Batte for the Badlands Nov 2nd

Wonderful night in T2 on Badlands!  Signed in with my lvl 19 Witch Hunter, Martain, and attempted to get from Ellyrion to Cascades of Thunder (or CoT).  Took a long time to find a way over the mountains and, of course, as soon as I reached the summit the warband had taken the castle and then died to the estimated 100+ Destruction horde that had arrived.  We then moved to Stonetroll, had the door down but was prevented from capturing the keep by the same large Destro horde.

Our leader, who's name I forgot and can't spell, then split up the three warbands that were participating send each of us to different zones.  My warband went back to Ellyrion where we went up and over the mountains and quickly captured the keep from the group that had managed to get past our lines.  As a Destro warband arrived we bugged out and quickly moved to the Marshes of Madness and joined another warband to take the keep.  We then held as a large two warband group moved into position to siege the keep.  They were VERY intent on recapture and a battle that lasted at least an hour quickly developed.

Destro was able to bring the oil down with Ranged DPS and two cannons, which allowed them to bring a ram to the door and bring it down.  At that point, an epic fight lasting an hour started at the door.  The warband leader from the Gaiscioch guild then ordered a "door" of tanks to "open" allowing about a group of Destro through.  After they came through they closed the door and those of us Melee and Ranged DPS burned them down where they were out of rez range.  This continued for more times than I can count, although Destro did push through several times with a heavy tank and melee DPS, it was never followed by the ranged DPS or healers and was able to be pushed back. 

Our boss also unleashed the "Alter of the Fallen" on them several times.  Apparently, the alter confers a large damage against all enemy, or weakens them...I'm not sure which.  He opened the door and allowed almost a full warband into the first floor and activated the alter.  The second time we did this we pushed out the door and quickly took the remaining attackers down or scattered them to the winds.  At this point I had hit lvl 20, and I'm at 95% completed of RR18...all in all a great night.

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Now let's look at the tactics in play last night.  First of all the decision to break our force into three seperate groups was risky and does fly in the face of traditional, real world, military where concentration is often the watch word...although Clauswitz states that the offense must be strong at the point of conflict...not necessary strong all over.  Breaking up our forces forced Destro to mirror that as Order performed an operational flanking maneuver taking strategic ground, i.e. keeps, away from the main Destro defensive line.  It the real world it would have allowed the Defense to kill one group after another, but in WAR this is a valid and reasonable tactic as there is no real impact as the keep is not destroyed and your warriors are not permanently lost as a fighting force.

The tactical actions of our defense was superb, by allowing misinformation to the enemy we lured him into a position of weakness where he was destroyed.  There was risk and I can think of several ways to counter that tactic.  First, prepare three or four tanks.  They follow each other in a train with a one second delay, the first tank hits the shield wall and uses an area knockback to create an initial hole.  The second tank moves in and widens the hole if required...if not he moves left to continue to knock back the immediate defense.  The third tank comes in and knocks back the defenders who are moving in to plug the hold and the fourth tank moves right to clear that side.  The melee DPS needs to be in a group directly on the fourth tanks heels.  Its their job to exploit the hole and start moving deeper inside to kill healers first, then melee DPS.  Quickly following the melee DPS should be the ranged DPS who should hit the door and just inside start to AOE...using point blank AOE at first to ensure the hole is not plugged.  Healers will need to be streaming in as soon as the melee DPS gets inside.   In essence, I am borrowing a tactic from bomb wearing terrorists that uses sequential explosions to open a fortified checkpoint or gate...quickly followed up by the other groups to exploit the now open hole and move the fight away from a prepared defensive ground and into an area where the attacker has more and better options.  In our fight the healers and ranged DPS NEVER followed the openings that were made by the tanks and melee DPS, allowing Order to take them down piecemeal.  Sometimes ranged folks need to understand that closer...especially at a chokepoint that is being breached is better.

Back to WAR

WAR what is it good for?  FUN that's what!

I've been away for over six months and as I come back to Warhammer Online from EVE Online I decided to start a WAR blog to cronicle my path.  A sort of internet record of what I think of this. 

First off, I resubbed on a Tuesday and from what I've seen from a quick forum review...I'm glad I'm on the Badlands server already.  That server has almost double all the other servers combined.  WAR is like that, it demands players...active players or the game becomes unplayable.  Fortunately for me, I happened to resub on the Battle for the Badlands event that is run by a player guild on the Order side.  You can see it here through this link.  http://www.battleforbadlands.com/ I had a great two hours...even though I was getting pounded by destro while I was on.  I found it didn't matter...as a lvl 19 Witch Hunter with my Obliterator gear and generic realm points gear I was still able to kill other characters and contribute to the warband.  Heck, I even managed to solo a few Witch Elves as we were both running back to the battle.

Although I'm now guildless, and I can't blame my last guild for dumping me after six months...you can still jump in a Warband at the T2 and T3 levels and immediately have fun killing other players.  That ability to quickly jump in AND contribute makes WAR a different beast from everyother MMO out there.

I can't wait to get back, but unlike EVE online where I felt a real pressure to get on everyday to adjust a money making endeavor to I COULD PvP...in WAR I don't have to and that feels good.