Well well well… you come into the thread even after reading that salad that is the headliner. let it be know this is the eggnog fueled ramblings of a ungaloid… you have been warned.
Now on to the main subject matter: The effects of asymmetrical gameplay.
It is common know fact that Xenos tend to do better during Low pop and worst at High pop.
WHY? many will point to the fact that rolls on the USCM side don’t get filled… only issue with that line of thought is the fact that we have some level of redundancy. Not enough comtechs? just sent down the MTs that we have to aid in building fob, or god forbid make the FTLs and SLs act build fob before leaveing. No CT or QM? your neighborhood SO or MP will step up, and do what they can to keep req flowing.
Simple fact is that the USCM has an level redundancy that allows it to shift manpower as needed to a degree. yes there will be level efficiency loss but the matters can and will be attended to… give time…
In my frank opinion that issue the USCM has is not FOB or Ship side related, as long as there is good lads willing to pick up the slack then all is well (and its not like high pop doesn’t have FOB and ship issue as well… i seen god awful unbuild FOBs even on high pop).
No the issue in my opinion and assessment is the fact that the asymmetrical gameplay heavily favors Xenos when it comes to matters of attrition during low pop hours.
Let us ask a question: Who is better at taking losses?
The answer is the USCM! its really a no brainer really, xenos die? they are dead for good! a Marine dies? they are brought back to life with the unholy powers of uncle Sam and the Medical industrial complex! Fact is the Marines can just keep dying time and time again and STILL KEEP THERE NUMBERS UP!
So how and why does the USCM lose Low pop so much? one would think that necromantic powers would have greater effect when comes to securing a win with lower numbers! after all you have sparing little to go around at low pop so every ape counts!
BUT THERE IS RATHER BIG ISSUE WITH THIS LINE OF THOUGHT!
Let us ask a question: who is better at healing?
The answer is xenos! again not really a shocker if you know anything about this game. Xeno don’t take permanent damage if they are harmed unlike Marines who will eventually have their bone render into dust and their organs pulped.
Not only that but xeno also heal by and large via passive healing on weeds, but also have the option of near instant healing by eating fruit or healer drone spam! They unlike the Marines are also rather tanky and are able to soak a lot of damage with out issue.
This much different then Marines, these poor shmucks need to use slow acting cocktails of drugs or slow to apply patches. Yes the great and mighty necromancers known as medics can rapidly mends all wounds of the flesh, but their powers must be used sparingly as burn and trauma packs are best used to insure the dead are risen in timely matter!
And even the powers of the Dastardly medics will run dry at some point and they will need to make pilgrimage to Fob to do the secret rites known as RESTOCKING!
ALL JOKES ASIDE… Xeno are just better at maintaining peak combat efficiency even in rather poor conditions, all the xenos need are a wall to break the sight line and few weeds and they are golden.
Let us circle back: USCM are better at taken losses but worst at regaining combat efficiency, so?
You see it is this exact asymmetry that causes the USCM to lose at low pop but to win during high pop. This is largely has to due with the fact that there is only so much effective combat saturation that the Marines are able obtain in a given area.
And that is due to the fact that USCM use firearms that can cause friendly fire and while yes they do have few things with IFF… is heavily restricted in it availability and the few guns grunts can get with IFF have severe logistic issues.
While on the other hand xeno have no need to fear Friendly fire and can saturate the field to their acidic hearts content…
This causes a phenomenon i am going to call the Beno blender, one rank of xenos rush and staggered behind is a second rank. First rank takes the brunt of the damage on the assault causes moderate to minor damage to the Marines front line, then the second line finishes them off and covers first ranks withdraw, where then they themselves make use of the chaos to withdraw.
Now the Marines have taken a few KIAs and many more are low on health but are still holding strong, but before they are able to return to peak combat efficiency the first line xenos have healed just enough to keep pressure on the marines preventing the them from regaining combat efficiency.
after the marines do enough damage to repeal the first line the second line xenos have gotten back to acceptable health and if you manage to repeal the second line then first line swaps back in rinse and repeat ad nauseam until the marines are no longer able to maintain sufficient combat efficiency and ether get wiped out or route.
You see what i am putting down? marines while yes can retain better OVER all combat efficiency on strategic level they can not on a tactical level… and with the tactical advantages the xenos are afforded in hivemind and night vision they are able to wipe the floor with the marines.
But you may ask what does this all have to do with low pop and high pop?
