192 replies to this topic

[fat4eyes]

Hello everyone!

A lot has been written about multi-mech tactics in MWO, but they tend to be rather dense walls of text. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I present to you:


THE MWO TACTICS 101 COMICS

(Now also in French! Thanks to Coryphee.)
(Note: for the latest version of this guide, see the Steam version)

I've gathered up some of what I've learned over the past year and a half of playing MWO and put it in (I hope) an entertaining yet informative format. So without further ado, here's our cast of characters:

Spoiler

The mech graphics are taken from the assets of Megamek. If you want to make your own comics, I've uploaded the files I use to make them here. You'll need LibreOffice to open the ODG file (don't worry, its free).

And now on to the main event!


The Basics

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Strength in Numbers

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If you learn only one thing from these comics let it be this:

MORE of us vs. LESS of them = MORE of them dead & LESS of us dead

This is the basis for almost all of the tactics in these comics (and in real life too). Always try to maneuver so there are more friendly guns firing at the enemy than there are firing back. At the very least, stay with your teammates as often as possible and shoot what they shoot.

Formation

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The echelon formation is probably the most flexible and useful formation in MWO. It gives your teammates room to maneuver and can quickly turn to face a threat from most directions. Just remember to keep your distance and not block your teammates.

Tailgating

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If you play long enough this will happen to you. Give your teammate room to back up. It may save his life (and yours too).

Escort

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Picking a mech to escort and helping it take down its targets increases both your lifespans, and your kills.

Shuffle

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To come out on top against even odds, you must find a way to spread damage across the team. You do not want that friendly assault with 70 firepower to go down early. If you're close to death but still have significant firepower, move behind your teammates and give them supporting fire. If you still have lots of armor near the end of the game, go up to the front line and tank. Yes, this applies to 'support mechs' too.

Cornering

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Take it slow when going around a corner. Try to take your enemies one at a time. If you're a lighter mech escorting an assault or heavy, let him take the first salvo and immediately follow up with your own while the enemy is on cooldown. The heavy you're escorting values you more for your added firepower than for your tanking ability.

Peeking

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When you're peeking to shoot at an enemy, try to pick a location where the fewest number of enemy mechs can shoot back at you. If you use a location and get a lot of return fire, go find another location. DO NOT peek at the same location again hoping that the enemy won't be looking. A great man once said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Don't be insane.

Situational Awareness

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Situational awareness is knowing what's happening around you and your mech. I usually don't have long explanations for a comic but I feel I need to for this one.

• Newbie: Only knows about the target he's shooting at. He doesn't notice he's being shot from behind until he's dead.
  
• Padawan: Does notice he's being shot in the back, but only after he's lost all his rear armor and is warned of critical central torso damage. He then turns around to look behind him but now opens his rear to his previous target. He tries to chase down the light, even though he is unlikely to catch it.
  
• Jedi: Immediately notices he's being shot in the back. Goes into cover as he looks behind him. Sees that he was being shot by a light, and knowing that his mech can't catch it, just fires at the enemy from his position.
  
• Jedi Master: Does everything the Jedi does. In addition, he also alerts his team so teammates that are better equipped to deal with the enemy light can do so.

Situational awareness is a pretty big topic. If you want to know more about it you can look at Asmudius Heng's excellent video.

Friendly Fire

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If you don't want to accidentally get shot by your teammates, don't move in front of them when they're engaged with an enemy. Not only are you blocking your teammate's shots, you're exposing yourself to the enemy.

Advantage

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When you have an advantage, USE IT.

Pushing

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When your team decides to push, you must do it as a team. Charging forward one at a time will just get your team killed one by one. When you see one of your teammates pushing (especially if he's piloting an assault), go and support the push.

Flanking

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Flanking

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Flanking is a classic maneuver for breaking up stalemates. The idea is to attack a small portion of the enemy with superior firepower from an unexpected direction. This allows you to defeat the enemy in detail.

Flanking Fail

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Flanking is not a silver bullet. If it's detected early, the enemy can redeploy and destroy your flanking force with a superior force, and then defeat your main force afterwards. Move stealthily and get the jump on the enemy. If all else fails, return to the main force and wait for another opportunity.

