kandy
30th January 2008, 11:11
Rather amusing post on why people will scream at you if you are one of the HA support players :)
Taken from: http://www.massgate.net/read.php?3,101921
Ok, this post is not directed to people who actually know how to play this game. This post is for:
1)Noobs
2)Idiots
3)People who just don't get it when people say in-game: "DUDE WTF STOP WIT THE FUGGIN ARTY"
4)People who just don't get it when people say in-game: "Umm, wanna move that AAA up?"
5)Morons
6)Pretty much everyone under the rank of 1st Sergeant
Ok, so here's the deal. Yes, we all know heavy artillery is cool. Especially USA/NATO heavy arty. Rocketting loud noise, huge smoke trail effects, wanton destruction and enemies laid to waste at the click of your mouse finger. Yes, heavy arty is your e-panis. Now, I'm going to insult it. So get ready!
Ready yet?
Ok.
Heavy arty can be used effectively...in rare cases. In most cases, such as maps where armor has a wide space to maneuver, you don't hit crap. Maps with a lot of infantry...well, it's a bit easier to make good hits. You see, heavy artillery's rounds take a looooooooooong time to reach target at max range. In most cases, your target moves long before your rounds hit. There's ways to overcome this, and I'll touch on that later. But back to insulting your e-panis first.
Let me paint a picture. Player: Private First Class Wedgie. Support.
PFC Wedgie spawns 2 heavy artillery at the start of the map. Oh! An enemy captures their first, closest spawn! PFC Wedgie opens fire with both batteries (mind you, contorl grouped into the same group and they are both set on the same target reticle.) 15 seconds later his rounds hit nothing...or maybe 1 empty transport truck. PFC Wedgie is confused. His heavy arty just missed! He readjusts or starts to set a blink target reticle and *boooom* No more PFC Wedgie. Damn heavy air.
Player: Corporal Nutjob. Support.
CPL Nutjob spawns 1 heavy artillery, 2 heavy AAA. Corporal Nutjob is smart! He learned from past mistakes that 2 heavy arty earlier gets killed by air power! So, he drives his heavy arty to some nondescript location with heavy AAA in tow. CPL Nutjob sees tanks! CPL fires...missing the tanks but his rounds decimate the friendly AT infantry that killed them. But...Nutjob didn't notice this either because his cat crawled into his lap and distracted him while his auto firing heavy arty kept letting rounds fly. To the dismay of the mad text messages and angry VOIP chat...Nutjob is not remiss. However, he got his when a Soviet SU-25 tankbuster ripped him up...along with his 2 AAA.
Player: Sergeant First Class Cupcake
SFC Cupcake is wise. And experienced! He spawns 2 Heavy arty. Instead, he doesn't fire. Just sits there until he gets enough points to drop a full battery of AAA and...repairs for himself! Enemy counter artillery be damned! He has repairs and AAA to fend off the helicopters. Truly, his e-panis is huge and noone cane stop him now. He begins providing fire support...IE clicking on anything red regardless if it has blues withing 5 feet or not. Cupcake has also mastered the art of spreading his base of fire. IE, not setting both batteries to fire on the same spot. So, Arty 1 is hitting one section of woods, and Arty 2 is firing a bit further down the line. YES! BIG BOOMS ON BIG AREA. RAWR! While setting a fire point for Arty 1, he forgets about Arty 2 that is firing on a now friendly CP. Eh. Who cares! He has killed 3 heavy choppers with his AAA masked in a treeline and killed dozens of AT troopers (all for a score of about 300 points). SFC CUPCAKE IS GAWD! Ooh...but what's this pretty little thing dropping behind cupcake now? Cupcake jumps onto the chat squealing for help as 2 light tanks get air dropped on him...and all he can do is watch them shoot AT-4s up his arse while he reenacts the "Angry German Kid" video from YouTube.
