Overview
In this guide, I will help you understand more and get better at the most iconic and most played map of Natural Selection 2 : ns2_veil .
Foreword
Veil is the most played map in Natural Selection 2. It also doesn’t really allow for a great variation of gameplay and strategies, in my opinion. Yet, I still often find that a lot of people seem clueless or don’t know well enough how to play on Veil to be effective. I’m here to change that and help you play Veil better.
Disclaimer: what I am about to tell you in this guide reflects my own experience (as both player and commander in public plays and competition) and opinion. You can disagree on some points, and we can debate them in the comments.
MAP & References
(Reference map with room names, techpoints and resource nodes locations)[wiki.naturalselection2.com]
General map gameplay
Marines always spawn on top, and aliens spawn randomly in one of the three techpoints in the bottom (Pipeline being the worst spawn).
Usually in Natural Selection 2, big rooms with techpoints alternate with smaller rooms with resource nodes. It’s not the case on Veil.
Aliens don’t have natural resource nodes (C12 and Overlook being so close to marines that I consider these 2 resnodes as neutral ground).
Instead, there is a central room, hard to access for marines, but easy to claim for aliens, that contains 2 resnodes.
To some extent, you could consider that Nanogrid, with its 2 resnodes, is equivalent to the aliens’ natural resnodes, except they’re in the center of the map.
A huge part of the gameplay on Veil is trying to contest/keep this room full of riches because it is usually the economical boon or downfall of a team. But not always, mind you.
Alien gameplay
I – Alien Objectives
Bite res, be annoying, and group up to defend your assets
As aliens, your primary objective is to take and defend Nanogrid plus another hive location. This alone provides you with 4 harvesters, which is good enough to keep the income flowing, allowing you to tech up and evolve. The rest is gravy. If you can secure 3 Hive locations, it’s nearly game over for marines.
Though, DO NOT CAMP Nanogrid. If you camp it, you lose the game because marines will capture the rest of the map. You need to stay agressive, run around and spot the humans, so the marines need to defend and they don’t have time to attack Nanogrid. If they do, however, you’ll need to defend or counterattack.
While defending Nanogrid when needed, you want to have skulks constantly biting Topographical + C12 extractors, as well as Skylights + Overlook ones. They’re quite easy to bite because there are a corridor and a vent connecting both couple of rooms. Skulks should be cycling between these, destroying the marines’ economy. When lerks and fade arrive, these higher lifeforms are the ones that are going to defend Nano. Skulks should focus on the resbite.
Block the marines ahead
Early game, skulks don’t need to be in Nanogrid. I cannot stress this enough. FIRST TIME YOU SPAWN, DO NOT GO TO NANOGRID. Marines don’t have an easy access to this room, you can see them coming, so what you want to do is block their way BEFORE they reach it. Anyone camping or ambushing in nanogrid or around in the first 30s of game is a fool and a deadweight to the team.
Instead, what you want to do is block the marines’ path ahead of Nano. You want to block EAST JUNCTION and WEST JUNCTION (or System Waypoining), and set up an ambush or delay the marines using parasites.
This way, the marines will not be able to go into nanogrid without you knowing. Moreover, they’ll be scared to go.
Remember, I said BLOCK, not ATTACK. Attacking either Skylights or Topographical very early is basically suicide because half of the marines will be there and you won’t be able to outnumber them. Instead, just wait for them to scatter a little bit while you commander and gorges capture Nano. When some marines start to split from the group, you can attack them in C12, Overlook, East Junction/West Junction or attack their extractors in their back to make them backtrack.
II – Alien Strategies
Early Hive Drop
Even though it CAN work, I strongly advise AGAINST an early Hive drop on Veil. It has some advantages, but since aliens are supposed to take Nanogrid quickly, if they don’t it’s going to be detrimental to their economy at best, and absolutely catastrophic at worst.
Plus, you don’t have enough starting res to drop a hive, take Nanogrid, AND defend them both. You need a few structures like crags and whips to secure both nano and a hive location. The starting 60 Tres are not enough for both.
Building Up Nanogrid & Early Expansion
The aliens first move should be to claim Nanogrid, secure it with harvesters, a crag, whips and a gorge tunnel between/behind the two resnodes. Maybe a shift a bit later. Then, they should expand to another Hive location (expand to Cargo if you spawn on the sides, and to Sub-Sector preferably if you spawned in Cargo).
Don’t expand to Overlook and C12 at first because marines will probably have claimed them, and if they didn’t, it’s going to be easy for them to destroy these harvesters. Remember, even if they’re close to your hive, they’re not your naturals.
