"Siege. Unsiege. Move. Siege. Fighting that waskly D-Web."
-Heartcutter
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| Hunter / Hunted | | | Author: | | | IP: | 24.67.14XXXX | | Date: | 06/21/00 12:06 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | Rare game(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for Fractal_Wave: 8.2537 |  |
"Let your rapidity be that of the wind, your compactness that of the forest. In raiding and plundering be like fire, in immovability like a mountain. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."
-Sun Tzu
Well, this game pointed out a really key flaw in Ground Control: Even the smaller maps are just huuuge.
I asked in the one public room, the lobby, for a game. A gentleman named ViMage whispered me that he'd love one, so I created my usual Fractal / Wave.
As a Map I chose War Torn Wastes again, on the theory that it was fairly flat and things would go fairly fast. Well. I was kinda wrong there. I chatted with ViMage for a dash, learned that it was his first online game, and told him it was my second. It's a neat feeling to be one of the first at an on-line game.
This game is played with Friendly Fire On, which makes things muuch more interesting. The tech level is set at 5/6 so high-tech things like TacNukes and carpet bombers are not avaliable. War Torn Wastes is medium-sized, with flat, rolling hills & messa that can be climbed by anything. This is really key, because you can puy your entire army on one of these, and make it kinda hard to get anywhere near. By the same coin, you're a sitting duck for a nuke or artillery strike. And it takes tanks a long time to get up & down those hills.
I'm playing Crayven, as I've never played any Order-of-Dawn(the other "race" in the game) single player in my life. I lay out my squads in a very typical manner for the defensive, take-and-hold, really-slow, kinda-like-terran-only-capitalists Crayven Corp.
Squad 0: Command APC, this is your life! You heal stuff, you carry the waddlingly slow infantry around, and you hopefully don't get killed.
Squad 1: Renegade Legion: A 8-man squad of marines, with 3 anti-tank rockets per man, and one deployable radar. The really dead sexy thing about marines is that they have no armor WHICH EVER WAY YOUR FACE THEM!!! This means they barely suffer at all from running from or flanking the enemy. And, if you use those special weapons properly, you can really do some fun things.
Squad 2: Headhunters: My favorite toys. Four Jaeger infanty, otherwise known as the "we are not here" people. Equippied with Gyrojet(armor-piercing, tank-popping rounds) Ammo and three Demolition Charges, the boys are SO in the hood. Respect. Word up.
Squad 3: Starforce: Four Main Battle Terradynes, with a funky combination of speed & firepower set to blow the pants off anyone near them. They've got three HE rounds, and two deployable repairstations. Said stations, once deployed, heal just like a command APC but in a set radius. They're the only way of healing your APC, and you wil LOVE them for that.
Squad 4: Red Wolves: Although they don't do the speed thing quite as well as my Main Battle tanks, these guys have guns and big honkin' armor plates like you wouldn't beleive. And two Advanced HE round that just kick bum.
Squad 5: Powerhouse: A reallly good name, considering this is a take-no-prisioners-unless-they're-cute-girls, kick-ass, smack-down artillery terradyne. With three super-accurate Janice Warheads and a repair kit, Powerhouse is powerfully pimpin'.
Squad 6: Powerforce: Three Rocket Terradyne. They fire, suprise suprise, ROCKETS! Most importantly they can hit air or ground, making them a formidable foe. Alas, they can do diddly-squat to infanty. But they can make anything with a big ol' heat signature be very, very, veeery scared.
Squad 7: Iron Chargers: Four AA Terradyne, who blast out hypersonic bullets at enemy aircraft. Don't let them get caught out alone, because their artistic integrity won't let them DO land targets. Unless you give them brown M&Ms. Or beat them to death with their own shoes.
(prize for the person who tells me where that reference comes from!)
Squad 8: Green Berrets: A task force of three fighter aerodyne, to take out enemeny air units and generally own the air on my behalf. Considering that these guys & Squad 7 are my only anti-air, I'd better be careful with them. They're also very fast, and make nice scouts.
Rock me Amadeus
My drop zone is near the east edge of the map, at about 2:50 on the clock face. I immidiatly get my marines to lay down their portable radar, which shows any enemy troops in the surrounding area. Nothing. Well, at least this game will go a dash longer than the last one, where myself & my opponent literally dropped on top of each other.