Ok, so let me discuss some things. First! We don't like nubs using heavy artillery because you guys either spawn 2 of them and never hit crap, spawn 2 and hit our own guys, or spawn 2 and get killed right away. You see, when you shoot, you'll notice two loooooooooooong yellow lines (NATO/USA) coming from your artillery. Well, that tells the bad guys exactly where you are. This is also why you always find yourself...by yourself. We see...."ooh..snap! He has heavy arty...I'm getting the eFF out of here. They gonna cluster bomb his shizzle. " If your heavy arty lives more than 5 minutes, it's because you aren't hitting crap. The first time you land a good strike on an armor or support column, they'll pop an aerial recon TA on you, spot you, and cluster bomb you dead. 3800 points down the crapper.
The other reason we don't like HA is because you guys FORGET it's firing. While you're flexing your e-panis, showing your girlfriend your enormous smoke trails...you forget your rounds are hitting more friendlies than enemies. Also, your rounds are slow...you target tanks as if you don't expect them to move and are remiss as to why your score is always around 300 every map.
Why do us vets not like you?
Because 1)You kill more of us than them. 2)You take a perfectly nice battery of heavy/med anti air and use it for yourself while our tanks are getting ripped apart. Think about it...how many times do those AAA actually keep your HA alive? My guess is rarely. You could send those AAA forward and rack up 5x the points your HA could give you. But you don't. You set them in nice smiley face patterns around your artillery and make sweet targets for HA TA strikes and cluster bombs. 3) You also hog repair vehicles...as if your artillery will actually survive a hit long enough to get repaired.
In summary: On most maps, there's only enough room for 2 support units. If even one unit hogs its AAA, that leaves more than half the battlefield without AAA protection and/or repairs. Yes, your HA is valuable and expensive and needs protecting...but at the expense of your team? No, of course. not.
HOW TO IMPROVE!
First off, try not playing heavy artillery. It is too expensive and too much of a liability. The battlefield is always in motion. Unless you move that heavy arty up (which is dangerous), your rounds' time to target is long. Meaning, your target will be long gone and you're just kicking up dirt. 3800 points of crater makers. Try medium artillery. For the same price as 2 heavy arty, you can get 4. Spread em out real nice, and still have points left over to send repairs and/or AAA for your teammates. Also, med arty is a godsend on Tug of War maps. With 3 med arty, you can basically make a napalm strike every 15 seconds (Russian). NATO/US med artilly has willy pete rounds. When fired into trees as a battery, they too cause the forest to burn as a napalm strike. Also, the General Purpose mortar round they fire is great VS anything but heavy armor. With a battery of 3 or 4, you'll be putting rounds on target more accurately and doing more damage than 2 heavies. They also don't leave those big long artillery trails on the mini map. On the world screen, unlike heavy, you also can't see the rounds incoming. Believe it or not, that's how heavy misses more often than not. An aware tanker will see the trails on the mini map or notice the STREAM of incoming rounds and MOVE before they ever get there. Not so with medium arty :)
Medium also doesn't hurt teammates as much. If you forget to make them stop shooting...people won't yell at you as loud. Also, if your med arty gets killed...who cares! It's cheap and can be redeplyed in a few seconds.
Lastly, for the die hard arty crowd
Ok, so maybe I'm just biased against heavy artillery. Some of you will continue to play it. Fine :) But here's some tips to make yourself a better artillery fire controller:
1) Don't forget to hit the STOP button when your target is clear
2) If using multiple Heavies, don't set them both to fire on the same point. Spread their fire out to give you a better chance to hit.
3) Fire where you think the enemy will be in 10-15 seconds...not where his is right now
4)Stay on the move. Fire 1-2 volleys, then move. The enemy will send TA after you. ALWAYS move after a good hit.
5) Don't hog all the AAA. 1-2 is fine. IF you micromanage 1 AAA battery, it will protect you just fine. 3 or more is overkill. Remember: If you deploy together, you die together.
6) Use your smoke rockets. It makes tankers think you care!
7) Use your own artillery spotting recon chopper. Do some counter Artillery work. Kick the enemy in the pants and we may like you!