WELL I AM GLAD YOU ASKED! let me ask you how does one go about fixing the issue highlighted? well that’s by having a strategic reserve! The USCM only take losses permanently if they let bodies go perm (go figure)… and well what leading cause of Perm bodies? its lost of control of the bodies! this come in many forms but KEY among them are routs and drive by door snatching.
If just hand full of losses leads to an lose in combat efficiency, then your right royal fucked! this means you are no longer able to push to obtain lost bodies from the warrior infested doors or have much harder time repelling the beno blender.
In summation: the truth of ones xeno major is being tanky
Xenos due to their fast healing and tankness have innate advantage when it comes to maintaining combat efficiency but if the USCM have sufficient reserves then the scale of power tips over to the USCM as they are then able to better retain combat efficiency per engagement and thanks this they are able to spend lives freely as needed with out lasting cost.
TL;DR
ungas are good at keeping their numbers up during high pop and bad at it during low pop.
Addendum: Additional clarity on combat saturation and its roll on attritional losses.
So, we need to understand how and why exactly the USCM reaches combat saturation. First off lets clear up what i mean when i say combat saturation. It is the point when no more combat capable manpower can be added to a given area and still be able to engage the enemy.
Now what does this even mean? Think of all the possible firing lines that you can have take a look at this simple diagram Green block is marine and the red cone is the firing line.
As you can see, all the lines are clear and over lapping but there is room for saturation!
SEE EVEN MORE DAKA!..but issue is this the most it can be saturated if you try to length the line you will only get more forward facing firing lines, and will not be able to cover the other end of the line and if you move forward a tile or 2 you will have sight lines to the other side of the line but in end you be SHOOTING INTO THE LINE!
What’s more you be with in firing line of the of the other side of the line meaning they will not be able to cover your front as well and not just being unable to cover your flank.
I am not going try to come up with or show your the best formations in maintain clean firing lines while covering your ally. That is not what i am here to talk about, suffice to say there is point when you can no longer shove more marines into a given area and be able to fire at the enemy effectively.
That is combat saturation, its that point! so what bearing does this have on attritional losses? well what happens when marines dies or gets so much fracs and organ damage they are no longer able to fight? They leave the line and if you have hit peak saturation you can only go down from there!
During High pop this is not a issue as those who leave the line can just be replaced by the mass of marines just behind crowding to get into the fray. So by the time the dead are back on their feet and ready fight no saturation will be lost!
But During Low pop, there are spearing few in the reserves and are many times ether medics or comtechs. This means much greater risk of losing combat saturation! What’s worst the manpower that can be readily called upon will lead to lost in healing capacity or hard point construction!
This can have severe knock on effects, if a medic dies then you that much less healing throughput and capacity! A medic being drawn into fighting while yes is bad they can pivot back working on bodies at a moments notice.
But if they god forbid die! Then the still alive medics will need to heal there fellows that have died… but unlike rifleman Medics are lacking in combat sustainability, they ether have light weapons or are lacking in ammo on their person.
So you get worst of both worlds, less combat capable frontline lacking in sustainability and lesser agility to regain combat efficiency! The cherry on top is the fact that this will like lead to feedback loop or prolonged lost of a medic, because ether they keep healing the medics that keep dying as it imported to have the medics still alive or they turn to the other bodies that have been left to rot for bit to long.
There is good reason just before a wipe or route happens you see large number of medics front lining, its heralds the end!
Addendum: Maneuver warfare and its roll on effect on attritional losses.
You like good queen flank? no? well of course not your not a xeno! But it a clear example of Maneuver warfare in work! Queen flanks on high pop can work out fine but rarely have the same effect as compared to low pop.
Now why is this? it simply really, having more pop means achieving combat saturation more readily which then there for leads to reserves forming! What is the goal of Flank? why its to strike at the soft underbelly of the marines lines and cause chaos!
One issue… if there is a reserve, that means its that much harder to hit at medics and the wounded. yes you are going to get many a kill but key matter is that you are not going to kill the medics during high pop too easily.
What’s more the marines are going to likely benefit from interior lines where as you are likely going to have issues relink up with those xenos who stayed behind to delay the USCM assault. What this means is that if are stalled out long enough then the main USCM force will be able to pivot its mass to strike back at you.
This is the point at which you call it a day and withdraw to lick your wounds and shift to some other flank. But in the end what did you even achieve? likely very little as unless you were able to kill the medics then any deaths will be promptly rectified.
as after all it will take you time to reorganize and relocate, where as the USCM have no significant travel time to get matter back in order. So in the end while Xeno flanks on high pop can work they tend to be ether more risky or have lower chances of success.
