article_17319_the-6-greatest-battlefield-mindfucks.html