Whiskey Outpost

Whiskey Outpost is a alternative map and game mode featured on Colonial Marines. On this map the crew of the USS Sulaco were forced to abandon ship, the survivors being able to rally to a abandoned military outpost. The Marines must hold out for a hour until reinforcements arrive to rescue them, the Aliens must wipe out the Marine force before more Marines arrive to their world. This is a fight for survival, and neither side can afford to give one quarter.

The Outpost

Whiskey Outpost

The outpost is a heavily fortified military base. It is well situated as any attacks can only assault from the south of the base. The base is will equipped with a large array of automated sentry guns and mannable Smartgun weapon posts, however the base is not fully fortified for a incoming assault. The Marine forces will need to spend their time rapidly establishing barricades and similar defences before the vanguard xeno forces arrive.

There are three main routes into the base. The west side, through a heavy jungle environment, the central area which is a mix of rivers, jungle and open terrain, and the east side through mostly open terrain broken up by dropship debris. Each entry way has two lines of defence, the first line which consists of barricades and manned Smartguns, and a second line which consists of a line of barricades and automated Sentry Guns.

The outpost itself is centred around a central medbay/command post. Surrounded by engineering areas and barracks. The outer perimeter of the outpost is surrounded by barricades and manned Smartgun emplacements. The medbay/command post entrance is guarded by a array of Sentry Guns and a Smartgun emplacement. The west side of the base also contains a resupply pad that will receive resupply crates.

The Lore

Whiskey Outpost, the Military facility nobody wants to be deployed to is surrounded in thick undergrowth and bushes like you've never seen before. According to the data logs before this area was a military base there was a small village, which help explains the remnants of metal structures in figure 1. The crashed dropship as seen in figure 1 was previously sent by the USS Alistoun to try and evac as many of the non-combat personnel as possible, however that didn't go according to plan; instead the pilot crashed after the dropship was hit by a cloud of acid during it's descent which dissolved most of the aft thrusters, causing the dropship to spiral out of control, plummeting towards the ground with the pilot and the relief forces still inside. Upon hearing the crash the defenders ran over to the crash site to try and save any possible survivors, although they all knew deep down what had become of the survivors if there were any.

The USS Alistoun was diverted from a previous mission to get to [Redacted], Whiskey Outpost which meant that they still had to refuel and repair all of their dropships except one. When the USS Alistoun arrived they only had one operational dropship with fuel which wasn't damaged too badly, this lead to it being sent to try and distribute relief forces at Whiskey Outpost and to evacuate any non-combat personnel possible; during it's descent however it was severely damaged and lost with all hands upon trying to get to Whiskey Outpost. Due to the loss of their dropship the USS Alistoun's crew were trying to repair the other remaining dropships and fighters as quickly as possible so that they could provide close air support (CAS) and also be ready to evacuate the Whiskey Outpost survivors before they were overrun. The USS Alistoun sent supplies down wherever possible using the Supply pad as a effective target for their crate drops, the reason why the crates received on that day were a random assortment were due to how the USS Alistoun was running out of supplies in general due to being deployed at a previous combat mission where the standard issue supplies had been used up pretty heavily.

The USS Alistoun is also loaded up with four HA-117 Stingray Combat Interceptor which is an advanced orbital fighter designed to attack and destroy battlecruiser class starships, their close air support tactics rely mainly on squad leaders using their laser designators to designate targets so they can lock on with their onboard computer, otherwise if they do it manually they run the risk of causing friendly fire.

Figure 1: Evidence from the Incident on [Redacted]

You stare at the nearby scrunched up paper on the Liaison's desk back at [Redacted]. You think to yourself, what's the harm in having a look? He's out at a meeting anyway..It's not like it'd be important anyway considering it's scrunched up. You begin unravelling this paper mystery in a vain hope to quench your curiosity. What appears once you opened it shocks you to the bone. It's from [Redacted] at what looks like to be the old military compound? Surely the Liaison wouldn't have hid this for all these years since the incident? What was so important that happened there? Why throw it away now?

The Marines

The Marine forces don't feature any massively significant changes to their playstyle unlike the Xenomorphs, but there are some facets that are changed that will affect Marines slightly. Listed below are the most major changes to individual job roles.

• Specialists - Specialists are mostly unchanged. However, all Specialist players will spawn in fully equipped with basic armour and a SMG in a holster. in addition they will spawn with a randomly selected Specialist weapon in their hands, this can range from a Smartgun to a Grenade Launcher. You have no choice in your weapon selection. For ammo you'll need to ask your Squad Leader for a resupply crate if you run low.
• Squad Leader - As a Squad Leader you have access to five unique resupply beacons that can be used to send for more supplies, ammo or mines. In addition later in the round you may get access to a laser designator, this will let you call in a air strike that will launch a massive naplam and missile strike on your target area in a horizontal direction.
• Doctor/Medic - While Doctors and Medic gameplay remains unchanged, however the medical staff have access to unique Medical Sleeper Pods in the medbay. These machines can be used to automatically repair a Marines fractured bones. While it takes longer than doing the surgery manually, as each fracture usually takes four or so minutes to fix, but these nonetheless are life saving when you are being overwhelmed in casualties.
• Military Police/Honor Guard - The Military Police are renamed into the 'Honor Guard'. As a Honor Guard you spawn with with access to a M4RA Marksman rifle and a lot of ammo for the weapon. You act as the Commanders ace in the hole. You'll typically be sent to reinforce areas needing extra help, though you may also be acting independently and helping in areas needing help.
• Commander/XO - Commanders are mostly unchanged, however you'll be far more involved and 'hands on' when directing Marine forces. While this gives you more ability to fight in the field, but your command ability is even more important. Its your job to direct Marine squads to defend the base and shore up weak points. The Commander can get access to a old generation M41A Pulse Rifle, with the full 99 rounds per magazine.

