14 replies to this topic

[ImperialKnight]

I've lost count of how many games I lost because people don't know how to defend the crater on Terra once you control it.

The diagram below shows what you need to do if the enemy is pushing in. I'm using the F6 entrance as an example but the same principle applied.

You want to form up on BOTH sides of the entrance, leaving it wide open for the enemy team to come up. You WANT them to come up so your entire team can focus down targets one by one. Keep shooting whatever is in front of the enemy line and don't stop until it's dead.

The MOST COMMON mistake people make is to charge in, either wanting to get shots off on an enemy or trying to block the enemy. All that achieves is blocking your entire team from shooting the enemy. At the same time, YOU are taking focused fire from the enemy team cause you are in the choke point. Not only that, you will be taking taking friendly fire from people trying to shoot past you.

Stop plugging the choke point. JUST. STOP. IT.

Caveat: This applies if the enemy main force is there. If it's just 1 or 2 of them, PUSH THROUGH and kill them all and return to defense position.

P.S. How do you know if it's the whole enemy team or just 1 or 2? That's the job of the nearest guy there. The team has to follow your lead. If you see the whole enemy team or a large mass of them. BACK UP. If it's just 1 or 2, push through. Do not stop at the chokepoint.



P.P.S. This applies for every funnel on every map

Edited by knightsljx, 12 February 2014 - 02:50 AM.

[Victor Morson]

LEARN 2 AVOID CRATER ON TERRA

[warner2]

This is probably a worse map for PUG play than even Alpine.

Everyone rushes to the nearest entrance to the centre and proceeds to bottleneck. Every time, even on Skirmish when you can use the whole map.

It's just a really bad design.

The OP is good though. Just don't do it. Don't go through that bottleneck unless you're doing it in force to overwhelm what you know to be inferior numbers on the other side (ask your scouts).

[Malcolm Vordermark]

Its always a Jagermech, I dont care if you have control of the center or not. Those Jagers just have to stand in the choke, its like a moth to a flame.

The center is a really strong position if you're defending. The trick is if your enemy has the center to go somewhere else and make him come out. I mean, what good is defending something that will never be attacked? The only other good places for a team to go and set up are near the edges though, good luck getting a pug to do that.

[1453 R]

I've given up trying to get pug teams to stay out of the gladiator pit in Mordor. I used to beg and plead and castigate and cajole with my team to take a different route, flank around, do anything but blitz the crater and get hung up in choke points.

Alas...one simply cannot argue with eleven other players' complete idiocy. To the gladiator pit we go, and here's hoping we're the first ones there. BLAH

[Redshift2k5]

I love posting up on the jump-jet accessible section of the crater rim with some long range guns and shooting down into the crater

The general lesson of 'don't block bottlenecks' applies to all kins ofplaces, but other maps don't have so many so narrow bottlenecks

[Felicitatem Parco]

Last night my team decided to hold the center of the crater.. the very center platform.

That was a hotly contested match, with my whole team overheating constantly and all.

I avoid the crater unless I'm running only AC/5 or Gauss rifles.

[Bront]

Victor Morson, on 12 February 2014 - 02:54 AM, said:

LEARN 2 AVOID CRATER ON TERRA

On Skirmish, it's great to defend. On other modes, yeah, stay out.

[NRP]

A UAV is useful to get a quick idea of the size of an enemy force in a given area. Then you can push (or not) with confidence. I wish more people used them.

[Alistair Winter]

It's hilarious to watch noobs on that map.

The match inevitably ends in one of two ways.

1) "Quick, everyone take the volcano. Rush inside! Yes, we got here first! Good job, guys! Wait, we've spotted the enemy outside! Everyone, rush out together through a single, narrow exit to attack the enemy!"
Followed by death.

2) "Alright, guys, let's not go into the volcano. It's a death trap. Just stay outside and keep calm. Wait, we've spotted the enemy inside the volcano! Everyone, rush inside together through a single, narrow passage to attack the enemy!"
Followed by death.

[627]

What victor said.

There's no point in getting in there. And defending it? This only works if the enemy is stupid enough to come through one entrance.
Good teams (an yes, I mean Pugs) split up and come from 2 or 3 sides. With ECM you'll only notice them when it's too late.

Yes it s a good position to react to anything on the map but it's a dangerous place. You can get trapped inside by few mechs who hold the exits while the enemy lights cap you out. It is as difficult to get out properly as to get in.

And in Assault and Skirmish, there is NO point in attacking the center. Unless you have a couple of hobbits with you who have business up there.

[Macksheen]

It is a great map design, that features an excellent teachable moment.

[Evil Ed]

Great in 12-mans, almost always horrible in pugs.

[Mindwipe]

I like Terra Therma personally. It's one of the very few maps that the tactics of a typical PUG isn't written before the match starts. Yes far too many matches involve the rush to the volcano followed by frustration, but going around that is perfectly valid. The fact that TT is also one of the only maps, if not the only, that doesn't horribly abuse you for not forming the deathball. The deathball is generally a bad idea on this map, at least in the PUGs I normally am in.

Any map that doesn't have a set gameplay style wins for me. Full disclosure, I generally play lights so the terrain is less of an issue and more of an ally.

[wanderer]

I've taken to calling the crater the "PUGzapper".

The best way to deal with it? Circle around outside. Kill their stragglers.

Then wait for the inevitable, impatient ones to come looking.

You'll win. Even on Skirmish.

I've seen games uncountable where like moths to a flame, even teams with a numerical advantage walked into the glowing fire...*PFFT* lost.