Securing ground
It’s important to place some helping structures in important rooms to help the aliens fight inside or DELAY the marines. Whips and a crag in C12 to defend the harvester, as well as in Nanogrid and other hive locations. It’s an expensive investment but it usually pays off. One crag or one whip destroyed is preferable to a harvester destroyed (harvesters cost less to build, yes, but when a resnode you control doesn’t have a harvester on it, it is that many TRes that don’t go into your bank and this many PRes that your aliens won’t have to evolve to fade or onos earlier… it adds up quickly over time and is worth more than just a whip or a crag).
It’s all about the Nanogrid !
Defense or Counterattack
Marines will come and contest nanogrid. That’s inevitable. Now, what we want to know is: do we defend it or what?
Defense:
You should be defending nanogrid. But as I said earlier, it’s better to defend AHEAD of it if you can. When marines start moving in and attacking however, all aliens should come and defend it. With a crag and some PvE in there, plus a tunnel, Nanogrid isn’t easy to take and marines will spend enough time for you to respond to the threat and crush them.
It’s important that everyone comes, because you won’t have another chance to defend if they take it. It’s really hard for aliens to retake Nano.
Mid-game, when marines have enough money to siege nanogrid with ARCs, you need to group up and retake the room they’re set in (East Junction or West junction). By the time, aliens should have Bile Bomb and some Lerks or Fades to help killing the humans.
Counterattack:
So, if marines decide to attack nanogrid with a bunch of foot soldiers (let’s say 4+) and they break in the room and start killing stuff, don’t defend. You need to counterattack. It’s easy for a group of 4 marines in Nano, with a good position and medpack support, to crush up to 6 aliens.
– Early game, if marines push like this, you NEED to skip them and go straight to their base. 4 Marines in Nanogrid is 4 marines fewer to defend their base and to block you on your way to their command chair. If marines don’t have an observatory, it’s GG (they’ll take your Nano, but you’ll take out their power/Command chair). And if they have an observatory, they will beacon for fear of losing more than what you will lose in their assault. In that case, all the marines in Nano will be gone, which is in fact a successful defense of Nano without a fight. The best option.
You see, it’s better NOT TO TAKE fights you’re not going to win. Take the fight somewhere else if you can’t win. Marines can’t be at several places at the same time. It’s actually OK to lose some assets if in the mean time you destroy as much worth of enemy assets or more. It’s called trading.
– Mid game, if marines push Nano, don’t rush base, but instead attack their Phase Gate (probably in System waypointing or East junction). This way they won’t be able to reinforce nano, and they’ll need to place a new PG there, which is not optimal, or if they don’t, the assailants will eventually die in Nano and you’ll take it back.
When Nano is lost…
Nanogrid will eventually fall. And if it doesn’t, well, aliens probably will win the game!
One thing I often see is aliens crashing over and over again trying to defend Nanogrid in vain. Don’t do that. When it’s lost, it’s lost, move on. Wait for a better opportunity to take it back, maybe. It’s useless to attack a place that is well-guarded.
So, when Nano is being destroyed, you need to make the humans pay for it.
What you want to do is trade the two resource nodes from nanogrid for two other ones. You can for example expand to a third hive location and take C12 or Overlook from the marines.
Otherwise, you want to keep an eye on nanogrid to threaten it with higher lifeforms (without actually attacking it), so the marines feel compelled to stay inside and guard it. If marines place a garrison in there, skulks can easily resbite the rest of the map, starving the marines out in their fortress. If marines defend nano very hard but lose all the rest of the map, it’s actually a better situation for you, aliens. Let them have Nano, you take the rest.
Usually, in mid/late-game, Aliens lose Nanogrid to marines, but if they can get 3 hive locations in the process, they totally can keep a healthy economy and win the game.
Marines gameplay
I – Marines Objectives
The marines main objective is to take nanogrid from the aliens. Either by sheer force or with siege weapons.
The other objectives are to lane block properly to prevent the aliens from destroying the extractors, and go kill some harvesters. But that’s not only on Veil, this is true for every map.
In order to do that, marines need to go down from Control to System Waypointing through West Junction, and from Control to Dome through East Junction. While they’re laning, they need to destroy the cyst chain to prevent the aliens from placing a gorge tunnel and harvesters in Nanogrid.
II – Marine strategies
Early Nanogrid rush
The aim of this move is to deny Nanogrid from the aliens at the start and prevent their early economic boost.
To do this, commander drops an extra IP at start (because a lot of people will die), then 2/3 of the team goes to Topographical to build the RT, then move as a big group from there through East junction to Nanogrid without stopping, and skipping C12. Meanwhile, two marines stay on Skylights side. They need to be extra careful. They’re the ones who will prevent the aliens from rushing the command chair. If aliens do decide to baserush, these guys come back to Control, commander logs out and everyone fights.
If aliens don’t baserush, the guys from Skylights can cautiously go cap Overlook (Aliens will likely try to retake nano, which gives time to cap safely).
