Early game large bitter bases clearing

[xenal]

So in this game, I choose to boost water to the max (and some other settings), which sadly made the nearest oil... quite far. After a long search I found some : screenshots are took in sandbox from map string after clearing. Also sadly, to get a train through from the right (could probably have sneaked it from the top, but didn't wanted to zig-zag), I ended up having to clear multiple of thoses bases (including more outside of provided screenshot).

Without oil, I am still at red/green/black sciences against dozens if not hundreds of medium worms and even some big worms. Turret creep wouldn't work due to the large amount of worms heavly outranging my gun turrets. I would had to sucide hundreds of turrets and lose even more ammunitions, which I also had quite limited (water generation also took a lot of iron and copper away from spawn). Using my car gun would take years due to the low damage research. I ended up finding that the best way was to clear using a line of defensive turrets outside of the worms range as a repair location, spamming defensive capsules and doing drive-by with cars (which a lot blew up), clearing the base little by little.

How would you go to clear thoses lands with pre-oil tech? How was that strategie efficient or inefficient?

[DaveMcW]

Build a hundred flamethrower turrets, some pumpjacks, pipes, solar panels, and walls. Run to the oil patch and set up camp.

[quyxkh]

With no oil your options are pretty limited, not having any accessible at all is harsh (inconceivable, DaveMcW might say ) .. though it looks like you should be able to set up a turret-guarded drilling outpost there. Research mil as far as you can, you can get to about 50% boost on gun dmg/speed, substantially better than that for turrets. Use the defender capsules, they've got great range. Spendy, but effective -- you can run towards a nest, throw the caps _behind_ you as far as you can, then when the first worm gets in range you dodge, and run backwards. The bots continue forwards like they were on a long springy rope or something, it's like having nightmare Freddy arms with robocops for hands..

[wobbycarly]

I've recently started using poison capsules for worms. As long as you can get in and out quickly (eg, via car) you can throw 2 or 3 capsules at the worms and retreat while the poison does its work. The biters and spitters will follow you out, so set up your little defensive fort outside the worm range to which to retreat.

[Nefrums]

The easiest way to do this with low tech stuff is grenades.
Put up a defensive line of turrets and walls outside of worm range, go in and spam grenades retreat back if biters start to surround you.
Trick is to not get hit by the worms. Fairly easy once you get the hang of how worm targeting works. Just run in a small circle.

[BlueTemplar]

Just find oil elsewhere.

But there's enough space in your screenshot to just ignore the biters :

(either for a rail line coming from east, as you say yourself - and a rail line isn't mandatory to get oil,
or to set up your first oil - just take it slow enough that you can afford the defence before conbots)

[JimBarracus]

Its far easier to clear biters with a rocket launcher.
Setup a temporary oil pump with solar und bring some crude oil to your base
One rocket only needs one explosive.
Since you're close to the biters you should bring some flame thrower turrets and gun turrets and guard the oil field.

You need 12500 crude oil to produce 75 blue science packs in order to unlock advanced oil and then rush for coal liquification.

[eradicator]

You need 12500 crude oil to produce 75 blue science packs in order to unlock advanced oil and then rush for coal liquification.

That reminds me of the thread about "car logistics" from few days ago. If you can't get a rail to the outpost, just set up a local refinery with automated car loading, then you can driver over there with an empty car, and come back with a full one from time to time. One car holds barrels worth 40000 petroleum, equal to 1.6 fluid wagons.

[Pandrosos]

If the biters aren't actually squatting the oil patch, you should be able to defend it. You could opt to rush efficiency modules and solar panels, the former to cut down the biter attacks on the outpost and the latter to save having to run power poles through dangerous territory. (But you'll still need to build a means to transport the oil unless you do manual trips with barrels.)

If the biters are squatting the patch it's harder. Combat options pre-oil are limited: the car, grenades, and defender capsules. You can outfit modular armour with energy shields, but without batteries I'm not sure how useful it is, and although you can research the rocket launcher you can't actually make the rockets. The defender capsules might be your best bet, with the pre-oil maximum of 15 robots it quadruples your firepower compared to the car alone.

EDIT: Which indeed is pretty much what you did.