4
Jul
2009
The life of a Flamethrower
I’m writing today about those trusty Hellraisers. I used to think these guys were a bit of a pointless unit, but I’m slowly taking a liking to what I call ‘gaypods’ (there’s 2 of them running around together, looking like they’re holding hands. It’s kinda cute).
Anyway as you should know, these guys are ‘anti anything that lives’. This means don’t bother trying to take out a scarab with them.
Recently, I’ve learnt to love them. If I’m playing on a map with hooks (extra pads, teleporters, reactors etc) I’ll use these guys over anything else. These hooks are always defended by rebel infantry, unless your playing forerunner maps of course. Flamers will get veteran stars really fast, so by taking out just 1 hook you’ll have a couple of them on 1 star already.
Why i like these guys more than hogs:
- To get hogs up to a stage where they can take hooks, you need at least 3 or 4 of them to do the job easily, plus you’ll need to research gunner. Overall this is 700 supply, it’s a lot of money for an early game. You can get out 5 flamers out for 500 supply and they’ll burn straight out of barracks.
- If you’re taking hooks, you’ll need a barracks anyway; so it’s not a wasted build slot. If you don’t want to build past flamers and Spartans you can recycle.
- They build faster than hogs, so are easily replaced.
- They can be used against an early leader rushes. (Flamers are the best counter for early leaders, grunts, brutes)
- On maps with the Flood (i.e. Crevice, Exile) you can use Flamers alone to take out the Flood bases, they are the best unit for the job and will kill one in seconds
Past the early stage of the game they unfortunately start to become a bit useless – When the tech 2-3 units start to come in to play like tanks, hornets etc. If your playing a Cutter though it might be worth keeping them around for when ODST start landing on your doorstep; you’ll be thankful you had them.
This is a great tactic! I’ll start using it as soon as i play HW!