This is a map that's growing on me more and more, likely due to my increasing preference for recon VSS hunting, and that's more easily accomplished on maps that are very spread out (Presa's first and fourth MCOM base) with shrubbery and jungle as camo insead of dense buildings. I can't shoot through buildings. I can shoot through leaves. I also like that this rush map has five different bases, which all play slightly differently as increasing and decreasing amounts of vehicles are made available.
Attacking: My overall offensive strategy here is to promote a slow forward crawl of our entire team. The distances from attacker-spawn to the objectives are very long on this map, and you can kill a lot of time waiting on boats to respawn, or running the entire way to useful action. I spend most of the map in a support role, launching smoke grenades or taking out fixed defensive positions from a distance so my teammates can be killed less quickly, and hopefully spawn on their squadmates instead of back at the home base.
Village: They give you boats with grenade launchers, but then they give defenders three heavily camoflauged hilltop shorelines from which to snipe your stationary ass. The boats are a deathtrap and are really only good for shuttling you from the island to whichever shore you feel like sneaking up from. As a personal preference I like the western (from the attacking POV) shore because I feel it's less exposed from defenders hiding in the hills between the shore and the village. The central shore is usually well covered by infantry, and eastern has far fewer trees and buildings to mask your approach. I'll typically roll assault here with smoke grenades, slowly crawl through the jungle to the western periphery of the village, then camp in a building with a decent sightline to the nearest MCOM and lay down constant smoke until I'm either killed or someone bothers to move up and set it. Why the western MCOM?
As this image generously stolen from somewhere on the internet suggests, it's a shorter travel, involving less opportunity for death. The green arrow is basically the extent of what I've described above, whereas pushing the other MCOM involves that series of red arrows, going the long way east, crossing the barren road/parking lot, and bouncing behind many houses without any direct sightline on that MCOM, all the while trying to dodge the defenders that setup in those specific areas. The western MCOM always goes first. Then you can start pressuring the eastern one from multiple directions (for which I have no strategy because I typically die repeatedly trying to get within firing distance).
I do like the UAV in this situation, especially with my newfound gamebreaking ability called V-OPTIC, which lets you actually use the UAV from a distance long enough to dissuade bullet spam. I've gone entire matches without it dying, scoring enough points on spotting alone to rank in the upper half of the scoreboard. With all the tree camo and destructable buildings, it's very helpful to spot flankers and bust fixed positions.
Waterfall: This base has two stages: 1) Sniffing out all the hiding engineers and snipers in the hills and riverside rock formations who keep trying to AT mine/C4 your tank, and then 2) the actual base. If given a choice, I like to recon on this map, because sensor balls really do trivialize the first phase (where you can often bleed 20+ lives if the defense has smart medics keeping their forward positions alive), and there's a tremendously convenient sniping perch at the end of the central rock ridge, covered with bushes, with the perfect view of alpha and both stationary weapon terminals. Once alpha's done, you can suppress the guys who try to sneak around the western hills/shacks while your tank rolls forward, or clear out the eastern jungle so your flankers can advance.
Bridge: Back to assault+smoke here, since the entire fight is uphill and you never really get to use your scopes to full advantage. Smoke grenades are necessary to approach the eastern MCOM, which is behind a small bluff, covered by a heavy MG, AT rocket station, and the full defender base. You pretty much have to get lucky sneaking one guy through to set the MCOM, though the resulting bulletstorm from teammates camping behind the buildings closer to the other MCOM can keep it covered. That western MCOM is usually pretty easy to sneak up on, with a path leading right behind the buildings and only one sightline to worry about.
Islands: You and two friends can bum rush alpha and arm it before the defenders are in place (they have a disproportionately long run from their spawn). Class doesn't even really matter here, though for the record I like recon because eventually you have to move on bravo, and the view is obscured enough to require sensor balls. You also have a problem with flanking dudes hiding in the grassland to the west of the main road, picking off reinforcements and fucking with your tank. Sensor balls ruin their camping ambitions. Once that's clear and your team is running through the grass towards bravo, I like to run through the water around the whole plateau, setting up on a small hill on the opposite side of the MCOM to spot and hopefully kill defenders running in from that direction. For descriptive purposes, it's how you'd run from the hilltop spawn to the A flag if this were a conquest map, then turn right at the first river fork.
Last Stand: If recon, continue following the western water into the treeline, climb the hill, then circle north and then east into a flanking position. There's probably a bolt-action sniper up here, so kill him with C4 (because he's scoped and won't see you) and then continue moving either to the edge of the treeline and snipe spawning defenders, or building-hop and serve as a forward spawn point for your squad as you slowly push the northern MCOM. You'll either set that MCOM (good), draw enough defenders to let the rest of your team get the southern one (good), or die immediately and respawn as some other more useful class here (neutral).
I like medic on this base because that central island can be kind of a slaughterhouse if there are forward assault/engineer guys occupying the area (B flag on conquest), so you can rez teammates, and then once you've pushed the line of engagement back you can use the MG36 as a very effective tool to kill anything that stops at the southern MCOM, without leaving the central island. Once that one's armed, your jungle-flankers can probably move on the northern one. This base usually doesn't last long.
Defending: I'm slower on the draw than everyone else who plays this game, due to either lag or me sucking. Either way, going shotguns or close-range assault or SMGs is just going to get me killed when some dude pops out of nowhere. I therefore tend to prefer recon at all bases while defending. Sensor balls give me the warning I need to play a decent round, and the combination of C4 and mortar strikes comes in handy for tanks.
Village: The very first thing I do is run to a position on a cliff near the water line, roughly SSW of the red 1 on the above image. There's a rock cliff immediately to the left, and some bush cover. From here, I snipe boats, either pilots or grenade launchers if they're stupid enough to slow down in the bay. You can also spot anybody on the beach, and most of the western ridge. It's a great position, and is protected enough from two directions that you're not subject to counter-snipers or infantry accidentally discovering you. In fact, you can usually hear them when they pass by breaking branches, then sneak up behind for easy kills. I'll stay out here until the MCOMs start getting armed, then retreat to whatever buildings or bushes are available in the middle of the village, hiding and waiting for somebody to try to arm.
Waterfall: Upon spawn, put two bricks of C4 down on the road near the big puddle, then climb up on the rock plateau towards the east, along the mountain. Infantry tend to jump down from the ledge on their side, and you can pick them off from a relatively safe distance from that side until they give up and switch to the river. Then I fall back to the wooden shack behind the western MCOM, poking my head out every now and then towards those same cliffs looking for movement, sensor balls to the east to pick up flankers. You can cover the MCOM from here if the building's walls are blown, which they generally are. There's also a stationary AT here, if your C4 is gone.
Bridge: The perfect recon position is up the guard tower towards the back end of the base. You can squat in the shadows without much exposure and you have views of the back of the western MCOM, the eastern MCOM, the whole road leading to the bridge, and the western ledge where most infantry try to advance. With the VSS, there's no muzzle flash or sound or tracers, so you can kill anything that comes up the hill and tries to hide in the rocks, or behind the western buildings, or in the bushes along the road. Bonus points for mortaring the tank when it parks on the road and tries to lay down suppression fire.
Islands/Last Stand: I hang around the stationary weaponry at both bases, which are largely the same for my defensive purposes, since I want no part of reflex exercises and strafe-shooting at the forward positions. The back of the bases are somewhat protected from the sides (LS moreso than islands), so you only need to worry about shit in front of you while you blast away on the MG or line up a shot with the AT. The problem with this position is that you don't have a decent view of common enemy approaches, so you have to run down to MCOMS somewhat blindly.
No comments:
Post a Comment