 I look around & spy a convineint rise to lay out my troops on. The radar I dropped will show me if ViMage comes close, and high ground is really quite a nice place to meet an enemy. Meanwhile, I send my fighters out in every-growing concentric circles, trying to locate my worthy opponent.
But, alas, he is nowhere to be found. The Order forces, which he is commanding, are fast & lightly armored compared to the Crayven war machine. They're meant to be played in a hit-&-run, get in, raise hell, and get out alive sort of manner. I am, I must confess, rather worried. If a squad of templar got inside or behind me, I would be in a LOT of trouble. Templar are infantry that fire tank-eating rockets. They are small, fairly stealthy, and some of them carry personal cloaking devices. They are not to be taken lightly.
I move out to the south-west, towards the center of the map. I have yet to find anything, but I wish for some action. And to be closer to the flashpoint when my fighter planes finally make contact with the enemy.
Finally! I see shots being fired on the minimap! I directy my scouting fighters to beat a hasty retreat back towards me so they are not too badly damaged. I see that ViMage has arranged his forces on a hill, probably in the same manner as I had mine arranged. This, it seems, would make me the attacker, which means I get to dictate the flow of the battle. Outstanding.
I barely even have a plan. Use my artillery to bombard him, then hit him when he moves? It is indeed a shame that I never got to put that quasi-plan into action, because when I arrived, he had fled. And so begins another round of cat and mouse. I can't help but wonder why he's running from me. Or, am I cruiseing, eyes wide shut, into a trap? (can someone tell me the pun in that sentence, please).
Again my fighter planes find ViMage atop a hill, take fire from his A-A guns, and return. Again, I find that by the time I arrive there, he has fled. This is getting rather worrysome. What does this mysterious commander have in store for me?
~Yawn?~
 My fighters find ViMage atop yet another hill and the get the heck out of there. From a distance away I direct an artillery barrge at the hill, and smile in a rather cruel way as my shells slam into his troops. Assuming that he'll finally bring the fight to me, I array my troops for defence, laying a demolition charge with my Jaegers, when suddenly it hits me! Nothing is happening! In fact an entire LIST of things are not happening.
-ViMagehas not charged forward into my demolition charge. Smart move on his part, as my troops are arrayed to eat any frontal assault alive.
-He has not moved to flank me. This could have devestated, depending on how far he flanked. My fighter planes had an almost clear view, but one can always slip by patrols.
-He has not returned fire with his artillery, which could have split my forces enough for him to gobble me up peicemeal. One thing I just LOVE about ground control is that if some one is shooting at you from outside your line of sight, you can't see where it's coming from. This makes artillery strikes realllly damn annoying.
-He has not ordered an air strike, which is a very good call as my A-A terradynes and fighter jets would rip him to shreds.
He has, in fact retreated again. Is this a trap? Or am I merely facing a frightening, worried, first-time commander? Considering that we have played almost 12 minutes of a 20 minute game and he has yet to perform an agressive act, I assume the latter and boldy move my troops forwad to the hill-top. This would prove to be rather a mistake.
 ViMage has a surprise for me, in the form of artillery fire of his own, and an array of aircraft. I am unsure of the exact type of these aircraft, because the moment I saw them I sent my A-A tanks and my fighters to work. A few misiles here, a few supersonic bullets there, maybe a special homing missile for good luck, mix, ad some good luck, and presto! I have the sky back.
Now ViMage's trap has been found out, i decide to send my Jaegers to remove the offending artillery. The four boys flank out and around to the north of the enemy forces. Moving stealthily, they afford me a wonderful view of ViMage's troops: well positioned, and spread out to avoid massive dammage from artillery fire. I debate calling a barrage of the area, but decide against it. All i need to do is remove a single artillery unit from the scene, and this army will crumble like so many cards.
"Headhunter One to Field Commander, we've been spotted by an Order light hoverdyne."
"Any chance of completing the objective Aich-One?"
"Negative. Artillery seems to be on the other side. Hit them now sir. Flank them & crush them. "
"Hm...any chance of you pulling out alive?"
"Maybe if - none whatsoever sir. Two heavy hoverdynes moving in on us."
"Been a pleasure working with you."
"Thank you. We'll take some with us."
