Since this thread started I have been trying a few HA games against two hive aliens. In the main we have won most of them. Usually the ones that failed were due to mishaps early in the game that put us behind schedule. The key factor in winning however was the ability to hold an area of the map which had a nice density of resource points, combined with good siege positions that could eliminate alien res points. This way we were able to keep up a constant stream of HA's, plus supporting jet packers. They were all very long games too. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> The maps that I have had the most luck on were ns_nancy holding mess hall and mother interface, ns_nothing holding generator room and cargo hive and blocking quad lift, ns_caged holding freight elevator access and whatever other hive we could get our hands on(usually generator).
The battles were very much resource based. The key strategies being to hold on to our own resources through liberal use of turrets, along with some crucial seige gun placements (seiges holding one hive, and other sieges placed to cover alien resource points). Using this approach it wasnt an all or nothing thing to use HA's. As they went down I was able to constantly replace the loses, and by keeping phase gates close to the front line battle, reinforcements were able to reach the front quickly.
I did have some people on my team who still constantly screamed for jp/hmg ("I can kill the hive myself com!! We don't need no stinkin' HA's"). My response was to tell these people that I would give them ONE ATTEMPT with my full support. If that failed they could kiss that idea goodbye. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> The usual result was that they died in the attempt and I heard no more arguments from them. The hardest part was getting the team to confine themselves to defending the base.
Personally I think the aliens have a more satisfying game when you go for a strategy that allows them to have two hives. Locking down one hive is a lot easier to do. As I stated earlier, the hardest part was getting the marines to understand the concept of just holding position and maintaining our defenses until such a time as our tech and resource accumulation was good enough to move out for the final assault.
Oh! and crippling the alien resources went a long way towards the victory too. Many of the players were surprised at how effective they were with just LMG's chasing the fades away from the base(I usually planned to have them at level 2 guns and level 2 armour by the 2nd hive). They were constantly asking me for shotguns and HMG's. The only weapons I would concede on were GL's or JP/GL's. These guys were essential in keepin the fades at bay and I was quite liberal with GL's, as well as being pretty liberal with the health packs.
Yeah mustard, just keep stealing my strategies... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> And you never listen to me in game either!
<!--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-->Yeah mustard, just keep stealing my strategies... And you never listen to me in game either! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hehehe..you know I lubs you FW. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
I'm a quick learner. I've been watching your strats very closely as you know. I've managed to gather together a whole bunch of strategies from watching the good coms on our server. I've implemented a few on Australian servers, which has gotten me a good rep as a commander. The hard part with Aussie server I play on is the team stacking. A couple of clans that play there just love stacking one side so I either end up with a team of clan stacking ramboes who have there own ideas on what to do, or I get all the average players against the alien force from hell. It makes it pretty satisfying though when I can pull together some good teamwork with the average marines and watch as all the clan stackers whinge and whine about how they are losing. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> Aussie players are obsessed with JP/HMG games. Every game on ns_nothing is a cargo relocation. I even had marines attempting to relocate to cargo when it was our main hive! We made them pay for that stupidity. Every game of ns_caged is a freight relocation and every ns_hera is a processing/holo room relocation. I get so bored with these old strats and when I try something new, they all start whining. Playing around with the HA strats has been fun when i can get the team to cooperate.
I've been trying the lock one hive, HA strat too. I think I'm actually going to keep gettings jps when I do that and give them orders to avoid contact and kill alien rt's. FW did this the other day, and despite two hive aliens the ha's owned, strictly because the aliens don't have enough res to fade. A key component of this strategy is a commander supporting the marines well, HA's who know how to weld each other with a bit of jp support and a HA who knows how to GL well.
Also, you have to be prepared that if the fighting is too intense to actually reach the hive, you should grab a seige point, fortify and kill the hive that way. Multiple walls of lame can really tax a HA team down.
Now if I could just get an alien team to learn how to play a res duel match, we'd be set.
Do you guys have any tips on managing your team through a res holding game? I have an incredibly hard time getting them to stay still and defend enough.
