A thing I've been pondering on recently is the dichotomy between those two capzone reinforcement styles: is it better to trickle in reinforcements, until a balance swings in favour of one of the teams, or is it better to organise a group and then hit the enemy in a massed assault, giving them less time to react in the capzone?
These two philosophies, in my opinion, should also be differently applied depending on whether we are talking about offence, or defence.
THE TRICKLE-IN APPROACH
As far as I can tell, this is the default approach most people take. You spawn, you chose your destination capzone, you start moving towards it. No coordination required. You may die, but you know someone else is similarly rushing towards that capzone. Constant pressure on the capzone is kept up — in theory.
This approach is a much better approach for the defence, as you constantly reinforce any losses in the capzone, preventing the enemy from killing out the zone's defenders. However, in situations where the zone is already contested, specifically by an organised group (i.e. one which moved in together in force), a single trickling-in defender can usually only hope to stem or slow down the capturing process, but will be hard pressed to clear it out.
In assault, the trickle-in approach should theoretically keep up constant pressure on the capzone, but very often results in the defenders picking out single targets with ease, with little to no threat of return fire from the assaulters, as there is no one to return fire.
Additionally, this approach makes it difficult to use grenades on the offence, or results in TKs when they are used. This is a consequence of you moving in to a zone singly (or in a too small group to swing the capture process decisively in your favour) and not being certain of which zones are safe to nade, which zones will be counterproductive to nade (as you blow up fellow assaulters).
Finally, such an approach often results in an unnecessary loss of reinforcements, as you die repeatedly while achieving nothing substantial.
On the flip side, sometimes a capable (or really lucky) single guy with an automatic weapon can wreak havoc on an entrenched defence, paving the way for other teammates to move in. Sadly, this is greatly associated with a run and gun style of play, which is not something I'd personally want to advocate (but let's face it — everybody does it, because there is no fear of death, sometimes it's the only way, etc., etc.).
THE MASSED ASSAULT APPROACH
As the very name implies, this is an approach better suited to offence. It requires at least a modicum of organisation and moving in a group.
The idea is to hit the enemy capzone in force, instantly initiating a capturing process, or introducing into the zone a force potent enough to clear it out and destroy a coherent defence. By having a large group (i.e. a squad) move in together, you give the enemy (who may be spread out over the flanks and not focused on the capzone) less time to react, which is crucial for those zones which can't be retaken, but no less important for all the other capzones as well.
Threats and opportunities: a few ideas on how to do it in practice
An ever-present threat of moving in a group is artillery, a nade, or even a guy with an automatic weapon waltzing around the corner and hosing down your group before anyone has an chance to react.
You are not completely defenceless against these setbacks — that's the whole idea of a group, afterall. Some methods involve:
* bounding movement: part of the group provides overwatch and/or covering (i.e. suppressive) fire, the manuevre element moves to the next position where they anchor in and wait for the fire element to link up. It is not often a good idea for everyone to move in at the same time. The SL should indicate the move/fire element, or if the SL is unresponsive/ can't be arsed to do such silly things, because it'll all go terribly south anyway — the squad members should achieve some sort of rapport in establishing who moves and who shoots.
It is important that the fire element is big enough to actually be effective in deterring the enemy from returning accurate fire, or to take down enemies as they appear, so as not to be wiped out themselves. Which brings me to
* MG overwatch: while the MGs in this game can be used as excellent assault weapons, another prime use for the MGs on the assault is to provide overwatch and/or suppressive fire for the manuevre element, due to the sheer amount of firepower they possess. It is important to note that very often this entails the MG detaching from the direct vicinity of the squad, whilst keeping some form of visual contact.
If you are an MGer, you probably already know good overwatch positions to set up on, so if your SLer is unresponsive (remember, they usually are), show some initiative and offer to set up covering a certain route, inform about it and inform the rest of the squad when you come into position, so they may begin their movement. If you are detached, it might be a good idea to have someone to cover your back and provide extra ammo whilst in the overwatch position.
* sectors of responsibility: while moving as a group, if you notice everyone looking in the same direction, make sure you find cover to shield you from that direction and then find a different direction to look at. You don't want 6 guys to die, because all of them were looking in one direction and nobody bothered to notice that run and gunning SMGer coming in from the flank. It is not a bad idea to inform the squad members of what you're looking at (but nobody bothers to do it anyway), so they may observe something else.
* dispersal and cohesion: arty, a grenade, or an SMG can end the life of a squad quickly, even before you know what's going on. I've already mentioned the bounding movement method, but another thing worth having in mind is to disperse over a certain area if you expect you can be threatened by one of those squad-stopping things.
