the aliens

[flump]

any tips for managing them? can hives be destroyed? im finding them really annoying.

[boulugre]

Yes Hive can be destroyed and they should be by yourself as each hive cleared provides an healthy lumpsum of cash. Here are a few tips I have figured out so far :

Explore early the map to grab ruins and luckily you'll get a few drones which can be handy to first explore the map even faster and be used as meat shield to defend your cities or provide flanking bonus.

Streamline your research to Flamers and the to avengers tanks. Put one flamer in each in your city, that is usually enough to defeat the power 2 alien units wandering.

Produce 2 or 3 avenger tank with which you can start clearing the nearby hives. They can also be used against the power 8 alien unit.

Use flanking bonus by surrounding aliens heavy units and hives before attacking. Be cautious as once you kill the queen of an hive (it will always be the first defender and thus the first to die), the drones stacked inside will attack your own unit

Once you've cleared the hives surrounding your empire you will have cash to buy buildings in your small colonies and have a small force of experienced flamers and tanks which is usually enought to defend yourself against the other human faction in the early stage game.

Orbital strike if available are nice to soften a heavy alien unit or hive

Some people on this forum suggested an early capture of an alien heavy unit to clear the hives but i haven't tried that yet.

[fortydayweekend]

What boulugre said

The quickest way to get a hive (without sacrificing a lot of units) is usually to use a Devourer or Galeth. So research Hellfire first (or 2nd if you have to), build a trooper or 2 with hellfire, kill a Xenomorph drone (use flanking or terrain to keep your trooper alive). Then build a unit with the Pheropod device. Find an alien to capture, use 1-2 hellfire troopers as sacrifices to weaken it, then attack with the Pheropod unit. Once the captured unit has healed it can probably take down the nearest hive by itself or worst case with a hellfire trooper or 2 as backup. You shouldn't need to take any losses.

It's possible a lot of the time to get Avenger Tanks earlier than this if you aim for them, but I usually beeline Colonization Fervor for the free colonizer and this gives me something to do in the meantime. The hive clearing credits are very much worth the effort if you don't lose a lot of units (which you probably won't with a Devourer on point).

Once you do have tanks the hives are a lot easier. The first defender of the hive is usually the Queen, also the most powerful unit, so once she's gone it's often just a case of mopping up. Be aware of any other factions surrounding the hive, if they're attacking at the same time you want to let them do the hard work and make sure you get the clearing bonus.

Hive credits can be used to rush things in cities with low production - e.g. a refining array in that 2nd city you built next to a minerals resource, or an extra tank or 2 for an early attack on a nearby faction - so very useful in getting a good start.

Orbital strikes and artillery make hives really easy too but it's possible to clear all the nearby ones long before these techs with a few Devourers.

[flump]

thanks guys, do the aliens build other hives or is there a set number of hives?

[NightReaper]

Once they are gone, they are gone...