14 replies to this topic

[Shiroi Tsuki]

You're playing with a PuG, you drop in Terra Therma and the game mode is Skirmish.

The first thing that probably came into your mind is to regroup, and push center.
Something similar to this, am I correct?
http://i.imgur.com/9AvJB3L.jpg

What if I told you that Skirmish is more than going to the center and fighting a 12v12 there, hoping that your team will win because you have more clan mechs on your side? You can use a simple, yet a very effective tactic. Something as simple as flanking.

Here's the scoreboard when I applied a simple flanking strategy with a PuG
http://i.imgur.com/TgJzFCf.jpg
Yes, this is a PuG. No, you don't need a team of highly skilled, long time veteran pilots to achieve something like this.
All you need is to take on that commander role and tell your plan to your team. Simple as that.

Here's the simple strategy behind this victory:
http://i.imgur.com/57k4RGA.jpg
Immediately, I knew the enemy team will be hunkered down inside the red line (marked as 1) and will be waiting for us to do the same at area 2 (E5/E6)
So I did the most logical thing to do. Flank. The enemy will not expect us, I just know.
I told my team that we're gonna flank, the first checkpoint and the rally point is at D7 (marked as 3). Then, we moved to E7 (marked as 4).

From here, friendly mechs in the front has spotted enemies at E6 (marked as 5), and the enemies were caught by surprise. Since most of them are closely grouped up in that narrow passage at marker 5 (yellow line), We took out a lance within a minute.
The enemy team is now alerted, the enemy team then decided to move in at our positions in E7. Since most of them had to cross the bridge or fall a few meters into the lava to get to us, we clearly had the advantage (This was part of the plan).
A few slaughtering later, the enemy team finally reached us. A friendly Locust who decided to be a hero jumped in the middle of the carnage was killed (R.I.P brave Locust pilot). Realizing that the enemy team is completely getting wrecked, they called us cheaters. (It felt good when I got called a cheater, it just proves my strategy is just too good). At this point on, It's a 10v3 (one friendly DC'd). Mopping up the rest with my sluggish TDR-9S armed with a few lasers, LRMs and 2 Machine guns, it was a clear victory.

What I'm trying to say is; Skirmish isn't just a CoD Team Deathmatch where you don't need strategy to win. Not only will using strategy let you closer to winning, it will also increase your survivability.

Edited by Shiroi Tsuki, 23 August 2014 - 06:32 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

Shhhhhh. I've been using this strategy to win TT a lot. Don't let them know!

[Shiroi Tsuki]

IraqiWalker, on 23 August 2014 - 06:36 AM, said:

Shhhhhh. I've been using this strategy to win TT a lot. Don't let them know!

Me too. But it's only one strategy on one map on one game mode. There are some ways you can counter this

[IraqiWalker]

Shiroi Tsuki, on 23 August 2014 - 06:44 AM, said:

Me too. But it's only one strategy on one map on one game mode. There are some ways you can counter this

I know, but if we keep this up, then everyone will learn all the tactics.

[N a p e s]

Tactics? My favorite tactic is going to a choke point and seeing my teammates walk through said choke point one by one until they've all been focused.

[jper4]

Napes339, on 23 August 2014 - 07:25 AM, said:

Tactics? My favorite tactic is going to a choke point and seeing my teammates walk through said choke point one by one until they've all been focused.

you forgot the part where the rest of the team lines up directly behind that first mech so that way it has no choie but to stay in the front because there's no way it can retreat. i mean you worked so hard to be the first one to get FFed by the other team you deserve to stay til you end.

and yeah i've been finding F7/E7 to be a more common place to fight at lately- especially on conquest when everyone goes to epsi.

[Tim East]

Funny you should mention this. I was running that trial Kintaro on a bizarre whim today, and I wound up there. We did exactly what you said, and wound up with a small number lead. The score was 4-3 in favor of us, and we camped at the caldera for literally almost the entire game. About 4 mins to our win via patience, the enemy managed to kill one of us and even the score. I was pretty tired of waiting around by that time anyway, and I really didn't want to risk them pulling a lucky rush at the last second and maybe cutting us out of the draw, so I went for a walk. In my rental missile boat.

Around the 2:30 mark, I, by myself, all alone, walked up a hill behind and to the left of the enemy defensive line. The first mech I targeted was almost dead, so I thought to myself, "what the hell," and let a missile salvo rip into it. It dropped like a rock, and its buddies didn't seem to get the notice, so I walloped one of them with the MPLs, and apparently it was mostly toast too, because it died instantly. Then I targeted a catapult, which turned out to be nearly fresh, and tagged it with another missile strike. It turned to face me, and I ran away. Apparently the enemy was pretty confused, having to fight a Kintaro skirmisher, because I think a bunch of them must have turned around or something. We got another kill before the last 20 seconds ran out and wound up at 7-4. Because I flanked in a missile platform in what should normally be a suicidal fit of madness. So yeah, situational awareness is important.

