Clan Spotlight: [Havok] 1/13
Дата: 13.01.2014 23:06:57
Quemapueblos: The fortnightly Clan Spotlight is back after a short hiatus! This
week's Clan is the winner of Campaign 2, Havok!
This isn't their first time winning it big either, they also
collected a good bit of Gold and some unique medals from Rise of
the Americas. You are sure to find the Havok logo somewhere on the
Clan Wars map at all times as these tankers are not interested in
sitting around. As the commander, callmesarge, puts it, "We put the
'War' in Clan Wars. This is the extended version. Check
out the Portal Article here! We interviewed these players to
learn more about the history of Havok:
Callmesarge - Commander of Havok and Strategist
BlackCompany - Deputy Commander and Recruiter
Unknown0ne - Deputy Commander, Field Commander and Strategist
TofuSmurf - Deputy Commander
m5m5 - Strategist and Field Commander
Arty_Takes_Skill - Strategist
Henrik - Artillery Strategist
Tevix - Treasurer
The_Decoy - Strategist
togood2222 - Diplomat You can challenge Havok to Absolute Tank Companies this Wednesday at 3:00 PM PDT on the NA East server. When and how did Havok get started? Callmesarge – A group of us from the Brothers Grimm followed RumNcolt and Boots to Havok. As soon as we were formed we kinda had a foot in the door with the organization called NASA. Our spot was already set, in terms of where we were going to situate ourselves on the map. Thanks to Boots, we had a fairly solid player base from the start. He knew his players and he knew what he wanted. Anyways, we added members and I was calling battles with flashender. Basically, we set out to take Scandinavian panhandle. Henrik - When we first started sarge was our main Strategy guy. Callmesarge – I called a lot back then. I do have to highlight the excellent talent of the rest of the Battle Callers that we have had come throw our doors. We all had our own styles and I am very happy to have worked alongside them. Henrik – I can't say enough about RumNcolt. When he started a meeting there was no talking. You could have the most brash 18 year old in here and he spoke like a lawyer, he was a lawyer, and everybody would follow him to the end of the earth. He set the tone of what the clan would be long term. He set it up to be a clan that would fight. We would be the working arm of NASA. What have you learn about running a clan that you wish you knew when you started out? Callmesarge – When I came to HavoK I said I was going to do this job (Battle Calling) and that's it. Having specific roles for people is important. You can have a lot of plans and expectations but it is never going to go as planned. You just have to keep trucking on with a vision, you have to keep going but have contingencies. In looking to solve a problem, you don't have to find a solution right away. You just have to let the dust settle and then you can make a decision. Henrik – When sarge first took over he kind of burned out but now he has a large officer core of around 10 people that help him out so he doesn't burn out and I think this time around he is actually enjoying it. Callmesarge – Am I? Haha. Well first time I came in I had a lot of expectations. I was trying a lot of things too and did a lot of things on my own. Second time around, I'm delegating a lot more. I don't care how long it takes, if I'm looking for a particular kind of person to do a job I'll just keep asking because in the long run it will help. I came to realize that there are hidden talents in Havok. With the right incentives and nourishment we've been able to get the right players to contribute. As Commander it makes me proud to see players grow in their contributions to the clan as a whole and we have done a lot of things. We have had a lot of wars and had a lot of accomplishments because of it. All I have had to do is make sure I don't go too far in that ambition to play and compete. Everyone, Commander included, has to learn and progress no one is above that. Tevix – You can't do all by yourself. Do you find players burn out faster in being in a top clan? BlackCompany – I guess but I think the bigger thing is we are looking for players who have that highly competitive attitude. For the most part we don't have a big turn over and for the most part players know what they are getting into. It's finding that competitive player that is more challenging. What were your goals as a clan starting out and what is your goal today? BlackCompany – As far as Havok goes, a lot came here just to fight. That is one thing that a lot of other clans just didn't do. The whole Burning Legion was premised with that concept of let’s just go out there and fight. The whole NASA thing did not sit well with me. They only reason I came on board with Havok in the first place was because they were going to fight. That was the whole concept, we weren't going to sit on a plot of land; we were going to fight. I think that is what has made Havok so strong is that attitude of having a 100 guys that want to fight. They want to do it the best that they can and they are willing to put in the extra time. Tevix – We definitely aren't farmers for sure. The_Decoy – The best part of this game is blowing things up. Henrik – We fight everyday too. If we didn't have a fight today, sarge would go find one for us. Callmesarge – We want to fight. It is not easy. What did the map look like when you first stepped on to it? BlackCompany - NASA Callmesarge – Yeah, everything was NASA with Red Sky kind of there with [AOD] in the middle with [MLP]. [IR] wasn’t there anymore. There was one patch of territory that was really unclaimed for the most part and had some hostile clans to NASA. RumNcolt was the chair of NASA at the time, so with the creation of Havok… well a lot of newer clans would have had to go through a lot of red tape so to speak, a lot more bureaucratic stuff at the time with NASA being involved. As soon as we were formed, I was just a field commander and wasn’t interested in politics. The only instructions that I was given was that we need to take the Troms landing. That was pretty much the first main objective that we had as a clan. During the NASA era, you guys owned 4 separate areas of the map. What was your reasoning for being so spread out over the map? Why did you wait so long to change your logo and color? Callmesarge – We never actually changed our logo to the NASA emblem. At the time when I came in as Deputy and started attending the NASA, we didn’t have a commander present to actually change the colors to match the rest of the NASA Clans and the emblem. It was always pressed on us during the NASA meetings but we didn’t actually end up changing it. It kinda made us look like rebels. I didn’t mind. The NASA Wars exploded not too long after that.
