Igorputski wrote:anyone can cheat an use an "exploit" that the ai can't handle like sniper "spam" (you even admitted to it in a round about way, pretty proud of yourself that you can exploit the ai in such a way) why don't you try going head to head with the ai and then see how well you can handle the onslaught? Of course I very well expect you to just turtle then till you are so strong nothing by the ai could stop you.
Wait, according to you being smart enough to take a colonial trooper with assault tweaker and giving them SWS Headhunter rifles is a "Exploit"?
What's next? Avenger hulls with Long Toms equipped, (Artillery in case u didn't know) is also an exploit?
Nukes, bombers is also a exploit and mortars.. Oh and grenades!
Are you seriously angry about weapons being used as they are designed for?
Anyways,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military
And if you want honorable combat, both parties must agree to it.
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/17-gen ... ombat.html
And if you're that hard up on smashing the messari frontally while ignoring any counters I would recommend a Goliath Mech + Pulse Lasers and assault tactics tweaker plus gauss armor if you can. They will pretty much flatten anything down on a 1v1 as long as you can keep it healed.
If not sws headhunters or long tom then I would simply switch to colonial troopers with assault tweakers and lance rifles then give them gauss armor if my production can crank them out 1 a turn and hurdle them to their deaths by millions Imperial Guard style. Otherwise that gauss armor will be replaced with whatever weaker but as strong as possible armor enough to permit one trooper a turn production. If a city grow strong enough then that lance will be replaced with gauss rifle/armor and maintain the lance troopers from weaker cities.
That imperial guard tactic is very very inefficient use of resources and turns but is viable fallback plan when you're screwed as long as you have enough turns between messaris to crank up hordes of them.
Catching yourself Galeths and Devourers is very good way to prepare for the Messari invasion considering that Avenger tanks is ridiculously weak these days while only good at dispatching xenomorphs til until they're near lvl 20. How do i catch galeths/devourers as early as first 50 turns? You see that charging galeth for your city? Let it assault, the trooper will die but if you have good fortune, its sufficently weakened enough for a colonial hunter to tame it with like 1.9 str at like lvl 1 xD
I'm serious, Galeths/Devourers now do the job previously once reserved for avenger tanks. <_< I found myself neglecting the avenger hulls because it's just not worth it these days. I think their strength got cut in half and is restored at level 20. Is no good because you never know when there's an galeth/devourer in hiding and that avenger gets caught out while you're trying to lvl it only to have it smacked
More hard work is required but I went the easy route of catching galeths/devourers due to appearance of Messaris.
A lvl 20 Galeth is a monster. He kicks around Messari infantry very easily but will need help to recover to fight other infantry.
And if you leveled up and protected your strike aircrafts while they're still using lances they will serve you greatly when messari arrives and you upgrade them to Gauss stuff. Most I ever had was five by the time Messari hit the planet. And that was helluva hard work to get that many out so fast. Much more realistic to have like two by then instead of five.
Archipelago tactics of popping messari transports as they attempt to land onto your island is obvious one so I won't bother with this one however I will say one thing at least.
I don't play archipelago because that's where the map scripts is at their ugliest in Pandora first contact. They're basically goddamn circles. So I stick to continents at most because at least it vaguely look like a world somewhat.
The tipping midpoint is where you acquire Demolisher tanks and it's ilk in mechanization era and the assorted upgrades will permit you to go on the offense but I've gone on the offense earlier than that however that is always dependent on portal's locations and the strength of xenomorphs attacking you. And geography. Lots of variable factors. But having lots of sniper rifles around is the earliest you can start to consider.