Want To Win As A Marine?

UngaBunga

<div class="IPBDescription">Secure at least one hive ASAP and HOLD</div> Every marine win I have been involved in depended entirely on taking an alien hive as the FIRST priority. NOT resource nodes, not building armories, not upgrading weapons.

Marines, LISTEN UP!... Hold the hive or die trying. You think that base you start in is important? Wake up! Nothing is more important than taking and holding that first hive. Heck, I'd even advocate putting the command chair and spawns in it. Don't bother with any resource nodes along the way. Get your behinds to the first available hive location before any other location. Once it is totally secured you can worry about capturing resource nodes.

Armories, upgrades, and all other structures of importance can be built after the hive has been secured. With luck you should get HA and HMG, etc shortly after the fades start attacking. Then the game is yours marines. Keep your focus on the hive. Do not be fooled into thinking this is about resource nodes. It is purely about denying those aliens their third hive until you get your upgrades and resources to equip the team. That is the beginning of the end for the aliens. You can then push toward the next nearest hive and seize it from them via seige or strength. Fades are your worst enemy and once the second hive is gone you won't have to worry about them any more.

Don't forget to put up adequate defenses at the second hive as well as a teleport pad in case you need to fall back and clear off some gorges attempting to rebuild. This should be fairly easy by the time you have the second hive.

Remember, even with HA and HMG you are still vulnerable. Do not advance without the team and do not get stupid and take on a wall of lame by yourself. This is easier delt with by grenade launchers so be sure to bring one or two with you and protect them well.

I'm sick of all of the marines who howl about armory and resource points in the first minutes of the game. That's a sure sign of ignorance and a death sentence if the commander agrees with them. Please, only engage in these tactics when I am playing aliens. There is nothing scarier to me when I play aliens then a marine team that beats the first skulk to the farthest hive. That is truly my worst nightmare and a sign that I will be facing HA and HMG before we ever have a chance at a third hive, if we even get that far.

STDGoosey

This really has been discussed to death.. And remember u cant stop with capturing 1 hive. 2hive fades will still rip through outposts and marines like butter, but if you can secure 2 hives then the rest is just lerk-annoyance-tactics.

TheGunslinger

I hate when the commander takes a hive and doesn't advance to the second.
While they are shooting rockets at your turrets, your siege cannons should be pounding their other two hives.

<!--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-->This really has been discussed to death.. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, it has. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> And not argued, mind you, just discussed. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> Its a very basic tactic.

UngaBunga

All true, but for the love of all that is Holy, why won't these people READ these posts and BELIEVE! I have seen the Light and I wish others would. Then we could stop seening these darn posts about balance. Balance is watching the alien skulks cower as we march over them with our jetpacks and HA.

Tyrsis

Though holding one hive is important. The most important mid-game battle isn't the first hive, it's actually a siege point at the second hive BEFORE they get fades. Securing the first hive is relatively easy if marines stick together. You can do so with only 3 marines. Once the phase is up and 4 turrets are down, you MUST as a commander push towards the 2nd hive. You always have to have this in mind. I have won the majority of my games where aliens don't even get fades, or if they do only 1 or 2 managed to evolve before the second hive went down. Otherwise what ends up happening is an endless fade vs heavy battle. Especially if the aliens are good and stick together as fades. I saw 5 fades decimate a huge base, even had 5 heavies in there. But if you get hit by 5 fades at once, that heavy armor doesn't do much. At that point it becomes less of a commander strategy game, and more of a skill of the player game. I usually always play commander as a marine, and I always have at least 3 siege options for every hive, I usually take one, then siege the closest hive to the first one taken. The only way around this is through some trickiness where you occupy the fades with one thing and sneak in some guys who know how to play stealthy marines to setup a siege point near another hive.

Anyhow, the first hive really isn't that important. Because really, any commander who isn't a total newbie to the game, knows one hive is a must, otherwise it's game over before it even starts. What seperates good commanders from mediocre commanders are the ones who know where to siege, and how to push constantly. For marines in this game, the best defence is a quick and swift siege offence <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

Tyrsis

Pi_Gi

It's a standard RTS tactic.

Grab as much of the map and hold on to it. You enemy can't do anything without resources, or in this case hives. Only problem, octopus style offensives aren't as popular as the once were. We now see swarm, rush, push, counter-rush, hold-and-push, porcupine, eagle, rambo, rhino... blah blah blah. These usually don't work as marines in NS.... Octopus is a good bet, however it is hard to pull off. Because you don't have a ton of resources to start with, nor do you have a ton of builders. Plus, if you don't build a spawn point in your base first a skulk rush and you're screwed.

UngaBunga

Hey, don't get me wrong. The second hive is just as important. My frustration is that the vast majority of games I have joined lately haven't worked out that way. When you have a team of marines that won't move to the hive until they have secured every resource point along the way, you know you have little chance of winning the game. It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people can be ingame given the level of competence you see in these forums.

Octupus strategies? Perhaps when you have some degree of confidence in your marines and their abilities. Unfortunately, the reality is that you are more likely to battle the tendency of your marines to put themselves at even greater risk. I don't know how many times I've had to repeatedly tell fellow marines NOT to engage the alien structures around the corner. Wasting their ammo on something that they could easily avoid seems to be an irresistible urge to the average player.

Someone tell me which server I have to frequent to find like minded players!? I'd really love to get a chance to learn jetpack tactics but I can't seem to get that far unless I'm in the Commander Chair. Unfortunately, being commander doesn't give me the freedom to USE the items I create. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->