Flanking Fail 2

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Here's another way a flanking maneuver can fail. If the flankers take too long to get to the enemy, the enemy can push your main force and likely defeat it. Be fast and decisive when flanking.

Flanking Fail 3

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Yet another way for a flanking maneuver to fail. If the flankers engage the enemy too early or too far from their main force, the entire enemy team can focus on and destroy them. Your main force will then be defeated by the enemy due to their numbers. When you flank, make sure that your main force is able to support you. And when you're in the main force, support your flankers when they engage.

Flanking Counterattack

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Flanking is not just useful in the offense, but can be very effective in the defense as well. When your enemy is pushing, almost their entire attention directed forward. This makes them vulnerable to a counterattack on their flanks. This has to be done very quickly, before the enemy has taken out too many of your teammates. When you see the enemy pushing hard on your weak flank, don't see it as an automatic loss, but an opportunity to launch a flanking counterattack and regain the upper hand.

Breakout

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When your team is surrounded, usually your best bet is to find where the enemy is weakest and push hard. The enemy will try to chase you and shoot your backs so some mechs will have to act as the rear guard. These mechs must use every trick in the book, from arty strikes to good use of cover, to delay the enemy long enough for the rest of the team to break out. A breakout is a risky maneuver, but it's almost always a better option than staying surrounded.

Crossfire

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A pilot's first instinct when taking fire from an unexpected direction is to take cover. You can use this to herd an enemy into a bad position by putting them in a crossfire. Go to a good piece of cover on the enemy's flank and fire at them at medium to long range. The enemy that is now taking fire from you will most likely go into cover and try to shoot at you. Your goal is to take the heat off your teammates on the front lines, and try to herd the enemy into a disorganized ball behind their cover. Your teammates will then use their advantage of position to defeat the enemy.

NASCAR!

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NASCAR

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What people call NASCAR is just a flanking maneuver where the entire team goes to flank. A good NASCAR involves the team moving together as a group, engaging small portions of the enemy with full force, and having some mechs act as the rear guard to make sure the team's heavy hitters aren't shot in the back.

NASCAR usually happens in maps that have a central feature that has lots of cover, and paths going around it. The classic NASCAR map is Caustic Valley (around the central caldera). It also happens often in River City (around the 'Citadel', the large tall building near the center) and Frozen City (around the central crashed dropship).

NASCAR Fail

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This is the most common way a NASCAR maneuver fails. Everyone goes off at top speed, not caring where their teammates are. Because mechs have different top speeds, the team gets strung out and is defeated one by one by a more organized enemy. Slow assaults in particular get shafted, doomed to an embarrassing death by light mech when their teammates abandon them.

NASCAR Recovery

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Sometimes a NASCAR that's going bad can be saved if the fast mechs can help out the team's tail before it's completely destroyed. In some maps (Caustic) this would require you to cross the center of the map to get there in time. Listen/read team chat, and watch your minimap.

Chokepoints

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Chokepoint Defense

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Chokepoints are great when you're defending. It's the terrain doing your job for you: maximizing your firepower while minimizing the enemy's.

The enemy going through a chokepoint is not an instant win though. Your team has to guard the chokepoint properly to take best advantage of it. (Long explanation incoming, tl/dr at the end)

• If you guard it too close, your team won't have enough time to concentrate fire on their lead mechs until they close to a brawl. Once a brawl is joined, the advantage is lost and it comes down to individual skill and luck, not tactics.
  
• If you guard it too far, the enemy won't take enough damage going out of the chokepoint because your shots will be less accurate or have less damage due to range.
  
• You have to guard it so that most of the team's weapons are still effective, yet far enough away to have enough time to do damage. It's hard to put a definite number on this range because of the variation on loadouts, player aiming skills and the terrain just outside a chokepoint, but I've found for most PUG matches guarding from around 400m away seems to be a sweet spot (mostly out of range of srms and medium pulse lasers, but still in range for medium lasers).

tl/dr: Too close = brawl, too far = useless, just right = around 400m

Chokepoint Attack

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Pushing through a guarded chokepoint is usually a bad idea. But if you HAVE to do it, you must do it as a team. Your goal is to get out of your disadvantaged position as quickly as possible, and minimize the amount of damage your team takes as you go out of the chokepoint.

