Crux

Introduction

TG as a community is very focused on teamwork. We have created a culture in which there is peer pressure to be seen doing 'teamwork' oriented actions. We have this stigma against lone-wolfing, and certain actions are regarded above others. We value the reviver over the person who created the need for a revive (the shooter).

But the truth of the matter is that TG is all about using teamwork and realistic tactics within the environment of our chosen game in order to win. And when we look at the BF2142 series, there are two game modes: Conquest and Titan. I'm going to ignore Titan here because it is an entirely different style of game and irrelevant to the point of this post. When we examine Conquest, we start the round with a certain number of tickets. The enemy starts the round with the same number of tickets plus or minus 10%. The objective is to make the enemy's tickets reach 0. Tickets are removed either on a timer when your team holds a certain number of flags (Flag Bleed), or when someone becomes Critically Wounded and does not become revived in time and "dies" (Death Bleed).

The problem, and the reason for this post, is TG's excessive focus on Flag Bleed and almost total disregard for Death Bleed.

Some Statistics Lie. This One Does Not.

In the average round on a TG server, somewhere between 50% and 75% of a team's tickets are lost due to Death Bleed. There is variation depending on the map, but this is the simple truth. If you doubt it, go and collect your own statistics, but I have noticed this both from end-of-round results looking at the scoreboard, and also by doing some simple match based on our player-base's average deaths per round.

To put this simply, the victory or defeat in the average game revolves more around which team does the most dying rather than which team holds the most flags. This is contrary to the focus of 99% of the Squad Leaders and Commanders on the TG server. We sacrifice tickets in order to cap flags, believing that flags are the key to victory. The truth is that holding flags in and of itself does not provide your team with victory.

The paradigm shift that is required in order to raise the level of play at TG to a higher level is this:

It is only by taking this approach that we can truly be playing BF2142 in a tactically wise and efficient manner. Don't for a moment think that I am advocating ignoring the effects of Flag Bleed, which can on occasion be substantial. What I am saying is we need to put Flag Bleed into the proper perspective, which is that of a secondary factor when considering squad and commander decisions.

So What Are Flags Good For Then?

If we stop and compare BF2142 to modern warfare for a moment there are several parallels. Oftentimes with modern nations the issues with waging war are not those of manpower or firepower, but logistics. Specifically, transportation. Moving a million men, tanks, and the supplies to keep the running (food and fuel) takes time and resources. The ability to wage war is limited by the ability of an army to get troops to where they need to be in order to fight.

This is why invasions start with the securing of airfields and the elimination of anti-air emplacements - so supplies and reinforcements can be more easily brought to the front.

BF2142 is essentially a smale-scale war in which both sides have an unlimited number of soldiers, but a very limited ability to put them into the field. We must stop thinking of flags as sources of Bleed, and instead look at them as reinforcement positions - transportation of troops. The moment you truly begin to do this, the perception of everything changes. Would you insert troops via helicopter into a valley when the enemy had said valley surrounded? Assuming the helicopter itself was invincible, you still have troops with little or no hope of survival. They will be killed at a much faster rate than you could fly them in.

Holding only Church on Cerbere Landing is similar to this. People spawn in just to be killed by the enemy that holds ALL of the high ground surrounding you. That isn't to say you never want to hold Church, but you never want Church to be the only flag you hold. Because while all flags (or insertion points) are worth holding, many are simply not worth defending. The cost of tickets to defend Church is greater than the advantage gained from holding it more often than not.

Ruins on Belgrade is another flag that at times can be worth holding, but is almost never worth defending. Other flags can be worth holding and defending, but only if held in conjuction with other flags. Com Tower and Playground on Belgrade are an example of such a combination. Held separately they are difficult to defend. Together a team can do some good things.

In essence, view flags for their strategic positioning, not to hold a required number to avoid bleed. Typically people throw away more tickets trying to either remove Flag Bleed from themselves, or cause it to the enemy, than simply leaving things be and focusing on killing and surviving would have accomplished.

Efficiency As It Relates To BF2142

So we know now to be careful which flags we hold, and to consider the cost of taking or defending a flag. Now what? Now we get down to the nitty gritty of BF2142 - killing lots of people without dying.

