TacMod Sunday July 30, 2006

[Coridon]

Some really fantastic rounds, best TG has to offer!! A++++++++ !!!!! Highly recommended!!!

OK, ok..even though 1stMIP was generally on the losing side we had a wonderful night.

When it was all said and done I think I played just about every kit, from sniper on Checkpoint Abadan to medic on Inishail to engineer on Karkand 2, etc. etc. Heck, I even flew the attack helo on ATOM and registered ZERO kills, hahaha...

I mean, obviously it displayed zero kills but shhhhhhh, I actually don't think I killed anything!! Mosely and I were just zooming around flying loop-di-loops and looking sexy doing it...

Anyway, probably the highlight of the night was USMC getting run off the map on KARKAND 2 in the first five minutes, having the round restarted, and the USMC pulling out a win!

1stMIP was defending TV station and we held it for most of the second round but lost it momentarily. Everyone in the squad was dead but me (SL) and I laid low in the buildings north of the CP until the rest of the squad respawned on me. We started taking fire from the roof so we tossed smoke all the way to the base of the TV station and made a mad dash suffering light casualties that our medics quickly remedied.

We cleared the TV station floor by floor and recaptured the flag, but I caught this screenshot showing that we are, in fact, our worst enemy...



Great games, and good to see a lot of new names on the server. I noticed quite a few of them were kicked for being "squadless" but I hope they figure out the error of their ways and return in the future...

[SgtDuke]

Yeah, I had a good time throughout the rounds tonight. In addition to the TV station defense on Karkand 2, Inishail was also great with asch commanding China, coordinating multi-squad attacks, and sending me backup whenever I screamed bloody murder that my squad was under heavy attack. When there's no commander you can sometimes perform some very light coordination using team chat, but with a commander it's multitudes better and really takes the whole experience to the next level. Kudos to everyone who steps up and does a great service for their team and the community. I know I need to do it more.

[Santa]

inishail was great. My squad setup north of the power station and defended the city area for the first half or so of the map. We spread out and used cover very well, killing (not wounding) many more of them than they killed of us. After a while i had to take a piss, and when i got back something happened and we had the power station. *shrugs*. So we pretty much defended there the rest of the round, bored off our asses because nobody likes to attack the power station. Cowards.

Mashtuur was ridonkulous. I was in a sniper squad and for the first half of the map the 3 of us put most of our firepower on the power station. At first we all setup on the south end and got some decent kills, but the entire northern section was free for them to roam about. Eventually i went north of the power station while the other snipers were south. I moved from rooftop to rooftop and they didnt seem to know what was hittin em. If i hit em from the north, theyd take cover south and get hit from the other snipers. Woulda been perfect if we could have gotten a triangle going between us, but its hard to sneak 3 people around a tank. Rest of the round i stayed between the mosque and hill area, helping out where i could. Interesting thing about tacmod is that its actually made me more of a careful sniper than an aggressive one. You absolutly have to go for headshots almost all the time, which means you have to do it from a distance to allow yourself the time.

[asch]

I was in Jayminds squad when Ishinail started. We were quickly down to just two flags. From looking at the map, it appeared we had four squads defending two flags. Eventually a squad would move out on the assault, but it's very difficult for one squad to assault CPs in the open terrain.

It was a good 1/3 of the way into the map when I stepped up to CO. We were down CPs and bleeding badly. Eventually we were able to establish some semblance of control and occupy three or four flags... but in the end it just wasn't enough.

---

On Karkand 2 I knew most squads were going to spawn east so I created a WEST DEFNS squad... but before my squad filled out, had kits assigned and organized, there was a helo on the rooftop. That was rather annoying to see the blitz occur on this map similar to what happens on Karkand. In a matter of five minutes the USMC were down to one flag and then scrambled for the next couple of minutes... until I restarted the map.

On the restart the squads didn't have to wait for map load time and were quickly ready to defend. Two squads were at the TV station so I moved my squad out, trying to hold gas station & service station. We kept watching the transport helo fly overhead to the TV station. Eventually the MEC captured the eastern flags and started their move west on ground. We saw some action at the Factory, Gas Station and Service Station.... and the flags went back and forth.

I was surprised that the MEC didn't appear to be spawning in mass on the western CPs. Once they establish themselves they can infest the west and drive the USMC east. Once that is done it's over for the USMC as they get squeezed. Luckily that didn't happen and the distraction we caused at the Mosque was enough to split the MEC up.

