When To Use Ha Or Jp.

Azraiel · May 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">Just a thought and what I do.</div> Heavy armor- Heavy armor is a defensive weapon. You use it to hold positions. Such as the third hive when you have fades pounding you. A squad of heavies spread out a bit, with hmg and gl will take down any group of aliens any day of the week, unless the marines have horrid playing ability, and the aliens are great. It is important to keep your armor welded up as often as possible. HA by itself is a suit of doom to the marine, a sort of iron casket. But a group is a wall of death to all aliens that may happen to run into them. HA is invisible when good team work is employed. I was on a marine team a couple of times when we got ha, no one died for nearly twenty minutes. HA requires discipline, a mind set of team before yourself, patience, and coordination. Those things, 90% of ns players lack and that is why HA 'sucks'. Due to its high cost it does require a good res income, and it does slow you to a brick but lets look at it, a marine already is the slowest thing in the game besides a gorge, and with celerity even a gorge can become faster. HA is a teamwork tool, and that is why it isn't used much. HA also requires no skill to use effectively, just common sense.

Jump pack- JP is an offensive weapon, giving a marine high mobility and speed. It keeps him out of reach of all but the best alien players. A group of jp's can devistate any alien group. It is cheap and quick, and widely accepted by all players, as the current thing is JP RUSH MFING COMM!!
However, if you are not skilled at flying, then you are better off not flying. The jp is the tool of the rambo, as I have commed many games and I have players demand a jp and hmg claiming that they will take out the hive, I simply respond with, 'No, I will wait till everyone can get one, so WE [the marine team] can take out the hive. I will have no rambos here, that stuff only works in the movies.' JP is meant for offensive moves.

Overview- JP=offense HA=defense. One is quick, and one is slow. The best thing to stop a moving object is an immovable one. Also, I apologize if my post seems to be in a nonsense order but that is the way I think (my English teacher hates me for it). Have fun and post your thoughts, afterall that is what this forum is for!

ElvenThief · May 2003

Also keep in mind, many commanders assume you need either JP or HA before you attack the aliens. You don't.

Ratfire · May 2003

I agree pretty much with what you have said, although it's not always true that HA is a defensive weapon. A squad of good heavy armors that weld each other, and that have a GL for support fire, is much more effective at taking out two-hive aliens (right now in 1.0) than the same equipped group of JP's. In that case, HA is pretty much the only thing you can use to assault a fortified position.

Ratfire

leek · May 2003

i disagree with HA being defensive Ha is a Hardcore assualt unit as long as u use them in groups and they consistently weld each other.

but tbh i prefer to use a mix of JPs and HAs in same squad. if ican ever find a team that will do what they are told anyway.

3*HA/HMG/Welders + 2*JP/GL/welders

while the HA are fighting aliens the JPs can be welding the HAs, while the JPs shoot structures with their GLs the HAs cover them. the advantage is the JPer can escape as quickly from trouble as it goit into it so they can retreat to the HAs get meded/welded/re-ammod and carry on. if im doing this tactic i make sure i get a pg and armory at the point of conflict, and also make usre i have enough surplus res so i can have HA+JPS+Guns+Welder qued up on floor of base rdy incase anyone dies. HAs and JPs used together = an awsome combo. but again it just takes TEAM WORK!! =]

Spazmatic · May 2003

Jetpack hmg combos are nummy (and not much more if you're bothering with ha already). Important, however, is for the comm to med the jetpackers, since you'll only need this sort of firepower against 2-hive aliens, and in that case your jetpackers WILL be taking damage, even if they run like pansies whenever fades come 'round. Hopefully not enough to kill them, however.

In the end, though, I don't consider heavy armor especially viable in most situations. Requires the appropriate circumstances, such as having relocated to a hive and being locked in by aliens... In that case, it's pretty much your only hope (though you'll want jetpacks too before you assault very far). Heavy armor is the best offense money can buy... But man does it demand money.

Crow · May 2003

Another thing u forgot to mention. Is that when up against a skilled alien gorge. Don't jp + hmg after they have got web... There is nothing worse.

