54 replies to this topic

[kauldron]

All who have fought as IS have seen it. Lance upon lance, team upon team of IS PUGS mercilessly slaughtered by Clanners. Does it have to be this way?

Let's face it. We are PUGS. Our bark will always be worse than our bite (pun intended). We are not organized, and it is rather rare to see one IS PUG player who knows what he' s doing and can coordinate the others as far as battle lines are concerned, or as far as calling out targets.
This thread aims at giving some basic information for PUGS.

Of course there is always the cliche info "stay together" etc.
That, however is too general to do any good. I think we can have two separate groups of advice, one for the PUG fighters themselves, and one for the PUG Team (strategic).

Fighters:
1. Do not bring trial mechs to a fight.
2. Do not bring mechs that you do not have Master skills to a fight.
3. Always carry 1 UAV and 1 airstrike or artillery.
4. Do not bring mechs that you don't have at least 2 modules on.
5. Do not trade with clanners, particularly when you are on medium/long range, as they will almost certainly win.

Strategic.
This includes map battle lines, which targets should be primary (so that the players know to strike them even if they are not called by a team leader). For example:
1. If there is a Dire Wolf in the enemy group, then this DW is by default the primary target.

Feel free to add more, the more knowledge we have, the more PUGS will be saved.

[MaxFool]

Don't be a wuss. Trying to hide and not get shot at all match along only means you won't do much damage, and when you eventually die it's by 3-6 clanners coming around some corner and shooting you, and only you. When one of your team mates is getting shot, instead of thinking "I don't want any part of that", you should realize that this is the opportunity to shoot at enemy while they are focused on something else.

Edited by MaxFool, 18 July 2015 - 05:29 AM.

[MaxFool]

Oh, and when you are attacking and your team moves inside the gates, follow them. Even if you are in LRM boat. And ffs don't stop at the gate, the rest of your team following you need to be able to get inside the gates too, you are blocking them and anyway you are stopping at the easiest killing ground for the enemy.

[H I A S]

kauldron, on 18 July 2015 - 05:01 AM, said:

Fighters:
1. Do not bring trial mechs to a fight.
2. Do not bring mechs that you do not have Master skills to a fight.
3. Always carry 1 UAV and 1 airstrike or artillery.
4. Do not bring mechs that you don't have at least 2 modules on.
5. Do not trade with clanners, particularly when you are on medium/long range, as they will almost certainly win.

6. Do not bring Locust with 1 AC2
7. Do not bring LRM-Assaults
8. Do not bring LRM in General
9. Do not stand still

to be continuied...

Edited by HiasRGB, 18 July 2015 - 05:39 AM.

[Count Zero 74]

I said it in another thread already, most important thing is you have to talk. Share intel, call targets, whatever, but talk guys.
And if someone takes the lead pls follow him, even bad orders are better than no orders.

Some general rules:

- Don't peek, stay in cover and let them come. If you peek over a hill only you can shoot at the enemy and you'll be the focus target yourself. Form firing lines, wait for them, break their push then counter-push.

- If a push is called W is the win key. Move, do not stop.

On drop decks:

to be succesfull in CW you have to run the meta more or less. Sorry but there's no way around it. There are some Mechs that are great for CW and a lot that aren't. 85t is the sweet spot for Assaults and 65t for Heavies.

- 85/85/35/35
- 85/65/65/25
- 65/65/65/45
- 65/65/55/55

Some Mechs that work: Battlemaster,Stalker,Tbolts,Jaeger,Dragon,Wolverines and anything with ECM

Edited by Count Zero 74, 18 July 2015 - 05:56 AM.

[Monkey Lover]

#1 don't fight clans with IS mechs. Go for the IS v IS games .

[Alienized]

if you move in a group, watch for your mates. they need some movement space too.
if you push you push. if you stop suddenly you are dead. just move out and keep the movement alive so the guys behind can help ya.

switch dropdrecks according to maps. always amazed to see lots of brawlers at boreal vaults first drop...

[TWIAFU]

Count Zero 74, on 18 July 2015 - 05:55 AM, said:

I said it in another thread already, most important thing is you have to talk. Share intel, call targets, whatever, but talk guys.

And if someone takes the lead pls follow him, even bad orders are better than no orders.

Agreed!!

First thing everyone should do, PUG and Group alike, is say Hello and don't be afraid to talk to the new guy or group.

They are not all the evil solo or pug stomper everyone wants to make them all out to be.

[Tangelis]

LRM's can be good, but with the abundance of ECM in CW they are better suited as support, not primary.

The biggest mistake I see in CW vs clans is trying too hard to play the range game with them. Clan weapons are superior at long distances. Sure the IS has some quirked mechs like the T-bolt that can compete, but bear in mind the clans are not dependant on quirks to fight at range in the least.

In the long run when taking potshots at each other from a distance, by comparison they are softening you up while you are merely scratching their paint. Makes for a rather brutal steamroll when they decide to push against your half dead mechs and LRM boats that can't get locks.

[H I A S]

Tangelis, on 18 July 2015 - 06:54 AM, said:

LRM's can be good

But real Weapons can always be better.

Edited by HiasRGB, 18 July 2015 - 06:58 AM.

