While you're at it, remember a few things from Starcraft, or any other good RTS. Never send a lone soldier anywhere if you can help it, even the ones in heavy armor can die quickly if caught off-guard. Send them in pairs, at least, and the more the merrier. Grab resources, grab them quickly, and secure them with automated defenses before sending your troops to the next resource area. Don't over-extend yourself, make sure that you can fairly promptly set up a resource tower and defenses BEFORE sending troops out to grab a point. They're very vulnerable when out in the open away from turrets, and nobody likes to be guarding an empty room, waiting for aliens to pour in at any second, while wondering where the hell that turret factory is.
Research and spend points on heavy armor and guns when you have the spare resources to devote to them. Remember that most research takes a long time to get done, so try to get one or two projects started fairly early on so you can have the troops well-outfitted and able to deal with the evolved aliens.
Oh, and place turrets in places where aliens don't have a convenient hallway to duck into. I've seen lots of turrets facing open doors, giving Fades perfect cover to duck behind between spitting acid all over your expensive turrets. Place turrets instead at the mouth of a hallway or door, so they cover an entire room and don't give an alien one inch of nearby cover. And be sure to place plenty of them, a single turret's hardly even an inconvenience to an alien unless they stand perfectly still.
I don't know yet just how effective mines are, not having seen one in action yet. However, I would personally be very inclined to place some in spots where an alien would likely run to seek cover from turrets. Assuming that humans can't detonate the mines themselves, that is, not much use for the things if they blow up your own troops.
Be thorough in your defense, thoughtful in your offense, and as quick as you can be without being careless. And pray a lot.
I'll give you yet another plan of action to confuse the heck out of ya.
What I have been testing, with good sucess, is basically bum-rushing one of there hives. This has been said but what I do is also just bum-rush all resource points leading to it and not securing them with turrets. Most will say this is a waste but I have yet to lose with this tactic. BUT your marines have to stay together and follow your orders. I'll usually secure the resource points that are most likely to be attacked by aliens though. By doing this, you will buildup a stock pile of resources that is very hard to drop below 100. So far I have a 3-0 record with this tactic. Of, course once we secure the hive, we go back and secure all resorce points. A lot of folks will call you crazy for this but tell them to trust you.
As for weapons, I give my guys shotguns starting out. Everyone underestimates the shotguns. In the early game before they can evolve to Fades, they are simple the best alien killer around. In the right hands, 1 marine can take down 10 pre-evolved aliens before he dies. I know this as a fact, I do it all the time. Also, what I try to do is recycle my good weapons by only equiping half the team with them and the other half with just the LMG. That way if a shotgun marine gets killed the LMG marine can pick it up fast, no extra resources needed there to upgrade the LMG's weapon.
In the last post the guy mentioned mines, THE MARINES' ONOS BUSTER. I ususally don't break these puppies out much but these things rock and are super cheap. I break them out if its going badly or we are being harassed at base but i should use them way more often. You marines CAN walk past them unharmed. If they have Onos, these things get put everywhere in base, I mean everywhere. Onos cant duck under or move thru them fast enuf to miss getting damaged. by the time they make it into my base they are easy pickings for the turrets and my crew. Its seems best to place them in groups of 2, 1 high 1 low, above the other and have the pairs spaced abit so if the first Onos gets killed he doesn't take out all at once.
And lastly, Siege turrets must be used if u plan on taking out a hive that is well defended. It may take awhile but u can set it up and let it clear the hive for you then basically walse in and take the hive down. With this, a lot of the time you will kill them as they spawn. If you are daring send your troups in with nades to speed the process up.
Darn it I thought of 1 last thing. This is for every soldier. If you see offensive turrets in front of defensive chambers, take done the def. chamber first, if possible. It is almost impossibel to take down a off. turret if they have 2+ def chambers near it. You will run out of ammo and alert them to your position before you can take 1 down.
This was way longer then I expected but if it helps some commanders out, GREAT. I once took over command and used many of these tactics and won. We were being beat down by Onos, too.
