don't have much experience with early ARCs, could it be more feasible to get a forward armory + obs + sentries + mines + MAC instead of a pg? if someone dies, there might be enough time to sprint back and reinforce the other marines since it's quite a line of defense.
don't have much experience with early ARCs, could it be more feasible to get a forward armory + obs + sentries + mines + MAC instead of a pg? if someone dies, there might be enough time to sprint back and reinforce the other marines since it's quite a line of defense.
Building that also takes no time - PGs have to be researched first.
You're trying to win the game without upgrades here. Sounds veeery risky.
Yes. Definitely. However, the goal is to get the ARCs up and on the Hive before Bile. Even with 5-6 res nodes, I don't see that happenning with an arms lab rolling. Again though this is all theorycrafting, I might be able to test it later today.
don't have much experience with early ARCs, could it be more feasible to get a forward armory + obs + sentries + mines + MAC instead of a pg? if someone dies, there might be enough time to sprint back and reinforce the other marines since it's quite a line of defense.
Building that also takes no time - PGs have to be researched first.
True. What if you tossed in a Chair in the tech point just behind the forward location? if the team gets wiped, they could be beaconed to the forward chair and run. That's only 15 res, compared to the 40 or so for gates.
Ideally if you communicate to your marines how to "rotate" properly, the flow of spawners will keep your front-line reinforced while also keeping the rest of your turf in the clear.
The MAC could also be built in base and shuffled up to the forward place with the marine push. Provides armor regen before welders, and can build while marines cover.
I'm trying to come up with ways to make this slightly less "If you lose the forward base, you lose everything." I know, spending about 6-8 minutes getting ARCs forward then losing that means it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to come back. But if you could safe guard it (at least slightly) in some way that you keep the res flow up, there's much better chance of getting an arms lab and rushing some upgrades before fades pop.
I'm mostly imagining scenarios on Summit. I'm sure these things would be immensely different on other maps.
True. What if you tossed in a Chair in the tech point just behind the forward location? if the team gets wiped, they could be beaconed to the forward chair and run. That's only 15 res, compared to the 40 or so for gates.
i really like this idea. gotta ask though (also for a guide): does the beacon work on a chair that is only partially built? (i guess it doesn't work on blueprints in any case)
The MAC could also be built in base and shuffled up to the forward place with the marine push. Provides armor regen before welders, and can build while marines cover.
so no forward robo? don't the ARCs take much longer then?
I'm trying to come up with ways to make this slightly less "If you lose the forward base, you lose everything.
i guess the basic idea of a rush (in RTSs in general) is to either instantly win or to hurt your enemy enough to make up for your early not-mid/late-game-investments. you might be able to take out tunnel, support structures, base harvester and even upgrades if not the hive itself. ideally the pressure secures enough RTs though.
but as said im not experienced with early ARCs, what is the usual in-the-meantime-gain while putting up this pressure?
True. What if you tossed in a Chair in the tech point just behind the forward location? if the team gets wiped, they could be beaconed to the forward chair and run. That's only 15 res, compared to the 40 or so for gates.
i really like this idea. gotta ask though (also for a guide): does the beacon work on a chair that is only partially built? (i guess it doesn't work on blueprints in any case)
The MAC could also be built in base and shuffled up to the forward place with the marine push. Provides armor regen before welders, and can build while marines cover.
so no forward robo? don't the ARCs take much longer then?
I'm trying to come up with ways to make this slightly less "If you lose the forward base, you lose everything.
i guess the basic idea of a rush (in RTSs in general) is to either instantly win or to hurt your enemy enough to make up for your early not-mid/late-game-investments. you might be able to take out tunnel, support structures, base harvester and even upgrades if not the hive itself. ideally the pressure secures enough RTs though.
but as said im not experienced with early ARCs, what is the usual in-the-meantime-gain while putting up this pressure?
Well it could be considered an all-in, with some exceptions.
For example, the 'John-of-Arc' strat on veil where you build a robo in east junction at the beginning of the game, maybe put some sentries there, and pump out 1 arc very early to deny nanogrid. While doing this (with 1-2 marines defending the right side with sentry support), the rest of the team has to cap hard on the west side of the map, and set up lines to ensure that sky/overlook/sub are defended. This can ensure marines hold 5 extractors (6 if you can get C12 but this is unlikely), while holding aliens out of nano and thereby down to 1-3 max. It's VERY tough to do right, but I would consider this a valid early arc strat and not an all-in.
