Skulk Train

lazygamer · August 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">f0ck heavy armor</div> Recently I played a game where I was aliens, and the initial skulk rush was very interesting. Basically, everyone on the team rushed the marine start. It was a line of skulks, one skulk behind the other, no large lags of distance between them. When the skulk train greeted the marines at their spawn, the marines were wiped out, no need for a second skulk train!

Now maybe the marines were crappy, but what if had been 3 skulks? Marines might of barely survived. So this is just a testament to how dangerous a proper initial skulk rush can be. Usually skulk rushes are waves of 1-3 skulks.

XCan · August 2003

This used to happen in the earlier days of 1.0x too. However as the players grow more experienced there wouldn't be a scenario like now where all marines build and noone guards.

Stakhanov · August 2003

Skulk rushes still work on Bast when starting from Engine (the vent spoutting skulks before you even finished the armory , good luck killing them) but most other maps have been "fixed" to prevent them.

lazygamer · August 2003

Well the point being is how much more effective a skulk train is over skulk waves. Checking the mini-map and seeing a trail of skulks is quite gratifying. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

ZiGGY · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Stakhanov @ Aug 9 2003, 01:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Skulk rushes still work on Bast when starting from Engine (the vent spoutting skulks before you even finished the armory , good luck killing them) but most other maps have been "fixed" to prevent them.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
or... they ip rush without having to build another cc.

Sarisel · August 2003

Skulk trains fall to weary marksmen. More like lmg fodder trains.

lazygamer · August 2003

Thankfully there is not a whole lot of weary marksman on pubs. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

n4s7y · August 2003

Marines, heavy armor or not should never be in trains. They should be spread out. Those low on armor should run until he's welded. I love chewing on big HA crowds who can't shoot me because of the confusion of having a skulk biting and zigzagging around your team.

ThE_HeRo · August 2003

two marines > skulk train.

RuneGrey · August 2003

Lets also remember that your average skulk train is... about 6 or 7 skulks strong. And if it works, you just won the game. Fine and dandy, abet rather boring to be sure. But if you lose... we're talking about forking over between 12 to 21 resources on average to the marines, which is enough to allow them to heavily boost their building efforts, get more nodes up, equip themselves with better weaponry, etc. All you're doing is forking over a LOT of resources for very minimal gain at best, especially after people are used to the idea of skulk rushes again.

It just needs to stop - skulks should be going gorge and dropping RTs or upgrade chambers, and then skulking again till they are ready to evolve and build more or use a higher lifeform. Dying pointlessly does nothing for you now.

Sarisel · August 2003

I think it is safe to say that, while being a potent strategy - the skulk train is a gamble. It is alien version of the shotgun rush. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

Minstrel_Knight · August 2003

Well it is more effective than in 1.04 at least where a good marine could regularly take out 3 skulks with carapace 3.

Stoneburg · August 2003

Skulk rushes work all the time, it's just that as an alien you are basically guaranteed a win and people prefer being Onos so they prolong it.

Squidget · August 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Stoneburg @ Aug 10 2003, 01:01 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Skulk rushes work all the time, it's just that as an alien you are basically guaranteed a win and people prefer being Onos so they prolong it.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
No way. Nothing in guaranteed in v2, not that I have seen. Potent? Maybe. Guaranteed? Nah.

I also frankly don't believe that most alien players would pass on a *guaranteed* win just to get Onos.

criogenics · August 2003

Skulk rush with gorge support = win

Sarisel · August 2003

Say hello to 2 shotguns waiting for your rush in base along with those weary marksmen (me being one of them).

The point is that no strategy will always win you the game.

Spazmatic · August 2003

Skulk rushes are all fun and stuff, however, they work best when the marines aren't expecting it. My suggestion is to have one guy scout and, if the marines all abandon base, run in with skulks and gorges to smash it. Happens fairly often since a lot of commanderes believe in grabbing rts RIGHT off the bat, with their entire team, rather than either a moment later or with just part of the team.

However, if you rush two guys actually defending, you're smoked, going to take two days to respawn, and are going to get shotgun rushed like nobody's business.

Necrosis · August 2003

"I also frankly don't believe that most alien players would pass on a *guaranteed* win just to get Onos"

Sadly thats the world of Pub games for you. You do see the wave of nubs going for pointless "fun" rather than a constructive win. The onos gets the bad rap, as nubs take it and proceed to cloakcamp and devour, or run in and out of bases hoping someone will rambo into their devour.

This is the main cause of many long endgames, so trust me that Onos players will pass up on wins.

psxlr · August 2003

ahh man the day before ns 2.0 was released i was playing on ARsclan's server(i think) we Did a scucessful rush on the first round. and after the coomm chair died the aliens sat around chuckling until they were teleported back to the ready room, most of the aliens went aliens again and we were still cpam chuckling while we rushed again. It made this ungodly noise, sounded like, like... well it sounded like 8 aliens all chuckling whilke rushing the marine base. Just this wave of chuckling, the aliens were repulsed (but not until we kileld everyone but the comm, he managed to get out and kill the rest and build the IP. WE wait a mintue until everyone has spawned again, we rush again, again everyone chuckling, we meet up with 3 marines in a hallway, They dont even fire they just turn tail and run.. we follow them back to their base, 3 of us manage to get into the base over the mines and went up into the vent. We just sat there chuckling and listening to the marines ****. All of them just sit in the base looking at the vent. Except to build the Arms lab and Proto. Meanwhile our gorge goes on its merry way puting up every res node on the map and putting the hives up. The comm drops a bunch of gls to flush us out they fire and fire but all the gernades just bounce down into the lower part of the vent and explode without hurting us. By this time the rest of the aliens have all evolved onos and cloaking. they then move up to just outside the marine base along with the gorge the onos all cloak but the gorge stays visible . All at once the we stop chuckling. Then the gorge starts chuckling the marines all run out and see its just a gorge. they start to fire at him. then the Oni(6) unlcloak, start to chuckle, and then proceed to steam roll over the marines.

Debonair · August 2003

The skulk train as it has been labelled is in my opinion not such a good idea. I figure have one or two skulks start running through the marine held room, while the others wait. The first two don't expect to live, but on the other hand due thope to draw ammo, and after a brief pause after the fire fight, the second team rushes in to try and get the reloading marines. But thats just my 2 cents...

lazygamer · August 2003

I think I'm starting to get this now. RfK plays far too big a role. It's a shame though, very early skulk suicide runs are part of Natural Selection and should not be discouraged at all. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'>

Skulk Train

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