...and then the Scythers came

[stefanstr]

I had a burgeoning, beautiful colony with mortars and turrets. I felt safe. And then the Scythers came. The pictures say it all:



How do you defend from these things?

[Shinzy]

How do you defend from these things?

I like the population curve =P I can almost hear the sound the curve there makes
plooopplopplopplopplopplopploplop..*pop* ..mmnnjjjjjaaaaaauuuuuuu njaa njaaau


Ambush is the most efficient way to defeat scythers
They're more accurate and long ranged than your guys
so you need to wait and lure them inside your base and fight them when they come around a corner so you can blast them away with shotties and rapid firing weaponry from close up

[Bodog999]

*cough* mods due to mechs being a little OP

[Shinzy]

*cough* mods due to mechs being a little OP

Emp mortars! use them, use them so much =P

[MoparGamer]

Best defence is as Shinzy said, lure them into midrange/close combat so your colonist can shoot them, they're pretty fragile things.

[Cpt.Fupa]

i don't have a problem with scythers its the centipedes i HATE WITH ALL MY SOUL

[stefanstr]

i don't have a problem with scythers its the centipedes i HATE WITH ALL MY SOUL

In the meantime, I have learnt how to build killboxes, so the scythers don’t scare me anymore. It’s the sieges I hate right now.

[BetaSpectre]

Handle Sythers just like Raiders, except if they drop while you were looting raiders then you're gonna have to fight.

Unfortunetly there's not a good way to combat them outside of your defense array.

[milon]

i don't have a problem with scythers its the centipedes i HATE WITH ALL MY SOUL

In the meantime, I have learnt how to build killboxes, so the scythers don�t scare me anymore. It�s the sieges I hate right now.

Sieges haven't been that damaging to my colonies so far.  I honestly could have ignored them entirely, and just repaired the occasional damage they caused.  Just keep in mind that they'll attack when they lose both mortars or enough raiders.  Sometimes I mortar them in return, and sometimes visitors dropped by.  If you wait long enough, the raiders will run out of food and starve or go insane.  Finally, since they do not attempt to heal their wounded, a significant wound anywhere will eventually result in blood loss and death.

[Cpt.Fupa]

i don't have a problem with scythers its the centipedes i HATE WITH ALL MY SOUL

In the meantime, I have learnt how to build killboxes, so the scythers don�t scare me anymore. It�s the sieges I hate right now.

Sieges haven't been that damaging to my colonies so far.  I honestly could have ignored them entirely, and just repaired the occasional damage they caused.  Just keep in mind that they'll attack when they lose both mortars or enough raiders.  Sometimes I mortar them in return, and sometimes visitors dropped by.  If you wait long enough, the raiders will run out of food and starve or go insane.  Finally, since they do not attempt to heal their wounded, a significant wound anywhere will eventually result in blood loss and death.

The sieging mechanic is kinda broken

[Barley]

Centipedes carry heavy weapons with a long reload time. They are very vulnerable to hit-and-run in the early game:
1)find/build tall cover that can both cover AND CONCEAL your guys (3-5 length wall should do). You'll probably want two of these walls, more if your good at micro. Try to scatter them out so the minigun can't hit 2 or more firing positions at once.
2)Hide in the concealment until the centipede is within gun range. When he appears, have all colonists move to the corner of the walls and fire.
3)Centipede will stop and slowly take aim at one of your colonists. Move the colonist back behind concealment. The Centipede will then slowly aim at another colonist. Move HIM back and the first colonist forward. Keep an eye on the centipede's aim time to maximize exposure time while minimizing danger.
4) Repeat ad nauseam.

[Matthiasagreen]

I can vouch for the above. I had a colony of ten and as soon as I put 9 into the pods of the ship (the 10th was still building his) two centipedes dropped right into my base. They went for the turrets and I hid my guy inside. As soon as they focused on the turrets, my guy popped out of the door and took some shots. They would redirect focus on me. I would run inside while the turrets took their turn. He would focus on the turrets and I would repeat. That is how one colonist took out two centipedes alone and unscathed.

[EarthyTurtle]

There isn't such a thing as dealing with mech's quickly. They don't fatigue, eat, go psychotic, bleed out and even scythers are twice as durable as any raider.

They are however, very susceptible to sustained fire because usually you will outnumber them and can lay on them continuous fire. Bringing them into close combat, use a combination of uzi's, m16's, lmg's and miniguns if you have access. The idea is to constantly have them taking damage so they have no time to load their weapons and fire before they die. This principle also works on centipedes to an extent, but with centipedes basically being armoured tanks some micromanagement is needed to avoid getting hit. Centipedes are the ones who are susceptible to long range weapons.

By far it's my most successful tactic to counter mechanoid armies. I think I've only lost 1 colonist in 3 mechanoid raids and thats coz they were stupid enough to run out in front of them.

[stefanstr]

Since writing that story I have discovered that Scythers are very helpless in melee. I let them approach the base and then melee attack them with two or three colonists. The only problem is when they come in large groups.