The Needle
07-25-2005, 12:57 PM
My BF2 Frustration.
After a few weeks of playing BF2, let me say “I LOVE THIS GAME.” So many things were done right it makes the things that were done wrong for the most part bearable as long as we know fixes are in the works. All of this has nothing to do with my frustrations however. I think my problem lies in the lack of coordinated strategy on the maps. No matter how great the squad level play is, if the squads aren’t working as a TEAM then its all for naught. I have seen so many maps where one team has several good squads, but they all react to events like no one else is playing but them. How many times have you seen everyone abandon a flag immediately after capping because the enemy took a flag somewhere else? Thus the capping rotation begins with all the players rushing to the latest point of conflict. Sigh.
How many times have you watched in frustration as you are the only player on Strike at Karkand trying to cover the alley or behind the buildings on the sides of the conflict as the USMC kills you and goes around the 20 other guys on your team all bunched in the middle?
How many times do you have to have the Blackhawk hand you your ass on Mashtuur City before you figure out that the MEC have to hold the USMC helipad and use the tank to shoot down the Blackhawk so it can’t respawn?
I think its time for some strategy discussions. Lets take a look at my thoughts map by map:
Dalian Plant
USMC: Does no one defend the beach locations on this map? How many times do you have to be driven back to the ship before you defend the middle and lower beach spawn points where the cobra and the abrams spawn? Holding these two points are the first key to the USMC success, the second is to take the middle spawn where the Havoc and the tank spawn near the building under construction. With these bases under your control you have the important assets on the map yet all I see everyone doing is assaulting the warehouse. Why? Did someone tell you there were free points in the warehouse? Take and HOLD the two beach sites that spawn armor. Advance to the middle, attack as necessary but HOLD those positions.
Chinese: Hold the middle point where your heli spawns at all costs. Loss of this point can result in a rapid defeat. Deny the enemy their armor assets. Drive them off the beach and dig in.
Daqing Oilfields
USMC: Take the two nearest sites immediately and leave INFANTRY there to hold. There is a lot of cover there and a squad can hold these sites relatively easily against all but the most determined attacks. Take the site to the north of the gas station where the cobra spawns. Again, infantry can defend this with a few mines and some anti-tank. Use all the resources of these three points to beat the enemy down at a single point, preferably one of the other two armor spawns and I like the north one at that. You get a tank and a linebacker there. Once they are in your possession you can use your attack force as a reactionary force to re-take anywhere that’s lost. The important thing is: there is no need to go after the other flags. Please please understand that.
Chinese: Rush to the two closest flags and defend them. The first one out of the airfield is hard, there is little cover there but has the benefit of being farthest from the enemies home base. Capture the point on the north of the gas station, then advance to the gas station itself. Stop. Hold your ground. Defend your territory and you will win. You can substitute any flag for the gas station but again, it spawns armor and is defensible.
Dragon Valley
We haven’t played this enough yet
FuShe Pass
We haven’t played this enough yet either
Gulf of Oman
Let’s face it; we are all experts at this map, right? Well if so then why are flags consistently being swapped in a big circle-jerk? No one plays defense, that’s why. It’s not glamorous, but just like sports, it wins games. PLAY DEFENSE. Defend what you take and don’t try to expand beyond your means.
Kubra Dam
USMC: Get the Blackhawk in the air ASAP. Cap the MEC airfield. Proceed to whore yourselves all over. Everything else is a sideshow if the USMC can hold the MEC airfield and keep the Blackhawk in the air. When you get two of these going, game over. This map is unbalanced by the USMC ability to hold both airfields if the marines are smart enough to take advantage of it.
MEC: Shootdown the Blackhawk whores at all costs. Defend your airbase. If you cannot suppress the USMC ability to cap a flag in 5 seconds you will quickly find yourself with one or two spawnpoints at the dam and the rest of the map will be spent trying to keep yourselves from getting slaughtered.
Mashtuur City
This map is an ass kicking for the MEC right? Lets talk both sides.
USMC: Blackhawk. Blackhawk. Blackhawk. Use it to keep control of both armor spawns and your home base. Game over.
MEC: You MUST capture the lower left armor spawn right off the bat and HOLD it. With the tank that spawns there you have a good chance of shooting down the Blackhawk and if you can take and hold the USMC home base this removes that piece from the game. This will not win you the map, but it evens the fight. If you can take and hold the other armor spawn, then you will win. Defense again is key, imagine that.
Operation Clean Sweep
USMC: Take and hold the enemy home airfield. Push forward from there. That base will make or break the MEC by denying them a tank, an APC, their transport chopper and a jet. Destroy their radar, their UAV van. Artillery won’t matter at that point. They are blind and you can roll them up. Just don’t forget to DEFEND that base.
