Any advantage in attacking Raiders early?

[J-Mac]

When Raiders appear, the game tells you that you can attack them now or wait for them to come to you.  Seems coming to you is the better option since you can have defenses.  Is there a reason I am missing for wanting to attack them early?

[JonoRig]

quite often raiders land damaged (dodgy reentry? emergency raid for supplies?) so the advantage is they havent full healed, negative, like u said, it you arent in the best defensive position... but nor are they

[Runalotski]

Attacking early just makes the raiders "detect" you and they will launch there attack early so you get a bit of a buffer as you can fight whilst withdrawing, as raiders do not defend, they will  always advance to you.

[OobleckTheGreen]

When Raiders appear, the game tells you that you can attack them now or wait for them to come to you.  Seems coming to you is the better option since you can have defenses.  Is there a reason I am missing for wanting to attack them early?

Early game? I think yes. When your base is still being cobbled together and your defenses are weak, even a single raider with molotovs or grenades could potentially cause a lot of damage if he/she manages to lob some in. I usually bum rush such a raider with melee attackers to make sure my structures don't take explosion or fire damage.

Later in the game? Once you have adequate defense, it won't matter so much. Basically, there will be so many other raiders armed with molotovs / grenades that bum rushing one would just be suicide, and it makes more sense to guide them down the path to mined destruction using some strategically placed walls.

[colonistPally]

When Raiders appear, the game tells you that you can attack them now or wait for them to come to you.  Seems coming to you is the better option since you can have defenses.  Is there a reason I am missing for wanting to attack them early?

Early game? I think yes. When your base is still being cobbled together and your defenses are weak, even a single raider with molotovs or grenades could potentially cause a lot of damage if he/she manages to lob some in. I usually bum rush such a raider with melee attackers to make sure my structures don't take explosion or fire damage.

Later in the game? Once you have adequate defense, it won't matter so much. Basically, there will be so many other raiders armed with molotovs / grenades that bum rushing one would just be suicide, and it makes more sense to guide them down the path to mined destruction using some strategically placed walls.

Omfg... yes. Even 1 Raider with a molotov in the first 1-3 raids can wipe a party easily, even if you're excruciatingly careful at micro. The second he tosses, there's about 3 seconds, 2 seconds once it hits the ground so if you haven't moved by then you have about 1 second to move 2 tiles in the opposite direction of wherever the center is.

This is doable by itself but if there's anything going on you literally have to pause every second just to be dodging the molotovs in time. My like 4th or 5th playthrough I got wiped by a 3-man group, one with a molotov. They are DANGEROUS!!!!! early on. Later on they get sniped no problem.

[palandus]

Well the other advantage is that you can technically kite the raiders into a killzone, in case you suffer an eclipse or after they land so that your turrets still have power when they come. You could also setup some mines in a clever place and run through that area, and since you'd only use one colonist, they'd most likely follow that colonist even through a minefield.

Or if you really want to be a huge micromanager... raiders will give up after a while. Just kite them around in a wide circle until they give up (far from your base and don't get too close).

[Coenmcj]

Perhaps using that strategy you could simply have a huge, long tunnel rounding around your base, or through the mountain filled with doors every 2 spaces until the tunnel reaches the actual entrance, which by then the raiders should be about ready to leave, reverse siege anyone?

STARVE THE RAIDERS OUT!

But then the colonist entrance you only need to remove a wall or 4 to get out, not that they should be going outside anyway, everything is safe in the compound.

[RedStorm58]

Yall, Yung uns, the are always the ones who slack off. Let me tell you how a REAL  soldier does it( by the way, I am a soldier). It depends on the position of your base. If you are weak and helpless DO IT. If you are strong DO IT. Now, actually, if you attack them head on, the are more scattered than they are usally are. This goes perfectly with my Shock An' Awe Tactics.

[OobleckTheGreen]

Another tactic that works pretty well in the early game is to send 3 colonists after any single raider that has thrown weapons. Two should have guns, the third, well it doesn't matter. Stage the two with guns in such a way that when the raider comes in range, they have a good shooting position. Cover doesn't matter. Then take your third person and run him/her down to the raider and attract its attention. Kite him JUST within range of your shooters. The raider will be unable to hit the shooters, but they'll be able to hit him. Then kite your third guy left and right. It's easy to figure out which way, because the raider will throw a grenade at your current position, and as soon as it leaves his hands, you simply move out of the way. No one gets any damage except the raider. He'll focus on throwing grenades at your kiter, whose position is always just one step ahead of the grenades, and your shooters will take him out.

[nnescio]

Triggering the alarm seems to cause the raiders to prioritize nearest colonists (i.e. whoever triggered the alarm) instead of structures. Which is quite good for leading them into all sorts of chokepoints, as mentioned by palandus. This gets even better if you have colonists with the "Runner" trait (+30% move speed) equipped with M-24s (or M-16s, to a lesser degree), since you can kite the raiders and shoot indefinitely as long as you have space to maneuver.

I have a death squad of runner snipers just for this purpose. Generally they can pick off half a raider group  before they even get anywhere near my base. Micromanagement is easy -- just move your snipers around and quickly undraft and redraft them to force them to stop and acquire targets immediately.