Review [Issue 36] Combo of the Month (Twins/Hornet): In Theory

[Shedinja 1,488]

Click here to read on the combo being tested in the field, by Kevred

 

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Combo of the Month

Shedinja & Kevred

 

 

 

 

 

In Theory, by Shedinja

 

My First Thoughts

I've only seen a select few in the higher ranks that even attempt to turn their turret while behind the wheel of one of these. I used to look down upon those that played this way, thinking it was shameful that they had sunk to this lazy, easy-on-the-mind-and-wallet playing style. Point, shoot, and occasionally turn your hull to follow. Little coordination needed, little money out of pocket required, and a rather decent output, to boot. It's easy to be annoyed upon defeat due to this low-effort strategy, and personally, I'd rather have the person turn their turret and give me the smack-down harder than just sit there and plasma-spam. 

 

Composition

We all know that Hornet is a fast yet lax hull with not much armor to speak of, even in its final modifications. I mean, even in its 'M4' stage, it barely surpasses 200 armor points. The skid that this machine has when taking any kind of turn can be annoying if you're trying to stay directly on a main path, andbad can turn to worse for an unsightly tanker who finds themselves unable to take their foot off of the gas when rounding a corner around a building or a void. Both of these side-effects can be deadly if overlooked and not taken with great caution. As for weight, this certainly isn't the parkour vehicle of choice, weighing in at 2400 kg with final MUs in place. It's heavy enough so that recoil can't easily flip it, but can still be sent all kinds of askew if something with force hits it. As for power... if you're thinking about trying to shove Vikings or Dictators around to snag a gold, think again. You'll have a tough time competing with even Hunters of the same modification,  with somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 units to speak of.

 

Twins. The name is self-explanatory, the weapon is almost infamous to be one of the most annoying guns in the game. Anyone with the volume on in a match where the strategy is to put a brick on the space bar can testify to that. A twin barreled weapon, this machine fires balls of plasma subsequently and repeatedly; about four to five are generated per second. At M4, this baby can deal roughly 76 damage per second, and keep kickin' to beat up whoever's next. Running out of ammo has never been an issue for a Twins user; range, however, is a different ball game altogether. Twins might pack quite the distance on it, but it can only go so far while dealing maximum damage. The rotation speed of this turret isn't something to sneeze at, either; it can turn around from whatever it's doing from a 180 degree angle within two thirds of a second and start unloading on all and any poor souls behind it, regardless of hull used.

 

Stir the two well in your best stainless steel pot, and you've concocted an extremely strange yet dynamic combination. I'm not using the term dynamic flippantly here -- this combo will have you on edge the entirety on the time you use it. (That is, if you turn your turret...)

 

The Combo Itself

Hornet/Twins attempts to combine the world of smooth, dynamic playing styles with that of constant split second analysis shifting of your turret to allow each of your shots to contact your target. It's a lot like driving a real car, minus the explosions and the giant plasma spewing cannons. You have to calculate exactly where you are on the road, watch for other passing vehicles and the occasional unwitting pedestrian, make sure that SUV pulling out of that Dunkin' Donuts isn't making a turn into your lane, pinpoint the exact location of your destination, all while making sure that the pressure that you're applying to the gas and brake correspond to the local speed limit and that you're staying in your own lane. The driving section is all meshed into one with the Hornet, and the surroundings link in to what your Twins are trying to lock on to. Kind of.

 

Playing with Hornet/Twins gives the drift on the already relaxed turning speed an even larger boost with the very minor but frequent recoil from Twins, vibrating the whole tank further into the drift at maximum velocity than usual. Strangely enough, this slippery driving can make your opponents miscalculate the positioning of their own weapon, believing that you were going to turn at a much sooner point. Whipping around opponents is also possible, too, but to a lesser extend than that of what Wasp has to offer --  just slide directly past them and continue sending rounds into their hull as you pass, giving you a few extra seconds to deal damage while they turn themselves around trying to figure out where you went.

 

However, this isn't an easy task to complete, especially if it's one of the only ways you have to survive. Face it -- with the speed of Hornet and the turret coordination skills required for Twins, this combo is not easy on anyone's mind. I must admit it has led to me having to sit back once or twice during one of the few days I've field tested this pair and try to rewire my brain so that I don't mentally overheat. I'll say first hand that after one of the test runs I made in a thirty minute Polygon CP, I truly felt like my tank was a green, light-emitting ping-pong ball. I was bounced pretty much everywhere by the heavy hulls that saw me and decided to do somethin' about it, while barely dodging the lighter ones by either blasting into them and hoping another lag spike doesn't occur or praying that their focus is on some other guy. Especially when I had a Nitro Boost active. Yeesh. "I think I'll just let Kev handle this one. Hope he doesn't get motion sick easily."

