I’ve been thinking about getting back to playing XO like i used to a long time ago, and I’d like some input from regular rules of THE COUCH how they like to play.
My XO character’s thing is prioritising the life of marines above all else, always calling evac when appropriate, doing the safer viable plans, etc.
A CL once told me the cost of the operation is too high, and he had been given the go-ahead to nuke the Colony by The Company.
I ordered Foxtrot a second time and we went back in.
My CO pushes his men to all kill themselves for his desire to see their own goals achieved, it may indeed me a selfish goal but a goal that has inspired others to fight albeit at the cost of their comrades, the ghosts of which haunt him to this day
Attack on Titan「AMV」Before Lights Out (OST) - YouTube
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I do the wackiest the plan possible even if it means a losing. Always take the worst option if it means a deathsquad is gonna get sent onboard. Why? Because my COs a deranged person who only has being a marine as his achievement in life. He’s a medal chaser
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photo related of a king on his throne
I like to bait mutiny and then cryosleep right as the surviving marines come knocking at the CIC. So they dont get the satisfaction of killing or arresting me :3
Thought about this one for a bit… My belief on command is that you can use any stratergy you want, want to designate echo squad to rappel in the backline? go for it, want to split drop? go for it, want to deploy only bravo and the scout spec so he can laze at the other side of the AO and deploy the other three squads? go for it.
All of these are NOT “The meta” and are (in my opinion) worse in functionality, but they are fun, and this is a game so why not. For me the diference from a competent XO and a baldie idependent of character quirk or inicial orders comes down to: what things they call out, how fast they do it, how frequent they announce and how informed they maintain groundside. Unless I am missing something the rest are just details or generaly the job of another department.
We need another mini event making you tiny.
The entire Falling Falcons would have died for lieutenant colonel Wallace Haar. Damn shame he was murdered before going Julius Caesar.
To own as many liberals (xenos) as possible
Facts do not care about xenomorph feelings
Me personally I believe is hammer blows with the marines. Keep a decently put together chunk of marines to push in a general direction and assign squads on main pushes and flanks based off their sizes. Aside from hammering the xenos, I’m a pretty vanilla XO with keeping squads to their traditional jobs and not doing wacky shit like delta on FOB. However I do reassign certain roles to jobs like making all the comtechs stay at the FOB if bravo is low on manpower and so on. Also last stands are generally unpopular with marines so I generally lead from the front during evacuations of the Almayer. (I’m usually XO during low pop hours so somethings I said won’t apply too well during higher population hours)
Also don’t be afraid to go down to the planet itself alone to set off a nuke.
I like to play XO in a mindset that marines actually know what they’re doing and the crew is competent.
I like to split squads up so nobody merge’s cause death balls are really unintresting, I also like to imagine that a squad can hold of a choke for atleast 5 - 10 minutes before needing reinforcements.
On the flip side. I know that when I play marine, I am about as retarded as it gets. So when I play XO I presume everyone else is as dumb as me.
I also play XO like a schizophrenic.
I find CIC is best in encouraging Marines to perform certain actions and contextualizing the battlefield for the Marine force ergo my XO actions follow suit.
While I do present an overall plan (usually secure X area or push Y zone), I will generally spend my time constantly informing the Marines of the overall battlefield situation. Calling out flanks, pointing out where Marine casualties are, trying to prevent a rout. As well as constantly updating the tacmap.
The announcement cooldown is about 30 seconds, I make it a point to make sure I am sending a new announcement as quickly as possible once I have useful information. A Marine might miss one announcement, they’ll struggle to miss five.
This might seem mundane, but I find a lack of information is what gets Marines killed. Marines don’t have pocket TacMaps, as a XO (and I imagine a CO) you do have that privilege. I’m basically using this tool to tell Marines where to be.
N u k e
“Why would you split drop. Don’t you want to win?”
“Ambushes are cinematic and create good roleplay.”
I find that this is generally the most useful for marines. An XO who believes their job is simply “Order marines to push or fallback” is terrible. Marines planetside have almost no situational awareness outside of their SL screaming on comms and their screen. An XO who regularly announces flanks, Queen rotations, downed marines, updates the tacmap (For the love of fucking god, why do people never update the tacmap? It’s as massive buff) and provides general info on the situation is one who’ll keep the marines alive the longest.
Spilt drops are fine. Mix it up every now and then.
I try to walk the fine line of a “hard but fair” personality with Misti as CO, in that she is definitely somebody that appreciates MPs as a means of shutting up idiots that deliberately disrupt operations and commit crimes, but will be equally as stringent towards incompetent MPs or Officers. I regularly threaten my Officers with a DA sentence when they badmouth Marines in my presence or over comms, because Misti doesn’t appreciate Officers who think they’re something or someone better than the common rifleman just because of some bars on their uniform.
As for operational strategy? Superior Firepower, in essence. I’ve always had a heavy emphasis on pushing Marines towards using CAS, Mortar and OBs wherever possible and as much as possible to push steady and strong. Other COs try to go for risky flanks - I don’t. I much rather have a centralized, massive push with as much gunfire and explosives as we can fire at the aliens.