Despite the negativity, the game still rewards cohesive squad play

The new(ish) capture mechanics allow for amazingly tense street battles around hot CPs, players inside and out exchanging fire and grenades. I'll accept that there's room for developing the group mechanic/UID but at its rawest, this game still delivers very tense, adrenalin-fuelled combat

Biggest change in squads I've seen (even way back squads came in all sizes) is the comms and patience.   Used to be a lot more guarding, working together, sightings reported, tactics etc.   On the free 'welcome backs' the squad stuff I saw wasn't that.

As a ATG lover, instead of getting support while pushing out or setting up, you get passed by the whole town inventory of tanks in their rush to meet the enemy head on.  With the old squads, a few newbies might have done that, only to be given advice to setup and wait for them to come to you.  Usually it was all ATGs spawning as tanks were held back for a counter or FB busting,  took squad disipline.  Now it's rush to get action while you can, logoff once tanks are used up.  Not entirely squads fault as with the large AO requirements and smaller squads a good squad can't stop others from griefing.

Funniest was in Chimany, defending on the reverse slop of that S hill with ATG.  Saw one guy take tank after tank (and yes driving past my ATG) over the crest only to die in under a minute, all the while being 'helpful' reporting to the squad what he saw seconds before dying.  Then 10 min later it's the 'oh no, out of tanks, town is going to fall.  In my old squad, that would get a WTF after the first tank and a lesson on reverse slope defense.

Squads are mostly just  a group of players with the same tag who can share info on the magic radar.  That doesn't mean there isn't one out there that still does, but I'm curious to know how with the one or two AOs running they can get equipment to actually use before it's all griefed away.

Originally posted by Zanzibar1138

Despite the negativity, the game still rewards cohesive squad play

 

The new(ish) capture mechanics allow for amazingly tense street battles around hot CPs, players inside and out exchanging fire and grenades. I'll accept that there's room for developing the group mechanic/UID but at its rawest, this game still delivers very tense, adrenalin-fuelled combat

See thats the problem alot of the older guys dont want spawn die spawn die quake style of play. They dont want star gates  opening in there rear areas cause 1 guy got by the line of defense.Etc etc...... the list goes on and on. If they wanted that style of play they could go out and play a hit point sandbox shooter with tons better graphics than what BE can put forth.

I really feel sad for the guys who never got to exp. large squad play and the tactics and organized play it provided. Sure things took longer to get going but you really felt like you where apart of something bigger. And the feeling you got when you did manage to cap a town was 100x better because of it.

I played the game years ago. It really was alot of fun for a while but you can only fight the same map so many times (at least for me). They were supposed to do other theatres- what happened to that?  Anyway, I certainly wouldn't come back for the same game at $18 a month.

Squads have been using the same sophomoric useless tactics since day one, in 2001, that's why players stopped playing in squads, they got tired of dying all the time.  High Command functions like another useless squad with useless tactics, it's why players don't listen to HC also.

Originally posted by Zbus

Originally posted by Szyporyn

And the more diciplined an outfit you are in - the more the game shine!

 

Im sorry but squads of todays ww2online do not match  the squads that once held sway in this game. In ethier numbers tactics or combined ops. Today when someone shows a picture of there squad in action you might see 10 to 20 players. Back in the day a screen shot of say a squad like SG would feel the picture with tags for as far as the eye could see and that was just the land portion of the attacks not includeing air. The norm was 40 to 50 tanks about 100 inf and 20 to 30 air . Thats right 150 to 200 man attacks pulled off by one squad. 101st of which i was apart of could muster almost 100 guys our self on squad night and where most of the time used as lead assualt troops for alot of 3 corps operations.

Even the mention of todays squads in comparison to what this game has seen is a insult . Any one of the larger squads of old ww2online could wipe the floor with  the instant action groups/squads we got in game today.

Numbers doesn't equate to tactics or quality.  The only thing SG could do successfully was exploit game mechanics like simul-cap, but when it comes to regular tactics they are still a bunch of zerg who got slaughtered with their sophomoric tactics.

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Originally posted by LydarSynn
I played the game years ago. It really was alot of fun for a while but you can only fight the same map so many times (at least for me). They were supposed to do other theatres- what happened to that?  Anyway, I certainly wouldn't come back for the same game at $18 a month.

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After 10 years of playing this game, I still from time to time fight battles in towns I have not been in before.

And the "same map" you talk about has over 400 towns, not quite the same as playing Karkhand over and over in BF2 ehh...

Tactical play is still out there in the game to say the least!

Yesterday in Liege I saw a group of Infanrty I was hunting with a Squaddie use a morterman to put rounds around a small tented area to destroy it. They then stormed it with an SMG and support.

