oHIKARUo wrote:
SABOTAGE
This 32 vs 32 player mission requires the attacking team to secure two computer terminals (objectives A and B) in order to gain access to the last objective (C) which needs to be destoyed by planting a demo charge on it.
Here are the roles that each team need to keep in mind in order to perform on this mission.
ATTACKING TEAM
Snipers: Prior to objectives A and B being taken under your team's control, you need to stay in a position that will allow you to have line of sight on the defending players guarding the computer access panels at objectives A or B. After your team takes control of the objective you are watching over, you need to cover the entry way(s) into the objective to prevent it from being recaptured by the defending team. If at all possible, a direct line of sight to the control panel is the best position possible here since it will allow you to score an easy kill while the enemy attempts to recapture the objective, this is superior to shooting a moving enemy through an entry point.
Once objective C is unlocked you will need to cover the entry points into objective C in order to reduce the number of defending players able to hold the objective.
Assault, LMG: The players equipped with the assault or LMG weapons are the bread and butter of the attacking team. Head directyl for the objectives and use smoke grenades to mask your assault into the objective location. Prior to taking the objective fill the objective room with frag grenades to ensure the defending forces are wiped out completely. After capturing the objective plant AP mines near the computer panel to buy your team some time in case you are killed while defending the control panel. It is important to hold the control panel room while the other two squads are attempting to capture their objective. Do not abandon your control panel at any time, cover the entry points into the control room and simply wait.
Once objective C is unlocked you must storm the compound and plant a demo charge onto objective C. Bring AP mines to place around the demo charge and entry ways to buy your team some extra time in case you die. Frag grenades will also assist greatly in cracking the enemy defense.
Medic: Stay near the Assault LMG players hang back behind cover. If you see one of them take a mortal wound, quicky emerge from cover revive them then run back into cover. You are the attacking teams anchor, they rely on your revive ability to keep the pressure on the enemy defenses. Bring smoke grenades if you think a particular player is too risky to revive, throw the grenade on him and emerge from cover to revive him within the smoke. This will also give him a chance to effectively perform his mission upon reviving.
This final push into objective C can be much easier if you revive every single person that needs a revive regardless of the immediate risk. The reason for this is that with the intense fighting at this location, your life span is reduced significantly so you need to make the most of your life by providing the assault members of your team with another chance.
DEFENDING TEAM
Snipers: Keep scanning the battlefield for attacking snipers trying to take out the players guarding the objective rooms. You need to take these players out before the attacking team can capture the objective. Once the objective is captured, you have to focus your attention to the attacking players holding the objective and take them out to assist your assault/ LMB teammates.
Once objective C is unlocked you will need to focus on taking snipers from the attacking team out in order to allow your assault players to get into the objective room safely. If you can manage to kill all snipers, take a moment to shoot at some advancing assault players on the attacking team, then check the typical attacking team's sniper locations once more and kill them before they can get their sights on you. Rinse, repeat.
Assault/ LMG: You need to make sure that the attacking team does not access the objective's computer panel. Planting AP mines in the objective room and entry points are a VERY good way of keeping the enemy at bay. If you can maintain the AP mines placed throughout the objective and it's entry points you will defend the objective with little risk to yourself. Never stop moving while you are inside the objective room or you are begging to get killed by a sniper. Even if you think a shot isn't possible, you should never completely stop moving. One unfortunate death while defending can mean the difference between holding the objective, and losing it. Avoid easy mistakes like getting too comfortable. Do not stay too close to each other in case the attacking team throws several grenades into the objective area.
AP mines and frag grenades will make the biggest difference here, you need to mine the objective (C) and throw grenades into entry points in order to keep the attacking team out. The very last resort will be a direct controntation with firearms as that means the enemy has a clear path to charge you at that point. LMGs using bipod can suppess a narrow entry way successfully and for a long time giving your assault rifle teammates a chance to reload and reposition.
Medic: The best position for you to be in is near the objective room, revive any teammates as soon as possible to ensure the defense of the objective. You will be at risk the entire time since the objective is a small area so you need to make important decisions between fighting back and reviving. Just remember that if you can revive players you can attempt to maintain numerical advantage over you attakers who have to spend more time running if they die without being revived. You are responsible for how well your team can defend the objective.
Again, you are responsible for how long your team can defend the final objective from being taken. You need to take every opportunity to revive a player. For every player you lose defending the final objective, the enemy will close in on the final objective.
ACQUISITION
This 64 vs 64 player mission requires the attacking team to punch their way deep into the defending team's base and acquire two prototype transport vehicles and deliver them to the evac location which is back where the attackers originate from.
ATTACKING TEAM
Snipers: If you have a 50 cal sniper rifle (final sniper rifle), you need to focus your ENTIRE time on destroying every single bunker turret. For every second you spend trying to kill players on the defending team, a member of your attacking team can be killed by an active turret. Your role in this mission is support. Constantly disabling the enemy bunker turrets will also allow your APCs to last longer and go deeper into enemy territory. Disabling turrets is the absolute highest priority.
If you do not have a 50 cal sniper rifle then you need to focus on taking out the turrets with an RPG. Be sure to have a load out with an RPG available. Find the nearest supply depot or APC and use that to reload after you shoot your RPG at the turrets. Repeat until all turrets are destroyed.
After all turrets are destroyed keep an eye on turrets for a blue spark, glow, this is a player on defense attempting to repair the turret. If you don't have a clear shot with your sniper's rifle then shoot another RPG at the turret and the explosive splash damage will kill the player attempting repairs on the turret along with damaging the turret again. If you can maintain this task throughout the offensive campaign you will be a tremendous help and will complete the mission much quicker.