 

The Game Styles

Control Point, or CP, is a unique play style that seems to be rising in popularity, especially within maps with one singular point. Since the maps and player strategies vary so dramatically, it would be best to split the CP section into two categories: single point, and multi-point.

 

Single Point CPs are rather infamous for being the dwellings of many medium and heavy hulls equipped with weapons of high DPS capacity, all with the intention of snail charging to the point and staying there. But these aren't the only inhabitants; single point CPs are also home to a few brave light combat players who try their darndest to stay unnoticed on the sidelines and attack the fatties sitting on the point. The most common of these are probably Polygon, Arena, and Farm. Since not many of the other single points are played near as frequently, most of the focus will be placed on those three. However, the idealization of the single point CP is very similar all around, so other maps shouldn't vary far too drastically.

 

The play style for all of these maps is relatively similar: most of the medium and heavy hulls charge for the point, whilst the light hulls produce cover fire from afar, usually with a high caliber, long distance weapon like Railgun and Vulcan. (Due to Vulcan's recent nerf, however, you'd think they'd all but gone extinct.) Twins/Hornet, however, has a very counterproductive setup: a high damage per second rate recoil weapon on a light hull meant to only be exposed to fire for short amounts of time. Due to the low health of the Hornet, staying put on the point isn't ideal. Twins can cover a bit of ground with each volley, but it's easily outclassed by almost anything with serious projectile range, including Railgun, Shaft (but who uses Shaft in single point CPs anyways?), Thunder, Smoky, and even Hammer on some occasions when attempting to attack from a distance. Hit-and-run tactics are a viable option in Arena, where the walls surrounding the point can give the player a break from the onslaught of whizzing metal and flame, but Freeze, Firebird, Hammer, and a clever user of Ricochet can get the job done much more efficiently, since they have a higher damage per shot rate and can take the opportunity to recharge their own cannons. Since Twins has infinite and rapid recharge and a low projectile damage, it works better when it's out in the open with a lot of health to spare and with a lot of targets to choose from. As mentioned above, the heavy hulls congregate around the point, where targets are constantly arriving. But Hornet doesn't have the health to sit there and take it from the close ranged weapons inevitably resting upon Vikings, Dictators and Titans galore, making its positioning on this type of field a bit of a conundrum to place efficiently.

 

However, in multi-point CPs, there is one viable use for this combination that few actually spend time thinking about: mid-field wearout. People are constantly doing this without think about it, but their main targets are the factor that decide who wins or loses the game: the points. Mid-field wearout is really just attacking the heavier opponents before they reach the points and initiate being fat. It's a tactic that can force the heavier players to use their health pack or double armor early, giving your team just a bit more edge on that specific opponent. This combination works better in PRO matches, however, due to the fact that there's no supplies floating around for the heavies or mediums to take, making the job of eliminating them much easier. Hornet/Twins has the fantastic ability to whittle down a medium or heavy hull's health without taking near as much damage in return, due to the speed and sliding effect that the combination offers. They won't try to tun their hull to face you, since they're so focused on the point in the distance, so they'll have to focus on just turning their turret. Have a pal grab Freeze, and your team can efficiently make the Mammoth extinct. Those Hunters and Vikings who do decide that you're worth the trouble, however, can change direction a lot quicker with their increased turn rate and try to blast you to bits. It'd be wise to steer clear of maps like Highways and Berlin, where light hulls and Shafts (not necessarily connected to one another) run rampant and wish for you to be their first catch of the day.

 

A Deathmatch with a Hornet/Twins is by no means a permanently stationary task. Sitting back and spamming the plasma-shooty-thingy while turning your hull to aim out in the open is a surefire way to get sent home in a box. You're literally a sitting duck for everyone in sight -- so get up and run! Constant momentum and good aim can leave you with only a couple of real dents while ripping the opponents to pieces. Hornet/Twins tends to function better when there are a lot of walls to sneak up on your opponents from, but only where alleyways aren't always a straight shot and turning you into Shaft-bait. Supply boxes are likely to be a steady source of this combination's overwhelming killing power in deathmatches, since using a lone supply could rob you of a much needed opportunity to hit the '1' key. It'd be wisest to use either a double armor for health availability or an N₂O canister to flee impending danger and find more power-ups. 

