Arent pikemen sort of broken?

[Doom Sayer]

They just sit at distance and unless you have enough colonists capable of combat your simply ♥♥♥♥♥♥. There are more of them than i have colonists capable of combat. Yes im using cover no it doesnt do enough so far one combat colonist had his hand blown off and other died so I only have 2 to deal with 3 pikemen + lancer.

[whatamidoing]

Melee.

[Vermillion Cardinal]

Armored melee pawns with shield belts are pretty much their counter. With Zeushammers or other blunt weaponry equipped they become very vulnerable. Vs scythers you'll ideally want some distance, but with the rest you'll generally want to get close if safe to do so.

If you're dealing with dormant clusters you can build a wall closer to them so your people have less ground to travel before reaching them. If they're actively assaulting you hiding behind walls to lure them closer helps.

There's more to it like taking advantage of their different movement speeds to deal with each threat separately, using skip psycasts, berserk-inducing equipment, and setting up trap routes, but due to me playing at lower difficulties I don't need all that much strategy besides taking a little cover while rushing them with melee as above.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Vermillion Cardinal:

Armored melee pawns with shield belts are pretty much their counter. With Zeushammers or other blunt weaponry equipped they become very vulnerable. Vs scythers you'll ideally want some distance, but with the rest you'll generally want to get close if safe to do so.

If you're dealing with dormant clusters you can build a wall closer to them so your people have less ground to travel before reaching them. If they're actively assaulting you hiding behind walls to lure them closer helps.

There's more to it like taking advantage of their different movement speeds to deal with each threat separately and setting up trap routes, but due to me playing at lower difficulties I don't need all that much strategy besides taking a little cover while rushing them with melee as above.

Im thinking my main error is not doing a mad rush all at once. Next time i will send my pawns incapable of combat to agro the pikemen and just melee rush. In very least I can use the other pawns as bullet sponges.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Vermillion Cardinal:

Armored melee pawns with shield belts are pretty much their counter. With Zeushammers or other blunt weaponry equipped they become very vulnerable. Vs scythers you'll ideally want some distance, but with the rest you'll generally want to get close if safe to do so.

If you're dealing with dormant clusters you can build a wall closer to them so your people have less ground to travel before reaching them. If they're actively assaulting you hiding behind walls to lure them closer helps.

There's more to it like taking advantage of their different movement speeds to deal with each threat separately, using skip psycasts, berserk-inducing equipment, and setting up trap routes, but due to me playing at lower difficulties I don't need all that much strategy besides taking a little cover while rushing them with melee as above.

Just had to post this timing is way too funny.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2807330780
Randy is merciful.

[Vermillion Cardinal]

Randy gives and takes indeed, although in the reverse order this time.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Vermillion Cardinal:

Randy gives and takes indeed, although in the reverse order this time.

And i made up my loss and got a good shooter via slavers lol. Also somehow got attacked by 17 squirrels without noticing and had no consequences. Passive defense is best defense.

[The Blind One]

Originally posted by Doom Sayer:

Just had to post this timing is way too funny.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2807330780
Randy is merciful.

For a moment there I thought ... a devilstrand pikeman? a red armored elite unique pikeman?

But then I realized it was probably because he was getting hit and the screenshot was taken right at the moment that he got hit ...

[glass zebra]

You can also battle them on range if you let them come close enough. They do little damage but have a lot of penetration. Not much reason to not melee them though. The also move pretty slowly.

[XelNigma]

Can't wait for your post on centipedes. If you think the weakest mechnoid is hard to deal with, oh boy.

[gimmethegepgun]

Using cover for a long-range shootout with them isn't what you want.
You can use vision-occluding walls (rather than using corners to shoot around) to hide your pawns and force them to close in to attack you.

[The Blind One]

Yeah don't start a shooting match with pikemen, you'll find out you'll end up with lost limbs as their guns can just obliterate an entire body part out of the blue like that.

While the AI can infinitely send more troops at you over time, your precious colonists will suffer a long time unless you have bionic replacements ready at the hand. A good method is to EMP them and then rush in with your melees, they suck at close quarter combat. With centipedes it's even worse though, especially those firethrowers ... they just cause so much chaos.

[xtrasighsMAX]

Pike men are easy. Get an extreme long range energy rifle with +12 shooting "skill". Pick them off at the edge of your range.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Originally posted by The Blind One:

Yeah don't start a shooting match with pikemen, you'll find out you'll end up with lost limbs as their guns can just obliterate an entire body part out of the blue like that.