Assault/LMG: You will need to avoid direct line of sight with turrets as you approach the defensive front line. When you plant a charge on a bunker plant any AP mines you might have and/or take cover in a nearby bush with direct line of sight to any defensive player attempting to defuse your charge. Watch your charge until it explodes taking the bunker with it. If you have to stay near the charge and fight to the death at the risk of blowing up along with the bunker, then you absolutely have to do so to assist your attacking team gain a better foothold against the defense. If you are having difficulty with planting a charge on a bunker, try smoke grenading the area that you plant the charge on followed by placing AP mines then take cover and watch over your charge.
You are responsible for taking the transport vehicle from the enemy's base to the evac location. Before you take the transport vehicle, make sure a clear path to the evac location free of gates, and any impassible terrain/obstacles is available before doing so. Otherwise you will lose the element of surprise and will end up summoning several players from the defense team that will actively hold the transport location making your job much more difficult throughout that mission.
Bringing an explosive detector is very helpful when assaulting in case the enemy defense placed AP or Vehicle mines. Bring smoke grenades to cover yourself while you are exposed accessing the transport container's control panel. Bringing an RPG is useful in case the defending team has an APC near the prototype container.
Medic: You will have to make important decisions on whether a player is worth reviving based on your situation. If you feel that your death will hamper your teams attack then you must not take risks reviving a player that is dying in a high risk location. If you absolutely have to revive somebody in a high risk location try smoke grenading his location first then go in for the revive attempt. Once you are past enemy lines with more than one player, they will all depend on you for their continued success behind enemy lines, your death will be a big loss to the commando squad so you need to make calculated decisions.
DEFENDING TEAM
Snipers: The primary task for a sniper on the defensive team is to CONSTANTLY, and I mean constantly, without being distracted by anything else going on, watch over the bunkers rear section that is vulnerable to demo charge placement. If you can watch this critical area for the duration of the entire defense mission you will without a doubt be the most important asset to the entire defensive team. Once your squad loses their bunker, their effective defense ability is drastically reduced since it takes around a minute (out of a 20 minute match) to get back to the front lines, which the enemy is now infesting with their presence. The most important thing when playing this critical defense role is to never be distracted, do not go for an easy kill, do not reload needlessly, aways be ready to shoot the attacking player attempting to place a charge in the head, for a one hit kill and to more importantly prevent your bunker from being destroyed. If you attempt to multitask while doing this you will definitely fail.
If your defensive location gets overwhelmed by the enemy and you cannot get a clear shot on the attacking player placing the charge you will have to try killing everybody that you can in the area to provide your teammates at the bunker a chance to defuse the charge. If the bunker still explodes despite your best efforts you need to watch over the next bunker as that will be the next logical target for the attacking team. Try to prevent the next bunker from falling. If you choose a smart location you are relatively safe from even attacking team snipers. Survey the area and choose wisely.
In the event that the bunkers are all destroyed, you will need to quickly make your way to the prototype vehicle storage and position yourself in such a way that you are overlooking the transport vehicle container's access panel. Your priority at this point in the game is to headshot any attacking player attempting to access the control panel to take the prototype from your base. Again, as before, you cannot be distracted, do not multitask, just watch over the control panel. Most people access the panel from the front so it makes things easier, if possible position yourself so that you can take a shot at the enemy whether they are in front of or behind the access panel. This task will provide the greatest help to your team as you will effectively cut off the enemy from completing their objective.
Assault/LMG: Your priority is to defend the bunker from being destroyed, your secondary priority is the front gate. The majority of forces should be NEAR the bunker, not in front of it but near the bunker watching over the entry points that the attacking team must take in order to approach your bunker. A common mistake that people make is charging the enemy at the start of the game. This is not very effective since it isn't defending at all. To do your job properly, prevent the enemy from placing charges on the bunker. Let the turret operator kill all the front line enemy forces charging your base. Defuse the charge at the gates as needed. The primary focus needs to be defending the bunker. If you can defend the bunker the enemy cannot effectively get past you. Repair the turret as soon as it is down to maintain suppression of attacking forces. The turrets highest priority is killing the attacking team's APCs.
If you lose control of your bunkers, fall back and immediately get an APC. You will need to park the APC near the prototype vehicle's container. In the event that the attacking team accesses the control panel you will need to drive yor APC into the container pinning the prototype in the container with no way out. You will need to hold this position as long as possible until help arrives and destroys the vehicle while it is trapped inside the container. This will prove to be a critical factor in winning as defense. If you have a gunner in the APC that shoots the prototype this will be much easier.
Medic: If you stay near the bunker along with the assault team you can revive players as needed, then get back into the bunker to avoid dying, and only emerge to revive. You are also the last bastion of defense in the event your entire assault team dies defending the bunker. You will have one chance to kill anybody at the bunker before/after they place the demo charge and you will be the last hope in defusing the charge.
While attacking or defending, it is important to keep your APC at full health, at all times. While defending, if you lose a bunker it is usually not worth going back to repair it unless the rest of your team is successfully holding the enemy. It is more effective to defend the transport containers if you feel that too much of the enemy has already passed through the front lines. This is afterall, the primary mission and victory condition required for the attacking team to win.
DOMINATION
This 128 vs 128 player mode requires EACH attacking platoon to capture TWO pairs of towers followed by a pair of computer control panels located inside a building complex. There are 3 stages to the attack.
ATTACKING TEAM
Snipers: Just as in Acquisition, the highest priority here is to concentrate on taking out and maintaining bunker turret destruction throughout the first 2 phases of the attack. Your performance in keeping the bunker turrets down will give your ground troops the much needed edge when capturing the first stage's objectives. If you spend time hunting individual ground troops you will not be providing the assistance your team requires in order to capture and maintain the objectives. There is PLENTY of opportunity in the final stage to snipe individual ground troops so wait until that time, your team comes first.