When venturing into a new area, have your squad's designated sucker peek in and reconnoiter the area. If he gets shot, look for ways around it, or just use brute force and force your way.
Where spawn on SL is enabled, the SL should only move in when the danger is less than extreme. His squadmates should clear his way for him, as he is their spawnpoint, and you don't want to go back all the way to the default spawn.
* correct use of smoke by SLer and nasty tactics (which will be curtailed as soon as everyone finds out): there is a wealth of threads (such as this one on the use of smoke, so go read those if you haven't already.
One thing you want to remember is that on assault you are (well, I am, when I'm smoking) interested in blinding the enemy, not your squad/team. This should also account for the overwatch element and not visually cutting off their lines of fire.
It might be a good idea to indicate where you're going to throw the smoke, so your squadmates at least have a chance to protest if it's going to alter their setup (but nobody bothers to do it and it's a waste of time anyway, because you can just zerg rush).
Achtung, haxis tricks! Another thing that is important on the offence is that the SL has just a single smoke. Quite often it is not enough, unless you team up with other SLs. Here's a trick you can apply (which is going to be effective only until people start abusing it and it gets fixed). Upon spawning (and you ought to be spawning on the spawn nearer the ammo cache), go to the ammo cache, but not close enough to use it. Drop your smoke (as in, on the ground, throw it away, not deploy smoke). Go to the ammo cache and resupply smoke. Go back and pick up your dropped smoke grenade. Voila, you have 2 smoke grenades (4 as TLer). I believe there is a certain max limit for smoke grenades on the map at the same time, so sometimes you won't be able to pick up the dropped smoke (nor will anyone else).
A variant of doubling your smokes is to have one other squadmate pick up your first dropped smoke and then go and get yourself the other one. That way you can deploy two smokes in two locations at the same time, if you should find you need it (but you generally won't, as it's a waste of time and people can't be arsed to do it).
* finally, don't give up (even though people can't be arsed to do even a quarter of the things described). So you get pumped up, you organise a squad, you deploy your MG in a detached overwatch position, you double your smokes, you are ready to kill! kill! kill!
And then you all die.
Shrug, decide whether to alter your approach or stick to your guns and go once more into the breach.
But most importantly — stick to your squad and stay a squad (even though half of it has already muted you and gone off to do what they think is more important).
____________________________________________
Summing up. People won't do most of these things, because somehow rushing and dying repeatedly is preferable to taking your time to get a squad going and then dying together (but sometimes succeeding). Well, На вкус и цвет товарищей нет (or "to each their own").
In this game you die, a lot. Face it. You die in frustrating ways.
But I find it's better to have a good squad going around you. Because sometimes, it'll make that difference and you won't die.
Obviously, the way the game is set up, most of these things are just wishful thinking and not really the optimal approach when juxtaposed against a mad solo rush, but as we get more and more of bigger community maps, I hope what I put down here will hold more and more true and worth the effort.
Comments, questions, cynical jokes?
____________________________________________
Appendix: a practical example (mirroring somewhat Nikita's excellent Soviet Apartments guide)
D capzone (Potapova Park).
Squad spawns on the right-hand spawn. Moves in into the building in front of the spawn. SL makes sure Propaganda house is held by Soviets, but has someone make sure going out into the street overwatched by Prop house balcony will be relatively safe (it hardly ever is).
In the meantime, the MGer gets to the first floor on the right side of the building, and picks one of the two windows providing overwatch on Potapark. Makes sure no Germans are on the 1st floor of Potapark ruins, or behind the windows of ground level at the ruins. Establishes a firing position and starts suppressive fire if necessary.
SLer smokes the German side of the capzone, that small ruin in front of the shop across the park.
Squad move into the ruins on the Soviet side. MGer maintains overwatch. An SMGer/ semi auto in the Soviet-side ruins might carefully look out the ground level ruins.
Part of the squad observes the street going down to Prophouse (keep an eye out on the demolished corner house downstreet, behind the knocked out PzIV).
If possible, part of the squad moves upstairs on the Soviet-side ruins OR SMGers move in on the German side ruins still in smoke (if SLer doubled their smoke, it might be a good idea to deploy one smoke first and then after a while another one).
SLer (or anyone with enough of their own initiative) informs the rest of the team of friendlies in the smoke on the German side of the capzone (someone doesn't notice/ doesn't give a flying fly and nades anyway).
