12 heavily armed colonists, one raider with moltov cocktails. Guess who wins?

[AnActualDuck]

Don't assume, "Well he just must not be doing X. If he did X he'd have won"

I literally had my gunners drawing fire in one direction while I took my melee people around back to get a better drop on him so he wouldn't have time to throw moltovs. I was moving people around, re-positioning, and attempting to work around my base, I even fell back for a moment and instead of coming out he just stayed there and started hucking moltovs all over. The more I would try to move away and get him to re-position the more he'd just start setting things on fire. As much as I had things in stone at this point, I simply didn't have everything and I wanted to prevent all the collateral damage, which is perfectly reasonable for someone to assume they could accomplish given the circumstances presented.

Trust me, micromanagement is and will always be used.

[BetaSpectre]

Don't assume, "Well he just must not be doing X. If he did X he'd have won"

I literally had my gunners drawing fire in one direction while I took my melee people around back to get a better drop on him so he wouldn't have time to throw moltovs. I was moving people around, re-positioning, and attempting to work around my base, I even fell back for a moment and instead of coming out he just stayed there and started hucking moltovs all over. The more I would try to move away and get him to re-position the more he'd just start setting things on fire. As much as I had things in stone at this point, I simply didn't have everything and I wanted to prevent all the collateral damage, which is perfectly reasonable for someone to assume they could accomplish given the circumstances presented.

Trust me, micromanagement is and will always be used.

Kind of curious about the pawn in question, was it RNG, Glitch, or was it just pure stats.

I've had my own times when a pawn just got lucky and got off from a salvo or two, The minigun honestly kind of sucks outside of a tailored situation. But I haven't found a time when a single pawn could wreck havok against an entire colony. The next time it would be appreciated if you gave a video or told us more details about the event it never hurts to do so.

[Shurp]

OK, the thing about melee doesn't quite make sense.  You said you sent in four guys to chop him up.  Now, what took down those four guys?  If they were on top of him and he hit them with a Molotov then he should have caught fire too.  Which means he should have gone down as fast as your guys.  The only way your guys would have gone down first is if they got cut to pieces by friendly fire -- which makes sense, because if your melee fighters are beating on him your ranged fighters will hit them instead of the target.  (any opportunity for collateral damage heavily blocks actual targets)

[DirectorBright]

Molotov and grenade troopers do tend to be the most annoying thing in the game, explosives are the bane of your existence in any circumstance. I once had my best colony die instantly because someone shot a triple rocket launcher, and I made the mistake of bunching up.

A good defensive strategy is to arm your troops with precision weapons, like survival or sniper rifles, then spread your troops out behind sandbag walls and actual walls, with a line of turrets in front of them. The turrets distract enemy forces and keep them within the snipers effective range, and they're quite powerful when you use around five or six of them. Just remember to keep them spread out as well to avoid explosives.

[Shurp]

Yup, this is how I usually play.  I often don't even build defenses for my colonists.  They stand out in the open and plink while the pirates attack the turrets in front of them. 

But obviously this doesn't work if you've chosen (as many do) to play without turrets.  Then you have a real challenge, and you have to turn and run before someone carrying explosives gets in range.

I'm starting to think maybe I should try playing a turretless game... though I would have to seriously drop the difficulty level.  Which might make more traders show up with more steel for guns and armor.... *hmmmm*

[SymbolicFrank]

Well, it starts with making melee combat practically usable while guns exist. Enter the magical shield and that every combat in adjacent cells defaults to melee.

Guns should be close range only, to give those melee users a fair chance.

Next up is machine guns being overpowered: make them so inaccurate that they very rarely hit anything. 

Sniper rifles should be peashooters, because you get "free" shots while the enemy is closing the distance, and they should be very inaccurate at short range.

And lastly, explosives and incendiaries, being area weapons, should do about as much total damage to every tile in that area combined, as any other weapon.

For Balance! To make it all just as effective!

[DirectorBright]

Well, it starts with making melee combat practically usable while guns exist. Enter the magical shield and that every combat in adjacent cells defaults to melee.

Guns should be close range only, to give those melee users a fair chance.

Next up is machine guns being overpowered: make them so inaccurate that they very rarely hit anything. 

Sniper rifles should be peashooters, because you get "free" shots while the enemy is closing the distance, and they should be very inaccurate at short range.

And lastly, explosives and incendiaries, being area weapons, should do about as much total damage to every tile in that area combined, as any other weapon.

For Balance! To make it all just as effective!

Or just make the really good guns super expensive and rare, because they're really good.