Two Hive Lock Down And Alien Response

MMZ_TorakMMZ_Torak Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3770Members
<div class="IPBDescription">What do you do?</div> More often than not I have seen someone on the Aliens team say "Let's hit Marine Start, it's not well defended". I think this is the wrong course of action. What tends to happen then is aliens succeed in destroying MS but the marines just relocate to a hive. Prior to the attack the marines had three places to guard and spawned in marine start, which meant that they had to get to a hive to keep it. Now, the marines spawn in one of the hives and only have one other place to worry about. Therefore, I feel it is counter-productive to hit Marine Start in a two hive lock down.

Opinions?

Comments

  • StakhanovStakhanov Join Date: 2003-03-12 Member: 14448Members
    edited July 2003
    Relocations are costly , so 52-74 (99 with the armory , hundreds if you count tech buildings) ressources drained from the marine pool can delay marine teching for quite long , and prevent them from reinforcing their turret farms.

    Shouldn't this thread belong to Kharaa Strategy though ?
  • coilcoil Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    edited July 2003
    The hope in hitting the MS is that the majority of their tech is centered there, and it will be costly for them to rebuild it all in the hive. This will become even more useful in 2.0, when destroying a building like the Arms Lab or Observatory actually deprives the marines of the upgrades researched from them.

    I would vote for a two pronged approach:
    1) Do not kill marines in the field! If you do, they will deal with you after respawning, which takes much less time than traversing the map.

    2) send 2-3 players to attack the MS as a distraction. One way to do it is to munch on the CC, RT, and a random building in base -- that way the commander is getting three different attack messages.

    3) as soon as the commander recalls troops to base, hit the less-defended of the two hives HARD. Circle-strafe turrets, have a gorge or two on hand for healing, drop OCs offensively. Go for the phase gate if they have one, the TFactory if they don't. Communicate with the distraction team; you need to know when to expect reinforcements.

    4) as soon as the distraction team is killed and respawns, they should move to intercept any marines headed back to the hive; hopefully they will be concentrating on reaching the hive, and unprepared for encounters before they get there.

    Again, this will be much more effective in 2.0, when aliens have access to higher evolutions at any time.

    [edit]And on second thought, this probably does belong in Strategy.[/edit]
  • StoneburgStoneburg Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8174Members
    I am really going to miss being alien against a 2-hive lockdown. I thought it was a great and fun challenge. Trying to sneak up D's or placing them creatively. Organising massive skulk or gorge rushes. Wearing down defenses with lerk spikes or creating distractions. O-chamber rushes...


    Err... what were we talking about?
  • MMZ_TorakMMZ_Torak Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3770Members
    I can only half agree with you Stoneburg. While the thrill at beating a two hive lock down is hard to surpass, the agnoy of losing to them pretty much over shadows it.
  • StoneburgStoneburg Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8174Members
    That's where you and I differ then. I will gladly take losing horribly 9 times to experience the satisfaction (and following nerdy-dance-of-gleee-and-exaltation) that comes from beating it.

    <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

    Also, I can have a lot of fun and be very satisfied *trying* to beat it, even if I/we fail.
  • MMZ_TorakMMZ_Torak Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3770Members
    If the marines don't try and research <b>every piece of tech</b> then I don't mind losing to a two hive lockdown. It's when marines lock down the other two hives and mine the start hive and make no attempt at killing the hive, that I get frustrated. Losing is part of the game but pointlessly dragging out the game by replacing mines over and over, just to get a HA/HMG squad that builds a siege outside the hive makes me want to retch. What was the point in getting lvl 3 armor and weapons if you're not going to use them?
  • StoneburgStoneburg Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8174Members
    That would only happen if we were so successful in containing them that they couldn't break out without it. In which case it would be justified. So...
  • KazyrasKazyras Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9722Members
    Hitting the marine start and killing the IPs will give you a quick win if you have at least one skulk in each locked down hive on standby ready to suicide run and kill the marine(s) as soon as he hears a CC building. I've done it several times before.

    Of course, this requires coordination. Barring that, F4ing is what I'll tend to do. Beating a 2 hive lockdown is no fun. Losing to it is even worse. Either way it's a pointless, boring game. I'd rather be JP rushed or mine rushed a thousand times in a row than fight a comm playing Sim Turret.
  • ANeMANeM Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16267Members, Constellation
    Ya.. 2 hive lockdown can be fun, but when marines drag it out, it gets really annoying. Fast.

