Defence tactics
Template:UC This page details different tactics for defence and visualizations of them.
Early Game Tactics
One early game tactic (a.k.a tunnel of death) is to slow down your enemies by (possibly using mountains to help) creating a narrow strip between your colony and potential areas where raiders could attack from, then placing a wall of sandbags close to the exit of the strip (the end closer to your colony obviously) where you can put turrets and/or colonists to attack the raiders. (You can also place debris in the strip so that they are slowed)
Mid Game Tactics
The Death Room
NOTE: This strategy requires the use of the Blasting Charges mod.
Proposed start time: as soon as possible, usually day 10+
If you use a mined out base you can use mines to make "death rooms" in the entrance and just outside. By having ONLY ONE door exposed to the outside world, raiders will all focus on destroying the door (raiders don't attack rock walls). This high concentration of assailants is perfect for mines.
If the raiders are spread out and one raider attacks the door, have one colonist (preferably the best repairer) stand on the inside and repair the door until enough raiders have gathered to make it worth activating the blasting charges.
WARNING! The colonist should not repair the door to full health because he or she might go outside to do a task, opening the door and dooming the colonist. To avoid this situation, draft the colonist before the door is completely repaired.
It is possible to stack this defensive structure (more than 4 in a row will noticeably increase travel time for colonists) to implement Defense In Depth security.
▣ - Door ◉ - Blasting charges ◎ - Optional Blasting charges ▢ - Explosion radius ▩ - Rock walls
▲ Outside ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▣ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ◉ ◎ ◉ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ◀ The Death Room ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▣ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▩ ▼ Inside
Pros
- Extremely efficient and effective deathtrap
Cons
- Potential for friendly fire or colonist injury
- Metal cost
Late Game Tactics
Death's Cathedral
Proposed start time: day 100+
Make a huge room (be careful, as the roof will collapse without support beams) with stone walls that cover the entrance to your base.
The length of this room should be 45 tiles (use power conduits to measure the distance) because a M-24 sniper rifle can shoot that far.
The width of this room should be equal to the amount of colonists that you plan to have, with a maximum of 45.
Make the "inside wall" (towards your base entrance) a huge Fire Wall and in the center of the opposite wall make a hole where the enemies can enter.
Haul away all Debris, cut all Saguaro cacti, and remove anything considered Cover inside this room (cutting/burning away the Poverty grass is optional).
- Optional: make a Dumping zone around the outer wall, configure it to receive Debris, and designate enough debris to fill it. This will slow the approach of raiders.
- Optional: build either expensive Sandbags or free Debris as a second line in front of the Fire wall with a 1 tile gap between them so the colonists can hide behind cover in front of the Fire Wall.
- Optional: if the Blasting charges mod is activated you can line the outer wall and the front of the Fire Wall with blasting charges in such a way that the charges don't damage the walls or each other, but anyone just in front of the walls will be injured or killed.
Pros
- Fun
- Can use weapons with a longer range than turrets
- Very low cost to maintain
Cons
- Very high initial cost
- Colonists can still be injured
- Requires most (or all) of your colonists to interrupt what they are doing
- Requires most (or all) of your colonists to use long range weapons such as the M-24 sniper rifle
Other Tactics and Designs
The "Fire Wall"
An effective cover design is to alternate 2 walls and 1 sand bag, by doing this you have 3 colonists shooting out of the same hole, 2 behind full cover and one behind low cover. This method can be expanded as long as there is room on the map.
▢ - Sandbags | ▩ - Wall | ◉ - Colonist behind full Cover | ◎ - Colonist behind half Cover
▲ Outside ▩ ▢ ▩ ▩ ▢ ▩ ◉ ◎ ◉ ◉ ◎ ◉ ▼ Inside
Pros
- Gives excellent cover
- Allows defenders to attack a wide range of targets while remaining behind cover
- Prevents colonists from ganging up on enemies
Cons
- The design narrows the attack area, so the attackers must come straight at the defenders