Ops from Sunday, 08.AUG.2016

In the last weeks there were some intense discussions going on in Zeta to evaluate more effective and in depth strategic and tactical use of combined arms in Planetside including all the options the new construction system is providing.

To fulfill this duty, we tried a new platoon composition and used other strategies the previous week leading to an unexpected efficiency and map impact. Never the less we also identified some weakpoints last week, which we tried to eliminate during this Sunday Ops.

As usual we had 3 highly independent infantry/combined arms squads and 1 construction squad. This week we also tried to separate platoon leadership from squad leadership.

BlueJay took Alpha lead

Pooeyes took Bravo lead

Birnieee took Charlie lead

Platinum took Delta lead

I, PeRXeRs, had Platoon lead.

Normally I always lead my squad (Alpha) and the Platoon. This was the first time where we tried to separate those roles and I still need a bit of time to adapt to this new situation and gameplay. BlueJay did an incredible good job in leading Alpha, but I still interfered pretty often and gave squad orders. Because of this new Platoon composition, I have to work on the way how I pass information to the squads and how I process corresponding input, since the Platoon Leader should not focus on the micro organization of the squad/s, if capable leaders are available.

This is getting more and more important, because the platoon set-up requires more and more organization and brainpower by the platoon leader.

The Platoon composition was organized in the following way:

Alpha, Bravo and Charlie had the duty to capture and defend bases and to go mechanized if needed. The task of Delta is much more complicated. Not only because it is a complete new system that needs to be build up from scratch, but also because of the area of activity of the squad that is spread out in several hexes and can be considered as a kind of little platoon of its own that requires a high degree of coordination and information processing by the construction squad leader.

Some words to the composition of the combined Arms Squads:

Under normal circumstances half of the squad should be responsible for the fighting power. Never the less the players don’t need to run as Heavies only, if they normally prefer another class (e.g. DarkFlight as Light Assault). Since 3 medics do form a separate fireteam per squad, 1-6 should still avoid to run as additional medics. Past experienced proved, that 3 medics are more than enough to maintain a sustainable squad. 1-6 will also bee responsible to change classes, if the situation requires (e.g. hacking a terminal). Zeta standard setup requires our medics to run a recon dot crossbow as secondary weapon to provide the needed intel on the minimap and to compensate the potential lack of infiltrators.

The sundy team is responsible to constantly provide hardspawns for attacks, but also for defences to open and additional flank on the enemies. It is also part of the responsibilities to set-up back capping hardspawns in the bases ahead, if the situation allows it. The combination of Furry/Basilisk turrets proved to be very efficient against any kind of targets. I was surprised to see how big the impact of those sundies can be, if experienced player take that responsibility. Backcaps are always in place, hard spawns will be available in nearly all cases and the firepower of the sundies can be utilized in a very efficient way – just by assigning 2 persons. Especially, if more than 1 squad attacks the same base, you can end up with 6 sundies, which are a huge force multiplier, that do not require any further organization.

In the past we used 2 people being assigned for Galaxy/Valk duties, however recent experienced proved that 1 person is also enough, if other squad members step up, once the assigned person runs out of nanites.

The tasks for Delta, our new construction squad, were clear:

Take all available Cores first and build sustainable bases afterwards, which might even help us to defend certain frontlines. Once we started to discuss and focus on the construction system and the possibilities it provides some weeks ago, I realized that neutral Cores, which can be taken from every faction, are the worst thing for us. The second we realize that a neutral core is available we have to take it ASAP. Why should we give this huge advantage to the enemies for free? Why shouldn’t we take that opportunity for our own benefit? Although this sounds easy, it is unbelievable hard to take neutral cores especially if 3 or more are available. It requires a complete new approach by the construction team leader. Building bases takes time. Not only because of the selection and evaluation of the base position, but also because of the placement of the buildings itself and the Cortium harvesting. Once the construction team reaches a point where no further cores were available, they could inform the platoon leader about the situation. In such a case, we would try to destroy an enemy core, to open an additional core slot for us. Unfortunately, we never reached this point, because we were never able to take all neutral cores (See debrief).

Ops process:

As usual we regrouped at the Warpgate, reset our minds, organized the platoon and started ops. Although we had 24 members online, we still needed to open the platoon to public to get the needed numbers. Delta started with their base construction activities immediately, whereas our combined arms squads engaged the centre of the map, after capping 2 territories on the eastern front.

We capped Watersons Redemption and split our forces to engage the Tech Plant and the south at the same time. Bridge Ward was a clean Zeta cap and after the Cap of all Eisa satellites we went to the Tech Plant together. Although there were some attempts to drop on the balcony, we still had a significant pop advantage and were able to cap the base easily. We had forwarded sundies already in place at Old Shore Checkpoint and reallocated the platoon there. VS reacted quickly and soon there was a nice and even fight going on. They pushed us out from the point and we pushed back several times. The base layout of Old Share Checkpoint is not really suitable for attackers, since there is only 1 real entrance to the base from the west, which can be easily blocked by defenders. We tried to bypass this situation by placing a sundy next to the wall and use a platoon of light assault to flank the enemies and get back to the point successfully, with full control of the surrounding buildings. The lack of medics and other support classes however combined with some enemy maxes were able to push us out again within minutes. VS was able to win the upper hand in the fight and pushed us back to our sundy.

At this time Watersons Redemption came under attack with a 48-96 enemy force and 55%+ pop. Bravo and Charlie were assigned to defend Watersons and to take care of the entire lattice, while Alpha moved back to our Warpgate where a 24-48 TR force just capped Havens outpost, right next to our Warpgate. Alpha dropped on the A-point building and a look at the map revealed a 30% NC underpop. We were able to clean the building and to cap the point. At this point I didn’t thought, that we will be able to get the cap. ESFs were pounding the roof and balcony, prowlers were shooting through the windows and a constant flow of enemy infantries were putting high pressure on us. Never the less we capped the base after 4 minutes and expected TR to fall back. However, this did never happen. We held the building for additional 10 minutes, before I told my people to leave the building and eliminate their hardspawns. A look at the map revealed a NC pop of only 25%. I was already surprised, that we were able to hold them back for such a long time. To call our people out of the building was definitely wrong. The amount of enemy force multipliers crushed us within minutes and several enemy Galdrops on the A-point building did the rest. Never the less, we were somehow able to hold back an enemy force with 75% for more than 20 minutes. An unbelievable performance by Alpha Squad, which made me really proud.

At the meanwhile Bravo and Charlie were kicking some asses in the south. They were forced to go full mechanized to hold back the enemy forces. You can see live footage >here<.