there are many popular threads on favorite ways to kill or favorite weapons, and i can dig them, but hey - games aren't all about violence, right? right?

they're also about clever thinking! so what are some of your favorite clever strategies or tactics in games? i'll start with...

X-Com: "floating" employees. really a cheat..but what the hell. in X-Com, you had to pay employee wages at the end of each month. but the game calculated wages per-base. so if you had an employee that wasn't in any base on pay day...you wouldn't get charged for him/her! this was done by transporting all your employees from one base to another on the 30th, so when pay roll came around, they would be in-transit and thus not part of any base, and thus did not get paid! :P

i'll add another favorite one...

Deus Ex: before HL2 started the physics craze, games like DX had already done a lot with simpler physics engines. for example, in DX, you could hold onto a big crate and literally use it as a shield! you could also move crates around and create cover for yourself - great way to get past turrets! pretty standard fare these days, but back then, i thought it was pretty awesome.

...i love my thread.

Starcraft: tons of great tactics in this game, thanks to the korean pro-players. one of the most elegant, imo, is the Terran "gate" trick: wall off your choke with supply depots and a single barracks. then when you need to leave your base, just "lift off" the barracks, get out, and land it again - just like a castle gate!

of course, lift-off tactics don't stop there...buildings can be used for scouting, hiding units, sighting for siege tanks, etc.

Does Zerg rushing count?
FPS wise I like running right up behind someone and blasting them with a shitgun before teabagging their corpse until I'm satisfied.

I love the large fleet of super powerful weapons...
Empire at War: Five Star Destroyers will ruin any day...
Command and Conquer Tiberium Sun: Leap frogging 10 artillery units. Anything will get cut down before they get into range. I have done it with less, but if they 'tard rush you, some can get through and play havoc...(Also works for the rocket artillery in EAW)

With barrels and turrets in HL2, I generally grab myself a barrel with the Gravity Gun and run forwards with it in front of me to take some of the bullets until I get close enough to punt it at the turrets.

Also, you can take out an Antlion Guard with three RPGs.

I like the ol' Arbiter drop in Starcraft. What I like to do is make some Hallucinations of Arbiters, fly them (and the real arbiters) to the enemy's base, right over the resource patch. Hopefully, the defending units/turrets will do the brunt of the damage to the Hallucinations, leaving my real Arbiters to drop about 10 archons to destroy their main headquarters and resource gatherers.

The problem with this though, is that the fakes don't last long before disappearing, so I may need to take my High Templars near the enemy base and cast Hallucination there.

I also like beating enemies by scouting out all of the map's resource points (so I know if the enemy's going to try to build a new base and get more resources), then preventing them from building any bases outside their main one. From there, it's just a simple war of attirition where they'll give out long before I do.

Another strategy is the ol' Double Nuke: For when one Nuke just doesn't get the job done. It can also make the opponent panic, thinking you're setting up 2 different areas for a nuclear strike.

My all time favourite strategy - CANNON RUSH! The last battle of Starcraft I've had against my friend (who often gets the drop on me, mainly because we always play on those damn fastest maps), I took him out using this strategy, even when another one of my friends was warning him that I was going to do it.

My favourite SC strat is using Science Vessels properly. You can irridate terran and zerg drones on a 0 clutter map, since they are stacked it will kill them all. You can also build BC's with about 10 SVs and Defensive Matrix them all giving them all an extra 2500 HP, and EMP any Protoss or units with energy.

In FPS I like the physics of grenades and grenade launchers. The lobbing effect of them gives you the ability to shoot over cover while still being protected, or dropping them onto people's head when they are behind cover. To me, timed explosives and explosives affected by gravity show true skill when you can school people with them.

In pretty much any game I like thinking outside the box though, I usually use the least overpowered characters with the least overpowered weapons to get the job done. Out of principle of course.

A favorite of mine is in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Using a fast moving commander at the start of the game to teleport to the enemy base and then using them to make it impossible for the enemy to get anything built. Always fun to see them keep making builders to deal with the destruction only to have them killed as soon as they are produced.