Callmesarge – We were all
over the place because of the mechanics of Clans Wars at the time.
You could apply to landing zones while still on a territory. That
allowed us to be active members of NASA. Landing and clearing LZs
and facilitating what not. So that kind of thing was enabled by the
changes to ownership rules. How do you prepare for a Clan
Wars match? The_Decoy – It depends on
what we are doing. If it is a map we have done a lot, we just right
into it; we know what we are doing. If it is a new map, we will go
into a training room and figure out angles and timings and all
sorts of things to know what we are getting into before the battle
starts. togood2222 – Almost every
time we do 15 on 15 practices, to make sure everyone understands
what they are doing. The_Decoy – Once we have
the basic plan we run the guys through a couple times to make sure
everyone knows their place and how the plan is going to go. We will
come at each other with different strategies. If sarge has got
a plan, unknown will try to beat it and vice versa. Unknown0ne – It also comes
down to how much time is available. If there is not much time
available you just have to come up with a strat and just go with
it. The_Decoy – Oh yeah sometimes we wing it. If we have the
ability, we try to plan things out especially if it is an important
battle. Is this how it has always has been done? Or has the
process evolved over time? Callmesarge – No, before
for Clan Wars, as field commander, I would be notified of the
map(s) we were playing on for the night. I'll come up with a plan
and then go back to Boots (the recruiter at the time) and give him
my tank line-up. 3 T30s 5 IS-7s and 2 artillery and a scout or a
couple mediums. I didn't need to pick a team; I didn’t know the
players too well back then. I would just get a roster but I got the
guys best suited to the position. From there I would have my team
and prep them. I'd do maybe a run though in ATC and we would be
good to go. As we did that, eventually we realized that it a little
better to run it through and that way you have a feel how you need
to call the battle, what needs to be done specifically. So at some
point we changed over to actually doing training rooms. It is
important to note that as far as the player base of Havok goes, we
didn't start with a bunch of unicums. We started with minimum
requirement of 50%, so players that could play but great to
mediocre players. To even that playing field a bit, we
started doing training rooms to make sure everyone was on the same
page when it comes to a battle. So yeah we started doing training
rooms and practice battles before Clan Wars. Henrik – In the beginning,
we were mostly playing on Erlenberg and Karelia. I think it was
generally known by Boots that we were going to train all the time
and because we had 50 guys that played almost every week so we have
always been able to field 2 teams, sometimes 3 or even 4. But
because we had a large player mass, which is unusual for most clans
at the time, the combinations of players kept changing. You could
have 5 great heavy tank drivers but hardly did they play together
because we were running 2 or 3 matches at the same time. I think
that is unusual compared to other clans out there. In that sense,
we were always in training because let’s say a flank of 5 heavies
is always changing and your cooperation is always changing between
the 5 tanks because they don't know the guy next to them. About a
year ago, we said we wanted to put together 4 trainings a week and
that was the minimum to get your Gold pay, but what do you think
sarge? Callmesarge – I think it's
the norm in Havok now to do a training room. All Field Commanders
should know that the explanation of the plan is central to
preparation for us in Clan Wars now. If we don't do it now we are
in trouble. Everyone expects that we do a training room. Some guys
have just come on and haven't had a chance to play yet today, so
it’s nice to get into a training room and warm up and either,
depending on which side you are on, get rolled over or win.
togood2222 – Unless you are
sarge's team! Tevix – Be there until
sarge wins because you are not leaving until sarge wins.
