Beast

[dplus]

Getting Cata years after I got the original HW I found playing as the beast really innovative. Yet "fleet command's" voice got pretty annoying, I'm not sure the whole play style suited me but i never really gave it a good try. Just wanted to see what other ppls opinions were. Why do/don't you like playing as the beast? Good points/bad points. Any beast players out there? What are your thoughts?

[TheGlove]

well... in my opinion... Siege cannon utterly pwns the infection beam

[dplus]

If the beast MS gets in close prox then you're kinda wasted on that one. (assuming the other player is able to do that which against me i can see being fairly possible)

[Dodo 129]

beast is really over-rated, its infection beams take for ever to recharge, and all its ships can get infected. w/ somtaaw, if you send in 2 dreadnoughts and a few destroyers u know they are safe.
ask nerath for some good points

[icepirate]

Playing beast in Cata is very similar to playing the Vaygr in HW2. It's all about the swarm. You use your fighters and corvs to dominate the enemy early, then (if you need to) push out a heavy cap in the end game as a command-ship killer.

I mainly used the infect beam to grab techs that I wanted (energy-cannon upgraded MGC's=doom on your opponent). In CS vs CS battles like early all-out rush strats, using the infect beam on the enemy CS or carriers does a lot of damage. Is it one-third health per blast? Been a long time, can't remember the exact percentage.

The beast can also get crystal processing earlier, which allows fast carbombing strats against Taaws.

I have seen successful strats based entirely around the infection weapons, but they require good recon and more than a bit of risk. i.e. load up on cruise missiles and a couple of recons (and nothing else), max out on carriers/SU, set the infect to fast recharge, and jump to the enemy location where you can quickly steal his entire fleet and use it against him while you kill his capships with triple-infect attacks.

Eiden (Demon clan) and Angelus (TFL) were masters of the beast back when I played it. You can still find good beast strats on the Relic Forums if you change the view settings to "all threads from the beginning" in the Homeworld Strategy subforum. (or just read all of Eiden's posts)

Seige?? Phooey. A good beast will make you afraid to fire it. That's what hypering DFF's is all about

[Nerath]

Sigh. Oh, the unbalanced multiplayer in Cataclysm. This is my quite uninformed opinion, because I have no clue how to win at multiplayer in Cata. All this could quite be wrong, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm just going off what I know about the Beast and Somtaaw as races.

The Beast has a serious disadvantage, because any Somtaaw with super-capital ships can generally own a Beast player of the same skill level.

I think my favorite part of playing Beast is the infection beam. I really don't play multiplayer in Cata; I just fiddle around with the vs. CPU area so I can have fun with the beam. You could potentially get the jump on anyone if you charged your mothership into their area at the beginning of the game and just let loose on their starting fleet. While they desperately research their way to super-caps to stop you from killing them, they'll probably pump out more little guys -- more fodder for you. Turn the fleet on their MS. Somtaaw are dead.

But, the Beast super-caps are inferior. An Archangel can own an ordinary Qwaar-Jet heavy cruiser any day of the week, 1 on 1, both starting at full health. That's because the dreads have missiles. The infection, despite what the Cataclysm manual claims, doesn't do much to the ships to help their defenses, as far as I know, to differentiate them from the originals. I do think they auto-heal, though, but not enough to make an impact.

Yes, DFF's are your friend. Very much so. They reflect the siege cannon back at the ship that fired it.

Unless you like the style, I think the worst part of the Beast would be the fact that you have half a research tree, essentially. You have to steal everything else. It's annoying, because that means you have to fight to actually get new techs. It pushes you into action too early, I think...then again, early action is your friend; I just don't know how to use it properly.

Oh. And Fleet Command's voice is awesome. I love the collective voice. But if you listen closely, you can hear the Somtaaw T.O. woman's voice in the mix...someone ran low on voice actors...

[dplus]

So as tactical advice would i be right in saying that any Taaw player should relocate their CS after firing the canon or is it already too late due to the blast radius?
And is it possible for either side to engage hyperspace so that you are away wherever it is that ships go to in hyperspace while the explosion happens?

[Nerath]

Well, that depends. If the opposite player has no defense field frigates, you're fine. But if they do, you have issues. You won't be able to move your CS, because it takes too long to even turn the thing and the siege cannon ball will be in your face before you can say "Run away!". If you fired from very far away, you may be able to hyperspace out. I'm not sure how long that takes, but it's probably possible if you do it early (i.e. when the gun is charging, in the enemy's case, or in your case right when you fire).

[TheGlove]

never saw a DDF reflect a siege shot... a repulsor field in the other hand... that knows how to push a siege cannon shot back

[icepirate]

The DFF doesn't repulse a shot, only a dread can do that. The DFF makes the siege shot explode prematurely when it contacts the DFF field. (if played right, hopefully on the player who fired it)

If the game does get to the supercap stage (as in a 3v3 on a big map), it is true that the beast is at a disadvantage. Playing the beast effectively requires a different mindset. You're not aiming to build a large fleet of capships and have a large decisive battle. The beast is all about aggressive strikes that cripples the enemy early - first their resource ops, and then the enemy itself.

You have to learn to use the beast's special abilities effectively. Swarms of highly mobile strikecraft to hit and run. Cloaked Ion attacks. Using cruise missiles to destroy a carrier - (i.e. the beast version of the mimic dump) Theft of critical tech/ships (like procesors in remote RU ops) using cruise missiles. Early game superiority in fightercraft or resourcing by exchanging CS health for manufacturing speed. Carbombing the enemy CS through early crystal tech. Etc, etc. Lots of good tactics are available that help nullify the weaker aspects of the beast.

More of a guerrilla war style than the Taaw's traditional fleet battle system. You have to embrace the differences to use it effectively. You can't think like a Taaw and win at Beast.

[Nerath]

Sadly. I like the Beast, but I'm a cap ship person...I don't do stealth and early strikes.

[TheGlove]

5 words:

long range swarming pwns all

nuff said

[Nerath]

If you have defenders, swarms die very quickly. Good HW ship.

[TheGlove]

not really... i remember a funny game, where i had a sh!tload of hives, sent out a long range swarming to a destroyer coming in my direction... it was massacrated in seconds and the other player was like WTF d00d ?? H4X !!!

[Nerath]

There are no defenders in Cata...pity. If you get 25-30 of them in an X formation, aggressive tactics, it's deadly for fighters and corvs (unless you have support frigs behind those corvs).