I've written a fair amount on this subject in the past, but want to touch on it here. Perhaps a slightly different phrasing of a concept might click for someone and have an impact. Maybe it'll just help me meet my required word count for the day

So what is Efficiency? I personally view it as the amount of time someone spends on the ground unable to affect events in-game. For example when you are Critically Wounded, you are 'out of the game' til you either die or get revived. If you get gibbed by a rail gun or from being in a vehicle, you are out until you respawn. The entire time you are in this state, you are not reviving anyone, you are not killing anyone, you're not mining a road, guarding a back flag. In essence you are doing nothing useful for you team. In fact, you're doing the opposite. You're making someone else choose between giving up a ticket from your death, or trying to revive you (perhaps leading to their death... and so on and so forth). And while someone is trying to revive you, they aren't killing anyone, laying mines, harassing a vehicle etc etc.

So how do we be more efficient? For starters, play at a pace you can manage. Stop chasing after the action constantly. Try to hold back a little, move from cover to cover. Pay attention to your mini map and big map and understand what is going on. Play at a speed which allows you to control what is going on. It might be worth playing multiple rounds where ALL you do is protect back flags from capture. The action will be slower, you'll have more control over your environment, and it will give you an opportunity to observe.

When watching the maps, try to predict what will happen next. You can pretty easily follow the lines of battle without even a UAV or IDS. Just look for patterns in friendlies dying. They tell you where the action is at. Watch for flags changing hands. All of this will help you to understand what is taking place.

Once you've learned to control your engagements better by limiting your deaths per round, slowly start to expand your aggression level. See if you can get another 2-3 kills per round without dying any extra. But keep it manageable. Not everyone has razor-sharp reflexes. Fill roles that are suited to your talents. Be an engineer and keep critical roads or passages mined. Be an assault medic but focus on the medic part - run around with your defib out and make sure nobody dies. Be a support and try to be clever where you place your IDS and sentry gun - or spend time locking down enemy armor with emp nades.

Essentially, find things you can do well and work at them. You don't have to be the most skilled shooter on your team. Be the hardest worker on your team at avoiding dying while filling important support roles. Even if you don't kill anyone, if you don't die then you're at worst a neutral effect on your team. If you don't die and revive 15 people. then you're 15 tickets in the green. If you don't die and prevent an APC from taking up a good firing position and killing 20 friendlies then you're 20 tickets in the green. Everything you do has repercussions!

Lessons From The 3rd

Although I don't explicitly say a lot of this stuff when I'm SLing, a lot of the time I'm working my squad around for easy kills. Yes there are times with the right people I'll just punch a hole right in the middle of the enemy's strongest line. But more often than not I'd much prefer to just cut the corner, troll some kills off the edge and then work around behind everyone.

There is also a lot of probing involved. Anyone in the 3rd will tell you I change directions all the freaking time. Some of this is to flank. Some of this is to move away from a point of strong resistance and find another route. This isn't an opportunity to prove how macho you are by taking your strength against their strength. This is war. Find their weak point, break it and then roll them up.

When SLing, try to find opportunities to match your 6 men up against the enemy's 1 or 2. Isolate the pawns and take them. Every ticket taken like that is a ticket lost for the enemy. Eat the enemy piecemeal instead of in one big bite!

Use cover. Dear heavens above please USE COVER!!! There is nothing easier to take down than some fool standing in the middle of open space shooting at someone because his bloodlust is up. I don't care how easy of a target you see. What you have to worry about is the person you don't see who views YOU as the target. Move to cover THEN try to kill someone.

Final Thoughts

1. Don't be afraid to only hold half the flags on the map. Just make them the right flags and then do a good job of killing the enemy.
2. Don't be afraid to be under bleed if you have the right environment. Give them the extra flag if it means keeping your APC and walker alive and mowing them down at a rate faster than the Flag Bleed operates anyway
3. Remember not all flags are equal. Trade bad flags for good ones whenever you can. Always identify the marquee flags on a map and do what you can to take and defend them.
4. Teamwork is not the same as action. Yes it can occasionally be boring. You being a little bored because you're not dying 20 times in a row is better than the other 23 people on your team being frustrated because they are losing for no good reason other than you not wanting to be bored. This goes TRIPLE if you are a Squad Leader!!

