Dealing with Mechanoids WITHOUT Kill-Boxes

[TwixFunSize]

Throughout my experiences in Rimworld Mechaniods have always been a challenge for me, As I have never found a good way to dealing with Them. I was wondering if anyone had a good strategy to dealing with Mechaniods without using a kill-box. All Feedback is Appreciated!

[RickyMartini]

Centipedes have a very long loadup time. This can be exploited by popping in and out of a corner and just hide when they start shooting. Obviously this only works limited. The bigger the number of mechanoids the trickier the "hiding". It mostly works in the beginning.

If you have some good and quick brawlers, you can have a melee fight with scythers. Just know that scythers are actually very melee skilled so don't expect it to go unpunished when having only one colonist attack a scyther. Also, don't fight scythers by just marching your colonists in front of them. Their blaster have a nice range and are very accurate.

You only need to have one colonist in a bad position and they get their arms blasted away from 25+ tiles.

Close combat with scythers is always cool. Close combar with centipedes, not so cool.

Also, the cntipede with inferno cannon is the first centipede you want to take out. The inferno cannon can set a whole drafted group on fire and scatter them across the battlefield burning. Also, when playing next to your base, they can set a good amount of your base on fire during the gunfight.

[Xanting]

Defense in depth strategies as well as equipping your colonists with long range weapons works well in my experience. Instead of having a strong line of a billion turrets I place turrets throughout my base and fall back as they are destroyed. The main purpose of these turrets is to distract the mechnoids as I plink away at them with my colonists from slightly farther away as enemies of all types seem to prioritize turrets over colonists especially if they are farther away by even a few tiles with the exception of the one with the inferno cannon which seems to prefer shooting areas not on fire and may choose to shoot colonists. The best way to deal with that is to simply spread your colonists out and micromanage them as it fires. If you don't have turrets handy like if your assaulting a crashed space ship part then I find shielded colonists behind good cover a good distraction for your other colonists to shoot with impunity, again inferno cannons make this a problem but some clever micromanagement can minimize this problem.

I only really have a problem with the ones with the inferno cannons, Sythers can be deadly against colonists in open ground and even cover but they are fairly fragile compared to the centipedes. Centipedes with their rapid fire weapons are usually more bark then bite as at range they can barely hit the broad side of a barn or more commonly they will hit EVERYTHING except the thing they are trying to shoot at. I have seen centipedes shoot at a turret surrounded for a good five minutes before they managed to kill it. With that said at close range they can be extremely dangerous.

[TLHeart]

learn the range of your weapons, and theirs. The charge lance has a range of 37, that is what the scythers use. The charge blaster, and inferno cannon both have a range of 27... but the fire spreads another 3 cells.

Do not attack them in a group, but spread out for different angels...takes a lot of micro, but they will shot at one target, which gives you time to land some hits before they retarget, always retreat the targeted colonist, let the rest keep shooting. 

If you are fight the mechs from the evil ship part, until that ship part is below 50% none of the mechs can leave, they are tethered to the ship... find how far out they will come, as it does change, and then just stand 1 tile out of their  range and kill them.  Same goes for mech from the ancient structure, they are tethered to the pods, until the pods are opened.

[Xanting]

Sniper rifles can be invaluable in dealing with crashed ship parts as you can shoot from outside their aggro range safely. I think the best part of mechnoids is that they do not attempt to take cover giving you good chances to hit them compared to other enemies. I usually celebrate when i see mechnoids as it means free plasteel and the steel that I loose from them destroying my turrets is usually gotten back from their corpses.

[jega]

Sniper rifles are invaluable for dealing with Mechanoids. They also got their range buffed to 45 tiles in A11.

[Dr. Z]

Shoot at them with guns. Always helps 

But seriously: Scythers are not a big deal once you have them at close range and a higher number because of their slow fire rate. Centipedes just need A LOT of bullets to hit them with.

My best strategy (not A11 tested) was to place a colonists near them at the edge of a 2-3 tile wall. When they target him, move him out of their vision. They will have to end targeting before beeing able to select another target (this is where A11's job interruption might kick in). Once they target one of the shooters, move him back. This way I could fire at mechanoids without really beeing fired at, although you might need to figure out the right timing.

[ZestyLemons]

Well equip melee colonists are really good against Scythers. Seriously.

I had one Assassin colonist who wielded a legendary plasteel sword while clad in power armor. He was an absolute tank - he lost a few limbs, but bionics only made him stronger.

[Euzio]

Sniper Rifles are definitely your best friend since you can shoot them out of their aggro range. Best if you can outfit your pawns with at least 2 or 3 sniper rifles.

However, there are times when the RNG screws you up and you get an evil ship pretty early in the game. In which case chances of you acquiring a sniper rifle is very remote. A backup option would be the Great Bow. It also has the capability to hit outside their aggro range, though for less accuracy and damage.

[killer117]

I tend to plave my base into an indent in a mountain, a corner, or anywhere where ur base is in a corner, and has only one way to be attacked. Then u set up a wall, put up turrets and sandbag defenses as u want, and maybe use mortars if u want. Thrn when the enemy attacks u have everyone set up outside with the turrets only to help them. That way its an even fight. U make use of all ur advantages, but arent just rellying on the turrets, which are only there to support ur troops