Here's one way to do it (long explanation incoming, tl/dr at the end):

• The entire team pushes hard out of the chokepoint, firing whenever they can and torso twisting to spread damage. EVERYONE must move, staying behind just gives the enemy an advantage.
  
• Once out of the chokepoint, most of the mechs go for a flank of the enemy. This has 3 purposes: 1) Going for the enemy's flanks lessens the chance you'll be flanked on both sides as you come out, 2) it unbalances the enemy as they have to adjust their positions to deal with your push, and 3) moving sideways relative to the enemy makes it harder for them to aim for your central torso.
  
• At the same time, a small distraction force of fast mechs go the other way and try to draw as much fire away from your main force as possible. The longer the distraction lasts, the better.
  
• Once you've formed your battle line outside the chokepoint, the battle proceeds as normal.

Use anything that will reduce the enemy's advantage as you go out of the chokepoint. Use artillery and airstrikes to disrupt their formation. Blind-fire LRMs onto the enemy to make them go into cover. If you have many autocannons, use it to scare as many of the enemy's mechs as possible into torso twisting or getting into cover. Use anything at all that reduces the enemy's advantage as you push out.

And don't underestimate the fear factor of a big push as well. The bigger and more aggressive your push is, the better. I've seen chokepoint defenders scatter in disarray at the sight of 3 assaults followed by their entire team coming out of a chokepoint with all guns blazing.

tl/dr: EVERYONE pushes, most go towards a flank, fast mechs do a distraction on the other side, be as scary as possible.

Chokepoint Attack Fail

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When your team is already pushing a chokepoint, getting cold feet and trying to get to cover will not only make your team lose the match, it will get you killed faster. The time it takes to go from full speed to full reverse is about 1-2 seconds, and that's enough time for 12 enemy mechs to kill you. When you're already pushing, your best hope for survival is to give the enemy more targets to shoot at (your teammates behind you), not getting into cover and blocking your teammates.

(This message has been paid for by the Terra Therma Widow's Society)

Chokepoint Reversal

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Remember there are 2 sides to a chokepoint. Don't chase an enemy going through one if you don't know what's on the other side.

Deception

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Lure

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If you're being chased by a lot of enemies, you can lure them into an ambush. Look for areas that limit their mobility, have little cover, and can be surrounded by multiple teammates. Conversely, be careful of chasing enemies into narrow passes overlooked by ridges on multiple sides. Examples of good ambush spots are the C3 and D4 canyons in Canyon Network, and the E6/E7 bowl-shaped valleys in Tourmaline Desert.

In actual games, ambushes are usually executed on the fly, without much preplanning. If you're the mech doing the luring and the enemy is nearing a good ambush spot, pop a UAV to let your teammates know the enemy is coming.

Feint

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A feint is pretending to attack in one direction, but actually pushing in another direction. This allows you to surprise your enemy while they're dealing with the fake attack.

The fake attack force must be convincing enough for the enemy to commit their force to deal with them. They must also stay alive long enough to keep the enemy's attention while your main force does the actual attack. To defend against feints, always check the actual size of the enemy's attack before committing your entire force, or position yourself so that you can still handle attacks from other directions if an enemy attack turns out to be fake.

This tactic is useful when trying to get into areas with multiple well-defined entrances like Terra Therma, or the Community Warfare maps.

Fake Basecap

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When playing Assault, you can trick your enemy into splitting their forces by pretending to cap their base. Once their forces are split, your team can then use their numerical advantage to defeat your enemy. This is most effective when both teams are already engaged, to split the enemy's attention and give you an advantage.

To avoid falling for this trick, wait for a few seconds when you hear the "Base is being captured" message. Watch how fast your base's health is going down, you can guess how many enemy mechs are capping your base from that. Only go back to your base if you're fast enough to get there in time, or if you estimate your current combat will take a longer time to finish than losing your base. If you're an assault or heavy already in combat with the enemy, DO NOT RETURN TO BASE until you've finished your current fight.

A little tidbit: This tactic is one of the Thirty Six Strategems. A good read in itself.

