GRRR Squad Forum

me too - although i am more comfortable with myself and dont need to count on my big guns

Are we going to log into one TS channel?

Erm... quick question: Why am I being played ahead of a bunch of ppl who have been practicing and playing recently? I'm totally out of touch with the game - haven't played for about 3 weeks. I'll be glad for the prac, but wouldn't feel comfortable playing in the match this weekend. More specifically, I see I'm assigned to a squad where I'll be playing Assault kit mainly... with murgs as a reserve for that squad? Really? Even if I was in practice, I'd NEVER rate myself better with assault kit than murgs or Paul. Just a point towards picking the best team for the job. I'm quite happy to sit out when there's a better team member available.

A few comments from me about last nights prac.

3 good rounds, 1 pretty bad. Not sure what happened in the last round but what I did notice is that everyone was talking over each other in TS that went something like this:
* Oh he got me. I'm dead.
* Spawning on you.
* There are 2 in the red building.
* I need ammo.
etc

There were a lot of comments like that that mean nothing. Everyone needs specifics and it should be useful information. eg "I am dead near the flag at B". "2 in the red building below B".
Keep it short and try to keep the information useful to your teammates, not just yourself.

Tactically this is a tough map cos it is so easy to be outflanked. I think we should play into one of 2 positions. Either we have the 2 flags closest to our base and defend with the majority at B or we cap all 3 flags and push them back to the bottleneck near their base. Defending B is an easier position to get into.

Near the end of the last round I was on B, calling for everyone to get on the flag. The tickets were tight and we needed to avoid the extra bleed. You can still shoot at the enemy, but its more useful to the team if you shoot from a position where you are also capping a flag.

I think everyone needs to take responsibility for tactical play during a match. If you are nearest to a flag that is flashing, assess and react. Its important on these IO maps that all movements take place with at least 2 peeps, 1 of which is a medic. So if you go back to defend a flag, take a medic with you.

To sum up:
Short concise USEFUL comments on TS.
Teams of at least 2 with at least 1 medic for toilet visits.

I agree with Mega's comments, herewith my 2 cents as well. It was the first time that I’ve been tasked with “commanding” the grrr squad. This is my observations

(ps, I've typed the game flows from selective memory, so if they happened differently in your view, then all I can say is OOPS...)

General
Squad call signs:
Just for clarity the original plan assumed that bravo squad would have been Shadey’s squad with the APC, Alpha squad would have been the other 3 man squad (Skoups / Lee / Drags) while Charlie squad would be the 2 man squad under Mega. During the game this was the other way around and Shady / Lep / Voetsek (and the APC) was in Alpha squad. This made it confusing when I’ve asked Bravo squad to go do this or whatever, since the mails etc all said bravo is (Shadey / Lep / Voetsek). At the end of the day, I’ve ended up having to call individuals by their names, this just increases traffic over TS. We should be able to just be saying Alpha Squad / or Bravo Squad or Charlie squad.

Shadey, this is as much my bad as anybody else’s, but can we please try and get to the right squads as soon as we enter into the server since.

Squad team work:
This is a good thing and a bad thing. On numerous occasions guys from Alpha was fighting with Bravo and vice versa. Though this shows a lot about how easy the two squads could mingle into a giant force to be reckoning with, it does make it more difficult to direct forces to specific flags. For instance, if there is one guy from alpha fighting with bravo, I cannot ask Bravo to go for flag “C” because that will mean Alpha will have insufficient people doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I think Charlie squad did exceptionally well; they’ve managed to get into the ninja positions when asked for it. (More on Ninja’s later), and Mega had the good presence of mind to see which of Alpha / Bravo needed help and assist there.

I really liked the way that Shadey commanded the APC and have the good sense to ensure the enemy APC doesn’t get destroyed. So kudus there!

Ninjas:
This is something that NUTZ completely lacked, and something I am still working on seeing how we could potentially maximize its powers. I remember calling in our last game for somebody to ninja around to the C flag. The person ninja’d around very successfully. I almost had a vision that that person (I think it was j0nny) whould hang back and wait for the guys to spawn on him. However, I think he got spotted or, perhaps moved just into the capping radius and the flag started flashing. This alerted the enemy and suddenly they turned around completely and took out our ninja there together with the one or two guys that spawned. Can I ask that we perhaps try the following tactic the next time we have a practice session. When a ninja gets into position and he is ready. Then we need a squad (or 3 people at least) to hold back their spawn when they died, UNTIL there is 3 people ready to spawn at once on the ninja. Once they spawn then not only will the ninja squad consist of 4 people, they will also have the element of surprise. The speed at which the ninja squad could then take a flag increases 4 fold. And no longer is it a matter of the ninja trying to protect cover etc, it is a full on back-onslaught on to the enemies. The perfect solution would be to have 6 people spawn on the ninja but that may be just a bit difficult to co-ordinate.

