I'm going to type a list of build orders I've used and I've seen used in game. These rely heavily on getting your marines to listen to your orders. Italic = Skill level. Bold = Strat name. Underline = Number of recommended players.

-Pro- The TSA fast tech. (6v6 or more.):

At the start of the game, drop an IP as far away as you can(So if a skulk attacks, you have plenty of room to hop out and attack him.), then drop an armory against a wall(Discourages humping), place an observatory near a wall (Better in a corner. If you were to beacon, he couldn't use it for cover and would have to run further to escape.) Listen for the hive. If a few good marines ran to res nodes at the start, capture them.

When you locate the hive, rally your marines to the outskirts of the hive at the RT's surrounding it. As your marines travel to the hive, cap the RT's along the way. When you have the resources, tech to advanced armory, and begin researching phase tech. When your marines arrive to the RT's outside the hive, kill the RT's and the nearby gorges. This will slow their tech.

Capture the RT's outside their hive and camp. When you have the resources, build a phase gate. Scan other RT's on the map to see if they have built any others. When the phase gate is up, give a good marine some mines to mine the phase gate with. When (If?) you scan an RT that was built, have your marines go destroy it and capture it. When you're finished teching, drop HMG's to destroy the fades and one grenade launher to destroy other RT's being built. Scan for RT's and second hives. Your GL soldier is your "Siege Unit" hotkey this marine. He will destroy structures while your HMG's protect him. If you have the resources / manpower, drop another GL for faster destruction.

If they build OT's to protect their outside RT's this will delay their tech. If they go lerk this will delay their tech also. If they try to kill the phase, that's free resources for you as long as you keep it nice and mined. If marines die often, a second IP would be helpful. Average game time ranges from eight to twelve minutes.

Pros:
-Counter five minute fades with HMG's.
-Deny the enemy resources and tech speed.
-You out tech the enemy and have early game access to stronger weapons.
-Your team will have a high kill / death ratio, giving the enemy team less "Kill res" than normal.

Cons:
-Lerks can cause problems for RT camping. Be mobile and don't camp if this happens.
-Bad marines could get swamped. Play on good servers.
-Sensory chambers could be a problem. Scan a lot and scan often.
-Lack of arms lab. Keep that med spammed and make sure ALL of your marines stick together. An arms lab could be intergrated into this strat, but I usually don't need it. HMG takes care of damage.

-Varies- Sneaky Siege. (3v3 or less.)

Start by building an IP and a turret factory in base close to your comm chair. Electrify the turret factory. Go cap a few RT's. Then have your marines sneak to the hive. Make sure they walk when skulk are nearby and to not attack enemy RT's. If they are parasited, have them kill themselves. Build a turret factory in their base and siege. Electrify it if you don't think your marines can hold the few skulks off. Games last from two to three minutes.

Pros:
-Stop that three minute onos before he has a chance to even become one.
-Base can't be killed this early in the game. (Marines base.)
-Aliens won't know they're under attack until it's too late.

Cons:
-OC spam could hinder this, but not by much.
-Lerk spore harassment is somewhat fatal if you don't get the turret factory electrified.
-Good scouting skulks will hinder this.


-Moderate- Shotgun rush (5v5. No more, no less usually.)

When the game starts, tell your marine what you are about to do so they don't run off to cap RT's.Drop an armory, drop shotties and mines (Tell them not to place any yet.) and listen for the hive while they hump. Then rally them to the hive and recycle the armory. When they reach the hive, tell them to place their mines and to blast the hive. Also make sure you tell them to blast the skulks that will try to defend it. Keep them nice and med spammed and filled with ammo. Soon enough the hive will die. Games last about a minute to two minutes at the most.

Pros:
-Outgun them so early.
-Fast games give marines a fun feeling and enrich NS as a whole.

Cons:
-Bad marines will die.
-This strategy is do-or-die. So if you fail, you lose.
-Heavily relies on your med spam and their skill to not just shoot the hive and hope their allies shoot the skulks for them.

I'm typing these as I go. I'll edit the post with more build orders when I have time.

Wow, I linked this post from my webpage and look at all the views!

i dun believe in formulaes or whatever, i like to change according to the situation.

for teh "pro" play, u wont have the whole server pro usually. as i see, why u have a "pro" team is becuase people stacked marines since aliens are occupied with noobs and they dun wanna get **** by it. so, if u have a pro team, it isnt matter how u play or what u plan, u will eventually win if u r not laming.

sg rush?
more people = better results to me.
i dun give them mines =\
maybe i would do that another way round, send them to hive, drop an armory, spam mines, and knife the hive with someone guarding.

More of them would die on the way to the hive without SG's. Best to pass them out before you head off.

