BFCL 5 vs 5 AAR Thread

[Crux]

It's that time again folks. Except instead of an 8 vs 8 featuring vehicles and the like, this is a 5 vs 5 infantry only league. TG has three entries - the 3rd, 9th and 21st - the same three teams that took the top three spots in the last season of BFCL.

The opening night had a marque matchup. Last season's champions, the 3rd facing off against the runners-up, the 9th. Special Forces against the Mobile Infantry. Which would count more? Being mobile, or being 'special' (yes we all ride the short bus).

The map was Minsk, and the sides were set. In round 1, the 9th chose to attack as the PAC side. The 3rd was left defending as EU.

Round 1

The 9th wasted no time, rushing quickly towards the main tower on the north side. They sent a barrage of rockets to the tower's top, taking out 3 of the 5 3rd in the process. They hit the building, and capped the flag with demoralizing speed.

Such is the nature of competition play that the 3rd was forced to counter-attack. With only a 3-4 ticket lead, the 3rd could not afford to let time run out in case the 9th did a better job of defending than they did. Hence they took a moment, regathered themselves at the middle flag and push forward. They chose the south side for their attack, and moved into the cover of the buildings there. Quickly rushing onto the flag both inside and outside the building, they managed to cap the flag back, and re-establish the bleed. The 9th attacked again, again coming on the north. But this time they sent someone through the lines to the back flags.

While the 3rd kept control of Front Lines, they lost the middle of the three flags. Crux and Reaper spawned in at the very rear to protect the back, and held off a few small-scale attacks there. It was something of a stalemate. The 3rd had a 40 ticket lead at this point, ~78 to 38. The question is, would that be enough? The 9th settled that for them. After a fending off an attack on Front Lines, the 3rd pushed three to attack the middle flag. They were able to cap it, but in the process the 9th counter-attacked on Front Lines and took it away from them!

With the battle lines consolidated again, the 3rd rushed forward, hoping to catch the 9th at Front Lines before they could reset their defenses. Whether or not they were successful in doing that, they did get enough bodies on the flag to recap it. Now they had bleed going once again. This time they held on long enough to take the round with a final score of 68-0.



Round 2

Both sides now had their target now. The 9th's job was to win 69-0 or better. The 3rd had to get the 9th's ticket count down below 68 for the win. Would the 9th's defense fare better than the 3rd's had?

The 3rd pushed quickly, taking their initial movement on the north side, then switching rapidly to the south. Crux fell to rocket fire briefly, but got revived and the squad hit the flag quickly. They managed to cap the flag and swept the building clean. The score stood at 98-94 in favor of the 3rd.

Now it became a waiting game. There was 27 minutes left on the clock. If time ran out and the ticket margin was less than 68 tickets then the 3rd had their victory. This meant the 9th had no choice but to attack.

At first they waited, hoping for the 3rd to make a foolish and costly attack on the middle flag. The 3rd was willing to be patient however, and set up a forward net of soldiers in the woods west of the tower. Some rocket fire was exchanged, but with little results. Reaper and Crux managed to isolate a couple of the 9th on the south side and cost them another couple of tickets.

Shortly thereafter, the 9th seemed to realize their predicament. They gathered their men and tried a strong push on the southern side. The 3rd fought them off, and regrouped. The 9th tried again on the north, with the same result. This set the pattern for the next 15 minutes of play. The 9th would make careful attacks on one side of the other, and get rebuffed.

As time drew to a close, the match was already decided in the 3rd's favor, but both sides fought on in the spirit of competition. Some fierce volleys of bullets and rockets were exchanged, and several times the 9th managed to get one or two people within the cap radius of the flag. They could not stay alive there however, and eventually the time ran out with the 3rd taking the round with a final score of 78-36.



The match was well played on both sides and hard fought. The 9th played a particularly skillful round on assault!

A good start to the season with a high quality match played in great spirits.

[Anospa]

Great rounds guys, there were some intense moments! I remember being by myself as EU at south Outpost and BZ or Wood was there too, and I went to where the flag is on the 32/64 player map and realized it was behind me and he was getting it neutral! Good times all around, great start to the season I think!

[Augustus Gloop]

Hats tipped to the 9th all around, and I wish it had been 'casted because it sounds like an INTENSE match!

[Crux]

And for anyone who says the Clark RDX is useless... well you've all played with the 9th in our server. You know how good they are.

[Lorax74]

I think the RDX was just the finisher, the rockets, grenades and bullets softened us up quite a bit. On that note, I could not believe I was seeing Clark RDX flying over the hilltops at us, and with such accuracy.

[MasterEditorInChief]

Crux is highly ranked with the Clark RDX. Never underestimate an Aussie and his explosive-compound projecting firearms.