On summit, unless it's a data core or possibly sub hive, I wouldn't even think about an arc rush. Flight and Atrium are a nightmare to arc - atrium perhaps less so if you can really secure and hold reactor core, but expect a huge fight over this! In pretty much every case I can think of, you'd be better off doing a different type of rush on summit, shotguns, maybe sentries (getting sentries in the hive, lololol), but not arcs on that map really.
The general case is the same for all 'rush' strats that aren't all-ins: your aim is to apply sufficient pressure to aliens to force them to defend, which in turn makes it easier for you to hold lines to defend your own extractors, allowing you to get ahead in the resource game early and build up a good tech advantage.
Most pub teams then fail at the next step: to make the decisive push to finish the game. Knowing when to do this (hint: it's before you've got a3/w3/aa/proto/jp/exo/mines/grenades/arcs/macs/sgs/pgs/4 ccs) is often what separates the players. If you can get w2/a2/sg up before fades, maybe having taken down a lerk or two due to the high pressure, then you have the perfect opportunity to end the game. Holding out for that next upgrade/tech can often just give aliens more time to build up p.res and get lifeforms out.
True. What if you tossed in a Chair in the tech point just behind the forward location? if the team gets wiped, they could be beaconed to the forward chair and run. That's only 15 res, compared to the 40 or so for gates.
i really like this idea. gotta ask though (also for a guide): does the beacon work on a chair that is only partially built? (i guess it doesn't work on blueprints in any case)
The MAC could also be built in base and shuffled up to the forward place with the marine push. Provides armor regen before welders, and can build while marines cover.
so no forward robo? don't the ARCs take much longer then?
I'm trying to come up with ways to make this slightly less "If you lose the forward base, you lose everything.
i guess the basic idea of a rush (in RTSs in general) is to either instantly win or to hurt your enemy enough to make up for your early not-mid/late-game-investments. you might be able to take out tunnel, support structures, base harvester and even upgrades if not the hive itself. ideally the pressure secures enough RTs though.
but as said im not experienced with early ARCs, what is the usual in-the-meantime-gain while putting up this pressure?
Beacons only beacon to the nearest fully built chair. I remember someone did some tests a while ago. Recycling also has no effect on the beacon (i.e. Starting to recycle the datacore chair will still beacon to datacore)
The MAC would be popped out of the base robo to help the push up to the forward location. Then there'd be another robo built at the forward, after sentries, obs and armory.
The armory could feasbly be built at base instead, the as long as there's a mac to keep marine's armor welded and the comm is generous with meds.
The gain with such a strategy would be holding 5-6 RTs, even after the initial push, that's still a lot of res-flow. Plus, your marines will all be loaded up on Pres.
Summit is a pretty terrible one to ARC. Might be better to imagine this on Docking or Tram.
For Tram the key "forward locations" would be either Ore or Mezzanine. Platform would be perfect, but unlikely. I was in a game last night were we had sentries in North Tunnels and Platform, boxing the aliens into Warehouse hive. We didn't segway into ARCs but we could easily have done so.
Lately I see pub comms having this weird obsession with opening with forward armory, obs etc as if it makes them some kind of pro. Then they complain that nobody has welders when theres one armory on the opposite side of the map to where everyone actually needs to be. Its really dumb- pub comms please realise when you're using a fringe/risky strategy that if it fails, it's your own damn fault for not understanding that marines aren't AI units.
People joke about comm blaming, but I see nasty, incompetent commanders team-blaming for their own failures just as much, if not more severely than I see teams blaming commanders for a loss.
Lately I see pub comms having this weird obsession with opening with forward armory, obs etc as if it makes them some kind of pro. Then they complain that nobody has welders when theres one armory on the opposite side of the map to where everyone actually needs to be. Its really dumb- pub comms please realise when you're using a fringe/risky strategy that if it fails, it's your own damn fault for not understanding that marines aren't AI units.
People joke about comm blaming, but I see nasty, incompetent commanders team-blaming for their own failures just as much, if not more severely than I see teams blaming commanders for a loss.
At the same time, If (big if) the team has knowledge of the comm's plans and chooses to ignore them, it is just as much their fault for the fringe/risky strategy's failure. It might be more the Comm's fault for choosing the risky strategy, but I wouldn't hold the comm entirely responsible.
That said, playing a wierd strat is best done among friends or with a team that has some amount of trust in you, and is willing to take a break from the standard play for a round. Communication is key! I used to shrug off the people that said yelling was the key to comming, but lately I've realized how true it is.