After the first stage of objectives is taken, advance to the nearest supply depot and once again maintain the destruction of turrets for your entire platoon. Focus on destroying the turret your own squad has to face, then follow up by destroying every other turret in case the rest of the platoon doesn't have somebody as dedicated as you destroying turrets and preventing their repair. Once again, do not spend anytime at all on taking individual troops out, the continued destruction of bunker turrets is the highest priority at this point.
After the bunker line is destroyed you can now get to the anti personnel part of sniping. Keep a long distance between you and the second stage's objectives. Focus your aim at the objective that your squad is attacking. Keep your aim on the objective so you can take out any defending players attempting to recapture the objective. These kills should be VERY easy since the target will be immobile while attempting to recapture the objective, you get about 1-2 shots before it begins the recapture routine. During this part of the attacking mission focus on killing as many ground troops as possible. If you packed your RPG you can attempt to take out enemy APCs as necessary, but your priority here is to keep enemies away from the objective.
The final part of the attacking mission involves breaching a complex and capturing the objective inside and maintaining it to do damage to the facility over time. You will have to be creative at this stage in the game and find a SAFE location that will also provide a long distance shot at ground troops and cut them down as they make their way from the spawn point to the objective. Since you do not have a clear shot into the complex you will have to shoot moving targets. This will require a high level of sniping. A technique you can use to help you is pre aim a headshot and simply hold your line of fire until the enemy is just about the cross it then pull the trigger. Or you can take this time to practice this difficult shooting technique at long range.
Another technique is to throw grenades from long distances into the path that the defense team's reinforcements run through in order to get indirect kills like a mortar strike. Simply repeating this technique will ensure kills over time. This will also demoralize the enemy as they will get frustrated with this and will seek alternative routes that usually take MORE time to get to the same destination. This is also a very safe technique that you can use to rack up kills with little to no danger to yourself. In place of frag grenades, you can throw smoke grenades in the wide open areas that will provide the assault team with much needed cover and diversion.
Assault/LMG: During the first stage of the mission you need to capture and hold a pair of objectives. Concentrate on the objective that is on your side of the map. If possible bring AP mines or frag grenades. Use frag grenades to clear the area around the objective before moving in for it. Once you capture the objective plant AP mines around the objective to prevent the enemy from retaking the objective. Once you capture the objective it is important that you do not attempt to go to the other objective, you must hold and defend the objective you captured. Have faith in the other half of the platoon that they can manage to capture their own objective. Afterall, once they do capture their objective it is time to move onto the next since you are already holding your objective.
After completing the first stage of objectives, move on to destroying the bunkers. Just like in Acquisition, watch your demo charge after planting it and kill anybody that attempts to defuse it. AP mines are useful here but a high risk move to plant them since the enemy will spawn right next to you and catch you off guard before you can re equip your primary weapon. Keep this in mind.
After the bunkers are destroyed immediately move towards the second stage of objectives BEFORE they are activated and show up on the mnini map. This head start will give you a much needed advantage. It is very possible that if this headstart is taken full advantage of, your platoon can capture both objectives and move onto the third and final stage immediately. If this isn't the case simply do the same thing you did in the first objective, capture and maintain the objective, wait for the other half of the platoon to do the same.
The final stage of the mission requires you to breach a building and capture and maintain an objective for a longer period of time. LMG users really shine in this part of the mission because of the 1)narrow entries 2) high damage and large quantity of ammo per "magazine". The LMG user can setup a bipod and maintain constant vigilance over an entry point and mow down almost any number of defending players that attempt to recapture the objective. The more LMG users you can setup at this point will ensure your team the victory. If you lose control of the objective and your teamates are all killed, bring frag grenades, a lot of frag grenades. Evenly distribute your frag grenades between the entry of the building you need to breach, the next hallway/room, and the control panel room. You should reduce the risk of dying upon entry significantly by clearing the area with frag grenades first.
Medic: This will be a full time job for you as the battle will only increase in intensity as you close in on the final objective. Just as before, you need to use good judgement when deciding who can be saved and who cannot. Using a mic is good (in any mission/map) because you can let various members of the squad know to bleed out because you cannot take the risk of reviving them, or you can let various members of the squad know to hold on just a bit longer and you WILL revive them. Keeping constant communication with the mortally wounded members of your squad is a large part of what makes a good medic. This way you are efficiently controlling the casualties and you won't have problems with players who get angry at you for keeping them waiting and not reviving them (common problem), then when they die again near you they won't even bother to wait and immediately bleed out. If you have a player like this, the easiest way out of this problem is to apologize (even if it isn't your fault) and ensure them that you will keep better contact with them and to have faith in your reviving abilities.
When you are in the final stage of the mission your ability to revive quickly will be an invaluable asset to anybody around you. In the final stage of this mission every second of holding the objective counts towards victory.
DEFENDING TEAM
Snipers: This is a difficult toss up between protecting your bunkers and protecting the first stage of objectives. However, this decision is made MUCH easier when you realize one important factor between the objectives and protecting your bunker. The factor is that with your bunker destroyed early on in the match your entire squad will lose 1-1.5 minutes traveling from the center to the objective your team needs to hold and defend or your bunker. Having said that, it is absolutely imperative in this mission that you take it upon yourself to guard the rear of your squads bunker by positioning yourself far away and maintaining constant overwatch of your bunkers rear section that is vulnerable to demo charges. If the bunker is destroyed it is almost guaranteed that the attacking force will continue to sweep and destroy each and every bunker belonging to your platoon. I cannot stress the importance of this defensive goal enough. There should be plenty of commandos attempting to plant charges and you should have no problem taking them out. It will be VERY difficult to get killed by anybody because they should be killed as soon as they hang around your bunker for more than a few seconds by your squads Assault personnel.
If your team cannot hold the first objective, you are already in position to defend the bunkers. As long as your platoon can maintain all four bunker turrets and keep your teammates from allowing the attacking team to slip through any cracks you will have a sound defense. Maintain watching over your bunkers weak spot and hold position.
