Missing something basic during manual raid fights

[Cassey]

OK - Day 3, or 4... not sure, they are kind of blending together due to lack of sleep...

Anyhow, getting better.  Actually doing semi-manual combat with my troops and winning rounds.

I'm still missing one REALLY basic thing though:

How do I tell my troops to position themselves at a specific location, like behind rocks?

I'm good with loading up weapons... trivial... and I don't even need to go into combat mode to do it (tonight's "ah ha!" moment)

I'm good with approaching the enemy, kind of:  I tend to tell my troops to go into melee combat, then when they are close, stop that and tell them to fire.  Of course that is inefficient - I should be stopping at weapon range, and ideally behind cover, like the raiders do.

The only thing I've found is the "goto here" option, but that only shows up if I click on a raider, not a random spot on the map.

Oh... well... I feel stupid.  That is what the "green circle" does when you select a troop and then click on an open spot:  The green circle appears for a second and then your troop moves there.

OK.  Well, I'll go ahead and post this just in case their are other "needing basic education" folks out there!

[Teiwaz]

Left-click on your troops to select them, right click on the ground to move them there. They have to be recruited (R, the crossed swords button will be red and their name underlined) to allow this.

Note that if you right click on a spot that another soldier has already been ordered to move to, the order will fail.

[Cassey]

That is great to know, thanks.

Right now I have a real simple system, positions 1-5 for my 5 crew, all in a row.  With M-24s, they slaughter everything quickly, although I only have to use them if I forget to replant the blasting charges.  Its is silly easy to win now:

I have a simple layout, where they all cluster at the only door in the wall.  With two overlapping blasting charges I seldom have to even worry about bringing my troops up to the sandbags.  If I do forget to replant, I'll typically lose a turret or three but the five solders clean up everyone.

The image is of the simplest "win" scenario I've come up with.  Its well past 9 raids and still holding.  It did evolve a bit over time, with the lunch and storage rooms moving inside.  Originally they were next to the geo-power station.

Only "problem" I'm having this run is a serious lack of ships coming by to trade with.  I did this buying two slaves and sell weapon drops only.

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[Littica]

Right now I have a real simple system, positions 1-5 for my 5 crew, all in a row.  With M-24s, they slaughter everything quickly,

I have found that can be kind of risky, i prefer to multi flank them, better yet im going to try building 'Huts' around the killfield where some of my militia will hide, then pop out in a flanking position

[Cassey]

Well... in this latest game, my crew seldom even gets into a firefight.  Most of the time the overlapping blasting charges do a 100% kill.  I may have lost count, but believe I've made it through 9 raids now, with the one introducing M-24s being the learning event - I simply had to get them to close in.

The sequence went something like:

Raid 1 &2 - hand to hand melee (gather weapons)

Raid 3 &4 - pistol fights, with turret help

Raid 5-6 - sacrificial turrets, pistols, shotguns, whatever I could get

Raid 7+ - full structure in place, blasting charges if I remember/manage to get them replaced.  Sacrificial turrets if I don't.

Raid 9 - everyone has M-24s, turrets are probably redundant.

Having a clean kill zone helped a lot before I got the wall built and figured out the obvious:  put a door in to slow them down.  I think I cleared all the rock for at least 30 squares around my camp.  Now, with the door, and 5 m-24s "shoulder to shoulder" (each on a separate square though), they simply rain death.

Might play it out a bit more and explore building skills:  e.g.  create a double door system to give me time, remove the turrets (and therefore the need for the geo-thermal generator), and let the crew "fight it out" every time.

Oh, one general comment:  Hydrofarms should require a sun lamp if running under cover.  Its just a "conservation of energy" thing - plants shouldn't grow in dim or dark rooms.