MEC: Leave a squad at your airfield to hold it with at least an APC. Between the stinger, the TOW and the APC you can defeat a blackhawk assault if necessary. Spread out on the islands and react locally to any attack but DO NOT run to the far end of the island because the enemy capped a flag there. Let the people there respawn at the nearest flag and they can continue the fight. Boring? You betcha. Effective? Absolutely.
Sharqi Peninsula
USMC: Why do you always leave the TV station where the Abrams and the Cobra spawn undefended. Stupid Jarhead. Stay there and defend that base. Defend the base down on the beach. Why isn’t anyone there, you know a boat is coming. Someone not in a squad, run behind them and wait for their tank to spawn. Steal it. Come on, be sneaky.
MEC: Take their headquarters. Deny them artillery, UAV and radar. Take it, defend it, win.
Songhua Stalemate
USMC: Go go gadget chopper whores. Two blackhawks, this is your map. Defend your Blackhawk spawns and the game is yours.
Chinese: You MUST take the helicopter spawns. Deny them their airpower for any hope to win. Once you have capped those flags, wait there with a tank or a couple of APC’s for the Blackhawks to come swooping to the rescue. Take’em down.
Strike at Karkand
USMC: Why are you all bunched up in the middle? This map is about bypassing the enemy and getting into their rear areas. Split up, roll left and right, get to a vehicle spawn, they enemy always leave them laying around. Drive halfway or ALL the way across the map and cap a flag. Divide and conquer. Take down the radar and UAV and arty!
MEC: Do NOT leave your home base undefended, this is your armor spawn. How many APC’s and the tank do you lose when this is gone? How hard is it to get back? Exactly. Cover the left and right sides at map start. They always get around you because you don’t, how hard is that?
Zatar Wetlands
USMC: Capture the hill in the middle right off the bat, that should be the first Blackhawk stopping point. Secure it!! Set up defenses. Now spread out. Go around the long way to the base outside the enemy airfield. Cap and hold. Use the armor to harass their main base and waste their resources stopping you.
MEC: Go around them. Cut them off, capture the points behind them. Do NOT let them take the spawn outside your airfield. Counterattack immediately if they do. As for the hill in the middle, a single competent tanker can keep the cobra from ever getting off the ground intact from the bottom of the hill. Let them sit there and rot if you can capture the other points just pour fire in on the hill.
Please, lets hear some comments, I am always looking to refine my strategies. I know much of this won't ever happen because the squad leaders don't listen in the game half the time but perhaps the WiH night, sigh. I have hopes.
After a few weeks of playing BF2, let me say “I LOVE THIS GAME.” So many things were done right it makes the things that were done wrong for the most part bearable as long as we know fixes are in the works. All of this has nothing to do with my frustrations however. I think my problem lies in the lack of coordinated strategy on the maps. No matter how great the squad level play is, if the squads aren’t working as a TEAM then its all for naught. I have seen so many maps where one team has several good squads, but they all react to events like no one else is playing but them. How many times have you seen everyone abandon a flag immediately after capping because the enemy took a flag somewhere else? Thus the capping rotation begins with all the players rushing to the latest point of conflict. Sigh.
How many times have you watched in frustration as you are the only player on Strike at Karkand trying to cover the alley or behind the buildings on the sides of the conflict as the USMC kills you and goes around the 20 other guys on your team all bunched in the middle?
How many times do you have to have the Blackhawk hand you your ass on Mashtuur City before you figure out that the MEC have to hold the USMC helipad and use the tank to shoot down the Blackhawk so it can’t respawn?
I think its time for some strategy discussions. Lets take a look at my thoughts map by map:
Dalian Plant
USMC: Does no one defend the beach locations on this map? How many times do you have to be driven back to the ship before you defend the middle and lower beach spawn points where the cobra and the abrams spawn? Holding these two points are the first key to the USMC success, the second is to take the middle spawn where the Havoc and the tank spawn near the building under construction. With these bases under your control you have the important assets on the map yet all I see everyone doing is assaulting the warehouse. Why? Did someone tell you there were free points in the warehouse? Take and HOLD the two beach sites that spawn armor. Advance to the middle, attack as necessary but HOLD those positions.
Chinese: Hold the middle point where your heli spawns at all costs. Loss of this point can result in a rapid defeat. Deny the enemy their armor assets. Drive them off the beach and dig in.
Daqing Oilfields
USMC: Take the two nearest sites immediately and leave INFANTRY there to hold. There is a lot of cover there and a squad can hold these sites relatively easily against all but the most determined attacks. Take the site to the north of the gas station where the cobra spawns. Again, infantry can defend this with a few mines and some anti-tank. Use all the resources of these three points to beat the enemy down at a single point, preferably one of the other two armor spawns and I like the north one at that. You get a tank and a linebacker there. Once they are in your possession you can use your attack force as a reactionary force to re-take anywhere that’s lost. The important thing is: there is no need to go after the other flags. Please please understand that.