Hopefully this made more sense than the last attempt As always feel free to post any questions or comments either here or via PM.

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machowner

This is something I wish SL's would do more. A lot of times it just seems that there is tunnel vision.

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Mixa

Excellent re-write up. I was confused with some points you came up with the first thread and I actually didn't see any proper point. Nothing new for me, but I like how the points come up clearly in good write-up, that includes pretty much all from being good SL and why living longer is important!

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Lunien

I agree completely Crux, this should change a couple of minds about bleed vs. no bleed and a bunch of kills. Good article.

flik2142

I like the write-up Crux, and I agree that death bleed plays a pivotal role in matches.

I think we should realise that flag bleed is an essential strategy too. As soon as you have flag bleed you can go set up your stall to defend, dig in, and rack up the death bleed as the enemy move in en masse to attack flags. If they try to hold back, electing not to attack you, then by holding you can bleed tickets off them from holding more flags. This is why flag bleed is essential. Both death bleed and flag bleed go hand in hand.

For your example of church, I have never seen a team solely try to hold church, because as you rightly point out, it is a death fest for them. People are always trying to push out for other flags and they are all strategically important, because 1) they allow your team to spread out on spawn locations, 2) they provide another flag for your enemy to focus their attention, 3) they provide a spawn incase your other flags go down, 4) they provide a staging area to launch assaults against other flags and 5) they may provide armour.

As you also mention, a lot of flags go hand in hand and comm tower+playground is a formidable combination but on the same map, holding pond without also holding ruins can get yourselves surrounded very quickly.

But I think this focus on 'death bleed' is a little misdirected. You can only kill people when you have some flags, it is exceedingly rare for the attacking team in Camp G, Fall of Berlin etc to win the game without taking one flag - it just doesn't seem to happen. By holding the majority of the flags you are strategically better off to kill people - I think people realise this already and that is why people are pushing for flags. Its difficult to set your stall out to 'kill as many people as possible' - that just doesn't seem very tactical to me. By taking flags and holding those flags, you are certainly doing one thing: killing people AND getting flag points.

I do think there are situations where death bleed is largely ignored by teams and this is where the focus ought to change. One classic example is the 2 stand-off points in Camp G. Attackers have takien harbour and the defending side has fallen back to Toll. What should the teams do? There is no ticket bleed, the defence is tight and any attempts to sneak through or rush that flag are causing massive ticket losses. I've often considered falling back to defend harbour and when they move out, either try to death bleed them or to attempt to find a way behind their lines now they are not in such good defensive positions or mindsight. Unless the rest of the team does the same though you are simply moving a squad away from the action, where, possibly, they may have done some good (or of course died more). The same scenario for central camp/ruins.

I think though, in general, people have got the right idea when it comes to trying to win. I rarely see SLs pushing for a flag 'just' to get bleed back on even though they are getting wiped out time and time again. I think players will see an opportunity to obtain an additional tactical advantage (flag bleed) and go for it. If their gamble fails to pay off quickly, most SLs will move back or try something else. All these goals however usually involve two things: killing people and grabbing key locations (flags, armour).

It's a tricky subject, I think by your direct addressing of death bleed it brings it into greater focus but I do think its always been there as part of the tactical gamer mindset. And, possibly you are suggesting that players think too much of flag bleed, and I am unsure of this. Winning flags and holding them, regardless of whether they give you flag bleed, is a sure way of killing people more than they kill you. If you are unable to win a flag, stop doing it because you are obviously dying more than they are.

Crux

Honestly, I don't think you at all get what I'm talking about. I'd suggest a re-read or two, and a little time genuinely thinking about it.

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Sargentkyle23

Excellent write up Crux! I always learn so much from your posts thanks for putting your time into it!

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StormTAG

I think there are some similarities between Flik and Crux's arguements. Flik says "Get bleed so you can dig in and kill them as they come!" Which is really just a different way of saying, "Force your opponents to act on your terms and kill the living daylights out of them." Crux is saying much the same thing. Force your opponents to fight on your terms. The big thing he's adding is that you shouldn't give up the initiative just because you're a flag down.

