Pulling in the enemy.. Cheap tactic?

[komplex]

OK! Well a big debate among a few of my friends who play the game is the "pulling" tactic. (setting up your troops in a kill zone pattern, making them go prone and "watch" while you let the enemy know where you are via loud gun, or expendable crazy sprinting soldier..

 

I feel that setting up a trap and then simply pulling the trigger is taking away from the games design and tactics, clearing building, moving through the map on search and destroy mode. Sure setting a trap is a tactic, but there's a certain point where it becomes abuse, and cheap..

 

one of my friends and my wife completely rely on "pulling" ambush's or "baiting" the computer into a kill zone or mine ally.. I can't do this (unless I getting my @$$ handed to me), I feel like this takes away from the heart of the game and its soul based on X-COM tact (where you couldn't really bait or set traps to any great end)..

 

Does anyone have any input on this? What tactics do you guys use?

[GuiJay]

To a certain point... I'll use whatever tactic works the best. If the game has poor AI that makes the soldiers come at you mindlessly, then so be it, I'll use that agaisnt them.

 

Now you're right that it becomes boring after a while, so in effect, I tend to use the "Baiting" tactic when facing great challenges (such as the early cultist attacks where you have little equipment.)

 

The rest of the time, I just run around, weapons set to burst, snap shot, and kill whatever I see.

 

But then again, I'm not the patient type and I like my tactical battles to last less than 5 minutes, 10 if there are a lot of ennemies.

 

I guess that sometimes, when I want to feel like an actual commander, I'll leap-frog my squaddies, order covering fire (which the ennemy is quick to ignore and just stands there firing back at me) and throw grenades (which take so long to throw the ennemy is far gone by the time it explodes).

 

Mines are more fun - I just drop them around doorways and corners.

 

Another fun tactic is to blow holes in walls to shoot at the people inside (only really doable once you get some scanners)

[komplex]

Another fun tactic is to blow holes in walls to shoot at the people inside (only really doable once you get some scanners)

 

Ahh I like that, Ill have to try shooting through the walls.. Do they shoot back? I guessing no..

[Crazy Gringo]

I don't consider "pulling" a cheap tactic. It is a tactic....A fairly risky tactic for the puller as I learned in Final Fantasy 11 when I played that (it was a timestealer at best).

 

My variant of the pulling tactic is to use a recon element to spot enemies and let the snipers snuff their lights out....

 

Otherwise I use a moving frogleaping recon tactic for S&R.

 

Setting up kill zone/ambushes and "pulling" the enemy through them is an actual combat tactic. At least when I was among the lean and green. It was called something like Evasive Combat Tactics.

[GuiJay]

Oh, I didn't mean to shoot them -through- the wall, I meant to -blow- a hole in the wall, to shoot them through it. I'm not sure you can shoot through walls (unless you made a hole first).

 

Still, nothing like making a big hole and dropping a grenade in their back.

[NickAragua]

Well, I 'pull' in the sense that I tend to have secured fallback positions where an outnumbered recon element can run back to. Or, at least, I establish one as soon as I see that my recon guys are outnumbered.

 

A lot of the time though, I don't even have to pull, as the bad guys seem to come charging in whenever they hear one of my guys unload an M60 or Barett on some poor schmuck. At that point, it seems foolish not to have my guys waiting in ambush.

[GuiJay]

Yeah, the ennemies are pretty stupid when it comes to that. Once they know where you are, they all come running, no matter if you're holed up in a little shack, they'll just line up and come in (just to get shot by the 4-5 guys waiting inside).