Tactics and Strategies thread

[Reginald]

I am a vet of HW2 multiplayer, I missed that boat for HW1 though I played the campaign a lot. I was thinking with the game coming soon us vets could dig up some memories from the good ol' days and pass along a little wisdom to the new players. Also, refresh our own memories. I know i'd love to learn some tips n tricks for HW1.

Here's a short list of old strategies I remember from HW2 multiplayer:

Hiigaran Torp Frigate rush: within a few minutes of the game Hiigarans can get a hyperspace generator online and hyper-jump a few torpedo frigates to your starting resource field. Torp frigates are strong against strike crat, and good against resourcing, flexible against other frigates too. This is a rush tactic that is good for nuking your early game production. You can defend against it with early hyperspace inhibitors and your own frigates or bombers.

Vaygr Destroyer Rush. Like a Torp frigate rush, but a bit slower. it is possible to get a Vagyr destroyer up and out within around 7 minutes if my memory serves right. It is possible to stop this rush with aggressive resource harrassing before hand, and by good use of team coordinated strike craft. You'll need bombers, laser or pulsar corvettes, if you want a chance to stop it. Like above: hyperspace inhibitors will give you extra time.

Scout EMPs: early in the game and really throughout...with a little micro you can use a scout EMP to neutralize enemy interceptors. A few interceptors of your own, or flak frigates, or whatever else can really do work agains the incapacitated enemies. Expect this to happen to you, if you are running into this problem you will want to pull back your early fighters and sit near hard to EMP defenses like carrier/mothership PDs and platforms.

2-3 v 2-3 player interceptor rushes. Watch out for teams coordinating rushes. Inti rushes are not uncommon with 3 players on a team. It is easy to mix in a few bombers to add anti-frigate and anti-cap. Common team game strategies are to have two players focus on AA and 1 player do something like frigate or DD rush.

[Remosu37]

I played HW1 waaaaaay back in the day, but never played HW2 or much multiplayer. I've played a good amount of RTS like Company of Heroes (another Relic gem) and Star Craft tho. As a more traditional resource location based RTS, one would think an aggressive Int push mixing in some bombers for anti-frigate woiuld be a classic resource inhibition strategy.

Among HW1 units, the first hard-counter to massed Ints/Bomber formations is probably the multigun corvette, which doesn't come out all that quickly, so vs. HW1 builds, I would expect aggressive attacks with strikecraft would be a big part fo the metagame. No idea how HW2 multiplayer feels though.

[paradoxnrt]

I've played some ballzy tactics in HW2. Here's one that still makes me laugh.

-In multiplayer free-for-all (on small-medium maps), I've hyperspaced a carrier between 2 enemy positions. By launching small strikeforce attacks and then pulling them back = both players commit forces against my carrier. I then manuever my carrier to best time both enemy forces arriving at the same moment.

Yeah, I then lose my carrier. But then the 2 players start fighting at that location = I've effectively killed far more enemy RUs then I lost in return.

[Spacemonkey]

Originally posted by paradoxnrt:

Yeah, I then lose my carrier. But then the 2 players start fighting at that location = I've effectively killed far more enemy RUs then I lost in return.

Could you not hyperspace your carrier back out?

That's a cool tactic though, must try it.

[Lora Grim]

My strategy is to turtle. Build a pretty ,heavily fortified base and then quit when i get bored.
That way, everyone wins. I win because i reached maximum satisfaction with what i built and my enemy cause i just forfeit out of boredom and they get an imaginary +1 to their victory count.

[vkt62]

One tactic that worked well for me in HW2 was building a BC, and before it was finished, building another one while the first one was stopped before construction was completed, and so on. So when you need to drop them out, you get multiple BCs at once. Since the opponent thinks you have nothing, it can catch them by surprise.

[Firewalk]

I'm just glad we are gonna have rush protection... no offense but prefer longer games.

[vkt62]

Originally posted by Xeno:

I'm just glad we are gonna have rush protection... no offense but prefer longer games.

Same here

[Solipsicon]

Bomber rush to their resource collectors, harrass with probe bombs and scouts until then (HW)

[paradoxnrt]

Originally posted by Spacemonkey:

Originally posted by paradoxnrt:

Yeah, I then lose my carrier. But then the 2 players start fighting at that location = I've effectively killed far more enemy RUs then I lost in return.