I love when the team freaks out when I'm echoing harvesters but they haven't been dropped yet "dude drop the RTS!... oh, they're being echoed in, nvm.''
On the flip side of things, commanders who JUST echo rts and never free drop tend to not get res out fast enough... hence the complaining. I've seen it happen way to many times. IMO echoing is only useful if you have a base gorge constantly re-building the echo rt OR your mid/late game manner-expanding. Early game echo strat with a single drifter is often way to slow.
I agree to an extent. Keep a drifter in base and send another to build the first rt or two, maybe. But yea, in the very beginning it can slow things down with only using echo.
Agree with joshh wholeheartedly...so many times I see pub comm do that and it's frustrating. Especially when I see a gorge squealing at him in the natural.
I tried the Sentries > ARC strategy the other day and it went pretty terribly. I mainly attribute this to the close spawns we had (Cafe and Locker, why is this still in the game?). Aliens were also able to sneak a tunnel into Departures which ruined the idea of boxing them into base while we capped the rest of the map. We were able to ARC out locker, but aliens saw it coming and had dropped both Departures and Generator by the time we had done so. We didn't have the res flow to pull it off fast enough.
I also expect that since neither I nor the team had much experience with Sentries and ARCs, stuff wasn't done right.
I've realized that the Arms Lab first is most popular simply because it is best. (hear me out)
Arms First puts the power in the players' hands to decide the fate of engagements. Rather than depending on structures and such to get the job done, the upgrades give the power directly into the hands of the Marines.
It's the most flexible and applicable in all situations, Phase is a close second, allowing a flexible system of transportation to be set up anywhere in the map. Sentries simply aren't useful unless they're in very select positions. And even then they don't allow much besides defense. The sentry can't move and attack things. It might be forward defense, but it is defense nontheless.
But wait, with sentries defending, marines can push better right?
Theoretically yes, but once the aliens figure out that the marines are pushing without upgrades (as they will be) they'll focus on defending even more fervently. Attacks are focused points with the goal of punching through the marine line. If successful, the whole strategy collapses.
Maybe I'm just bad at sentry strategies. I'll keep trying them (because they are different and fun from the comm's side at least, if challenging for the players), but if I need heavy artillery there's nothing that beats marines shooting with upgrades.
Main problem with pubs is still the fact that more than half the players don't even have a bloody headset (and that they don't listen to comm or teammates).
When i started, i didn't have one either. But i quickly noticed i just won't be able to play without it. So i got one. It quite often happens that a normal grunt player on a field can give better and critical team commands than the comm himself who is too occupied with medkits and building anyway.
I've directed quite few very successful strikes this way and i've seen It'sSuperEffective doing the same very often. Plus if you give constant feedback what's going on on the map, there is a much smaller chance for any kind of suprises, giving you the edge over the enemy.
Main problem with pubs is still the fact that more than half the players don't even have a bloody headset (and that they don't listen to comm or teammates).
When i started, i didn't have one either. But i quickly noticed i just won't be able to play without it. So i got one. It quite often happens that a normal grunt player on a field can give better and critical team commands than the comm himself who is too occupied with medkits and building anyway.
I've directed quite few very successful strikes this way and i've seen It'sSuperEffective doing the same very often. Plus if you give constant feedback what's going on on the map, there is a much smaller chance for any kind of suprises, giving you the edge over the enemy.
Agreed. My sample size is skewed in that regard as well since I'm only trying these out on a server with 150+ hours required. The majority of the people that join are regulars and for the most part, they know what they're doing well enough (they don't always listen but hey, can't have everything).
I dread the idea of trying some of these fringe strategies out on regular pub players without some friends to corral them.
Main problem with pubs is still the fact that more than half the players don't even have a bloody headset (and that they don't listen to comm or teammates).
When i started, i didn't have one either. But i quickly noticed i just won't be able to play without it. So i got one. It quite often happens that a normal grunt player on a field can give better and critical team commands than the comm himself who is too occupied with medkits and building anyway.
I've directed quite few very successful strikes this way and i've seen It'sSuperEffective doing the same very often. Plus if you give constant feedback what's going on on the map, there is a much smaller chance for any kind of suprises, giving you the edge over the enemy.
