Managing Priorities
Tactician
Join Date: 2002-02-19 Member: 228Members
Join Date: 2002-02-19 Member: 228Members
<div class="IPBDescription">A seminar for commanders</div> Anyone who's been in the command chair for more than five minutes can tell you that it's a bit overwhelming to have so much trust put in you to accomplish a sometimes impossible task: to eliminate the Kharaa threat from your zone completely, without losing your own essential base structures. The other overwhelming part of commanding is that aliens seem to be everywhere at once. Your marines may be assaulting a fortified hive location in one place, but at any given time there is probably a skulk munching on a far away resource tower. To eliminate the Kharaa, you must know where to put your men and when to put them there, and also prepare ahead of time for threats against other outposts.
In a large game, in which you have at least five marines under your command, consider assigning one marine to be a "custodian" for your resource outposts on the front lines. Find a loyal, patient marine (these are hard to come by!), equip him with a welder, and give him a guard structure waypoint, then tell him what he's doing. Meanwhile, you can focus your full attention on the four+ man strike force to gain ground against the infestation.
When a resource station is under attack, never panic and revert your main strike force to a defensive position. Consider whether or not you can afford to lose the resource tower temporarily, if it means capturing a hive location. It is impossible to have your marines cover the entire map at once, so treat them right. Don't have them running back and forth. Give them a goal, and when they complete it they will take pride in it. Remember that occupying a hive location is several orders of magnitude more valuable than keeping a resource tower maintained over in the boonies. You simply can't keep the whole map at once and expect to take anything from the enemy. They are everywhere.
A custodian should learn to recognize attacks against any outpost that the strike force doesn't pass on their way out of the base. He should move to defend them as required, and should probably be better equipped than the strike force. Why? He has the most complex job, and he must do it alone (unless you assign two custodians, which may be advisable in a large game). You should give him his preference of heavy armor or jetpack and an HMG, as grenade launchers are poor defensive weapons. When you occupy a hive location, accomadate for your custodian by placing a phase gate and an armory.
What should you do if the aliens are coordinating a large-scale attack on an occupied hive location while your strike force is on the offensive? Prepare for this ahead of time by placing siege cannons in range of the hive, and have the custodian delay the alien takeover. While the aliens are taking back a hive location that they cannot develop, your strike force should have time to exterminate a defended hive through offensive siege tactics.
The point is that you should never let trouble in remote areas divert your offensive might away from its goals. The marines are very well equipped for offensive situations, so let their light shine and the janitors will sweep the rest under the rug.
In a large game, in which you have at least five marines under your command, consider assigning one marine to be a "custodian" for your resource outposts on the front lines. Find a loyal, patient marine (these are hard to come by!), equip him with a welder, and give him a guard structure waypoint, then tell him what he's doing. Meanwhile, you can focus your full attention on the four+ man strike force to gain ground against the infestation.
When a resource station is under attack, never panic and revert your main strike force to a defensive position. Consider whether or not you can afford to lose the resource tower temporarily, if it means capturing a hive location. It is impossible to have your marines cover the entire map at once, so treat them right. Don't have them running back and forth. Give them a goal, and when they complete it they will take pride in it. Remember that occupying a hive location is several orders of magnitude more valuable than keeping a resource tower maintained over in the boonies. You simply can't keep the whole map at once and expect to take anything from the enemy. They are everywhere.
A custodian should learn to recognize attacks against any outpost that the strike force doesn't pass on their way out of the base. He should move to defend them as required, and should probably be better equipped than the strike force. Why? He has the most complex job, and he must do it alone (unless you assign two custodians, which may be advisable in a large game). You should give him his preference of heavy armor or jetpack and an HMG, as grenade launchers are poor defensive weapons. When you occupy a hive location, accomadate for your custodian by placing a phase gate and an armory.
What should you do if the aliens are coordinating a large-scale attack on an occupied hive location while your strike force is on the offensive? Prepare for this ahead of time by placing siege cannons in range of the hive, and have the custodian delay the alien takeover. While the aliens are taking back a hive location that they cannot develop, your strike force should have time to exterminate a defended hive through offensive siege tactics.
The point is that you should never let trouble in remote areas divert your offensive might away from its goals. The marines are very well equipped for offensive situations, so let their light shine and the janitors will sweep the rest under the rug.
Comments
Interesting plan. My only concern would be finding an area within range of the hive, that will be remote enough that the aliens will not simply roll over on their way to take the hive over. This also means I would have to provide defenses in two places for this hive, no? Defense at the hive site, and defense at the siege site. Unless you try and hide the cannons in vents or corners?
Let's take NS_Nothing, Cargo Hive as an example. I'm not sure where siege could be placed that aliens would not find and destroy it in their attempts to take Cargo (though granted they will mostly attack from the "vent") . . .