Hypothetical Marine Tactics

[Nick123q23]

Might be a bit metagamy. You want a mix of shotguns and rifles so you can utilize grenades and surpress aliens over long range. Shotguns are insanely powerful in the right hands though, 'specially with buckshot.

[RobBrown4PM]

a firing line will buy you some time, but it wont win a match unless the enemy team makes terrible mistakes.

perhaps advancing firing lines could be considered? then the enemy will have to keep repositioning and may wind up cornered or caught out. this of course comes with the risk of overextending and having your wounded/supply lines slaughtered by flanking runners and hunters and such

the greatest problem marines seem to have is a very strong sense of self-preservation when they need to pursue wounded enemies to secure kills. the aliens are built for inflicting gradual losses over the course of the match and the more time we spend in the false security of fortifications is time they have to grow stronger and hatch more babby

Agreed, it could theoretically work if you use the line tactic to advance with.

big Red would probably be the best map to try this on because of the long extended pathways between the bio domes.

[misto]

please stop instructing marines to build fobs in nexus and hydro on lv, its not really working. the walls of the pre-existing buildings are only hindering your fields of fire and letting xenos sneak closer to you, walls which they can plop acid on and start melting at their leisure. please experiment. try ordering the paths fortified instead of 6 layers of metal and sandbags wasted on a shitty little square in the center of nexus that isnt protecting anybody or anything because they can just go around the side of the building to fuck up the lz

[Symbiosis]

The north path to Nexus, west path to Nexus, Fitness, and Nexus.

Four squads, Four FOBS. Have squads relieved if they're taking fire/casualties and move them to "calmer" FOBs. Utilize OB's, Dropships, etc.

Planetside Doctor helps, ensure weapon drops (fresh grenade Pulse rifles), ammo drops, and Medical supply drops are often. It'll at least be a longer more enjoyable round.

[misto]

hey folks, id like to drop in a moment to discuss something very near and dear to my heart, barricades. did you know that barricades are stupid slabs of sandbags/metal, and that they can't protect themselves? and did you know that they can't protect marines if the marines run off chasing the first thing they see instead of standing behind them? and did you know that barricades just get smashed with no resistance when nobody stands behind them to shoot at the things that come to smash them?

why are you ordering people to build defences when everyone just steps outside them to try to chase something and gets themselves fucking murked out there? please enforce some discipline. it might let our shitty fobs last a couple minutes longer until the boilers get lined up to shit on us from offscreen

[Swagile]

I actually had a decent LZ-1 FOB strategy, but it was ruined when 2 squads went rambo to kill aliens at Hydro.

Then promptly got stomped on.

It was North, East, and South LZ-1 FOB's in the grass; it was impossible to take the LZ because of these FOB's as you had to destroy each and every one of them to get into the dropship or you risk getting surrounded and UGL spammed.

Problem is, with two whole squads fucking off, the FOB's fell. But even then, I made the game last 3 hours, instead of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Imagine if the squads all stayed at their FOB positions...

One could only hope.

[Blade2000Br]

I actually had a decent LZ-1 FOB strategy, but it was ruined when 2 squads went rambo to kill aliens at Hydro.

Then promptly got stomped on.

It was North, East, and South LZ-1 FOB's in the grass; it was impossible to take the LZ because of these FOB's as you had to destroy each and every one of them to get into the dropship or you risk getting surrounded and UGL spammed.

Problem is, with two whole squads fucking off, the FOB's fell. But even then, I made the game last 3 hours, instead of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Imagine if the squads all stayed at their FOB positions...

One could only hope.

I was on that round. Boy, you made charlie squad sweat to get the materials, but in the end, they look stupenduous and incredible xd

[Steven Sneider]

A theoretical strategy came in my mind. We all know those worthless smoke nades and how they don't affect xenos directly but what they can do is hide objects from them.
Lets say the smoke can hide a OB beacon or CAS laser, xenos wouldn't even see it hence they wouldn't even run away. Would work with normal nades too since they would also be under the smoke.

[Marcus Jackson]

A theoretical strategy came in my mind. We all know those worthless smoke nades and how they don't affect xenos directly but what they can do is hide objects from them.
Lets say the smoke can hide a OB beacon or CAS laser, xenos wouldn't even see it hence they wouldn't even run away. Would work with normal nades too since they would also be under the smoke.

+100 right here, we need to start doing this.