This type of attitude is great except when the commander your playing with knows what he's doing and is communicating with his team, you need to be aware of whether or not you might be drowning out a commander that is giving orders or not. Nothing annoys me more when a field player tries to backseat a game when the commander is giving orders. Calling out incoming attacks, communicating with individual players and organising small rushes/attacks is really good though, initiative is key.
Main problem with pubs is still the fact that more than half the players don't even have a bloody headset (and that they don't listen to comm or teammates).
When i started, i didn't have one either. But i quickly noticed i just won't be able to play without it. So i got one. It quite often happens that a normal grunt player on a field can give better and critical team commands than the comm himself who is too occupied with medkits and building anyway.
I've directed quite few very successful strikes this way and i've seen It'sSuperEffective doing the same very often. Plus if you give constant feedback what's going on on the map, there is a much smaller chance for any kind of suprises, giving you the edge over the enemy.
This type of attitude is great except when the commander your playing with knows what he's doing and is communicating with his team, you need to be aware of whether or not you might be drowning out a commander that is giving orders or not. Nothing annoys me more when a field player tries to backseat a game when the commander is giving orders. Calling out incoming attacks, communicating with individual players and organising small rushes/attacks is really good though, initiative is key.
Sadly, I've had to yell 'shut up!' when I was a commander and trying to give orders with 4+ people yelling out different things...
1 or 2 people calling out attacks is nice, as long as the actual commander can command. Advice is fine too, just not too much (unless you have very little commanding experience).
Main problem with pubs is still the fact that more than half the players don't even have a bloody headset (and that they don't listen to comm or teammates).
When i started, i didn't have one either. But i quickly noticed i just won't be able to play without it. So i got one. It quite often happens that a normal grunt player on a field can give better and critical team commands than the comm himself who is too occupied with medkits and building anyway.
I've directed quite few very successful strikes this way and i've seen It'sSuperEffective doing the same very often. Plus if you give constant feedback what's going on on the map, there is a much smaller chance for any kind of suprises, giving you the edge over the enemy.
+1 @RejZoR I have used a head set since forever, but didn't use a mike (good head set with no mike . Recently, I got a mediocre head set with a boom mike, and the game opened up for me again. It is so awesome to be able to relay orders quickly as comm, or report something. The speaking spam isn't a big problem for me as the games I join are lucky to have 2-3 out of 8 that use mike at all.
For the list as an Alien Build Order:
Rushing Bile:
- Biomass 1, cyst to naturals.
Theoretically you've got two gorges and thus hopefully 2 external rts without dropping cysts.
- Drop RTs, drifters as needed up to 5.
- Biomass 2
- Some PvE to hold the line is good
- Gorge Upgrade
- Biomass 3
From here it's open ended but I was told grabbing leap is a good idea.
- Drop whip, research shift hive
- 2 spurs
- 2nd Hive
- Crag hive, shells and spurs as needed.
For the list as an Alien Build Order:
Rushing Bile:
- Biomass 1, cyst to naturals.
Theoretically you've got two gorges and thus hopefully 2 external rts without dropping cysts.
- Drop RTs, drifters as needed up to 5.
- Biomass 2
- Some PvE to hold the line is good
- Gorge Upgrade
- Biomass 3
From here it's open ended but I was told grabbing leap is a good idea.
- Drop whip, research shift hive
- 2 spurs
- 2nd Hive
- Crag hive, shells and spurs as needed.
I tend to be skimp on drifters as they are a significant investment at 8 res each. So, if I am rushing bile, I would ask the gorgies to build. It is risky as they will be near front lines (need to ask skulk to help them), and get the chubbies to run as fast their their short little legs can carry them at the first sign of danger (eg, 2 marine v 1 skulk). Remember if your gorges die early, someone else may have to re-gorge thus delaying your lerks / fades / oni. If you forgo the extra gorges when then die, you will rely on drifters to build (that sucks tRes). So don't let the cute gorges die.
Also, I may forge biomass 3 and just drop a hive and get gorge upgrades started (it might be faster to drop hive and upgrade gorge on existing hive than get gorge upgrade followed by 3rd biomass).
For the list as an Alien Build Order:
Rushing Bile:
- Biomass 1, cyst to naturals.
Theoretically you've got two gorges and thus hopefully 2 external rts without dropping cysts.
- Drop RTs, drifters as needed up to 5.
- Biomass 2
- Some PvE to hold the line is good
- Gorge Upgrade
- Biomass 3
From here it's open ended but I was told grabbing leap is a good idea.
