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Thread: On FOB duty

  1. #11
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    The guide is way too long. Just as an example, you could cut that entire barricade section down to a paragraph or two and then link to another guide that’s dedicated to proper cade building.

  2. #12
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    Solaris Cades.jpg

    So, this was a recent round on Solaris Ridge, I was a bravo engie, did the tcomms area. This is how I do my cades in areas where sandbags aren't as easily reached (taking sandbags to that location takes FOR-EV-ER). This shows it as a WIP, normally I'd have all those handrails reinforced, and wires strewn across the cades. Is this bad design? How would I be able to tweak it to make it better (aside from possibly replacing the railings with sandbags, I KNOW that's gonna pop up as the first suggestion, and that is the better alternative)

  3. #13
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    Yea, I get that it's too long. I even adress it in my own guide, I blame my shitty summarizing skills. Again, if someone wants to build from this, and make a good guide, I'm all for it, but for now, it's is what we have.

    Onto the engineering: Oh boy, Tcoms. Tcoms can be as good as you want it to be, as long as you dedicate time to it. And you can dedicate a lot, trust me. I'm working off memory, so I'm sure I'll fuck up the B wall part, but you know, just adjust accordingly.

    Also, it's hard not to condition you by giving you my opinion, but hey, you asked for it, so... SPOILER ALERT!

    Tcoms.jpg

    First things first, nice layout, E in particular. I wouldn't expect this from a newbie. I can see some issues right off the bat, and I'm sure some people will see others, but I don't think it's too serious. Assuming that the handrails perform, this should hold for a while if it's manned, but yea, I'd love to see sandcades in there. I edited your picture a bit. Let me explain my thought process:

    A - A smart crusher will break through here (Purple arrow), bypassing the first line with little counterplay, and making it a pain to fix in the heat of the moment (even if you sandbag the hole, you have a wall behind that restricts movement, and it provides cover for the xenos, and it's all around bad). All the B walls lead to open space, and are easy to break. Imo, ideally, you want wall A gone, at least up to your cade line, and your lines expanded accordingly.
    Having it completely removed will increase your firepower through the gap (one more tile to shoot from), AND it will take away walls that xenos can use for cover (although these aren't super safe with the L shape you got there, it doesreduce your firepower in the breach)
    Taking them out up to your cade line will ensure that if a crusher does break through, he will be met with cades, and another shooting position, plus the crusher will waste some time, which is nice.

    B - As I said, those walls lead to open spaces, and xenos will use them for cover if not destroyed. One little trick is to deconstruct all of them up to the last step (don't do the final 2 crowbars). That way, when they try to breach, you can just decon them all in a heartbeat, and deny them that cover with a few shots/one more round of crowbar action. It will help the boilers, but it hurts the rest of the horde. Of course, that is if you don't get bored and do it either way to expand into the caves yourself, which is not a bad idea at all, since you lose CAS, but the caves are basically a straight path without any cover for xenos, and you can always fall back to the Tcoms fort where CAS is active.

    C - You can get easy Tcoms access by deconstructing/C4ing/shooting down the wall 2 spaces up from here (X). Also, you should be asking the SL or a PFC for sandbags, not bringing them in yourself, but I digress.
    Do yourself a favor and take down the walls I marked(X X) as well, and make a 3 space for the tank to access Tcoms. Tank can't do much to guard Tcoms otherwise, since the hallways are 2 wide, and the Alamo and fixed lights block him from accessing it from any other place. Up to what point you want the tank, depends on your mats and stuff, but you could extend its path up to your left walls (? ?), and have it face the gap directly, or even plasteel it all the way to the gap (It's more plasteel intensive, and it will run over some marines, but it's well worth it, and it has saved my Tcoms forts too many times).

    You can even go full autism and decon/shoot up the rest of Tcoms to allow a big fallback compartment with lots of space for the ungas to maneuver (And you should, because those shitty walls won't protect you if the xenos get there. Whatever it is, make it a 3 liner fob. Tcoms is not that big, and it doesn't take too many resources. It's mostly breaking walls. (An M39 with a bag or two full of ammo (Maybe in a crate) will do wonders for you, trust me. Just grab an unga, and tell him to magdump all the Tcoms walls (reinforced walls take too many bullets)

    D- If you are taking down walls left and right, you can take down this one as well. More space is always welcome in the FOB, and it will increase the firepower, but again, costs mats and time. The ? spot will open a weakness if you also take down the C wall that will need to be caded. Take down at your own discrection, but do so if you are doing the autism thingie.

    E - Nice spot for a flamer. I do it myself, and I like it very much. Adding a plasteel door in there will let him flame one tile further, which is always nice.

    F & G - Sentry(F) and M56d(G) placements. A sentry back where it is will hit the cades more than the xenos. Pushing it to the outermost line until it's about to breach would be more efficient. Also, placing it on the side can be valid, since you can set it at 30 degrees burst, and it will tear down anyone trying to get in.
    The M56 operator will be safe from gas in these positions (Middle one only if you tear down half the wall). On the upper one, it will again, hit the cades, but you can move it there if the first line falls. Last time I checked Sentries hit M56ds, and vice-versa, so you know, don't put one behind the other

    * If you push your second line back one tile and leave the M56 in the upper G(And you should because it will get in the way of the ungas if you push it up), it will be prone to slashing. Just make sure to add an extra sandbag in front protect it!