[Karmac]

I'm glad someone pointed this out on the forums over 2 weeks after people figured that out in-game, but the likelihood of xeno staying near that smoke after the first couple times you try it would be infinitely lower. It sounds good but doesn't actually apply that well.

[Garrison]

It can also be used to feint orbital strike in that case. Only major draw back is that it blinds marines to whats going on beyond the smoke while Xeno's can still see the marines. Giving Crushers or pouncing xeno's a golden opportunity if they are willing to take the risk.

[Karmac]

Exactly, you're benefitting the enemy team more than you're benefitting yourself, it's not worth the trouble if I'm honest.

[Steven Sneider]

meh, I thought of the tactic while seeing xenos rushing to save a queen from a sadar shot. While the queen got dragged away the smoke was till around and a marine managed to threw a nade that got covered by smoke killing a passing drone.

[Swagile]

Smoke grenades aren't supposed to be used in that way.

A smoke grenade's two main uses are:

Blocking Queen POV, hence when she screeches, she won't get anyone as her screech is based on who she can see.

Blocking Boiler POV, as boilers cannot click on dark tiles, and smoke creates dark tiles.

[Challenger]

Blocking Queen POV that way just means she gets to sneak up on the marines even easier, and prevents them from chasing after her because they'll suffocate. Terrible idea.

Blocking Boiler POV doesn't work because the Boiler can just click on a marine on the other side of it and that'll work.

Smoke grenades are boiler glob in a can, they really don't have much of a use other than the suggested occlusion.

[Swagile]

Blocking Queen POV that way just means she gets to sneak up on the marines even easier, and prevents them from chasing after her because they'll suffocate. Terrible idea.

Blocking Boiler POV doesn't work because the Boiler can just click on a marine on the other side of it and that'll work.

Smoke grenades are boiler glob in a can, they really don't have much of a use other than the suggested occlusion.

You throw the smoke right on the path the Queen is rushing right at a group of Marines; takes good timing to smoke her and gives marines time to UGL; this requires teamwork, game comprehension, and timing; which is EXTREMELY rare in CM, hence why smoke grenades suck.

As for Boiler POV, you are correct on that; forgot you could directly target marines with boiler bombings.

[misto]

commanders, please, i reiterate, think twice before ordering the marines to squat in a building - the walls, furniture and vending machines usually help the aliens by blocking bullets more than they shelter the marines. the only good quality of these things is that they provide some shelter against boiler artillery, all other types of aliens are aided by this, letting them sneak closer and pick their moment to strike better. then, of course, they can melt the walls down basically whenever they please. clear lanes of fire for your men are not valued enough when it comes to base establishment orders.

[Karmac]

Usually it's up to the engineers to ensure these things don't get in the way of the common marine, if they aren't landscaping the area to fight in better they're probably doing it wrong, don't pin that on Command's orders.

[misto]

landscaping? some furniture bits and vending machines can get wrenched and moved away at least, but it demands a lot of time to take down a wall unless youre willing to spend a plastic explosive, and thats time you don't have. and oh, what are the buildings that command tells people to garrison made out of? oh yeah, theyre made out of walls mostly

[Swagile]

Yeah, my bad on that one.

I forgot how bad wall deconstruction currently is and ordered a FOB at IA Offices and Robotics. Needless to say, we lost that round in one hour. If wall deconstruction wasn't such a pain in the ass, those would be good FOB spots.

[misto]

youre far from the only one making the mistake, i felt compelled to post abt it because of a bad result of "guarding" the bar on ice col. guarding! more like waiting in a tin can to be picked apart

[Karmac]

That's always been my issue with Robotics, you can't just make an FOB out of it, it needs to be changed to fit your needs, so even with the downsides Nexus has, it'll always be a superior FOB to Robotics because I can just put shit there and do minimal changes to the area around it, like replacing the glass walls near the FOB lines with walls, and even though that seems important it's more optional than anything you have to do at Robotics.

[misto]

hello my friends. i have been having thoughts about our current, flawed approaches to how the sd room is utilized

sdroomtheories.png

[Steelpoint]

Having everyone hold the SD room inside is a bad tactic that is generally perpetrated by bad communications.

In terms of the best place to hold out on the Almayer, I say that the Briefing room is the best holdout area, simply due to how large and open it is, it gives Marines great firing lanes on enemy forces.

[misto]

oh yeah, and i got a question too

is it possible to dig up dirt from the almayer memorial garden place to fill sandbags? ive never had an opportunity to try