It was good to see the chopper give the MEC a fighting chance and it didn't end up in a stalemate on the river.... now the MEC just need to figure out an effective way to use the chopper. Hopefully with tac mod 1.4 and the 7th chopper seat we'll see a pilot dedicated to moving squads around.

---

On ATOM I tried to set the squad up on defense at level one. We spread ourselves out too far and didn't keep within the capture zone. The USMC made it by us and captured level one. From that point on it was difficult to push them back.

I tried taking my squad up through the hills but the USMC had their recon stationed up there. We spent a good few minutes dodging bombs and helo strikes through the forest. The medics did a great job of keeping everyone up. We met several counter assaults up there.

---

I was going to call it a night and had shut down... but saw that the server still had 30+ players on Mashtuur, so I decided to jump back in. The MEC were down to the two western flags and under constant assault by the USMC. At one point it looked like all three squads were defending one flag. It was pretty chaotic as the MEC were scrambling to capture another flag.

---

I still believe the Tac Mod isn't seeing it's full potential when played without a CO. It's much more difficult to assault with just one squad. The CO coordination is a must on some maps for a team to have a chance.

[BigGaayAl]

First I'd like to congragulate MIP for their defence on the SE flag on inishail. You guys had that flag under control.

Originally Posted by asch

I was surprised that the MEC didn't appear to be spawning in mass on the western CPs. Once they establish themselves they can infest the west and drive the USMC east. Once that is done it's over for the USMC as they get squeezed. Luckily that didn't happen and the distraction we caused at the Mosque was enough to split the MEC up.
-

Well that was just plain luck. As You know muslims have to go pray (while looking east) several times a day. Due to the restart, alot of our squads had preying duty. That is why they proceded from the west side, to the river, to wash their hands, arms, feet, head and hair. Once they had done the ceremonial washing, they proceded to the mosque for some devout praying.

Originally Posted by asch

On ATOM I tried to set the squad up on defense at level one. We spread ourselves out too far and didn't keep within the capture zone. The USMC made it by us and captured level one. From that point on it was difficult to push them back.

I tried taking my squad up through the hills but the USMC had their recon stationed up there. We spent a good few minutes dodging bombs and helo strikes through the forest. The medics did a great job of keeping everyone up. We met several counter assaults up there.

I was CO on that map. Santa's squad pushed the defenders back with a full on assault, as my plan was to have the transport chopper take airfield, and then reverse the direction of battle. The transport attack however was unsuccesful beause a) airfield was well defended b) the transport had to fly too lang and spawned too slow (maybe SL should never spawn at BH but send someone to get it thus not removing them from the battlefield for too long). Then the squad assigned to the BH joined santa's squad on the ground and pushed China further back to the airfiel flags.

Several people followed (possibly unusual) orders very well and it was the most fun I've had CO ing (even if I thought erroneously that the zoomfunction had been taken out of 1.3).


Kudos to:
+Squad one - for taking the BH even though it was tedious.
+Santa's squad - for killing alot
+the jet squad - for forcing me to use him by designating specific targets. For example I'd say "attack this tank, fly in from the east to get to him" to see it destroyed on my zoomed map seconds later
+The chopper squad - For following orders to cover Santa's squad (later squad one) which they did extremely well as far as I know from looking on the map.
+The most effective one man recon squad ever (someone with viper in their name but there are two of those);
he posted up all by himself, cutting of the route ash mentioned. He spotted squads while they were still fart away from the flag.

In the end, one squad was trying to go up north through the hills and trees. They were spotted by my super sneaky recon squad. I then proceded at the jet's request to indicate attacking waypoints on that squad continuously as the moved on. The squad did GREAT staying alive as I could see from the commander view. But I felt bad for them after a while because I've never seen a squad get pummeled so hard by a jet & a chopper. I now believe this was Ash's squad. That was pretty intense for me as I suppose it must have been for that squad on the ground.

I'd like to add a Tacmod tip for functioning better with your CO. If you see some one take CO, say hi as you would with someone joining your squad, just to let him know you can talk and such. Then on regular intervals, tell him what is happening, what you are doing about it and what you need. Also general observations of how the battle is working out are very useful. In vanilla the CO as more of a steering roll due to his superior intel. On tacmod it is more fun to co, but you aren't steering as much as coordinating. This requires much more input from the SL's, and yesterday i regularly lacked input, then proceding to ask the squads what they are doing etc.
Don't EVER leave a cp without telling the CO. Many people complain about not having a CO, less people make good use of them.

