8 replies to this topic

[Sandpit]

I've done many guides over the years but never one specifically for Marik. I figured it was time to put a little energy into helping Marik and wanted to put together some tips for CW. Keep in mind this isn't a "complete" list and I'm trying to keep it general so that regardless of wave, mode, or mech a player will have good basic information as CW is completely different from Pub drops and I'm giving some general tips we've noticed from our drops over the past week or so.

If you're facing clans and you're up against anything but one of the top tier 12mans, get aggressive. Don't stomp blindly ahead and leeroy it, but get under 300 meters. Anything they have setup to "brawl" with, make those mechs brawl.

What I've seen most commonly in clan matches especially is the coordination of lurms. Their lurm lines tend to be a bit closer to the front lines as they aren't worried about you getting under the min range. Many times their forces are split. If your scouts and/or drop caller calls a location for their lurm lines and you can get in there to disrupt the fire support, do it. As soon as our big guys can come out from behind cover, it changes the fight dramatically.

Drop leader and battle comms. Whoever has volunteered to drop lead is nervous, trying to keep youe team "happy, and dealing with a lot of people who have a lot of different ideas. Please remember, a lot of us are still learning the CW maps and grid locations. The middle of a friefight is not the time to discuss hindsight

Grid locations. I hear "I've got enemy mechs over here", which is almost immediately responded to with 4-5 "Where is here?". Always give grid locations. The other 11 guys on your team don't know where "here" is or "over there" or "just behind that hill". The more specific location, the better. E5 is a large square with terrain in it. SHouting "E5" gives your team a general location, but "In the valley at the back of E5" is much better if possible.

Focusing targets. The first wave is almost never an issue. As people start dying and having to reinforce, people often fall off from calling targets. Always call targets and damage reports. If that cheetah has 2 red legs and you don't let anyone know, people don't focus those legs as much. This is especially helpful against ECM mechs and mechs under ECM cover because you can't target them. Letting everyone know "The Hellbie in E5 left torso open" lets me know that if I run into a Hellbie in E5, I want to immediately start focusing on that left torso.

Target designations. Always pay attention to target designations. If you're mid-way through the big 2nd wave push and you see enemy mechs with a designation below "L", those should be your priorities many times because they are the enemy first wave, more than likely banged up, and are just trying to distract so fresh reinforcements can stay healthier longer.

Pay attention to mini-map. This should be second nature to everyone. It tells you enemy location, friendly location, and the direction everyone is facing. If you see a teammate in a grid location and see enemy mechs slipping up on their left, being able to say "You mechs in E5 turn to your left" can mean the difference between winning and losing.

That's it for now, I just wanted to get a few tips out there for everyone based on some of the things we've run into dropping in CW as a coordinated PUG.
GL&GH

[Karl Marlow]

A disturbing trend I've noticed here in the last week is for the dropcallers to instruct the team to ignore enemy mechs and only fight objectives. This can work but most of the time it doesn't. It isn't a case of someone failing to say "There is a mechs in E5 to your left" Its a matter of the drop caller telling us to ignore said mech while it proceeds to pick off a couple of us. I've had a real mixed bag of CW drops During and after the Tukkayyid event. More often than not I'm watching Marik suffer brutal flanks then trying to come from behind when, on wave 3, we finally decide to fight enemy mechs after our heavies are gone.

I agree with Sandpit. Push into Brawl range but fight the enemy. Also there comes a point where stopping to regroup is only letting the enemy reposition themselves. Once you commit to a push you need to push. Faltering or calling for constant regrouping gets people in the vanguard killed.

Edited by ThomasMarik, 12 December 2015 - 11:29 PM.

[SovietArmada]

ThomasMarik, on 12 December 2015 - 11:28 PM, said:

A disturbing trend I've noticed here in the last week is for the dropcallers to instruct the team to ignore enemy mechs and only fight objectives.

It's Ignore mechs but dont show your back to them. Meaning that while you are objective focused, you are still aware of your position in relation to the enemy, and fight through the mechs you have to.

Also, if the wave is died out and maybe 2 or 3 guys left in there, given the situation you may have them deal as much objective dmg as possible before going down, as opposed to fighting it out.

[Karl Marlow]

SovietArmada, on 12 December 2015 - 11:41 PM, said:

It's Ignore mechs but dont show your back to them. Meaning that while you are objective focused, you are still aware of your position in relation to the enemy, and fight through the mechs you have to.