- Drop whip, research shift hive
- 2 spurs
- 2nd Hive
- Crag hive, shells and spurs as needed.
I tend to be skimp on drifters as they are a significant investment at 8 res each. So, if I am rushing bile, I would ask the gorgies to build. It is risky as they will be near front lines (need to ask skulk to help them), and get the chubbies to run as fast their their short little legs can carry them at the first sign of danger (eg, 2 marine v 1 skulk). Remember if your gorges die early, someone else may have to re-gorge thus delaying your lerks / fades / oni. If you forgo the extra gorges when then die, you will rely on drifters to build (that sucks tRes). So don't let the cute gorges die.
Also, I may forge biomass 3 and just drop a hive and get gorge upgrades started (it might be faster to drop hive and upgrade gorge on existing hive than get gorge upgrade followed by 3rd biomass).
When I ran this, the gorges built their tunnels then ran back and built the RTs, I think I had one or two drifters max.
Dropping hive works. But it's also nice to have your res build up as gorge ups are going so you can drop two spurs and such in quick succession.
Comments
Building that also takes no time - PGs have to be researched first.
True. What if you tossed in a Chair in the tech point just behind the forward location? if the team gets wiped, they could be beaconed to the forward chair and run. That's only 15 res, compared to the 40 or so for gates.
Ideally if you communicate to your marines how to "rotate" properly, the flow of spawners will keep your front-line reinforced while also keeping the rest of your turf in the clear.
The MAC could also be built in base and shuffled up to the forward place with the marine push. Provides armor regen before welders, and can build while marines cover.
I'm trying to come up with ways to make this slightly less "If you lose the forward base, you lose everything." I know, spending about 6-8 minutes getting ARCs forward then losing that means it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to come back. But if you could safe guard it (at least slightly) in some way that you keep the res flow up, there's much better chance of getting an arms lab and rushing some upgrades before fades pop.
I'm mostly imagining scenarios on Summit. I'm sure these things would be immensely different on other maps.
so no forward robo? don't the ARCs take much longer then?
i guess the basic idea of a rush (in RTSs in general) is to either instantly win or to hurt your enemy enough to make up for your early not-mid/late-game-investments. you might be able to take out tunnel, support structures, base harvester and even upgrades if not the hive itself. ideally the pressure secures enough RTs though.
but as said im not experienced with early ARCs, what is the usual in-the-meantime-gain while putting up this pressure?
Well it could be considered an all-in, with some exceptions.
For example, the 'John-of-Arc' strat on veil where you build a robo in east junction at the beginning of the game, maybe put some sentries there, and pump out 1 arc very early to deny nanogrid. While doing this (with 1-2 marines defending the right side with sentry support), the rest of the team has to cap hard on the west side of the map, and set up lines to ensure that sky/overlook/sub are defended. This can ensure marines hold 5 extractors (6 if you can get C12 but this is unlikely), while holding aliens out of nano and thereby down to 1-3 max. It's VERY tough to do right, but I would consider this a valid early arc strat and not an all-in.
On summit, unless it's a data core or possibly sub hive, I wouldn't even think about an arc rush. Flight and Atrium are a nightmare to arc - atrium perhaps less so if you can really secure and hold reactor core, but expect a huge fight over this! In pretty much every case I can think of, you'd be better off doing a different type of rush on summit, shotguns, maybe sentries (getting sentries in the hive, lololol), but not arcs on that map really.
The general case is the same for all 'rush' strats that aren't all-ins: your aim is to apply sufficient pressure to aliens to force them to defend, which in turn makes it easier for you to hold lines to defend your own extractors, allowing you to get ahead in the resource game early and build up a good tech advantage.
Most pub teams then fail at the next step: to make the decisive push to finish the game. Knowing when to do this (hint: it's before you've got a3/w3/aa/proto/jp/exo/mines/grenades/arcs/macs/sgs/pgs/4 ccs) is often what separates the players. If you can get w2/a2/sg up before fades, maybe having taken down a lerk or two due to the high pressure, then you have the perfect opportunity to end the game. Holding out for that next upgrade/tech can often just give aliens more time to build up p.res and get lifeforms out.
The MAC would be popped out of the base robo to help the push up to the forward location. Then there'd be another robo built at the forward, after sentries, obs and armory.
The armory could feasbly be built at base instead, the as long as there's a mac to keep marine's armor welded and the comm is generous with meds.
