Sturm

Sturm
Affiliation	Black Hole
Tier List
Standard	Tier 0 (Broken)
Fog of War	Tier 1 (Top)
High Funds	Tier 2 (High)
High Funds Fog	Tier 2 (High)
Tag	Tier 0 (Broken)
Free-For-All	Tier 0 (Broken)

Sturm is a Black Hole CO who utilizes high unit defense and low movement costs to become a defensive juggernaut.

Abilities

Day-to-day Effects: All of Sturm's units have 20% increased defense, but 20% decreased offense. All terrain movement costs for Sturm's units are 1, regardless of unit or terrain type. This movement bonus does not apply to terrain that units cannot normally traverse (such as vehicles with mountains/rivers) and is disabled if it is Snowing.

Power: Meteor Strike -- Sturm lobs a 3-radius Meteor at the most expensive cluster of enemy units on the map, dealing 4 HP damage to all units hit (but will never fall below 0.1 HP displayed as 1). All of Sturm's units gain 10% offense and defense.

Super: Meteor Strike II -- Sturm lobs a 3-radius Meteor at the most expensive cluster of enemy units on the map, dealing 8 HP damage to all units hit (but will never fall below 0.1 HP displayed as 1). All of Sturm's units gain 10% offense and defense.

Sturm's Meteor will aim for the most expensive group of enemy units on the map. Units at lower HP values will contribute less to this calculation, losing 10% cost for every HP lost. If Sturm's units are in the blast radius, their value will be subtracted from the calculation. If this leads to another group being more valuable on the map, the meteor will be diverted to that group. If, even with Sturm's units being involved, the target area is still the most valuable, the Meteor will hit that group, damaging Sturm's units in the process.

Strategy

Take note that Sturm's units ignore terrain movement penalties. This allows for a lot more infantry paths for capture phase, a lot more paths to choose from when attacking (he can be considered to have a permanent movement increase in heavy terrain), easier indirect-unit repositioning, and a lot of other things. Sturm's recons, in particular, ignore their large movement penalties when moving through plains, allowing for very easy recon harassment in the early game. Sturm's d2d also makes placiing units on heavy terrain very easy, and provides a way for him to further increase his already high defense.

As the game progresses, his increased defense becomes more valuable; his infantry walls become very hard to OHKO (a 120 attack Anti-air has a chance to fail to OHKO an infantry on a plain), for example. Sturm's units on good terrain are nigh-impossible to drive away in a fair fight, make sure to take advantage of terrain.

Due to his defense, Sturm tends to favor indirect combat; his indirect units are easily protected by hard-to kill blockers, and the reduced offense does not matter as much on units like artillery and rockets. A few tanks are still useful on him for the early game, and to block stronger units later on.

Sturm has almost-guaranteed access to his SCOP due to how much he slows down the game; use it to cripple a significant portion of the opponent's wall and secure a massive advantage.

How to counter

Ironically, Sturm struggles vs other COs with defensive boosts, like Von Bolt, or Javier. Sturm's weak offense gets reduced even more against the defenses of these COs, making it very hard to gain advantages vs them, and generally making the life of the Sturm player miserable.

Sturm is usually forced to play a slow-paced game; while this benefits his SCOP, it also leaves him vulnerable to stronger SCOPs from other COs. Mass damage powers are considered a hard counter to COs with boosted defenses, since the damage bypasses unit defense; Sturm is not exempt from this general rule.