Dumb Tactics Revealed!!

[Aileron]

Alright, some mistakes I've seen that I'd like to point out. I'm not perfect by all means, so if you've seen me or anyone else do something dumb, point it out, but let's keep this constructive.

 

Not Protecting the Lanc

Too often, attacking teams like to rush forward. Rushing on offense is generally a good thing, but if *everybody* rushes past the enemies, those enemies have easy access to the attacking team's lanc and can kill it, then they simply kill the stray rushers. But simply put, the team which doesn't protect its lanc fails. Period.

 

Suicide Rather Than Rushing

I've seen small ships without repels rush the enemies lines and die without really doing anything. In the words of General Patton "No one ever helped his country by dying for it - the trick is to make the other poor dumb bastard go off and die for *his* country".

 

Unsupported Rushing

Similar to the last one, this is rushing when your gunners and bombers aren't around to back you up. Without them, the enemy will just kill you and re-take the ground you just repped them out of because your buddies aren't around to hold it from them. Similarly, if more than one of you are rushing, how about all of you rush at the same time rather than in sequence to be gunned down one by one. Take the extra couple seconds, wait for the rest of your team to attach and catch up, and everybody rush together.

 

Not Rushing at All

If you are on offense, you should be pushing forward. While I've just grilled rushers, I will point out that too much rushing on offense is far less dangerous than too little rushing.

 

Leaking on Defense

I've seen people who were so successful rushing on defense that they leaked past the offense. When you do this, you have defeated the entire point of being on defense. While on defense, you must kill every ship that tries to touch your flags. If you fly past them, they also fly past you. Rushing on defense is only effective if you can push *ALL* of them back.

 

The Polish Flank

This is what I have dubbed the tactic of creating such a large flank or leak while on defense that you actually divert too many resources from the basic defense. The attackers then simply push forward and take the base, and the flankers suddenly find themselves on offense!

 

Flanking

The only time you should try to flank is if the enemy is at most just inside the entrance to the base and you have a good ftl like tw or id. If they are deep within your base, or you are using jump or hypertunnels, it will take too long for you to reach them. The only goal you should have is to assassinate either their lanc or their flaggers. If you are going for their lanc, bring enough firepower to do it...bursts work for this. Finally, under no circumstances should you be typing '//attach for flank' or anything like that. Multiple people on flank leads to Polish flanking.

 

Everybody Going After the Leak

Okay, so every once in a while a shark or warbird gets through. That doesn't mean that every spider and levi on line does an about face and chases after him. Use common sense! Two or three lights should go after the leak while everyone else focuses on the other threats.

 

Bringing Smalls to a Flag Game

"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight". It's a classic quote from a classic movie. Similarly, don't bring too many warbirds, javs, and sharks to a flag match. Bring a few to leak, but if they are the mainstay of your force your team will be man-handled.

 

Wallbombing With L2 or L1 bombs

Simply put, these bombs don't have the radius to be effective through walls. Can you get a kill once in a while? Yes, but blind squirrels can find an acorn once in a while too. Just because you are safe on your side of the wall and getting the occasional kill from nme ships who are actually *fighting* doesn't mean that you aren't screwing your buddies over when they are trying to win and you are picking off cheap kills.

 

Dropping Too Many Mines in the Same Place

Just drop enough mines to block the passage and be lethal. Any more than that and you are wasting mines and increasing the chance of teamkills if enemies repel them. It is far better to have *multiple* minefields to force the enemy to use *multiple* repels.

 

Not Dropping Mines on Defense

They are a cheap and easy way to kill or slow down leaks. If mines don't succeed in doing that, you'll at least force them to use all of their repels.

 

Using L1 Guns in the Face of Rush Lancs

Yes, I've been guilty of this one. I like my spam guns. But, if the enemy is smart and doesn't bring a bunch of smalls to a base, you will need more firepower than a beam array to stop that horde of rush lancs descending upon you. A good tactic is to save your bursts and use them on enemy heavies.

 

Using Non-Bounce Guns Inside a Base

If they have bounce, they can shoot you around a corner. Also, even if you do have line of sight, frankly with a bounce gun you can't miss inside a base.

 

Cloaking More Than Once

If your cloak leak didn't work the first time, it is most likely because someone on the enemy team has X-radar on. Odds are they didn't decide to turn it off after they found out you have cloak, so don't try it again.

