Choke Points
Doobie_Dan
Join Date: 2003-10-23 Member: 21892Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2003-10-23 Member: 21892Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Essential places...</div> Many people talk about choke points on maps which are not neccessarily at RT's to attack from, secure, and possibly defend with turrets/OCs. I see it discussed quite often on the forums but do not see it executed in play that often. What are these points that you all are talking about that are worth defending?
Here's a few I can think of...
Caged: Central Processing (duh) - most everyone does this because not only is it a double, you can get to practically anywhere on the map with it. If the aliens have a starting hive at Gen and you can pull off a relocate to the hallway outside, you've got incredible position on the map.
Lost: Temperature Control - instant access to two hives and a res node, plus hallways that lead to other areas of the map. The heart and soul of Lost. Easier for marines to hold than aliens.
Tanith: Cargo Storage - Big, open, and easy to defend, lets you control Fusion and have quick access to many points on the map. Perfect place for a PG surrounded by 6 or so turrets.
Any others?
Here's a few I can think of...
Caged: Central Processing (duh) - most everyone does this because not only is it a double, you can get to practically anywhere on the map with it. If the aliens have a starting hive at Gen and you can pull off a relocate to the hallway outside, you've got incredible position on the map.
Lost: Temperature Control - instant access to two hives and a res node, plus hallways that lead to other areas of the map. The heart and soul of Lost. Easier for marines to hold than aliens.
Tanith: Cargo Storage - Big, open, and easy to defend, lets you control Fusion and have quick access to many points on the map. Perfect place for a PG surrounded by 6 or so turrets.
Any others?
Comments
The one you can see from the map, and the one your opponent ends up in. No point laming up good chokes if your opponent is in the vents.
Essentially you've to rely on your own wit in identifying the marine throughfares, then get your backside over there and start laying out a zone of lame.
Then you apply the choke - keep the area stocked with gorgey healspray and skulks, start squeezing the marines. The best chokes severely hamper marine mobility and lie near to their spawn. These are VERY hard to hold against most opponents, but if you do it, you've WON.
Defensive chokes are preemptive zols near the hives, so that marines have to fight very hard to take them back and use themselves.
Depending on your game, you'll want to maintain either offensive or defensive chokes. Defensive chokes concentrate a good number of OCs in a place where they WILL be used, offensive chokes give a focus to your attacks. If you are aggressive and the enemy slips through, you're toast. If you're too defensive, they'll siege crawl or gl you to hell if need be.
Try and keep a balance and react quickly to any mistake made by the opponent.
Backup chambers are good at choke points because they're handy forward positions, and with cloaking can be very hard to remove. Two well placed chokes can kill a marine team from game start, as long as you capitalise on their mistakes.
also
ns_nothing : generator
ns_origin: cargo
ns_veil: nano-grid
ns_hera: upper processing, holoroom
ns_mineshaft: refinery
ns_bast: atmospheric processing, tram tunnel, main aft, water treatment
it is usually the double-res location
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Certainly on the official maps thats just not true. Double res locations are very bad places to end up at, because they're (virtually without exception) easy to encircle and siege. You spend half the game losing it and trying to retake and relame it. Do your team a favour and don't waste more than the res needed to take the nodes - spend the money elsewhere, on upgrades or real chokepoints.
IIRC, not one dbl node area is essential to travel around the map, and that means they will never be true chokepoints. Just good places to camp in for 2 hours while waiting for people to F4.
Don't know what this says about the balance of the game, but how many times have you seen the rines get an early farm up at MS and double, control one other node and just turtle for 10 minutes, and still win the game? Location aside, the res is very worth it for rines, and if you have phases up you can distract most of the alien team sometimes with an all-out battle for double while 3 guys go and take down all the alien RT's. And nearly every double gives you easy access to hives. The only time it's just a plain bad idea is when gorges lame the hell out of them, in which case you can usually control half the map, avoid double, and siege it later (this seems to happen a lot on origin).
If you don't know where these places are (learn,) southern access is the hallway to the east of marine start with the vent at the end. Central access is the hallway north of reactor room that leads to waste and cargo. Both places offer you a superior firing position.
South loop has always been a dominant control point. It's easy to hold if you can get a marine in there and have him sit on the res node, and frequently results in the entire alien team grouping to rush him (from whichever side their hive is on) because they need to get through. Since it gets rushed by the whole alien team a lot it's probably not seen as something that's holdable, but it's pretty easy to defend against a skulk or two as long as you pay attention to the vent if they're coming from maint.
Advice I would give is not to view "choke points" as places that <i>must</i> be held for your strat to work. Use them more effectively as early warning system by putting an expendible defense and keeping the rest of the marines in flexible positions. I've said this before but any strat that isn't building up to an immediate rush is a defensive strat, and you're served best by having a moving line of defense that is capible of responding quickly. On tanith on pubs I like to make sure that I have at least a couple marines cycling through the spawn queue because marine start has good access to most of the map (barring cargo and fusion).
So, look at the map and find a good place to reinforce vital areas of the map are, and get a phase there. I saw a relocation to the large hallway next to sleeping quarters (the one with the two ladders down on ns_mineshaft) that worked brilliantly. It's got quick access to 5 res nodes (sleeping, cafe, refinery, u-turn) and also all the hives.
How do you accomplish that, dropping command chairs on their heads when they ask for medpacks? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Dan - certainly in 2.01 I don't see them laming dbl and winning, I see them laming dbl, getting trapped, and losing badly. Every alien player worth their salt rushes to dbl to see if rines are relocating, and when its found the marines are diced. If they build a base, they end up trapped in it. Its a BAD place to go to.
Far cheaper to PREVENT the enemy from taking it and if possible putting your own towers up, and nothing more.
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"And nearly every double gives you easy access to hives"
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Again just not true, imho. Dbl is accessible to the major routes through a map but it is NOT essential to them. No strategic value other than 2 nodes which you'll spend half the game squabbling over. Better to go to a real chokepoint and patrol 3-4 nearby nodes for the same cost but bigger gain.
ns_tanith: room between wastehandling and west access. from this point your able to control 2 restowers, one hive. and your able to siege the hive if you have to
How do you accomplish that, dropping command chairs on their heads when they ask for medpacks? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
interesting....maybe he gives a couple of uninformed NSPlayers wp to main hive.
damn, thats pro tactix <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
on-topic though, i rarely use choke-points. not that i dont like them, but i rather spend my res on upgrades
West Access Corridor
The welded elevator room in ns_lost by ER
The welded door by alpha continuom
It's called Chemical Transport. If you're feeling ballsy and want to have some fun when the aliens start at Sat Comm, build two IP's at base and send your entire team to Chem Transport. If half the alien team decided to head towards Cargo instead of rushing your base, you can make it and get 5 turrets up on the legde in no time. Most of the time this gives you a guaranteed win - make sure you get a PG up at some point at Fusion so you can guard the vent.