The proper handling of bottlenecks:
First and only rule concerning bottlenecks: the team which attacks through them or tries to defend them (= waiting in or a bit in front of it) will lose! I witnessed this a hundred times (and I directed my attention to that!), and in 90% of all cases this prediction will come true. It's easy to explain why:
As you can see, the purple line is the frontline between the two teams, and it's abvious the yellow team members are outnumbered on that frontline. And don't forget the red archers in most cases being able to shoot from everywhere around the bottleneck exit on the yellow team.
As this seems quite obvious on maps like the one with the castle (where the attackers sometimes try to counter by hiding in that courtyard house), and in most cases the team acts instinctively right. (Although I saw yesterday the defenders charge out of the gate of the inner circle. The outcome was clear, an attacker's win!)
On village maps the common player behaviour is somewhat different, probably to psychology. A castle has strong walls, and everyone knows, a castle is there to protect you, so you hide. Villages look weak, and often they make players feel like they had to "protect their homes", and if you protect something, you put yourself in front of it. Like this:
But as you can see, the yellow team again walks into the bottleneck trap. You have to ignore your instincts and hide INSIDE the village, and let the enemies come in.
Another point is archery: often one team spawns on open plains, the other team inside a village. Instinctively archers think "Wow! Targets on open range, this will be like Omaha Beach!", but unfortunately it won't. A rifle bullet flies with more velocity, precision and impact, you have a higher rate of fire (even with repeating rifles, not to mention the 1500rpm MG42 :roll: ), and the G.I.s had no shields and armour or were fast moving targets due to horses under their butts. So this simply won't work. I am not really a successfull archer (PD 9 was a bad idea, although 2 shots for a destrier was sweet :mrgreen: ), but the easiest and safest kills are on short range, while the target is distracted, isn't it?
So better place yourself in second line, and just let them cross the plains, you won't score more than a single lucky kill anyway. You can try your luck, but don't forget to fall back as soon as they reach the village.
If everything is done properly, the defense will look like this:
No need to explain what will happen to the red squares in the center of the picture within a few moments :wink:
Notice the archers on the roof of the house in the center at the bottom. I am pretty sure they will land a lot of good hits and a few kills.
There are only a few defenders on the first houses of the village to prevent the enemy of seizing the roof and shooting down on the defenders. As soon as they set up a ladder break it, no fighting needed.
The best unit for defense in cRPG: Cavalry!
"What the...? Cavalry is THE attacking unit, what are you talking about?" many people will think now. I think otherwise.
A defending player waits. If the whole team is defending, his fellows around him will wait, too. He will stand there, with the exact knowledge of his sorroundings, be it players or landscape. Short: he is aware of his environment.
An attacking player is under pressure, once the team started to charge. He tries to reach the defenders, and focuses on them. He is moving, and everything and everyone around him is moving, aswell. He has no time for turning around much, as he needs to close the distance to the enemy as fast as possible. (And many players don't know about the tilde key left of the [1]...). Next to this he will attack without formation, and probably much distance to other players, as most teams tend to spread out while charging.
Picture:
An attacker will be focused on the main enemy force awaiting him at their position (red arrows), and will try to cross the way as fast as possible (green arrow):
(Also note the comment by "Peasants_are_revolting" ;) )
Short: a defender is aware, an attacker is unaware. So for cavalry players attackers are ideal victims, as long as they will stay away from waiting defenders.
This is how attackers often spread out:
On the other hand, would a skilled cavalry player charge in here?
(Btw Phazhey, that's you on that horse on the right side :mrgreen: )
So everyone knows these views. Notice the timer, it's the beginning of the round:
How can I prevent this?
Well, the easiest way to do so is to be aware of your sorroundings even while charging, and using the tilde-key left to the [1]-key to look around you while running into the same direction.
The more important part of my essay is following thing:
The distribution of cavalry in the teams determines which team is attacker and which defender!
If you see the enemy has (noticeably) more cavalry than your own team DO NOT CHARGE!
You will lose most likely.