In summary. Great night of tacmod that inspired me to write way too much here. The flag logic is ACE as I feel they nicely portray the flow of the battle.

PS: sorry for talking to answering to the wrong squad sometimes (mostly santa's). I tend to screw up which squad I have selected.

[RocketPunch]

The one round I played was pretty fun as an SM in Jayminds squad. Had some good fights here and there.

Then came, Karkand 2 (The Lightning Edition). It was ended before it even begins, and that pretty much ended my TacMod enthusiasm for the nite; So I went pubbing for some unorganized mindless granade fest instead.

[SgtDuke]

Originally Posted by RocketPunch

Then came, Karkand 2 (The Lightning Edition). It was ended before it even begins, and that pretty much ended my TacMod enthusiasm for the nite; So I went pubbing for some unorganized mindless granade fest instead.

You missed "take 2" which was a great round!

[Chappie]

Yea,

Take 2 of Karkand 2 was a very fun round...but I must say I almost quit for the night on three or four different occasions due to the sniping of Santa and his buddy snipers on Mashtuur...what a PIA!!!! Very frustrating indeed...

Great job by Santa and his crew....

Chappie

[AMosely]

How many times did MIP take down the incoming chopper at the Karkand2 TV Station? 5 times? More? I sure witnessed some heinous wrecks up there. I had a real moment staring into the gunner's eyes, spraying the fuselage with SAW fire as the thing glided by on fire. Another good wreck was gleaning it off the surface of the roof, the exploded hulk dragging two MIPs with it... not sure if that was intentional, but it did kill some of us.

That TV station in TacMod is a very pivotal flag... with 8 floors of radius, the roof and two points of ground-level entry, it makes for some heated exchanges!

[Wimpinator]

Originally Posted by AMosely

How many times did MIP take down the incoming chopper at the Karkand2 TV Station? 5 times? More? I sure witnessed some heinous wrecks up there. I had a real moment staring into the gunner's eyes, spraying the fuselage with SAW fire as the thing glided by on fire. Another good wreck was gleaning it off the surface of the roof, the exploded hulk dragging two MIPs with it... not sure if that was intentional, but it did kill some of us.

That TV station in TacMod is a very pivotal flag... with 8 floors of radius, the roof and two points of ground-level entry, it makes for some heated exchanges!

Our SL IRS Agent really wanted TV station so we kept pushing for it wit the Chopper. You should have been in there with people screaming "Bail out" followed by no 'chutes, we have to land". The closest I came to making on the roof happened when IRS yelled "Bail out" and I jump and landed on the roof as the chopper exploded. The chopper landed on my fragile head and killed me. Very intense. You guys did an outstanding job of defending that one. Another squad fianlly took it later in the round.

[Beatnik]

Originally Posted by asch

I still believe the Tac Mod isn't seeing it's full potential when played without a CO. It's much more difficult to assault with just one squad. The CO coordination is a must on some maps for a team to have a chance.

Yeah that hits the nail on the head there. It's much tougher to assault in the Tac Mod, and even an assaulting squad getting the jump on a defending squad and getting a couple quick kills usually isn't enough to give the assaulting squad a solid advantage on a CP. Your stepping up on Inishail is a prime example of the difference between no CO and having a CO in game - PLA did much better the second half than the first half of the game, largely due to coordinated assaults between squads.

Had a good night overall in the mod last night. The instaflip of flags is still extremely frustrating and seems to demand that defenders stay stuck inside a flags cap zone instead of engage in action away from flags, lest they be instaflipped by one guy who sneaks in behind them, but overall there were some great games.

[jmaker]

I'm not down on the instcap of the flags. Beatnik said it perfect, you can't defend away from the flag. You have to always be inside the zone. I saw that happen a couple of times last night. Either in my squad or in others. We would be defending outside the radius and the next thing you know the flag is turned.

[Wimpinator]

Sometimes the "lay of the land" demands that the defending squad be away from the flag. I have also had the "insta-cap' happen to me a couple of times. It can be really annoying.

[SgtDuke]

The "insta-cap" is going away in the next version. An uncontested full squad will be able to raise a flag in a reasonable amount of time while it will take quite awhile for a single player.

[asch]

Originally Posted by jmaker

I'm not down on the instcap of the flags. Beatnik said it perfect, you can't defend away from the flag. You have to always be inside the zone. I saw that happen a couple of times last night. Either in my squad or in others. We would be defending outside the radius and the next thing you know the flag is turned.

I have a sneaky suspicion that will be changed in the next release.

Edit: looks like duke beat me to the punch.