Sometimes, despite the best efforts from you and your team you simply cannot stop the oncoming enemy. If you lose your bunker then you will have to position yourself in such a way to prevent the enemy from capturing the next stage of objectives. Maintain constant vigilance over the objectives and always be prepared to take down an enemy as soon as they begin to access the objective (easy headshot as long as you positioned yourself properly).
If the enemy is persistant enough and pushes you back to the third stage of the mission, there is little you can do as a sniper. The most effective thing you can do at this point is to get frag grenades, a lot of them, and start throwing them into the common entry points and throw some past the entry point in an attempt to indrectly kill the attacking team. Reload repeat. The grenade defense you can provide your team will be invaluable because in this final stage of the mission your primary goal is to prevent the enemy from controlling your objective at all. You will hopefully have absorbed enough of the match time at this point that you are only required to hold out for less than 10 minutes. The reason that I recommend switching to an assault role at this point is because shooting at random people outside the complex doesn't help your team. The most direct way to help your team at this point is to maintain the defense of your final objectives.
Assault/LMG: The name of the game is, "Time" and your job is to absorb as much time as possible in the first two stages of the enemies offense during this mission. The first stage objectives must be defended using any means possible. Maintain a barrage of grenades, artillery, AP mines, and Assault personnel at every entry to the objective. Once again, the main goal is to absorb the enemies time. You want to have the attacking team waste as much time as possible here, at the first stage of defense. The second stage of objectives are much more difficult to defend than the first stage so make it count.
If you are unable to hold the attacking team off then the next part of your defense is to keep the enemy from passing your bunker line. You must make sure that not a single enemy can cross the line and get to the second stage of objectives. You need to remember that at this point in the mission you do NOT want to move in front of your bunker. You want to stay behind you bunker and watch for infiltrators. Most infiltrators are more concerned with moving quickly past you so you will usually have the advantage against them. There are members of the attacking team that only want to over run bunkers and these are the real threat. Maintaing your bunker turrets health is very important as the bunker turret really shines at this point of the mission by holding down choke points with deadly efficiency.
If your bunker line is lost, do not ever stop going for the second stage of objectives. Remember, time is the key here. You need to do whatever it takes to absorb as much time as you can from the attacking team by holding the objective. If possible hold the area just in front of the objective and cut off entry points while maintaing a defensive position against incoming attackers. Hiding behind corners are nice to attack the enemy as they pass by and head blindly towards the objectives.
Finally if your team is pushed back to the final stage of objectives you will have to do your best to get inside the complex and watch over any enty points into the complex and defend the objective. AP mines and plenty of grenades will be a huge factor in deciding whether or not you can hold this final objective or not. If you are currently in control of BOTH your objectives, the best defense you can put up while being relatively safe is to throw all of your grenades outside the building towards the attacking team, reload, and repeat. This will score you several kills and prevent a full squad of the enemy making it into your complex. If you did a good enough job in the first two stages of the mission you will be in the position to make it neary impossible for the attacking team to win. This is possible because the damage over time that occurs with the attacking team holding the final stage of objectives, if time runs out then they simply fail thei mission, while you succeeded in holding them off.
Medic: Reviving players throughout this defensive mission will determine whether your team can win the mission or not. The defensive team has to focus on absorbing as much time as possible in the first two stages of the mission in order to achieve a decisive victory. Reviving teammates will need to be a top priority because if both objectives are taken your team will have failed to take advantage of that stage and would not have absorbed as much time as possible. It is almost worth it to throw yourself in bad situations if you can revive a player simply because the bunker respawn isn't too far from the first stage of objectives.
During the second stage of objectives you will have to be much more conservative in reviving players as there is a 20-30 second jog ahead of you if you die. At the same time you need to consider the impact if the attacking team takes control of the objectives. Remember, use your mic to talk to your mortally wonded squadmates to let them know whether to bleed out or not.
In the final push you will need to be in the entry points, and revive as many players as you can while maintaining a safe defensive position. If your squad gets pushed back be sure to head back to the control room to put up a last stand and revive ANYBODY you can during any control room skirmish, as any additional forces can make a huge difference when fighting over the control room.
ADVANCED DEFENSIVE TECHNIQUES
"IRON CURTAIN"
This technique applies to both Acquisition and Domination scenarios. This technique involves the use of APCs, you know the APCs that are parked all the way in the back? Yes, those APCs are key components in determining whether or not you will lose a defense mission. The effectiveness of this technique is reliant on how many APCs are used, if every single APC is used in this technique, then the attacking team has one HELL of a nasty fight ahead of them.
1) At the start of the mission, spawn in the rear spawn point.
2) Take control of an APC
3) Drive the APC to the rear of your bunker.
4) Objective as the driver is to constantly scan the battle field for enemy threats, both near and far. Keep scaning past your bunkers rear to make sure the attacking team isn't placing a charge. Your job as the driver is to ensure the APCs survival, keep your repair kit handy for quick repairs, and be ready to fall back if you are taking heavy fire (you will take heavy fire, trust me, the attacking team will absolutely want to kill you).
5) The gunner needs to also scan for targets both near and far and kill anybody attempting to plant a charge. If a charge is planted, the driver needs to defuse it while the gunner watches over the driver defusing the charge.
6) Both the gunner and driver need to use the mic and the driver needs to call targets as they appear. The driver needs to emphasis to the gunner that the bunker is the highest priority and any calls to defend the bunker must be immediately dealth with.
Performing this technique makes it almost impossible for the enemy team to destroy your bunker. The most common way that this nearly pefect defense fails is because a player on your team will drive off with your APC when you are making repairs to it. This is usually more danerous than an enemy team with RPGs. So the advice I give the driver is to use judgement when exiting the vehicle, and make sure you don't do it near ANY teammates that you do not have direct communication with (same squad).