TofuSmurf – Whether or not
we have time before Clan Wars... togood2222 – There have
been so many times with 3 minutes left before battle starts and
sarge is yelling “One more! One more! ONE MORE!” Callmesarge – There are
lots of times where we have done the same strat that we are run in
Clan Wars and it has just gone horribly wrong in training rooms and
through feedback from players, I've changed it before the battle
starts. “Ok this is what we are doing!” At that point I have a feel
about how I want to call it. How I need to explain what a player
needs to do. It also helps to go in to the real battle with a win
under our belts. Henrik – You aren't trying
to win in a training session. You are trying to throw a strat
against a strat. How often do you change what strategies you
run on a map? Tevix – We vary quite a
bit. Other clans now are too good now to be running same over and
over again. togood2222 – They watch the
replays Callmesarge – With replay's
being implemented, that kind of changed the way a lot of strats
were run for the whole community because clans can replay strats
but when you actually see a replay and see how things are done,
it's different from hearing how so and so did a strat. What
does it take to be a good FC and how do you go about developing a
new strategy? Unknown0ne – I think if it
is a map you haven't done before, you go into a training room and
see what it’s like. You also look at how it plays out in pubs too.
You can't apply all that but you can get a feel for how everything
works and how different parts of map react. You can judge somewhat
how a map is going it play by playing it in pub battles hundreds of
times. You can take that knowledge into a training room and you
talk to other field commanders. You get idea of what might work and
if you have enough time take 15 people and go try that against 15
others. Or you go into a Clan Wars battle and hope for the best.
Callmesarge – What I have
seen is that strategies for Clan Wars usually match the field
commander calling it. I can tell that a strat is an Unknown strat.
People can tell that a strat is my strat. We have had various field
commanders over the years and I can tell even if I'm calling; this
is totally not my strat. How can you tell who created a
strategy by looking at it? TofuSmurf – It's because
sarge likes to cap fast. Henrik – For instance Endo
liked to take his best drivers, put them all together, and charge
one line. He will overwhelm a particular area of the map.
Callmesarge – There is a
certain temperament that each field commander brings. Some field
commanders love to utilize the scouts a lot regardless of map they
are on but they are probably better at open maps. Arty_Takes_Skill – They
cater to own play style. So say in pub battles they play really
aggressive then they try to have aggressive strats because they
know what is going on when you are playing aggressive. If they are
a passive player, they know how to play passive. They are more
comfortable with passive strats. TofuSmurf – It is basically
people's comfort zones. If something happens that is not in their
comfort zone in the middle of the battle, that's why we have the
quality of players we have in the clan, just so we can help our
field commanders by being good players and compensating for that.
What do you look for in replays to help you determine
weaknesses in your opponent’s strategies? Henrik – You can't really
phrase it that way because if you are going against someone like
SIMP, that takes a real strat and they've seen everything and we
have seen everything. So it comes down to how well you really
execute the plan you were putting forth. Tevix – It’s more making it
look like something they have already seen and then turning it
around into something else to surprise them. Callmesarge – Some nights
it just doesn't go that way. If it is a top tier team, your strat
isn't going to turn out as you wanted it to. The_Decoy – We force them
to have to react to what we are doing. Like chess, we check them
and see if they can counter it. There is never any specific
weakness to any clan we are going for, we are trying to make the
weakness. Henrik – If they don't
respond then we will continue to overwhelm them until we are in
their backyard. How do you analysis your own replays?
Arty_Takes_Skill – You load
up the replay and see which flanks didn't do so good. There is
usually something you could have done like fallen back from a bad
position instead of holding out or reinforced it with more tanks.
It's about repositioning and getting your forces where you need
them. World of Tanks is mainly about positioning. That is what wins
the games. TofuSmurf – There are so
many of us that are knowledgeable about what goes on in a Clan Wars
battle that when we all look at it together, you get a large
database of people’s minds to draw from about how you could do
something better. Maybe where you flexed wrong and you take all
that information and better your strat for next time. We will run
it through practice the next day before the battle and continue to
work it to perfection. It is just fine tuning everything with a
large reservoir of people that know what they are doing.
Arty_Takes_Skill – It
doesn't have to be the strat that is the problem. Sometimes it can
be that the strat was fine but somebody didn't execute it right. So
you have to be able to tell if someone made a mistake which caused
the strat to go bad. Some people when they lose just blame the
strat but what you need to do is look at how people played their
roles and if they didn't do everything right. If they did do
everything right, well then you have to look at the strat.
