PR 2/10: Hills, Valley, Train

[aculle01]

Good games tonight minus the lag and apparently short tempers of some of the players. Anyways, played Hills of Chinese Name, Mao Valley and a small bit of Ghost Train before the server crashed. On Hills my squad was led by Gunjunkie as we stormed up the West side. For a good portion of the round the fighting took place all along the ridge and occasionally spilled into the woods on the other side as the Chinese would try to flank us as we pushed along the ridge line. Us Brits finally secured all of the flags along the ridge and quickly took forest CP and turned our attention towards the Magazine. The round was all but over after we were able to breach the fortification on top of the hill.

As Santa said, having the squadleader place a rally point is essential and this map highlights this as if we died without a rally point placed we would've had to hike it back from the starting point. The Rally point also allows the SL to get into the action without having to worry about staying alive to keep the spawn open.

Mao Valley saw me in Coridon's squad as we defended the Supply Depot as the Chinese. The action started when we spotted shadows moving through the bamboo forest to the north like ghosts. In an instant tracers flashing back and forth as the USMC hit us from the North and North East. A couple of times we were pushed to the back of the Supply Depot but were able to hold on just enough to gain back our position and clear out any opposition. Cor planned ahead and sneaked out to the north and placed an emergency rally point in case our flag fell so we could immediately regroup and hit the CP as if nothing happened. We were eventually pushed off the flag with the help of some untimely TK's I believe. Coridon's plan worked however and we were able to retake the CP not long after losing it. The lag was really noticeable for this round.

Ghost Train was the sight for the highlight of the night if not the highlight of the year so far. Cor had us move along the East side of the map. We crossed the river to the east of the rope bridge without incident. The plan was to setup a defense here while the action unfolded to our East at the main bridge. It appeared as though the fighting was unfolding at the bridge as it usually does so Cor had us begin to move towards the North Bridge CP to capture it from behind. Right as we were about to move we spotted a British squad moving towards the rope bridge. Instead of firing into the mist we allowed them to reach the rope bridge. With the squad on the bridge Santa and I opened up with the dual support guns. It was a sight to behold. It might have been the lag but the guys stuck on the bridge didn't know what to do as we unloaded upon them from the river bank. Textbook example of when to hold your fire and allow the enemy to pass until you have the best possible position. We would ambush another British Squad later as we defended North Bridge. The server crashed shortly after. Maybe it just couldn't handle our awesomeness.

A few tweaks and PR is gold. Its hard to believe that there is still another release on the horizon.

[Santa]

That bridge ambush was amazing. We were just hiding in the bushes and someone spotted a full squad no more than 20 yards away and smartly didnt fire. Coridon asked if we had been spotted and we replied with a no. So a few of us follow behind and waited for about 5 of them to be on the narrow rope bridge. The following was a hilarious massacre.

[Lucky Shot]

So you drop a rally point at one side of the flag (75 meters away), can they still spawn on you as SL? If that's the case, you could set up the rally point on one side of the flag and sneak the SL to the opposite side. Just add water and you have instant and continuous crossfire.

Lucky Shot

[ednos]

Originally Posted by Lucky Shot

Just add water and you have instant and continuous crossfire.

If by crossfire you mean teamkilling.

[troublesome4u]

Originally Posted by Lucky Shot

So you drop a rally point at one side of the flag (75 meters away), can they still spawn on you as SL? If that's the case, you could set up the rally point on one side of the flag and sneak the SL to the opposite side. Just add water and you have instant and continuous crossfire.

Lucky Shot

Yes they can still spawn on the squad leader.

[gunjunkie]

I don't get out of my spaceship much but I had fun games tonight. Thanks to all who squadded up with me. I'm really liking the changes they've done to PR.

The hill fort map is a lot of fun, we had some really good firefights in the forest, and some really good hustles to defend rear flags. When we finally broke through and every British squad was rushing on the PLA fort at once, well, it looked really cool from my perspective...

I think intelligent placement of the rally point is going to be key in terms of how games of PR flow. It gives you a lot of flexibility as an SL.

[BigGaayAl]

Originally Posted by Santa

That bridge ambush was amazing. We were just hiding in the bushes and someone spotted a full squad no more than 20 yards away and smartly didnt fire. Coridon asked if we had been spotted and we replied with a no. So a few of us follow behind and waited for about 5 of them to be on the narrow rope bridge. The following was a hilarious massacre.

I was too scared to fire; the atmosphere got to me. It was a rough night for that box of chips we call the "server". I was glad to get in MIP squad with my brother Ghostdog. He's a real good player but he needs to be 'turned' froom the darkside of Pwnage.

Any carrier maps are sure gonna need a lot of admining since gameplay usually collapses on them.

Squad leaders need to focus more on rally points and apc's. They are to important to go without.


I say Rally points are the new flags.

I wouldn't always attach more importance to the flag I'm on. The important thing is positioning; " I lost one flag, but I'm still halfway down the map. They WILL rush off. I will get it back and they will have to come back from the flag they were attacking."

By the way what is with the server? Is it simply faults in the maps? A possible cpu shortage at the server? Random bugs like the rover on the map with destructible buildings (too bad that map rocks). Any word?

[Coridon]

Originally Posted by aculle01

We would ambush another British Squad latter as we defended North Bridge. The server crashed shortly after. Maybe it just couldn't handle our awesomeness.

Things were unfolding smashingly on Ghost Train before the server crash. I did what Lucky mentioned, placed the "rally point" on one side of the flag and circled around to the north undetected. The real problem with this is the CPs have to be spread out (rally point can't be placed within 75 meters of any flag...this was next to impossible on Hills of Hamyong!!!). E-male did a chopper insertion at the Tunnel flag and once we capped North Bridge I think he was going to be able to turn that flag but then the server crashed at that point. It would have been three flags captured by PLA in about a 15 second time frame (South Bridge, North Bridge, Tunnel and an assault underway at the British NE flag...the one with the pagoda). Play your cards right and you could set up to zip through the flags, capping 2-4 in near unison, which makes placing rally points while on defense that much more crucial.

I thought about the crossfire thing, too, and hope it can be pulled off. Inishail should be ripe for this; the flags are a lot farther apart than you think!

Al, glad to have GhostDog aboard. The rounds he was with us were some stinkers, though. Hills of Hamyong we had a couple of "vocal" guest players that wanted to drive the squad from the back seat the entire round, and the CPs on the west of the map are too close together to place a rally point successfully unless you do it at the very beginning of the round. Lesson learned.

This mod is outstanding if you get the right mix of people together and disregard the server crashes (lag/crashing was a lot better after John did a hard reboot on the server, BTW). In fact, after the hard reboot I think everything ran smooth until a known bug on the "Heldman" map caused the server to crash.

Al's stressing the rally points really are important. I haven't messed around with the APCs yet, but I realize that even on defense it is critical that you set a rally point at a prime location so you can counterattack immediately should your flag fall. The rally points are also great for the mere fact that a SL doesn't always need to play things so cautiously; he can lead the fight more regularly without always steering clear of the hottest action.

[BigGaayAl]

Originally Posted by Coridon

Hills of Hamyong we had a couple of "vocal" guest players that wanted to drive the squad from the back seat the entire round,

Lol yeah they were bad. It was better after I had blocked them.