You're leading your team in a *rated* AB game

#0 - Oct. 29, 2008, 6:34 a.m.

How would you do it?

The concept of rated BG's has kept me mildly intrigued for a while now, but only with WSG can I imagine it not being a nightmare to coordinate your team.

Search deep inside you and find the powergamer, the one that will spec something boring because it's powerful, the one that will play a dull setup because it keeps winning, the one that will play with people they don't like because they're good, the one that will use a lame method because it's effective. And throw out the guy who spams 1 macro (with REPORT INC!!!!1111) at the beginning of AB, considering that the ultimate perfection of AB tactics.

I am not really interested in how you would divide the team at the first minute. What I would like to know is what do you do when you have battles raging at a few different points on the map and some opponents moving to assault one of your nodes.

No, really. This is cutting edge PvP now. This isn't your premade that happened to end up against another premade. I imagine people will really want to communicate their battles, like a 5v5 game. If you don't let them, you'll probably lose due to inferior micro-management.

But are 15 different people going to use the same Ventrilo channel for that? Will someone move people around on Ventrilo based on who's currently together with who? And will you, rather than reinforcing your slightly outnumbered force at a node with an arbitrary player who's available, try to send someone who plays a class/spec that can exploit the Achilles heel of the attack force?

If everyone isn't on the same Ventrilo channel, how do you communicate which nodes need help? Can typing do it efficiently enough?

This is a rated AB game, played on HP Blackbirds, sponsored by HP, a grand prize of $12,000, and you need your team to be the bleeding edge of AB performance. How would you do it?

(did I mention HP Blackbird?)

#42 - Oct. 30, 2008, 3:58 p.m.

Q u o t e:
You're leading your team in a *rated* AB game

How would you do it?

Fair enough, I'll bite – though please note that these are my personal opinions and experience.

I think that there are a number of viable strategies that I've found to work in AB. Although the finer details may have changed when class balance and available abilities have changed over the course of the years, the basic concept is still the same.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that your strategy depends on your leading style. What may work for one team with a leader dictating every move may not work for another team who has a more laid back approach with 'captains' assisting in calling movements. For this post however, I'll base my assumption that you have one leader calling most or all movements and plays in response to what is happening on the battlefield, as it is what I have had the most personal experience with.

With that said, I have a few beliefs I try to follow when leading a team.

1) Communication and anticipation is key. Mobility and movement is equally important.
2) Sending the right classes to the right nodes at the right time is important to winning.
3) The composition of your team dictates heavily how you can play the match.

As the match starts, there are a few key objectives I believe in. To simplify, get control of 3 nodes - one of which is the Blacksmith. The reason for making sure the Blacksmith is one of your captured nodes is simple; it is at the centre of the map and has the shortest possible distance from which to move to any node on the map. Capturing 3 nodes not including the Blacksmith means the distance your reinforcements has to travel from one node to another is potentially twice as long as if you have the control of the Blacksmith. Consider this; you are holding the mines, the stables and the Lumber Mill. You get a big incoming to the mines and commit reinforcements to that node. You win the battle and send your opposing team to their graveyard, the closest one being the Blacksmith.

At this point, the players spawning at the Blacksmith decide to assault the Lumber Mill. The distance from there to the mill is much, much, shorter than the distance your reinforcements have to travel (Gold Mine to Lumber Mill), leaving you at a severe disadvantage. Even if you are capable of holding the mill long enough for your reinforcements to get there, it is much easier for your opposing team to slow down and crowd control your reinforcements outside of the Lumber Mill area, on each ramp, if you will.

Now, let’s assume that you open the map starting with 3 nodes captured, one of which is in fact the Blacksmith. You are holding a nice little triangle in the form of Farm, Blacksmith and Lumber Mill. This is a tactical advantage because, as mentioned, the distance between your nodes is at a minimum. Next up comes anticipating and calling the right amount of players heading towards a node you are holding. The idea is that you don't want to commit more players/reinforcements to defend a node than the enemy is sending. The reason for this is simple; you have the graveyard advantage and if both teams are equally skilled, attrition is on your side.

As far as the reinforcements go, my personal preference is a variation of the 'popular' 5 players each defending a node. I prefer 5 groups; 1 group of 4, 3 groups of 3 and one group of two. The group of two set to defend the node closest to your zone in, and the group of 4 set to defend the Blacksmith as it is the most important node to hold, with one player 'idling' closer to the bridge to act as a 'third' for your 2-man node. That leaves you with 3 groups of 3 players, one of which is set to defend a node. Your 'normal' reinforcements in this case leave you with 2 groups of 3.

I would place these two reinforcement groups around the bridge between the Blacksmith and my zone in. This means they are both close to all the nodes you wish to defend. From here it is a simple case of mathematics, movement and anticipation. If the enemy team sends 6 players to one node and 5 to another, you can send one of your reinforcement groups to one node and the other to the other, matching your attackers’ numbers. Seeing an incoming group of 6 players and sending both groups to defend would leave your other node vulnerable to superior numbers, and you could not reinforce it without compromising the existing defence of your third node. Bad situation to be in.

Anticipation comes into play when dealing with stealth classes. I think that it is important for someone calling movements to be aware of the enemy team's stealth units and numbers, as well as knowing whether or not they have been sent on an offensive rush. If your team mates lets you know that they have not seen any stealth classes heading for an attack, it is likely to presume that they are setting up for a quick cap at a different node. Moving one or two of the players from a reinforcement team to idle closer to the node you predict them to attack will help lower your response time and allow you to better handle them when they come.

Now, before this post gets really too long, I will end my little sharing of experience and personal opinions with this: There are some key things you can do that will give you an advantage. Utilising the paladin mount speed buff for your reinforcements can mean the difference between a successful defence and the loss of a node. Setting up the correct classes and crowd control at each node is equally important to having your teams assist each other on targets while crowd control is applied where needed. Having your reinforcements leave the node they were helping as the attackers are getting killed off and returning to their 'idle' location will greatly help you counter "1-2-boom" attacks of splitting forces between distant nodes.

In closing, I hope that my thoughts have been of some value and welcome discussion around them!

Cheers :)