I like HA, but with most public teams in general, it's useless. I was a heavy armor with a hmg and welder and another was with me, he was a self proclaimed "elite" player..well..I was blasting through a few ocs with him when my armor started getting low, I had already been welding him and figured he was just holding off til the last minute on me. I typed and said over voice, "Need welde please". He slyly replied, "No noob". Well, another HA walked up, I asked again. He too denied me of my much needed armor. I pleaded with them and still no welde, so what can I do? I continued killing ocs and was finally killed.
Screw HA, give me a jet pack, is my new attitude with most games <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. With JP HMG I killed about 5 fades in one life one game, for about 8 that game. I can usually hunt down a few a life if they aren't in webbed rooms or in rooms with numerous ocs. They advanced on us and even though I killed 5 fades..the rest of my team had trouble killing 1. Needless to say, shortly after my last fade kill when a rushing gorg webbed me down we lost the game <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->.
Comments
The battles were very much resource based. The key strategies being to hold on to our own resources through liberal use of turrets, along with some crucial seige gun placements (seiges holding one hive, and other sieges placed to cover alien resource points). Using this approach it wasnt an all or nothing thing to use HA's. As they went down I was able to constantly replace the loses, and by keeping phase gates close to the front line battle, reinforcements were able to reach the front quickly.
I did have some people on my team who still constantly screamed for jp/hmg ("I can kill the hive myself com!! We don't need no stinkin' HA's"). My response was to tell these people that I would give them ONE ATTEMPT with my full support. If that failed they could kiss that idea goodbye. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> The usual result was that they died in the attempt and I heard no more arguments from them. The hardest part was getting the team to confine themselves to defending the base.
Personally I think the aliens have a more satisfying game when you go for a strategy that allows them to have two hives. Locking down one hive is a lot easier to do. As I stated earlier, the hardest part was getting the marines to understand the concept of just holding position and maintaining our defenses until such a time as our tech and resource accumulation was good enough to move out for the final assault.
Oh! and crippling the alien resources went a long way towards the victory too. Many of the players were surprised at how effective they were with just LMG's chasing the fades away from the base(I usually planned to have them at level 2 guns and level 2 armour by the 2nd hive). They were constantly asking me for shotguns and HMG's. The only weapons I would concede on were GL's or JP/GL's. These guys were essential in keepin the fades at bay and I was quite liberal with GL's, as well as being pretty liberal with the health packs.
And you never listen to me in game either!
yeeeeeeeeeeeees....
Heavy armor is awesome
5 heavies with heavy Machine guns = dead aliens
And you never listen to me in game either! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hehehe..you know I lubs you FW. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
I'm a quick learner. I've been watching your strats very closely as you know. I've managed to gather together a whole bunch of strategies from watching the good coms on our server. I've implemented a few on Australian servers, which has gotten me a good rep as a commander. The hard part with Aussie server I play on is the team stacking. A couple of clans that play there just love stacking one side so I either end up with a team of clan stacking ramboes who have there own ideas on what to do, or I get all the average players against the alien force from hell. It makes it pretty satisfying though when I can pull together some good teamwork with the average marines and watch as all the clan stackers whinge and whine about how they are losing. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> Aussie players are obsessed with JP/HMG games. Every game on ns_nothing is a cargo relocation. I even had marines attempting to relocate to cargo when it was our main hive! We made them pay for that stupidity. Every game of ns_caged is a freight relocation and every ns_hera is a processing/holo room relocation. I get so bored with these old strats and when I try something new, they all start whining. Playing around with the HA strats has been fun when i can get the team to cooperate.
Also, you have to be prepared that if the fighting is too intense to actually reach the hive, you should grab a seige point, fortify and kill the hive that way. Multiple walls of lame can really tax a HA team down.
Now if I could just get an alien team to learn how to play a res duel match, we'd be set.
Do you guys have any tips on managing your team through a res holding game? I have an incredibly hard time getting them to stay still and defend enough.
I pleaded with them and still no welde, so what can I do? I continued killing ocs and was finally killed.
Screw HA, give me a jet pack, is my new attitude with most games <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. With JP HMG I killed about 5 fades in one life one game, for about 8 that game. I can usually hunt down a few a life if they aren't in webbed rooms or in rooms with numerous ocs. They advanced on us and even though I killed 5 fades..the rest of my team had trouble killing 1. Needless to say, shortly after my last fade kill when a rushing gorg webbed me down we lost the game <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->.