Game analysis
First game:
Languna Presa – first round, Danglers won by 50+ tickets against SSG. We spawned in the Southern base. Some initial confusion about exactly what each person was supposed to do. In summary, Bravo squad (Shady / Lep / Voetsek) takes the APC and cap the “C” flag. Alpha squad and Charlie squad make a run towards “B” flag and cap that. Charlie squad could use the quad bike to race to “B” flag in order to deploy sensor mines and perhaps even launch a Mortar strike. Alpha squad, unfortunately need to do it by foot. Having one guy racing to “B” and get everybody to spawn on him is an option, but I’ve found that should that person be taken out, then we have 5 people that lost valuable time. Run on foot ensures that we are able to observe the enemy as they come down the flag as well.

We failed to secure “B”, the reason for this is simply that they’ve committed ALL 7 their resources to that flag and as such, it would be impossible for us to have taken it. Fortunately this was observed and the tactics changed mid game to rather focus our attack on “A” with Bravo squad (the APC) defending “C”. I want to THANK everybody for immediately heeding the call to change tactics. This was done very well and that kept ticket bleed to the minimum.

Even though we had “C” and “A” flag, we continue to make a push for “B”, in reality, we did not had to we could have just waited for them to come to us. We lost a couple of tickets due to that move, but still managed to recuperate. I think, on that map, if we have two flags in the clan match, then that’s it. There is not a single team in the league which we could confidently dominate by owning 3 flags.

The match changing moment for me was when their APC engaged ours, the engineer jumped out, starting to repair, leaving the APC unmanned. This allowed us to capture their APC and drove off with it. The proudest point in that round for me was the fact that for the REST of the game, we controlled their APC. Kudu’s to Lep and Shadey for being so careful with it!

Something that I am not sure a lot of people know, is that as soon as there is nobody in armor, the icon appears on the mini map. I for one am continuously looking at the mini map and even if there isn’t enemy infantry nearby. This is still VERY dangerous because not only could a ninja be hiding in the bushes, it also tells observant enemy WHERE the tank are, and based on the way it stands, one can also infer where it is likely to be going to once it is repaired. Please, just a word of caution when we repair on that map (or any map), ensure there is somebody IN the tank before you jump out. That way, the tank doesn’t pop up on everybody’s minimaps.

Second game:
Languna Presa – second round, Danglers won by 50+ tickets against SSG. We spawned in the Northern base. Less confusion about the start of the map, Bravo squad (Shadey’s squad) took the armor to “A”, Alpha and Charlie made a run to “B”. A lot of good fighting happened at “B” and on occasions we actually lost that flag. But that is fine, because they attacked in a much stronger force than what we had committed to that flag, and this caused them a continuous ticket bleed. In this case, Shadey can make a call if she would / could commit any of her squad members to assist in securing “B” again, but her call should NEVER cause the “A” flag to become under undue pressure.

The only criticism that I had during that particular game, on several occasions I’ve asked how it is going with “A” flag, or does a squad need additional help or whatever. When we ask that question, there is normally a very good reason for it, it is either that there is no chatter happening on that flag, i.e. total domination by our squad, or that flag is under severe pressure. If we are dominating that flag, then it means we could commit some resources protecting that flag to another objective for instance. If that squad is under pressure, we could potentially make a call to let that flag go and move in for another. So please, when the question is asked, we need to a quick response from the squad leader. The following are examples:
- We have the flag totally under control, we can commit 2 men, (or an APC) if you need it.
- We are busy but will get the flag back. No need to worry. (If you see you can’t get the flag back, then call it in)
- We are under heavy attack and are struggling to get the flag back.

Based on that kind of information, it becomes very easy to redirect squads to where they will be adding the most value.

Overall, the game play was smooth and the flow nice, some hectic moments at “B” on occasions, especially when we were pinned down by their APC. When the enemy APC is up, we need to be cautious, and need to focus on bringing it down.

I feel very comfortable going up against BBH on this map. They will try to take out our APC as quickly as possible, and without a doubt, Krygorian will attempt that using a C4-buggy. So guys, if you spot a buggy driving past you, please warn Leppy or else we will be without an APC for a while.