Delaying Action 1

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A delaying action is when a weaker force attacks a more powerful force to slow them down. This can be useful in some situations, and this comic shows how a delaying action can be used to slow down enemy reinforcements. The goal of the delaying force here is to keep the reinforcements separated from their team so the rest of the team can win the current firefight. Once that fight is won, the entire team can then defeat the reinforcements.

If you're in the delaying force, remember you are there to slow down the enemy. Killing them is secondary. You have to stay alive as long as possible to keep them occupied long enough for the rest of the team to win the current fight. Be ready to move at a moments notice, always have an escape plan and don't get trapped by the enemy you are delaying. Fast moving light and medium mechs with medium to long range weapons are best at doing delaying actions. Their range and mobility allows them to avoid getting pulled into a brawl they can't win.

Delaying Action 2

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Another use for a delaying action is to slow down an enemy team so your team can get to a strategically important location first. Some maps, like Alpine Peaks or Terra Therma, have terrain features (the top of the mountain at Alpine and the central crater at Terra Therma) that give a big advantage to the team that is first able to hold it. Slowing down the enemy so your team controls the location first will improve your chance of victory.

Remember, though, that your goal as the delaying force is to slow down the enemy, not kill them. You can't slow them down if you're dead. Stay alive as long as possible and keep the enemy guessing where they'll be hit next.

UAVs

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UAV Placement

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A UAV is a consumable (cost: 40k cbills) that allows your entire team to see all enemies in the UAV's sensor range. It has a sensor range of about 250m and hovers 150m above the battlefield for about 30-40s. They can't be detected on radar (except at close range), but can be spotted by eye and shot down. This combination of factors means that the best place to put a UAV is very close to to the enemy, so that it will have as many enemies in its sensor range as possible, while its vertical angle to the enemy so high that they won't be able to shoot it down.

The best place to put a UAV is just behind the enemy. This will allow it to detect as many enemies as possible while keeping it away from the enemy's sight. This is best done by a light mech with ECM to reduce the chance of detection. Knowing where the enemy is will enable your team to plan their attack, as well as allowing LRM-armed teammates to fire at the enemy without getting line of sight.

Another good use of a UAV is to warn your team of an incoming push. There's nothing better at getting your team's attention than 12 radar contacts suddenly appearing at 300m.

Conversely, it is also a good idea to pop a UAV just before getting into a brawl, particularly in an urban area. It gives your team an informational advantage and will help all your teammates make better targeting and movement decisions while brawling.

UAV Placement Fail

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Though UAVs can't be detected on radar except at close range, they can still be spotted by eye and shot down. Do not deploy UAVs in full view of the enemy, you'll just be wasting 40k cbills.

Lights

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Squirrel

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A classic distraction tactic. The essence of this tactic is to trick the enemy to use an excessive amount of force to try to take down a trivial threat. Once the enemy has become disorganized, use your main force to defeat them in detail.

Wolfpack

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Never be alone, especially if the enemy has lights roaming around. Be wary of Firestarters, Arctic Cheetahs, Jenners and the Huggin Raven since they are the best at using this tactic. Try to learn the names of good light pilots; more likely than not they will run a wolfpack. There are only a few real good light pilots, and you WILL remember their names when they kill you.

Wolfpack Defense

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The best defense against wolfpacks is to be with your team. But if you do get jumped by a wolfpack when you're in a slow mech, here's what you can do:

1. Put your back against a wall to protect your rear armor.
2. Pop a UAV and call for help from your team.
3. Stay with your back against the wall and shoot at the enemies as they move past you. Keep your back protected.
4. Help your teammates to drive off the lights when they arrive.

Screening

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A screening force is a small number of fast, mobile mechs that act like a 'buffer' between your main force and the enemy. Their main tasks are to prevent the enemy from scouting your team, and to make sure that your main force is not surprised by enemy maneuvers. They go after enemy scouts, deal with enemy light forces on the flanks so that your heavies and assaults can concentrate on fighting the enemy's main body, and warn of enemy flanking maneuvers.

Fast lights and mediums are the best at screening work because of their speed. They can react quickly to enemy movements, and are fast enough to escape contact with a superior enemy force.