 

Also, in deathmatches, remember one of the golden rules: you have to keep an eye over your shoulder at all times, especially with Hornet instead of a much more efficient medium hull, like Viking or even Dictator. The rotation speed of Twins is a great supplier of that, but be careful not to leave yourself too defenseless from the front. Wherever you're facing, there may be something behind you. Being small and having a high-fire rate weapon can transform any nook large enough for you to hide within into a foxhole armed with a plasmic machine gun. Catching opponents off-guard from behind would work best. Remember, Hornet/Twins is not a permanently stationary combination, but hiding for a moment or two can give you those extra kills that bring you another step closer to the top of that verdant scoreboard. Just PLEASE don't stay in the same spot for long; you're not the only player out there who knows what they're doing, despite the common belief that the assumed number of total brain cells is less than the number of other players on the map...

 

Capture The Flag style playing is where this combination can actually hold some hefty strategy options. Maps with many buildings or places to hide function well for a Twins/Hornet, but it can work against you as well, due to the lax lateral acceleration keeping you from sliding smoothly around a corner. Also, this delay can also allow an opponent to escape from the reach of your Twins, especially if you're in pursuit of a Wasp. The obstructions, if used carefully, can give you sufficient protection from Railgun and Shaft, of which short-proximity fighters like Twins are in dire need of protection against. The problem is, when one door is closed, another is opened. Close range combatants would have a much easier time accessing your base, making for a very difficult time taking on a surprise attack from several close ranged fighters. A close range paint would be suggested for this situation, like Zeus or Rock. Clay is also a viable option; the Thunder and Ricochet protection would serve you well within these planar surfaced surroundings.

 

Marching into the heart of the enemy bastion may not be wise for a Hornet/Twins, but execution is what matters most. As with any Hornet, you could easily signal your teammates to divert the opposition's attention to somewhere else, and then take the opportunity to spirit away the flag before anyone else realizes they were invaded. While on the run, Twins can also play a hand at knocking off the aim and disorienting surprised lightweight players who did not succeed in returning from your side of the map unscathed. This combination can also be utilized to lay an unorthodox type of siege on the opposing base, disallowing many attackers from leaving their base without sustaining massive damage. Generating a minefield while doing so can drastically decrease the defensive combat for your team. Prepare your platoon mates to transform from defensive walls to an intimidating squadron of Hornets and Hunters, ready to pass the flag to each other once within the perimeter once everything is set for invasion. At least one Viking or Dictator with long ranged capabilities picking off opponents from the gate can make or break this type of siege warfare, so have them assisted with an Isida or Freeze (if they're using Vulcan). 

 

With Hornet and a mid/short ranged weapon, I'd stay away from the mid-field area. Strolling out into the wide plains of Berlin or Sepurhov might as well be the same as driving around with a neon sign that says, "Hey! Snipe me!" It's a waste of time to put on Railgun, Vulcan or Shaft protection while there are so many other guns that are much harder to avoid heading in your general direction. Priority is key in winning any CTF, as you all know too well. 

 

Team Deathmatches follow a lot of the same guidelines as the CTF game style, but without the foothold that allows Hornet/Twins to be able to lead any type of offensive: the flag. Staying mainly defensive would keep you alive longer, but this time you won't have anything to protect; ergo, no leverage to lure your opponents into a trap. Railguns are more likely to sneak over to your side and try to peck away at your pinned team if you decide to stay and make fortifications. A war of attrition versus a cautious team or otherwise is a very viable option -- don't attack them, but lure them enough to come to you. The problem therein, of course, is the leverage. What would compel them to come over here?

 

There's a couple of feasible methods to bring them over to your neck of the woods. One of them is to fix your Railguns or Shafts to position themselves in locations that leave a good line of sight into their camp and start sniping away. Annoyed, the opposing team is likely to move out of the line of sight and attempt to bowl them over with some of their own sniper fire. Your guys may lay a mine or two to deter any close ranged combatants from getting close to their nest. Eventually, they'll start sending over some people to take care of their long-ranged assailants, and slowly picking them off as they rove in shouldn't be a problem. Another way of drawing them in is by simply doing nothing. At least, not do anything to them. Set as many mines as you can , but make sure at least two people are laying them. I've seen entire carpets of mines evaporate due to the carelessness of the hapless mine-layer sticking their head out to see what's up and getting bopped by a patient Shaft. Be prepared for when they start trying to attack you. Patience or not, no team can win without getting a kill. But, honestly, there isn't much that this combination can do besides attack within normal standards. It's only a deathmatch with partners.