I've chosen to do that mainly as well. I don't really like sitting in the COm chair, but I like to make sure evreyone on the floor follows the orders, so I give secondary ordres at the way points and all through battle. Might come from being a real-life Sergeant, but I like commanding my 'squad' from the floor, and just let the Com, tell us what missions to accomplish. Tell me that the egg needs to be sucked. Just don't tell me how to suck the egg.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Tell me that the egg needs to be sucked. Just don't tell me how to suck the egg. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments
Research and spend points on heavy armor and guns when you have the spare resources to devote to them. Remember that most research takes a long time to get done, so try to get one or two projects started fairly early on so you can have the troops well-outfitted and able to deal with the evolved aliens.
Oh, and place turrets in places where aliens don't have a convenient hallway to duck into. I've seen lots of turrets facing open doors, giving Fades perfect cover to duck behind between spitting acid all over your expensive turrets. Place turrets instead at the mouth of a hallway or door, so they cover an entire room and don't give an alien one inch of nearby cover. And be sure to place plenty of them, a single turret's hardly even an inconvenience to an alien unless they stand perfectly still.
I don't know yet just how effective mines are, not having seen one in action yet. However, I would personally be very inclined to place some in spots where an alien would likely run to seek cover from turrets. Assuming that humans can't detonate the mines themselves, that is, not much use for the things if they blow up your own troops.
Be thorough in your defense, thoughtful in your offense, and as quick as you can be without being careless. And pray a lot.
What I have been testing, with good sucess, is basically bum-rushing one of there hives. This has been said but what I do is also just bum-rush all resource points leading to it and not securing them with turrets. Most will say this is a waste but I have yet to lose with this tactic. BUT your marines have to stay together and follow your orders. I'll usually secure the resource points that are most likely to be attacked by aliens though. By doing this, you will buildup a stock pile of resources that is very hard to drop below 100. So far I have a 3-0 record with this tactic. Of, course once we secure the hive, we go back and secure all resorce points. A lot of folks will call you crazy for this but tell them to trust you.
As for weapons, I give my guys shotguns starting out. Everyone underestimates the shotguns. In the early game before they can evolve to Fades, they are simple the best alien killer around. In the right hands, 1 marine can take down 10 pre-evolved aliens before he dies. I know this as a fact, I do it all the time. Also, what I try to do is recycle my good weapons by only equiping half the team with them and the other half with just the LMG. That way if a shotgun marine gets killed the LMG marine can pick it up fast, no extra resources needed there to upgrade the LMG's weapon.
In the last post the guy mentioned mines, THE MARINES' ONOS BUSTER. I ususally don't break these puppies out much but these things rock and are super cheap. I break them out if its going badly or we are being harassed at base but i should use them way more often. You marines CAN walk past them unharmed. If they have Onos, these things get put everywhere in base, I mean everywhere. Onos cant duck under or move thru them fast enuf to miss getting damaged. by the time they make it into my base they are easy pickings for the turrets and my crew. Its seems best to place them in groups of 2, 1 high 1 low, above the other and have the pairs spaced abit so if the first Onos gets killed he doesn't take out all at once.
And lastly, Siege turrets must be used if u plan on taking out a hive that is well defended. It may take awhile but u can set it up and let it clear the hive for you then basically walse in and take the hive down. With this, a lot of the time you will kill them as they spawn. If you are daring send your troups in with nades to speed the process up.
Darn it I thought of 1 last thing. This is for every soldier. If you see offensive turrets in front of defensive chambers, take done the def. chamber first, if possible. It is almost impossibel to take down a off. turret if they have 2+ def chambers near it. You will run out of ammo and alert them to your position before you can take 1 down.
This was way longer then I expected but if it helps some commanders out, GREAT. I once took over command and used many of these tactics and won. We were being beat down by Onos, too.
gg <!--emo&::siege::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='siege.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
LOL... great quote