I had been using those tents as cover, and had pulled back and was able to watch them work.

There is plenty of tactics to be had in the game, if your willing to find them and try them. I think because the game is 10 years old a lot of people have "been there" and "done that" and in doing so forget potential new players haven't.

I don't think people realise or know the potential for the game like we do in our own ways.

Whilst this game has come across my radar a few times in the past, the only thing that did put me off was the subscription rate.

The big cities and the river cities were always the best.  One just for sheer size of map (can't be zerged) and the other for chokepoints meaning you don't get surrounded by MSP.   Had always wished they put  a MSP range limit away from the FB in order to make somewhat of a combat line (whack-a-mole gets tiring).  It was nuts that there was just as much chance of enemy coming from behind you as in front, or in the usual case the direction of the closest forrest. 

BTW I didn't say the potential isn't there, as the others mentioned it's somewhat of an issue with the players creating it.  Always been a bit of an issue even way back.  When with all the option available you had the easist camping usually being used.   From what I've seen with squads gone and the different playerbase it's even more so.   You can be tactical as you want and spend 30 min pushing an ATG, finding the best postion with guarded flanks and good FOV.  It's all meaningless when you see your whole tank spawn list drive past you to meet the enemy head on.  Just wasn't worth the time (even free, I stopped doing ATGs on free weeks) having it get lost in the zergs.  

Originally posted by Szyporyn

 

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Originally posted by LydarSynn
I played the game years ago. It really was alot of fun for a while but you can only fight the same map so many times (at least for me). They were supposed to do other theatres- what happened to that?  Anyway, I certainly wouldn't come back for the same game at $18 a month.

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After 10 years of playing this game, I still from time to time fight battles in towns I have not been in before.

And the "same map" you talk about has over 400 towns, not quite the same as playing Karkhand over and over in BF2 ehh...

 Yeah that's one good thing (but not the only) about it, although so often it's those same center cities.  I always loved the crazy hilly South East side but so often the map would race past that (as one side looks about to win) and you'd miss all those cities while you're away.  I do have some fond memories of being on a hill top basically shelling a city with bofor, good times :)

Which reminds me, being able to tow your own weapon would be a killer step in getting some to come back.

Last I was in the game the whole south part of the map was one giant soft cap with at most a naval BG and para's tossed in to make all the soft caps. The whole brigade/HC/AO system has made that area moot now. Everything is bunched towards the center as  puting BGs out on the flank to defend it allows for easy cut offs. So if your ever going back or if your still playing  dont expect to stick any bofors up on any hill  down there now lol.

Dang, loved those hill.   Hilltops and bofors was always a love/hate thing.  Trying to deploy that mother on a hill without it sliding down or constantly bouncing made you want to pull your hair out hehe. 

With the mle38 before the max speed limit, you could roll downhill at warp speed.  Remember once being asked if I wanted a tow down and said "thanks but no thanks, just watch this" and RTBed in about 5 seconds :)

Originally posted by Tontoman

Dang, loved those hill.   Hilltops and bofors was always a love/hate thing.  Trying to deploy that mother on a hill without it sliding down or constantly bouncing made you want to pull your hair out hehe. 

With the mle38 before the max speed limit, you could roll downhill at warp speed.  Remember once being asked if I wanted a tow down and said "thanks but no thanks, just watch this" and RTBed in about 5 seconds :)

Yeah loved the far south and the far north myself good fighting in those areas. But alas  there both pretty much dead now the south more so than the north part of the map. But even in the north it is 3 Brigades and a HQ with a few naval groups placed along the river for support. Its pretty much just a light holding force due to the factories and twerp being up there. Most maps there is no real push in that area just junk AO's placed with no real intent on following through with any attack.

South is just one giant soft cap till basicly they hit the first river line near Dun. Everything else is stacked in the center in one giant game of lets see who can deplete the other guys supplies first and cause a break out. I think the worst part is even if you wanted to do something out of the box you cant anymore. Its all force feed to you via AO's. Most attacks the only tactics you see is a small group of guys sneak into town and cap a spawnable then scream flood the town with a P1 beside it. So you spawn die rinse repeat and hope you get tanks into town before they decimate the depots supply and recap.

I guess if your a instant action junkie that kinda play style is great but if you want anything with some real tactics and depth your out of luck. /shrug

Oh and the new teleporting stargates they got is what did me in  after 10 years of support. trucks as MSP where not easy enough they had to go and make super ninja  soilder a moveable spawn point for the whole army. So even if you and your squad set up a good defnsive line just 1 of these super ninjas getting by you caused a stargate to form and the whole enemy force could just by pass the careful defense you and your buds worked so hard to setup.

Bump

This map is proving pretty back and forth