SAND BAGS, DO YOU USE THEM?

[Lingering Profanity]

SANDBAGS, they really are a mystery to you subpar cavemen mother fuckers, aren't they? But first, let me explain something very, very simple to you: Double rows of cades one tile apart DO NOT WORK.

This is a minor tangent on double cades, and has nothing to do with sandbags, but still: Double cades 1 tile apart are bad. If you do them, you should be ASHAMED, and then you should be SHOT, and then hung and drawn and quartered, you god damned simpleton. You are the lowest form of life on planet Earth, I hope the cat eats you and the devil eats the cat.

Now then, onto how sandbags are used... Sandbags are not for FOBs. If you have enough time to set up metal cades, set up metal cades. Do not... use... sandbags... I don't care if you have no other materials, do not use sandbags.

Sandbags... are for areas that need defense, very very quickly. Sandbags are for the FRONT LINES. DO NOT USE THEM FOR FOBS.

When you compare the amount of time it takes to set up a cade, to the amount of time it takes to set up sandbags, it becomes absurdly obvious what sandbags are meant to be used for.

What's more, any marine can set up sandbags, not just engineers, SL, etc. Any marine. If 2 marines in a squad, including the engineer, are holding 2 stacks of sandbags in each hand... and then your team is ambushed but you are able to repel them, but you know that any second there's gonna be more, killing you...

Well, guess what, you can build a fortress in about 30 seconds with two people working.

It's that god damned simple.

And I feel REALLY BAD about the human species that I have to explain this simple fucking thing, because I see time and time again people using sandbags in FOBs. And god, it makes me soooo fucking sad when I see that.

[Lukey111]

So... What you are saying... If there is no metal or plasteel at all, then don't use sandbags? Then you wouldn't have an fob. I personally don't see it as a big issue.

[Sargeantmuffinman]

They are more durable than metal but can't be repaired. Very quick to set up too. But from my personal experience, I lost a hand to building them when a ravager came up and charged me down. I got the barricade up but I lost a hand.

[Heera-o]

I disagree, sandbags are great for quick FOBs. If your an engie and you know your only going to be holding the postion for a short period, its not worth the metal to establish a temp Fob, espcially if you know that the FOB is there to slow the xeno advance not as a perm defense.

[ThatKazakhDude]

Well i only recently started playing engi, so thanks for the advise
And also
https://youtu.be/xzpndHtdl9A

[Tetrino]

Ah yes hello Charlie B18 specialist from the Big Red round

While the optimal use for sandbags is indeed for quick fortifications on the frontline, some engineers will invariably be placed on FOB duty. These engineers aren't gonna be getting their sandbags to any frontline, and for all they know, the FOB they're working on will very well become the frontline in the near future. If you think we're not gonna use everything at our disposal when metal crates have literally tripled in cost before factoring in the compounding increase, then you're gonna have to pry the entrenching tools out of our cold dead hands.

Also, dual-layered cadelines with metal up front serves the important roles of:
1) Providing a warning buffer against boiler clouds
2) Covering the engineer repairing the frontal cadeline

#2 distinguishes it from just another layer 3 tiles forward because fun fact-- an engineer standing one tile behind the cadeline is vulnerable to direct ranged attacks such as a cheeky praetorian neuro-ing me every time I get my welder out, and an engineer standing on the cadeline is just begging to catch a boiler cloud or a set of ravager claws with his face. I'm not keen on either outcome, so I put the secondary layer.

And at the end of the day? You have the power to move those sandbags. Bring them to the frontline yourself if they piss you off so much.

[immaspaceninja]

Local man yells at double-layer cades and has the big gay.
2 layers of cades in a row let you do alot of cool stuff, such as: not getting your little poor lane of cades breached after a single queen charge-n-screech, more safely repairing the frontal cades, while not getting gassed by naziboilers every single second(depends on rng a bit), swapping cades that are beyond repairing/destroyed and preventing ungas from getting torn apart after screech, because they like standing on the same tile with the cades so much.

No clue why people go 'reeeeee 2 layers in a row remove it im offended'. Like bitch please, just dont place more than 2 in a row, marines arent even supposed to stay between them anyway.

As for sandbags, I use them mainly for quickly sealing breached layers or making a meaty front layer if I feel like holding some side will be a pain in the ass. They're also a pretty great way to save time setting up some area you wont spend too much time at, if you have a pfc to fill them.

[Weaselburg]

Sandbags take a lot of time to fill. You need a couple people to get a single stack done in a reasonable amount of time.

[Gut_TC]

Whatever float your boat man. I find both choices or techniques pretty neat.

[Rohesie]

Okay, I could not disagree more with this.

FIRSTLY, two-line cades are great. It prevents runners and others from hugging the cade, slash-meme'ing the marines and pouncing back to safety. It prevents a queen screech to be followed by slashing every single stunned marine. It allows for the engineer to fix cades with lesser chances of being bumped. You must be baaaaald if you don't like two-line cades.

SECONDLY, sandbags are for FOBs. They are for everywhere. Have you ever played as xeno or cargo, besides engineer?

If you are a xeno and you see a sandbag and a metal barricade you'll ignore the former and beeline to the latter. Because metal takes two crusher charges to be destroyed, or a few slashes, while sandbags take forever. Xenos without acid will generally ignore them. Just remember to PUT DAMN BARBED WIRE on them. A sandbag with barbed wire is mmph~.

