View Full Version : What am I doing wrong?
BunnyMind
01-24-2010, 10:26
Well hello there...
I'm new to AA and never played Spess Hulk, so I'm having a bit of a problem with the tactical side of things.
To put it frankly, I suck. Bad. Can't even make it past the tutorials. Failure to the Emprah, and all that jazz. My strategy so far has been to huddle in a corner and just shoot at the bugs as they pop out, but this has been failing pretty miserably, mostly because my Spess Mehrens keep breaking the popsickle sticks on their rubber band guns.
Any sort of tips would be appreciated!
Black Dog
01-24-2010, 11:36
Don't huddle in a corner, the numbers are against you. Keep as much distance between the aliens and your shooters as you can. Don't forget it costs you nothing to shoot when you move. Keep as much distance between the aliens and your shooters as you can. If you have the luxury, double up overwatches whenever you can. Keep as much distance between the aliens and your shooters as you can. Learn from experience when to be defensive and when to be aggressive. Keep as much distance between the aliens and your shooters as you can. When you get lots of command points you can sometimes turn them into a breakthrough. Keep as much distance between the aliens and your shooters as you can. Don't waste a flame on a single alien unless you really have to.
I think that will do for starters... PS we all get a good caneing from the aliens, you just have to keep trying different strategies.
the_Fifth_Horseman
01-24-2010, 12:59
First two things to remember are the "rule of six" and the "rule of seven".
Rule of Six: If an alien is six moves from you (remember they can move diagonally and opening doors costs them an action), you're safe from it.
Rule of seven: If a blip is seven moves from you (including same thing about diagonal moves and doors), you're safe from it.
Aliens have to spend one point turning to face your guys, but what about a "full blip"? By which I mean a converted blip, one that shows up as a bright red dot on the radar. Does that blip still have to spend an action point turning like visible aliens? Or does it not have to turn until the alien is visible?
the_Fifth_Horseman
01-24-2010, 15:54
Aliens have to spend one point turning to face your guys, but what about a "full blip"? By which I mean a converted blip, one that shows up as a bright red dot on the radar. Does that blip still have to spend an action point turning like visible aliens? Or does it not have to turn until the alien is visible?
It doesn't have to, IIRC.
Also, the aliens only have to spend one point if turning 180*. A 90* turn is free for them.
Bunny: I have really adopted the tactic of always move around my soldiers. Really consider every single round as a new possibility to optimize your positions. In the beginning you might want to disable the round timer for this purpose.
In the tutorials, during your second encounter with the enemy when you have two men this is a really good map of training this approach. I guess newbies choose a corner and hope the dices will be with them but instead concentrate on the closest blip and focus both marines on that one so that you optimize your chances. Once killed or if it take another path reevaluate the situation again and reposition your men to cover another corridor and try to get as many shots possible of the enemy once they attack. Rooms and junctions are your best shots here. Good luck.
BunnyMind
01-24-2010, 17:38
Thanks for the responses!
Knowing that the bugs get a set amount of action points helps quite a lot, and I'll try mixing in some more aggressive tactics next time I play.
the_Fifth_Horseman
01-24-2010, 17:53
Oh, and by the way... Move & Fire. God's gift to the players.
No, really. It doesn't get Sustained Fire bonus, but you can use it to keep firing at the enemies as you advance, and there's a possibility you'll take out one (sometimes, two) on the way -> that's one (or two) less to bother with later.
BunnyMind
01-24-2010, 18:27
Oh, and one other thing I forgot to ask, how do you unlock other weapons?
I'm currently at the "Kill 30 aliens" tutorial mission, and I had all my termies standing in the hallways near the alien spawns so that two of them were shooting at each alien as they popped out, which was going quite well until all of my guns simultaneously passed warranty and started jamming with every shot (for the rest of that match, at least three termies had jams every round, most rounds had all five).
Thirty aliens is quite a lot to kill with guns which I'm getting the impression are held together by dried toothpaste and electrical tape.
Or maybe the computer is using loaded dice... Don't you need to roll like two threes to jam?
the_Fifth_Horseman
01-24-2010, 18:57
I guess I should have specifically mentioned it in the tutorials, since you're hardly the first person to ask that question.
You don't "unlock" other weapons. You only have access to them if the mission specifically has some assigned to your troops OR if is set to permit Unlimited Armoury (which is what it says on the can: you have free pick of whichever weapons you want to use).