How do you think the recent changes such as to allowing shells to
penetrate through walls will affect strategies in Clan Wars?
BlackCompany – I was
thinking about that and a lot of times in Clan Wars you've got HEAT
and Gold rounds and a lot of HEAT rounds are not conducive at all
to taking advantage of shooting through a small barricade as AP or
APCR can. So I think you are going to see tanks with selection of
armament now. If you can use ACPR, tanks cannot use those things
for temporary cover. APCR round is going to go right through and
still hit him. I think it is going to come more into play as it
goes. Arty_Takes_Skill – I don't
think it will make much of difference in Clan Wars. Callmesarge – Depending on
the map, most of those things get run over anyways. In my
experience you say don't run over the car... ughhh someone ran over
the car. As a player, if I'm in a fire fight and I am going to look
around for objects that I can use as far as stopping the opponents
from shooting me but from my experience you tell people to not run
over it and they do it anyways. What about in the future, do
you see any changes coming that would affect Clan Wars?
Arty_Takes_Skill – When
they allow you to penetrate through whole houses, that is going to
change the game play a lot because it is going to make a lot more
positions less viable. It is going to change how you are going to
play the map but the stuff right now, like the cars and little
fences, is not a big deal. Callmesarge – It comes down
to the players and their playstyle and it will also involve a lot
more research of the map. For example, you don't want to be
sending people to where they are going to die too quickly. You
don't want them next to a house that is going to be down in a
second and they are going to go next because they have no cover to
go to. The ability to take some cover out entirely will change game
play a lot and make strats more dynamic. Alot of strats you get a
group of tanks in one spot and they are there for a while because
they have cover to fight from. The_Decoy – If you can
shoot through big buildings, 261 AP rounds are going to be big.
What were your most exciting moments from Campaign 2?
BlackCompany – I like that
the Campaign really opens up map. It had a lot of movement. We saw
lots of clans moving around the map. We got to see a lot of
different maps and opponents. Henrik – It was those two
days before the end of the campaign. Callmesarge – The first
night everyone was excited and dialed into having to participate in
the Campaign. I was excited to see that. The second to last day of
the Campaign was exciting as well; it included our battle for the
Gold Pot versus Guerillas. Tevix – A day into Stage 1,
we decided to raid riots instead. We knew we could make a lot of
Victory Points from doing that. Me and Tofu came on every day to
see where the riots were that we could hit. TofuSmurf – Everyday once
the riots processed we were looking at it and Unknown built a
program that made things a little easier. Tevix – Nobody else decided
to do that until like 4 day before the stage was over. They
realized that raiding the riot were where the Victory Points were
at. I don't think we ever put our HQ down except for some of the
trains and the last few days. TofuSmurf – During all of
the first stage it was never down. During Stage II it wasn't down
much. Every battle during those last few days though.... the
nerves. Henrik – At one point we
realized what they were doing and sitting on a multiplier. At that
point we had a wakeup call. What was your plan going into
the last few days of the Campaign? TofuSmurf – I think we were
doing the math. Any decision we made was based purely on the math
involved. We all looked at the last set of Goldmines and we had to
figure out how many different ways can we guarantee number 1. As
easy as it would be go to another spot and get the gold and the
tanks, sarge is a competitive person and we all are competitive
people so settling for less than what we know we are capable of
isn't our thing. So we looked at what we needed to do
mathematically speaking and went about doing it. Just so happen on
the last day, we had to take as many of the three Goldmines as we
could and we had to keep [-G-] off of one. What was going
through you guy's heads when you realized you needed to hit -G-
head on to keep first place? TofuSmurf – It is one of
those things that sucks to do but we have never been shy about who
we face. It has never been about who we face. togood2222 – We were
excited! Henrik - When we win
campaign sarge does sing Callmesarge – No, no
togood2222 - Yes
Callmesarge – I've found
karaoke brings people together If you had lost that battle
for the multiplier, did you have another plan? Callmesarge – I didn’t
really want to have another plan. The night before I sat down with
all the guys and said “we need to get this done.” It was going to
come down to winning that battle. We acknowledged we did a few
things that put us in this predicament and very uncomfortable
situation but at the same time the opportunity to do something that
wasn't going come around again was there for our taking. That's
what made that battle the highlight of my Clan Wars experience.
We noticed you changed your logo. Care to explain why?
Callmesarge – Actually this
logo was already made as mostly a joke and I had seen it and liked
it. I didn't hesitate once the idea was dropped as a show of
respect and recognition to SIMP's help in the last stage of
Campaign 2. Thank You Drake! togood2222 – As a sign of
gratitude. callmesarge – And it looks good too.
