Are turrets worth it?

[CostlySpider]

Thought I would try them out got a guy who could finally throw them, but other then spotting the odd guy, ai always knew they where there, always stayed just out of sight, or would sit back and snipe them. I know stealth is a thing, does not say how loud it is throwing one, but time I wasted picking them up throwing them just to get odd shot with like 5 turrets, was a waste of time, been easier just to go kill the guy them mess around trying to get a few turret kills.

Not saying they never got kills but trying to get turret kills seems like more work than its worth. Maybe they need wheels on the or something, so when guy can remote control them.

[Dorok]

Perhaps you need to get used to them.

A technician can make a turret shoot for the price of 1AP and few WP. It means technician can have a quite high damage output one turn of two along with a mission, and repeat later with ammo refill, pick back turret, and deploy it again.

The ability to throw a turret can also be extra powerful tactically, with the problem to manage, not have the turret destroyed.

But turrets will tend to require management to position them, then pick them back and reposition them. So it's not for best damages along with a mission, but for few bursts of high damages and some unique tactical possibilities.

The point of turrets isn't to kill, it's to shred armor and do a lot of damages. So their most frequent usage is to soften a target. If a turret kills, it's not recorded as a Technician kill.

EDIT:
I don't think you can consider a Technician as a main soldier, it is more about being support:
- Burst of damages with turrets (turrets can also block Scylla), But alos the management required by turrets.
- Healing and repair abilities.
- Armor boost at key moments.

All of that will tend to require a lot of actions, and often the Technician doesn't have the time to make classic combat.

[CostlySpider]

Originally posted by Dorok:

Perhaps you need to get used to them.

A technician can make a turret shoot for the price of 1AP and few WP. It means technician can have a quite high damage output one turn of two along with a mission, and repeat later with ammo refill, pick back turret, and deploy it again.

The ability to throw a turret can also be extra powerful tactically, with the problem to manage, not have the turret destroyed.

But turrets will tend to require management to position them, then pick them back and reposition them. So it's not for best damages along with a mission, but for few bursts of high damages and some unique tactical possibilities.

The point of turrets isn't to kill, it's to shred armor and do a lot of damages. So their most frequent usage is to soften a target. If a turret kills, it's not recorded as a Technician kill.

EDIT:
I don't think you can consider a Technician as a main soldier, it is more about being support:
- Burst of damages with turrets (turrets can also block Scylla), But alos the management required by turrets.
- Healing and repair abilities.
- Armor boost at key moments.

All of that will tend to require a lot of actions, and often the Technician doesn't have the time to make classic combat.

Thanks for response, to me the are just not worth the time trying to set up, have to wait a turn before they can even fire, by they are ready to go either enemy is dead or moved to where the turrets can not shoot the anyways.

Quick question can you put them in overwatch? I never saw an option for that, maybe I missed something, I know they return fire when getting shot at, but if I could put them in overwatch maybe I could find a it of use for them.

[Dorok]

No you don't need wait next turn to make turret shoot. The skill Manual control allows shoot, for example, 1 move/deploy/1 turret shoot, or turret deploy/2 turret shoots.

For sure don't bother with turret before have this skill.

Later turrets are even more improved with the ability to deploy a turret with a thrown and 1AP cost, then heavy shoot around the corner becomes possible with the difficulty to not have turret destroyed along enemy turn.

No overwatch option, I don't know why it's been removed.

Eventually turret will auto shoot right before player turn. But either it's a recent change, either it's related to some conditions, often the turret doesn't auto shoot, then during player turn you need remind makes the turret shoot.

[CostlySpider]

Originally posted by Dorok:

No you don't need wait next turn to make turret shoot. The skill Manual control allows shoot, for example, 1 move/deploy/1 turret shoot, or turret deploy/2 turret shoots.

For sure don't bother with turret before have this skill.

Later turrets are even more improved with the ability to deploy a turret with a thrown and 1AP cost, then heavy shoot around the corner becomes possible with the difficulty to not have turret destroyed along enemy turn.

No overwatch option, I don't know why it's been removed.

Eventually turret will auto shoot right before player turn. But either it's a recent change, either it's related to some conditions, often the turret doesn't auto shoot, then during player turn you need remind makes the turret shoot.

Thanks I did not know I could make turrets shoot as soon as I deployed them. That is a game changer. Feel kind of silly now.

[Dorok]

It's a bit limited at first, deploy is 2AP, and you can't even deploy in square in diagonal right to the soldier. Still there's many good use cases. When you get the skill Remote deployment, it's then very powerful, then the trap/complexity is not have the turret destroyed.