MrJengles

Well this is certainly an interesting discussion and I think it has some brilliant points.

Comments to Crux

I very much believe that in most cases it is Death Bleed that has the largest effect on the outcome of the match. I hear commanders and SLers mention death bleed often, but thinking about it they do say "keep the revives up" just as often. The problem, as you say Crux, is a lot of the time they put the Flag Bleed first. Attacking and reviving, while your intention is to remove Flag Bleed, is going to lose more tickets than defending and reviving while your intention is to prevent losing the flag, reviving, and killing the enemy.

Supplies, reinforcements and transportation are paramount to real-world battles due to them lasting longer, more people being involved, and larger distances. Everything is just increased. Therefore, in game these are all scaled down. It is a very true point but in game its simply translated as healing, reviving, repairing; backing up other squads; and moving in vehicles to be faster. All of these are important actions to take.

Also true, however, sometimes people that are alive become just as useless. For example defending those back flags when no-one attacks them. Of course, there's no way to predict that and it was a neccessary decision just incase but the fact is a person that dies mid-fighting was making an impact. They may have been killing people, reviving people, attacking or defending or even died before thay managed anything - although in that respect they actually were: they were drawing fire, and hopefully the teammate that wasn't being shot at kills whoever and then revives you. It is inevitable that people will die but I understand your point, people should look after themselves better and try not to lose that ticket by attempting things too hard to accomplish.

Watching the map for flag changes and dead friendlies is a good tip, personally I do that whenever the scanners go down.

Definitely a great point. There have been times I notice how many people are dieing (Harbour/Toll stand off as PAC is a great example) and I make reviving my priority, I go a longer time than usual without firing a single bullet while I rush around. People don't have to kill the enemy to be useful.

Again, a very valid point, if you attack a position that suddenly gets reinforced, don't be stubborn and try to break through. They moved so why don't you? It's annoying going back and forth but certainly the best way to break through if you can do it fast enough. Some SLers are excellent at this and it can be hard for new people, or even regulars like myself, to keep up XD

Comments to Flik

These points depend entirely on the map and on the flag. Church on Cerbere would be used by an attacking team to spread out spawns and so attack from more directions, whilst that spawn is also closer to the enemy. Splittling attention to a flag is also different to drawing attention, splitting is good because you can hold more flags and may get the bleed. Drawing attention would be if the flag is the only reasonable one for the enemy to attack and is a bad idea. In this way each flag does have its merits, however some have more than others and that is where trading flags comes in, it can be beneficial when done correctly.

Uh, unfortunatily I disagree entirely with the second part. It depends utterly on the flags that you take as both of you pointed out, therefore flags do not neccessarily make you better off to kill people.

Death Bleed and Flag Bleed do indeed go hand in hand, by getting the Flag Bleed and then halting the attack and changing to defense the enemy may be forced to attack you. Hopefully adding to Death Bleed. I think SLers are mainly very good at stopping at this point and switching to defense. Whether the team under bleed should try to remove it is the real question.

Agreed, they stop trying after a while because they are losing tickets. Unfortunately at the same time they have now lost tickets and still have the Flag Bleed against them, making it very hard to win through defense. And at times this drives a SLer to keep attacking in desperation because there is no longer a chance to win otherwise. Crux is saying it may have been better to try and win with Death Bleed from the start.

My Summary

First, I would say hold back, if the enemy pushes forwards you should manage to create a larger Death Bleed on them than they have Flag Bleed on you.
Second, if they do not push forwards enough/at all and everyone just decides to defend flags with the odd kill, the Flag Bleed will take its toll and the team under bleed will be forced to attack.

I very much wonder what would happen if everyone stayed at Harbour. If the enemy pushes would you win more easily? Might it make it easier to sneak past? I understand entirely that everyone needs to be thinking along the same lines for it work much at all though, I'm glad to hear someone else has thought about it. The big problem is if the other team sits where they are. The game will instantly become very tedious, people push to flags for fun as much as they do to remove ticket bleed, it's still just a game.

