11 replies to this topic

[mithril coyote]

originally posted in konivings tactical tips to mwo, but i don't want to completely threadjack, and this is something every player, even the experienced ones, should read and understand, because i see this in nearly every game..

Choke Points:
"And from there, we will funnel them into the mountain pass we call the Hot Gates. Now, in that narrow corridor, their numbers will count for nothing." - Leonidas, 300.

choke points are locations on a map where an enemy will pass, but which is too narrow for more than a fraction of their numbers to engage effectively. Choke points abound on the MWO maps. the entryways to the Caldera on Terra Therma. the saddle pass and tunnel in Crimson Strait. the Cave and narrow passages of Forest Colony. every map has several major choke points that restrict the ability of a force to employ their numbers effectively. i have lost track of how many times i have seen even highly skilled players get bottled up in the Saddle or stuck in the doors of the Caldera, where most of one side can focus their fire, but the other side is stuck uselessly behind one or two mechs in the front. it is a recipe for disaster.. especially if those that are in the choke point get fixated on fighting there. choke points let a much smaller force stop a large force. they become 'conga lines of death' because the forces at the front in the choke point take damage from the concentrated fire far faster than they can dish it out. and then the ones behind them take their place. they can be real meat grinders.


by now, you should be asking. "so what can i do the avoid this problem?" Sun Tzu, in his Art of War, called choke point's "hemmed in ground." and his advice still holds today. "On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem." that is, if you have to pass thru a choke point, be smart about it and try to exploit the situation in ways beyond just marching thru and getting stuck. the simplest stratagem for them is to employ what the modern military calls a thunder run.. just put the pedal to the metal and rush on thru until you are out of the choke point and have more room to maneuver. while this is likely to result in a fair amount of damage to your forward units, and will put you in the midst of the enemy, it will be far less damage than if you get bottled up in the choke point trying to clear the enemy away first. another useful stratagem is flanking. leave a few of your own to keep the enemy focused on the choke point, then send most of the rest around another route to hit the enemy somewhere unexpected. that said, be wary of the enemy, because often they are doing something similar. and never be afraid to turn the table on the enemy. often if you employ a stratagem of pulling back out of the choke point, an enemy will try to follow you, and then you can catch them in the choke point and pound them with concentrated fire.

the main thing to remember is not to get stuck. if there are people in front of you and no room of either side, don't just mill around behind them looking for a clear shot, pull back and look for another route. and if your in the front, keep in mind where you are and how many of your side are there and how many you are facing. don't let yourself be caught in the choke point just because you got in a fight.

[Bulletsponge0]

love it when the lead guy stops at the entrance to thunerdome on Terra Therma...sure sign he's gonna die from friendly fire to the back as everyone gathers behind and tries to potshot at the enemy inside...

Hell, I'm new and I'll rarely, if ever, go near the caldera....all it takes is one enemy threatening to go in to cause the backup at the entrance....I'll hang around the outside, spotting the enemy circling outside en masse or picking off the straggler on his own

[mithril coyote]

what got me to writing this was a skirmish game where 10 of the 12 guys on my side tried to go thru the Saddle. the other side bottled up 10 fairly experianced players in that stupid pass and slaughtered them in minutes with only 4 mechs... while the other 8 swung round the long way and crushed us. i went to the pass, hit the defense, and pulled my CN9-A(C) away and went to guard the flank since i knew exactly what was going ot happen. one orion went with me.. despite our warnings, the other 10 just kept doing their "slowly move up over the ridge, fire a shot, pull back, repeat" nonsense as ten mechs tried to cram into a space where only 3 or 4 could fight effectively. after 8 mechs were down our side started to pull back... only to run into the fresh flanking force and die quick as they were crushed between the flanking force and decoy force..it was a slaughter. we got no kills at all.

and what is worse, was that our side had the premade.. the other side was as best as i could tell, pure PUG..

Edited by mithril coyote, 28 April 2014 - 11:25 AM.

[Furiel]

Had this problem last night in Mordor. Late game, 4 per side left and they are all in in the thunderdome. Stalker who's about 85% leading the way, decides to play sniper and will walk up to get a clear shot, take it then back up again and no one could get around him. We tell him to commit or move, his response, don't tell me how to do my job. We were too slow to move around to another enterance since there was about 3 minutes left in the match. After a minute of work I finally am able to slip past and figure that if he won't lead the charge I will. Nope, as soon as I get past he backs up and blocks my lancemates and leaves me to die 1 on 4. Pretty sure it was on purpose too because as soon as I went down he pushed in while they were distracted killing my shiny orange butt and the three of them cleaned up.