Screening is different from scouting in that screening forces usually stay near the main force. A screen's main task is to protect the main force from surprise, not to gather information on the enemy.

The Final Lesson

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Losing

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(Animated gif, may take time to load)


Sometimes even if you make all the right tactical decisions, you still lose. Maybe the enemy gets lucky with a few early kills, or have a better loadout mix for the map. Maybe your enemies just aim and move better. Or maybe the enemy made better tactical decisions than your team.

It happens. The most important thing is that you learn from the loss. Figure out what you and your team did wrong, what the enemy did right, and use what you've learned to do better next time. A loss is not truly a loss as long as you learn from it.

Links to more information

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If you haven't already seen them, Kanajashi's video tutorials are a great resource when you're starting out. His combat tutorial videos and the one on terrain and positioning in particular are great for learning the skills you'll need to pull off tactical maneuvers.

Asmudius Heng has a great set of videos on various MWO tactics. His video on firing lanes talks about the topic much better than I can in the comics.

Void Angel's thread Timidity is not a tactic is a classic on how aggression wins games.

627's MWO Maps - Tactical Review gives a good overview on all of MWO's maps, and are a great resource for map-specific information and tactics.

Edited by fat4eyes, 30 December 2016 - 12:54 AM.

[fat4eyes]

Hi guys. I'm finding it hard to keep two versions of the guide updated (this one and the one on Steam), so I'm leaving the mwo forums version of the guide as is while I put the latest updates on the Steam guide:

I've just added a section on VIP escort (Dec 30 2016) so you guys may want to check that out.

Edited by fat4eyes, 30 December 2016 - 12:36 AM.

[Starbadger]

Haha, pretty cute! And educational, too. I think we're all guilty of being 'red' once in awhile.

[Leone]

Ha! Well made.

As for screen space, you could just spoiler the comics.

~Leone.

[Voivode]

These are great! Should see if you can get in touch with PGI with these, make them part of new player tutorial. Maybe even have these on the match loading screen instead of those crappy quick tips.

EDIT: Fixed my awful spelling....

Edited by Voivode, 27 October 2015 - 08:52 AM.

[stealthraccoon]

I like!
Your efforts are highly appreciated, keep up the great work.

[Greyhart]

yes this is good. please continue

[Voras]

Nice one! Spot on.

[Mr Hunter]

I will be sharing this well done.

[The Bill]

Yay for pictures! Pictures OP

Next time someone says "ELI5" a mock-up like this is just what the Dr. ordered.

Thanks for including the how-to info as well.

10/10, would slack again. GG.

[Sereglach]

This is phenomenal, despite the simplicity of it. You manage to outline some very solid, yet simple, tactics that people should be paying attention to in both PUG and Group Queues. Excellent work; and I look forward to seeing it continue to grow.

Some others to consider making comics for:
-The Pincer Attack: Moving around multiple forces when the enemy entrenches itself.
-Fatal Funnel Fail: Trying to move too many units into tight areas to engage the enemy. Should utilize Pincer attacks or Flanks to break the entrenchments.
-Basic Ambushing: Setting up firing positions and hitting the enemy when they're surrounded. Also proper baiting.
-Ambushing Fail: Firing as soon as you see the enemy, giving yourself away early and allowing the enemy to back out.
-Firing Lines: Setting up defensive firing lines that do not block friendly fire and also force the enemy into choke points; while forcing the enemy to spread damage via target saturation, as well.
-Firing Lanes: Properly spreading out to allow all units to fire at enemies; and moving behind shooting friendlies to prevent friendly fire when repositioning.

[Void Angel]

Very good - I approve!

[Void Angel]

(reported for stickie)

[ET Penang]

Great job! Your work is well appreciated. Gonna get some friends to read it !

[Not A Real RAbbi]

EXCELLENT! I look forward to future installments!

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Add a failed Nascar. Most players who hate Nascar hate it because their team (generally PUGs or multiple small groups) did it wrong, not because the other team did it right and their team just stood there and took it.

[Nightshade24]

fat4eyes, on 27 October 2015 - 05:51 AM, said:

12.


