Move that Titan!

**Uranium - 235** · 10-19-2008, 11:47 PM

We just finished a particularly close round on Highway Tampa and, even though we had no commander for 80% of the match, I realized something.

As much fun as the base assets are under the Titan, they're not something you really have to worry about. Yes, the enemy might help themselves to some armor, but remember that these areas are generally remote, and don't serve an immediate purpose to the map's strategic goal. You can spawn there anyway, so having the Titan looming overhead is wasteful. Since the other team beat us to putting it over the ocean, the best thing you can do is move the Titan between / near two silos.

The particular round ended in core destruction, but just a couple more missile strikes and the hull would've failed, and for a brief moment, it was entirely possible we would've won via ground control - as they threw themselves into the corridors, we took all 5 silos. Sadly, with the lack of commander support, we were more or less blind and they slowly fell. By moving the Titan to a more strategic location, we could've easily won by being able to control / dominate two silos at once - a particularly nasty location would have been between silos 4 (very easy to defend) and 5 (also easy to defend - the one across the river). Both these silos are notorious for being back-capped by transports a lot, so keeping the Titan over our uncap really hurt us in the long run (well the lack of a commander did - which is probably why it didn't move).

Being able to use the turreted guns on the silos would save a lot of manpower as well - instead of two tanks and an APC roaming around getting silos as they flip, just one guy in the guns could cover both.

Just don't put the Titan *OVER* the silos... your own missiles will hit you. Just a thought next time you're playing Titan...

**DrakenViator** · 10-20-2008, 12:29 AM

Agreed...

One of the most powerful tools is a Titan. That's one of the reasons they pull the orbital strike from you because the Titan and all four guns together are a moving artillery strike of death...

Titans are best either defending silos or out in 'no-mans' land away from enemy APC's

~ Draken

**Fall3n** · 10-20-2008, 12:47 AM

It wasn't until today that I extensively utilized the Titan's guns and OMG was I surprised. When I couldn't see anything I was aiming in areas that seemed like a high activity spot and I was wiping out groups of 2-3 people like crazy =D

**pred011586** · 10-20-2008, 01:02 AM

The guns are pretty beastly ya.

A Titan Commander requires a different kind of situational awareness than a Conquest Commander. Both require you to keep track of the progress of the game (Shield Levels vs Ticket Counts), but your reaction to each situation is more direct. In Conquest you relay orders to your squads to have them utilize your strategies, in Titan mode, however you control your teams number one weapon, only safe spawn point, and the enemies potential winning condition, all in one fell swoop.

I've done alot of Titan commanding, and although it's slow alot of commanders forget about mobilizing the Titan. Where to place your Titan depends entirely on the situation.

If your shields are high, press the silos, position yourself to be able to cover as many silos as possible with the guns/pods. This gives your team an close protected spawn point to assault the silos from. Plus you can bombard silos from the guns. Also if your commander is actively communicating and responding, you can call for an EMP strike on a silo just as your squad pods in to give you the slight advantage in clearing them out. Just wary of the situation for when ...

If your shields are getting below half, it's time to pull the Titan out. Set a move command to the nearest no-mans land that's easily defendable against APCs. There are only 3 ways (4 if you play somewhere other than TG) to get on a Titan: APC, Beacon, Transport, (Gunship). By taking the APC element away, you force the enemy to come at you via transport, which makes it harder for them to attack. Highway Tampa is a great map for this as the bottom left and top right corners are perfect for this style of Titan maneuvering.

Personally I feel Titan commanding requires alot more co-ordination and teamwork than Conquest commanding. There's simply too many things to do in Titan mode to let SLs make their own, uninformed decisions. Whereas in Conquest there's less communication that's really needed to be equally successful.

**DrakenViator** · 10-20-2008, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pred011586

I've done alot of Titan commanding, and although it's slow alot of commanders forget about mobilizing the Titan. Where to place your Titan depends entirely on the situation.

I think the real issue to this is that the VAST majority of servers lock the Titans, where |TG| leaves their Titans open. In short I'm sure there are a lot of Commanders who have never been able to move a Titan and thus don't even thing to check to see if they can, and oversight if you will.

~ Draken

**MDFubar** · 10-20-2008, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uranium - 235

We just finished a particularly close round on Highway Tampa and, even though we had no commander for 80% of the match, I realized something.

As much fun as the base assets are under the Titan, they're not something you really have to worry about. Yes, the enemy might help themselves to some armor, but remember that these areas are generally remote, and don't serve an immediate purpose to the map's strategic goal. You can spawn there anyway, so having the Titan looming overhead is wasteful. Since the other team beat us to putting it over the ocean, the best thing you can do is move the Titan between / near two silos.

The particular round ended in core destruction, but just a couple more missile strikes and the hull would've failed, and for a brief moment, it was entirely possible we would've won via ground control - as they threw themselves into the corridors, we took all 5 silos. Sadly, with the lack of commander support, we were more or less blind and they slowly fell. By moving the Titan to a more strategic location, we could've easily won by being able to control / dominate two silos at once - a particularly nasty location would have been between silos 4 (very easy to defend) and 5 (also easy to defend - the one across the river). Both these silos are notorious for being back-capped by transports a lot, so keeping the Titan over our uncap really hurt us in the long run (well the lack of a commander did - which is probably why it didn't move).

