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Author: BishopWraith
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I was reading Shadowwomen's Special Assault guide and I agree that it is one of the better buys for 3 certification points for infantry. I've grown to love SA enough that I felt it deserved an even more detailed look into the tactics involved.
What is Special Assault? (SA)
Special Assault is a certification that you can take after learning the Medium Assault (MA) cert. It gives you access to 2 common pool weapons and one CoreCombat common pool weapon: The RocketRifle, The Thumper, and the CoreCombat exclusive Radiator.
Let's look at the SA cert as a whole. What facts remain true for all 3 of the weapons?
1) You WILL collect Grief Points (GP). Your weapons are Area of Effect (AoE) weapons; this means that they do damage over an area of terrain commonly called Splash Damage. Not only will this damage hit enemies but comrades as well. Avoid this by carefully choosing when and where you use your weapons. Creating a macro to warn your comrades that your are SA will help as well. Some may not listen, but in that case... shrug off the GP and let them suffer. Here is a common macro for SA troops:
/macro SA /l I am Special Assault! Get out of the WAY!
2) You WILL not only take damage from enemy SA, but from your own weapons. There are several ways around this. The first is to pack 2-3 medpacks in your inventory. These are great because you dont have to be standing still to heal and they work instantaneously. Reinforced Exoskeleton Armor (REXO) is the SA's best friend for several reasons. More room for ammo, a backup rifle, and room for medical. Once you gain more Battle Rank (BR) you may even think of taking the Medical Cert, this allows you to heal yourself without taking up nearly as much room as a medpack and also allows you to heal your comrades. At the Advanced Medical level you can even ressurect fallen comrades!
3) SA is not equipped to handle infantry up close. All the weapons for SA are intended to do AoE damage and unless you get a direct hit are not meant to outright kill an oncoming opponent. There are a couple of ways around this. The first is to take REXO and take a Sweeper Shotgun. Use your SA at range to soften the target up... take cover and wait for them to pursue you, jump out of cover and hit them with your shotgun. The second and hopefully the most used is Combination of Firepower. (CoF) Use your SA to soften up the target and let your Heavy Assault (HA) and MA squad members finish them off.
Now that we've taken a look at the SA cert as a whole; we need to look at each individual weapon.
What is the RocketRifle (RR)?
The RR has two fire-modes: mode1=Single-rocket & mode2=Fire All Remaining.
1) Single-Rocket: This fires a single rocket per pull of the trigger. You have a 6 shot ammo clip with this weapon. This is the most accurate of the 2 modes of fire. When you crouch you can even learn to snipe Spitfire Turrets and Wall Turrets.
2) Fire All Remaining: This mode empties your clip in one quick salvo of firepower. One major note on this mode is that there is roughly a 1 second delay between when you pull the trigger and when the salvo fires. This is very important when ducking around a corner for cover while firing. You dont want to pull the trigger and then duck around a corner or you may find yourself shooting the wall and consequentially killing yourself. However, this also works in your favor. Pull the trigger and then jump OUT of cover and you'll spray death through any doorway.
There are 3 main ways to use a RR.
1) Suppression Fire: This is what I feel is the best use of the RR. This is used when you are assaulting a fortified position. The idea is to aim along a wall while strafing to create a barrage of splash damage along the wall. Smart opponents will duck for cover. Less intelligently-blessed opponents will bear the damage and subsequentially get picked off by your snipers. The result is the same: You want your opponent ducking for cover or dying as the rest of your MA & HA advance forward to close range where they excel. Get your Jackhammers, Guass Rifles and Sweepers in close. This will also distract the enemy away from your cloakers as they see you as their target.
2) Flushing: This is for mostly for when you are defending against an enemy force. As they weave in and out of trees, rocks, and bulkheads, they will often stop to take cover from your turrets and MA. Aim at the ground next to the cover and let your AoE Splash damage flush them out of their hiding spot. They are now easy targets for your MA and Turrets.
