192 replies to this topic

[fat4eyes]

Just in the nick of time for the Steam release, the last of my planned comics:

Spoiler

(Animated gif, make 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.

And that's it for now. I'll probably do a few more comics every now and then as I learn more tactics from the games I play, but on a more irregular schedule.

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. Extra thanks to Sereglach, PS WrathOfDeadguy, Karl Streiger, and Chryckan for their suggestions that got made into a comic.

Here's to hoping that the Steam release is a great success, and brings a lot of new blood into the game.

See you guys on the battlefield.

[Nightmare1]

Haha! Red Team finally won one!

Give that boy a Disney ticket!

Thanks for all the great comics! These should be standard reading for every new player.

[Sereglach]

It's kind of sad to see the first series come to an end. They've been amazing. Hopefully they are picked up as nearly mandatory reading for everyone (especially the new Steam players). Maybe there will be more to come with CW refinements and maybe even advanced stuff later on. Regardless, it's been great reads and a helluva ride.

With all sincerity, thank you, fat4eyes, for doing these, and for doing them as well as you have.

[Poonbahbah]

Just adding my thanks for a great read. Especially the last one of the first set. About time Red got it's act together.

[Fox With A Shotgun]

Oh, one idea that hasn't been covered yet (I think):

Interception. When chasing a mech that is faster than you, do not follow him. Get one teammate to keep chasing him, but go to the other places where he can go. In an open map this usually means casting a dragnet by forming a line with your team, but in maps like HPG where there are a few exits to each area, it means camping or intercepting at the other end. It seems obvious, but I've seen far too many heavies chase locusts instead of camping the other exit.

[Luceyn Terakis]

ArcturusWolf, on 02 November 2015 - 02:42 PM, said:

Hmm, got a couple of ideas.

Missile support

• Good missile support: finds a place where he has the good amount of cover, with good firing lines to most of the map. Stays close enough to the team that lights and mediums can come to help if he gets rushed by lights. Knows not to fire missiles at enemies close to tall cover.
  
• 
  Bad missile support: Uses teammates for cover, or uses cover which has poor firing lines to most of the map, or just one possible target. Continues to fire missiles into walls or tall cover, or at extreme ranges. Often hangs back too far and gets assassinated by enemy lights.

this a LOT. more than a few players think LRM support is sitting at close too 1km and firing the instant they have lock.

• not staying with the group, regardless of "your" range, stay in the group.
  
• firing missiles the instant you have lock is not always best, and usually not at all early game. with the recent velocity changes, it is not as bad, but it takes TIME for you LRMs to land and you can easily lose lock before then, and you wasted ammo.
  
• Knowing the map. If you can tell where they are based on the radar map and knowing the possible cover there, can be the difference between wasting ammo or giving them a headache. I have watched "LRM boating" pilots just blow buildings apart in river city cause they are not paying attention to the targets location vs theirs.
  
• Launch points differ between mechs. they all arc up, but that arc is based on the distance of the target and how it is mounted on the chassis. ie. the king crab launchers fire almost straight up right out of the tubes and will clear nearby terrain. Whereas other mechs like the Centurion launchers will fire perpendicular to the ground for a short distance before arcing up.
  
• Knowing how the LRMs will arc vs distance will allow you to be closer and behind cover still with minimal to no exposure.
  
• Pop-tarting... unlike direct fire weapons, you dont care if crosshairs bounce around when you shoot LRMs, you care about it when it land on them. you just want to launch so they clear terrain.
  
• Sometimes it is good to waste ammo for suppression fire.

[fat4eyes]

Luceyn Terakis, on 10 December 2015 - 08:29 PM, said:

--on missile support--

You're right about LRM support being more complicated than people think. There are already a lot of better guides on LRM support, like this one by Catalina Steiner or this one by Kanajashi.

I've thought about doing an LRM comic but when I tried doing it I found that I was going too deep into loadouts, the lock mechanic, sharing targeting information, altitude and cover and other things that I can't really illustrate well in the comic. So in the end I just didn't do it.

Sereglach, on 09 December 2015 - 03:54 PM, said:

It's kind of sad to see the first series come to an end. They've been amazing. Hopefully they are picked up as nearly mandatory reading for everyone (especially the new Steam players). Maybe there will be more to come with CW refinements and maybe even advanced stuff later on. Regardless, it's been great reads and a helluva ride.

With all sincerity, thank you, fat4eyes, for doing these, and for doing them as well as you have.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and encouragement as well, they really helped. I'm with you in hoping that people read it, I'd like to see more mobile and exciting matches on all tiers.

ArcturusWolf, on 10 December 2015 - 02:36 PM, said:

Oh, one idea that hasn't been covered yet (I think):

Interception. When chasing a mech that is faster than you, do not follow him. Get one teammate to keep chasing him, but go to the other places where he can go. In an open map this usually means casting a dragnet by forming a line with your team, but in maps like HPG where there are a few exits to each area, it means camping or intercepting at the other end. It seems obvious, but I've seen far too many heavies chase locusts instead of camping the other exit.

Yeah I've seen this happen too. I'll probably make one on this soon, thanks for the suggestion.

Edited by fat4eyes, 12 December 2015 - 12:46 AM.

[Nightmare1]

There's also this one for LRMs:

[TercieI]

These are really well done and the conclusion is perfect. Kudos!

[Not A Real RAbbi]

MOAR!

Also, big ups for the pin!

