Fire Teams and Templar Combinations

[En1gma]

Been really enjoying the Super Boost-In, and have found a few really awesome Templar combinations that make short work of some Xeno. Use this thread to share the Fireteams that work best for you.

I have been using a Leader in the Ranks Soldier alongside two Scouts. One Scout is making good use of Piercing Shot 3, Headshot 3, and Overdrive 2, and he is my 'Floater', as contributor calls them. My other scout will respec into the Bio-Weapons once the crash bug is fixed, but he is more specced for mobility and Stealth, using Crippling Fire 3, Overdrive 3, and Null Field 1. Backing them up is a Leader in the Ranks Long Leviathan, making use of OW 4, Calling Shots 1 (for now), and Rallying Charge 3.
-This crew makes for one HELL of a flank guard, and can very easily switch into high gear in order to accomplish an objective. They are death dealers at range, and I'm loving the combination of 10 MP on my future Bio-Scout alongside his Crippling Fire stripping 3 MP from the Xeno. This allows him to put incredible amounts of distance between himself and threats, keeping him on track as he gets stuff done. He has also been pumping Willpower up as high as his Fortitude, so he can redline fairly safely.
-Oh yeah- the Rallying Charge gives the Scouts +12 Damage, making their already OP weaponry even deadlier.

My other combination that I have been loving is my Hydra/Plasma Rifle Fireteam. Hydra is specced with Napalm Charge 4, Redline Reactor 2, and Napalm Lance 2. The Plasma Rifle has Burst Fire 3, Concuss Grenade 2, and Shredding Fire 2. The Hydra burns an area, and the PR annihilates anything that survives, either by direct fire, OW, or Grenade.

What works for you?

[Brutus Aurelius]

My fireteams depend on the objective. To guard an objective, a Scout specced for Sniper weaponry with Headshot as a primary Talent, Neptune with Suppressing Fire and Full Vent and Stabilize Platform as Buffs works wonders on OW, with a Hydra for extra area denial with Napalm Charge, and with a Leader in the Ranks Soldier rocking Calling Shots and Defensive Stand makes for an epic Defense team. Engineer specced for Fortify Position, Sentries and Heat Sink is optional.

For attacking a Xeno TP, I come loaded for bear, with Plasma Gunners loaded up on Shredding Fire and Concuss-Grenades, with either my Captain or a Leader in the Ranks Soldier to Buff them and give additional support. Engineers are guarded by them, specced for Melee Defense, Power Field, and Capture.

[En1gma]

Love it, Brutus.

Lately I've also been keeping my Engineers right next to my Captain, with at least Grapple 3. They actually deal my highest DPS right now... One thing to this strategy though- a Paladin must be kept nearby to act as meat shield and emergency healer should the Engineer take too much heat/damage

[Brutus Aurelius]

My Paladins are floaters, sent to wherever they are needed. They specialize in Battlefield Healing, with points in Inspiration, Warding Fire, and Shalun's Wrath.

[fallen]

Love this thread, +1 to all posters

[contributor]

I'm trying to think of how to respond to this thread. I hardly even seem to use "fire teams" it seems like my team is almost always spread out holding multiple alleys or in long chains supporting the scout or captain to reach an objective. It's very rare that I have two templars holding the same approach. At the most I pair a turret and a Templar, then I will have somebody who can come in as support. I feel like my strategy is really changing since the beginning and becoming very fluid. In fact I'm having trouble with buffs because I very rarely seem to get two templars next to each other, let alone 3 or 4 in the same place. Maybe I should start a thread on my chain strategy. But yeah I either keep a scout to float between my soldiers or I'm also finding that a Hydra is good for helping multiple soldiers or turrets each hold different approaches. He keeps everyone's approach charged with fresh fire, thus softening up all the incoming mobs and when somebody is really getting overwhelmed he comes in and lays down some Hellfire. Once my engineer is finished capturing TPs and setting up turrets he will also come to the support of a struggling soldier with Power Field and his trusty sidearm. I've even swapped him in to take it on the chin for a turn or two when a soldier is getting down on HP. I don't know if I've just been lucky, but he seems fairly durable.

[Deleted]

I agree, for defense it's all hands on deck spread out with mutually supporting soloists.

For assaults, it's always a core of soldier, scout and engineer. I spec for speed and area control of the TP. Get in get out.

[anvil]

I've noticed something. Playing on normal and hard My games have been of two type, strung out like lurker or "all hands on deck"(balls to the wall might be a closer description)! With rare exception, the concept of small unit tactics is nill in order to win the game ( under the time limit and no casualties).

However, I started a game in easy and found just the opposite. Small unit tactics rule! Fire and maneuver, teamwork, using the strengths of all to offset the weakness of all pay off big time instead of having situations where one or two specialists rule amidst the madness of the normal and above games.

Personally I would like to see your balance in the harder levels focus on small unit tactics. In my mind at these levels, there are two,basic game types. Rourks drift, and "into the valley of death rode the 6". The tactics of both these historical examples prevail.

just my two centavos.

[Brutus Aurelius]

See, I can use all three tactical styles.

For strung out specialists, I use them when I need to hold a position and activate something, such as the 2nd level of Stratos Starport.

Small unit tactics come to mind for the 3rd level of Temple Complex, where I need to capture a Tact Point. I have my Captain, a Soldier, and an Engineer attack the Tact Point, with a Neptune, Hydra and Soldier guarding the first objective. Then, I deploy a Palladian before striking at the main objective from the south and east or west.

All hands on deck defense is what I use while a Stealth Scout activates an objective.

[Cory Trese]

I've got totally no clue what anvil is saying here, I'm afraid.

From our reports, it appears that the measurable metrics of tactics increase as difficulty does.