[Crux]

I'm hitting up the BR file right now to get footage of some of the great play from both teams. If I get time, maybe I'll put together a Clark RDX segment in there

[Jakaleel]

Good game!

[Pfeil22]

It was a fun match and my congratulations to the 3rd Special Forces Detachment for a well fought victory.

On a side note, I was very impressed with how tactical game play can be in Battlefield 2142 at the squad level. The game may be set in the future and certainly falls short of being realistic, but basic infantry tactics still rule the battlefield. It was a refreshing break from the chaos found on the Conquest server.

I would encourage anyone who enjoys playing BF2142 to get involved with the BFCL. Both the 8v8 Full Combat and 5v5 Infantry formats take this game to a whole new level of tactical game play.

[Damonte]

I would encourage anyone who enjoys playing BF2142 to get involved with the BFCL. Both the 8v8 Full Combat and 5v5 Infantry formats take this game to a whole new level of tactical game play.

Indeed, one does not need to be part of an IHS to play in the BFCL. It can be a team of anyone who can commit to the schedule.

[Crux]

Honestly last night was probably the most tactically dynamic round of BF2142 I've ever played. My hats off to the 9th for helping make that happen. There was so much going on - feint attacks, flanks. Just watching the BR file for a single hill the whole round was interesting as heck to see the stuff going on there.

Anyways, I put together a brief video. I hope some of the details come out, and it can help to show both some of the madness and the feint/attacking I was talking about. Everyone with a red tag is the 3rd, everyone with a blue tag is the 9th.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P8StsJVd_Y[/media]

[Crux]

Hrm. Watching it at youtube's resolution it doesn't come out so clearly. I might have to do some more recording in closer.

[Anospa]

Aye, as we setup shop in the hills waiting for the 9th in the second round, we started playing completely differently. We started remarking how it was more PR-ish in terms of engagements. We had to do some extreme ammo management due to not having a support kit handy. Sure, we could shoot a guy at the range we were going at for awhile, but less than 4 seconds and he'd be rezzed and moving. I was considering Ped and I staggering a rocket burst on the revive, but just wouldn't be worth it for only 1 ticket, smarter to wait a bit longer.

Haven't had a round anything like that before, very very fun!

[Lorax74]

The staggered rockets at the ranges we were tossing them back and forth were more petty annoyances than anything. At one point, it looked like Anospa and someone else, I didn't catch the name, were just dancing around taunting us.

I have a new appreciation for Minsk and must say that this map has become one of my favorites now. I dread it at anything larger than 6v6 though.

[FYAH29]

The 21st also played a first round match Sunday night, and started the season on a downturn. We played the Surfals/Soc a team we defeated 139-0 during week 9 of the summer 8v8 tournament, but suffered a loss in the 5v5 on Minsk.

First round Surfals/SoC as PAC and 21st as EU on defense: 21st takes the first round
66:44
- We did lose the first flag, frontline faster than we would have liked, they put all 5 players toward the flag. We held for the first couple pushes, and had roughly a 10-15 ticket lead when we setup defense at the middle flag, south outpost. Defense here was tough, the Surfals/SoC did a good job of pushing in in small groups from different points, and kept us busy repelling. They did use a sniper, who did a good job of concealing himself in the trees to the south, and although I don't think he scored any kills, he did keep us from putting our full attention on the repeated pushes toward our flag. Our squadlead, with help from others kept any flank attacks off of monument, and the round ended at the time limit with the 21st holding a tenative 22 ticket lead.

Second round Surfals/SoC as EU and 21st as PAC on offense: 21st lost the second round 6:46
- Although risky, we tried to run 2 stealths from the beginning. Our frontal attack on the tower at frontline hadn't gone as well as we hoped in practice, so we started with 2 squad leaders, 1 north, 1 south (as a decoy), running toward south outpost, with a 3 man assault squad pushing the tower with plans to stay alive and keep the OpFor busy. I was caught near the walker spawn on the south by 2 of their members who setup in the trenches to the south, I then proceeded to join the assault force. I'm fuzzy on the details at this point because I spent most of the rest of the round at Frontline after we took it. Once we stopped the bleed their ticket lead was roughly 15 tickets, so we still had the overall lead in the match. Credit to the Surfals/SoC for continually pushing toward either Frontline or Monument for the rest of the round slowly moving their ticket lead to 30 tickets. At this point we had to attack, and possibly cap-out to win. We found ourselves pushing toward South Outpost, the exact opposite scenario for both teams from the first round. In the end the Surfals/SoC outplayed us on defense, and we lost the round.

BFCL is great fun, the 21st are involved to hopefully improve our small squad tactics, and continue to enjoy 2142 one year in. The 5v5 infantry is a different game than the 8v8, and we look forward to playing the rest of the tournament.

Surfals/SoC won the match by 18 tickets