Drangen:
A favorite of mine is in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Using a fast moving commander at the start of the game to teleport to the enemy base and then using them to make it impossible for the enemy to get anything built. Always fun to see them keep making builders to deal with the destruction only to have them killed as soon as they are produced.

You play Necron, then? ^^

I like harassment strategies too! In wc3, when playing undead mirror matches, I often equip my Lich with a staff of teleportation and gulp an invisibility potion and head into the enemy base, killing off his workers with Frost Nova and skellies. Once he returns home to fight me off I use the staff to escape, and then I head right on back. Doesn't always work, but it's really really fun to do.

In pretty much any game I like thinking outside the box though, I usually use the least overpowered characters with the least overpowered weapons to get the job done. Out of principle of course."

Same here, except for the Bio Gun in UT, because it's just not fun to use ~~ I do try to pick the "weakest" character in fighting games or the weakest race in RTS-games.

One of my favorite sneaky strategies in WC3 was building extra graveyards at the perimeter of your base and keeping 4-6 necromancers in reserve. Whenever your base was attacked you had an immediate and overwhelming meat shield ready to handle anything (except tauren with their damn AoE stomp).

I never liked harassment strategies in strategy games. Always felt cheap to me. I hate being on the recieving end because, really, there's only so freaking much you can do when you're confronted with them. Ergo I try to not hand it out to others. Same deal as sniper weapons in FPS. Sure, they're effective. But it's not that fun to do unless you're a sadistic fuck who gets your kicks from making others unhappy (in which case you should go and rip legs off of daddy long legs spiders instead, or possibly go beat on an infant for a while), and it sure as heck isn't fun to be recieving, compared to more "normal" losses.

C&C Generals (dunno if it counts, but eh): Using the US superweapon as in-base defense. It's not easy, but it's also the only thing the US superweapon is good for.

Going relatively old-school here: FF6 and the invisibility/x-zone combo (For the uninitiated, invisibility gives you 100% physical evasion, but lowers your magic evasion to 0%. Meaning that x-zone that instant-kills all enemies will work even on most bosses when they're invisible)

Ending a game of Gravity Gun Killerball in HL2 by throwing the safe/locker/whatever away (instead of into his face yet again), switching to the crossbow or shotgun and instant-killing your foe before he can realize what you're doing and retaliate.

C&C Generals: A full frontal air and ground attack with China, created for the only purpouse of letting the hacker queen, Black Lotus, close enough to steal and sell as many buildings as she can before your enemy notices (if you constantly reinforce the frontal attack while you're doing it, this can turn a small "hey, lookie here!" force into a game-ender as he is unable to scramble more defenses to repel you)

One Starcraft strategy of mine was as Zerg, when I've got a base, good economy, army of Hydra's etc was to spam build loads of overlords. I mean hundreds of the bastards. So many to blanket my entire base in them, so when and if the enemy attack, they'll have a hard time clicking the things they want to kill, and have to spend time killing the overlords. Works in attacking to, load up with hydra's, sent in 30 or so overlords to tie up the AA, sent in the overlords with the hydras, drop in the middle of the base, viola. Muchos devastation. And all the units that come defend will, once again, be only able to see the overlords, not the hydras.

Apparently, my best tactic in S.C. thus far is to die as quickly as I can. I'm not sure how this effects my opponent, except perhaps a let down feeling when I don't put up the fight they were hoping for.
When physics get better, and the enemy forces start to slip and fall in the blood of my fallen troops, I will then become a power to be feared!

propertyofcobra:
I never liked harassment strategies in strategy games. Always felt cheap to me. I hate being on the recieving end because, really, there's only so freaking much you can do when you're confronted with them. Ergo I try to not hand it out to others. Same deal as sniper weapons in FPS. Sure, they're effective. But it's not that fun to do unless you're a sadistic fuck who gets your kicks from making others unhappy (in which case you should go and rip legs off of daddy long legs spiders instead, or possibly go beat on an infant for a while), and it sure as heck isn't fun to be recieving, compared to more "normal" losses.