More so, our own play and reviewed videos of other's player seem to be reflective of that same fact.

Thus, I'm totally confused. Improve tactics seem to be the most necessary of all aspects of mastering the higher difficulty.

On NM, the requirements seem to be as if to make each AP in synchronization to the overall team plan, wasting not a single point to excess or uncoordination.

But then, I'm dumb. Maybe someone can explain it to me. I cannot believe that these metrics indicate the alpha team only plays on nightmare to hope for better dice.

[fallen]

I am playing a different set of levels than the alpha team, but I find that a lot of the emphasis on speed play has been reduced. You'll see my POV in Phase 3 hopefully.

With the new bonus for kills / turn and the addition of secondary objectives to almost every level, there are more strategies to approach the victory. In fact, because of the cap on bonus for beating the turn goal, on some levels you can gain more XP by getting all the secondaries and putting in a really compelling kills / turn rate.

However, you can't get around Heat, lack of availability of healing, and enemy spawning -- these 3 factors mean that as "time on map" increases, "difficulty of map right now" also increases.

[anvil]

sounds like I hit a nerve. I guess I'm doing my job!

I'll spend the day seeing if I can come up with a deeper explanation.

Trust this doesn't mean I don't enjoy the game, nor that it isn't a great challenge at all levels I've played. In fact it is on the way to being one of the finest I've ever played.

Hopfully, one of the reasons we are here is to give you input on the game. like all advice, it's never meant to be taken, it may not apply, or it just may give you a viewpoint you are not aware of.

[anvil]

fallen, what you are saying hits on the head what I'm feeling. I can't wait to try it out. For me, the major focus on winning the level has been finishing under the turn cap and having no losses.

If you don't gain the bonuses to advance in requisition puts you behind by a significant amount. this is critical. less critical is the loss of a squad member, but if losses are more than 1 it causes significant setbacks in the next levels. Thus both tactics and strategy are set by these two factors.

It sounds like release 3 is about to change all of this!

[anvil]

Here's my critique. I believe this is as important for an alpha tester as anything else. Right off the bat I will stress this is my own view and don't claim it's worth any more than that.

My way of testing your game is to create a new team(s) with each release and play each level multiple times. I do not use boost in because this does not give me a good feel for the campaign. I do not reset their values for the same reason. When I start a new team, I reevaluate my strategy for these upgrades.

I'm going to use "Infiltration site" as my example.

As the game is setup now, there are two primary victory conditions. To beat the set time and to take no losses. If you can do this you will be able to upgrade your troops attributes,skills,equipment, talents and maximize all his earned glory.

One of your prime skills being balance, I'm pretty sure if you finish the level on time or or longer, and if you lose too many troops, that sometime in the future you will be unable to continue as the enemy has advanced beyond your abilities. I don't know this, but strongly suspect this is apart of your balance.


Infiltration site.

After the last two releases I learned that speed, as usual, is critical. So the captain buffs all for a move point and the scouts buff for what their level will give them. This falls in a range of 8-10 mp for the scouts. The goal here is to activate the engineer as quickly as possible. Depending on the level securing the bottom stairs til the captain passes that point may or may not be critical.

The first"chance" point is securing the elevator to activate the engineer. The diverse ways to activate this are many. From 3 in the red, to one in the red, one in the stairs and one in front of him to many more combinations. I've concluded this trigger is random and critical in the timing of the game. Depending on the dice I may have three protecting the engineer on the way to the first TP or just the one soldier. To wait depends on your level. Easy, wait. Hard, pays your money and takes your chances. Hard, nope, no way, snooze you lose. I've learned on hard Zeno spawning in the open around the TP is not high for a turn or so, thus break thru the passage and hit the TP asap. If not, you lose.

The second "chance" point is how long it takes the engineer to secure the tp and to take the extra turn to activate it,,, the secondary objective. On easy it's a no brainer, but exciting never the less. So at this point everybody sorta hangs out waiting out the chance determined # of turns til the engineer is done.

On normal and hard I have secured this TP in 10-14 +one more turns for the secondary objective. 16 turns is the victory limit.

The third "chance" point. It takes the engineer 2 turns to reach the second TP. On easy both TP'S are secured within ~2 turns each. On normal, within ~3-5 replays of the game you will win as stated above. I go for the secondary objective and the replays. On hard, I'm sure somewhere in the % chance of securing both plus the secondary objective is within your probability. However for me, and possibly just "bad dice", in 7-8 replays I've not succeed. If I give up the secondary objective, a minor concern, I have no problem winning the game meaning no casualties and below the time limit. I didn't detail the steps in securing the two TP's (80%>,60%>etc) but I have noted it well. On hard when the engineer beings the second TP, it's often at 80% and I know I've lost.

I believe this is representative of most levels. Basically understand your balance, learn the chance points, replay until you win.

Within the scope of learning your balance, there is some tactical choice, but it's limited.

Thus my statement as to wishing you would expand your superb grasp of balance and mathematics to expand the ability for a more diverse use of tactics by we players.

I believe with limited victory conditions, your honing balance finer and finer increases these tactical limits.

I had mentioned this in a previous post an fallen indicated changes along these lines would happen in Rev 3. He mentioned killing zenos, secondary objectives as a few examples. If these were balanced against the benefits of bonus points, well that would be superb!

[fallen]

anvil - thanks for the feedback. The wide array of tactical challenges (fast travel, return with an engineer, take a simple tact point, take a foritifed tact point) are the kind of challenges we like to spread across a level. The game will continue to focus on completing these without Templar loss and definitely speed will always play to your advantage. Glad to hear you're finding different ways of tackling each level, that's great!

I still don't understand the idea that triggering the engineer is random, but everyone sees it different I just look at the proximity trigger implementation and it is clearly very determinant.