You can provide effective cover for up to 2 bunkers and provide cover for the cracks that most attacking infiltrators use to slip past the bunkers in most cases. You are basically a huge pain in the ass for the attacking team. It can be argued that you are an even bigger pain in the ass than the notorious bunker turret because you can MOVE QUICKLYand make repairs safely. This is makes a huge difference when an attacking team has a squad of guys that just planted a charge and are watching over it. The only thing really capable of defeating such a force in short time is an APC along with a few ground troops will barely give you enough time to defuse it.
A platoon leader as a driver/gunner would significantly improve survivability for the APC and its crew. The reason being is that the platoon leader has the special ability to regnerate vehicle health.
"ACTIVE SPAWN DENIAL"
This technique applies to both Acquisition and Domination. This technique requires a machine gun (LMG, MMG) or a sniper rifle (preferably 50 cal) to destroy helicopters and the RPG to destroy APCs. For helicopter removal laying prone and shooting at ANY portion of the helicopter, as long as it results in a hit indicator (the diagonal red lines) is all you need to destroy these helicopter spawn points. Doing so will severely cripple the attacking team for several reasons 1) The attacking team will not be able to respawn from there until another helicopter is sent in. 2) The attacking team that was waiting to respawn will now have to sit through another wave. If the blockade is in effect (Domination only) then this is even more punishing for the attacking team. The key to successfully suppressing the attacking team from spawning is to attack the helicopter as soon as you can see it and as long as the hit indicators are showing up after you hit the helicopter. If you can manage to start firing at it while it is in mid flight before it touches down, it is very possible to destroy it before it "settles in" causing the occupants to wait for yet ANOTHER wave. You can lock up an entire squad for 3-4 waves depending on how long you maintain this suppressing technique. After destroying the helicopter a few times you will soon realize how popular you became with the enemy team and you can almost guarantee that they will send any remaining squads to take care of you. I personally use the machinegun on a bipod for this but you can also use the 50cal.
The APCs are a high priority target for the defensive team for the same reason I outline in the offensive technique "mobile spawn point." The APC is a vehicle of destruction if used conservatively while maintaining close proximity to the objectives that the attacking team needs to capture/destroy. The best weapon to take APCs out is the rocket launcher. The machineguns and sniper rifles do damage the APC but not to the degree of rocket launchers.
Rocket launchers also cause panic to most APC drivers because of the psychological effect of being shot at with a rocket. If your team is doing fine guarding the REAL objective then you can allocate 1-2 players to this task and it will seriously reduce the amount of enemy troops coming in at what seems to be a non stop pace.
"ROUGE REPAIR" tactic/concept by delligerent written by oHIKARUo ADDED 9/26/09
This advanced defensive tactic applies to both Acquisition and Domination missions. You are required to obviously have a repair kit for this. Armor selection is up to personal preference, but I personally suggest light armor for the added mobility. The other reason that I recommend light armor is that if you are detected and even if you are successful in killing those who found you, it is highly likely you will die immediately afterwards by more of the enemy, or by a persistant enemy. The key to this tactic is stealth, without stealth this will not work at all and the element of surprise (more like horror) will be lost. I also recommend doing this alone, it would be nice to have more than one person along for this mission for the sake of saving time. However, the trade off with having more people is the significantly increased chance of the attacking team noticing one of you which will quickly end up with EVERYBODY on the special mission dead. For the sake of this write up we will make it a one man operation.
The situation in which this tactic is applied is when you are facing a blockade of enemy troops and you are pushed back to the far reaches of your base compound. During this blockade it will be VERY difficult to escape from the new front line which is certainly going to be packed with an entire platoon of enemies. This is where you have to exercise discipline and remember the golden rule of stealth, DO NOT FIRE UNTIL YOU ARE SPECIFICALLY FIRED UPON. If the enemy doesn't shoot at you, he doesn't see you or may actually have mistaken you for a teammate! Ok slip through the enemy blockade, this may take many tries if you are not good at being sneaky or if you simply catch bad breaks, or lastly if a teammate attracts attention while near your position and gets you and himself killed.
Now that you made it past the enemy blockade the job got a little easier. This isn't a walk inthe park. It is safe to say that the most commonly patrolled piece of equipment once it is destroyed by the attacking team is the anti air infrastructure unit. Bunkers are almost universally overlooked at this point because they are so far behind the new front line that has been drawn. Start with the furthest bunker (either all the way on the right or left, use your judgement). Repair the first bunker to 99% condition, do NOT finish repairing it now for the quick EXP gain. If you repair it now you will probably be lucky to survive another full minute and your bunker will be destroyed immediately and you will have your cover effectively blown (they will want to see a dead body before they give up looking for this engineer.)
After you repair a bunker to 99% move on to the next bunker and do the same thing until all 4 have been repaired to 99%. I'll repeat it again, stealth is vital here. You do not wan to kill anybody and end up with a stalker. Just let them go, you have a big objective to accomplish 5 experience points is meaningless. After the four bunkers are repaired to 99% head to the anti air unit and repair it to 100%. After you repair the anti air to 100% quickly move to the bunker (either all the way to the left or right) and finish repairing it to 100%. Move along quicky and get the bunkers all up to 100%. At this point in the mission you want to maintain stealth and bypass enemies that are not shooting at you. If you start shooting at an enemy even with the advantage of surprise, and you miss, or if the enemy is a better shooter than you, what will happen is you will end up dead only completing part of your mission. Avoid this disappointing result by sticking with stealth. Repair the bunkers to 100% and you have now given your team the front line back. As long as your team takes advantage of this and fills the front lines again, you will have set the ground work that will end up absorbing even more time from the attacking team leading your team to victory!
Something to note, during Acquisition a gate is usually blown open at this point in the game. You will want to move in and repair the gate to 99% between traveling to the next bunker. This way you won't have a bunch of unmanned bunker turrets and a gate that is left wide open for the enemy to slip through with the prototype. Including the gate in this mission will increase your chances of success and preventing an upsetting, and avoidable loss.
