*hiss*

HeadFeast

<div class="IPBDescription">1 hive, marines closing in...what to do?</div> This happens all the time, and more often each time I play -- inept public server gorges, better marines, whatever may be the cause, the aliens are stuck with 1 hive, all game. The marines quickly capture the other 2 hives or keep you from building there with seige, etc...
Skulks running up and down the hall while HA's mow them down with HMG fire, you evolve to a lerk only to be quickly slain, gorges can't keep defense chambers or offense chambers up, everything collapses to CHAOS.

And this isn't fairly early in the game, as well. The 2nd or 3rd hive are just never captured, and everyone moans when we lose.

This is a disturbing trend, and on Pub servers, is there any way to prevent it? Can one good Kharaa player save a team of fools from being cloistered in their last hive while grenades boom in?

BlueGhost

You can't insure victory but you can help, if no one else is doing it take command of the skulk army.

As soon as you start tell everyone NOT to rush the marines base or you're essentually handing victory to the marines on a silver platter (you all die you end up in the respawn que while the last surviving marine legs it to an un-occupied hive and puts up a phase.

Now organize your skulks into posiitons so that they can prevent anyone escaping, tell them that parasiting marines gives is really good, tell them parasite is uber and the best way to kill marines if you like, anything just so long as the newbs get a parasite in befor they die so you know where the marines are going.

Keep an eye on hive sight, whenever anything is under attack use the information to predict what the marine commander is thinking/doing and lead your skulks to prevent it, the second you get carapice you have a formidable force, marshal your troops into a big mob and hit the marine groups with a large skulk group. Plays merry hell with marines.

Voice Coms are important/very good for this.

BlueGhost

Speedy

I agree with BlueGhost. Parasite is extremely useful. Killing a Marine 3 steps from their spawn portal is not. Unless the Marines have all left and their base is undefended, it's not worth attacking. What IS important is securing a 2nd hive early in the game. The team gorge will not have enough resources to do this, so the skulks must. The skulks must camp and WAIT in the 2nd hive for Marines to come in. The best time to chomp a group of Marines is when they're building, too. Find a spot in or very close to the 2nd hive, camp there, and wait for the Marines. If you see a Marine roaming around, parasite him or them. Also, use your voice com to let your fellow Aliens know where the Marines are headed and how many of them there are. The key to victory is teamwork.

Asraniel

go and play 1.04... many things have changed

Deacon

The two-hive lockdown is the marine strategy du jour. As I've said countless times before, alien stategy is entirely reactionary. If the marines are creeping (rt, turret farm, repeat), then the skulk rush is effective, as it slows marine expansion. Note that I said "slows" not "halts." Also, it's good to rush around, because the marines might go anywhere.

If the marines are going for a hive grab, you don't want to slow them down, you want to stop them entirely, and kick them out. And it's pointless to run around, because you know <i>exactly where the marines are going</i>. So you camp.

My personal tactic for encouraging camping is to, in the pre-game, ask "which hive are we securing first?"

Of course, you still want a rusher or two, just to keep up with what the marines are doing. If you have an old-school creeper commander, he might have his people running around grabbing resource nodes while all the skulks hide in an empty hive.

SoulSkorpion

If you are on a team full of newbies, don't bother. Honestly, if you're the only person on your side who knows what's going on, there is little you can do to stop your side from losing, but why would you want to? Just work on your fighting technique or something; treat it as a "free game".

It seems that Australia is doing very well when it comes to decent, non-n00b games <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

BadVoodoo

I agree, aussie pub servers at internode and ozforces are generally well played. Of course there are exceptions but compared to many pub servers out there they rock.

OWA

Your best bet is to find a good, conceled hiding spot in every hive on every map, know where it is. It should have a good view of the hive area which marines usually set up in. When the game starts ask your gorge which hive he is going to secure. Go to that hive. Camp. Now then, marine(s) move in, what to do: if your spot is pretty well conceled and you're confident they won't getcha, drop a parasite on each one. They'll drop whatever thier doing and search for you. Call for backup. If not, wait for a building to drop (usually a phase). as soon as you see it appear, drop in and waste them. Chances are only one person has thier gun out, waste him first, then get the other two, if the phase manages to go up, start chomping on it and scream for backup.

Sirus

Solution = Keep at least one alien player in every hive. Alien teams who have no actual player defense are not prepared. Ive played marines most of the time so im really big into defending choke points and key areas. So when i play aliens i know what to do and what to guard. Remember guys! You can defend because they will come to you. Hang on a ceiling and drop in their head when they send guys to put a phase up in the hive. Its simple and works wonders.

MrBen

Aliens have a huge advantage. Vents and such. Most hives have another way out. Take it. Try and get round the back. A few times i've done this marines don't think to defend the bak of the phase as they assume all attacks will come from the front, the hive area.

Also yes sometimes marines are so caught up in attacking they leave their base undefended. I was once a marine, we had no turrets at spawn, because our attacking power was so strong we just pushed back from day one. A skulk who sneaks past could have just eaten our spawn points and such easily as we spawned and went phase jumping.