Best way to combat ancient ship parts?

[Scotty]

Ello,
Recently run in to some trouble with one of my clans. Basically i have a shallow lake/ice sheet out side my base. on my current save an ancient ship part and its deadly cargo have crashed on this coverless place. Whats the best tatic to take them down with minimal death?

Personally i use up close and personal as they cant use their weapons, however this is not working very well this time and my colonists go down one by one.

I can provide my current map if people need to see it

[Halinder]

If you can? Build a makeshift fire base around it. A wind turbine, solars, something with power. Then set up four or so turrets around the part. Mechanoids will typically engage the turrets before firing on your colonists, so you can buy cheap distraction and get a decent amount of damage in.

EDIT: Even regular, powerless turrets will distract enemy fire.

[Tasty]

 Well I don't know how well this will work for you, but personally whenever I find a crashed ship outside I take all my able-bodied colonists and surround the ship as far away as I can, usually in a half-circle pattern in full cover. If there aren't any trees in the area, build walls. After everyone is in position one person shoots the ship to release the mechs and I try to focus fire down two at a time.

Keep in mind I've never had a HUGE colony, maybe 12-13 colonists max so I don't deal with a giant group of mechs, and I'm not a fan of using turrets but building a few around would definitely help. I've had plenty of success with this strategy though, fighting around 8-10 mechs at most.

[peterTX]

You could try long range snipers, with a fall back positions with cover
or
Mortars, they are inaccurate but if you force target the main ship, it is your first problem as it produces the psychic drone
and may even drive them into your base defense.

[Listy]

My SOP on a ship part:

1: Build 1 square walls on at least two sides of the ship, with the closest about 20-24 squares away. Keep at least 4 squares between each wall.

2: Stick everyone behind a wall, with snipers on the longer range ones, and shorter range weapons on he closer.

3: Have one colonist arm frag grenades, if cover allows have him near the ship. If not having him standing outside combat range.

Once it's all kicked off and you've killed the mechs, just run your grenadier up and start spamming frag grenades.

[Halinder]

Oh, yeah, by the way! EMP mortars do amazing just because of their blast radius, it hits a pretty huge area unlike the explosive and incendiary mortars that only damage 9 cells. It's enough to save about two volleys of mechanoid fire, but it should give an extra advantage to your fighters. Still, remember after an EMP blast, mechanoids will adapt and may not be stunned by additional blasts.

[peterTX]

The way I have seen EMPs work is that they stun on first hit, then stun for half the time on second hit and then they adapt and EMPs dont work on them again.

So if you use EMPs make them count by being ready with your assault.

[pdxsean]

I tend to go with two tactics. Build up defenses, and bombard with EMP mortars.

First, I'll have my team build several bunkers to shoot from before I ever activate the part. Usually they will be like this, where # is a wall, _ is open space:

__#_#__
_##_##_
_#____#_
_##_##_
__#_#__
__#_#__

And my guys will hide out in the little area in the middle. It's very difficult for the mech to shoot straight down that hallway, and it defends from incendiary rounds. This works particularly well against centipedes.  If I can build three of them, that's six guys who can fire from very good cover.

Second, I'll have three or four EMP cannons set up at home. I'll have them barrage the area pretty steadily. If I'm lucky and stun all of the mechs, everyone runs in and focuses fire on the ship. Remember the ship is the real enemy here, destroy it and the drone shuts off. The remaining mechs will often rush your base where they get ground up by turrets, or you can pick them off at your leisure. 

When attacking the ship, remember to take down the scythers before the centipedes. Also don't be afraid to retreat and return the next day! I've had to come back three or four times to finally wipe out a larger force, but I had no deaths and only had to arrest a couple of colonists for going nuts.

[Pathing]

1. easiest

Colonist can be replaced by turret.
2. easy
build 6+ turret around it, then fire.
3. normal
build turret near it. Hopefully it will die due to exploding damage.
4. Try hard
snipe it with M24
5. Try hard V.2
stun them with EMP grenade or EMP mortar, then move in and attack.
6. Try hard V.3
Use mortar, fire till it falls.
7.Try hard V.4
Use mercenary.
8. Try hard so risky V.5
engage them in combat.

[Eisenhorn]

All this building around ship parts, maybe I've completely missed something but I just grab all but one colonist (keep one back as a quick free person to grab unconcious people) surround the part 'melee' it with everyone.

Melee seems to damage the part very quickly. Obviously after the first couple of hits the bots spawn and you have to deal with them (not via melee, standing about 4 squares away from them)

but once the bots are dealt with go back to melee on the ship part seems to bring it down far quicker than shooting it

[Strangelove]

Build a wall around it (allowing a roof to be built)

Remove walls and the roof will fall and destroy the ship part.

[eatKenny]

Build a wall around it (allowing a roof to be built)

Remove walls and the roof will fall and destroy the ship part.

[Summin]

Can we melt it with fire?

[Geertje123]

Build a wall around it (allowing a roof to be built)

Remove walls and the roof will fall and destroy the ship part.

smart. I just usually sniper them, but this is a good idea :p

[RemingtonRyder]

Whatever strategy you choose to take care of the ship part, you do have to stop your other colonists from haplessly wandering by and getting shot to pieces. They love to just go about their business like it's any other day.