Mechanoid Tips?

[KönigsTiger]

I'm thinking about trying the highest difficulty, and my BIGGEST issue is dealing with psychic/poison ships that crash land and tear my colonists a new ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's not so much the charge lances, but the centipede-like bugs with their inferno cannons and miniguns. I know they're vulnerable to hit-and-run, but they always seem to nail my colonists when I least expect it and almost always injure/kill one or more of my colonists.

Any tips or tricks to deal with them? I was hoping to use mortars, but holy ♥♥♥♥ are they useless.

[ambi]

I usually setup turrets around the crashed ship, along with sandbags, walls and roofs to provide cover. I then get my colonists to use the walls as cover as well.

If one of them has EMP grenades, then use that. It'll stun the mechanoids for a few seconds. I heard normal frag grenades are great against centipedes as well, since centipedes have many body parts and a frag grenade will damage them all at once (as opposed to a bullet, which will only damage one body part).

[KönigsTiger]

Originally posted by klacoste:

I usually setup turrets around the crashed ship, along with sandbags, walls and roofs to provide cover. I then get my colonists to use the walls as cover as well.

If one of them has EMP grenades, then use that. It'll stun the mechanoids for a few seconds. I heard normal frag grenades are great against centipedes as well, since centipedes have many body parts and a frag grenade will damage them all at once (as opposed to a bullet, which will only damage one body part).

Thanks for the info. I was thinking about making alternating sandbags and walls for incoming raids, while also setting up the same pattern around crashed ships. I had one colonist hiding behind a corner of a stone wall survive a constant stream of 3x minigun fire at close range without getting hit once. Seems like the most effective way to go toe-to-toe.

[Ficelle]

Range is your 100% win against centipedes, they have like 27, it is low.

Snipers have 45, survival rifles 37, great bow have quite a bit too.

I do all ships with snipers as they outrange scythers too by quite a lot.
One is enough, more is better.

Just use the plan tool to draw lines to know exactly when you have to back up a bit (mostly for scythers)

And dont kill the ship first, always the mobs first.

Very easy most of the time.

Only time it doesnt work so good is
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=759757088
Still did it with 1 sniper...

[PolecatEZ]

If you're playing on a -100F map and it crashes down in the middle of winter, its game over. Your snipers will freeze to death before you can kite them, and running out for 2-3 shots at a time won't kill them all in time before the drone makes everyone nuts.

[Ficelle]

Then, you would use other more risky ways, or know how to counter bad mood effects for a while.

But someone playing extreme maps dont ask how to deal with centis as he already knows.
I assume OP will play more balanced maps first.

[Madman666]

Basically what other people said +shield tactics. Build a bunch of 3 segment walls on reasonable distance from crashed ship and one segment closer to it than others. This will be a spot for decoy man with the shield. 3 segmented walls will stop incendiary cannons from lighting your guys on fire and will help break the line of sight if they do get hit and will require evac. Guy with the shield will soak minigun and blaster fire, while other colonists tear them to shreds. Always start with scythers, they are deadliest enemy in this game aside from rocket launcher guys and snipers.

If you don't have personal shield yet - place 1-2 plasteel turrets with sandbags to do the tanking instead of shield guy. Plasteel Because blaster Centipedes and scythers do hit the mark from time to time and plasteel turrets have over 3 times the hp of steel ones.

[dwobwinkle]

I just micro it with a pistol a lot of the time. I build a wall. I shoot faster than them so I shoot, go behind wall (resetting their weapon charge up), It takes a while, but it works eventually.

[KönigsTiger]

This is my first complete playthrough. Building my last two cryocaskets, then launching off and trying a harder difficulty. I'm playing on Rough with C. Classic. Feels like it's about time for another ship to land soon, so I'll give it a shot with everything aforementioned. Thanks for the advice.

[Mistress]

Always expect it.

[corisai]

Just ordinary frag grenades works like a charm too. Build a stone wall (at least 3 blocks-length!, i prefer 4-blocks) at distance ~8 from ship and such way that it doen't block your shoter LoS. Some basic 2-3 blocks walls at mediocre distance for your other colonist and that's it - all centipendes will die quickly and horrible.

If you have EMP grenades too then mech are 100% pawned, at least if they don't make lucky shots with charge lances.

And, yes, i think that this is most dreaded weapons of mechs - other their guns scary only if you will fight with them in open field, without wall-based covers either specially build, either just own base buildings. But even one lucky hit from charge lance will cripple your colonist =/

Snipers will get job done too. But after I switched to Randy - i no longer risk my colony with prolonged sniper clearance of mechs, some bad things may happen just here and now.

[RemingtonRyder]

I build a bunker next to the ship. Nope, I'm not joking.

Obviously a bunker is not ideal if a centipede with an inferno cannon rolls out, but against almost everything else it's pretty good.

[corisai]

You gived me idea - I should test tripple missile launcher on my next mech ship :)

[KönigsTiger]

Triple missle launcher does poorly against the ship itself; Almost no damage. But like stated before, any explosives will do well against the centipedes simply due to the fact they have such a massive amount of individual body parts. High rate of fire (minigun), and any AoE weapon is effective against them.

[grapplehoeker]

Avoid a single frontal approach.
Snipe the Scythers and then the Centipedes from different sides. By putting them in the middle of a crossfire, makes it easy to dispose of them and avoid any inferno cannon nastiness, by being able to duck into cover on one side, while hitting them from the other.
Save the disposal of the ship to last.
As for difficulty, the ships would be the least of your concerns. I was told the flat ice sheets were the most dificult starting point, but having done that, I believe they're actually not that bad. The flat extreme desert by contrast is considerably harder imo.

[Phoenix C64]

This is how I do it

https://youtu.be/X9OYCTFklQ0

In short: kill ship ASAP to remove negative effects. This causes mechs to come to my base, where I can deal with them on my terms.

Sniper and/or shield bait tactics are good too.

If you get an early sniper rifle and maybe an emp grenade, you'll do just fine. Otherwise: play with covers and range.

I also like to suicide tons of animals. Works fine and is fun + meat source.