Its Low pop with the lack of reserves that make for a good target for maneuver warfare, you will be be able to much readily dive into the medic line with out getting stalled! What even better with more of need to condense what little manpower the USCM have… Queen screeches have much better effect as there will be much less marines off screen!
Addendum: Defeat in detail and fragmentation.
Anyone who has played for good about of time will see rounds snatched from the jaw of victory, all due to the USCM inability to maintain cohesion! leading to defeat in detail where small pockets of marines are ether killed or capped by Xeal team 6, and yes the 6 is the number of xenos left.
This is a issue that plagues the USCM no matter the pop level, but as you can very well guess the problem is worsen during low pop. WHY? repeat after me combat saturation! yes although the fragments spread out and alrighty are hit with low combat saturation during high pop.
you need to think about what happens when the fragments recoalesce! High pop its nasty lost but if time willing they can converge on the fragments that got wiped and save the bodies, after all they still have sufficient number to achieve combat saturation.
Low pop? that one fragment lost means they are no longer able to achieve combat saturation! the ability to push out to the wiped fragment has been severely hampered.
Addendum: Momentum and detachment.
First off thank you Swagile for reminding me. But on to the meat of the matter!
Momentum is a odd matter really because its heavily reliant on being hyper aggressive, I.E you get a win of some sort this can ether be a T3 kill, a good hit of Cas wounding the xenos line and damaging their emplacements.
Then before the xenos are given time to reorganize and heal up, you keep pushing to force the xeno on the back foot. If a sufficient amount of damage is caused in the first attack the xenos will struggle fight back as they are heavily reliant on melee.
This means they need certain amount of health before going on any attack, as if they try to rush with only lets say 120 HP then they are almost certain to die! lets not forget that the bread and butter of the USCM is the M41A MK2 which has a damage of 44… which means it only take 4 rounds hitting for that xeno to die!
So although xeno do in fact heal much better then the Marine they have much higher threshold that they need to hit before they are combat capable. I.E low health xeno can’t really fight back but a near death Marine can just stand there and shoot.
But here is the issue with all this, that is Detachment! once your crush the xeno line they tend to scatter. This caused by multiple things chef among them is the fact that the USCM push the xeno mass up against a obstacle… and basically cut the xeno mass into two parts.
and its at this point when USCM tend to shoot themselves in the foot a lot, especially if they have yet to kill the queen. Fact is this hyper aggressive does work out great to point but tend to pile up wounded and dead, this of course is not a issue as long as keep the pressure up on the xenos as they will not be able to fight back effectively.
But does start to cause detachment, as the medics and the wounded need time but the USCM front just keeps on chugging along leaving the medics and wounded on their own. Now this is not the worst thing as long as the xenos still on the back foot, yes now you need to drag bodies a good minute before you get them to the medic line.
But, the dead will still saved and the wounded will still get treated it will just take a bit longer lowering efficiency. This is not the death Knell out right, no its the Fragmentation that this can cause. The recently revived dead tend to have issues finding their way to the front line and can get turned around if the fighting is happening in the caves.
This starts to leading to worsting and worsting Fragmentation unless they take the time to reorganize and give time for the medics to get back on the front. Doubly so if the xenos are scattered around randomly in small pockets, and there is split front.
So this then can lead into Defeat in detail! (see Addendum 3)
Question: what does this all have to do with Low Vs High pop?
Recall what i talked about the issues maintaining combat saturation? yes? good! then you can see how this feeds into momentum! Fact is its much harder to obtain momentum during low pop thanks to the fact just not enough USCM mass to grind before you lose combat saturation!
AND if you lose too much combat saturation that oh so dreaded Fear RP starts Rearing its ugly head. The Marine will see there numbers trickle bit by bit, and start to be becoming increasingly skittish. That door that before may have seem as non issue, after all so what if there is warrior behind it ready to grab you. Even if you die, you know there 3 men behind your ready and willing to pile in to save your sorry ass!
But now you are not so sure if the Front line will have ether the ability or willingness to push the warrior to save you! Now during xeno rout this is just plainly a non-issue, the xenos unless they have healer drone or gardener just flat out will not have the health to fight for long!
But if the push gets stalled ether due to hitting a new resin line or the Fear RP setting in, this means that the xenos will have time to recoup and reorganize. which they then will then counter assault! Now those fears of the lost of combat saturation will become reality!
Question: But isn’t that just any pop issue?
Partly yes! but also not really. You see with the increased numbers that high pop has you have a much longer time before combat saturation lost sets in, this means you can keep the Momentum rolling for longer!