ADVANCED OFFENSIVE TECHNIQUES
"FORWARD SPAWN POINT" updated with video links 10/15/09
This is rather straight forward, after the defending team's front lines are completely destroyed and you have disabled their Anti Air take your squad's APC and bring it up to the outskirts of the front line. You don't want to bring it into the thick of things because it will still be destroyed rather quickly. Instead keep it at a choke point, at a safe distance for the gunner to take out anybody attempting to re secure the forward bases. You need to use your mic and let your squad know to spawn inside your APC instead of taking the para drop since it will be safer and quicker to get back into the action. Not to mention, depending on where you are parked your squad can be further ahead of the air drop.
Bring a repair kit and fall back whenever your APC gets damage, the last thing you want is to have it destroyed as it is a long way back from the APC spawn point to the front lines in this point of the match. Being conservative here outweighs any immediate gains you might get from being risky.
A platoon leader as a driver/gunner would significantly improve survivability for the APC and its crew. The reason being is that the platoon leader has the special ability to regnerate vehicle health.
"BUNKER BUSTER" ADDED 9/27/09
This is more or less the proper method to take out enemy bunkers with the highest success rate possible. This can be done alone, and if possible, if can muster more squadmembers to follow your lead you will be MUCH more successful... to the point that taking a bunker is childsplay. Follow these steps:
- First, get to the bunker alive.
- Second, plant a charge at the bunker if the coast is clear. If the bunker is not clear do NOT plant the charge you must clear the bunker.
- Third, go to the side of the bunker that the players spawn from. The spawning side of the bunker is almost always the RIGHT side of the bunker... wait at this position and you will see players emerge from the bunker. The players who exit the bunker cannot make any moves for the first second after they exit. Take advantage of this.
- Four, hold this bunker door down until the bunker blows up.
This may seem like common sense, but most people watch the charge instead of the bunker door. The bunker door, 9/10 times is the source of the defending players who will attempt to defuse the charge.. holding this key point down will increase your success rate to levels you haven't known were possible.
If you are able to get a few squad members that follow your lead, you can have one player plant while the rest of you cover the door and immediate area, then you can divide the attacking group to bunker door duty and area overwatch duty. No bunker will have a chance once you planted a charge if you have a group.
LEADERSHIP
Leadership is learned from experience, a lot of trial and error. Official leadership positions such as SL, PL, and OIC only offer you more communication options and several area of effect attacks. It doesn't mean you are an effective leader by any means. A successful leader doesn't even have to be a squad leader, just somebody that can direct the unguided troops in a squad to something more effective. This is where my guide comes in as a self help guide to stay on task and complete the objective in the absence of a leader, or in the presence of bad leadership. If you default to the guide I made you can help your team much more than following bad commands.
The heart and soul of leadership comes from commanding your own 8 man squad. I also set up the strategy guide in such a way that if everybody reads it then plays according to the guidelines I set forth the leadership roles are put to the sidelines because each individual player is functioning at their full effeciency, doing something useful for the squad/platoon/company.
An effective leader will remind a squad/platoon about what they should be doing. For example, if the bunker lines are all destroyed, the leader should remind all squads/squad members to search and kill any and all survivors on the defensive line to prevent them from repairing their bunkers, then to move on if it is clear.
Leadership isn't simply telling people that they are doing a good job etc, that is nice to hear but doesn't make that person a leader at all. A leader will redirect ineffective squad members/squads/platoons to something that is effective and will complete the mission. If everybody is already doing a good job without the leader saying anything then the leader isn't needed because you are working with elite troops.
There are a few things a leader can try to do but most of these attempts at controlling the entire platoon/company should be done in the beginning of the game to create shock and awe. For example, on Sabotage I was platoon leader of the attacking team and was able to get roughly 3/4 (21/28 players) of the company to all spawn on the spawn point going towards objective A in a blitzkrieg knowing that the typical 2 squads would be there to meet us. We were able to over run objective A and capture it, leaving 1 squad on Objective A, the next phase was to have the other squads to move towards Objective B from the flank while the last squad that didn't listen was struggling against two defending squads in the front. We were able to take Ojbective B and was barely able to unlock C before A was overrun. There was so much time after that to get C that we won a landslide victory.
Plans like this should be devised to make the game more interesting, and to throw the enemy completely off balance. Sabotage is one of the only modes that I can think of that can accomodotate this type of plan quickly and easily because there are only 2 spawn points.
COMMANDO updated 10/15/09 video links below
Here is an example of a good Commando run, watch and take notes. All matches are recorded in 720p HD Enjoy!
Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzwy3XwdAZg&fmt=22
Part 2 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl4iYPxLoNE&fmt=22
MAG offers one of the greatest opportunities in online gaming to engage in commando infiltration and sabotage of the enemy defensive compound. This is also one of the most lucrative ways to make EXP all by yourself! But the risks and rewards are fairly balanced out. First I will outline the risks and the rewards, this will help you, the reader see if this is the right thing for you. This will also allow those who hate when people go on commando runs or do not understand it, realize what is going on and why it is an acceptable playstyle (play however you like it is a game!).
RISKS
- You are alone 99% of the time
- It is not always easy to get through the enemy's front lines without dying (several times, and for the new commandos, MANY times)
- If you engage in combat with anybody while behind enemy lines, regardless of whether you kill him in combat you will be hunted down and over run, it will just be a matter of time.
- Any future commando infiltrations in that same match will be met with more resistance and possibly defending players waiting for you.
REWARDS
- Provides the best solo-troop experience once you are behind enemy lines sabotaging their infrastructure.
- Provides you with some of the BEST game play experience, the rush of andrenaline while you are sneaking behind enemy lines makes for great stories of achievements, and failure!