/edit: Oh, and I totally ignored the guy who took the commander thingie to do this. He wanted to camp more anyway. Frigging wish I'd tried this thing sooner. Love that Kintaro.

Edited by Tim East, 23 August 2014 - 10:06 AM.

[SaltBeef]

I have seen more often than not if your group is in that defilade down below the bridge outside the caldera and the group in the center decides to push across that bridge and down your done for.......They will have better firing arcs positions and also they are aiming down while you are aiming up. I get a bad feeling when the group wants to move there.
2 cents

Edited by SaltBeef, 25 August 2014 - 02:12 AM.

[n r g]

Shiroi Tsuki, on 23 August 2014 - 06:30 AM, said:

You're playing with a PuG, you drop in Terra Therma and the game mode is Skirmish.

The first thing that probably came into your mind is to regroup, and push center.
Something similar to this, am I correct?
http://i.imgur.com/9AvJB3L.jpg

What if I told you that Skirmish is more than going to the center and fighting a 12v12 there, hoping that your team will win because you have more clan mechs on your side? You can use a simple, yet a very effective tactic. Something as simple as flanking.

Here's the scoreboard when I applied a simple flanking strategy with a PuG
http://i.imgur.com/TgJzFCf.jpg
Yes, this is a PuG. No, you don't need a team of highly skilled, long time veteran pilots to achieve something like this.
All you need is to take on that commander role and tell your plan to your team. Simple as that.

Here's the simple strategy behind this victory:
http://i.imgur.com/57k4RGA.jpg
Immediately, I knew the enemy team will be hunkered down inside the red line (marked as 1) and will be waiting for us to do the same at area 2 (E5/E6)
So I did the most logical thing to do. Flank. The enemy will not expect us, I just know.
I told my team that we're gonna flank, the first checkpoint and the rally point is at D7 (marked as 3). Then, we moved to E7 (marked as 4).

From here, friendly mechs in the front has spotted enemies at E6 (marked as 5), and the enemies were caught by surprise. Since most of them are closely grouped up in that narrow passage at marker 5 (yellow line), We took out a lance within a minute.
The enemy team is now alerted, the enemy team then decided to move in at our positions in E7. Since most of them had to cross the bridge or fall a few meters into the lava to get to us, we clearly had the advantage (This was part of the plan).
A few slaughtering later, the enemy team finally reached us. A friendly Locust who decided to be a hero jumped in the middle of the carnage was killed (R.I.P brave Locust pilot). Realizing that the enemy team is completely getting wrecked, they called us cheaters. (It felt good when I got called a cheater, it just proves my strategy is just too good). At this point on, It's a 10v3 (one friendly DC'd). Mopping up the rest with my sluggish TDR-9S armed with a few lasers, LRMs and 2 Machine guns, it was a clear victory.

What I'm trying to say is; Skirmish isn't just a CoD Team Deathmatch where you don't need strategy to win. Not only will using strategy let you closer to winning, it will also increase your survivability.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you're over complicating something very simple and seem to be unearthing very basic FPS knowledge along the way.

Of course you don't have to go into the city of any map, on any game mode in this game. The key with the center on Terra Therma is that is holds high ground, and can almost oversee any part of the map from any angle (the multiple pathways).

I don't see anything quite spectacular in your screen shot, and you have to remember skill will become a factor whether you like it or not (you will get some PUGs that no matter what you do, i.e. 1000 damage with perfect flank strategy, you will still lose).

The problem with MWO in my opinion, in addition to the lack of VOIP, any good strategies are hard to implement with PUG players or near impossible to coordinate.

Thus, most players like myself, even being aware of vast strategies will simply push the center on terra, or push suicide hill on alpine, because the PUGies don't "know any other way" besides that, and would be next to impossible constantly typing to them where to push/move through or whether to hold and play defense or aggro push.

In MW4 you could solo 1v3+ many mechs, but it's just too difficult in MWO with the extra armor and constant push by PGI to buff brawling. Thus, even someone who just installed MWO today can do some damage in a 100ton Atlas or Direwolf, let alone multiple n00bs could definitely tank even if they are horrid at this game and ruin a competitive players night, attempting to run some "complex flank" in a PUG drop.....

[JigglyMoobs]

Yeah. Win or lose on TT is very dependent on the quality of the team. You could try a flanking strategy or a frontal assault, and it could end in tears or triumph depending on how well the team executes.