Being able to use the turreted guns on the silos would save a lot of manpower as well - instead of two tanks and an APC roaming around getting silos as they flip, just one guy in the guns could cover both.

Just don't put the Titan *OVER* the silos... your own missiles will hit you. Just a thought next time you're playing Titan...

Good point, but on that map the Titan is moved over the water to limit access to it. While over the water the only way to board it is by air, this limits the ability to rush the Titan. Moving it to a remote location and forcing the other team to put alot of effort into boarding it would be the best move, IMO. Moving over silos for Titan gun support, while it does make sense, increases the ability for the enemy to swiftly board it from multiple APC's.

Good subject to bring up.

**Uranium - 235** · 10-20-2008, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pred011586

There are only 3 ways (4 if you play somewhere other than TG) to get on a Titan: APC, Beacon, Transport, (Gunship).

You forgot one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MDFubar

Good point, but on that map the Titan is moved over the water to limit access to it. While over the water the only way to board it is by air, this limits the ability to rush the Titan. Moving it to a remote location and forcing the other team to put alot of effort into boarding it would be the best move, IMO. Moving over silos for Titan gun support, while it does make sense, increases the ability for the enemy to swiftly board it from multiple APC's.

Good subject to bring up.

I know why it's over the water; I was mentioning the fact that leaving it in its default location is probably one of the biggest wastes of an asset you can have.

The fact that we didn't have a commander and had to attack their Titan by air only and it was still a close game - we won that round even if our Titan did blow up

kperkins1982 · 10-20-2008, 08:21 AM

I feel like the titans and their movement require some tweaking.

For example, titans should not be allowed to move very close to one another. For some reason when this happens there appears a person in each titan AA gun spamming the shields of the other and of 32 people in a pub server 10 might be in the titan guns rendering all silos under both really annoying.

I feel like the titan guns should be changed so that either you get killed when the gun blows up or maybe there are less guns. People seem to sit up there trying to rank up "tons" of points, when if they would actually cap/defend silos they'd do much better for themselves.

I can't help but be very annoyed when one titan is over 3 silos and just dominates the map.

However one of the previous posters did make a very good comment.
When this happens you can pod from apcs all over the map to the titan so I suppose that there is a caveat to this.

Mech__Warrior · 10-20-2008, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kperkins1982

I feel like the titans and their movement require some tweaking.

For example, titans should not be allowed to move very close to one another. For some reason when this happens there appears a person in each titan AA gun spamming the shields of the other and of 32 people in a pub server 10 might be in the titan guns rendering all silos under both really annoying.

I feel like the titan guns should be changed so that either you get killed when the gun blows up or maybe there are less guns. People seem to sit up there trying to rank up "tons" of points, when if they would actually cap/defend silos they'd do much better for themselves.

I can't help but be very annoyed when one titan is over 3 silos and just dominates the map.

However one of the previous posters did make a very good comment.
When this happens you can pod from apcs all over the map to the titan so I suppose that there is a caveat to this.

This is why you destroy the guns, so they don't rain death down upon you. Whenever I command, I put the titan in a strategic location. This could be by 2-3 silos or over water (The lake in Sidi is a good example for the water location). Almost always, there is somebody who destroys the guns. Another thing I noticed in Titan is that when you titan is destroyed and using the turrets, you die instantly.

kperkins1982 · 10-20-2008, 12:18 PM

oh yea you are correct about the guns

I suppose that is the diff between good and bad servers,

some people will get destroyed by the guns and not take them out. I like to pilum them from a conceiled location, and run about in between shots so they can't hit me very easily if they see it coming. After a few rounds of me destroying them versus them repairing and me doing it again they give up.

However, there isn't really a weapon other than the pilum that can take them out easily and you don't get tons of ammo with that thing, the aa gun is good but it kinda depends on which map you are on and where the titan is

**DrBeat** · 10-20-2008, 12:25 PM

You also need to remember, anyone fairly dedicated to running titan guns will bring the engineer kit and be prepared to keep the guns operational. While the constant roar of the ground AA guns can be annoying to a titan gun crew, the fire from the titan guns are just as annoying to the enemy crews on the ground. An AA taken out by titan gun fire has to respawn. A titan gun taken down has to be repaired along with its operator must respawn. But seeing as titan doesn't have any respect for human life (no tickets) it's not as large as an issue as it might have been with a titan assault map like Wake Island.

The pilum is idea for taking down titan guns as it is mobile, but if the titan shields are not yet down and the titan is is motion, a definite hit can take some effort. Taking guns down via pilum takes longer then AA, so you also must consider whether you are on friendly or hostile territory and watch your surroundings.

Mech__Warrior · 10-20-2008, 04:27 PM

The gunship can also take out the guns but it's a risky business.

Adaxa · 10-20-2008, 05:29 PM

correct me if I'm wrong, but when the two titans are close together, a massive lag-fest ensues. This happened during Minsk for me, and it was NOT fun.

Mech__Warrior · 10-20-2008, 06:22 PM

It is true, especially when pubbies use the AA turrets to damage the titans.

**YdoUwant2know** · 10-20-2008, 07:05 PM

Just thought I would mention that this exact topic has been brought up before...

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...-location.html

A lot of great advice for titan placement.