Also, if the wave is died out and maybe 2 or 3 guys left in there, given the situation you may have them deal as much objective dmg as possible before going down, as opposed to fighting it out.

Yeah...That's how it should work that is not how it is being called. At beast the drop caller will tell the guy in the back to turn around and delay the 4 or so mechs the we just walked past now blowing through our back lines. Meanwhile the rest of us rush headlong into the firing line the rest of the enemy has put up since they all know where we are coming from. The only other time I've seen this tactic employed is with the clans who generally are faster and are more survivable.

We aren't being told to engage the enemy as we push to Omega. We are being told to get to Omega as fast as possible while at best just taking pot shots at enemies. Whats even more fun is I've been in a couple drops where this was called in Counter Attack mode. Half the team calls him on it while the other half blindly follows the drop caller. It's a bust of a drop either way

Edited by ThomasMarik, 12 December 2015 - 11:52 PM.

[Sandpit]

ThomasMarik, on 12 December 2015 - 11:28 PM, said:

A disturbing trend I've noticed here in the last week is for the dropcallers to instruct the team to ignore enemy mechs and only fight objectives. This can work but most of the time it doesn't. It isn't a case of someone failing to say "There is a mechs in E5 to your left" Its a matter of the drop caller telling us to ignore said mech while it proceeds to pick off a couple of us. I've had a real mixed bag of CW drops During and after the Tukkayyid event. More often than not I'm watching Marik suffer brutal flanks then trying to come from behind when, on wave 3, we finally decide to fight enemy mechs after our heavies are gone.

I agree with Sandpit. Push into Brawl range but fight the enemy. Also there comes a point where stopping to regroup is only letting the enemy reposition themselves. Once you commit to a push you need to push. Faltering or calling for constant regrouping gets people in the vanguard killed.

This stemmed from some of the matches we had in Tuk. We found that just about anything except a very well-organized team, or team of just really good players, if they would split their forces we were usualloy able to shift, roll up on their lurms with a couple ECMs and decent firepower and tie those lurms up letting the big guys come out and play. One side or the other is going to have collapse and igve up rear armors of some kind.

We also had some success loading up extremely heavy on the first wave, and rolling right up on them. If they weren't weighted up it was rough on them. Keep in mind this is Clan CW drops, not pub drops. Pub drops are a completely different animal, but if you're going to call a pub drop or someone is calling yours, the above rules still apply.

IS vs IS or IS vs Mixed or Mixed vs. Mixed are all different as well lol

[Appogee]

The thing I've noticed during my most recent tour of duty under the Marik banner is that Marik PUGs lose all their Mechs by the 20 minute mark.

So many times, the kill count and objectives looked like we were in front ... then I check the pilot roster but discover that half our team has lost all their Mechs, and it's now 6 v 12. Inevitable loss ensues as even 6 of the best pilots with two Mechs remaining cannot hold back two waves of 12 opponents.

End of round screen shows most of the team did less than 1000 damage, some as low as 400. It's disgraceful.


Message to Marik PUGs

1. Don't peek Clans and trade over long distances. Clans outrange you unless you are using one of the few quirked chassis with ERLLs. By peeking, you give them a chance to alpha you and cool down repeatedly, while you are barely scratching them.

2. Move from cover to cover. Preserve your armor for closer range encounters. Sometimes, that requires you to be patient and make them come to you. Sometimes you don't need to walk into their firing line and killbox.

3. Stick with the rest of the team. Don't derp off in the direction of the enemy guns 4 times in a row and be permadead within 15 minutes. Stick with the team, focus fire on the Clanner closest to you, and press the advantage while he's hot and unable to shoot back. You can outbrawl most Clan Mechs if you pick your moment. If you peek them, you are just giving them the advantage.

4. Don't do sub 500 damage and then blame "Clan Tech OP". IS now has the equipment to beat the Clans. But you have to play to your Mech's strengths. (See above.)

5. If you're not prepared to do 1000 damage in a CW match, stop playing CW. Hone your skills in PUGlandia quick matches, and come back when you're able to step up and be a contributing team member in CW. You can and will get better. CW is not the place to be learning basic Mech skills.

Edited by Appogee, 13 December 2015 - 02:52 AM.

