Arithea

Back to the African theater. The EU has been ousted from Europe and has now set up defenses in northern Africa to fend off the PAC assault from Italy.

So, as EU, how do you defend the Suez Canal from the impending PAC invasion? Do you defend the Oil Station at all costs and try to bottle up their armor, or do you turtle up at Outer Bridge Lock and wait for the onslaught? Do you throw motion mines along their path like caltrops before cavalry? What are your favorite points to control (flag and otherwise)?

Discuss.

Anything you say can and will be used against you on the field of battle.

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Shurikane

I want to start by bringing up the idea of letting the PAC have the southernmost flag on purpose. This is a TG exclusive strategy.

Experience yesterday was that the PAC got the flag early on in the game. So I told my squad "let's get the flag back" We go ahead and do that, and manage to hold it for the rest of the round. Problem: the enemy shelled us from afar, basically trapping us in our own location and preventing us from putting out an effective fight against them. We had to either wait for someone to finally give it and zoom into our motion mines, or go out there ourselves towards the east field where they were all hiding. I think we lost more men there than we killed PAC soldiers, but the server crashed before I could assess the final outcome.

On pubs, I don't need to take that into account since pubbers will just rush headfirst into the flag while thinking. Makes defense a lot easier.

If the server has a low population, I prefer to let the PAC have everything east of the bridge and make a stadoff on top of it. This simplifies the battle, allows the EU to have a more effective defense on its two western flags, and creates a situation where no one has an overwhelming advantage over the other.

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Augustus Gloop

My strategy for this map consists of a dedicated defense at Inner Bridge. It doesn't matter which side you are, good luck keeping a bleed on, but Inner bridge is the key to always having armor AND a gunship, or all the gunships if you're PAC.

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Ghost Stalker

For me it all depends on the map size. On the 32 player I have my squad hold dry lake with two engineers with SAAW's and one with Pilum, two medics and a support. With this combination I have yet to loses that flag for more then a few seconds.

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Arithea

I had an engi/support squad (maybe one medic? I don't remember) sit on the hill above Oil Station for most of a round once and just close off that route for their armor. It must've been rather annoying, as they sent the gunship after us a couple of times. However, the more I think about it, the more I have to re-analyze the effect holding Oil Station has on the rest of the map. If their armor knows it will encounter pretty heavy resistance in trying to take Oil Station, they'll often peel off and put most of their pressure on Dry Lake and, ultimately, on the center control point (can't remember the flag name). I'll have to keep that in mind next time I play Suez.

One other thing that makes Suez a difficult map to defend is that it's so broad. The control points are pretty central on the map, which also has very hilly terrain. Visibility is poor over long distances, making it easy to slip some armor or an FAV into a back base. How do you address that?

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Augustus Gloop

As PAC I address it by slipping a FAV into the back bases.

As EU, using the gunship to patrol the lanes north and south of the main bases. IMHO, Armor is best spent patrolling between points in a zone defense rather than sitting at a flag. It's easy to contain any flag attempt if your armor is near two points and can just motor out to fire on the flag being contested.

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MDFubar

On the 32-player map I like to defend Dry Lake. We set up with 1 support, 1 assault, and 4 Engy's. Motion Mines at the entrance to the flag and behind it. I send 2 Engy's up on the hill and have them drop MM on the slope, this stops the tanks and they can kill them with ease. Support will run up to them and resupply as needed, Assault will stay with them unless we are under heavy attack..then the medic falls back on the SL.
I prefer all with Pilums due to the fact that we encounter more Armor than Gunships and the Pilums are usefull with both.
If the attack changes to a lot of infantry we will changes kits to address the situation, always having 2 Engy's though. As Sl, I tend to hang back and call out incoming contacts.....taking shots when I can and watching the other flags on the map.
There have been times that we have ended up holding the only flag on the map, this becomes noticable when everyone starts spawning at our flag. That is when I will take a buggy to another flag and help recapture flags.

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Zhohar

A wildly underused strategy is to have a 3-man squad of engineers in a buggy, just roaming between Dry Lake and Oil Station. PAC has no armor that one or two well placed Pillum shots can't take down.

Furthermore, the PAC drivers' attention will be on the buggy and not on the defending team and that makes the defender's jobs a lot easier.

Case in point: EU buggy with 3 men sets off from Dry Lake toward Oil Station, and encounters an APC that is mortaring the Dry Lake flag. Two engineers hop out of the buggy, driver continues, and two AT rounds later, the infantry at Dry Lake can breathe easier.

Similar strategies work for offense but are easier to execute on defense because the assaulting armor is usually spread apart, whereas defending armor is all within a close radius of the flag.

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ionpig-A

This map is a vicious fight that depends on EU being able to identify and disrupt any significant PAC push while keeping it's back flags up. Harassment works. Asymmetric tactics work. Chaos is your friend.

• Hold the back two flags at all costs! (true for all map sizes)
• Your strongest infantry (dismounted) squad should defend from Trash Dump or Dry Lake at their discretion.
• Give away the PAC flag at Oil Station after you take the vehicles, drop mines, and harass the attackers.
• The farther away from the back bases (and your EU armor) a flag is, the less important it becomes.
• Keep the intel going to your SL's with CONSTANT sat tracks and spotting.
• Use the OS/EMP in combination for armor kills where needed most by your SL's
• Keep your team supplied
• Keep one full (or at least very capable) squad in the back base with at least a walker.
• Get a squad to run "Buggy Doom"
• Pray for a capable gunship squad
• Get all of your SL's to make sure that all anti-air emplacements are manned at all times
• Own the skies == Own the map
• Every SL should have themselves an FAV for rapid movement

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Memor Depopulor Pro Vos Exuro