Bah, it's all a matter of knowing how to deal with it. I hate more those insta-kill strategies that exists in the C&C-series, where you get attacked and they sneak in engineers and sell all your buildings : P Of course, once again it's a matter of knowing how to counter, but the difference is that you only get once chance. Same goes with playing against fast-expo humans in wc3. Sure, if you do it right you can stop his expo and most likely win, but if he does get 2-3 towers up (later 12-13) you just KNOW this game will take half an hour, and there is really very little you can do about it. If someone can figure out how to stop me from harassing then fair game to them. : P

When physics get better, and the enemy forces start to slip and fall in the blood of my fallen troops, I will then become a power to be feared!

SC2 is coming, hang on!

Btw, that reminds me of Dylan Moran: "I'm not a fighter you know, I'm a bleeder. The best thing I can hope for is to drown somebody in my own blood."

One of my favorite sneaky strategies in WC3 was building extra graveyards at the perimeter of your base and keeping 4-6 necromancers in reserve. Whenever your base was attacked you had an immediate and overwhelming meat shield ready to handle anything (except tauren with their damn AoE stomp).

That doesn't work now : / Resources not directly spent on destroying the enemy will be resources wasted. At least if you're undead. And necros are useless now because everyone has excellent dispel ~~

Fast Industrial with PT in aoe III. PT is such an underpowered class that makes people immediately think you're a noob patriot when you play with them... until they realize the town center they're attacking was a decoy and that i'm already in industrial age.

I don't know how many of you have played Monster hunter Freedom 2 for the PSP, but anyway. Some of the larger wyverns are really tough to beat because some of them are so large you can hardly reach their weak points when you're using any type of swords. But there is this blade called the Long Katana that allows you to perform a pretty effective swing when you press the circle and triangle buttons simultaniously (much like a baseball bat swing). This is perfect for attacking these beasts on the legs, and great to keep out of their sight (that's because you will be chasing them around from behind most of the time) after several blows to the legs, the wyverns will eventually fall from there feet, leaving them open for a beating, it's so f...ing sweet.

How about instead of the double (and triple) posting you combine them into one big post next time?

Sniping. TF:2. 2Fort.

Just keep switching positions after every shot. They never keep up, and you always have a 2-second window of opportunity whilst they look for you.

CnC (original):

Send out armies of 1 to pick up crates, until it turns one invisible. Hide.
Go to bed and sleep while friend has to frantically force shoot every square inch of the map in order to claim the victory.

When I was feeling more rambuctious, I'd do the same with an APV and unleash a squad of engies at the enemy base with a commando.

Red Alert 2: Sending 50 attack dogs through the enemy camp to tear through their spies and snipers, then roll in the tanks.
Or, using a distraction attack on the enemy base with some cheap tanks, while porting in chrono commanders in the back to remove the construction yard and war factory.

Medieval: Total War; Having 20 assassins wait around in Russia until the Mongols arrive. The year after, Genghis Khan was killed in his sleep and diplomats rushed into to buy the Hordes for the English Empire.

When I was 7: Kicking my sister in the head when she was winning with the Olympic Games on the Commodore 64.

Using the car to kill hunters in HL2:EP2 and then undisturbed being able to walk right up under the strider and kill it with a magnusson.
Using the fins in mono pro/ninja mode in audiosurf.

edit: Roadkilling hunters in halo with the invincible warthog

Fable:
Buy all the gems you find, every type, as many as you can afford. Once you get enough of them, you can sell them to a merchant for high value, buy them back cheap, and repeat until you're a bazillionaire.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The only Japanese RPG to have real strategy (and puzzle elements). The geo panal system and the random levels in the item world made the replay value go to 11/10

Terramax:
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The only Japanese RPG to have real strategy (and puzzle elements). The geo panal system and the random levels in the item world made the replay value go to 11/10

That's not a strategy, mate : P

Whenever I feel like getting the shit beat out of me, I use Dan Hibiki. Even though I lose, it's so satisfying to see him get beat up by whoever.