Third, completely disregard the second point on Head On Assualt Maps because the defending team will not push into uncaps because they can't. From the very start of the match the attacking team is forced to take a flag:

Correct, but you leave out that after that one flag has been taken they do not neccessarily have to take another. However, the first flag on Fall of Berlin would be a worse flag to have than the furthest at the back (I've forgotten names, damn). This links in with the next point:

Fourth, swapping a worse flag for a better one is useful regardless of Flag Bleed. It may then increase Death Bleed and so be helpful.
Fifth, taking flags to give you an armor advantage is an excellent point, but again, it's not useful on all maps.

RoadWarrior

Nice write-up Crux, while we never want any bleed, the fact remains:

The game ends when tickets reach zero, or flags reach zero (capout). More often it is when tickets reach zero.

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|TG-3rd| RoadWarrior

Shane

well said Crux

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Tigerblitz

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Crux again.

Great Job

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|TG| Sproge "Tiger how did you flip that tank?!"
|TG-SC| PM07SNV "We need another world war to base more games on..."
|TG-AIR| DrBeat: "I just dropped my propane tank in the fire again"

thegrublet

Off topic, I know, but that is darkly hilarious, PM07SNV...

Great post, Crux. I especially like the counsel to slow down one's pace a bit in order to be able to see the tactically advantageous approach. I tend to rush ahead for the flag, especially on Belgrade. And that map in particular allows numerous approaches and opportunities to flank.

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SharinganTH1422

Fantastic write-up, I always felt I had some of the ingredients of being a half-decent SL but this has enlightened more than any other posts about what I'm doing wrong (apart from being rubbish at the game)

Just a few questions...

1. If they hold a certain number of flags they get bleed. If they hold any more than this number of flags does bleed increase (by this I mean does the timer on ticket loss get faster)?

2. How fast is the flag bleed timer (as in how often does a ticket get lost, and relating to the earlier question, will it vary)? I ask because I think it would be important for all to know, since a situation may often occur where the opposition has flag bleed, and you think it's too much of a stalemate to make enough headway in the death bleed to decrease their ticket count enough. The SL would then probably have to say that some ticket loss would have to be sacrificed if they were to have even a chance of victory. Would be useful information to make that judgement.

Again, fantastic write-up. Hope to be back in the game - dying often - soon.

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Anger is a gift - Malcolm X

boosteryu

Great post man. Thx for telling people about that %?*$@ church flag lol.

Flag bleed is more important when there's no place to flank or get easy kills. Therefore both team get about the same amount of kills (Death bleed) like in Gibraltar Toll Station. The team that is imposing the flag bleed will most of the time get the game for 2 reasons. 1st, they have the flag bleed lol so if the revives are about the same on each side well... 2nd, the team that as only one or two flag left is gonna feel the need to push in order to remove the bleed and therefore lose more even tickets. It's all about playing smart. You can see, from time to time, PAC wins on Gibraltar while the only flags they have is Harbor and UCB. But for that you need smart SLing and COing.

Be careful though. Crux post doesn't mean pushing is bad lol. If you can get a SL behind enemy lines and the squad spawn in, the enemy is going to chase you. That's normal, if they don't do it they'll be in trouble :P. The main objective of the squad that just pass depend on how many enemy are chasing after them. If it's only three, go get a flag, 6 vs 3 you should be able to handle it. But most of time CO is gonna send 2 squad chasing them to overrun they sneaky squad. The sneaky squad should just try to get cover and win some time. Now that's the important part the Crux mention about mini map and big map. It's up to SL and CO to see that they are now playing in powerplay :P and make a push to get the easy kills and maybe if they're good enough :P, get a flag.

Getting bored is probably the greatest danger lol. When I play I often get bored and feel like pushing... or getting some knife kills... In my case, it's more the knife kills, but I ended up dead most of the time after 1 or 2 kills and therefore lose many tickets (but I'm starting to get a nice dog tag collection)

Armor maps are a bit different. Every death while in armor is a automatic ticket loss. Each flag is important because they'll get you extra armor. Air superiority is a big part of victory. A gunship can take out 4-5 enemy armor from like 500m in not even 1 minute (God, I like TV missiles :P). But a infantry squad in a "town situation" (lots of cover) can play some guerilla warfare and get lots of kills. But eh!... I'm not the expert :P I'll let Crux think about armor maps and get a new post :P