If possible, SLers 2nd smoke is deployed close to the shop, so assault team can try to force their way to the 1st floor of that shop, to clear out the MGers most likely there.
And then...?
Profit?
These two philosophies, in my opinion, should also be differently applied depending on whether we are talking about offence, or defence.
THE TRICKLE-IN APPROACH
As far as I can tell, this is the default approach most people take. You spawn, you chose your destination capzone, you start moving towards it. No coordination required. You may die, but you know someone else is similarly rushing towards that capzone. Constant pressure on the capzone is kept up — in theory.
This approach is a much better approach for the defence, as you constantly reinforce any losses in the capzone, preventing the enemy from killing out the zone's defenders. However, in situations where the zone is already contested, specifically by an organised group (i.e. one which moved in together in force), a single trickling-in defender can usually only hope to stem or slow down the capturing process, but will be hard pressed to clear it out.
In assault, the trickle-in approach should theoretically keep up constant pressure on the capzone, but very often results in the defenders picking out single targets with ease, with little to no threat of return fire from the assaulters, as there is no one to return fire.
Additionally, this approach makes it difficult to use grenades on the offence, or results in TKs when they are used. This is a consequence of you moving in to a zone singly (or in a too small group to swing the capture process decisively in your favour) and not being certain of which zones are safe to nade, which zones will be counterproductive to nade (as you blow up fellow assaulters).
Finally, such an approach often results in an unnecessary loss of reinforcements, as you die repeatedly while achieving nothing substantial.
On the flip side, sometimes a capable (or really lucky) single guy with an automatic weapon can wreak havoc on an entrenched defence, paving the way for other teammates to move in. Sadly, this is greatly associated with a run and gun style of play, which is not something I'd personally want to advocate (but let's face it — everybody does it, because there is no fear of death, sometimes it's the only way, etc., etc.).
THE MASSED ASSAULT APPROACH
As the very name implies, this is an approach better suited to offence. It requires at least a modicum of organisation and moving in a group.
The idea is to hit the enemy capzone in force, instantly initiating a capturing process, or introducing into the zone a force potent enough to clear it out and destroy a coherent defence. By having a large group (i.e. a squad) move in together, you give the enemy (who may be spread out over the flanks and not focused on the capzone) less time to react, which is crucial for those zones which can't be retaken, but no less important for all the other capzones as well.
Threats and opportunities: a few ideas on how to do it in practice
An ever-present threat of moving in a group is artillery, a nade, or even a guy with an automatic weapon waltzing around the corner and hosing down your group before anyone has an chance to react.
You are not completely defenceless against these setbacks — that's the whole idea of a group, afterall. Some methods involve:
* bounding movement: part of the group provides overwatch and/or covering (i.e. suppressive) fire, the manuevre element moves to the next position where they anchor in and wait for the fire element to link up. It is not often a good idea for everyone to move in at the same time. The SL should indicate the move/fire element, or if the SL is unresponsive/ can't be arsed to do such silly things, because it'll all go terribly south anyway — the squad members should achieve some sort of rapport in establishing who moves and who shoots.
It is important that the fire element is big enough to actually be effective in deterring the enemy from returning accurate fire, or to take down enemies as they appear, so as not to be wiped out themselves. Which brings me to
* MG overwatch: while the MGs in this game can be used as excellent assault weapons, another prime use for the MGs on the assault is to provide overwatch and/or suppressive fire for the manuevre element, due to the sheer amount of firepower they possess. It is important to note that very often this entails the MG detaching from the direct vicinity of the squad, whilst keeping some form of visual contact.
If you are an MGer, you probably already know good overwatch positions to set up on, so if your SLer is unresponsive (remember, they usually are), show some initiative and offer to set up covering a certain route, inform about it and inform the rest of the squad when you come into position, so they may begin their movement. If you are detached, it might be a good idea to have someone to cover your back and provide extra ammo whilst in the overwatch position.
* sectors of responsibility: while moving as a group, if you notice everyone looking in the same direction, make sure you find cover to shield you from that direction and then find a different direction to look at. You don't want 6 guys to die, because all of them were looking in one direction and nobody bothered to notice that run and gunning SMGer coming in from the flank. It is not a bad idea to inform the squad members of what you're looking at (but nobody bothers to do it anyway), so they may observe something else.
* dispersal and cohesion: arty, a grenade, or an SMG can end the life of a squad quickly, even before you know what's going on. I've already mentioned the bounding movement method, but another thing worth having in mind is to disperse over a certain area if you expect you can be threatened by one of those squad-stopping things.