    * A chad strategy that I just noticed would be, assuming you take down the D wall, to build a wall in the southern G (Assuming it allows you, wich it should, even minis can do that), and mount the M56d in the upper tile. It will deny the flamer spot one or two tiles of flaming, since he would have to stand next to the wall, or in the horizontal section altogether, but it MAY allow the operator in the southern F spot to shoot, even if the queen screeches, since the wall will block LOS. I just came up with this, and it's nowhere near tested, but it looks promising. Results may vary.

    H - A pillbox. The separator doesn't have to be specifically there, it's just an example. Having a pillbox has the advantages and disadvantages I discussed in the guide, but I think it's a nice thing to have (Add doors to both sides and inbetween so that you can access every compartment comfortably, and align them with the previous doors for extra points).
    Do take down both walls in order to make the compartments somewhat breathable, or it will be hell in there, even more if you leave the 2 distance.

    - Speaking of cade distance, 2 is small. I'd rather have 3. if a heavy assault is in place, expect to see heavy bumping and clutter with what you have (And god help you if you pillbox it).
    - You could add doors to the handrail/sandbag line. More cades is always better.
    - There is a door at the middle of the cade line. The engie wiki explains to you why having doors at the sides is better, and sometimes you have to make concessions (like the tank going in through the middle to leave space for the M56 to shoot ungassed), but I see little reason to place one there in your setup outside the alignment with the back cade, which isn't that big of a deal either way. I would definitively move it to at least the sentry column.
    - The tip of the L (Frontline cade) is aligned to a B wall. The wall will get destroyed, and it's easier for xenos to hit there. Destroying the D wall and moving the whole thing to the right, or even better, making cades to maintain a double line even if it falls will solve the issue (It's not a big issue at all).
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by RNGPriest; 11-15-2019 at 05:51 PM.
    Vanessa 'Pocket' Miller

  4. #14
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    Frankly speaking, I think RNGPriest is an inappropiate name, you should be named RNGPope.

  5. #15
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    Next time I'll build a crappy, low effort FOB I will try to get some inspiration from this guide.

    I'd add some pictures of examples how in your opinion should look a decent FOB.

  6. #16
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    Give and accept criticism: The fact that you are ‘the boss of the front’ doesn’t mean you can’t do things wrong. If someone has a pressing concern, they should let you know, and vice-versa. We all become better players faster if we support each other. Be open about changes in your design if they make a good point.
    With around 4 years of maining engi behind my back, i can say that this never works out, unless you're good friends with the other person.

    If stats got introduced earlier, i would've had a double digit killcount on my shovel, just from killing other engies who attacked me for fixing their minecraft creative mode FOBs
    Last edited by IMMASPACENINJA; 11-19-2019 at 01:02 PM.

  7. #17
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    Nice guide. Really could use some pics of your "ideal" FOB for reference.

  8. #18
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    I'm a bit late but I'm here to say that this is a really good guide. People complaining about the length of the guide won't have the patient to do FOB duty. When I play as medic if I see that there are no medics doing FOB duty I always stay to help. By the way one of the best round I ever had was a round with no action, staying behind cades just chatting with everyone. We were playing Ice...and yep it was a long round but we got a nice little party there while defending the FOB and waiting for the round to end. I moved from the frontline to the FOB giving info updates for the rearguard and I even did a pizza delivering.

  9. #19
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    Lol I remember playing with you as a deployed CT and feeding you supplies, every time I went back to the southwest corner of the Big Red spaceport there was a new line of cades and another sentry. I later had some fun with a lurker and went to look at the three sentry monstrosity and found two runners and a lurker and a spitter scout the flank you were guarding by yourself (with two sentries and an m56d) and proceed to fuck off. One the highlights of my play.

  10. #20
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    A very good guide, although I wonder how many people will read it. It can be read in less than an hour and I have certainly spent an hour on worse things.

    It has such valuable information as how there should always be at least one medic at every defended position, because inevitably a marine will run back there because they are wounded and it is a safe place and if there is no medic there, said marine will cry.

    Although here is something to be said about "frontline FOBs" (the jury is still out on whether or not you call these FOBs, creating endless confusion, but think Hydro on LV or Bar on BR) that all SLs should know:
    Never EVER give the RO supply coordinates that lay in a spot the tank/APC will repair, because when those supplies drop on top of the tank they vanish and even if they don't, who will think to look for their ammo under a tank?

    As for attrition rounds, I've seen those really gruelling rounds where 2 marines died for every 1 xeno and the marines still won. 3 marines for 2 xenoes is already hugely favourably and any good FOB defense tends to get around 1 for 1 or even better. This is NOT an argument for people with buckshot loaded running from behind the cadeline, blocking every firing line and getting killed, because that is an easy way to inflate the number of marine deaths... I am just offering some perspective here. If every marine manages to at least take one xeno with them, marines win.

    And don't forget the golden rule: A HEFA nade thrown from a cadeline will hit the entire cadeline, even without an outer layer of sandbags. Some newbie privates don't know this fact. There is no way to prevent this, beyond a Grenadier spec having a 2x scope (if he doesn't he doesn't deserve to exist, to be honest.)

    (Also under point 7, supplies, you used 'experimented' instead of 'experienced'.)

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