If you are a RO you'll be forever asked for metal and metal and metal. Few people ask for sandbags which start at the same cost than metal, but quickly become cheaper as metal's demand rises. Sandbags require time to be filled and set up, so they are perfect to be sent at round start for FOB people who have time on their hands. Metal barricades can be built by engies in no time to patch holes, but empty sandbags require more preparation.

Lastly, there is the metal barricade's advantage: they can be repaired. But lets face it, repairing plasteel barricades is great because they are sturdy, but when metal barricades get damaged chances are they are past the point of repair already. And you won't see many benos slashing sandbags with barbed wire on them.

Summing it up, sandbags are god-sent. Whenever I'm an engineer I ask cargo for sandbags, which are cheaper, and scavenge metal by deconstructing metal barricades and replacing them with the superior sandbag ones. My fortifications tend to last much longer than the rest, even after the base is overrun.

On two marines with their hands filled with barricades to build an emergency fortifications? That means you are sacrificing the ability of two disciplined (and probably experienced) marines of shooting. Does this ever happen? Also, if you don't put barbed wire on that improvised fortress it will be pretty much worthless. PUT BARBED WIRE. AHHHHHH!

[solidfury7]

Sandbags are literally tedious as fuck.

It forces you to spend time doing a mindless task, they should simply turn it in to a long arse progress bar.

Or at the very least make all that hard work worth something, like being able to carry them around in a backpack, because the moment you leave then to do something with them,they've already been stolen or misused.

The quality of life changes are nice but imo not enough.

[Jonesome]

This is a minor tangent on double cades, and has nothing to do with sandbags, but still: Double cades 1 tile apart are bad. If you do them, you should be ASHAMED, and then you should be SHOT, and then hung and drawn and quartered, you god damned simpleton. You are the lowest form of life on planet Earth, I hope the cat eats you and the devil eats the cat.

From my experience, double cades one tile apart are the only thing effective at blocking boiler gas.

[Lingering Profanity]

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Helplesssheep]

From my experience, double cades one tile apart are the only thing effective at blocking boiler gas.

Double Cade 1 title apart are not bad... The sand bags protect your inner layer.

[Royal Griffon]

i use them on prison all the time uwu

[AmazinglyAmazing]

i use them on prison all the time uwu

Funny jokes. Good jokes. -10/10

[Slduggy]

I disagree,

Double Cade layer is the only way to use your metal if you have it. Essentially you're sacrificing one tile of sight for much more secure position. Fixing a broken barricade becomes 10 times safer if you have a double layer. The process for fixing a double layer is as follows:

1. Unscrew/Un-wrench back cade behind breach.
2. Push the cade in to fill the breach
3. Wrench/Screw cade ( Breach is sealed in about 3 Seconds)
4. Re-build back cade

As for sand bags, you are right, they are useful in front line fortifications. I use them for M56D nests, temporary triage to protect medics and to seal off dangerous flanking routes. So yeah youre right. But for the FoB I use sandbags as a buffer between the main barricade line and boiler gas/crusher charges. You set them in front of your main cades line in a checker board formation if you get what Im saying.

[Bulaven]

Funny jokes. Good jokes. -10/10

Wait...

Has anyone ever tried filling sandbags in the garden?

[Tetrino]

Can't fill them on the Almayer memorial garden any more, and the Prison Station CivRes gardens are so far back you've basically won by the time you reach them.

[Steelpoint]

The advantage of having a double layer of defences (I'd argue inner with sandbags and outer with metal) is more to stop dummy Marines from standing on the absolute edge of the defence, and then getting screech/tackle/neuro spammed.

[Bronimin]

Sandbags being irreparable isn't a huge deal since metal barricades can't soak all that much damage before they become irreparable anyways. I like using them in areas on the FOB where I expect crusher charges -- you can usually dash in, replace the cade and barb it if it does fall before the crusher cycles up to have another go.

[Bulaven]

Sandbags being irreparable isn't a huge deal since metal barricades can't soak all that much damage before they become irreparable anyways. I like using them in areas on the FOB where I expect crusher charges -- you can usually dash in, replace the cade and barb it if it does fall before the crusher cycles up to have another go.

Yup. I've noticed that sandbags work well against the boneheads.

[ItsAnOmen2]

Since sandbags have higher health but are unrepairable, I tend to use them for an inner cade layer and tend to use metal as an outer layer.

My rationale is that if the metalcades are breached, there's a strong layer of sandcades to back it up in case the metal gets breached and the metalcades are easily repairable.
I'd disagree with using sandcades as an outer layer since they're unrepairable. If they're breached, you're going to have to rely on a low health metalcades which you're not going to be able to repair when they're under attack.

[SolarMacharius]

I see sandbagss as being useful for the outer layer of an FOB, absorbing boiler shots and crusher charges while allowing marines to fire from the safety of easily repairable metal barricades. An FOB should always have two, preferably three lines of defense, with sandbags being the outermost line. Sandbags are also useful for any fortifications outside of the FOB since they are cheap and easy to set up with high health.

[ItsAnOmen2]

I see sandbagss as being useful for the outer layer of an FOB, absorbing boiler shots and crusher charges while allowing marines to fire from the safety of easily repairable metal barricades. An FOB should always have two, preferably three lines of defense, with sandbags being the outermost line. Sandbags are also useful for any fortifications outside of the FOB since they are cheap and easy to set up with high health.

From my personal experience, that arrangement doesn't work because if the sandbags are breached and the metalcade line is under assault, you're stuck with a weaker line of defence which is (nearly) impossible to repair when under assault.