Lambda is really good due to the tight passages that crushes can charge through and you can neurospit and pull marines to tickletown with ease.
Research/ETA Labs
Lambda
Lambda is really good due to the tight passages that crushes can charge through and you can neurospit and pull marines to tickletown with ease.
Plays:
David Law, the Marine from Bravo Squad.
Beyo Ze'stbeier, the Yautja.
Bravo is best, delta is too busy blowing themselves up.
True, but in the end its more or less whoever moves first is the loser since if they push you can defend with crushers or ravagers sitting at the end of the passage, plus if you've managed to kill some of the specs or some of the ones most damaging to you, I.e the snipers, scouts or pyros you can affords to play more aggressively.
Plays:
David Law, the Marine from Bravo Squad.
Beyo Ze'stbeier, the Yautja.
Bravo is best, delta is too busy blowing themselves up.
From playing sentinel I've always had a bad experience guarding the nests in research/ETA.
In all honesty I'd like to go with caves on this one (virology could be a choice if it had an unmeltable blast door).
lambda is the most likely place you'll get trapped, and there's no need to set up hive in that little cave part north of lambda, you're effectively cornering yourself before the marines even land, it (lambda hives in general) can work but generally if marines get to lambda entrance and most of the hive is in lambda you'll probably lose, as they have really good options for flanking and they're not too out of the way for them to use (the caves just west of lambda + south east lambda entrance), they usually lose at that point when they don't take advantage of the flanks and bunch up in front of the entrance ripe for queen screeching
research is better than lambda because it lends itself to forcing marines to split themselves up to attempt to attack both blast doors, generally one is much weaker than the other and that one can be exploited to force them back, as opposed to lambdas single blast door which they defend so heavily and easily
but southeast caves is the best imo, you don't have to worry about marines bunching up against your hive early compared to lambda or research, again going all the way in the southeast corner is kinda bad when theres a lot of cave so take the time to pick a spot that you're more likely to not get trapped in, there is a lot of cave to work with
I personally prefer ETA, or the ETA caves due to the easy access exits. The ones north of ETA itself and the ones to the far north. These are easily defendable areas if you have a compentant team of Xenos, and offer protection from CAS.
Lambda only works if you defend the hell out of it. There's caves all around lambda, so marines can just surround the xenos. They can lock down flanks by barricading entrances, a task too great for more open areas. Some of the tight hallways in lambda are easy to lock down for marines due to how long they are. If xenos go in any of the side rooms to such hallways, there's a high risk of being chased down. Unless set up prior, many of those rooms are dead ends, or slow you down significantly because you need to vault a window. Also, it's a very long, straight stretch from lz to lambda once you leave marshals. Set up a cade line or two. Sure, xenos can flank, but if you kill the vent leading out of lambda with a "hue accidental" grenade, you're not going to be bothered often. Xenos have to go all the way around, through filtrations to get to you. Over stretches of land with lots of red soil, and no weeds. A contingent near the chapel can easily lock down the quickest flank. ETA has more escape routes. The most southern caves aren't as easy to get into as marines. And they're easily accesible for xenos. Unlike the best escape route in lambda, namely east caves. Because to get out of lambda the east side, you need to go through a lot of hassle. Lots of xenos who don't know lambda layout by hard will get trapped and stuck trying to get out.
I still think caves near ETA is best. That way you can't get trapped in ETA. you can defend it, etc etc. If you don't want the caves to become a shooting ground, you just place more defenses. It does really take a while for marines to clear thick walls. You can have entire areas of thick resin walls purely to slow down marines. It's just hard to communicate such clearly with fellow xenos.
Lamba for main hive but set up backup hive in Southwest caves
Garret Dalheart reporting for Duty!
Captain Howard Dalheart Captain of the USS Almayer Deceased
Ckey: TheDexfiles
Joined the fight 19 Dec 2017
Current Record holder for most dead in a single OB at 25
Sorry mates
It has to be lambda, these days most Solaris ridge plans include a squad breaking into ETA a few minutes after landing. Lambda is much safer and takes marines much longer to get to, there are 3 ways in and out of lambda, including the podlocks. ETA is much more prone to being attacked first and if flanked is harder to defend and retreat then lambda is, ETAs many entrances and exits are mostly chokepointed and any good marines can cover them easily, whilst lambdas entrances are harder to get to without being spotted.