Centipede Tactics

[litlbear]

How do YOU guys deal with the caterpillars? I can deal with scythers, but caterpillars are just moving tanks.

Centipedes*

[christhekiller]

Depends on which one really, well... they're kinda the same bit kinda different.

For the ones with the rapid fire guns I typically have all my guys spread out and stick to the best possible cover, walls are ideal, but out in the open is a death sentence.
For the ones with the cannons I'll have them spread out but I won't have them hide in cover. Anyone whome its aiming at will be constantly on the move while my other colonists will be far away from each other.

In both cases the only thing to do is to slow whittle them down, I've also found its best to have all your colonists focus on one at a time if there's more than one. Once one is incapped or killed then you focus on the next.

[Halinder]

Minigun centipedes just have to be attacked from range. They're accurate and still fast-firing, but their range disadvantage makes it easy to cope with from a distance.

Inferno cannon centipedes, I typically engage in the open with 2 colonists. When it aims at one, I force them into spots the centipede can't see them in and thus can't fire at, causing them to stall and allowing the second colonist to shoot the inferno cannon centipede. Rinse-repeat until it's dead.

Heavy charge blasters aren't accurate, are kind of short range, but do craptons of damage and tend to hit large groups that clump together. Take out in the same fashion as the minigun centipedes.

[litlbear]

Difficult when 5 of them are together, I barely survive, extremely OP.

[Cimanyd]

M24s are useful, since they do a lot of damage and outrange the centipedes (since centipedes are so slow, a human can fire and move back before the centipede gets in range and fires). And a centipede head now (unlike in A6, IIRC) has less than 40 HP, so one M24 headshot kills. Even if you don't get a headshot, they'll still get incapacitated (from lack of moving ability) eventually, it just takes forever.

[REMworlder]

I prefer Centipedes to scythers and sieges. You can overwhelm them with firepower and smart positioning; they're big enough that shots don't miss as much and will proc stuns.

You can also rush Centipedes. They can't function at close range, so once you close the gap you can slowly beat them to death.

http://i.imgur.com/7YiJCB4.jpg

[Wex]

EMP - both granade and mortar - stuns mechanoids for good 15 seconds per shot.
They can easly used even in melee, because colonist don't get damaged.
Bonus: the EMP range of the mortar is HUGE.

[Cimanyd]

Centipedes can definitely melee attack, and do huge damage. They just seem to have problems doing it. I'm not sure why, since I've only taken the risk twice. In one case (about to reload, so just for fun) I had my colonists rush it, and they beat it to death without being attacked. In the other case, the centipede attacked by one or two colonists hit back, and did a lot of damage (almost one-shot the torso, but not quite, so the colonist survived).

When they don't melee, are they trying to move? Anything moving won't shoot or hit, but can get hit, and will get stunned (losing progress moving out of that square). Centipedes move so slowly, maybe they just can't get out of one square into another at all if under enough attack, and since they're still trying to move, they won't stand still to shoot or hit back.

This is just speculation; maybe someone that's often melee-fought centipedes successfully could explain what happens?

...Oh, there's a screenshot over there, thanks. Yeah. It's moving, or trying to, as you can see down in the bottom left. I bet it can't get to another square before it's hit again by one of the colonists.

[Goo Poni]

I think Centipedes with miniguns or charge blasters will attempt to melee. Those equipped with cannons instead try to get to a minimum range due to the blast radius of their gun, they're trying not to set themselves on fire.

[Halinder]

Centipedes are impervious to fire, it's the actual blast/shell that damages them, quite minimally as well.

[Quasarrgames]

all you need to kill centipedes are a few turrets!

it's funny If you have one turret out in the open, and a centipede with a minigun or a plasma blaster comes. the centipede and the turret will just duke it out, sometimes for days. of course the centipede wins, but it would be very wounded. then you can just potshot at it with m24s and it'll die pretty easily.

if anything, it's the scythers that are the problem, since they have a longer range than the turrets.

[Cimanyd]

all you need to kill centipedes are a few turrets!

it's funny If you have one turret out in the open, and a centipede with a minigun or a plasma blaster comes. the centipede and the turret will just duke it out, sometimes for days. of course the centipede wins, but it would be very wounded. then you can just potshot at it with m24s and it'll die pretty easily.

if anything, it's the scythers that are the problem, since they have a longer range than the turrets.

And if a centipede with an inferno cannon comes, it'll probably set the turret on fire with its first shot, which will then burn and eventually run out of health and explode. (this might be happening from outside the turret's range, too) In the meantime, the centipede is still shooting, and the fire is spreading.

Miniguns and charge blasters are good against people, and less effective against well-built defenses. Inferno cannons are the opposite. Even if you have floors and stone walls to keep the fire from spreading, turrets are still flammable. In fact... I think inferno cannon centipedes are actually the worst threat to a strong colony defense (i.e. killbox), and centipedes (especially those) are the one thing that encourages using colonists running around and fighting outside the colony (using the range advantage of M24s). Sieges are supposed to be for that, but they're just a nuisance that's too well guarded to attack directly.

[Halinder]

Erm, Cimanyd, yeah, about the inferno cannons  being the worst against people...


Have you seen what happens to someone that gets directly hit by an inferno cannon shell? There's not even a corpse -- it erases them from existence. Also, for pawns with extremely powerful armor, it sets them on fire and makes them wander around unable to be commanded  for a short period of time. This is fine because the fire gets put out, but forces people out of cover into the line of fire for a scyther or a minigun centipede to lay across the dirt.

[Cimanyd]

Erm, Cimanyd, yeah, about the inferno cannons  being the worst against people...


Have you seen what happens to someone that gets directly hit by an inferno cannon shell? There's not even a corpse -- it erases them from existence. Also, for pawns with extremely powerful armor, it sets them on fire and makes them wander around unable to be commanded  for a short period of time. This is fine because the fire gets put out, but forces people out of cover into the line of fire for a scyther or a minigun centipede to lay across the dirt.

Inferno cannons don't do much damage (at least without mods?), they just set things on fire. Just some burns. Will result in incapacitation if they get hit by enough, but not death (unless they stay on fire while incapacitated for a while and burn to death). Explosive mortar shells (not incendiary) will destroy the corpse, as you're describing, but they have nothing to do with centipedes and don't start fires.

Yes, the fire running-around is annoying, but not fatal if all there are are inferno cannons. Yes, infernos combined with others are even worse than just one or the other.

[keylocke]

this i why i just shoot at anything that doesn't charge to my killbox, using my 12 mortars (usually manned by non-combatants like empaths or brawlers or people with crappy shooting skills). it usually allows me to break mech ships and enemy mortars. causing enough damage and forcing them to charge towards the killbox where my turrets and minigun brigade awaits them.

i can even use my elite team of cyborg snipers to speed up the "aggro" process. then tell them to retreat to killbox when enemies starts to attack. it's a very efficient strategy.