Kazyras · May 2003

You can fly with your welder out to take out the webs, then pull out your HMG and start hammering the hive.

Anyway... HA aren't for defense, far from it. Due to their poor mobility, they have a hard time countering the harrassing maneuvers aliens typically use to take down structures. They are tanks, and like tanks, they're dedicated to assault. They move toward their objective (almost always a hive) in a straight line mowing down everything in their path and ignoring the rest (not bothering to pursue nagging skulks, etc.)

Before aliens get a second hive or walls of lame everywhere (usually happens when you locked down 2 hives), JP all around rock. Once you get to the point where you need HA to mount any significantly successful offense, JP fall back to a more defensive, tactical role. A JPer who flies well is good to patrol 2-3 RTs by himself, kill the occasional skulks chewing on them and keeping them welded. JP is also good back up for a HA squad to catch up and gun down those fleeing fades and lerks, and also to quickly reach good staging positions to set up a phase gate for the HA squad to take and begin their assault on the hive.

kolokol · May 2003

Just a thought on ha. I was comanding on bast, they had engine, relocated to atm, thinking that i could tech up quick and crush them before they had a chance.
Got a base up and researched HA, since jp's wouldnt be too useful.
Gave the team ha welders, hmg and one grenade launcher. I tell them to go and takeout engine room, they all get utterly wasted by a few oc's at the top of lift into our own marine start.
Next i gave out a few jp and hmg..but engine is nigh on impossible to takeout that way. Shortly after that we lost. Ha seriously depends on having players with a clue.
The very next game i did almost the same thing, though with no relocation. This time i went for jp's. Though for reasons i cant remember it took 30 mins. This time i gave jp hmg to two guys and asked them to takeouyt refinery hive. 2 mins later the game was over.
Basiaclly there are times when to use either one.
I got accused of jetpack rushing:P

Xzilen · May 2003

I think that most good Heavy Armor teams need MIc's to coordinate who will do the welding and what not, they need to forumlate quick stradgies to. For instance, having two guys lead the pack and when they need to reload they fall back and weld and the next two step up etc tec

Chem · May 2003

The main problem with HA is that 1 gorge can stop them stone cold in their tracks and turn 5 tanks into 5 chew toys. It's just not cost effective by the 2hive stage atleast with jp's you can use vents. HA's are terrefic when you assault a hive where a gorge is all the way on the other side of the map or there's drastic elevation changes. If not your entire team will be webbed and be torn apart by skulks. If you could weld webbing off of eachother it might help a little bit but not all that much

Brave_Ulysses · May 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (kolokol @ May 10 2003, 08:53 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Just a thought on ha. I was comanding on bast, they had engine, relocated to atm, thinking that i could tech up quick and crush them before they had a chance.
Got a base up and researched HA, since jp's wouldnt be too useful.
Gave the team ha welders, hmg and one grenade launcher. I tell them to go and takeout engine room, they all get utterly wasted by a few oc's at the top of lift into our own marine start.
Next i gave out a few jp and hmg..but engine is nigh on impossible to takeout that way. Shortly after that we lost. Ha seriously depends on having players with a clue.
The very next game i did almost the same thing, though with no relocation. This time i went for jp's. Though for reasons i cant remember it took 30 mins. This time i gave jp hmg to two guys and asked them to takeouyt refinery hive. 2 mins later the game was over.
Basiaclly there are times when to use either one.
I got accused of jetpack rushing:P  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
That seems to me like YOU messing up and not your players. A typical example of Commanders accusing players of not following orders when things go wrong. As your own experiments seem to show JPs work better in that situation than HA.

Bogglesteinsky · May 2003

there is no one thing that loses a game, be it a bad strategy, a team of rambos or a n00b comm. it is usually a combination of everything.

The HA in bast would have worked if: there was no wol at the top of the lift, the HA team were good to decent players and the comm had kept his eye on them.

Geronimo · May 2003

´Jetpacks are by far to easy imo...should be removed entirely...

Otherwise:
When defending...turtle and send out JPers...

When you have alot of Res, send out packs of HA

Thats it

When To Use Ha Or Jp.

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