    For example, once I was on a server, playing aliens and the Marines had 2 hives locked down. Now, one of them was our original hive, so we were mostly sitting around dead, waiting for a hive to finish building. The only guy alive was a gorge, no offence chambers or d chambers. Just a gorge and a hive that we just started. But the marines did not kill him. We yelled and pleaded for them to just wander in and knife the gorge, we told them exactly where the gorge was, but they did nothing. Finally, after a long ammout of waiting, the hive was built, and I spawned.
    Wanna know what they did? Built 60-80 frikkin turrets right outside the hive.
    Not to mention a couple of seiges. But still, they didn't just go in there and kill us. Eventually after 3 minutes of dying a second after I left the hive area I decided to disconnect...
    Did I mention the marine team had -3- admins?
    Ya.. that gives you an idea of why 2 hive lockdown can be the worst part of ns...
  • eagleceaglec Join Date: 2002-11-25 Member: 9948Members, Constellation
    On Roob's server I've seen two hive lockdown turn around incredibly quickly. I think it might be because all the players will fight and work as a team to the end of the game. Coil's strategy is the best I've heard although starving the marines of resources and destroying expensive stuff is a good way to wear the marines down.
    For this you have to make sure you take out every res tower you can and keep checking them.
  • ThinGThinG Lord of wub and vlaai Join Date: 2003-04-11 Member: 15400Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    What Eag said <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

    Hit enemy locations strategically and TOGETHER.

    Without teamwork and a fighting spirit you won't be able to breach their defenses.

    Last night there was a certain Gentleman-that-shall-not-be-named on the server, and he saw 3 HA with hmg and welders coming to Refinery, and he started typing "Ref down"...

    He was a bit gah, reporting the match, not doing anything but saying the hive was already dead, and so on...

    Point is, you need to be willing to work together, be willing to die, and have a sense of humor if all goes wrong <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> (*cough gorge rush cough*)

    Cheers
  • im_lostim_lost TWG Rule Guru Join Date: 2003-04-26 Member: 15861Members
    Everyone get cara, rush in with most attacking the pg, kill any marines in the area, kill tf. If they have both hives then they have to watch both, so perhaps make a few small attacks at the other hive first. Attack one hive and marine res while waiting for dc's, then rush the other hive as soon as you can get cara.

    I played a game once on hera where we started at archiving. Marines took processing, but they fought so hard to keep it that we claimed everything outside of siege range. After about 40 minutes and many attempts, we finally kill the tf and pg in the same rush. The marines had full tech and killed archiving, but we had so much res that we put up the other two hives (we had no built hives for a minute and a half), and the marines had no chance.
  • GargamelGargamel Join Date: 2003-01-04 Member: 11773Members
    edited July 2003
    Jep, in 1.04, hitting Marine start will give you some time. The Problem is, if you cant get one of the Locked down hives for yourself fast, you ll be in a tougher position than you were before killing MS.
    Well done, you have drawn out your time of loosing once again.
    It is harder for marines to defend 3 instead of 2 bases....

    BUT, this will change in 2.0 (MUHEHEHE)
    The time Marines get their buildings up again, you ll have some nice cute fades or maybe even onoses >D
    I smell hard battles ahead hehe
  • CrowCrow Melbourne Join Date: 2003-01-16 Member: 12376Members
    When they have processing on ns_hera:
    Situation as far:
    -Aliens limit marines to processing. Marines only have one rez tower.
    -Marines have invested in the biggest turret farm inside Hera.
    -Weapons upgrades and armour upgrades --- roughly lvl 2 timeperiod(with 1 rt).
    -Sieges are already up and they constantly check with mt on the hives.

    I saw and took part in a little nice way to defeat processing on ns_hera. You have to have rez income nicely so you can go lerk, die quickly and go lerk again. This is difficult to do but it can work with a alien team with skills deserving to win. As a team we built up in the courner of dcd *out of siege range*(dcs ocs etc). With 4 or 5 lerks constantly on your base with spikes shooting from down the hallway into the ips/base, it's difficult to overcome them. Even if the marines begin to rush your position, you retreat to your courner with ocs and dcs and lerk them away. This won us the game once because the marines lost their prototype lab/ armoury to it <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->. This can really be done where ever the two hive lockdown occurs, but is probably the easiest in hera, because of the long hall, an ip instead of a phasegate with timed intervals when they spawn and a position where two hives are sieged from the one position(no other place to avoid the spikes). This is really quite effective strat i believe, but i've never had the teamwork to do it again.
    btw: Sorry if this is already well known.