I never did it but I remember playing against a few people in Starcraft who were really good at sneaking Nydus Canals into or near bases. Usually the second after myself and my teammates would launch an attack I would see a sea of zerglings and hydralisks mystically appear in my base and I could never get my units back quick enough to make a difference. If anything Starcraft taught me the value of static defenses instead of obsessing over lines of defenses.

Another thing I've never done but have seen plenty is using screencaps of enemies as a spray so you can put a CT or T on a wall and use it as a decoy.

Dectilon:

Terramax:
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The only Japanese RPG to have real strategy (and puzzle elements). The geo panal system and the random levels in the item world made the replay value go to 11/10

That's not a strategy, mate : P

Are you sure. The tactics I've had to use to kill bosses, etc. You'd be surprised.

Terramax:

Dectilon:

Terramax:
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The only Japanese RPG to have real strategy (and puzzle elements). The geo panal system and the random levels in the item world made the replay value go to 11/10

That's not a strategy, mate : P

Are you sure. The tactics I've had to use to kill bosses, etc. You'd be surprised.

Argh. What he means is that you're pointing out a strategy game, while this thread is supposed to be focusing on strategies you use within the games you play.

I'd go with the betting shops in GTA: San Andreas. You buy a save point near to a bookies, save the game, run in and put all your money on the least likely to win. If it wins you've made a fortune; if it doesn't, reload the game and try again. You actually only have a 1 in 5 chance of winning instead of the 12 to 1 odds they suggest. You have to grind your ass off to make it work, but I'm currently running a machine gun-toting street gangster with 84 million in liquid assets

I love the game Ogre Battle (I've beaten it at least four times, despite the fact that it's a minimum of 40-50 hours each time), and I love playing around with the different combinations of characters that you can use to make units. I made a couple ridiculous super-units for fun (princess and lich combinations, etc) but I think my favorite unit I ever created in Ogre Battle was with the "hero" valkyrie, Rauny. I took her two Hellhounds out of the unit, then stuck her and two seraphim behind a cockatris, making it a super-fast high sky group that could pound the shit out anything the CPU threw at them, including undead. Plus they just looked awesome together somehow.

I've never been good at strategy games. On easy, the AI either kicks my butt (Company of Heroes) or is so much of a pushover that it's a bore (Age of Empires III)

My favorite tactic in FPSs is in only S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Far Cry. I like to sneak around until I'm in the best possible position, like a bush. Then, I open fire. If they get close to mah bush, I knife them. They always run towards the bushes, even though that's where the fire is coming from.

I was playing a bit of Neverwinter Nights, and my rogue/assassin isn't the best at full on combat against large groups. One on one, I'm deadly, a handful at a time I can handle, but there are some parts where the numbers are overwhelming against me. I counter this with one or two tactics:

1) Pick em off one by one, by going into stealth mode so people can't see me, wait until one strays from the pack to a nearby room, follow them in, close the door behind them, then hit them from the back.

2) When my cover is blown full scale, I run into a nearby room and cause them to bottle-neck at the door so I only need to fight two or three of them at a time head-on, rather than a full assault from all sides.

Works pretty well so far.

Enemy A is standing on supported surface B with Pyro C standing underneath. C can fire his flamer directly at the bottom of B confident in the knowledge that he will set fire to A. Good stuff against sentries.

I should probably mention that it's a TF2 strategy.

I like to bait, switch 'n pwn.

Step 1: Amass large force.
Step 2: Order force to advance.
Step 3: Get scout unit to run ahead and 'aggro' the enemy defenders.
Step 4: Order scout unit behind advancing large force.
Step 5: Watch as enemy defenders leave base and get overwhelmed by advancing force.
Step 6: Unleash whoop-ass on enemy base.