What people call NASCAR is just a flanking maneuver where the entire team goes to flank. A good NASCAR involves the team moving together as a group, engaging small portions of the enemy with full force, and having some mechs act as the rear guard to make sure the team's heavy hitters aren't shot in the back.

NASCAR usually happens in maps that have a central feature that has lots of cover, and paths going around it. The classic NASCAR map is Caustic Valley (around the central caldera). It also happens often in River City (around the 'Citadel', the large tall building near the center) and Frozen City (around the central crashed dropship).



P.P.P.S. If you have suggestions on a tactic to put in a comic, just post a description of it in the thread. I'll try to make more comics as time permits. If you make your own comic and post it in the thread that's great! I'll try to get them in the top posts as often as I can.

I would consider this still a 'flank'.

What I call NASCAR and what I am pretty sure everyone else calls a NASCAR is when you got a central feature and all the mechs are spiralling around. Meaning the lights of both teams bolt right ahead, mediums and some heavies following, and some of the heavies and assaults are left behind. This resaults both heavies and assaults getting left alone with the enemy mediums nad lights and both ends assaults die while the 'arrow head' or the other end where hte people are pushing are in the false illusion they are winning the match as they just smashed the 4 biggest threats for the enemy team even though there team suffered the same losses or even worse... and the 'rear guards' or some of the guys who stayed behind often get overwhealemed by the pooling enemy forces meeting them while people are still running in circles...

In short I guess this is what you would call "Common [fail] NASCAR" while what you have is the "Smart [successful] NASCAR"
In short it's much more complicated than what you said for standard Flanking and I think it should be mentioned that NASCAR at least the 'common' one is when both teams 'fail' at flanking so to say.

(PS: this is an idea for a new comic btw)




I should mention though I do love these comics, they poke me in the anti-meta side a bit but most of this is perfectly logical and applicable at all tiers and game modes. On the topic of Echelon formation I would like to see some more 'real life tactics' that are used in MW: O... also this is more of a question rather than idea... how effective is the "Diamond" formation of previous games in MW: O?

1 mech in front, 2 behind them (say "2 units" behind the first mech) on the left and right of the first mech and 1 more mech behind the first one directly and still behind the other 2. This is kind of like a V formation but with 1 guy behind in the central area. May be good if an LRM boat. May be good if the diamond is slightly tilted so everyone can shoot forwards and to the sides but not in specific angles (double short row of echelons?)

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Peeking would be a good thing to cover. Specifically, how to know when you're getting the worse end of a trade and need to stop peeking- or at the very least find a new place to shoot from. I see way too many people popping up over a hill, getting shot by 4-5 enemies, and then doing the same thing, in the same place, only a few seconds later... with predictable results. Change position between shots if you're taking return fire- especially if you don't have the armor to tank the damage you're taking!

Heavies and backing against hard cover to prevent lights from getting backshots would be good too. I drive lights and mediums, and many if not most of the kills I get on heavies I get because they kept trying to turn in place out in the open, didn't unlock their arms if they had arm weapons, or any of a dozen other things they could have done to force me to break off. If there's a building or a rock or a wall or something nearby, run over to it while twisting and back up against it!

[Halvar Freysson]

Sereglach, on 27 October 2015 - 11:24 AM, said:

This is phenomenal, despite the simplicity of it. You manage to outline some very solid, yet simple, tactics that people should be paying attention to in both PUG and Group Queues. Excellent work; and I look forward to seeing it continue to grow.

Some others to consider making comics for:

-Fatal Funnel Fail: Trying to move too many units into tight areas to engage the enemy. Should utilize Pincer attacks or Flanks to break the entrenchments.

-Fatal Tunnel Fail: Moving more than two or three units through tight areas and then the leaders stopping at the exit to the tight area, stranding the rest of the team behind with either no exit at all, or no exit except through the firing lane of the first couple of mechs.

Probably not different enough from the Funnel Fail to warrant a whole new comic.

Edited by Thankful Knight, 28 October 2015 - 08:32 AM.

[Void Angel]

I'd recommend using the /spoiler code to organize the comics themselves into groups - it will make the post much more readable, especially if people are trying to get to the comments.