    Hope this helps to break the 2 hive lockdown and give you the victory you so very much derserved <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • MasterShakeMasterShake Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15699Members
    I played a great game on hera last night where the marines got one hive, and sieged our original hive right when we were getting the second hive back. Having locked down both hives, I thought the game was over. However, we got a gorge that organized something very clever.

    Since we had movement chambers, he simply went into one of the locked down hives (subspace), and dropped the hive. Of course, the hive was immediately under attack by the turrets and sieges. However, a group of aliens was waiting by the movement chambers in our hive and got instantaneously transported to the newely dropped hive. Unfortunately, there were only four of us and a gorge (out of a team of 9) that actually went through the movement chambers. We managed to take out the TF, but our last lerk died less than a second after the phase gate went down. The comm, obviously knowing what we had done, ordered the immediate destruction of the hive at all costs (since about 4 marines phased in before the PG died.)

    I believe this was a great strategy and would have worked if we had a more cooperative team. Probably not suited for public servers, as this was on [COFR] and the team work there is usually pretty good. So yeah, next time you're down to one hive and have movement chambers, give it a try. The comm might not even have a clue for several minutes as it <b>will not show up on motion tracking</b>.
  • AminalAminal Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10610Members, Constellation
    depends mostly what map and which hives they have.

    Often I'm gorge so the thing to do with gorge is get as much res as you possibly can - every other RT on the map and get these reinforced, all the time the skulks should be hassling MS or the other hive.

    Once you've got mad res, there are a couple of options - skulk rushes supported by a couple of gorges with heal work really well - especially if the gorges have adren.

    alternativly keep the pressure up in one hive or MS and have a gorge sneak into the other hive and build dc's in a vent or somewhere neaby - about 8 dcs surrounded by some oc's should do - try not to get seen and then call the skulks over. If you can get the DC's near enough for the skulks to get to work on the phase or tf in the hive, then you're sorted. This works exceptionally well in archiving, computer core, the bottom of maintainance hive, engine room, waste handling etc - the places with hidden vents or dark spots which are real close to the hive location (and of course good siege points)
  • MrPinkMrPink Join Date: 2002-05-28 Member: 678Members
    Other tactics on how to break a 2 hive lockdown

    <b>DC Sneak:</b> Try to hide DCs in healing range of where you are attacking. Be sure to tell skulks to attack even without the DCs done building, and DO NOT SPEED BUILD THEM. Every time a skulk runs in there and makes noise with biting, turrets, and marines, plop down a few DCs, they won't hear you to siege.

    <b>Deprive Res:</b> If they relocated to a hive, WoL each and every res on the map. Its slow working but if skulks swarm them they will eventually crack on no res.

    <b>Hive Sneak:</b> Best in places such as processing on ns_hera. If they have motion tracking: Build the hive and kill yourself, then cross your fingers. If they don't, build the hive then have skulks attack constantly to distract. Build cannon fodder around the hive and closer to the marine siege, so they shoot that and not the hive.

    <b>Gorge Rush:</b> As gorge, drop a few DCs around the corner to the hive. Then, start building OCs on the other side of the corner so they shoot at turrets. Obviously, this only works when the marines aren't paying much attention to this area.
  • KazyrasKazyras Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9722Members
    Building hives do show up on MT, that's how I know the 2nd hive is going up both as a comm and as a marine. I only scan to know how well-defended it is.
  • DarkFrostDarkFrost Join Date: 2003-04-03 Member: 15154Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin--Kazyras+Jul 17 2003, 11:39 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Kazyras @ Jul 17 2003, 11:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Building hives do show up on MT, that's how I know the 2nd hive is going up both as a comm and as a marine. I only scan to know how well-defended it is. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I believe he means the attack doesnt show up on MT, the hive is the means to the end, if it survives great, if it died then it dies knowing the entire alien team instantaniously entered the marine base/outpost.
  • SinSpawnSinSpawn Harbinger of Suffering Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8359Members
    The title "Two Hive Lock Down And Alien Response, what do you do?" If its impossible too get that hive back, I normally say "we're d00med" and give up hope, OR if my team are skilled, I'll continue to attack with my team to try to get that hive back
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