- Teaches you infiltration skills which will be useful for when you are on the defending team. Some of the best infiltrators make the best defensive players with their specialized knowledge.
- Teaches you discipline in not simply killing everybody you encounter as it produces disastrous effects on your commando infiltration.
Having laid out the basic principles of commando infiltration playstyle. The reason that this playstyle is beneficial to the team as a whole is that once you are passed the enemy front lines, you can begin your attack at nearly any point of their infrastructure. This initiative in combat puts you in charge of setting the pace of what will be your eventual death. When you set that first demo charge, you have to keep in mind that YOU have now set the defensive team in motion against you. The enemy will be aware of the flashing infrastructure, go ahead, plant another charge somewhere else. Now the entire enemy team notices two things flashing. Since squads can only talk within each other, you may gain the attention of anywhere between 1-5 players who will all, by their own process of deduction try to intercept you before you arrive at your next destination.
Look at everything that I just mentioned and break it down, one commando on the attacking team getting the attention of 1-5 defending players who now have to go BACKWARDS (no longer defending the front line objectives/bunkers) and track down a single player in an undetermined location. This is great effeciency! Now is the hard part. Once you notice people running around the previously abandoned compound, you have to ask yourself how to stay alive for as long as possible, and destroy as much infrastructure as possible? Simple, do NOT engage in combat with any of the defending players investigating your whereabouts.
Do not mistaken "do not engage" with "do not fight". The difference is simple, if you think the enemy saw you DO NOT FIRE, either get behind cover, lay down quickly, or otherwise remove yourself from getting any more attention from that player. If the enemy did NOT FIRE at you then your cover isn't officially blown, trust me on this. It is a test of your nerves and has got me by MANY insane situations in which I believe the enemy saw me. While you are avoiding further detection from the enemy you thought had seen you, keep your gun aimed at him (if you couldn't go behind cover, always try to hide in this situation!) If the enemy keeps moving along and seems to otherwise not care about you, or perhaps not even see you then lower your weapon and continue on your infiltration. The situation is completely different if at any point in time the enemy fires at you at ALL. Two basic strategies are if the enemy is a LONG distance from you and you are wearing light armor and you have both sprinting skills unlocked then I would suggest that you run away from the enemy, make a reasonable distance between you guys then hide and listen for footsteps, if it is clear, continue infiltrating and sabotaging the base. If the enemy shoots at you in medium-close range then you almost have no choice but to shoot him since you can die within a matter of seconds. Once you killed the enemy you will have to spend a minute or two going as far away as possible while staying behind enemy lines so that the enemy loses any reference point of where you may possibily be.
Once you have spilled blood in the enemy compound, things change for the worse quickly. For every enemy you kill behind enemy lines, it is almost guaranteed that you will have a dedicated hunter tracking you down until they kill you. The next time you plant a demo charge on something you have much less time to run away as that will serve as your hunter's reference point to search for you. This is what I mean by "your eventual death" as an infiltrator. It is very difficult to go all game without running into a kill or be killed situation.
There is hope though. As I mentioned, if you are successful in planting numerous demo charges behind enemy lines, you will attract the enemy as I mentioned. However, if you can succesfully sneak around and not kill ANYBODY (and not die yourself) then what you will end up doing is the opposite effect of killing somebody looking for you. You will frustrate the enemy search party. You can rely on your average player psychology that they started searching for you because it might be easy to find a single person running around blowing things up. If you make yourself impossible to find by adopting an ultra conservative method of sabotaging once every minute, or minute and a half, the average player will lose interest in you and move back to the front lines. Keep in mind that this is just for the average player psychology, it is VERY possible that you have attracted the attention of a commando infiltrator that is playing on defense in the current game. This player WILL NOT stop until you die because this is FUN for him, he won't get bored doing this. Most commando infiltrators are not as interested in front line warfare as they are with the action behind enemy lines, he will be your nemesis for this match, guaranteed. This is good since it keeps both you and your nemesis trained at the highest level of competition possible. It is amazing that we can enjoy small scale skirmishes that test patience and stealth, rather than all out brute force and enjoy the polar opposite, all in the same match!
Another technique is to infiltration is to sabotage a several things at once, then go dormant for 2 minutes, keep scouting for enemy search teams, and go for another big run, then go dormant again, rinse repeat. Playing as a commando in MAG has so many different approaches to it that it is hard to list them all here, but these basic concepts for one of the most advanced forms of combat (1 against X) should get you started on a path that you might never turn back from!
MEDIC
This is one of the most overlooked support roles available in MAG. The requirements to technically be a medic is the Medical Kit gear unlock which costs 2 points. Once you unlocked the Medical Kit be sure to go to the Armory screen and include the Medical Kit in your load out. The medical kit is 1,000 CC so it won't limit you terribly on what else you can include in your load out but when you decide to use a repair kit you will feel the bite on your primary weapon choices, as well as your armor choices, more on this later.
To be the most effective medic possible it is absolutely required to have a mic when you are playing. The first thing you need to do is introduce yourself to the squad as a medic. Let them know that you will communicate with your squad and let them know when it is possible and not possible for you to resuscitate them when needed. Just remember that as a medic, you will have to realize that at this stage in the game people will still bleed out immediately because they don't believe medics exist (kinda like Santa and the Easter Bunny). Patience is very important if you want to be known as a medic beyond this game and build a reputation. You will have to continuously assure those who bleed out that you will resuscitate them when you say that you will. Do not forget that if a squad member has a mic and asks if you can resuscitate him, you need to respond and let him know whether you can or not so he can bleed out. If you screw up and make a promise to resuscitate but for some reason forget to do it, apologize to the squad member so he doesn't start automatically bleeding out. An apology goes a long way and will often be met with a kind response and understanding from the player. Most people do not expect an apology so remember this.