"Cheers"
 Bloody hell. Just what I didn't need. I watch in anger as my Jaegers blast a light hoverdyne in to pieces with a Gyrojet round. Damn damn and damn again. Those were good men. And I'm already speaking of them in the past tense. I order all squads out. My Heavy terradynes flank to the south, with my marines moving out to the north. My APC and main battle terradynes march straight forwards, lucking making it under the atillery barrage.
I watch the battle unfold, and sigh as my Jaegers drop a demolition charge at their feet. ViMage's Heavy Hoverdynes move in right over the charge and fire on my men at point blank range. I press the "Detonate" switch and enjoy the explosion. I'll be sad later, after I've won.
I get a chance to drop in reinforcements; a new batch of Jaegers. They drop at the same point as before, and I order them across the battlefield with all dispatch.
War, again. Things go boom, other, more lucky things, don't go boom. My Heavy Terradynes smash up from the south, and unload with an HE round at the red Command APC. ViMage's APC is dreadfully out of position, and isn't repairing his front troops. Where as my main battle tanks are enjoying the benefits of a happy, healthy APC. My marines are peppering the enemy force from the flank. I am rather aggravated when a squad of medium hoverdynes turns and shreds them.
 My heavy tanks have the distinct misfortune of running in to a squad of Templar. Luckily for me, ViMage's attention was elsewhere, and he didn't get a chance to get behind my tanks. I took all the damage on my forward armor, and one repair kit later, said Templar are toast, and my tanks are still blasting merrily away, as ViMage has nothing that can stand against them (thanks to the sacrafice of my 1st Jaeger squad). Thinking quickly, ViMage re-targets his artillery for my main battle tanks and Command APC. I curses & swear kinda loudly and then realize that my new Jaeger squad is in position, just a single hill away from the offending artillery.
Two GyroJet rounds later and it's all over. But, bloody hell, I didn't move my main battle tanks, and now they are very dead. My APC i did move, and it's alive, merely damaged.
By now we're down to My heavy tanks and new Jaegers and my APC. I move up my rocket terradyne (don't know why the HELL i wasn't using them before...), and my artillery. I begin dropping shells on what's left of ViMage's forces, and use my tanks's last HE round to send his APC to hell. As it turns out, he's go a single light hoverdyne and all his anti-air platforms left. Meat for my grinder.
What? It's not Over
Nope...ViMage has got reinforcements just like me. Acting on a hunch I move out to the west, sending my fighters ahead to scout. If I dropped in the east, maybe he dropped in the west. However, before I move I re-assemble my troops, with reinforcements for my marines and main battle tanks. I get my tanks to place a repair station and get my APC back up to strength.
 We roll on out, and, as usual, my fighters encounter some of ViMage's A-A the hard way. I hit the afterburners and get them the heck out of there. ViMage has arranged himself on a hill again, and again I will drop large explosives on him with my artillery. Just to make this last engagment even more delicious, my forces are hidden behind a small hill, so he can't see me. My new Jaegers are spotting for me, and are ready to unload their last GyroJet round if any enemy armour exposes it's back.
ViMage is just moving his troops off the under-fire hill, and I'm just taking careful aim at the exposed rears of his heavy terradynes when.....
The game ends. Shaft.
Stats
Lessons
1.) Pick smaller maps. There was maybe 8 minutes of action in a 20-minute game. The rest was wandering aimlessly looking for each other.
2.) Artillery is utterly key. Dropping high explosive ballistic grenades on top of the enemy from a huge distance away is a really nice way of dealing with them.
3.) Flank, Flank, Flank. Then Flank again. HOWEVER, one must be careful that one does not get one's line cut or turned by fast moving enemies. Having a squad of medium hoverdynes behind me would just have been uncool.
4.) Recon is 9,000,000,000 times more important in Ground Control that in StarCraft. ALWAYS bring along recon aircraft. I didn't, and I should have.
5.) Jaeger infantry are still just too much fun.
6.) Play the Deus Ex demo.
7.) To play this game you have to be able to "see" all your squads at once, and confirm that they're doing what you want them to be doing. This is reallly hard to do when you're in the middle of the total chaos that is a Ground Control battle.
8.) Use all special equipment before a squad dies.
9.) I didn't bother doing a Tactical Map for this one. Did the lack thereof make it unclear?
Hope you liked it.
All the best,
Fractal_Wave
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