3) Kamikaze: This is where your Fire All Remaining mode comes in handy. You've been beating on a MAX in a corridor and he just wont drop. You know he's weak, but he's getting help. Jump out into the corridor and give him a salvo of your entire clip. The rockets that dont hit him directly will hit the engineers and medics behind him... you should definitely be followed in by your HA with this. WARNING: You WILL DIE DOING THIS. Use this as a last ditch effort to clear a hallway.
What is the Thumper?
The Thumper also has 2 fire-modes: mode1=Explode on Contact & mode2=two-second fuse.
1) Explode on Contact. This mode chucks a grenade at your enemy and explodes when it comes in contact with anything, including the ground, cover, walls, doors and enemies. Being that the grenade will ONLY detonate when it comes in contact with something; you can aim higher to achieve further distances with this fire-mode.
2) Two-second Fuse. This mode sets a two second timer on the grenade once it leaves the weapon. The main advantage of this mode is that it only detonates after the two seconds or when it comes in contact with an enemy. Use this mode to bounce the grenade around corners and through doors.
There are 3 main ways that I use the Thumper:
1) Softening the Enemy. Exactly what it sounds like. Stand on a wall or behind cover... look at your radar and start chucking grenades at the enemies on your map. Use plasma with this tactic to chew through infantry and MAX armor alike. Infiltrators hit by this will also glow green as they burn allowing your comrades to pick them off.
2) Clearing Stairs and Corridors. Set your Thumper to mode2. Aim for the furthest top corner of an open door. The grenade will hit, bounce downwards and towards the enemy and then skip along the floor before detonating. Once you've pushed the enemy back a bit doing this; strafe over so that you are almost looking in the door but not exposeds and aim for the opposite wall inside the doorway. This will send your grenade further in down the corridor or stairs. Start with plasma grenades to chew through armor and then switch to fragmentation grenades to finish off the enemy.
3) Jammers. I love the Thumper for this. I use it two different ways. The first is when you are being cornered in by enemy armored vehicles that camp outside your door and kill anyone daring to run out. You really need 2-3 Anti-Vehicular (AV) troops with you to make this worthwhile though. Use the two-second fuse mode with a jammer grenade to bounce it out a doorway towards a camping tank. This will disable the weapons on the vehicle for a short while. IMMEDIATELY send out your AV troops to finish the tank off. The reason I say you need 2-3 is that they will most likely only get one shot off before enemy infantry finish them off. The second way to use this is while riding passenger in a troop transport, especially the Thunderer. Jump out and hit an attacking tank with it and let the Thunderer finish it off.
What is the Radiator? (available with the Core Combat expansion)
The Radiator has 2 fire-modes: mode1=Sticky Propelled Grenade & mode2=two-second fuse.
1) Sticky Propelled Grenade: This fires a grenade much like the RR fires a rocket. The difference is that the grenade adheres to anything that it hits and instead of detonating; it creates a large field of radiation that works much like a Pain Field. It even penetrates walls!
2) Two-second Fuse: This is just like the mode2 fire on the Thumper with the difference being that the grenade lands and creates a field of radiation just like the sticky propelled with the difference being that the grenade detonates ground based generally.
How to use the Radiator. The tactics are very similar to the Thumper with these 2 main uses being slightly different.
1) Assaulting fortifications and Towers: Use the sticky grenade from range and hit the wall just below where you know an enemy is defending. This will push the enemy over working as an even more effective version of the RR's Suppression Fire. When assaulting towers, aim at the top of doorways and along the side of the tower where you know the stairs are at to trap enemies inside and spread them out.
2) Corridors and Stairs: Use the two-second fuse mode just like the thumper except increase the range inward with each shot and force the enemy back with your radiation fields.
Thanks for reading my Special Assault Tactics Guide and much credit to Shadowwomen for inspiring me to take a closer look!
-BishopWraith.
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