We had them outgunned and outweighted and he would not commit. We had 2 assaults, the Stalker and my lancemate in his Battlemaster, me in a brawler Orion and another lancemate in the welfare Thunderbolt against a Jaeger, a Catapult that was out of ammo, another welfare Thunderbolt and a Trebuchet.

If you are going up to a choke point you have 2 choices...commit or move. Make a decision and execute.

[Bulletsponge0]

mithril coyote, on 28 April 2014 - 11:19 AM, said:

what got me to writing this was a skirmish game where 10 of the 12 guys on my side tried to go thru the Saddle. they bottled up 10 fairly experianced players in that stupid pass and slaughtered them in minutes with only 4 mechs... while the other 8 swung round the long way and crushed us. i went to the pass, hit the defense, and pulled my CN9-A(C) away and went to guard the flank since i knew exactly what was going ot happen. one orion went with me.. despite our warnings, the other 10 just kept doing their "slowly move up over the ridge, fire a shot, pull back, repeat" nonsense as ten mechs tried to cram into a space where only 3 or 4 could fight effectively. after 8 mechs were down our side started to pull back... only to run into the fresh flanking force and die quick as they were crushed between the flanking force and decoy force..it was a slaughter. we got no kills at all.

and what is worse, was that our side had the premade.. the other side was as beast as i could tell, pure PUG..

seen that exact scenario on Terra Therma

my team bottles up in an entrance to the caldera...held there by no more then 3 enemy mechs taking potshots at them from a different entrance
Despite my warnings that we were gonna have trouble coming round the otside, only one other mech came down to watch for it..and me, being in a raven, couldn't do anything but spot against a 10 or 11 strong rolling bulldozer of a mech force
Sure enough, when the inevitable happened, I called it out, called out the grid and the number of mechs....speammed the target button so everyone else would get the sound and have multiple targets pop up on their HUDs..but nobody so much as turned to look until they were having their backs cored out

it made my raven sad to see that..well it would have, if my raven was still alive at the time it happened (won't sacrifice myself trying to get the teams attention anymore..I'll hide and watch while still trying to alert them)

[Appogee]

Great post.

Chokepoints MWO players will commonly experience:

1. The doorways to the caldera on Terribad Therma.
2. The exits to the cave on Forest Colony.
3. The exits to the subway tunnel, and the mountain saddle on Crimson Straits.
4. The entries to the HPG station, and the doors to the underneath area, on HPG Manifold.
5. UI2.0

Edited by Appogee, 28 April 2014 - 11:32 AM.

[Felio]

mithril coyote, on 28 April 2014 - 11:19 AM, said:

"slowly move up over the ridge, fire a shot, pull back, repeat" nonsense

I hate games that turn into this so much. Enough that I think we need more tools to discourage it. Arty strike helps, but only for a moment and it's not all that common.

[mithril coyote]

i've used similar tactics in Tourmaline desert a few times.. but i also stuck to the sniper's adage. "two shots then relocate" (not for nothing is my BJ-1DC dubbed 'Simo Hayha'..)

if you've got room to spread out laterally, and to move positions often, that sort of hull down shooting works. in a choke point, its just certain death.

[Crotch RockIt]

Appogee, on 28 April 2014 - 11:31 AM, said:

Great post.

Chokepoints MWO players will commonly experience:

5. UI2.0

[990Dreams]

I was posting about this before everyone else

#MWOHipster.

Choke points are your best friend if you aren't stupid (like the Persians). Take advantage of the narrow killzone.

[InspectorG]

mithril coyote, on 28 April 2014 - 11:44 AM, said:

'Simo Hayha'

Props for the name.

[wanderer]

Choke points are lovely to take advantage of, but it requires a high fire rate to do it and/or artillery. They are also notably the anti-deathball- a choke point turns what's an effective group into a quagmire if there's the slightest hesitation, and if your opponent drops arty smoke or simply manages to gun down the first 'Mech going in, the flinch is often fatal.

If you're going in a choke point,as noted....DO NOT STOP. Decent jump capacity is often a gawdsend here, letting you leapfrog clear and often end up redirecting some of the suppressive fire coming in your way long enough to let the other team members get through faster. Use your own arty with prejudice here- often, they'll be set up and so focused on their new playmate they won't even be able to notice the smoke in time. Just make sure you drop it on whoever's off to one side lest you FF.