Siege cannon strategies

Seraphic8X

When commanders build siege cannons, is it best to use them like offensive bunkers ala Starcraft?  Like, should you send a team of marines to a point near the alien base then throw up a siege cannon near them?  Once that siege cannon's up and destroyed every building in range, is it best for a commander to keep building them closer and closer until the alien base is no more - or are they used in different ways ?

Khaim

(note all this is from what ive seen and heard on the site, so STC..?)

ok, you dont build them in a forward march sorta thing like in SC from what I've heard, instead you go straight to some nice little room outside a hive and set up that and a couple others and just defend it untill it takes down the hive, the turrets are way to expensive to just be placing all over to kill little pockets of enemies, unlike SC.

DOOManiac

sieges only shoot buildings, so you'll only want to build them near where a lot of alien buildings.

It is primarily an offensive based weapon. Marines set them up outside the alien hive to bomb it from (relative) safety. safety in that they won't be hit by alien turrets that are most assuredly inside the hive, and also they know aliens won't be hiding inside the hive (as they can take splash damage from when the siege hits a building). Of course that means the aliens will be rushing out of the hive... right onto their sieges. so they have to stand guard and protect the sieges at all cost till they are done doing their business...

They can also be used defensively too, inside the base. They can ensure that no nasty builders will be putting up defense and offensive chambers right outside their doors...

there are a ton of other strategies for sieges too...



<!--EDIT|DOOManiac|Oct. 23 2002,18:15-->

coldish

How about building a siege turret and sentry to guard the turret...so the siege can blow up alien hive and siege turrets can mow down aliens rushing out!    would that work? Make the marines job a little easier  and the  alien job harder...


<!--emo&::siege::--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/siege.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='::siege::'><!--endemo-->   <!--emo&::sentry::--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/turret.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='::sentry::'><!--endemo-->       <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/skulk.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='::skulk::'><!--endemo-->  <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/pudgy.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='::gorge::'><!--endemo-->

Plaguebearer

That's what I do.  Build a tfac (turret factory), set up three turrets (if I can afford it... at least one or two, but three if I can swing it) - and while the grunts are building the turrets, set the tfac to upgrading to support seige guns.

(Each tfac has to be upgraded individually to support a seige turret.)

Then drop the seige gun, and some health and ammo, because you know you're going to attract attention...

DOOManiac

yeah usually marines flop down a turret or two, but they can't just leave, cause when the aliens all collectivley throw everything they got at a few turrets at once (to save their hive of course) then those turrets won't stand a chance unless defended by live players (assuming those players are smarter than the automated turrets :P)

coldish

So I'm guessing these turrets are smarter than in TFC? Or use better coding?

coil

One of my best games commanding was on Eclipse; I held two of the hives with the following setup:

<b><span style='font-family:courier'>0000000
1  2  1
   3
1  4  1</span></b>

0: wall
1: sentry turret
2: turret factory
3: siege turret
4: phase gate

In both cases, the hive was on the opposite side of the 000 wall, in range of the siege.  The four turrets were all capable of covering each other *and* all 3 support structures - one issue is that aliens can hide behind a structure while they attack it, but with turrets on both sides this tactic can be prevented.

Placing outposts like this against walls protect them; I try to place my buildings as close to a wall as possible, so aliens can't hide behind them.

I had four phase gates set up around the map; one in the marine start, two in the two hives, and one just outside the third hive.  These allowed my marines to quickly reach hotspots and deal with alien threats.

Variation:  *two* sieges take out a hive twice as fast and take twice as long to destroy.  If you have the resources, a definite yes.

RhoadsToNowhere

Going along with what coil said, being able to place your sentries and sieges in a small, enclosed area can be really useful since it basically forms a wall that the aliens have difficulty getting through.  On NS_Tanith tonight, our hive attacked by a siege turret.  The marines had placed a turret factory, a siege, and about three sentries in an area roughly the size of my half of my dorm room.  <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->  Not to mention that there were a few soldiers there to boot.  It really didn't matter how many times I attacked that siege as a Skulk -- there was just no way I was getting through.  And losing this hive most definitely cost us the game.  (The marines had actually used a similar strategy in constructing a base in one of the other hive rooms, which explains why they were able to keep in the game despite the destruction of their original base.)