Skulk Rushes
IceBaron
Join Date: 2003-02-25 Member: 13954Members
Join Date: 2003-02-25 Member: 13954Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Good thing or not?</div> I just want to know what you guys think of everyone doing one big skulk rush at the beginning of a round. Seems everyone keeps saying that everyone should gorge first and drop rt, but all the demo's I've seen from clan matches they rushed at least once first. To me it seems like a good tactic, you get some res from kills and if you do really well, you can drop two rt's or maybe a second hive quicker than waiting for the res to build up. Share your thoughts.
Comments
In pub play a skulk rush is good for some reasons:
- Gives some early res boost (if you kill anyone)
- Lets you know what Marines are doing (they relocated, they dropped shotguns, whatever)
- Could let you win immediatly or cripple the Marines if it goes well
Bad for one big reason:
- You all end up in the spawn que, Marines get a res boost and an opportunity to counter-rush or just take over most of the map early.
When you stack up the potential to do damage of a skulk rush, you usually end up finding that the marines have ample time and space to kill said skulks, and then you end up with the problems Stoneburg described. Maybe with leap, it would be a different story, since you have skulks that can cross distance a lot faster, even if in a straight line. But it's still not a guarantee. Skulks are really, really weak little alien doggies. They are ambushers and guards, not soldiers. Those would be the fade and onos. Purely IMO, mind you. I really don't know what I'm talking about, only making guesses.
Rushes on pubs work because we don't live in a perfect world of self-aware marines, or for that matter aliens, who know exactly where to be standing when the rush comes.
If you get owned by several LMG, chances are its a good team. If you can waltz in and nail the marines plus one IP before the comm owns you ALL, then chances are its a bad team.
Testing their strength.
On servers like Lunixmonster or Hamptons, where you tend to get better players, skulk rushes tend to be on the suicidal.
However there's a whole sub strategy to rushing base and tying marines up while a gorge drops an early wol to annihilate non-upgraded rines.
And of course there's a strategy for countering that to.
But I digress - point is on pub servers skulk rushes can be very effective, but on experienced servers or clan teams it's all but suicide.
-Get 1-2 players to gorge at the start and start building stuff.
-Rest stay skulk and go towards the main marine base as fast as they can.
-1-2 skulks stay behind outside the marine base, lying in wait, rest all charge in and eat as much marine/structure as they can. If you've caught them off guard, brilliant - you get a few kills/res and make the marines a little scared, they will tend to go defencive.
-If the rush of skulks fails, then chances are the rines are going to make a quick counter rush - this is where the 1-2 skulks that waited behind come in. As the marines leave, the hidden skulks ambush, and will distract/kill off the marine counter rush long enough for the skulks that died in the main rush to respawn, and the rine counter-rush now has to face 3-4 skulks with full health waiting for them. This works exceptionally well with sensory first.
-The marine counter rush then is usually crushed, which costs the marines time and resources. Time that the kharaa's gorges have been using happily to build stuff. So now the marines have lost a lot of res, the aliens have gained res, and upgrades.
I usually go gorge when I play. Although I typically play on a smaller server (4v4, 5v5). But a skulk rush is great when I need just a little more time to set up shop. If I don't have to contend with Rines coming through and stealing the RT's I just placed, I will have little worries getting that second Hive up before too long.
Thanks you rushers, keep it up!
I like a battle that at least goes for a decent length but if the rush succeeds and the marines are wiped out, it's gg and the readyroom before you're on to the next match and back into the action =/
Never see any action... never even injure a rine.
Oh well :/
When you rush its easily to get caught up in some objective may it be taking out a freshly placed rt or whatever and before you know it youve been hoarding your res.
If enough people have been putting down rts then, fine, youre in prime position for a hive or onos/fade etc
But if you arent the only one who did this you will have little res despite your hoarding and now you have no rts and a team of res-less skulks.
At this point you are prolly already dead.
Thats why when everyone else runs off to go rush I almost always go set up a res tower then attack.
You guys know the defense against a Skulk rush right? Turret factory first, then electrify it while you build an IP right next to it. If the Skulk come rushing in the marines need to stick close to the electrifing TF.
After my second win by skulk rush, I don't do it again cause then people just get mad and quit playing. Then I have less people left to eat. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
There there. Have a cookie.
It's also good to check to see if the comm is skimping on defense in hopes of doing an early RT rush.