Third game:
Arica Habour – first round, won by 60+ tickets against SSG. We started in the northern base. The original tactic was to move as a single entity from one flag to the next. We’ve got hammered doing that. Eventually we ended up just hanging back and defending our flags from longer distances. I think the fact that enemy movements was called out is a good thing, I do however think that we should work more on describing WHERE the enemy movements originated from. It was easy to say, “coming from the ridge near the UAV”, but we need that (or better) descriptions for other areas around the map and especially close to the B flag.

I think we sometimes forget to SPOT enemy units since they don’t appear in the 3d map, but please, we should continue to spot them since they still do appear in the big map and on the mini map. I also found it useful to be sniping from the main construction building at our base since that allowed me to see clearly the enemy movements on the ridge and spot them accordingly. However, we were lucky in winning this map by this margin and I don’t think that score is a representative of how we played as was evident in the next round…

Forth game:
Arica Habour – second round, loss by ~10 tickets against SSG. We started in the Southern base. I had nightmares yesterday on that map trying to figure out how we should change tactics only to be woken up by yet another spawn-die fail.

Any event, the enemy realized what we’ve done the first round, and they suddenly spawned a lot more medics, this completely countered our tactics. In the clan match, they will henceforth start with this tactic immediately.

I’ve got really frustrated in this map since we needed medics, and a lot of them as well. I’ve called several times that we need to spawn medics, and then the ticket bleed turned in our favour. As soon as the ticket bleed was in our favour, people started spawning assault again, and suddenly the ticket bleed started again. Ticket counter is the only thing that wins matches, nobody will come at the end of the league and say person’s “X” had a KDR of this, or this person had so many headshots. All that counts is that ticket counter. If stopping the ticket bleed means we all spawn medics, and we all get crap KDR’s then please it is a no-brainer, we spawn medics.

I got really frustrated with spawn-dies, which happened a lot in this particular game. It was partly my fault, for spawning on certain players but on numerous occasions I would spawn, be killed immediately, but not be revived at all. Even though I would spawn in the middle of a fight, one should expect a medic or two to be close by at all times on this map.

In summary, I don’t think we have a winning formula on this map yet. Fortunately we still have a week or so before we will play it, and as such, I will recommend we have a long practice session (4 games) with say BBH next week. Also, if you can think of an alternative / better strategy for Arica, post it in the newly create strategy section and we should try it out.

Wow Skoup I wasn't even there I know what I would need to do in the next prac. Very nice input.

I hope everyone pays attention to what you are saying an implements the suggestions

Excellent feedback - but just so you and possibly everyone knows - 3d Spotting is OFF as part of the league rules.
So you will only see enemies on the TAB map or the minimap - by default.

Also, I was wrong, we don't play Arica the following weekend, it's rather futher down the line, however we do play it TWICE in this leg - so we need to seriously polish it.


Week 1 Atacama Desert CQ 15 Jun - 21 Jun vs .UbS|Totengräber
Week 2 Laguna Presa CQ 22 Jun - 28 Jun vs [BBH]Bandidos <-- you are here
Week 3 Panama Canal CQ 29 Jun - 5 Jul vs =NSD=Sons Of Patriots
Week 4 White Pass CQ 6 Jul - 12 Jul vs =DAC=Crusaders(we lost against these guys and REALLY shouldn't have)
Week 5 Laguna Alta CQ 13 Jul - 19 Jul vs [HF]Kalenjin
Week 6 Arica Harbor CQ 20 Jul - 26 Jul vs nAz BC2

Pick 'n Play (#1) Arica Harbor CQ 15 Jun - 26 Jul vs [ATF]FireTeam.MSI

SlipperyDuck wrote:Excellent feedback - but just so you and possibly everyone knows - 3d Spotting is OFF as part of the league rules.
So you will only see enemies on the TAB map or the minimap - by default.

that means KEEP SPOTTING ANYWAY AND KEEP LOOKING AT YOUR MINIMAP

Well noted regarding the squads in-game, Skoup.

I'm a believer in taking 2 flags and holding them. Unless one is playing a really weak side, it is just not feasible to go for that third flag.

I posted previously about having a prac to just name places on the map - can we do this soon please? It will help tremendously with having concise TS chats.
On that note, sorry - I was one of the ppl saying "spawing on so and so in blah seconds". I started doing this cause I was tired of spawn-die failzors. Part of me thinks this is an important thing to communicate - for example if someone says they are gonna spawn on me... I will look for a safe place and hide instead of going to cap/etc. On the other hand, I can see how 8 ppl saying that constantly would be bad.