[Tangelis]

No argument there.

I merely mean that if you want to bring LRM's it's not the end of the world....just don't make them your primary weapons, or rather your ONLY weapon that can honestly contribute.

Edited by Tangelis, 18 July 2015 - 07:30 AM.

[BSK]

kauldron, on 18 July 2015 - 05:01 AM, said:

3. Always carry 1 UAV and 1 airstrike or artillery.

use artillery as attacker
use airstrike as defender

[H I A S]

Tangelis, on 18 July 2015 - 07:29 AM, said:

No argument there.

I merely mean that if you want to bring LRM's it's not the end of the world....just don't make them your primary weapons, or rather your ONLY weapon that can honestly contribute.

LRM

- easy to counter
- with indirect Fire you dont share your armor with your team
- with direct Fire less effective then other Weapons

so please dont bring them to CW.

[Mechi Messer]

My take:
How to become a badass motherpugger (IS):

1. Know your enemy!
-(Meta-)clanmechs are agile (80+ kph heavies and mediums), tough (usually good hitboxes) and outrange you most of the time. (large pulse lasers for example do serious hurt at 600m). Know where they are vulnerable. A Madcat with half it's weapons gone ain't that scary anymore. If you see an open sidetorso: Shoot it off instead of going for the CT with armor. Know the hitboxes of your enemy: Shooting crows legs is often pointless. Go for the hips for example.

2. Build a good Dropdeck!
-A good mix can be key: Do not field 4 long-range mechs! Clanmechs outclass IS longrange. Yes there are thunderbolts, Battlemasters and Zeusses that are more or less on par with them rangewise, but unless you field 12 of them in a pug (good luck with that) you will never beat clans at their game. I field one longrange mech (erlls) max, usually none (I favour LPLs).
Do not bring LRM-boats. In a 12 premade with a dedicated spotter and/or narcer Lrms could make sense but in a pug they are next to useless (boated).
Try to avoid XL-engines in heavies, assaults. One crow-vomit and you are on the brink of death.
If you bring light mechs, bring nasty ones to kill the wounded. Hit and run with high alphas does he trick.
Don't go too big. 100t assaults can be devastating, but can also die quickly and the rest of your dropdeck won't pack that much of a punch/armor.

3. Play smart!
-Don't Leroy.
-Shoot the mechs which are being shot at by your mates.
-Aim for weak components.
-When attacking/counterattacking only reinforce the frontlines when there is a good amount of friends left there. If you see only a few blue triangles in the enemy base: Form a new wave!
-If you don't want to talk (i usually don't) at least listen to your mates who do. Typing enemy locations ain't that bad either.

Now Manners:
-Do not blame your team for losing in chat, especially when your damagecount is below 700-800. You have no right to do so then. Even if you have the right, don't do it. It was you who deceided to enter the wacky world of Pugganistan. Deal with the consequences!
-Do not blame clantech for losing. Yes, clans have bad ass mechs and weaponry, but IS too has it's tricks.
-Don't insult bad players. The playerbase is small and elitist ******** won't help that fact.

[LORD ORION]

Captain Obvious: Use mega-quirked mechs or else.

Edited by LORD ORION, 19 July 2015 - 07:17 AM.

[DaFrog]

HiasRGB, on 18 July 2015 - 08:32 AM, said:

LRM

- easy to counter
- with indirect Fire you dont share your armor with your team
- with direct Fire less effective then other Weapons

so please dont bring them to CW.

SO if we listen to this, shock and awe of the US combined forces has no place in warfare ? Remember those CNN videos ?!?

HiasRGB, on 18 July 2015 - 05:34 AM, said:

6. Do not bring Locust with 1 AC2
7. Do not bring LRM-Assaults
8. Do not bring LRM in General
9. Do not stand still

to be continuied...

Don't take his advice.

[MaxFool]

DaFrog, on 19 July 2015 - 07:28 AM, said:

SO if we listen to this, shock and awe of the US combined forces has no place in warfare ? Remember those CNN videos ?!?


Don't take his advice.

This is not some real life battle scenario. Don't take LRMs to CW, especially if you are on IS side.

[ninthstreet]

Once you find out which tile you are dropping on that will tell you what map you will be fighting on. Just count the tiles from the first.

1. Boreal
2. sulphur
3. hellebore
4. Grim
5.Emerald
6. vitican

Once you know the map substitute mechs in your dropdeck that are appropriate to the conditions on the map. An example would be guys substituting jaegers into their dropdeck when dropping on vitican. A ballistic jaeger has a huge advantage over a laser vomit build due to the heat on that map.

Also never defend a planet if at all possible unless your in a group. Always attack because all the organized groups are attacking planets. There is a good chance you end up a filler in an organized group. Only pugs are left to defend and you will be farmed if you drop pug defending.

[DaFrog]

MaxFool, on 19 July 2015 - 07:45 AM, said:

This is not some real life battle scenario. Don't take LRMs to CW, especially if you are on IS side.

Don't take his advice either.

[Lbofun]

Mechi Messer, on 18 July 2015 - 08:33 AM, said:

My take:
How to become a badass motherpugger (IS):

I could only like this one time!