The guns only jam when you roll a double - which means about 1/6th chance of a jam every time you fire.
http://www.random.org/analysis/dilbert.jpg
Due to how the random number generation works, every now and then you get five doubles in a row.
It doesn't have to, IIRC.
Also, the aliens only have to spend one point if turning 180*. A 90* turn is free for them.
Wow, I didn't know those rules. That explains why I tend to miscount how many APs an alien has. Now maybe I can avoid a lot of ugly melees.
Orgetorix
01-24-2010, 19:03
The best piece of advice I can give you is economy of movement. Use your movement points in the most efficient way possible. Always shoot doors, never if you can help it open a door face on, but kitty corner. That allows you multiple shots at the door before you have to use the Action Point to open it. Never move straight into a square if you can help it, always move at a diagonal. That action point spent at the end of the round to change facing when your marine is block from moving forward can just save you later on.
alex3337
01-24-2010, 19:25
I guess some information is required if you've never player Space Hulk before.
Basics (movement):
Marines have 4 Action Points (AP). You can move forward, or in diagonal for 1 AP. It takes 1 AP to turn 90deg. It takes 2 AP to move backwards. You can't move sideways.
In addition to the 4 AP per soldier, you get 1-6 Command Points (CP). You can spend these in any way you want: all in a single soldier, or spread over.
Aliens have 6 AP. Plus, they can turn 90deg for free.
That means: if you're 7 squares away from an alien, you're safe. Counting squares is the basics for survival. Move forward so that you keep your 7-square distance, and let them come to you. Then shoot them in your own turn.
If you roll a lot of CP (4 to 6), then you can really advance on them, using move & fire (see below) instead of letting them come to you.
Basics (shooting):
Firing a weapon takes 1 AP (except the flamer, which takes 2). You roll 2 dices, you hit if either one rolls 6. If you fire again on the same target (without moving), you now hit on a 5. If you fire again, then you hit on a 4 ...
That's called sustained fire.
You can also move & fire. That is: after each move action (including turning 90 deg) you get a free shot. This free shot will only hit on a 6, and doesn't count towards sustained fire.
The average is 2 sustained shots to kill an alien. The regular 4 AP will let you kills 2 of them, with 4 extra CP you can usually clean up a corridor with 4 aliens ...
Overwatch: it's that over-estimated maneuver in which your soldiers will fire at anything that moves in their line of fire (LOF). Since it's rapid-fire, the weapon will jam if both dices roll the same (on a double 6 you still kill the target, but jam anyway).
The tutorial missions 4 and 5 will offer plenty of opportunity to practice those. Once you have really mastered them, you're ready to keep going.
Do you use overwatch Alex? I'm trying to get away from it, not being so reliant on it for surviving the enemy round, and being more aggressive. Unfortunately it can result in a lot of dead comrades if you don't peg that bug with your last AP. But I just hate wasting APs on clearing jams.
alex3337
01-24-2010, 20:30
I do use overwatch, but only if I have the AP to spend on it. It does get you some "free" shots after all (an average of 4-5 shots before you jam). But it will end up costing you 3 AP (2 to set OW, 1 to clear jam in the next turn). For those 3 AP, you may just as well shoot them using sustained fire.
With those 5 OW shots you'll kill about the same number of bugs as with the 3 sustained shots, ut you may get lucky and not jam ...
Of course, if they're not in the LOF, then you can't do anything else than set OW ... or if you're advancing on an infested corridor with bugs around the corner.
The big risk about relying only on the 6-square rule is facing too many aliens at once, or a low CP roll, so you can't clear the corridor. If the spawn rate is high, tactics have to adapt.
Something I've learned:
Corners and T-junctions are the most dangerous areas in the game. The worst is when the blips wait at the corner and don't come in to view. Then of course since I'm too close I have to send a guy around the corner after them, which usually results in running out of AP before I can kill all the bugs, so he has to duke it out in melee. Which means death. So if there are blips near a corner, I'd hang back and make them come into view or have a flamer there to cover it.
Horseman is correct, turning 90 cost 0 AP, turning 180 cost 1 AP.
Alex: Yes, it is funny how similar our rules are with that Space Hulk board game. ;)
BunnyMind: If you still think the game is hard you could use some cheats to unlock all weapons in the armoury until you've learned how to play the game. If so, check the cheat thread here on the forum.
vBulletin® v3.8.0, Copyright ©2000-2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
0