Now, this thread isn't about how to play support. I for one am a repair/AAA gearhead that follows tanks around. This thread is simply about artillery...so please don't berate these guys for not following your tanks. Artillery has a purpose. On some maps, not so much but others it can be beneficial. Just remember one last thing:
HEAVY ARTILLERY IS NOT A FIRE AND FORGET WEAPON
Taken from: http://www.massgate.net/read.php?3,101921
Ok, this post is not directed to people who actually know how to play this game. This post is for:
1)Noobs
2)Idiots
3)People who just don't get it when people say in-game: "DUDE WTF STOP WIT THE FUGGIN ARTY"
4)People who just don't get it when people say in-game: "Umm, wanna move that AAA up?"
5)Morons
6)Pretty much everyone under the rank of 1st Sergeant
Ok, so here's the deal. Yes, we all know heavy artillery is cool. Especially USA/NATO heavy arty. Rocketting loud noise, huge smoke trail effects, wanton destruction and enemies laid to waste at the click of your mouse finger. Yes, heavy arty is your e-panis. Now, I'm going to insult it. So get ready!
Ready yet?
Ok.
Heavy arty can be used effectively...in rare cases. In most cases, such as maps where armor has a wide space to maneuver, you don't hit crap. Maps with a lot of infantry...well, it's a bit easier to make good hits. You see, heavy artillery's rounds take a looooooooooong time to reach target at max range. In most cases, your target moves long before your rounds hit. There's ways to overcome this, and I'll touch on that later. But back to insulting your e-panis first.
Let me paint a picture. Player: Private First Class Wedgie. Support.
PFC Wedgie spawns 2 heavy artillery at the start of the map. Oh! An enemy captures their first, closest spawn! PFC Wedgie opens fire with both batteries (mind you, contorl grouped into the same group and they are both set on the same target reticle.) 15 seconds later his rounds hit nothing...or maybe 1 empty transport truck. PFC Wedgie is confused. His heavy arty just missed! He readjusts or starts to set a blink target reticle and *boooom* No more PFC Wedgie. Damn heavy air.
Player: Corporal Nutjob. Support.
CPL Nutjob spawns 1 heavy artillery, 2 heavy AAA. Corporal Nutjob is smart! He learned from past mistakes that 2 heavy arty earlier gets killed by air power! So, he drives his heavy arty to some nondescript location with heavy AAA in tow. CPL Nutjob sees tanks! CPL fires...missing the tanks but his rounds decimate the friendly AT infantry that killed them. But...Nutjob didn't notice this either because his cat crawled into his lap and distracted him while his auto firing heavy arty kept letting rounds fly. To the dismay of the mad text messages and angry VOIP chat...Nutjob is not remiss. However, he got his when a Soviet SU-25 tankbuster ripped him up...along with his 2 AAA.
Player: Sergeant First Class Cupcake
SFC Cupcake is wise. And experienced! He spawns 2 Heavy arty. Instead, he doesn't fire. Just sits there until he gets enough points to drop a full battery of AAA and...repairs for himself! Enemy counter artillery be damned! He has repairs and AAA to fend off the helicopters. Truly, his e-panis is huge and noone cane stop him now. He begins providing fire support...IE clicking on anything red regardless if it has blues withing 5 feet or not. Cupcake has also mastered the art of spreading his base of fire. IE, not setting both batteries to fire on the same spot. So, Arty 1 is hitting one section of woods, and Arty 2 is firing a bit further down the line. YES! BIG BOOMS ON BIG AREA. RAWR! While setting a fire point for Arty 1, he forgets about Arty 2 that is firing on a now friendly CP. Eh. Who cares! He has killed 3 heavy choppers with his AAA masked in a treeline and killed dozens of AT troopers (all for a score of about 300 points). SFC CUPCAKE IS GAWD! Ooh...but what's this pretty little thing dropping behind cupcake now? Cupcake jumps onto the chat squealing for help as 2 light tanks get air dropped on him...and all he can do is watch them shoot AT-4s up his arse while he reenacts the "Angry German Kid" video from YouTube.