TofuSmurf – Short version,
SIMP has been really good to us and continues to be.
Callmesarge – Proud to be
the Best_Subclan_NA TofuSmurf – As well as
Best_Feeder_Clan_NA
Callmesarge - Commander of Havok and Strategist
BlackCompany - Deputy Commander and Recruiter
Unknown0ne - Deputy Commander, Field Commander and Strategist
TofuSmurf - Deputy Commander
m5m5 - Strategist and Field Commander
Arty_Takes_Skill - Strategist
Henrik - Artillery Strategist
Tevix - Treasurer
The_Decoy - Strategist
togood2222 - Diplomat You can challenge Havok to Absolute Tank Companies this Wednesday at 3:00 PM PDT on the NA East server. When and how did Havok get started? Callmesarge – A group of us from the Brothers Grimm followed RumNcolt and Boots to Havok. As soon as we were formed we kinda had a foot in the door with the organization called NASA. Our spot was already set, in terms of where we were going to situate ourselves on the map. Thanks to Boots, we had a fairly solid player base from the start. He knew his players and he knew what he wanted. Anyways, we added members and I was calling battles with flashender. Basically, we set out to take Scandinavian panhandle. Henrik - When we first started sarge was our main Strategy guy. Callmesarge – I called a lot back then. I do have to highlight the excellent talent of the rest of the Battle Callers that we have had come throw our doors. We all had our own styles and I am very happy to have worked alongside them. Henrik – I can't say enough about RumNcolt. When he started a meeting there was no talking. You could have the most brash 18 year old in here and he spoke like a lawyer, he was a lawyer, and everybody would follow him to the end of the earth. He set the tone of what the clan would be long term. He set it up to be a clan that would fight. We would be the working arm of NASA. What have you learn about running a clan that you wish you knew when you started out? Callmesarge – When I came to HavoK I said I was going to do this job (Battle Calling) and that's it. Having specific roles for people is important. You can have a lot of plans and expectations but it is never going to go as planned. You just have to keep trucking on with a vision, you have to keep going but have contingencies. In looking to solve a problem, you don't have to find a solution right away. You just have to let the dust settle and then you can make a decision. Henrik – When sarge first took over he kind of burned out but now he has a large officer core of around 10 people that help him out so he doesn't burn out and I think this time around he is actually enjoying it. Callmesarge – Am I? Haha. Well first time I came in I had a lot of expectations. I was trying a lot of things too and did a lot of things on my own. Second time around, I'm delegating a lot more. I don't care how long it takes, if I'm looking for a particular kind of person to do a job I'll just keep asking because in the long run it will help. I came to realize that there are hidden talents in Havok. With the right incentives and nourishment we've been able to get the right players to contribute. As Commander it makes me proud to see players grow in their contributions to the clan as a whole and we have done a lot of things. We have had a lot of wars and had a lot of accomplishments because of it. All I have had to do is make sure I don't go too far in that ambition to play and compete. Everyone, Commander included, has to learn and progress no one is above that. Tevix – You can't do all by yourself. Do you find players burn out faster in being in a top clan? BlackCompany – I guess but I think the bigger thing is we are looking for players who have that highly competitive attitude. For the most part we don't have a big turn over and for the most part players know what they are getting into. It's finding that competitive player that is more challenging. What were your goals as a clan starting out and what is your goal today? BlackCompany – As far as Havok goes, a lot came here just to fight. That is one thing that a lot of other clans just didn't do. The whole Burning Legion was premised with that concept of let’s just go out there and fight. The whole NASA thing did not sit well with me. They only reason I came on board with Havok in the first place was because they were going to fight. That was the whole concept, we weren't going to sit on a plot of land; we were going to fight. I think that is what has made Havok so strong is that attitude of having a 100 guys that want to fight. They want to do it the best that they can and they are willing to put in the extra time. Tevix – We definitely aren't farmers for sure. The_Decoy – The best part of this game is blowing things up. Henrik – We fight everyday too. If we didn't have a fight today, sarge would go find one for us. Callmesarge – We want to fight. It is not easy. What did the map look like when you first stepped on to it? BlackCompany - NASA Callmesarge – Yeah, everything was NASA with Red Sky kind of there with [AOD] in the middle with [MLP]. [IR] wasn’t there anymore. There was one patch of territory that was really unclaimed for the most part and had some hostile clans to NASA. RumNcolt was the chair of NASA at the time, so with the creation of Havok… well a lot of newer clans would have had to go through a lot of red tape so to speak, a lot more bureaucratic stuff at the time with NASA being involved. As soon as we were formed, I was just a field commander and wasn’t interested in politics. The only instructions that I was given was that we need to take the Troms landing. That was pretty much the first main objective that we had as a clan. During the NASA era, you guys owned 4 separate areas of the map. What was your reasoning for being so spread out over the map? Why did you wait so long to change your logo and color? Callmesarge – We never actually changed our logo to the NASA emblem. At the time when I came in as Deputy and started attending the NASA, we didn’t have a commander present to actually change the colors to match the rest of the NASA Clans and the emblem. It was always pressed on us during the NASA meetings but we didn’t actually end up changing it. It kinda made us look like rebels. I didn’t mind. The NASA Wars exploded not too long after that.