The gain with such a strategy would be holding 5-6 RTs, even after the initial push, that's still a lot of res-flow. Plus, your marines will all be loaded up on Pres.
Summit is a pretty terrible one to ARC. Might be better to imagine this on Docking or Tram.
For Tram the key "forward locations" would be either Ore or Mezzanine. Platform would be perfect, but unlikely. I was in a game last night were we had sentries in North Tunnels and Platform, boxing the aliens into Warehouse hive. We didn't segway into ARCs but we could easily have done so.
People joke about comm blaming, but I see nasty, incompetent commanders team-blaming for their own failures just as much, if not more severely than I see teams blaming commanders for a loss.
That said, playing a wierd strat is best done among friends or with a team that has some amount of trust in you, and is willing to take a break from the standard play for a round. Communication is key! I used to shrug off the people that said yelling was the key to comming, but lately I've realized how true it is.
I also expect that since neither I nor the team had much experience with Sentries and ARCs, stuff wasn't done right.
I've realized that the Arms Lab first is most popular simply because it is best. (hear me out)
Arms First puts the power in the players' hands to decide the fate of engagements. Rather than depending on structures and such to get the job done, the upgrades give the power directly into the hands of the Marines.
It's the most flexible and applicable in all situations, Phase is a close second, allowing a flexible system of transportation to be set up anywhere in the map. Sentries simply aren't useful unless they're in very select positions. And even then they don't allow much besides defense. The sentry can't move and attack things. It might be forward defense, but it is defense nontheless.
But wait, with sentries defending, marines can push better right?
Theoretically yes, but once the aliens figure out that the marines are pushing without upgrades (as they will be) they'll focus on defending even more fervently. Attacks are focused points with the goal of punching through the marine line. If successful, the whole strategy collapses.
Maybe I'm just bad at sentry strategies. I'll keep trying them (because they are different and fun from the comm's side at least, if challenging for the players), but if I need heavy artillery there's nothing that beats marines shooting with upgrades.
When i started, i didn't have one either. But i quickly noticed i just won't be able to play without it. So i got one. It quite often happens that a normal grunt player on a field can give better and critical team commands than the comm himself who is too occupied with medkits and building anyway.
I've directed quite few very successful strikes this way and i've seen It'sSuperEffective doing the same very often. Plus if you give constant feedback what's going on on the map, there is a much smaller chance for any kind of suprises, giving you the edge over the enemy.
I dread the idea of trying some of these fringe strategies out on regular pub players without some friends to corral them.
This type of attitude is great except when the commander your playing with knows what he's doing and is communicating with his team, you need to be aware of whether or not you might be drowning out a commander that is giving orders or not. Nothing annoys me more when a field player tries to backseat a game when the commander is giving orders. Calling out incoming attacks, communicating with individual players and organising small rushes/attacks is really good though, initiative is key.
Sadly, I've had to yell 'shut up!' when I was a commander and trying to give orders with 4+ people yelling out different things...
1 or 2 people calling out attacks is nice, as long as the actual commander can command. Advice is fine too, just not too much (unless you have very little commanding experience).
+1 @RejZoR I have used a head set since forever, but didn't use a mike (good head set with no mike
Rushing Bile:
- Biomass 1, cyst to naturals.
Theoretically you've got two gorges and thus hopefully 2 external rts without dropping cysts.
- Drop RTs, drifters as needed up to 5.
- Biomass 2
- Some PvE to hold the line is good
- Gorge Upgrade
- Biomass 3
From here it's open ended but I was told grabbing leap is a good idea.
- Drop whip, research shift hive
- 2 spurs
- 2nd Hive
- Crag hive, shells and spurs as needed.
I tend to be skimp on drifters as they are a significant investment at 8 res each. So, if I am rushing bile, I would ask the gorgies to build. It is risky as they will be near front lines (need to ask skulk to help them), and get the chubbies to run as fast their their short little legs can carry them at the first sign of danger (eg, 2 marine v 1 skulk). Remember if your gorges die early, someone else may have to re-gorge thus delaying your lerks / fades / oni. If you forgo the extra gorges when then die, you will rely on drifters to build (that sucks tRes). So don't let the cute gorges die.
Also, I may forge biomass 3 and just drop a hive and get gorge upgrades started (it might be faster to drop hive and upgrade gorge on existing hive than get gorge upgrade followed by 3rd biomass).
Dropping hive works. But it's also nice to have your res build up as gorge ups are going so you can drop two spurs and such in quick succession.