FOR 6 V 6

1 comm, 2 rines in base, and depending on map , 3 together in a group out in the field gathering res/murdering aliens

1) drop an IP far away from teh comm chair, preferably near corners
2) drop an armory at a location where the marines can SEE the aliens coming as they hump/wait for weapons
3) drop mines an tell your rines to spread 3 of them around the ips, in some efficient manner, and tell them to place the 4th mine under the arms lab in the corner which you'll drop next
4) drop an arms lab against a corner of a wall and immediately reserach armor 1
5) tell your 2 rines in base to go in the opposite direction of the group of 3, spread out and get res
6) weapons 1
7) obs + pg tech
8) weapons 2
9) weapons 3 OR upgrade the armory OR drop shotties for your rines

beyond that point just do whatever.

suggestions
- Drop pgs + pass mines through > setting up static turrets.
- For small games like this, during sieges, its a good idea to place 1 turret at each chokepoint (ie doors from which aliens could slip through to attack your setup)
- shotties are cheap and effective anti-alien//rt counters
- electrification is useless unless you place a pg + elec rt + mines together in a HIVE
- medspam and constantly keep track of your rines. drop ammo when needed
- typically, jps are great in this matchup

beyond 6v6, marines get a huge advantage via their faster spawn system vs alien spawn system. under 6v6, aliens get res flow way too fast -> faster life form evolution.

I was hoping for this topic not to attract too many cookie cutter builds.

never keep any "solid" orders they are to your doom!

MM what i usually go for tech.....

IP RUSH


not the boring unsucceeded sg rush try cc rush allways much fun!

i've seen this com put down 4 ips in the beginning of the game and completely own the aliens. he teched phase gates first and locked down hives fast with elec + tf + pg.

jamno whats so funny about abusing some strat and winning boringly each time same way?

i'll add this to the sticky, it has an uber number of views on it, and is quite solid. IMHO.

I find the more of a set plan I have, the more I screw up as commander.


The only thing I have set in stone is IP->Armory->Arms Lab->Armor 1

While thats going on I get 2 or more RTs.

Everything else is improvisation, or more reactional than anything else. I try to coordinate attacks while capping nodes.

Sometimes I'll send LMGers to the hive to distract, while others can hunt gorges or kill nodes.

It depends on a lot of things. I find my basic build order to be very successful in the games I play in.


As far as general strategy is concerned. There are 3 things you can do besides killing the other team to help win.

A)Cap nodes, tech up

B)Destroy their nodes, slow their tech (hives fades etc..)

C)Attack their base]

Only letter C) can end the game, HOWEVER that does not mean you should only attack if its a game ending situation. Sometimes a deversion there, maybe even a little spawn camping (for the non scrub servers out there that recognize its a viable tactic). Anything you can do to keep the skulks off your nodes long enough so you can have 5+ towers is great.

Usually when you start getting a ton of resource towers they start getting hit. Thats ok, just hit their base. You divide their forces by having them hit your RTs, and you can just send 1 person out to recap them anyway. While you attack, always try to recap unless you are really rich with res. In case your attack fails you'll have resources to come back with a better attack.

The game is Natural Selection.

natural selection - n. - The process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.

The environment in Natural Selection is constantly changing throughout the game. Rigidity is maladaptive, flexibility is adaptive. Firewater is correct.

/sarcasm

thank you einstein for explaining darwin's theory of evolution to everyone who plays ns even though everyone knows the name has nothing to do with natural-selection itself.

Jammno. What`s the idea of playing 2hivelockdown? While you could have fun. Doing something more educating, than waiting that ha tech up for the non-dc hive....

Idea is to have fun, not to win...

u can win and have fun.

I don't know about you, but the idea is to win for me.

So, is this a sticky or not? The reason it has so many views is because I had this forum post linked from my web page.

I removed the link, the views shouldn't increase as rapidly now.

I win 87.6% of the games I comm.

Strats:

(I know some of these are cookie cutters but I like to bake cookies)

1. 30 Minute Game

armory -> nades -> MT -> WIN

2. MINE RUSH

drop 10 mines -> PUT IN HIVE -> PWN

3. RAGE WIN

see #2 -> aliens quit -> YOU WIN

4. IP RUSH

drop cc in hive -> drop 5 ips -> WIN

for the 6vs6

I think that u should always incorporate the arms lab in your strategy. Chances r also that the rines will start whining if u dont have one.

i say to drop structures this would be my order:

a) IP
b) armory or i u preffer a TF, with 2,3 turrets(armory first tho)
c)cap nodes
d)arms lab and observatory (if u can afford it, if u cant do them 1)arms lab
2)observatory

yeah and go on and on till u win.

i like all the other strats tho.

Also see if u can add the old heavy armor rush.