Chinese: Rush to the two closest flags and defend them. The first one out of the airfield is hard, there is little cover there but has the benefit of being farthest from the enemies home base. Capture the point on the north of the gas station, then advance to the gas station itself. Stop. Hold your ground. Defend your territory and you will win. You can substitute any flag for the gas station but again, it spawns armor and is defensible.
Dragon Valley
We haven’t played this enough yet
FuShe Pass
We haven’t played this enough yet either
Gulf of Oman
Let’s face it; we are all experts at this map, right? Well if so then why are flags consistently being swapped in a big circle-jerk? No one plays defense, that’s why. It’s not glamorous, but just like sports, it wins games. PLAY DEFENSE. Defend what you take and don’t try to expand beyond your means.
Kubra Dam
USMC: Get the Blackhawk in the air ASAP. Cap the MEC airfield. Proceed to whore yourselves all over. Everything else is a sideshow if the USMC can hold the MEC airfield and keep the Blackhawk in the air. When you get two of these going, game over. This map is unbalanced by the USMC ability to hold both airfields if the marines are smart enough to take advantage of it.
MEC: Shootdown the Blackhawk whores at all costs. Defend your airbase. If you cannot suppress the USMC ability to cap a flag in 5 seconds you will quickly find yourself with one or two spawnpoints at the dam and the rest of the map will be spent trying to keep yourselves from getting slaughtered.
Mashtuur City
This map is an ass kicking for the MEC right? Lets talk both sides.
USMC: Blackhawk. Blackhawk. Blackhawk. Use it to keep control of both armor spawns and your home base. Game over.
MEC: You MUST capture the lower left armor spawn right off the bat and HOLD it. With the tank that spawns there you have a good chance of shooting down the Blackhawk and if you can take and hold the USMC home base this removes that piece from the game. This will not win you the map, but it evens the fight. If you can take and hold the other armor spawn, then you will win. Defense again is key, imagine that.
Operation Clean Sweep
USMC: Take and hold the enemy home airfield. Push forward from there. That base will make or break the MEC by denying them a tank, an APC, their transport chopper and a jet. Destroy their radar, their UAV van. Artillery won’t matter at that point. They are blind and you can roll them up. Just don’t forget to DEFEND that base.
MEC: Leave a squad at your airfield to hold it with at least an APC. Between the stinger, the TOW and the APC you can defeat a blackhawk assault if necessary. Spread out on the islands and react locally to any attack but DO NOT run to the far end of the island because the enemy capped a flag there. Let the people there respawn at the nearest flag and they can continue the fight. Boring? You betcha. Effective? Absolutely.
Sharqi Peninsula
USMC: Why do you always leave the TV station where the Abrams and the Cobra spawn undefended. Stupid Jarhead. Stay there and defend that base. Defend the base down on the beach. Why isn’t anyone there, you know a boat is coming. Someone not in a squad, run behind them and wait for their tank to spawn. Steal it. Come on, be sneaky.
MEC: Take their headquarters. Deny them artillery, UAV and radar. Take it, defend it, win.
Songhua Stalemate
USMC: Go go gadget chopper whores. Two blackhawks, this is your map. Defend your Blackhawk spawns and the game is yours.
Chinese: You MUST take the helicopter spawns. Deny them their airpower for any hope to win. Once you have capped those flags, wait there with a tank or a couple of APC’s for the Blackhawks to come swooping to the rescue. Take’em down.
Strike at Karkand
USMC: Why are you all bunched up in the middle? This map is about bypassing the enemy and getting into their rear areas. Split up, roll left and right, get to a vehicle spawn, they enemy always leave them laying around. Drive halfway or ALL the way across the map and cap a flag. Divide and conquer. Take down the radar and UAV and arty!
MEC: Do NOT leave your home base undefended, this is your armor spawn. How many APC’s and the tank do you lose when this is gone? How hard is it to get back? Exactly. Cover the left and right sides at map start. They always get around you because you don’t, how hard is that?
Zatar Wetlands
USMC: Capture the hill in the middle right off the bat, that should be the first Blackhawk stopping point. Secure it!! Set up defenses. Now spread out. Go around the long way to the base outside the enemy airfield. Cap and hold. Use the armor to harass their main base and waste their resources stopping you.
MEC: Go around them. Cut them off, capture the points behind them. Do NOT let them take the spawn outside your airfield. Counterattack immediately if they do. As for the hill in the middle, a single competent tanker can keep the cobra from ever getting off the ground intact from the bottom of the hill. Let them sit there and rot if you can capture the other points just pour fire in on the hill.
Please, lets hear some comments, I am always looking to refine my strategies. I know much of this won't ever happen because the squad leaders don't listen in the game half the time but perhaps the WiH night, sigh. I have hopes.