Give up or fight?

Started by Silvador, April 24, 2016, 06:22:28 AM

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Silvador

I've just had a siege rock up on my map and I'm ill equipped to deal with it. I drafted my two colonists with a high shooting skill and sent them out in the hopes that I could at least down one or two enemy pawns. But they quickly took hits from one guy with a shotgun and are now bound for hospital beds until healed, likely at least a couple of days.

No one else has a shooting skill above 2, and some are incapable of shooting. And most of my buildings are wooden. I can immediately see the paths ahead;
- send everyone out to fight, fists against knives, guns and grenades, and watches as most of my colonists are either downed and killed, maybe getting lucky enough to lightly wound one or two enemy pawns.
- hope I can hold out for a few days of shelling while making some bows and arrows, then send out those who are at least capable of shooting and watch as they hit nothing but air while the enemy pawns down and/or kill most of my colonists
- spend day after day after day of running around, putting out fires and repairing structures while some colonists get wounded and probably start getting malnourished as the enemy pawns shell my colony while I wait and hope they will leave soon.

This colony has been going rather well (for once) and I'd really like to keep it. But I'm not seeing a way out of this siege without critical losses and major damage. Does anyone have any advice? Anyone seeing a solution I'm missing? Or am I as doomed as I think I am?

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Shurp

You could always load the autosave prior to this attack, then focus your efforts on building rifles and body armor so you can take out the *next* siege that comes your way.

But why are your colonists such poor shots?  You shouldn't be recruiting people who can't shoot straight.
If you give an annoying colonist a parka before banishing him to the ice sheet you'll only get a -3 penalty instead of -5.

And don't forget that the pirates chasing a refugee are often better recruits than the refugee is.

koisama

Assuming you still have starting weapons and your shooters are not gravely wounded, it doesn't look that bad.
Wait for your shooters to heal, make a couple of shivs in the mean time. Position the colonist with survival rifle at point 1, the one with pistol at point 2. Have guys with knife and shivs wait at 3 OR just above 2 covered by wall.

The idea is to kite one or two enemies and then not let them shoot by using fast melee weapons.


b0rsuk

I'll be brutally honest - the worst case scenario is actually they kidnap one downed colonist and leave. That's not fatal, especially if he's a poor colonist.

What's immediately obvious to an experienced player is you can sneak from north and snipe their mortar from around the corner. Once their mortars blow up, they will attack you, possibly kidnap one person, and leave.

You still have your survival rifle ? Depending on what weapons they have, you can harass them from around the corner (northern mountains). It's not that important to shoot better than them, it's important to avoid their snipers and kill people and/or mortars and hide when a sniper shows up. Try to take out those guys your turrets would have the most problem against.

Prepare your colony for their frontal attack by closing the northern passage (to fueled generators) with a wall, so they go towards your turrets. Build some walls within the range of your turrets, then incoming enemies have to go around them and come under fire of turrets. Otherwise people with rifles might outrange them.

If some of them attack around the northern edge of mountains, that's bad news. Try to plan for that, for example discourage it by extending a wall in the north.

Your colony looks vulnerable to a siege - wooden walls and cramped. Stonecutting is the cheapest research at 300 so you can get it early. Check out how my typical colony
It's quite loose. Work is not very efficient because of travel times, but easy to defend. I initially built the store rooms at north (then with 3 beds) and the kitchen in the middle. I build rooms more less around an empty square, that way I get good firing lines. The outer perimeter wall is full of doors so I can pop out and harass anyone bashing at another door from two sides. I start with perimeter walls out of wood and upgrade later. Then it's easy to turn the whole courtyard into a room in case of toxic fallout, or you can even close outer doors if manhunters come. The right side has no doors, because it's adjacent to shore and no one is going to attack from the east.

You seem to be using too many coolers in the food storage. For bedrooms, you can use fewer heaters and vents in walls.

Silvador

Stone cutting is the first thing I research. Always. Though I don't always get a chance to research it early on account of not always having a good researcher. It's not the highest of my priorities when beginning.

I have no means to make guns or armour. Positions 1 and 2 are where I sent my two shooters with the starting rifle and pistol. One of the enemy pawns moved to about where the end of their wall is now and and took pot shots with a shotgun. I shuffled my shooters around as best I could to avoid fire, but they got hit and needed to retreat to my crappy little two-bed hospital for treatment.

As for loading the auto save, you'll notice the time of day, there. I have autosave set for daily, meaning every day at 4h, and this is a permadeath game.

The coolers I have three of because a freezer that size rarely remains stable with anything less than three, since temperature was overhauled a few alphas back. And I've not started using vents yet because I honestly don't know how they work, yet.

