Oh noes, its another long-winded SaltzBad blurbYes it is. For those that still haven't noticed when and why I do these, its not because I have a huge burning desire to do so - although they are fun, and hopefully a few previously unenlightened people will suddenly become more of a contribuition to their team, the main reason is I have time and no ability to play NS right now
Okay, so what is the standard way of achieving Alien victory?Aliens, unlike Marines, actually have to worry less about their opponents ressources - as long as Alien expansion itself remains healthy, and mostly tends towards the 2nd Hive, no amount of Marine tech will
ever overpower it. Limiting marine expansion is more of an add-on - depending on chamber and team abilitys, it allows you to keep them at 1/2 nodes, to just chew down some nodes and draw manpower/ressources away from offense or to simply slow down their rate of tech. It is however not a priority.
Prioritys for aliens are the following
Hives,
Ressource Nodes and
threatening locations. While the first 2 are obvious, the third simply means any location that allows easy access to the first 2 - it means you're best off quelling any offensive marine movement at its roots, before they get favorable positions. For example, while you might not have a ressourcenode in cargo on ns_tanith, you'd be an idiot to let them walk in there and threaten the possible hive location. In turn, the easiest way to defend the Hive location is to kill them before they enter cargo. Marines have a
very easy time defending an open area - but taking it against opposition is challenging.
What does this mean for the Skulk earlygame?The most common mistake in alien earlygames is to rush marine spawn, or rush their first 2 nodes. If you overpower marines by a ton, sure it will work - but similiar skill provided, you can expect mass Skulk deaths - filling up the spawn queue, and letting marines walk into vital places unopposed.
Instead, do the following :
- Realize which points need to be defended, and see if your team agrees (or simply point it out to them)
- If you see any of them undefended, walk over there to make sure no marines are approaching. Call for help if they are.
- If you are not busy on the defense, meaning an area is clear, inch forward and parasite building/gaurding marines in other areas of the map. Every few parasites or slight injuries, go back to heal. This will give you a sizeable advantage in defense, and really get on marines nerves :p
- Keep an eye on the map, what your team is doing and anticipate what marines are most likely doing. Remember, if an area is completely open/ungaurded odds are good the Commander will take advantage of this. Even if it means alot of running back and forth, its worthwhile checking spots out your team is missing.
- When possible, don't fight alone. While its
not good for 2 Skulks to attempt biting the same target, it is always good to provide marines with 2 or more targets. Even if you're able to make it towards the marines alone, remember that unless you kill
every damn one of them they can still walk in on the area you needed to defend. Especially against marines with reasonable tactics, you'll almost always need 2 Skulks or more. In an ideal teamplay situation, you'll have a gang of rampaging Skulks to come rundown any marine groups attempting to make a move. Much better than the common scenario of 8 Skulks slaughtered 1by1.
What does this mean for the earlygame Gorge?Here, most of all, we'll have to expand on the ressource system a bit. Theres a whole host of common misconceptions about it - from the reluctance of de- and re-gorging to putting up RTs late, silly "instagorges" at the start of the game or the myth of the useful permagorge. Don't be fooled :
too many Gorges do as much if not more damage to your team than too many lifeforms. Marines will not politely wait till the 12th minute to commence kicking your ass - they'll move out immediately, and theres little you can do to stop them from taking the ~3 closest nodes to marine spawn.
This means, more than ~4 nodes in the earlygame is worthless - (plus/minus one depending on the map and gamesize). Nodes outside Hives or their proximity are very, very likely to go down - and don't even try to blame it on your team. They have no reason to let you put the additional strain of defending something halfway across the map and even in a marine friendly position on them - it is after all, a secondary priority to a Hive. So
the hives you get determine the nodes you put down - 1 node outside the primary hive, 1 inside the secondary and 1 outside the secondary.
Now that we've got the location settled, lets go about the timing. Its vital that you drop nodes
immediately - a delayed node in the earlygame will mean delayed Fades and Hives. So going Skulking before placing your node is like giving the marines free RTs - you're lessening the time pressure on marines, letting them tech up more before they're forced to attack you (if they want to live, that is). So, go Gorge, drop the Node, and reskulk.
Why reskulk? We've already covered that - because defending that 2nd Hive and everything necessary to safely hold it is the main goal of the earlygame. Its the most common cause of Alien losses - half the team 'waiting' for RT/OC/Chamber res because they're such an economical Gorge, and in the meantime losing the 2nd Hive location. If you're one of the 3-4 Gorges that planted an RT, then
your res don't matter now. Move on - your main job after that is to defend, not build. The peoples whose ressources matter are the other 50% of the team, who are getting res from your RTs added to their starting 25 to get Chambers, Hives and Fades as early as possible.
While permagorging is possible, theres little to no loss in not staying Gorge - you'll get some of those res back via RFK anyway, and when in doubt its always better to be a Skulk and help the team than be a Gorge staring at a wall. When things are highly organized, and noone is staying Gorge (luckily enough), ask your team if you really, really want to perma - one perma Gorge during the game is okay. But thats the problem, it
has to stay a maximum of one - or you'll end up not having enough Skulks anywhere, and going down that quick road to 'ze lewz' again. And lots of gleeful marines spawncamping the hell out of you. Weeee.
*snip* Gotta cut short here and go home.
Topic: Basic Kharaa Strategy (Read 7298 times)