When venturing into a new area, have your squad's designated sucker peek in and reconnoiter the area. If he gets shot, look for ways around it, or just use brute force and force your way.
Where spawn on SL is enabled, the SL should only move in when the danger is less than extreme. His squadmates should clear his way for him, as he is their spawnpoint, and you don't want to go back all the way to the default spawn.
* correct use of smoke by SLer and nasty tactics (which will be curtailed as soon as everyone finds out): there is a wealth of threads (such as this one on the use of smoke, so go read those if you haven't already.
One thing you want to remember is that on assault you are (well, I am, when I'm smoking) interested in blinding the enemy, not your squad/team. This should also account for the overwatch element and not visually cutting off their lines of fire.
It might be a good idea to indicate where you're going to throw the smoke, so your squadmates at least have a chance to protest if it's going to alter their setup (but nobody bothers to do it and it's a waste of time anyway, because you can just zerg rush).
Achtung, haxis tricks! Another thing that is important on the offence is that the SL has just a single smoke. Quite often it is not enough, unless you team up with other SLs. Here's a trick you can apply (which is going to be effective only until people start abusing it and it gets fixed). Upon spawning (and you ought to be spawning on the spawn nearer the ammo cache), go to the ammo cache, but not close enough to use it. Drop your smoke (as in, on the ground, throw it away, not deploy smoke). Go to the ammo cache and resupply smoke. Go back and pick up your dropped smoke grenade. Voila, you have 2 smoke grenades (4 as TLer). I believe there is a certain max limit for smoke grenades on the map at the same time, so sometimes you won't be able to pick up the dropped smoke (nor will anyone else).
A variant of doubling your smokes is to have one other squadmate pick up your first dropped smoke and then go and get yourself the other one. That way you can deploy two smokes in two locations at the same time, if you should find you need it (but you generally won't, as it's a waste of time and people can't be arsed to do it).
* finally, don't give up (even though people can't be arsed to do even a quarter of the things described). So you get pumped up, you organise a squad, you deploy your MG in a detached overwatch position, you double your smokes, you are ready to kill! kill! kill!
And then you all die.
Shrug, decide whether to alter your approach or stick to your guns and go once more into the breach.
But most importantly — stick to your squad and stay a squad (even though half of it has already muted you and gone off to do what they think is more important).
____________________________________________
Summing up. People won't do most of these things, because somehow rushing and dying repeatedly is preferable to taking your time to get a squad going and then dying together (but sometimes succeeding). Well, На вкус и цвет товарищей нет (or "to each their own").
In this game you die, a lot. Face it. You die in frustrating ways.
But I find it's better to have a good squad going around you. Because sometimes, it'll make that difference and you won't die.
Obviously, the way the game is set up, most of these things are just wishful thinking and not really the optimal approach when juxtaposed against a mad solo rush, but as we get more and more of bigger community maps, I hope what I put down here will hold more and more true and worth the effort.
Comments, questions, cynical jokes?
____________________________________________
Appendix: a practical example (mirroring somewhat Nikita's excellent Soviet Apartments guide)
D capzone (Potapova Park).
Squad spawns on the right-hand spawn. Moves in into the building in front of the spawn. SL makes sure Propaganda house is held by Soviets, but has someone make sure going out into the street overwatched by Prop house balcony will be relatively safe (it hardly ever is).
In the meantime, the MGer gets to the first floor on the right side of the building, and picks one of the two windows providing overwatch on Potapark. Makes sure no Germans are on the 1st floor of Potapark ruins, or behind the windows of ground level at the ruins. Establishes a firing position and starts suppressive fire if necessary.
SLer smokes the German side of the capzone, that small ruin in front of the shop across the park.
Squad move into the ruins on the Soviet side. MGer maintains overwatch. An SMGer/ semi auto in the Soviet-side ruins might carefully look out the ground level ruins.
Part of the squad observes the street going down to Prophouse (keep an eye out on the demolished corner house downstreet, behind the knocked out PzIV).
If possible, part of the squad moves upstairs on the Soviet-side ruins OR SMGers move in on the German side ruins still in smoke (if SLer doubled their smoke, it might be a good idea to deploy one smoke first and then after a while another one).
SLer (or anyone with enough of their own initiative) informs the rest of the team of friendlies in the smoke on the German side of the capzone (someone doesn't notice/ doesn't give a flying fly and nades anyway).
If possible, SLers 2nd smoke is deployed close to the shop, so assault team can try to force their way to the 1st floor of that shop, to clear out the MGers most likely there.
And then...?
Profit?
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