 

Cloaking When There Are Ten or More People on the Other Team

Come on! Do you honestly think all of them either don't have X or aren't checking it? Even then, they probably have a good amount of spam gun firing on a choke point and/or have minefields in place.

[spidernl]

Using Non-Bounce Guns Inside a Base

If they have bounce, they can shoot you around a corner. Also, even if you do have line of sight, frankly with a bounce gun you can't miss inside a base.

 

If I have phaser, shredder or disruptor however, I can rape their lanc when I rush on top of it. If you're going to comment on bounce/non bounce for basing, atleast think of the use of higher dps non-bounce guns

 

Also, I sort of have to laugh at the fact that you're posting tactics on the forum of a game in which you can hardly get 3 people to rush at the same time, let alone use STRATEGIES and TACTICS.

[Corey]

Bringing Smalls to a Flag Game

"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight". It's a classic quote from a classic movie. Similarly, don't bring too many warbirds, javs, and sharks to a flag match. Bring a few to leak, but if they are the mainstay of your force your team will be man-handled.

For the 4 years i played HS the best rushers were WBs or Javs, they are manueverable, and have a awesome top speed, combine this with 4 reps, 3 bursts, and AntiDeath, was one of the best setups. the only other ship that comes close to a good rushing ship is a weasel with the same setup. even for defending, a pulse laser wb is pretty good, if you can even out the recharge to cancel out the pulse laser.

[kid]

Bringing Smalls to a Flag Game

"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight". It's a classic quote from a classic movie. Similarly, don't bring too many warbirds, javs, and sharks to a flag match. Bring a few to leak, but if they are the mainstay of your force your team will be man-handled.

For the 4 years i played HS the best rushers were WBs or Javs, they are manueverable, and have a awesome top speed, combine this with 4 reps, 3 bursts, and AntiDeath, was one of the best setups. the only other ship that comes close to a good rushing ship is a weasel with the same setup. even for defending, a pulse laser wb is pretty good, if you can even out the recharge to cancel out the pulse laser.

Moreover, the point of the game is generally to move the enemy backward with killing only being a real priority when clearing. Repels on small ships that move fast tend to effect this concept best.

[omni]

I agree with Aileron.

[Aileron]

The forum's name is 'Strategy & Player's Guides'. Its purpose is to discuss strategies and to guide players. So, if I wanted to discuss strategies in this forum....

 

Incidentally, I didn't use the word 'strategy', I used the word 'tactics'. Tactics refers to what the individual and small unit does in real-time conflict. So, yes, a disorganized ad hoc team can have tactics. An individual can have tactics as well.

 

Written tactics are designed to form a base template for the inexperienced. Think of written tactics as your 'default settings'. They provide a template and an example of what right looks like, but by no means are they so rigid and inflexible that the right person can't modify them to suit the situation.

 

Take Spidernl's shredder for example. Can a master at the right opportunity rush in on an nme lanc with a shredder to kill it? Certainly! However, should every novice on the team get shredder and mass to have an all-spam-gun defense? NO! Such a defense would get creamed.

 

Can a warbird with 4 repels piloted by someone who has been playing HS for 4 years rush effectively? Certainly! Should every noob in a warbird with 2 repels be attempting the same thing for an all-warbird offense? NO! Such a team would get manhandled by the enemies' big guns.

 

Tactics simply represent what 90% of your team should be doing at any one time. They aren't supposed to cover exceptions. You have to deal with those as the situation dictates.

 

Courage:

I listed 'Not rushing at all' as a dumb tactic. The only caveats on offense were to protect the lanc, don't rush ahead of your fire support, and don't suicide. I also said that too much rushing is less dangerous than too little rushing. All of these statements are consistent with your statement. Why are you disagreeing with me when we agree?

 

 

To All:

My guess is that the question you guys really were trying to ask is 'Why have you taken it upon yourself to write a guide when you haven't been playing HS that long?' You haven't asked that but that's the general tone I am getting from your comments. My answer is simple: 'Because you didn't'. Corey has proudly stated he has been playing HS for 4 years. He should have written this thing 3 years ago.

[spidernl]

The forum's name is 'Strategy & Player's Guides'. Its purpose is to discuss strategies and to guide players. So, if I wanted to discuss strategies in this forum....

 

Well ok, I kind of didn't think of that fact

 

Also, threads like these weren't made before as very few people (who don't already know alot if not all of these things) actually read this forum, so nobody really bothered writing for those few who do.