Ok, so let me discuss some things. First! We don't like nubs using heavy artillery because you guys either spawn 2 of them and never hit crap, spawn 2 and hit our own guys, or spawn 2 and get killed right away. You see, when you shoot, you'll notice two loooooooooooong yellow lines (NATO/USA) coming from your artillery. Well, that tells the bad guys exactly where you are. This is also why you always find yourself...by yourself. We see...."ooh..snap! He has heavy arty...I'm getting the eFF out of here. They gonna cluster bomb his shizzle. " If your heavy arty lives more than 5 minutes, it's because you aren't hitting crap. The first time you land a good strike on an armor or support column, they'll pop an aerial recon TA on you, spot you, and cluster bomb you dead. 3800 points down the crapper.
The other reason we don't like HA is because you guys FORGET it's firing. While you're flexing your e-panis, showing your girlfriend your enormous smoke trails...you forget your rounds are hitting more friendlies than enemies. Also, your rounds are slow...you target tanks as if you don't expect them to move and are remiss as to why your score is always around 300 every map.
Why do us vets not like you?
Because 1)You kill more of us than them. 2)You take a perfectly nice battery of heavy/med anti air and use it for yourself while our tanks are getting ripped apart. Think about it...how many times do those AAA actually keep your HA alive? My guess is rarely. You could send those AAA forward and rack up 5x the points your HA could give you. But you don't. You set them in nice smiley face patterns around your artillery and make sweet targets for HA TA strikes and cluster bombs. 3) You also hog repair vehicles...as if your artillery will actually survive a hit long enough to get repaired.
In summary: On most maps, there's only enough room for 2 support units. If even one unit hogs its AAA, that leaves more than half the battlefield without AAA protection and/or repairs. Yes, your HA is valuable and expensive and needs protecting...but at the expense of your team? No, of course. not.
HOW TO IMPROVE!
First off, try not playing heavy artillery. It is too expensive and too much of a liability. The battlefield is always in motion. Unless you move that heavy arty up (which is dangerous), your rounds' time to target is long. Meaning, your target will be long gone and you're just kicking up dirt. 3800 points of crater makers. Try medium artillery. For the same price as 2 heavy arty, you can get 4. Spread em out real nice, and still have points left over to send repairs and/or AAA for your teammates. Also, med arty is a godsend on Tug of War maps. With 3 med arty, you can basically make a napalm strike every 15 seconds (Russian). NATO/US med artilly has willy pete rounds. When fired into trees as a battery, they too cause the forest to burn as a napalm strike. Also, the General Purpose mortar round they fire is great VS anything but heavy armor. With a battery of 3 or 4, you'll be putting rounds on target more accurately and doing more damage than 2 heavies. They also don't leave those big long artillery trails on the mini map. On the world screen, unlike heavy, you also can't see the rounds incoming. Believe it or not, that's how heavy misses more often than not. An aware tanker will see the trails on the mini map or notice the STREAM of incoming rounds and MOVE before they ever get there. Not so with medium arty :)
Medium also doesn't hurt teammates as much. If you forget to make them stop shooting...people won't yell at you as loud. Also, if your med arty gets killed...who cares! It's cheap and can be redeplyed in a few seconds.
Lastly, for the die hard arty crowd
Ok, so maybe I'm just biased against heavy artillery. Some of you will continue to play it. Fine :) But here's some tips to make yourself a better artillery fire controller:
1) Don't forget to hit the STOP button when your target is clear
2) If using multiple Heavies, don't set them both to fire on the same point. Spread their fire out to give you a better chance to hit.
3) Fire where you think the enemy will be in 10-15 seconds...not where his is right now
4)Stay on the move. Fire 1-2 volleys, then move. The enemy will send TA after you. ALWAYS move after a good hit.
5) Don't hog all the AAA. 1-2 is fine. IF you micromanage 1 AAA battery, it will protect you just fine. 3 or more is overkill. Remember: If you deploy together, you die together.
6) Use your smoke rockets. It makes tankers think you care!
7) Use your own artillery spotting recon chopper. Do some counter Artillery work. Kick the enemy in the pants and we may like you!
Now, this thread isn't about how to play support. I for one am a repair/AAA gearhead that follows tanks around. This thread is simply about artillery...so please don't berate these guys for not following your tanks. Artillery has a purpose. On some maps, not so much but others it can be beneficial. Just remember one last thing:
HEAVY ARTILLERY IS NOT A FIRE AND FORGET WEAPON