The Chieftain's Random Musings Thread

The_Chieftain: My tips for the WT event.   T-55s. -Do not waste time deliberately engaging the WT until you're at least level 7, preferably 9. Snapshots are encouraged as you run away/relocate. After level 5, some harassing fire is to be encouraged, especially if you're waiting near the next spawn point. -Do not let the WT get close to you, it has an EMP blast which, if you're too close, can take 600hp off your health. -You have three lives, use them. Resurrections which are available when the game ends are wasted. It may be worth it to sacrifice one life to level up the team. Uncollected power-ups mean that destroying sentinels elsewhere on the map will take longer and players will take more damage, and it takes less time to collect a power-up than the WT takes to reload. If you have three lives, collecting the power-up just before getting exploderised is a fair trade. It is good to have a second life available in the final endgame against the WT, but if you're cautious, it may not be necessary. -Do not use your speed boost as soon as you spawn. Time your boost so that you are still at rocket-speed when you impact the first sentinel. It will do a lot more damage, and you will kill the first set of drones faster. This is all about speed of power-up, and it is a cumulative effect. This is particularly important if you decide you want to deal with a sentinel group which starts nearer to the WT's startpoint than you might feel comfortable with. Luchs, VK 20.01 and Pz IV are all prime ramming candidates. VK 36.01 and maybe Panther if you feel pressed. -The sentinels are German, so catch fire. Learn where the impact zones are in order to set them alight, and drop their HP faster. -If you don't think you'll be able to finish off the sentinel group before the WT comes along to finish you off instead, don't be afraid to cut your losses and run somewhere else. That said, be cognizant that time spent relocating is also time not spent killing sentinels and increasing power. -Wolfpacks are a thing. A swarm of T-55s can make fairly short work of sentinels if they all strike together, and not take too much damage doing it. -The WT is quick to react, but a T-55 can be even quicker. A WT surrounded  on all sides by T-55s popping in and out of cover is going to have to make a decision to break out of the ambush and focus on one. Otherwise, he's just going to keep traversing in the hope of a snapshot on a T-55 before it goes behind cover. -On occasion the WT will vanish from view for a while. It would be advisable to detour one T-55 to do a quick recon to make sure it's not about to crest the hill and dive into the middle of your wolfpack. (Particularly common on Redshire). -Check where the next spawn point is, and try to anticipate the WT's moves. If it looks like your team-mates are about to finish off a sentinel group, make a headstart for the next spawn location. You can start nibbling away at hitpoints while you wait for your pack to show up.   WT. -You stupidly overpower the opposition in the first few minutes. Do not be afraid to take hits, and be as aggressive as possible. Wade into them. Murder those lousy Alliance tanks by the bushel. Use their guts to grease the treads of your WT. You are advancing constantly and are not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. You are going to go through them like crap through a goose. Kills you get early will reap rewards later. -When the game starts, the chances are, unless you get a very lucky spawn, that you will not be able to prevent the destruction of the first two groups of sentinels. (But you might be able to kill one or two T-55s as they do so, situation dependant). Consider writing them off as a loss, and instead look at the minimap the spawn point for the next group of sentinels. Plot an intercept course to meet a group of T-55s moving from their previous kills to the new spawn point. Preferably use low ground to maintain the element of surprise. Then let the carnage commence. -Surprise is your friend. If you anticipate enemy movement well, and use low ground and cover correctly, you can appear right in the middle of a group of T-55s. This results in some consternation for them and satisfaction for you. -Feel free to feint. Be seen moving in an obvious direction (eg to a group of T-55s working on some sentinels) before dropping down into low ground. Change course. The T-55s will presume you are coming for them and take an evasive route to their next destination. Anticipate that route, and your course should take you to a position which will catch them in the open. -T-55 drivers often try to be sneaky. As you are distracted engaging a group, expect that one is going to try to go around the long way, often hugging the map edge, in the hopes of getting an uncollected power-up, or starting to farm sentinels unmolested by the WT. If you can position yourself in such a manner that you appear to be focused on a group, whilst still covering the likely route of such a sneaky T-55 driver, if you pay attention to the map you may well find that the T-55 attempts to make a break for it across open ground where he cannot avoid you. Seize these opportunities. Not only are they a comparatively easy kill (Especially if you use the stun shell), you also will secure your rear (And sentinels/energy packs) and further, that valuable time being spent by the T-55 in the attempt to be sneaky will have been wasted.  -If you find yourself playing "ring around the rosies" with a T-55 behind a rock or building, that's a great use of your EMP blast. Get a running start towards the obstacle. Time your EMP blast so that the discharge about matches when you are approaching the obstacle, it should go through and stun the T-55 on the far side. That will give you a reasonable chance of being able to clear the obstacle faster than they can avoid you. In extremis, give up and move onto more productive pastures. You can get a shot at the guy later. -Your goal is delay, not prevention. Given time, there is nothing you can do to stop all ten power-ups being obtained, but the timer is your friend. Sitting in one place covering a power-up or single sentinel which remains to be collected is only beneficial for the amount of time it take for the T-55s to relocate to the next group of sentinels. After that time, start to relocate, but don't go -too- far. Remember that there's always a T-55 which will try to be sneaky. When the Harriers see that one guy going for the easy pickup, they will go elsewhere. If you can still keep the powerup or sentinel covered from your new position, at best, you will kill the opportunistic T-55 and safeguard the powerup for the amount of time it takes for another tank to relocate over, or at worst, you still get a T-55 kill as he collects the powerup (Powerup collection is faster than your reload). Don't try to continue the same trick, abandon the powerup if necessary for a better position vis a vis the Harrier group as a whole. -Similarly, know when to write off a group of your sentinels, even later in the game. As T-55s are faster than you, getting to the sentinels just as the last one is finished off is too late. They will scurry off, and you will not be able to prevent the destruction of the next group at all. -Your EMP blast can take up to 600hp if you are in close proximity to the enemy. Feel free to use it instead of firing one round your four, especially if you come over the hill and surprise a group of the opposition. On that note, your WT is heavy and not all that slow. Ramming works as well. Consider not shooting someone who appears pre-occupied before you ram them. Why give them warning? -When the opposition gets to level 7 or 8, it's time to start to figure out where you want to make your last stand. It gets easier if your last stand is also supported by a Maus and/or E100. Look at the 'next spawn points' on the minimap and work accordingly. It is not necessary that you be amongst the sentinels, just that in order to shoot you, the T-55s must expose themselves to the sentinels, and that you, in turn, can protect the sentinels from T-55s trying to get around the side or rear. -Sitting up on top of a hill in a commanding position visible to all only works for the beginning of the game. By level 5 or 6, still you're only talking small-ish amounts of damage, but 200 lost here and 200 lost there, and soon you're talking some real health loss. Your health bar is huge, and you only need one 1hp left at the end of the game, but there's a difference between a calculated loss of health, and giving away freebies. -Don't forget your stun shell can also cause damage. If the opposition is on 50hp or so, give that a go before using a main gun round.