 

Catching Gold

Of course, y'all must be wondering, "Yeah, yeah, Shed, don't stay still, lay some mines, coordinate with your team, blah blah blah, but how am I supposed to catch a gold box with this thing if there happens to be one?" Well, with the subtle recoil of Twins and the disappointingly-too-heavy Hornet ruling out ground level hopping onto a low hull like Viking, you're going to have to rely on using non 'xyz' planes to get you onto somebody. By 'xyz', I mean the vertical plane and the two horizontal ones. In retrospect, really, the 'x' and 'z' planes are mainly relative to coordinates and the direction you're facing, with 'y' being the only constant, so it'd be easier to label both 'x' and 'z' under simply 'x', making your surroundings a three-dimensional, perpetually kinetic 'xy' plane. Anyways, anything between 0°and 90° can work to your benefit as a ramp, allowing you access onto the nearest tanker (that is, if any are in reach). But what if there aren't? What if the drop zone is amid a large plain, with no extra thresholds leading to a surface to aid you? Well, do what I do -- wait for the gold box the appear in the air, position your hull to face directly into the heaviest opposition, make sure you have a health kit available (since you're in the hot zone now), push, and pray that you're still in the middle by the time the box descends. Another note: wait for an enemy to lay a mine on the spot beforehand. As a light hull with double armor, a haphazardly placed mine can aid your attempt to hop onto another tank. You can either (if it was a box that you received the double armor from) use a health pack to get that extra armor back, or lay another mine in hopes that the resulting hop or explosion catapults you into the descending box. Use the mines if you're looking to make an enticing gold box video, but the safest option by far is the repair kit.

 

Playing Parkour

Being a Hornet doesn't leave too many parkour options. Being a Twins leaves even less. However, Twins is rather famous for helping a lot of Wasps grow wings and fly from skylights during rank-ups. It can also play a part in interesting skydiving compilations. Parkour-shooting during battle, though? I wouldn't try it, unless you want to be stuck sideways or upside down. There's not really a whole lot to say, here. Much better things for Twins to be doing than parkour.

 

Shed's Rating

I do a lot of my guide-type articles based on quantitative assessment and logical reasoning. The logic and statistics are where I get a lot of my information from, and thus far it hasn't proven me too wrong. I do focus some of my attention on field-testing, but this time around I'm going to leave the brunt of that to my fellow reporter and friend, Kevred. 

 

Hornet/Twins, from an analytic's point of view, tends to shine in relatively few situations, and has merely average capabilties anywhere else. It seems that this combination would suffer greatly in situations where it can't reach the opponents and the field is wide open, like Massacre, Madness, the upper levels of Subway, and several others. It would be forced to use long-ranged combat paint, leaving it defenseless to other weapons that may not have the same reach but can still deliver a nice, heaping plate of pain. In close ranged maps, like Duel, Ping-Pong, and anything smaller than Sandbox, anyone who follows the golden rules of Tanki knows that heavy hulls reign supreme in mini-maps. A player using something on or past Viking in armor would turn that little Hornet into mincemeat. 

 

This combination cannot be labeled universal, due to its severe lack of survivability in most extremes. It seems to only function well as a backup defensive player or a surprise attack hit-n'-runner. It may be able to deal nearly significant amounts of damage if used correctly on someone of whom is too busy doing something else at the moment. If it doesn't normally have the time to survive long enough before letting its full plan come into effect, then it cannot place very well next to other combinations. I'd give this combination a 4/10.

 

     

 

 

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Edited January 7, 2018 by Hexed

[yoshi-1 1,096]

Nice article :)

[delnina2 1,570]

Great article/Feedback...

 

But a bit too long... 

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Plasma-spam :lol:

[Guest]

nice

[SaadKhan7 961]

Nice one

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

Nice Article, I don't use Twins/Hornet ever.

[IVIr.Catalyst 1,035]

Great Article,twins is truly an effortless turret and in my opinion one of the most annoying turret in the game.Again,great article ;)