Atlantis early expansion vs. independents set to strength 9

[Norfleet]

You need enough chaff to keep them out of your face until you can finish your buffing and start stomping on them. However, you also want other units that will not immediately be killed, or your pretender will auto-rout. So deploy a block of cheap chaff up front, and while the Tritons are butchering them, you can buff up: At the same time, deploy some unit that's a poor amphibian behind your pretender, to serve as an anchor, so that there will still be units in the area after the chaff goes down.