The enemy pawns have shivs, grenades, shotguns and pistols.

cultist

Quote from: Shurp on April 24, 2016, 06:57:53 AM
But why are your colonists such poor shots?  You shouldn't be recruiting people who can't shoot straight.

I disagree. Having someone incapable of violence (but capable of hauling and cleaning) can be super helpful for cleaning up the battlefield after the fighters come back tired, hungry and grumpy. What kills my colony is often not the raids themselves but the recovery period between them dragging out too long because colonists got in a bad mood and work slower/spend more time on joy for the next couple days. Then the next raid hits and the base is still in a state, which ends up causing mental breaks and things spiral out of control. Dedicated haulers/cleaners who don't fight are great at preventing that slow entropy that often happens with a poorly optimized base or mentally fragile colonists.

Silvador

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that point. So far my colony is made of randoms, mostly people that have joined through events and on one occasions, the chief of a hostile settlement that I managed to capture and recruit. Random Wandered and people being chased don't tell you what their stats will be before they join...

Shurp

Cleanup isn't too difficult if you have beer.  Brewing is the second thing I research and I always stockpile plenty of hops.  It used to be my chief trade good until trade got nerfed.

As for fighting this battle out... if you're determined to fight, Great Bows have good range and will allow you to pick off siegers without getting involved in a firefight with all of them.  Toss the pistol.
If you give an annoying colonist a parka before banishing him to the ice sheet you'll only get a -3 penalty instead of -5.

And don't forget that the pirates chasing a refugee are often better recruits than the refugee is.

Thane

Only shivs, pistols, shotguns and grenades? Then you outrange them with the survival rifle!

Cover is pointless. Just tell a guy with the survival rifle to sit on the edge of his range (right click on weapon while equipped to check it) Just shoot about half of them until they are bleeding out at about 50-60% per day and wait. They are finished.
It is regular practice to install peg legs and dentures on anyone you don't like around here. Think about that.

Nictis

Quote from: Silvador on April 24, 2016, 08:36:19 AM
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that point. So far my colony is made of randoms, mostly people that have joined through events and on one occasions, the chief of a hostile settlement that I managed to capture and recruit. Random Wandered and people being chased don't tell you what their stats will be before they join...
If you don't like the joiner, have your most liked colonist (to minimize the problem) or your most hated colonist (So it isn't an issue when they die) beat them to death! Also, when you offer safety to someone you can always check their stats on arrival, if you dislike them, just have them drafted where they entered, usually they get downed and kidnapped by the immediate raid, and you don't have to worry about the enemy or the refugee!

Silvador

Quote from: Nictis on April 24, 2016, 09:18:34 AM
Quote from: Silvador on April 24, 2016, 08:36:19 AM
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that point. So far my colony is made of randoms, mostly people that have joined through events and on one occasions, the chief of a hostile settlement that I managed to capture and recruit. Random Wandered and people being chased don't tell you what their stats will be before they join...
If you don't like the joiner, have your most liked colonist (to minimize the problem) or your most hated colonist (So it isn't an issue when they die) beat them to death! Also, when you offer safety to someone you can always check their stats on arrival, if you dislike them, just have them drafted where they entered, usually they get downed and kidnapped by the immediate raid, and you don't have to worry about the enemy or the refugee!

It might seem stupid, as it's just a game, but I honestly couldn't bring myself to brutally murdering innocent people for no reason.

Nictis

Well, you could always make them a hero with a sword, that usually ends quickly...

Or have them hunt boomrats with a knife. True Aussies.

Silvador

Quote from: Shurp on April 24, 2016, 08:42:40 AMGreat Bows have good range and will allow you to pick off siegers without getting involved in a firefight with all of them.

Um... maybe I missed something somewhere but... how do I make a Great Bow?

Silvador

#13
Update: Decided to try Thane's advice. While waiting for my best shooter to heal, shelling began on my colony... and now all but one person is bedridden from numerous burns and initial stages of heatstroke, from putting out fires.

On the flip side! Some friendlies came to help me out. yay! I'm going to die. ^-^


Another Update: My shooter healed and I sent them out to take potshots at the siegers. Somehow managed to kill one of them, hit a few others. Then the cavalry arrived and everything just turned into one big mess. Half the friendlies died, a couple of the siegers died, and someone managed to blow up the artillery. Friendlies ended up fleeing while the siegers kidnapped one of the friendlies and took off.


idkhtf I came out of this as well off as I did... but I doubt Randy is gunna let this slide. :/

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cultist

Quote from: Silvador on April 24, 2016, 12:36:53 PM
Quote from: Shurp on April 24, 2016, 08:42:40 AMGreat Bows have good range and will allow you to pick off siegers without getting involved in a firefight with all of them.

Um... maybe I missed something somewhere but... how do I make a Great Bow?

You need a smithing table. The crafting spot can only make shivs, short bows and clubs. You also need to research smithing.