Cap Cappity Cap

I always start the battle in a heavy - usually the Defender - with maxed out Engineering. The fastest way to rank up is to cap, or block cap. Just this morning I had a battle on Lane A where we were defending. I pushed up to the cap in the Defender, got some good flank support in the West, and leveled all the way up to Captain before they killed me and I had to respawn. Got to General that battle.





Likewise I had another battle where we were attacking on C. I always slow play that one because I know it's easy to defend, but we killed a few of them fast, I had teammates pushing into cap, so I joined them and we capped out C before A or B could cap. Made Major that battle.

Gotta Win Somewhere, Boys (and Girls)

Defending on A isn't hard UNLESS you don't win either flank. Too often lately I get in battles where hardly anybody goes to the West flank, and on the East flank they're content to sit back around the corner, looking to snipe, and not pressuring the other team's snipers at all.





If you're in a medium (or a light, or maybe a fast heavy), go IN FORCE to one flank or the other on A and own it. Don't just sit back and look at it, but PUSH it. Push the attackers all the way back to their own red line. Then your cap blockers can sit on that side of the rocks and be shielded from shots from the other flank.





But if you just sit back and concede BOTH flanks, then what happens is your cap blockers drive into cap, pick a side of the rock, and enemies on the flank on that side of the rock just put side shots into them and kill them.

One is the Loneliest Number

I notice a pattern when I have my worst battles: it's when I get caught out alone too often. Even in scouts, if you're out front without allies close by you're more likely to come around a rock and find two or three enemies. Then you're probably dead, fast.





Work together, seek out allies, find a wolfpack you can join and drive together.





I also have good success when I look for teammates who are 1 v 1 with an enemy and I can make it a 2 v 1 that we quickly win.

Stand By Your Tank

Don't use TOO many different tanks during the battle. You'll maximize your profits. I start with a Defender (or other HT sometimes), then usually switch to a medium (Type 59, Cent 5/1, or T-44 most often). If I die on that I might switch to another medium, or go to the LT-432.





From there if I die I tend to go back into the first MT I had. I rarely use more than 3 or 4 different tanks the whole battle. I'm not sure I understand the mechanics of it, repair costs, or kits, or ? but it does seem like you get more profit when you use fewer different tanks.

Keep on Movin'

Don't sit too long in one spot. Even if you're in a good bush and your 6th Sense hasn't gone off. There are only so many good sniping spots on this map, and the good players have a sense of where those are. The Recon air flights can spot you anywhere, and your 6th Sense doesn't activate when you're spotted by a plane.





Take a shot or two, maybe three. Then relocate because it's likely that arty is incoming. If you get lit, consider relocating right away. You can come back to this spot after a while, but don't hang out - that's how you end up with arty on your head.





In this way it's a bit different from randoms. No spotter planes in random, and you don't have 20 enemies with the artillery strike combat reserve driving around. You can still get blind shot, but it's less likely - especially with so many other targets around. Arty isn't as likely to waste a shot on you after you've gone dark when there's a Progetto 100m away who is still lit.

Sometimes Dying is Good

One of the smartest things I did today, we had won Zone C and I was in the Defender. I wanted to go to B to help out but our team capped it before I could get there. So I wanted to go help A...but driving all the way from C in a Defender would have taken the whole battle. So I pressed and held J which, after 15 seconds, detonates your tank so you can choose another.





I switched into my CaernAX and spawned into A. Went to help them cap and took it from there.





There have been other occasions where I was on low health, and I could have sought out a repair circle, but I decided that I had spare tanks ready, so instead I pushed forward, got a couple more shots of damage, and got killed. No worries, respawned in a different tank and got back into the battle faster than I could have if I'd driven all the way back to the repair circle.





I'm especially likely to do that in my heavy tank after we cap the first cap; I'll pursue the retreating red tanks and put shots in, not concerned if they return fire. Once you're past the first set of caps it's usually better to be in a more mobile tank (MT or LT usually, for me) anyhow. Driving a Defender across the map is probably going to cost you because your gun will be quiet for long stretches.





Don't be afraid to die if it means you can quickly respawn in a more appropriate tank.

Frontline Needs More Maps

After a few days it does get a little tedious playing the same map over and over, even though it is nice and big.

Streamer of the Day

I want to highlight Guido1212 today. He's pretty prolific and in addition to the occasional Twitch stream he posts a lot of thoughtful and informative content on YouTube.





Been playing Frontline episode 3 this week and have a few thoughts...