If all goes according to plan, marines can claim 5 RT quickly, but more importantly this move delays the Alien lifeforms.
If this move fails, don’t come back crashing on Nanogrid again, instead, spread on the map and kill everything that moves, apply a lot of pressure (3 IP means a lot of expendable marines can die).
Early Nanogrid siege with sentries (difficult)
The idea behind this is to create a well-guarded position that early, weak alien lifeforms won’t be able to deal with (since they have only skulks and no bile bomb).
In order to do this, the commander needs to be already experienced, and tell the plan to one or two guys that will be guarding the sentries.
The plan is:
– Commander drops a robotics factory in main base, and captures 2 resnodes.
– A big group of marines goes to East Junction to clear it.
– Commander places a full set of sentries on the left wall, all sentries back to the wall and facing towards the power node, to concentrate fire in that direction.
– Commander recycles the robotics factory in main base and places a new one in East Junction, that will be upgraded to an Arc Factory.
– Commander places an armory in the very back of the room, close to the crates (so the aliens cannot use the armory as cover from the sentries), then places an observatory close to the sentries, and make one or two arcs to siege Nanogrid.
– 2 Marines stay in East Junction and defend the Arcs while the other marines play like normal. These 2 guys need to watch the corridor while staying in range of the sentries. If skulks ever try to come and bite them, sentries will cover them with a focused fire. The marines cover the sentries, the sentries cover the marines, and nothing can come through!
Push with grenades
An easy way to take Nanogrid with a bunch of marines is to make a PG in East Junction or System Waypointing, put an armory there, and have the marines buy grenades (one or two nerve gas and some cluster grenades to clear hydras).
All marines push at once in nanogrid with a scan, throw all the grenades, and overwhelm nanogrid, making short work of the structures.
Normal strategy (siege)
The easiest and most “normal” way to take Nanogrid is to set up an arc factory in East Junction or West Junction with an observatory right next to the Nanogrid wall, and pump a few arcs. With a phase gate there to teleport reinforcing marines, all the humans have to do is defend their siege weapons while they destroy all the structures in Nanogrid. Simple and easy, no need to commit in a big fight. This usually happens after 5min, when marines have 1-1 upgrades and phase gates available.
When doing this, if you’re a foot soldier, please refrain from going into nanogrid yourself, it’s useless. Just camp close to the arcs until they destroy everything.
Phase Gates Locations
The strongest phase gate locations on Veil are (in order):
– System Waypointing (meeting point of several paths, easy access to Y-Junction, West-Junction, Sub and Nanogrid)
– The Dome (blocks access between Cargo and Pipeline, allows access to C-12 and Nanogrid)
– East Junction (blocks access to Topographical, allows access to C-12 and Nanogrid, allows siege of Nanogrid)
– Nanogrid (easy defense of 2 RT, but doesn’t give any map control and doesn’t block anything, I’m personally not a fan)
Other Phase Gates locations to consider for offensive purposes:
– Overlook (allows a push towards Sub in a long straight corridor, very easy)
– The Neck (very remote place where aliens don’t often go, doesn’t provide any map control but allows for a sneaky push on Pipeline)
– Y-Junction (allows a push on Cargo and blocks the exit from there towards the left lanes)
Sidenote: Gorge tunnel location
A very good location for a gorge tunnel, on alien side, is C-12. It’s a rather sfae position with a big wall surrounding it, and it gives an easy access to Topographical. Plus, if you control either Sub or Cargo, you can completely lock-down the whole bottom-right side of the map, securing up to 5 or 6 Harvesters and 2 or 3 Hive Locations. Amazing ! It’s comparable in strength to controllig The Dome for Marines.
BONUS
A marine move I stole from the NS2 World Champions (2014) that I like to pull off very often.
WARNING: try this only if you feel confident enough in your aim to win a 1v1 against a skulk.
When you first spawn as a marine, go on the very outer lane (Sky-Overlook-Sub or Topo-C12 Vent-Neck-Pipeline) where the aliens didn’t spawn.
Skip the first two extractors and let some other guys build them. Go straight to Sub or Pipeline. There, you may not encounter any alien resistance because it is so early in the round that skulks didn’t bother to go to that place. You might catch a gorge off-guard and get an early gorge kill, or you might destroy an early harvester drop by an unsuspecting or not so cautious alien commander. Also, if nothing happens, ask you commander to drop an extractor. The chances are aliens will also not suspect that marines went down this far, this early, so they will leave the room unchecked. You might keep this bonus extractor for 2 to 3 minutes, sometimes even more, which is nice.
Closing words
There is of course much more to Veil than that, but this should be a solid baseline to help you get better on Veil and understand it better, both as a field player and as a commander.
I Hope it helped !
v1.0 (08/05/2019)