The actual duties you will perform will be high risk resuscitations to your run of the mill healing. The best position on the map as a medic is near your squad members in the rear of them. If you concentrate on fighting alongside your squadmates, you won't be able to focus on healing them and keep them in the fight. If a squad member gets taken down, attempt to get him back in the fight asap. Before resuscitating your squadmate the important thing to watch out for is explosions, incoming fire, and any threats that may cause you to die immediately after resuscitating your squadmate. If you are the last man standing and you have an opportunity to resuscitate a member while you are taking fire, go for it. The reasoning behind this suicidal move is that, although it will most likely result in your death, the chances of your squadmate killing the enemy is good since most people have a terrible habit of immediately reloading after a kill. If you can maintain safe minimum distance with your squad throughout the game and you remember that being a good medic is about communication then you will earn the experience you deserve performing your duty on the battlefield.
Back to the loadout as a medic. 1,000 cc will be spent on the medical kit alone, if you want to take the most advantage of being a support character you will want to pack a repair kit as well which will set you back another 1,000 cc. Looking at this setup and taking the bare minimums in mind you have a total of 3,000 cc spent with 400 cc left to spare (basic primary weapon 600cc, side arm 200cc, light armor 200cc, medical kit 1000cc, repair kit 1000cc). This full support setup is viable on both the attacking and defending teams. If you want your focus to be on support, then keep your weapon unmodified and use the remaining 400cc to upgrade to medium armor.
While playing on the defensive team you will be able to perform every support duty possible at maximum effeciency. The amount of points you gain for this non combat role is great considering you are the backbone of your teams infrastructure.
During the attacking campaign this dedicated support role is most effective while you are in control driving an APC. You are a mobile spawn point, capable of repairing your own APC and if a teammate is taken down, you can drive up to their body park alongside it using the APC as cover then revive them and hop back into your APC and continue on the attack.
This is a very satisfying position to play as and everybody should try it once.
**UPDATE** : If you are playing as a medic and you are guarding an objective, area, and you have a chance to revive another medic or shoot the player that killed him, I would always recommend reviving the medic first. This way you can increase your odds and rest assured that the medic you revived will revive you if you die. I can't count the number of times reviving first has got me the foothold on a tough to hold enemy position.
RESPECing YOUR CHARACTER
This is a new feature introduced to us on the 9/17 beta build. This new feature allows you to respecify your character's skill points once you earn enough respec points. The respec points appear at the top of the Barracks > Skill window. The first respec opportunity is available once you earn 5,000 respec points. The next opportunity is available at a total of 10,000 respec points. If you make a mistake on your character's skill choice decision this feature is a great opportunity to fix these mistakes (sometimes make another mistake ;]) But for the sake of beta this feature is great feature to have. Once you are level 40 you can continue to play that character and accumulate respec points to give your character a new specialization.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD SQUAD?
One good squad can make the difference between victory or defeat. One good squad can hold an objective longer than three inferior squads. One good squads can punch through the defense of an entire platoon. The key to this game is the proper management of each individual squad. What makes a good squad?
- Each member of the squad understands and is on task performing the mission objective at hand.
- Each member of the squad has the ability to revive one another.
- Each member of the squad has microphones to keep contact with each other regarding the status of the objective.
- Each member of the squad lets each other know who they are reviving. (Read the medic section above.)
- Each member of the squad brings to the squad, their own dynamic way of performing the mission objective.
I will now explain what each point means in detail so you all can enjoy the benefits of being a integral part of YOUR squad.
Each member of the squad is required to understand the objective. If you have a microphone (as you should) and you are not sure whether or not your squad knows the objective, you must take the initiative and explain to the entire squad what the objective is. If you see squadmates that are in a forest far away from the objective, let them know specifically by calling out there name and telling them where they should be. You have to assume, unless you already know them, that they are new and do not yet understand what the objective(s) are. Try your best to guide these players. Educating players to what the objectives are is crucial for your team to succeed. The experience benefits for staying on task are more than worth it. The true reward is that you are playing as a cohesive unit.
Each member of the squad must have revive in order to be a "good squad." A good squad is hard to kill, not because they are good at shooting, but because they are difficult to KEEP down once you do manage to wound a player. A good squad always makes sure that each and every squad member and those around them are at 100% health at ALL times. Reviving another player as soon as they get taken down is another sign of a good squad. A good squad will easily break the morale of enemy players attempting to take you on if you show them you have the will, as a group to maintain an area with extreme effeciency, reviving one another regardless of the fighting going on.
Each member of the squad needs a microphone. You need a microphone to let your squad know what you see, what killed you, and what is about to kill them. You also need a microphone to let your squad medics know where you are, if enemies are near your body, and how close you are to dying. Conversely, since you would be a medic (as you should) you need a microphone to let your squadmates know where you are, if you can make it to them, and to ask them what dangers they should expect when they revive you. A microphone is also required to make dynamic plans and spur of the moment decisions as a group. You also need microphones to keep everybody on task at the objective.
Each member of the squad brings with them a different background and set of skills, and weapon(s) of choice. For example, if you are playing defense on Sabotage and you ARE the sniper on the squad. You can still have the fun you have playing as sniper, but if you want to help your squad that is all assault and at the objective, you can position yourself in such a way that you have a clear shot at the entry points into the objective. This way you ONLY shot at players going to the objective entry, and bring less attention to yourself. Most importantly you would be assisting your squad while you are using the weapons/tactics of choice. If you prefer to use AP mines, let everybody know that you have them and where they are planted, all this will culminate into a victory, most of the time, a land slide victory for your team.
Message Edited by Thagmor on 02-04-2010 02:44 AM
Message Edited by Thagmor on 02-04-2010 02:45 AM
. I've seen you platoon leader a few times and even OIC Thag. You were on Valor correct? I'd love to play with you during the new phase. Friend request? I've seen all of your posts on the beta forums.. You tend to attract kudos 