Could you not hyperspace your carrier back out?

That's a cool tactic though, must try it.

I didn't put any modules on it (since I figured it was going to get destroyed anyway) = couldn't hyperspace away. Plus, I needed to stay there to the end in order to get both enemy groups to fully commit. As a tiny bonus, letting it die would help convince both players that I was just a noob and not a real threat. I can't remember if I won that game, but I do remember killing both the above players....they kept fighting while I kept building up.

[Reginald]

Originally posted by Xeno:

I'm just glad we are gonna have rush protection... no offense but prefer longer games.

I never really found rushes to be a regular enough success story that games ended quickly. Especially on maps like crimson bond it is easy to counter a rush and then be in a great possition for a counter strike.

Rush protection isn't a bad option to have but I doubt i'll use it.

I did some number crunching last night and apparently Vaygr Assault frigates are actually pretty good. In the time i takes a torpedo frigate to fire a second volley a Vaygr assault frigate has already done significantly more damage. The hard part is their shorter range, equal speed, and lack of alpha strike. In the late game they will be inferior but the early game they make good all-rounders much like torp frigates.

[Done]

Some people like to think Vagyr frigates are immensely weak compared to Hiigaran ones but I think the opposite.

Missile Launcher frigates are amazingly OP once you have a critical mass of them focus firing on targets. Even with their targets destroyed, their missiles reacquire another enemy to home in on and destroy; making them much better than Ion frigates as a whole.

Plus, all Vaygr chassis types share research upgrades. So any upgrade to the armor of Vagyr frigates benefits ALL of them.

[PurpleFluffyBunny]

Thank you for your thoughts. We at [BRIE] have assimilated your knowledge into our engine, CAMEMBERT.

[paradoxnrt]

When playing the Hiigarians, I rush flak frigates out fast = strikecraft rushes are more damaging to my opponent than me. Once I get a few destroyers with my Flak Frigates + my opponent is still trying to recover from all his lost strikecraft = I have full initiative. If his base is strong, I smash his second resourcing operation. If his base is lacking defenses, then I smash it instead.


I never really found rushing to be all that effective against me.......unless it is 2 or more oppenents at once.

[Reginald]

Lets talk team games. Given that HW2, at least, really shines when you play 2v2 or 3v3. Bigger games, on big maps, with more players to react to issues and more diversity in fleet composition. Plus having friends is fun!

When playing a team game it is good to coordinate your early game specializations. Everyone at some point will move to a mixed fleet. But in the early game it is really hard to effectively build more than one or two types of units. So pick what you're going for and coordinate with your friends to cover your weaknesses.

The three of you can go interceptors and win the air war...but then you have no real hard counter to AA frigates or destroyers without retooling and are probably going to lose. Most games I saw had one player going frigates/destroyers and the other two focused on AA with interceptors and AA frigates, or corvettes. The third player putting out a little token of AA defense.

[Trooper #900129-H]

Homeworld 2 Frigate uses.

As HW2's frigates are infamous for being squishy, (to the annoyance of many veterans), I personally found there are two main "schools" of strategy on how to use them best:


#1: Wall of Frigates
Difficulty: Easy.
Player management: Light.
Economy: Inefficient.

Use your frigates as a meatshield. HW2 frigates are notoriously fragile, but you can build a lot of them quickly.
Send them ahead of your main fleet and have them soak up the damage: This is easy to do, as most frigates are much faster then your bigger capital ships and (ion frigates excluded) tend to have shorter attackranges then the capitals.
On top of this, your ships' AI tends to rush forward as soon as you give them an attack order.
Just let them sit there and tank whatever the enemy is sending your way.

Be prepared to deal with "Frigate lost" message spam within minutes (seconds?) though.



#2: General support
Difficulty: Advanced
Player management: Advanced Micro
Economy: Efficient

Micromanage your frigates to fully employ them in their intended role.
This means attacking with your big capitals and strikecraft first and holding back your frigates untill battle is joined and your enemy has found different targets to focus on.

Flak frigates should stay close to your capitals, torpedo frigates should skirt around the battle and focus other frigates or heavy strikecraft and ion cannon frigates should be kept at range, sniping enemy capitals.

Marine Frigates? No guts no glory: Send them into the thick of it and pray the enemy is looking elsewhere.