[William Slayer]

Just wanted to add my thanks for you taking the time to make these! Hope they were as fun to make as it has been to read. (Loved that you let Red win that last one!)

[Nero]

More more more more more more.

Fantastic stuff. As everyone else has said, cheers for putting these together. Great way to convey some really useful concepts.

[Jgreeson90]

Thank you very much for this, it breaks the tactics down perfectly.

[PPO Kuro]

This really is a MUST read for all the players. Every fail I saw in the comic is exactly the thing sort of thing I get really annoyed by when playing. I have tried to explain it when playing in PuG's, but because English isn't my native tong, I don't get it across to people. And you know what they say: "one picture is worth a thousand words".

This is so good even that I now incorporate it in my signature, because, really people SHOULD read this post!

Great work!

[deadflight84]

i hear alot of blah blahing about a single "firing line." L shaped ambush is THE actually small unit engagement tactic, not just L shaped ambush but tempo and speed for those whining about "nascarers." its a genuine tactic used effectively in MWO and real life as shown by the German armies BLITZKRIEG tactics in WW2. http://www.mc.edu/ro..._Operations.pdf

Edited by deadflight84, 25 December 2015 - 12:27 AM.

[Fastwind]

hey,rly good stuff except the nascar bit
the most important thing in this game
because the comic doesn't rly show WHY you nascar and why you should ALWAYS nascar
it's about the COUNTERCLOCKWISE movement/FIGHTING,and not so much about overuning the enemy team
since most of the MECH builds in this game are right side heavy weapon loadouts,you wanna do left turns around corners with them,so your main weapons can shot targets around cover while still most of your mech is in cover
for example the yen lo wang with his ac20 mounted in the right arm can shot around a left corner only exposing his arm while most of the mech is in cover
you can't do that on a right corner there you have to expose the entire mech before the ac20 has a clear line of fire in which time you already took several shots to the ct

so pls GET IT IN YOUR HEADS ALWAYS NASCAR

Edited by Fastwind, 28 December 2015 - 02:35 PM.

[Void Angel]

My Shadowhawk and several other 'mechs have their autocannons and/or PPCs

B8hunter, on 05 December 2015 - 02:04 PM, said:

Agreed, now we just have to hope that no toxicity flows in with the steam crowd. Also Great Work Fat4Eyes the comics are amazing.

Nah, most of the toxicity on the "Steam users" was from the jerks from Umad Island trying a smear campaign to scare away new users with misinformation and outright lies. I'm still laughing at their utter failure, so they'll probably slink back to whatever forums where they haven't been banned from endlessly carping about MWO - yet.

ArcturusWolf, on 10 December 2015 - 02:36 PM, said:

Oh, one idea that hasn't been covered yet (I think):

Interception. When chasing a mech that is faster than you, do not follow him. Get one teammate to keep chasing him, but go to the other places where he can go. In an open map this usually means casting a dragnet by forming a line with your team, but in maps like HPG where there are a few exits to each area, it means camping or intercepting at the other end. It seems obvious, but I've seen far too many heavies chase locusts instead of camping the other exit.

This is actually similar to what you should always do when approaching the enemy - don't move toward your target, move off to the side. Approaching your target directly causes the entire team to converge on a single vanishing point, blocking each other's lines of fire, and even allowing a canny enemy to hide from some members of your team behind others. Instead, use your torso twisting to track your target as you move past him at an angle.

Edited by Void Angel, 28 December 2015 - 02:48 PM.

[Sereglach]

deadflight84, on 25 December 2015 - 12:22 AM, said:

i hear alot of blah blahing about a single "firing line." L shaped ambush is THE actually small unit engagement tactic, not just L shaped ambush but tempo and speed for those whining about "nascarers." its a genuine tactic used effectively in MWO and real life as shown by the German armies BLITZKRIEG tactics in WW2.

Frankly, basic ROTC stuff isn't what I'd call an end-all-be-all reference material on squad tactics. Hell, "L shaped ambush" google search quickly turned up an older FM 7-85 reference article link that shows up on the first page: FOUND HERE. Entertainingly enough, it even cites that the L is just a variation of a straight line ambush, or a basic firing line that you get the enemy to walk into.

Yes, some real life tactics do work exceptionally well in games like MWO, but not all of them. Ambushes in MWO can have mixed blessings (proper scouts WILL know where you're at, and the enemy can always choose not to engage you on your terms); and on top of it, the "L" promotes a problem in MWO as not everyone has a clean shot on a focus target, such as a full and straight firing ling has. There are also few places on few maps where the "L" can be fully utilized. That is the reason why a firing line is so heavily touted in MWO.

Regardless, every strategy has its strengths, weaknesses, and counters. The trick is learning them all. Also, speaking as a combat veteran . . . trying to tout any single strategy as an end-all-be-all or THE strategy of choice is the quickest way to a coffin . . . because then the enemy always knows what you're going to do. The same applies with MWO, however the consequences are nowhere near as dire.

Lastly, before you get so snarky or belittling, you should read all the comics on the first page, and the footnotes that go with them. Everything you gripe about and act demeaning over is actually already covered.

[SQW]

Amazing work - useful and easy to understand.
This should a compulsory read for all players. So many pub games devolve into COD with Mechs.

[_Pickle_]

These comics are actually really great resources! Added onto that they are funny and can also be used when the HBS BATTLETECH game is released! Great work on it! Thanks for posting!