flail129 wrote:
I just had a few thoughts about this. The concept of the game is squad level tactics, and I think EA has made a good decision. Prior to the patch, squads could run rampant, which just turns the game into an Unreal Tournament....run fast...shoot everything that moves. The patch is going to enhance the role of the Commander in strategizing and success will now depend on Squad Leaders actually listening to the Commander.
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Could you help me with a strategy then? I often scratched my head because of this commander mumbo-jumbo even with the previous patches, but 1.3 poses some new, bold, interesting questions for upcoming clanwars.
We're MEC, defending against USMC on Karkand 8vs8. 16 map size, which means we have 3 flags to defend, 1 tank and 1 vodnik, while USMC has a uncap, 1 tank, 1 APC and a HMMWV. I'd like to keep all 3 flags under our control so that ticket bleed continues to hurt them.
I can count on 7 men, because commander has a lot of work in his command screen. One of those 7 will be in tank (going against tank and APC), another one will be in jeep (anti inf, c4 against armor). So that gives me 5 men to split on 3 flags. Should I try to put up a strong defense line on Hotel? Yeah, it would be great, if only USMC agreed to attack Hotel first. But those sneaky bastards often drive past Hotel to Square or even OMG OMG Market - our main flag with commander toys and vehicle spawns.
Maybe it would be better if I split them, 2 on each flag - hey, they can even make the squads!!! One squadleader and one squadmember. SM will be antitank and he'll stop those two armored vehicles like nothing. SL will be a medic - USMC won't shoot at him because of Geneve convention and SM will be able to respawn on him even if the flag turned to white. If only the USMC would be fair and wouldn't attack that flag with everything they got (5 men, tank and APC).
OK, it won't work. Maybe, if we leave them the first flag and concentrate defenses on other 2. I have 3 men on each, attacked by 5. As there are more of them than us, their SL can be hidden in the back, respawning other 4 as necessary. Or even better, APC driver as SL, respawning all 5 of them. Our spawnpoints aren't safe because everyone knows where they are and it's not hard to cover them. So we definitely need a hidden SL that will respawn his 2 men, that will promptly get slaughtered by those 5 USMCs.
The rest of troops can come to help from the other flag with a jeep (jay for vehicle drop). Maybe the tank and ATs will miss it. No sense in leaving someone on that empty flag - even if he makes a squad the others won't be able to quickly join him if USMC decides to go for both flags together.
So, what should I do? Bomb them with jeeps? Push the "Surrender" button?
Before patch 1.3 MEC had some chances to win on Karkand, but now it looks sad, very sad. In the petition we were asking EA to make the "squad hopping fix" a server option if they really have to. Automatically enabled on ranked servers, whatever, we don't care about that, just don't break our toys.
Thanks for listening to us, EA.
BTW, don't think the map balance isn't screwed on public play - try playing Dalian or Wake as USMC against two somewhat skilled pilots. It was bad before and it's much, much worse now.
