assembly army tips?

[00yiggdrasill00]

im trying out the assembly but struggling with army comp and how to effectively use their units. any tips? scavengers in particular seem so fragile and slow for a melee unit but i get several very nice upgrades for them so its hard to walk past

[Prometheus]

Scavs have fast movement so slow seems like a weird complaint.

Melee is a different playstyle than ranged. With ranged you are typically going for kills. Melee on the other hand go for staggers and overwatches. Move a melee unit in and get a single hit. Now the enemy is down an action. On their turn they shoot your melee, get overwatched and staggered and now they only took one action and 2 hits for that turn.

One of the key things to remember with melee is you don't have an absolute drive to finish units off. If you have a unit that has taken two melee hits and only has 1 ap and a bit of health. Just let them sit. Next turn they can barely hurt you and odds are the melee overwatch will kill them. So let them. Use your unit actions elsewhere.

[sandman25dcsss]

Rush for that race mod which gives regeneration, extra HP and resurrects your unit if you won the battle, it is the best mod in the game.

[xlnt4real]

Turn1 get a sniper for the leader, with 2 units on 9 range early fights are easy mode. Get stagger resist (leader skill) and consider Celestial (stagger resist t1 mode for units) if not Heritor. Use a Tech that provides a flying unit and research for that or play with a dwelling with flying units. Research tier2 flyer for the hero to use with pilot. Build scouts (because of fly) and keep them in groups of 2 - harass with those if the opponent is a noob and has no flying stacks or kill opponent scouts. Try to invade before turn 20 with range mods from the FireArms (Rail Accelerators). Never research and use walking units and prefer to put mods on t2 flying ones.

If the initial rush fails - focus on research rush to tier3/4 flying units and do 4-5 settlements, focus on map clear using the Assembly doctrines.
Good luck!

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Promethian:

Scavs have fast movement so slow seems like a weird complaint.

Melee is a different playstyle than ranged. With ranged you are typically going for kills. Melee on the other hand go for staggers and overwatches. Move a melee unit in and get a single hit. Now the enemy is down an action. On their turn they shoot your melee, get overwatched and staggered and now they only took one action and 2 hits for that turn.

One of the key things to remember with melee is you don't have an absolute drive to finish units off. If you have a unit that has taken two melee hits and only has 1 ap and a bit of health. Just let them sit. Next turn they can barely hurt you and odds are the melee overwatch will kill them. So let them. Use your unit actions elsewhere.

yeah i believe you, it just shows how bad i am at using them. will have to learn from experience i think. i wasnt using the melee overwatch at all and trying to get as many hits by moving very little so thats likely where it came from. thanks.

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

Rush for that race mod which gives regeneration, extra HP and resurrects your unit if you won the battle, it is the best mod in the game.

ive just seen this it looks amazing

[Winger]

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

im trying out the assembly but struggling with army comp and how to effectively use their units. any tips? scavengers in particular seem so fragile and slow for a melee unit but i get several very nice upgrades for them so its hard to walk past

It'd be easier to share hints if you'd also mention a certain secret tech that you enjoy playing.

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Winger:

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

im trying out the assembly but struggling with army comp and how to effectively use their units. any tips? scavengers in particular seem so fragile and slow for a melee unit but i get several very nice upgrades for them so its hard to walk past

It'd be easier to share hints if you'd also mention a certain secret tech that you enjoy playing.

sorry i was after tips for assembly units in particular. im using synthesis if it makes a huge difference.

[Winger]

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

... im using synthesis if it makes a huge difference.

Oh it's just I feel that your secret tech defines your unit loadouts, roles and army composition possibly as much as your race so I wanted to ask for a specific combination of the two.

Synthesis has amazing mods and synergizes well with Assembly for obvious reasons. Total network integration mod grants stagger immunity and revival at 25% once the unit is down. Stagger immunity is pretty much a must for melee units since if staggered, they lose mobility, damage but more importantly, melee overwatch. It's also a must for snipers so that they won't be confined to snapshots since sniper shots require full action. Your vorpal snipers and scavengers will be thankful if you equip them with total integration. It's such a great mod that sometimes it's reason enough to go Synthesis. Guardian shell makes your lightning riders near untouchable, combined with their evasive manuevers, while you are positioning them for most AoE coverage.

Also, learn to love the Reverse Engineer. He's got a shotgun so he can reposition and shoot without losing damage, much like your scavengers. He's not too shabby at melee, got a summon and a revival/heal. Mind that his constructs inherit any PASSIVE mods the reverse engineer has equipped, so if you, for example, have an engineer with flesh tearer implants + total network integration + guardian daemon shell, the construct will have them too (this makes for some pretty fun combinations with xenoplague mods). Once it dies, your hackers can use reconstruct daemon on them as a bonus to pop up yet another summon.

Scavengers feeling slow probably has to do with rough terrain you got on the map, since they have land movement. Otherwise they have high movement points and are fast, zerging units not unlike Kir'ko frenzied.

Been a while since I last played, this about all that comes to mind at the moment. I hope it helps.

[00yiggdrasill00]

Originally posted by Winger:

Originally posted by 00yiggdrasill00:

... im using synthesis if it makes a huge difference.

Oh it's just I feel that your secret tech defines your unit loadouts, roles and army composition possibly as much as your race so I wanted to ask for a specific combination of the two.

Synthesis has amazing mods and synergizes well with Assembly for obvious reasons. Total network integration mod grants stagger immunity and revival at 25% once the unit is down. Stagger immunity is pretty much a must for melee units since if staggered, they lose mobility, damage but more importantly, melee overwatch. It's also a must for snipers so that they won't be confined to snapshots since sniper shots require full action. Your vorpal snipers and scavengers will be thankful if you equip them with total integration. It's such a great mod that sometimes it's reason enough to go Synthesis. Guardian shell makes your lightning riders near untouchable, combined with their evasive manuevers, while you are positioning them for most AoE coverage.

Also, learn to love the Reverse Engineer. He's got a shotgun so he can reposition and shoot without losing damage, much like your scavengers. He's not too shabby at melee, got a summon and a revival/heal. Mind that his constructs inherit any PASSIVE mods the reverse engineer has equipped, so if you, for example, have an engineer with flesh tearer implants + total network integration + guardian daemon shell, the construct will have them too (this makes for some pretty fun combinations with xenoplague mods). Once it dies, your hackers can use reconstruct daemon on them as a bonus to pop up yet another summon.

Scavengers feeling slow probably has to do with rough terrain you got on the map, since they have land movement. Otherwise they have high movement points and are fast, zerging units not unlike Kir'ko frenzied.

Been a while since I last played, this about all that comes to mind at the moment. I hope it helps.

it helps indeed. knowing about stagger ripping out overwatch is huge. i was unsure on the reverse engi and hadnt really used them. will give them a go