[Zordicron]

ThomasMarik, on 12 December 2015 - 11:50 PM, said:

Yeah...That's how it should work that is not how it is being called. At beast the drop caller will tell the guy in the back to turn around and delay the 4 or so mechs the we just walked past now blowing through our back lines. Meanwhile the rest of us rush headlong into the firing line the rest of the enemy has put up since they all know where we are coming from. The only other time I've seen this tactic employed is with the clans who generally are faster and are more survivable.

We aren't being told to engage the enemy as we push to Omega. We are being told to get to Omega as fast as possible while at best just taking pot shots at enemies. Whats even more fun is I've been in a couple drops where this was called in Counter Attack mode. Half the team calls him on it while the other half blindly follows the drop caller. It's a bust of a drop either way

I wanted to comment on this-
I have also seen the opposite, where people are almost angry some one suggests hitting omega before there is a substantial kill lead in counter attack.

While i would never say Omega should be the focus of a wave(push), in the case where there is for instance, a failed wave... or maybe a better way to say it is the current wave is peetering out- there is a good opportunity for the last 2-3 mechs alive in the base to nail omega for good dmg. The alternative might be crash those three mechs into an enemy wave of ten.

basically, there are times when it is an advantage to "use up" the last bits of a wave to put a huge dent in omega before the enemy sniffs them out and finishes them off. Having omega destroyed is always an advantage, it means the team can focus on advantageous position 100% and not worry about getting in there before time expires.

Lots of players see counter attack in black and white "kill first!!, omega is worthless!!" type of thing. If/when you understand how important it is to have a numbers advantage in a wave, it becomes a lot less black and white on how to utilize those few last holdouts in the base while the other 8-9 of your team are dropping fresh and regrouping a long ways out.

[Sandpit]

Eldagore, on 13 December 2015 - 04:33 PM, said:

I wanted to comment on this-
I have also seen the opposite, where people are almost angry some one suggests hitting omega before there is a substantial kill lead in counter attack.

While i would never say Omega should be the focus of a wave(push), in the case where there is for instance, a failed wave... or maybe a better way to say it is the current wave is peetering out- there is a good opportunity for the last 2-3 mechs alive in the base to nail omega for good dmg. The alternative might be crash those three mechs into an enemy wave of ten.

basically, there are times when it is an advantage to "use up" the last bits of a wave to put a huge dent in omega before the enemy sniffs them out and finishes them off. Having omega destroyed is always an advantage, it means the team can focus on advantageous position 100% and not worry about getting in there before time expires.

Lots of players see counter attack in black and white "kill first!!, omega is worthless!!" type of thing. If/when you understand how important it is to have a numbers advantage in a wave, it becomes a lot less black and white on how to utilize those few last holdouts in the base while the other 8-9 of your team are dropping fresh and regrouping a long ways out.

Prime example is a CW drop we just had. The kill count would swing because we were defending. We would be ahead and when their reinforcements hit and started taking out our banged up mechs, it would shift to them. Some would start getting antsy at this thinking we were behind. We were actually ahead because we had more fresh mechs than they did and once we "cleaned up" the remnants of the previous wave, we would go back up 10+ on the kill count.

I'm watching the clock and can tell at 8 minutes we're getting ready to face a heavy push as it's the last viable push they'll make. Sure enough, they spend another minute waiting to their last dropship and push with all the weight they have. We start dipping on the kill count again and it's like wrangling cats as players think we're actually losing. We kept everyone grouped and covered and when they finally pushed at 3 minutes, we rolled them up with the last wave of reinforcements after their big push put them ahead on count because they simply didn't have enough time to make another push.

It's near impossible to come up with a "one size fits all" strategy. Drop decks, mode, etc. all factor in along with clock, objectives, and such as well. It takes a lot to learn those intricacies and again why I stress, always be nice to your drop leaders lol. We all make mistakes and it's a learning experience and curve, all of CW really is.

[multisoul]

just one objection:
instead of focusing mech sniper designated e.g. "C"'
position yourself in cover from him and kill mech designated "FF"
thus leaving the sniper "C" all alone with his other 3 mechs while "FF'' has lost his last mech leaving nr. advantage to us. because even if its his first drop "C" may still be healthy. then he can cry how he did 3000 damage and his team still lost

Edited by multisoul, 14 December 2015 - 03:04 AM.