With the flank you are doing, one of the reasons it works is that that steel bridge is wide enough so that a single hesitant mech cannot create a choke point either advancing or retreating. On the other hand, if the enemy team is fast and has arrayed itself around center, or if all of their lances show up while one of your lances do not, you are still at a disadvantage.

I think it's fun to mix it up once in a while, but I'm not sure that strategy really significantly improves your chances of winning.

[Zeede]

The key is to have people in the front who don't chicken out and back up, causing a major traffic jam in the choke point.

I've lost count how many times I've seen an assault pilot decide that the Jenner and Hunchback they ran into are too scary, and that they had better try and back out the way they came in.

If they'd just pushed in and used the tons of armor they were packing, the rest of the team could've come in, and it would have probably been victory for our team.

[_____]

This can work, but decent pug teams will position themselves all around the caldera in a semi-circle so anyone can fire towards any entrance. If given enough time, they'll also have scouts monitor which entrance your blob is going to push through.

[Rear Admiral Tier 6]

It is a dumb idea to overcomplicate anything
An average plan done fast is better than brilliant plan done late.

Scout the centre,if hot,flank,if not,then camp at the centre.

[Kjudoon]

Shiroi Tsuki, on 23 August 2014 - 06:30 AM, said:

You're playing with a PuG, you drop in Terra Therma and the game mode is Skirmish.

The first thing that probably came into your mind is to regroup, and push center.
Something similar to this, am I correct?
http://i.imgur.com/9AvJB3L.jpg

What if I told you that Skirmish is more than going to the center and fighting a 12v12 there, hoping that your team will win because you have more clan mechs on your side? You can use a simple, yet a very effective tactic. Something as simple as flanking.

Here's the scoreboard when I applied a simple flanking strategy with a PuG
http://i.imgur.com/TgJzFCf.jpg
Yes, this is a PuG. No, you don't need a team of highly skilled, long time veteran pilots to achieve something like this.
All you need is to take on that commander role and tell your plan to your team. Simple as that.

Here's the simple strategy behind this victory:
http://i.imgur.com/57k4RGA.jpg
Immediately, I knew the enemy team will be hunkered down inside the red line (marked as 1) and will be waiting for us to do the same at area 2 (E5/E6)
So I did the most logical thing to do. Flank. The enemy will not expect us, I just know.
I told my team that we're gonna flank, the first checkpoint and the rally point is at D7 (marked as 3). Then, we moved to E7 (marked as 4).

From here, friendly mechs in the front has spotted enemies at E6 (marked as 5), and the enemies were caught by surprise. Since most of them are closely grouped up in that narrow passage at marker 5 (yellow line), We took out a lance within a minute.
The enemy team is now alerted, the enemy team then decided to move in at our positions in E7. Since most of them had to cross the bridge or fall a few meters into the lava to get to us, we clearly had the advantage (This was part of the plan).
A few slaughtering later, the enemy team finally reached us. A friendly Locust who decided to be a hero jumped in the middle of the carnage was killed (R.I.P brave Locust pilot). Realizing that the enemy team is completely getting wrecked, they called us cheaters. (It felt good when I got called a cheater, it just proves my strategy is just too good). At this point on, It's a 10v3 (one friendly DC'd). Mopping up the rest with my sluggish TDR-9S armed with a few lasers, LRMs and 2 Machine guns, it was a clear victory.

What I'm trying to say is; Skirmish isn't just a CoD Team Deathmatch where you don't need strategy to win. Not only will using strategy let you closer to winning, it will also increase your survivability.

Well, other than the fact I'd rather go out of bounds than play this mode/map combo, I've tried to get this to be done for months. It's impossible to get them to listen. They much prefer playing Operation Doorstop at the PuG Zapper and get focus fired down in the doorways.

[Neutron IX]

BlackhawkSC, on 26 August 2014 - 10:42 PM, said:

This can work, but decent pug teams will position themselves all around the caldera in a semi-circle so anyone can fire towards any entrance. If given enough time, they'll also have scouts monitor which entrance your blob is going to push through.

Cookiemonter669, on 27 August 2014 - 01:25 PM, said:

Scout the centre,if hot,flank,if not,then camp at the centre.

These guys nailed it. Though I'm also 100% in favor the OP idea as well.

Truth be told, I'm in favor of pretty much any attempt at strategy, but in general, when in PuGs in TT, I'll start with Cookiemonter669's approach first, and if you end up in the center, use the plan that BlackhawkSC mentioned.

If you don't get the center, Shiroi's plan is awesome.

Anyway you cut it really, the PuG that can quickly form and use "strategy", often gets the win.