Callmesarge – We were all
over the place because of the mechanics of Clans Wars at the time.
You could apply to landing zones while still on a territory. That
allowed us to be active members of NASA. Landing and clearing LZs
and facilitating what not. So that kind of thing was enabled by the
changes to ownership rules. How do you prepare for a Clan
Wars match? The_Decoy – It depends on
what we are doing. If it is a map we have done a lot, we just right
into it; we know what we are doing. If it is a new map, we will go
into a training room and figure out angles and timings and all
sorts of things to know what we are getting into before the battle
starts. togood2222 – Almost every
time we do 15 on 15 practices, to make sure everyone understands
what they are doing. The_Decoy – Once we have
the basic plan we run the guys through a couple times to make sure
everyone knows their place and how the plan is going to go. We will
come at each other with different strategies. If sarge has got
a plan, unknown will try to beat it and vice versa. Unknown0ne – It also comes
down to how much time is available. If there is not much time
available you just have to come up with a strat and just go with
it. The_Decoy – Oh yeah sometimes we wing it. If we have the
ability, we try to plan things out especially if it is an important
battle. Is this how it has always has been done? Or has the
process evolved over time? Callmesarge – No, before
for Clan Wars, as field commander, I would be notified of the
map(s) we were playing on for the night. I'll come up with a plan
and then go back to Boots (the recruiter at the time) and give him
my tank line-up. 3 T30s 5 IS-7s and 2 artillery and a scout or a
couple mediums. I didn't need to pick a team; I didn’t know the
players too well back then. I would just get a roster but I got the
guys best suited to the position. From there I would have my team
and prep them. I'd do maybe a run though in ATC and we would be
good to go. As we did that, eventually we realized that it a little
better to run it through and that way you have a feel how you need
to call the battle, what needs to be done specifically. So at some
point we changed over to actually doing training rooms. It is
important to note that as far as the player base of Havok goes, we
didn't start with a bunch of unicums. We started with minimum
requirement of 50%, so players that could play but great to
mediocre players. To even that playing field a bit, we
started doing training rooms to make sure everyone was on the same
page when it comes to a battle. So yeah we started doing training
rooms and practice battles before Clan Wars. Henrik – In the beginning,
we were mostly playing on Erlenberg and Karelia. I think it was
generally known by Boots that we were going to train all the time
and because we had 50 guys that played almost every week so we have
always been able to field 2 teams, sometimes 3 or even 4. But
because we had a large player mass, which is unusual for most clans
at the time, the combinations of players kept changing. You could
have 5 great heavy tank drivers but hardly did they play together
because we were running 2 or 3 matches at the same time. I think
that is unusual compared to other clans out there. In that sense,
we were always in training because let’s say a flank of 5 heavies
is always changing and your cooperation is always changing between
the 5 tanks because they don't know the guy next to them. About a
year ago, we said we wanted to put together 4 trainings a week and
that was the minimum to get your Gold pay, but what do you think
sarge? Callmesarge – I think it's
the norm in Havok now to do a training room. All Field Commanders
should know that the explanation of the plan is central to
preparation for us in Clan Wars now. If we don't do it now we are
in trouble. Everyone expects that we do a training room. Some guys
have just come on and haven't had a chance to play yet today, so
it’s nice to get into a training room and warm up and either,
depending on which side you are on, get rolled over or win.
togood2222 – Unless you are
sarge's team! Tevix – Be there until
sarge wins because you are not leaving until sarge wins.
