Introduction

A key factor in winning on aliens is always having competent Gorges. As easy as gorging may seem at first glance, there are many small details that are commonly overlooked such as structure placement and battle tactics.

1. Offense Chambers

     Structure placement and deciding what the best spots for offense chambers are a valued skill for gorges. A well placed offense chamber can be extremely effective in defending large rooms, pressure points, and blocking off small passages vulnerable to ninja phase attacks. There are a few things to keep in mind when dropping offense chambers. The first thing to remember before dropping an offense chamber is to check if the offense chamber can be shot down without being able to retaliate against its attackers. For example, dropping an offense chamber on the far wall of Reactor Room in ns_tanith by the hallway to the Fusion Reactor Hive is a waste of 10 resources

     The offense chamber won’t be effective because it won’t be able to attack the marines coming from marine start. A more effective place to place an offense chamber in this situation would be around the resource towers. An offense chamber around the resource towers can effectively cover the whole room and deal damage to any marines passing by. Also, the offense chamber can be viewed as a time buyer, instead of allowing the marines a clear path to a hive that’s building, they’ll have to deal with an offense chamber first, giving the alien team time to reinforce and send a team after the marines. A second thing to remember before dropping an offense chamber in any given area is how useful that offense chamber will be in helping the alien team. Dropping an offense chamber in a small room that has no real significance to either team is pointless, or in a place where marines can easily run by it. For instance, on ns_tanith if you were playing with Satellite Communications as your main hive, and you dropped a node in West Access, an offense chamber will buy the aliens some time to save the node if it were to come under attack. You should realize that defending that node is very difficult because the alien spawn is so far away from it. An offense chamber or two in this situation would help defend the node and buy time for the aliens to save the resource node. Another benefit with chambers is that they can whittle down marine armor so that they become easier kills for skulks. So remember these two rules when dropping offense chambers:

- Make sure it can’t be shot down from across a room without being able to attack that marine

- Remember to place offense chambers in key areas such as hives, resource nodes, and other choke points (map dependant).

2. Resource Towers

     In competitive play gorges usually don’t have the chance to drop offense chambers so they have to concentrate on another and equally important aspect, resource node placement. The only major thing when dropping nodes is to drop it in places where aliens can defend it well. Dropping nodes in big rooms like Cargo Transfer (outside of Fusion Hive) isn’t the best idea because big rooms favor marines and it’s hard for skulks to go into them and expect to get kills. Smaller rooms on ns_tanith, like Acidic and Chemical Transfer are much easier to defend due to the much smaller area. In competitive play you’ll see the aliens drop one node outside the hive and one node at the hive they plan to drop in the near future. Other clans will drop up to three nodes at the beginning (depending on the strategy). Doing this ensures that aliens will be covering those areas trying to keep marines from locking down the hive and putting a phase gate there. Dropping nodes is fairly straightforward as games are played out and it’s very easy to see which nodes should be dropped.

3. Defense and Movement Chambers

     Most often defense chambers are dropped on top of the hive so that they are out of reach for marines. However, some teams choose to drop their defense chambers in hard to reach vents so that aliens may go and heal near flashpoints and go right back out into battle instead of having to find a nearby gorge or running all the way back to the hive, which may very well be across the map. The only problem with dropping defense chambers in vents is that marines can get to them easier and kill them, and that a gorge will require a boost into the vent to drop them unless he gestates in that vent. Once your second hive goes up, placement of movement chambers are pretty much straightforward you should usually have two at one hive and one at the other. If a third hive is going up, one should be dropped there as well allowing for easy movement to each hive in case of attack.

4. Sensory Chambers

     However, sensory chambers are the hardest structures to place effectively. When dropping sensory chambers, try to place them against walls. What this does is that it keeps marines from walking into the sensory chamber by accident. Another thing I try to do is drop them in vents that cover a multitude of areas. A good example is the vent in Acidic on ns_tanith. Although the sensory blocks the movement in and out of the vent, it covers most of Chemical Transport and most of Acidic making it worth double the amount that it cost to drop it. So there should be two things to remember when dropping a sensory chamber:

- Drop it in hard to reach places that cover as many areas as possible.

- Drop the sensory against objects so they aren’t found as easily (such as walls)

- Drop sensory chambers in key areas (hives, pressure points, etc). A neat trick, given you have enough resources, is to overlap the field of the sensory chamber. This allows skulks to travel relatively safely from place to place and allows for easy ambushes.

     First of all, let’s go over the best set of upgrades for battle gorging. For example, if you are a gorge that wants to be able to move quickly from place to place to heal spray and bile bomb when needed, I would suggest getting regeneration and celerity. This combination of upgrades is perfect for being a “field medic.” If you want to be a battle gorge that primary supplements the fighting capacity of your attack team, I suggest carapace and celerity. This combination allows the gorge to take damage and give it and the speed to run away quickly if needed. If you are the type of gorge that does suicide bile bomb rushes I suggest redemption and celerity. This allows you to do damage, redeem, and then be right back where you were in a matter or seconds. If you are the type of gorge that takes down structures full time, regeneration and adrenaline is the way to go. If you have sensory, I suggest getting Scent of Fear for all types of battle gorge. This allows you to know if any marines are around so that you don’t run into any ambushes and allows you to call for help if there’s a marine team incoming to the hive.

     You don’t want to go off alone because you have little chance if you square off against even one marine. What you should try to do is stay back out of battle but close enough to the battle that you can easily heal your teammates. This is probably the most good you can do in any team battle. You can also be a good diversion, as usually marines are hell bent on always killing the gorges, so you can dance around as a gorge as a marine puts his bullets into you, then a skulk could jump out and kill the marine while he is very low on ammunition. You can also heal the skulk after the battle (or during if you’re bold enough). If you and a good fade are going around together, its okay to follow him because he’ll go into rooms take a few hits, and you’ll be right there to heal him so he can go right back in and attack again. This grouping lets the alien team push the marines much faster than normal. When two hives are up, a gorge becomes extremely viable as a structure killer with his bile bomb attack. If you don’t have two hives, make sure that if you see a mine, back up and spit it, it will explode. Also you can use your spit to cut down marine armor giving skulks a little advantage if they have level one armor or better. A battle gorge doesn’t necessarily mean he goes in spitting at everything because more often than not a gorge that plays like this will get shot up pretty bad, so keep that in mind before you go pulling stunts like that and expect to live. Another major benefit of being a gorge is that you as a player can heal any structures around the map, you should keep that in mind when marines try to take down resource nodes in clan matches. As a gorge you should always make sure your resource towers are at full health. As a final note on the battle gorge, you should always go to the hive and heal spray it as much as possible if the marines are attempting a siege attack. Each spray heals the hive for 16 points, and doing this will help buy some time for your team as they try to take down the siege turrets.

     Keep these tips in mind when you're playing as a gorge and your team will perform much better. Make sure you make every single resource you spend count, and place your structures and nodes in good positions. Always try to stay out of direct combat and act as a supplement to the fighting force. A gorge that is attentive, heals teammates and places structures well will help lead the Kharaa to an easy victory