[snuggleform]

What is this you mentioned about "ammo refill" dorok? I know turrets have an ammo counter, are you implying you can refill a turret somehow?

I have a suspicion that turrets are good in base defense since the enemy is forced to come to you anyways, and I've heard good things about them in the last mission.

[Dorok]

Check your shop, right bellow any turret there's ammo, it's for the turret, but it's the Technician that must carry extra turret ammo.

Yes turret have ammo counter, I suppose you can't see when in inventory, but when deployed you can check details like for soldiers, and when selected like for soldiers you see ammo count to the right.

For ammo refill it's the technician that can do it, not the turret. Still I'm not sure that at mission end you pay for turret ammo refill, worth a careful check because turret ammo is among ammo more expensive.

In my opinion Technician and turret is rather technical to use, but can be used for offence too. With lack of overwatch they aren't that powerful to use for pure defence. They aren't either much resistant hence they are risked or potentially expensive lure. I got a turret destroyed along a recent Citadel mission (with one enemy Return Fire lol yeah an error), I forgot check if I lost the turret et end of mission. Through saves I should be able to check it.

Two Technicians will have a synergy about turrets use, but they won't remove the main difficulty point, not have turrets destroyed.

[snuggleform]

I'm a little bit confused about turret ammo, it seems to me that turrets refill their ammo automatically at the end of the mission without consuming resources. Is this true? (of course, you can buy turret ammo, put that into your inventory, and refill them during battle, but that is not my question).

[Dorok]

That's cool, I don't see the problem, the turret ammo in inventory is only in case the turret has no more ammo in a mission.

That's two points I need to check, ammo refill after mission, and turret destroyed during the mission.

[snuggleform]

I'm pretty sure they refill without cost after a mission. I see no point in creating turret ammo because I end the maps before they can shoot 15 times.

[Dorok]

Scorcher 15 shoot (x10), Rattlesnake 12 shoot (x8), Watcher 10 shoot (x8). I remind had missions with ammo shortage, but not the common mission and not (yet) with current game version.

I agree that 15 seems a lot, 10 is good already. A Techician without very high will won't use that many shoot, or it's a mission that last and with a defence part, not when moving to attack.

[Fellowdeer]

From my experience (1 play-through) turrets are absolutely incredible once you get a trained technician who can throw them and activate them from distance. I had 2 on my team which made it possible to shoot several times a turn without putting my soldiers in danger. Even though turrets are fragile they are immune to some negative effects and after all, losing a turret hurts much less then losing a soldier. Be aware though, turrets shoot from a low height so keep that in mind while deploying.

PS: I know my strategy can seem a bit cheap, but it works and I don't care

[Dorok]

Originally posted by Fellowdeer:

From my experience (1 play-through) turrets are absolutely incredible once you get a trained technician who can throw them and activate them from distance. I had 2 on my team which made it possible to shoot several times a turn without putting my soldiers in danger. Even though turrets are fragile they are immune to some negative effects and after all, losing a turret hurts much less then losing a soldier. Be aware though, turrets shoot from a low height so keep that in mind while deploying.

PS: I know my strategy can seem a bit cheap, but it works and I don't care

Overall agree from the experience of older game versions. For the current version, despite in end of the campaign, I'm only getting trained Tech so level 7 tech are still not fast nor with a lot of WP.

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by Fellowdeer:

From my experience (1 play-through) turrets are absolutely incredible once you get a trained technician who can throw them and activate them from distance. I had 2 on my team which made it possible to shoot several times a turn without putting my soldiers in danger. Even though turrets are fragile they are immune to some negative effects and after all, losing a turret hurts much less then losing a soldier. Be aware though, turrets shoot from a low height so keep that in mind while deploying.

PS: I know my strategy can seem a bit cheap, but it works and I don't care

I don't see your strategy as cheap. Some people do wonders with infiltrators which has similar properties of having low risk to soldiers, so at least there are alternative strategies.

[Dorok]

The cheap aspect is a bit wrong, have turrets often destroyed is a burden and has a price you lost both the ammo and the turret. This means that this is the tricky/complex part of using turrets. Another difficulty is their static aspect, take them back and replay them again is a time cost. And the last element is turrets are boosted with the skill manual control, but the price of WP isn't insignificant which adds another element of complexity of when use this extra power and when use will restore and building burden to have Tech with high will.

About infiltrators, they aren't low-risk soldiers, when detected during enemy turn they are in high death risk. Only long-range infiltrators are lower risk soldiers.