Ambushes....don't you just love 'em to bits???

[Viktor]

One of my favourite things in FO:T is luring a superior enemy or group of enemies into an ambush where my close assault troops rip 'em a new arsehole!

Super mutants are particularly easy prey to such ambushes IMO....guess it's true that smarts X strenght = a constant....

My all time favourite was in Jefferson.... I had my 2 snipers Farsight (good shot , but high maintenance) and Stein (my medic and rocket launcher trooper) set up on top of the SE corner of the mined building with the mined Huey on the roof in no-shoot mode. Meanwhile, Rebecca (my trap laying temptress) had disarmed all the AP mines at the entrances and planted them in the gaps between walls in the ruins to the SE.

In cover and just out of blast radius were my close assault team; me (fast shot - Desert Eagle full of AP), Jo (my driver and her Neostead full of slug ammo) and big dumb Trevor (packing a his trusty M2).

Now, wait 'til one of the patrolling SMs comes with range of the snipers (now on 33% shot trigger level)......snipers take a couple of shots and the SMs come a running.....right into the mines!!!

The charred and bleeding survivors (SMs are tough...) staggered onwards....right in a hail of bullets! My .44 (as 2APs per shot) keeps them busy (as do shots from the snipers) while 12 gauge slug loads and .50 cal ball shreds them in seconds!!

I have to say I find using 2 or more 'fire teams' at different ranges gives a real advantage - especially when the sniper fire draws the enemy onto your close assault weapons. Basically, when your squad is shooting different weapons at different ranges, you end up with a staggering in time of fire and you only get a gap of 1 or 2 APs between shots from your squad (in CTB of course...). This usually means enemy troops don't have time to close in or return fire before being hit again and having to re-start their last activity over. This makes a BIG difference when up against SMs with M2s!!!


Is it just me or do the tactics employed by other BoS squads in the core campaign seem really ill advised????

Take St. Louis for example. When faced with a superior enemy, 6 BoS squads spilt up all over the map where they lose any firepower advantage they had and just 2-3 mutants can take them out.....

With 32 BoS troopers (even with hunting rilfes and SMGs), a smart general would manouver en masse with 5 squads staying behind cover, but in good firing positions while 1 squad moves forward. That way, their massed firepower would chop even 3-4 SMs into buzzard fodder!

Mind you, the loss of these veteran squads in this mission could explain why you see a whole BoS squad run straight the front door and get creamed in the later robot reactor mission! Seeing a Paladin make a tactical mistake that even the dumbest, brahmin worshipping tribal wouldn't make somewhat ruined the believability of the game universe for me.....

What do you guys think??

[OnTheBounce]

Seeing a Paladin make a tactical mistake that even the dumbest, brahmin worshipping tribal wouldn't make somewhat ruined the believability of the game universe for me.....

What do you guys think??

I agree, but I think the designers just didn't put the effort into scripting the missions to the level that they could/should have. I've seen a lot of comments in the speech files about things that were left out - I'm also compiling these, slowly but surely - and there are a few comments here and there that the players just aren't going to see X, so leave it out, or that Y requires too much effort, so leave it out.

When it comes to fighting, my motto is: "The only fair fight is the one you win." So ambushes and mines are pretty much my stock in trade, and I'm therefore also a big fan of stealth.

I recently set up an ambush in my own SP campaign w/a sniper armed w/a hunting rifle who lured out a band of H-T-H-armed Raiders into a kill sack of the other squad members all of which were armed w/Beretta pistols. The low AP cost of pistols and the fact that a couple of the squad were Fast Shots resulted in a virtual hail of 9mm FMJ that cut 6 Raiders down in no time flat. The stacatto popping sound of the pistols was very amusing. Er...not to the Raiders, of course...

OTB

[Viktor]

I recently set up an ambush in my own SP campaign w/a sniper armed w/a hunting rifle who lured out a band of H-T-H-armed Raiders into a kill sack of the other squad members all of which were armed w/Beretta pistols. The low AP cost of pistols and the fact that a couple of the squad were Fast Shots resulted in a virtual hail of 9mm FMJ that cut 6 Raiders down in no time flat. The stacatto popping sound of the pistols was very amusing. Er...not to the Raiders, of course...

OTB

I love using laser pistols that way with Fast Shots - fills the room with those neat 'zap - crackle' laser sound effects!!

[axelgreese]

The tactic I employ most often is: two-man fire team, pancor jackhammer, stacked on a buildings edge, roving patrol. Wait for him to walk clear of the building and they blow him away.

[Viktor]

The tactic I employ most often is: two-man fire team, pancor jackhammer, stacked on a buildings edge, roving patrol. Wait for him to walk clear of the building and they blow him away.

Yep. There's nothing like ripping an unsuspecting sentry apart that way! I like to have 2 snipers ready to take out whoever comes running to investigate the gunfire too....

[axelgreese]

Snipers are okay, but I find that they generally don't have enough time to kill their targets and thus need so much help that I just forgo them most of the time (except on the kill Gammoron and Kansas City levels)

[Viktor]

Snipers are okay, but I find that they generally don't have enough time to kill their targets and thus need so much help that I just forgo them most of the time (except on the kill Gammoron and Kansas City levels)

Very true. But every time they hit the advancing enemies, the enemy stops running/walking as it loses all its APs. This often happens just as they come past the wall my SMG/combat shotgun ambush team are taking cover behind, meaning they're sitting targets for some burst fire fun!

[axelgreese]

Do yu play in CTB mode (that's what I use)?

[Viktor]

Do yu play in CTB mode (that's what I use)?

Oh yes!!!

It rewards your good tactics/squad placement with lots of dead enemies and punishes your screw up by chewing your squad to bits!

[OnTheBounce]

Do y[o]u play in CTB mode...?

Definitely. I have to admit that when I first picked up FoT I was dead set against playing in CTB mode, being something of a TB-purist. However, I eventually tried CTB to get around having to shuffle through Preoria a few meters at a time. Then I tried it for overland travel. By the time I hit Springfield in that game I was using CTB all of the time and have only played in TB for comparison purposes when play-testing some of my early missions.

OTB

[Max-Violence]

I only play TB if I'm in a random encounter with multiple Behemoths...

[Umpa]

CTB is better i think. ambushes are great! luring an enemy that could easily wipe out 1 person gets killed with no casualties. spancor jackhammers and burst guns kill mostly anything really easily

[axelgreese]

Has anyone made an effective melee player useing CTB?