You need to under stand what this means in practice. Xenos rarely just die in one push, it usually takes around at lest two or more before you start to see deaths on the xenos side start to pile up. This means the advantages of Momentum tend to only appear after certain amount of time.
As such Low pop with its smaller upper limit for keeping peak Momentum, will generally tend to reap smaller benefits from Momentum and be left in more precarious situation.
Question: But why does Low pop get left in more Precarious situation?
Well you alrighty know about general issues with combat saturation, but a good fellow (Swagile) point out in the Replies is the issue of hard point construction!
Please see Addendum 5 for Explanation.
Addendum: Hard point construction.
Now you may seen me talk about this nebulous Hard point, you may think this just means the construction of barricades. But Au contraire, just slapping down a few barricades does not make a hard point!
You see base line grunts can get and fill sand bags or get a engineering pamphlet or even just take deployable barricades. But none of these things can make a good hard point! WHY? doors my friends! yes the humble door, with out these your Barricade line will be left Permeable!
This is what i would call a Soft point! These Soft points have there use, don’t get me wrong but they unlike a Hard point can not stall xeno a assault, after all they just flow through the holes in the line.
Question: Can’t you just leave one sand bag unwired and make full line with out any holes?
Yes you can! but this are low quality Hard points! you will be unable push out of this kind of hardpoints with any amount of force. No you need proper doors for a good Hard point and that means needing Comtechs as they are able to build folding Barricades!
Question: Who has better Hard point Construction Capacity?
Answer is xenos, not shocker really a hivelord given time can make a unlimited number of resin walls and doors. Where as Comtechs will eventually run out of construction materials not only that but they are also slower then Hivelords when even comes to construction.
BUT! and this is rather big one, the USCM have better Hard points and get greater benefit from them! This just due to the fact that the USCM can shoot over their barricades where as xenos need to open doors to shoot. Not only that but very few xenos are able to do range combat, unlike the USCM who all use Firearms!
No xeno largely just use their hard points to make the Marines have to get in close, as well as making safe spot to heal up with out worry!
Question: What does this have anything to do with Low Vs high pop?
Well, have you ever played low pop? Its pure hell for Marines! At least when it comes to Hard points… or i should say the lack thereof. If you read the main body of my thesis you see me talk about the issue of Fob lacking building power and how it can be compensated for by the use of SLs, FTLs, and MTs!
Now i stand by that, but fails to get to the meat of the issue of Hard point construction over all. MTs don’t start with construction materials unlike Comtechs and SL don’t always grab the engineering kit. This means if you are Reliant on MTs the amount you can even build is less, than as if you were to get Comtechs.
This means a weaker fob… But that’s not the worst of it! Fact is MTs are not allowed or should be leaving FOB, this means they are not going to be making any front line Hard Points! What’s more SLs and FTLs while they can build they tend to ether not make there kit along the lines needed to carry needed supplies, nor do they start with as many supplies in the first place!
Worst still if they acting as replacement Comtechs, then you run into the issue of them being spilt between their main roll and building. A FTL building is FTL not Lazing for CAS or calling in Mortar shells, same goes for SLs but it also means they are not acting as proper beacon nor are they leading their men!
Question: What does have hard points even matter?
Well, if you have read the whole body of work then you will likely know this answer! i know you all are smart lads! but still let me keep waffling on for bit longer! (I do hope you are here from Addendum 4.)
The ANSWER is Momentum and Fragmentation! you see, the USCM don’t need Hard points to win. But it helps greatly, this is due to the fact that Hard points can Stall out Xeno Momentum giving the Marines time get the dead up and Heal or restock!
It also helps in mitigating the issue of Fragmentation, as it lets the USCM have safe spots that even small numbers of Marines are able to hold their ground for prolonged period of time. This in turn allows for the fragments to coalesce with lower risk of wipes happening!
Not only that but a series of Hard points build along the map will hamper Xenos movements making it harder to bring down the USCM with Maneuver warfare and Defeat in detail.
Hard points are also imported for keeping up USCM Momentum as forming of medic pillboxes or just having safe spot for the medics to work means the risk of being hyper aggressive are mitigated as any flank or backline xenos will get stalled out and will not be able to kill the medic!
Also once The Momentum hits its peak and starts to fade, having hard points not only secures the land taken from the xeno but also stops any counter assault from the xenos rushing the reorganizing USCM.
Edit: by the way i am not dissing on low pop this is just my analysis as to why the Xenos tend to have higher win rate during low pop. (also i just so happen to be low pop enjoyer)
Edit 2: The wall of text shall keep growing! (on side note i very happy i chose to do it in the form of Addendum hide details really helps the readability!)