If there's no base defense, a (coordinated!) rush could force a marine relocation, or force the comm to call his RT-capping squads back to MS.
A better choice is to lie in ambush somewhere near the marine spawn, and perhaps send in a suicide skulk to get intel on what the marines are building and parasite a few of them. You will still get your rfk, and probably more of it since you're fighting on better ground with ambush advantage, when the marines eventually trundle out of their base. It's much more beneficial to keep the marines somewhat confined during the early game than let them wander around while you pick them off, since they are less likely to get 30 seconds in for an electrified rt that will cause you trouble for a while.
I like a battle that at least goes for a decent length but if the rush succeeds and the marines are wiped out, it's gg and the readyroom before you're on to the next match and back into the action =/ <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was thinking the same thing. I mean I like a good skulk rush as much as anyone, but when people just keep doing it over, and over, AND over again, it makes me wonder why they play NS. Whoo we beat the marines, AGAIN, with a skulk rush. Do you want to play or what? Sure, maybe the marines will win, but most likely both teams will have a good time, as opposed to a semi fun time for the skulks, and an annoying time for the marines.
As for skulk rushes in clan matches... lol, marine team losing to a skulk rush is laughable.
I like a battle that at least goes for a decent length but if the rush succeeds and the marines are wiped out, it's gg and the readyroom before you're on to the next match and back into the action =/ <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was thinking the same thing. I mean I like a good skulk rush as much as anyone, but when people just keep doing it over, and over, AND over again, it makes me wonder why they play NS. Whoo we beat the marines, AGAIN, with a skulk rush. Do you want to play or what? Sure, maybe the marines will win, but most likely both teams will have a good time, as opposed to a semi fun time for the skulks, and an annoying time for the marines.
As for skulk rushes in clan matches... lol, marine team losing to a skulk rush is laughable. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Go marines and kick skulk butt. That's what I do. If you keep going alien, then you're just as sad as the rest of the skulk rushers going back and forth from the readyroom.
What does it involve doing?
<!--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-->A skulk rush is WORTHLESS against marines who know it's comming, and are prepared for it. This is key. Because skulk rushes almost never happen any more, few marines are prepared for it any more. The Slash & Burn strategy is more and more prevelant on good servers, and a skulk rush will devestate such a thing, setting the marines back quite a bit and giving the Khaara some time. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> - Fieari
What does it involve doing? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Slash , for slashing alien ressource towers.
Burn , for burning skulks with elec RTs.
The marine tactic is like that because they run about clearing away the alien rts then capping it with their own; constantly keeping the aliens away from Res Nodes wherever possible so they can't get any res and grow into the larger lifeforms =P
then again... have you ever looked at my avatar???
What does it involve doing? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Slash , for slashing alien ressource towers.
Burn , for burning skulks with elec RTs. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Slash and burn is not a precise description of the marines activities, Stakhanov. Infact S&B usually <i>doesn't</i> involve electrifying RTs, atleast not at first.
'Slash and Burn' is actually a general term for the process of clearing forests/heavy brush by cutting the bigger stuff down and then setting fire to the area. The term is used in NS because it evokes the same kind of image: running through an area removing all the life.
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
sYn does a quick couple of rushes in the demo of the CAL match with HAM. Think HAM does it too. If I am wrong let me know(I deleted the demo after veiwing).
IIRC sYn gets destroyed, and they skulk rush for the entire round.
Lesson to be learned there, wouldn't you say?
I have been a part of some great skulk rushes and some not so great skulk rushes. It all depends on skill level really. I guess that makes me a constant... Oh and I was also a part of a BattleGorge Rush. We all went gorge, had three movements up and got celerity in something like 35 seconds... Then we ran in using only heal spray. We leveled the enemy team but discovered to our dismay that we only barely hurt the structures like this. Needles to say we destroyed the weak structures than ran off and build RT's everywhere.
It pretty much just gave us all a large res advantage and started us all out as gorges with celerity. Didn't really stop them at all. Though we did win out in the end.
Do not rush.
IIRC sYn gets destroyed, and they skulk rush for the entire round.
Lesson to be learned there, wouldn't you say? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ugh, I looked everywhere for it, finally found the thread talking about it, but the link to nucleargaming or something, does NOT work. Looks like that site was recently redone or something barely any posts in the forums, and the link to the demo is filenotfound. I went to the HAM site, but it appears they aren't hosting any demos until 2.1 comes out :/. If anyone has any alternative links it would be much appreciated.