Better look for a well defendable position, every hill does fine, and wait there. Be patient. Be the smarter player/team. BE THE WINNER.
In most cases their cavalry will charge anyway due to lack of better (=easier) targets, and will get dismounted way faster with having caused much less losses to your team. As soon as they have few or no cavalry left at all: charge! The loss of their (bigger) cavalry force will have weakened the enemy team quite well, so your chances are good you can decide the round for yourself! If your cavalry (hopefully) was patient enough to stay out of action until your infantry reached their infantry, YOU will be the team with the bigger cavalry force, and as your infantry already distracts their infantry (and probably most archers), your cavalry will have an easy job of killing many opponents.
This is especially recommended on "unbalanced" maps, which in most cases are villages being attacked from the plains or mountains.
The most basic rule repeated once: Do NOT charge blindly after spawning if the enemy team has more cavalry than yours. Even if you have more cavalry, try to wait and take out theirs first, then charge. If you can't help it, try at least to keep one eye open for cavalry, better both.
The right hill defense
I think I noticed a slight increase of tactics on the servers, which is a nice thing, and I was always wishing for, but I spectated one thing I want to mention: the right defense of a hill.
Often you can really make teams defend a hill, and often this tactic is successful, but sometimes (or, to be honest, in most cases) it's done (a little bit) wrong. I think it is important to get this right, as too many failed hill defenses could end in a lowered tactics use again, which would be really bad. So here it is.
- What's done wrong?
This has to do with psychology, as the "king of the hill" is always sitting ON the hill, the flag on Iwo Jima was placed on TOP of the Suribachi, and so on... so in most cases the team seizes the top of the hill and tries to defend it by placing themselves in front of it. In most cases it looks like this:
(In this case the team acutally didn't perform a hill defense, but the "frozen" picture shows pretty well what I am talking of. The enemies approaching are marked red).
As this is already a good position, and you've got an advantage over the enemy, you can still improve your chances. Especially if the enemy has got more archers.
- How is it done properly?
Easily. This way:
What's different? The team is standing behind the hilltop, instead of in front of it. So it benefits from additional cover! (That's why I mentioned the enemy archers before). I see too many shielders placing themselves in the enemy fire, and being shot into the feet for nothing! Stay behind the hilltop, hide yourself, you are still defending it if you do so!
As Microsoft Paint is great fun for me, I made a few graphics, as usual :mrgreen:
This is the way how it's done in most cases, and how it's... well... suboptimal:
The team is standing on or in front of the hilltop, waiting for the enemy and being shot all the time. The enemy charges uphill, and has got the momentum. I would say with this you can increase your chances by about 5-10%, from 50% win chance to 55% or 60%. This calculation already considered your cavalry being able to attack the enemy approaching on the open ground while the hill slows down their cavalry!
So better place yourself this way:
As you can see, the hilltop provides you with cover, while the enemy is approaching. As soon as the enemy team reaches the foot of the hill and is approaching the hilltop, it's time to charge:
This way you negate their momentum, and as you charge downhill you will probably have a slight momentum advantage. A team charging has always better chances of surviving as a team being charged. (Unless there is no bottleneck or other special circumstances). Also the enemy will be in greater disorder than you, and finally there is the psychological aspect of chargin uphill an enemy who is charging you downhill :wink:
There should be no need for coordination, as most players wil lcharge by default when the enemy is approaching the hilltop. Just take care he doesn't actually reach it. WIth this tactic, I would say you increase your chances up to 70%!
So this time I can keep my tactics post rather short:
Stay in cover !!!!BEHIND!!! the hilltop, wait for the enemy to approach, then charge him before he reaches the top! Everyone who is no archer has to stand in second line, to grant a free line of fire!
Advantages:
- You have cover from their archers
- Your archers can shoot more arrows, as noone is dancing in front of them. Noone is dancing in front of them, as noone thinks, they need cover and could use a shield or two, as the hilltop already grants cover.
- You keep the momentum
Together with all the other advantages a hill provides with. Just place your pikemen at the flanks of the hill, and you will utterly crush any enemy force! :D