Evil Ships

[hunter2012]

hunting rifles and micro

[Kaballah]

I refer you to the Crashed Ship Part Destroyer.  You're welcome.

I was not able to get an enclosure anywhere near cold enough to make this work.  I am sad.

[Beathrus]

I just send out my colonist with the best shooting; armed with a sniper rifle and backed up by someone with melee. Pop a few shots into it, then run as soon as something jumps out. Head back to base, have colonist at the ready and defenses on and let it roll. Once the stuff dies, just send someone else with a grenade to finish off the ancient part, easy win.

[antibodee]

The cooler method is awesome.  I had no idea they were susceptible to cold.  Usually computers run better in the cold.

Surrounding the ship with turrets on all sides will cause the scythers to run in circles, but the centipedes will still attack.

Mortaring the hell out of the ship until they attack works as well.

The absolutely easiest method if it is available to you, sniper rifles.  Two snipers of at least shooting skill 10 taking cover behind wall/rock from their max distance they can hit from can take out about 10 scythers before they are even hit as long as you focus fire correctly.  Cover and distance are crucial to this strat.

I find EMPS practically useless personally, but I haven't been able to use the grenades or mortars effectively. 

Fire seems to be tricky on them.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but if there is a side of the ship that isn't covered, having someone with regular grenades actually using the ship for cover, and force attacking works well also.

Never send your pawns into direct combat without a sold plan. I've seen 2 scythers take our 4 guys with four shots.

[Cassey]

If you put a circle of turrets around the "Evil Ship" the AI will often freak out and not now which one to attack if the turrets are evenly spaced out and far enough. It sounds cheap but I don't think it is because those buggers are tough as hell, and realistically a computer machine like that needs to be taken out by brains, not bronze. So basically I put at least 6 turrets around them, always have enough steel ready for this event, and place my colonists and few steps behind the turrets, so they don't get killed.

Hope this helps.

I've been playing with variations on this: http://puu.sh/hoaFO/c7215da71c.jpg

The turrets are too close to each other, but the basic premise is kind of working.  I set one colonist at the down the line from the opening and fire at the ship.  The turrets tend to take out the one or two that pop up in the corridor - typically when they explode.  The colonist can then pick off the ship.  After that... well, its gets iffy.  On real day 3 trying to survive this without colonist loss.  Going to try spreading them out more and doing more of the surrounding.

[antibodee]

It's been said on these boards multiple times that sandbags don't block shots at turrets, but I see tons of people that do build them around it anyways.  Can I get a confirmation on this either way?

[Nasikabatrachus]

It's been said on these boards multiple times that sandbags don't block shots at turrets, but I see tons of people that do build them around it anyways.  Can I get a confirmation on this either way?

it would also be useful to slow down enemies meleeing the turrets

[Kelian]

Well I may be lazy but I usually have my base built into a mountain with an outer perimeter wall and mortars in the courtyard. I'll blow the ships up with mortar fire (incendiaries mostly), let them rush my entrance and have the turrets take out a few on their way in. My entrance is long and only five tiles wide so I can funnel them into my base and that itself is the kill zone. Colonists use the rooms and hallways I've built for cover and to navigate away from the mech mob. One on one in the hallways and room to room I'll knock them off, usually taking a few injuries and maybe one or two killed.

My biggest challenge is if I have two or more centipedes make it in my base. Then things get a little dicey and I tend to lose half or three quarters of my crew to grievous injuries but hey, no strategy is perfect.

[Pathing]

You can't use temperature against them anymore due to temperature leak.

Easy way: wall it up with 1 turret inside. After your turret shoots ship, they all will go out on your turret tile. You can clear other side of wall by deconstructing or shooting by turret to make 1 hole then destroy ship with turrets or colonists. After the ship is destroyed they will charge at your colony, if you have a kill-box, they will be your resources.
Non - profit way - use collapsed roof.

Strong temperature leak means that some mods that offer extreme temperature condition such as ice sheet mod may be impossible to play since your base temperature is forced to be something near 100 C.

[Aarkreinsil]

Triple rocket launchers. Nuff said.

Centipedes etc. only have a 20% armor rating against explosions, but a whopping 80% or so vs bullets. Just grab a few rocket launchers or nades and you're golden xD

But yeah, the mortar technique was fun back when you didn't have to actually use shells in them.

[Pathing]

I just tested the mortars built by be-siegers.
First shell, I hit evil ship down to 91% compared to 100 shells in alpha 8 and no hit.
Mortars are really useful for taking down the ship now. confirm! 

I guess the next thing is building a maze and shoot attackers using mortars 

[Tobias]

Mortars are really useful for taking down the ship now. confirm! 
I guess the next thing is building a maze and shoot attackers using mortars 

Yes, mortars are a neat toy.
Build a granite maze with a couple of small rooms and stone doors, so the attacker gather in front of the doors. The bomb the hell out of them with your mortars. Might still need a small gun killzone, but a direct mortar hit can take out a whole invasion crew with a single hit.

[mokonasakura]

Reviving the post. Snipers no longer work because they will not run at you if you can shoot them, mortars are still garbage and should never be used. EMP works one time and then your guy no longer has a weapon. Inferno cannon screws over anyone hiding behind cover. So I'll ask  how do you deal with late game evil ships without doing cheaty tactics such as walling it off.

[b0rsuk]

Have you tried surrounding the ship with IED (mortar shell) traps ?

[kahlzun]

There is also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzA-6OrLPas
Wooden beds are cheap and will turn the inside into a stove.

Not sure if the table on the corner is neccessary, but it's cheap.

Sadly not my idea. I have discovered you can ignite the beds with molotovs or incendiary launchers, you don't need to waste a whole IED, you just need to shoot the wall (splash damage carries the fire through).
Don't know how this would work with additional spawns, does the ship just send them out once, even at high levels?