The Marine forces must hold out for a hour against the Xenomorph assault. If successful they will be evacuated by the USS Alistoun, and shortly afterwards the planet will be assaulted by the USS Alistoun's veteran marine forces to re-take the military compound.

Supplies

While the USS Alistoun's crew are still an hour out repairing their main dropships, you can still get assistance from the USS Alistoun as their fighters, such as the HA-117 Stingray Combat Interceptor can provide Close air support, however they do require a laser to be used at the desired location so that they can lock on to the target as the Ha-117 was never meant to hit fast moving ground targets, it was developed to take out battlecruiser class starships in squad formations so it uses the laser from the laser designator to make sure the payload is as accurate as it can as well as that it can also prevent friendlies from being hit in the dense jungle, in practice it doesn't always work. Every wave you'll receive a random assortment of resupply crates at the bases resupply pad located to the west of medbay/command (The supply pad can be seen below). In addition Squad Leaders will eventually be able to call in air strikes when the Marine air forces have refueled on the USS Alistoun.

This is the Whiskey Outpost supply pad where a assortment of crates will be dropped off each wave to help you as a marine survive the xeno hordes which are incoming to your position. On the right you'll see a Recycler, this allows you to recycle crates into metal to help build defences in this time of need. To use the recycler push a crate on top of the recycler then click on the recycler and the crate will be melted and crushed into metal sheets for you to use.

The Xenomorphs

The Aliens see several major changes to their playstyle in order to suit this game mode. These changes are as follows.

• The Aliens do not get a Queen, or any Facehuggers. More Aliens will spawn every single wave. Aliens are expected to throw themselves at the Marine defences. In order to play as a Alien you must manually take control of a body when they spawn.
• More powerful Aliens will spawn in later waves. Early waves will see the Aliens stuck with young level Runners and Sentinals. Later rounds will see later tiers of Xenomorphs spawning. The final waves usually see a large amount of Elite and Ancient Aliens spawn among all tiers.
• Aliens do not heal on weeds outside of healing out of critical damage. Retreating does you no good.
• Aliens cannot evolve or upgrade their Aliens. You play as what you spawned in as.

Overall, Aliens are a lot more expendable in Whiskey Outpost than standard play. You are expected to throw yourself at the Marine defences, though try and exploit weak points in the Human defences. Don't be afraid to die as you'll be dying a lot as a Alien in this game mode.

Alien Strategy

The game can roughly be divided into three parts. The Early Game (scouting phase), the Mid Game (offensive phase) and the End Game (annihilation phase).

In the Early Game the Xeno forces consist only of scouting xenomorphs, large amounts of Runners and some Sentinels and Drones that reached the Human base first. Eventually being joined by light amounts of Hunters and Spitters. In the Early Game the Aliens should focus on pressuring the outer Human defences and trying to kill as many Humans as they can, the more dead Humans, the more people that will be playing as a Xeno. In this stage of the game the Alien forces are very weak and won't likely overrun the Human defenders.

The Mid Game begins roughly when the "Vanguard" Alien forces arrive, this occurs after the mid-game lull occurs (Marine bombers delay xeno spawns, giving Marines a moment or relief). At this point the Xeno forces consist entirely of Hunters, Spitters and Drones with some Sentinel and Runner support. At this point of the game the Aliens become a very dangerous force, unprepared the Aliens can quickly overrun underdefended outposts and many Xenos can easily slip by and harass the central base. Eventually tier 3 Aliens will begin to appear, adding to the threat of the Alien forces. In this stage of the game the Aliens should focus on overrunning the forward defensive lines and opening up the map to Alien movement.

The End Game begins when the full Alien force arrives, and usually occur within the last ten to twenty minutes of the round. At this point most Aliens will spawn in as Elite or Ancient, and you'll start to see a ridiculous amount of Tier 3 xenos, such as dozens of Ancient Crushers, Ravagers and Praetorians. At this junction the Xenomoprhs are so powerful that they can quickly roll over the remaining Marine defenders in most cases. There is little strategy at this stage, your only goal now is to try and kill the remaining Marines before their reinforcements arrive.

The Aliens must wipe out the Marine force before a hour elapses. If the Aliens succeed they will ward off any further Marine forces from landing, fail and the planet will be assaulted by the USS Alistoun's veteran marine forces to re-take the military compound.