Early Evac

[SolarMacharius]

The amount of commanders who order an immediate evac once marines start being pushed back is too high. Why waste hundreds of points on FOB material if your just going to abandon it immediately and sit on the ship until the hijack? The FOB could whittle down xeno numbers further and is just an overall more fun and useful experience then immediately fleeing.

What maps do you think have the best defensive properties for FOB's and when do you guys think an FOB is shoddy enough to warrant immediately fleeing?

[Mann handle]

The amount of commanders who order an immediate evac once marines start being pushed back is too high. Why waste hundreds of points on FOB material if your just going to abandon it immediately and sit on the ship until the hijack? The FOB could whittle down xeno numbers further and is just an overall more fun and useful experience then immediately fleeing.

What maps do you think have the best defensive properties for FOB's and when do you guys think an FOB is shoddy enough to warrant immediately fleeing?

Big Red for the most part due to the fact most xenos don't bother flanking until it's already too late. along with that sweet sweet LZ1 set up most of the time.

For the early evac, what can even be defined as an early evac when most FOBs only need a couple of breaches to make them useless? Heck if your FOB is getting hammered that badly retreating is the only option because you can't exactly chase down a wounded xeno to finish it off when you're under siege. The only tools you get for breaking them is the mortar / CAS and a vast majority of the remaining marines finding their testicles and making a suicidal push out which might just break them out.

[DriedMilk]

because queen screeches the ds on the last minute, locking it and everyone dies

better off calling evac early before this happens tbh

[SolarMacharius]

because queen screeches the ds on the last minute, locking it and everyone dies

better off calling evac early before this happens tbh

I still think abandoning an FOB before its not even been tested is an extremely pathetic move and betrays a desire to "win" by turtling on the ship for twenty minutes till the game is forced to end. I dont have an issue with a desire to win, but the strategy isn't even a particularly good one to win anyways due to xenos generally having the advantage on the ship and because SD is a draw anyways.

[Renomaki]

the thing is, sometimes you can't even CONTROL when an early evac happens.

True, some commanders tend to pussy out and pull out 50 men due to the fear of losing too many men in the FoB defense (and thus not having enough manpower to hold the ship), but othertimes it is more due to marines spreading panic and misleading the CO into thinking a situation is WAY WORSE than it really is.

It may be just a game, but people do still experience stress and fear, and when you have 20 xenos pounding on your defenses and slowly pushing you back, sooner or later you are going to have marines throw down their weapons and flee for their lives rather than risk dying for the USCM. After all, dying still very much sucks in this game, let alone getting mutilated and living to tell about it.

I know I shouldn't keep bringing Total War into this, but it really can feel like it when you have one man start to panic, then another, and then another, suddenly comms is filled with the cries of "WE CAN'T HOLD THEM, WE GOTTA EVAC", and telling them otherwise will simply be met with bitching and whining. You tell a marine to hold at any cost? They'll just flip you the bird and board the dropship to flee, leaving those brave enough to fight to die. I seen this happen way too many times to count...

Even if they don't evac the planet entirely, marines will regularly cave under pressure. It is why they often do metarushes, because they want an easy victory with little resistance. If they fail to catch the xenos with their pants down, however... They quickly crumble...

It is like leading an army of Japanese Ashigaru, cheap units that can overwhelm a weak enemy with little trouble, but an evenly matched foe or greater? They struggle and eventually flee en mass.

[SolarMacharius]

Yeah morale is an important factor when it comes to holding any area. I just wish people would at least try to hold the stuff they build. Cause whats even the point of building an FOB when its just gonna be abandoned the minute the aliens break single cade on it? Might as well not even bother with building one then.

[KittyHawkpilot019]

The amount of commanders who order an immediate evac once marines start being pushed back is too high. Why waste hundreds of points on FOB material if your just going to abandon it immediately and sit on the ship until the hijack? The FOB could whittle down xeno numbers further and is just an overall more fun and useful experience then immediately fleeing.

What maps do you think have the best defensive properties for FOB's and when do you guys think an FOB is shoddy enough to warrant immediately fleeing?

I usually see it when a flank opens up for the xenos, then some marines scream "CHECK ____" or "_____ IS OPEN" immediately the aCO calls an evac early, when it couldve been held. but mostly its because xenos are in the FOB already. But the number is high.

[SolarMacharius]

I usually see it when a flank opens up for the xenos, then some marines scream "CHECK ____" or "_____ IS OPEN" immediately the aCO calls an evac early, when it couldve been held. but mostly its because xenos are in the FOB already. But the number is high.

This is one of the only places the sentry is good. Set it up to guard tcomms flank and you need only three or so marines to guard the area. It doesn't help that a lot of lz1 fobs have multiple flanking routes by design. I wish it was possible to build FOB's elsewhere without having to worry about the queen just running to the console and hijacking.

[KittyHawkpilot019]

This is one of the only places the sentry is good. Set it up to guard tcomms flank and you need only three or so marines to guard the area. It doesn't help that a lot of lz1 fobs have multiple flanking routes by design. I wish it was possible to build FOB's elsewhere without having to worry about the queen just running to the console and hijacking.

We could all be saying but honestly at this point on solaris, its theoretical, if the xenos push back to FOB they usually win. You rarely see FOB setup covering all the flanks.

[xXen0zS1ay3rXx]

It is in our best interest as the defender to retreat early, ship defenses as they are now are much easier to defend then most FOBs.
The long hallways, the initial split of the beans when they land, they can't capture to replenish their numbers, etc. Barring getting squished by the shuttle, taking back your 50 men after one breach in the FOB is only beneficial.

[SolarMacharius]

It is in our best interest as the defender to retreat early, ship defenses as they are now are much easier to defend then most FOBs.
The long hallways, the initial split of the beans when they land, they can't capture to replenish their numbers, etc. Barring getting squished by the shuttle, taking back your 50 men after one breach in the FOB is only beneficial.

I hope the devs have the endgame rework set as high priority. I dislike everything about that strategy.