TofuSmurf – Whether or not
we have time before Clan Wars... togood2222 – There have
been so many times with 3 minutes left before battle starts and
sarge is yelling “One more! One more! ONE MORE!” Callmesarge – There are
lots of times where we have done the same strat that we are run in
Clan Wars and it has just gone horribly wrong in training rooms and
through feedback from players, I've changed it before the battle
starts. “Ok this is what we are doing!” At that point I have a feel
about how I want to call it. How I need to explain what a player
needs to do. It also helps to go in to the real battle with a win
under our belts. Henrik – You aren't trying
to win in a training session. You are trying to throw a strat
against a strat. How often do you change what strategies you
run on a map? Tevix – We vary quite a
bit. Other clans now are too good now to be running same over and
over again. togood2222 – They watch the
replays Callmesarge – With replay's
being implemented, that kind of changed the way a lot of strats
were run for the whole community because clans can replay strats
but when you actually see a replay and see how things are done,
it's different from hearing how so and so did a strat. What
does it take to be a good FC and how do you go about developing a
new strategy? Unknown0ne – I think if it
is a map you haven't done before, you go into a training room and
see what it’s like. You also look at how it plays out in pubs too.
You can't apply all that but you can get a feel for how everything
works and how different parts of map react. You can judge somewhat
how a map is going it play by playing it in pub battles hundreds of
times. You can take that knowledge into a training room and you
talk to other field commanders. You get idea of what might work and
if you have enough time take 15 people and go try that against 15
others. Or you go into a Clan Wars battle and hope for the best.
Callmesarge – What I have
seen is that strategies for Clan Wars usually match the field
commander calling it. I can tell that a strat is an Unknown strat.
People can tell that a strat is my strat. We have had various field
commanders over the years and I can tell even if I'm calling; this
is totally not my strat. How can you tell who created a
strategy by looking at it? TofuSmurf – It's because
sarge likes to cap fast. Henrik – For instance Endo
liked to take his best drivers, put them all together, and charge
one line. He will overwhelm a particular area of the map.
Callmesarge – There is a
certain temperament that each field commander brings. Some field
commanders love to utilize the scouts a lot regardless of map they
are on but they are probably better at open maps. Arty_Takes_Skill – They
cater to own play style. So say in pub battles they play really
aggressive then they try to have aggressive strats because they
know what is going on when you are playing aggressive. If they are
a passive player, they know how to play passive. They are more
comfortable with passive strats. TofuSmurf – It is basically
people's comfort zones. If something happens that is not in their
comfort zone in the middle of the battle, that's why we have the
quality of players we have in the clan, just so we can help our
field commanders by being good players and compensating for that.
What do you look for in replays to help you determine
weaknesses in your opponent’s strategies? Henrik – You can't really
phrase it that way because if you are going against someone like
SIMP, that takes a real strat and they've seen everything and we
have seen everything. So it comes down to how well you really
execute the plan you were putting forth. Tevix – It’s more making it
look like something they have already seen and then turning it
around into something else to surprise them. Callmesarge – Some nights
it just doesn't go that way. If it is a top tier team, your strat
isn't going to turn out as you wanted it to. The_Decoy – We force them
to have to react to what we are doing. Like chess, we check them
and see if they can counter it. There is never any specific
weakness to any clan we are going for, we are trying to make the
weakness. Henrik – If they don't
respond then we will continue to overwhelm them until we are in
their backyard. How do you analysis your own replays?
Arty_Takes_Skill – You load
up the replay and see which flanks didn't do so good. There is
usually something you could have done like fallen back from a bad
position instead of holding out or reinforced it with more tanks.
It's about repositioning and getting your forces where you need
them. World of Tanks is mainly about positioning. That is what wins
the games. TofuSmurf – There are so
many of us that are knowledgeable about what goes on in a Clan Wars
battle that when we all look at it together, you get a large
database of people’s minds to draw from about how you could do
something better. Maybe where you flexed wrong and you take all
that information and better your strat for next time. We will run
it through practice the next day before the battle and continue to
work it to perfection. It is just fine tuning everything with a
large reservoir of people that know what they are doing.
Arty_Takes_Skill – It
doesn't have to be the strat that is the problem. Sometimes it can
be that the strat was fine but somebody didn't execute it right. So
you have to be able to tell if someone made a mistake which caused
the strat to go bad. Some people when they lose just blame the
strat but what you need to do is look at how people played their
roles and if they didn't do everything right. If they did do
everything right, well then you have to look at the strat.
How do you think the recent changes such as to allowing shells to
penetrate through walls will affect strategies in Clan Wars?
