Need comming tips

[aeroripper]

Hey i've been learning to comm for a while now and i'm trying to get better but the area of the game i'm having trouble with is the mid game.

This seems to happen after we lock down one hive (with elec RT and PG) and have a good res flow but the fades start to appear i can't seem to coordinate anything.  I know that to win as marines you have to be very agressive taking down hives and hitting their RTs along the way to keep ahead.

I dunno, i get a1 almost right off the bat and get weapons upgrades as quick as a i can but once there is one or two fades i can't seem to do much at all except for a desperate hive rush, as a onos or fades comes and kills the rest of the base.
 
Any of you that have seen me comm can you give me any tips on what was effective\ineffective?  :help:

[Nadja]

Since I've been told that I'm a good comm, I fell I can give you some decent advice. Comming in NS is much like winning in any game. You must be flexible. A large part of decent comming is getting a feel for how your team plays. You should know the all-stars, the ninjas, the nubs, and those who can follow orders. Then you need to put them to work. Avoid saying "one person" phase, build the rt, do something. Use his name to ensure that three people don't think that they are that one person.

Another thing is that you need to constantly know what the aliens are doing. Watch the game time when you play aliens and note first fade, lerk, hive, anything map specific that is important (such as how quick it takes to reach res nodes from hives). You should never have 100 energy in your observatory. Ping hives for ninjas, check lame at choke points, and other goodies.

Meds and ammo. Meds and ammo. These make or break a comm. Guns are useless without ammo, and meds can enable that marine to kill more skulks and save the res. Know when to med spam. Once as a fade I kept slicing at a marine only to have the comm drop med after med on him while his buddies blasted away with shotguns. Med spam is also needed to take down gorges and run past ocs. Keep in mind that ammo and meds cost money, which brings me to res.

Res is the lifeblood of your team. From it comes victory. You should always be on the prowl for res nodes. Use res responsibly, if you have excess res hand out equipment.

Final point defense never wins. You must be on the offensive and build momentum. I tend to do a very cheap lockdown with a pg and mines and instead of turrets or electricity (40 res!) I drop shotguns and welders.

Hopefully you can glean something good from that.

[aeroripper]

Well i commed an awesome game tonight on lost but i think that was just luck because the next map we died horribly

[Nadja]

Not all luck! I was there for the game on lost but not the one after that. On lost you did very many good things, such as medspaming me to save temp, moving quickly to both hives, recapping res, etc. The biggest problem I saw was the phase gates. Two skulks make mince meat out of marines coming through a pg, and it takes time to go through three pgs. But even I still tell people to phase when there are skulks on it so whatever. Also if you have the res try to pass out a welder for every two or three guns, it stops your marines from being worn down by skulk rushes. Hopefully you liked my leading in the field, I know I appreciate it when someone does that because as comm one is so blind. Anyway nice comming.

[mhawk]

I'm a horrible comm, or a good  comm, I've heard both and it greatly depends. I do things completely different than most other comms.  You have to stick with a general theory of attack and pretty much stick with it, unless a golden chance appears.

Example, if you go for phases don't bother with upgrades, build another ip instead of the armslab so that more meat can hit the grinder faster when you get the phases up.  This will give you control of the map faster. It is important after you gain the initiative to never let it slip. Confuse the aliens, don't make things simple for them to plan. The truth is that an organized alien team can almost always beat any marine position. To confuse the aliens always have them being pressed on different locations and make sure the line of attack is always unique. To achieve this build ip's, phases and waypoints in random places.  A Tf in the middle of no where will grab alot of attention from 2-3 players, enough to prevent a cordinated strike on a real objective.

Success is achieved by those that risk more than others think is safe, and assume more than others think is wise.  If you push your team in harms way faster than enemy expects they will lose the initiative.

Don't be scared to take a "no sht accessment" if you don't think you can take this hive with a siege, don't hesitate to beacon and attack other hive in force.  Constantly change the layout of the map to confuse aliens. Constantly change the way you fight, from very defensive siege, to highly offensive rush.

Upgrades are important, but everyone knows that. The key is slow upgrades will lose the game less times than losing map positions.  Often i get enough res 4 mins in game to drop 2 arms labs and often get fully upgraded in equal time than if i had not done a no upgrade strat. Once again the only way to  pull it off is to constantly confuse the aliens and throw alot of meat to the grinder.

[aeroripper]

I think a very big part of holding your phase gates is just passing out about 2 packs of mines when you set one down, this will go a long way to keeping them alive.

Also getting a couple packs of mines around the arms lab\obs\ ips is really handy and discourages the aliens from attacking base.

IMO i think getting a1, w1-3 as quick as possible is really important along with holding res

[SuicidaL MonkeY]

Having at least 1 marine phasing through the pg's you have up and alerts you if he's under attack does alot for that mid game moment you speak of. The Kharra may be rushing that locked down hive to clear it out, instead of having your team phase in to a brigade of aliens, that one, ( or more ), soldier can at least give you a warning and fire a few NEEDED shots off, IMO.

Resource Towers that are electrified do very well if you hand out a few welders now and then and have a few marines top up on any damaged node, instead of leaving the rt and hoping elec can save it.

[Nadja]

To give me some heads up on attacks, I like to use the hotkeys. My set-up is: 1 for obs, 2 for arms lab, 3 for armory, 4 or 5 for ip. After early game 4 and 5 become the hive pgs because that "your base is under attack message" plays so much that I tend not to notice it when busy, unless I see the building blinking red at the top of my screen. Also having the obs and arms on key enables you to upgrade or scan and go right back to medding your marines.

[aeroripper]

Won another one tonight... 2 comm wins tonight yaaay :-P