While the AI can infinitely send more troops at you over time, your precious colonists will suffer a long time unless you have bionic replacements ready at the hand. A good method is to EMP them and then rush in with your melees, they suck at close quarter combat. With centipedes it's even worse though, especially those firethrowers ... they just cause so much chaos.

Pikemen use Needle Guns which do less damage per hit than a Bolt Action Rifle, Lancers however are the ones with remove limbs thanks to their Charge Lances.

You can have a shooting match with Pikemen quite safely, not with Lancers though.

[xtrasighsMAX]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Originally posted by The Blind One:

Yeah don't start a shooting match with pikemen, you'll find out you'll end up with lost limbs as their guns can just obliterate an entire body part out of the blue like that.

While the AI can infinitely send more troops at you over time, your precious colonists will suffer a long time unless you have bionic replacements ready at the hand. A good method is to EMP them and then rush in with your melees, they suck at close quarter combat. With centipedes it's even worse though, especially those firethrowers ... they just cause so much chaos.

Pikemen use Needle Guns which do less damage per hit than a Bolt Action Rifle, Lancers however are the ones with remove limbs thanks to their Charge Lances.

You can have a shooting match with Pikemen quite safely, not with Lancers though.

Stay at long range, shoot only at the mech on the edge, what is that energy rifle called? Anti materiel? Hit it with that, odds are that only 1 or 2 will aggress you, just get back and keep shooting it if it chases after you, that rifle can 1 shot them or disable them. You just stand there at the edge.

When they start raiding your base from the sky the solution is obvious, lots of anti material and assault rifles but it won't help you. Rimworld decides difficulty of an event on the fly. It doesn't matter how powerful and clever you get, survival is a coin flip. The more weapons and soldiers you create the more enemies and more difficult spawn positions they will spawn in. If that doesn't work it will burn everything down then spawn, and spawn again. The only kind of fight you can guarantee is the one that walks into your trap box and sleeping mechs. Even the crazy animals will eventually spawn in 50+ amounts. If you have 10 toons with assault rifles you can fight it, if you don't you don't and it will start spawning like that at random after a while. If you beat all that it will send a 20 or more strong mortar crew to destroy your camp at range. If you beat that it will, eventually, spawn similar raid, then when everybody is injured spawn it again and again until you have nothing.

Rimworld calls it AI Storytelling when it does that. And it's like Rimworld says, it's not about playing a game and winning or losing, it's about the storyteller...

Ludeon will have to come up with a real good update to compete with the new stanley Parable.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Originally posted by uMbLaHng.BOOM:

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

Pikemen use Needle Guns which do less damage per hit than a Bolt Action Rifle, Lancers however are the ones with remove limbs thanks to their Charge Lances.

You can have a shooting match with Pikemen quite safely, not with Lancers though.

Stay at long range, shoot only at the mech on the edge, what is that energy rifle called? Anti materiel? Hit it with that, odds are that only 1 or 2 will aggress you, just get back and keep shooting it if it chases after you, that rifle can 1 shot them or disable them. You just stand there at the edge.

When they start raiding your base from the sky the solution is obvious, lots of anti material and assault rifles but it won't help you. Rimworld decides difficulty of an event on the fly. It doesn't matter how powerful and clever you get, survival is a coin flip. The more weapons and soldiers you create the more enemies and more difficult spawn positions they will spawn in. If that doesn't work it will burn everything down then spawn, and spawn again. The only kind of fight you can guarantee is the one that walks into your trap box and sleeping mechs. Even the crazy animals will eventually spawn in 50+ amounts. If you have 10 toons with assault rifles you can fight it, if you don't you don't and it will start spawning like that at random after a while. If you beat all that it will send a 20 or more strong mortar crew to destroy your camp at range. If you beat that it will, eventually, spawn similar raid, then when everybody is injured spawn it again and again until you have nothing.

Rimworld calls it AI Storytelling when it does that. And it's like Rimworld says, it's not about playing a game and winning or losing, it's about the storyteller...

Ludeon will have to come up with a real good update to compete with the new stanley Parable.

Staying at long range only works against mech clusters and Pikemen will outrange you if you choose to use Charge Lances (the only long range energy rifle you can make in vanilla), the Sniper Rifle also outranges Charge Lances and matches range with Needle Guns.

No gun in vanilla is called Anti Material.

I know full well how to deal with mechanoids, I've been playing this game since before it was on steam.