BlackCompany – I was
thinking about that and a lot of times in Clan Wars you've got HEAT
and Gold rounds and a lot of HEAT rounds are not conducive at all
to taking advantage of shooting through a small barricade as AP or
APCR can. So I think you are going to see tanks with selection of
armament now. If you can use ACPR, tanks cannot use those things
for temporary cover. APCR round is going to go right through and
still hit him. I think it is going to come more into play as it
goes. Arty_Takes_Skill – I don't
think it will make much of difference in Clan Wars. Callmesarge – Depending on
the map, most of those things get run over anyways. In my
experience you say don't run over the car... ughhh someone ran over
the car. As a player, if I'm in a fire fight and I am going to look
around for objects that I can use as far as stopping the opponents
from shooting me but from my experience you tell people to not run
over it and they do it anyways. What about in the future, do
you see any changes coming that would affect Clan Wars?
Arty_Takes_Skill – When
they allow you to penetrate through whole houses, that is going to
change the game play a lot because it is going to make a lot more
positions less viable. It is going to change how you are going to
play the map but the stuff right now, like the cars and little
fences, is not a big deal. Callmesarge – It comes down
to the players and their playstyle and it will also involve a lot
more research of the map. For example, you don't want to be
sending people to where they are going to die too quickly. You
don't want them next to a house that is going to be down in a
second and they are going to go next because they have no cover to
go to. The ability to take some cover out entirely will change game
play a lot and make strats more dynamic. Alot of strats you get a
group of tanks in one spot and they are there for a while because
they have cover to fight from. The_Decoy – If you can
shoot through big buildings, 261 AP rounds are going to be big.
What were your most exciting moments from Campaign 2?
BlackCompany – I like that
the Campaign really opens up map. It had a lot of movement. We saw
lots of clans moving around the map. We got to see a lot of
different maps and opponents. Henrik – It was those two
days before the end of the campaign. Callmesarge – The first
night everyone was excited and dialed into having to participate in
the Campaign. I was excited to see that. The second to last day of
the Campaign was exciting as well; it included our battle for the
Gold Pot versus Guerillas. Tevix – A day into Stage 1,
we decided to raid riots instead. We knew we could make a lot of
Victory Points from doing that. Me and Tofu came on every day to
see where the riots were that we could hit. TofuSmurf – Everyday once
the riots processed we were looking at it and Unknown built a
program that made things a little easier. Tevix – Nobody else decided
to do that until like 4 day before the stage was over. They
realized that raiding the riot were where the Victory Points were
at. I don't think we ever put our HQ down except for some of the
trains and the last few days. TofuSmurf – During all of
the first stage it was never down. During Stage II it wasn't down
much. Every battle during those last few days though.... the
nerves. Henrik – At one point we
realized what they were doing and sitting on a multiplier. At that
point we had a wakeup call. What was your plan going into
the last few days of the Campaign? TofuSmurf – I think we were
doing the math. Any decision we made was based purely on the math
involved. We all looked at the last set of Goldmines and we had to
figure out how many different ways can we guarantee number 1. As
easy as it would be go to another spot and get the gold and the
tanks, sarge is a competitive person and we all are competitive
people so settling for less than what we know we are capable of
isn't our thing. So we looked at what we needed to do
mathematically speaking and went about doing it. Just so happen on
the last day, we had to take as many of the three Goldmines as we
could and we had to keep [-G-] off of one. What was going
through you guy's heads when you realized you needed to hit -G-
head on to keep first place? TofuSmurf – It is one of
those things that sucks to do but we have never been shy about who
we face. It has never been about who we face. togood2222 – We were
excited! Henrik - When we win
campaign sarge does sing Callmesarge – No, no
togood2222 - Yes
Callmesarge – I've found
karaoke brings people together If you had lost that battle
for the multiplier, did you have another plan? Callmesarge – I didn’t
really want to have another plan. The night before I sat down with
all the guys and said “we need to get this done.” It was going to
come down to winning that battle. We acknowledged we did a few
things that put us in this predicament and very uncomfortable
situation but at the same time the opportunity to do something that
wasn't going come around again was there for our taking. That's
what made that battle the highlight of my Clan Wars experience.
We noticed you changed your logo. Care to explain why?
Callmesarge – Actually this
logo was already made as mostly a joke and I had seen it and liked
it. I didn't hesitate once the idea was dropped as a show of
respect and recognition to SIMP's help in the last stage of
Campaign 2. Thank You Drake! togood2222 – As a sign of
gratitude. callmesarge – And it looks good too.
TofuSmurf – Short version,
SIMP has been really good to us and continues to be.
Callmesarge – Proud to be
the Best_Subclan_NA TofuSmurf – As well as
Best_Feeder_Clan_NA Clan Spotlight: [Havok] 1/13