[Corey]

If i would have written this the first year i was playing, i would have been 11, being 16 now, i realize that the zone changes to much to write a guide, its just a waste of time, im not saying you aren't good, infact, ive never seen you play, its a good guide, i just dissagreed with one part of it. That being the part i was best at. Don't take it as a shot, your putting a lot of effort into this, and thats more then i could ever do, i only made about 8 bases that got accepted, but that was my thing of the past. Keep up the guides, just realize that the zone changes often, well atleast when i played one or two years ago.

[CapnBoost]

I agree with just about everything here. I'd like to add one more:

 

Team killing non-rushers.

This isn't any benefit to a team. Even if your retarded attempt to school them in your way of doing things works, they'll have less energy with which to rush. If you kill them then they're in a hypertunnel while they could be rushing. If you piss them off then they might just screw up your game. If you want someone to listen to you, use your words.

[oid]

I agree with just about everything here. I'd like to add one more:

 

Team killing non-rushers.

This isn't any benefit to a team. Even if your retarded attempt to school them in your way of doing things works, they'll have less energy with which to rush. If you kill them then they're in a hypertunnel while they could be rushing. If you piss them off then they might just screw up your game. If you want someone to listen to you, use your words.

This is true. For some reason a lot of newbs think that if everybody suicides into the enemy we'll magically win the fg and if somebody is gunning or bombing, they arent doing anything at all.

[Dr. Snyder]

Bringing Smalls to a Flag Game

"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight". It's a classic quote from a classic movie. Similarly, don't bring too many warbirds, javs, and sharks to a flag match. Bring a few to leak, but if they are the mainstay of your force your team will be man-handled.

For the 4 years i played HS the best rushers were WBs or Javs, they are manueverable, and have a awesome top speed, combine this with 4 reps, 3 bursts, and AntiDeath, was one of the best setups. the only other ship that comes close to a good rushing ship is a weasel with the same setup. even for defending, a pulse laser wb is pretty good, if you can even out the recharge to cancel out the pulse laser.

 

This is not true, it is only recently that warbird/jav was even considered a rush ship. Before that it was either Shark/wzl, and Lanc, while even further back it was Levi. Warbird has never been better at rushing then shark until arnk changed to the current system.

[Kilo]

You betray how new you are with that remark.

[»Xog]

actually warbird was the first ship ever to be considered a rush ship. this was before the whole graphics overhaul stuff. when the warbird was the size of the shark and there was no ?buy module (that i can remember)

 

 

so THERE.

[Dr. Snyder]

actually warbird was the first ship ever to be considered a rush ship. this was before the whole graphics overhaul stuff. when the warbird was the size of the shark and there was no ?buy module (that i can remember)

 

 

so THERE.

 

He said 4 years ago, unless I am mistaken about how long I have been playing, I did not think that Warbird was a rushing ship 4 years ago, 2006. Also is said for the 4 years that he played, and so they were not rushers from 2006-2010, that I am certain. I believe my comment stands unless there is something else I have overlooked.

[Cheese]

before xog/arnk came to hs, there were sharks used for rushing. you dont see them anymore because they are pure crap now.

 

it was only recently that wb and then even jav became 'rush ships', due to bursts being retardedly overpowered, effectively proving that ANY ship can be a 'rush ship'

Edited March 3, 2010 by Cheese

[»Xog]

warbird was a rushing ship while the hypertunnels weren't even finished being built

[Kilo]

shark was a plain 6 bounty nonupgradeable ship for newbies that was better than a stock ship. it was normal size and was not used outside of center seriously at all. it had a level 2 nonbounce gun, don't think it had a bomb. if you do not remember this, don't say things like "before arnk came to hs" because you don't remember that far back.

[Cheese]

wish i had the advantage of looking back at the settings too

[Kilo]

the spider used to be a nightwasp, and the cool thing was to stick with l1 guns for maximum spammage, if you don't remember this, you should get to work on a time machine for "looking back at the settings" while the rest of us just dig up more memories

[Corey]

Snyder, back when i played on nolan123 i used jav as a rusher, then the reset after i used wb, i remember this cause of the fields i use to use.

[Prottos007]

What the heck, I remember when sharks had double barrels, everyone had x-spids with disruptor in center, and ZPM spids with pulse or plasma in base. It was the big ships rushing then.