4 replies to this topic

[Blue Hymn]

From my experience, proper communication and scouting increases your survival chance on the battlefield. That's why, when premades work together, they usually dominate on the field. So how do you bring that experience towards a battle where you are playing with non-premade players?

Here's what I do.

Tips

Act your role

- If you're an heavy/assault mech, stick with the general group unless you're flanking an enemy position, and you can maneuver back to your group in case you get swarmed.

- If you're a light/medium mech, speed and mobility is your ally. Move out ahead of your group and scout for the enemy. Call out targets, their location on the battlefield, and what kind of mech they are. You have no idea how helpful it is when you spot a mech housing dual Ac20s - teammates can help pick that ******* off from a distance instead of risking their armor at close range combat.

Terrain maneuvering

- Rocks, cliffs, and things taller than a mech tend to be invulnerable to enemy fire. Take advantage of that. When you are fighting, try to move from cover to cover; it minimizes your exposure time out in the open, and reduces the chance of you being overwhelmed by concentrated fire.

- If you see a friendly mech being harassed by lights or a lone enemy mech, offer aid! Two guns is always better than one, and you have a better chance at shooting at that pesky mech than your hapless friend, trying to turn and twist to hit the mech properly.

- A good idea to increase your survivability is to stay in a semi-loose formation, and not stray too far from your team. If you're under heavy fire, you can lead them back into your team for support, and perhaps take down a few enemy mechs from the execution.

- After playing some maps for a while, you'll get a general feel of where the fight usually occurs. Sometimes, taking the long route to flank them from behind may throw them off...

- In some cases, you'll find yourself in a situation where a lot of mechs in your team gets destroyed, and you're fending off a large group of enemies. These situations tend to happen. In these cases, maneuvering yourself to a position where the enemy team can't focus fire is a recommended approach for survival. It is not recommended to go out with a bang, but to try and limit their line of sight while you force them to fight you 1v1.

- Don't underestimate hit and run tactics. A group of light mechs are deadly in wolf packs, and heavy/assault groups are dangerous to confront directly.

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All in all, proper communication and spotting will help your team out in the long run. Know where your enemy is, and you can plan accordingly against them. And by positioning yourself at the right place and at the right time to the available information at hand is what tactics is all about.

If you have any other tactics you would like to share, feel free to share it and post it here.

Edited by Blue Hymn, 28 April 2013 - 10:47 PM.

[Rushin Roulette]

Blue Hymn, on 28 April 2013 - 10:46 PM, said:

- If you see a friendly mech being harassed by lights or a lone enemy mech, offer aid! Two guns is always better than one, and you have a better chance at shooting at that pesky mech than your hapless friend, trying to turn and twist to hit the mech properly.

Most of it is basic advice (also hence the thread title 101 I guess). However, this part is bad advice. Helping a teammate against lights is good, however, if you are forced to turn and twist to hit the lights, you have just positioned yourself in the worst place to be. If you are fightig against lighe mechs circling a teammate you should do everything you can to stay out of that circle, if you are in it, then you have lost because you are blocking each others line of fire and are both not able to focus correctly.

Ideally you should stay outside of the circle and shoot the light mechs in 2 positions only. The points of the circle left and right of your teammate are the best, because those are the points where you are guaranteed not to hit your own teammate and where the lights are moving directly to or from your weapons (giving you the best shot at their front and rear armor... or legs in the case of the Raven)

[Blue Hymn]

Rushin Roulette, on 28 April 2013 - 11:13 PM, said:

Most of it is basic advice (also hence the thread title 101 I guess). However, this part is bad advice. Helping a teammate against lights is good, however, if you are forced to turn and twist to hit the lights, you have just positioned yourself in the worst place to be. If you are fightig against lighe mechs circling a teammate you should do everything you can to stay out of that circle, if you are in it, then you have lost because you are blocking each others line of fire and are both not able to focus correctly.

Ideally you should stay outside of the circle and shoot the light mechs in 2 positions only. The points of the circle left and right of your teammate are the best, because those are the points where you are guaranteed not to hit your own teammate and where the lights are moving directly to or from your weapons (giving you the best shot at their front and rear armor... or legs in the case of the Raven)

As basic as these are, it is surprising often how most matches DON'T follow the advice mentioned. Not many matches have people communicating where the enemy mechs are, and sometimes there are players who charge into the fray, not caring about being in the open as they are overwhelmed by enemy fire.

And, as for the part that you mentioned as bad advice -- I said offer aid. I never mentioned how you should approach the subject. How you offer aid is up to the player's discretion, and the type of mech they're in. If you're a light mech, then chasing after the enemy light might be an idea. If your mech is a heavy/assault, then yes, your suggestion is a potential way to take care of the enemy mech.

The idea behind this thread is to discuss basic tactics that can then be developed into more complex methods later on. If the players who read this can implement basic strategy into their matches, then I believe that matchmaking would be a lot more interesting and enjoyable.

[Tex1013]

Running to help a lone teammate is a difficult proposition, and requires you to consider a few things very carefully...

A - can you get there in time - unless it's very close, or you're very fast, I'd say no - If your target is more than 60 seconds away at the speed you can move, the likelihood that you'll get there in time to do any good is slim, and the possibility that you'll just put yourself in an equally dangerous position that requires rescuing is about 50/50

B - how dumb is your teammate? More than once, I've seen a guy wander off solo, and I figured...hey, he knows what he's doing, right? I mean, he hits any significant resistance, he'll bail, right? right?! He won't engage 2-3 times his own number, he won't overextend in a mech that's too slow to retreat safely...

yeah, no. Rescuing people that got themselves into trouble usually just ends up getting you in trouble as well, and feeding one-by-one kills to your opposing team.

if you're going to rescue someone that ran off solo, you have to spend at least a few moments gauging the situation - how damaged is his enemy, what mech is he in and what is his opponent in? how far away is he? is he holding his own, or is he already half dead? Are you really powerful enough/skilled enough to change the situation? It requires people to have really good, fast, evaluative skills - if you don't have those, you might just be better off staying where you are

If you're really fast, you *may* be able to afford running over there and taking a look to see if you can help out, and retreat back to your team if you can't - but I guess what I'm trying to say is, keep in mind that rescuing an over-exposed teammate CAN be more detrimental to your team than letting him get destroyed - so if you're going to try, your brain needs to be working at near capacity.

[Khan Reaper]

Mark Your Targets!!! That is such a key to the game that is overlooked too often. I agree with everything OP has stated, but I have to emphasize marking your targets. I've been taking the role of "scout" in a speedy heavy, trying to find as many of the enemy as possible before the main body of my team engages. After everyone is found, I then run along the line popping shots at those enemies being engaged by my team. I think that this tactic works well, as the enemy seems to feel bogged down when they receive fire from multiple directions. Once they turn on me, I run off again to find another engaged target.

Hit and Run indeed!