[Issue 1] A Guide to attacking in CTF [TWG]

[Quarks 2,255]

A Guide to Attacking In CTF that is crazy long.

Throughout many articles in the newspaper the reporters have mentioned attacking, midfielder, and defending the flag, when I looked through the forum, I never saw a guide to doing any of those. While for many higher ranks this series may be redundant, there are many players, especially at the lower ranks, who do not understand what seem like simple concepts to us more experienced players.  
In this series, I will be looking at the basics of each and different strategies that can be used and applied in each. Hopefully this will help less experienced players moving up the ranks and maybe even reintegrate what higher ranks should be pros at. Higher ranks might even learn something, who knows. Let us take a look at the basic fundamentals and strategies of attacking in CTF.  And so, without further ado, a guide to attacking in CTF that is too long for its' own good.

• What hull should I use anyways?

It seems by consensus that people prefer Wasp to cap flags, and while that can be very effective, it is not my personal favorite. While Wasp is very fast, the problem is it's negligible armor that comes with that price.
 
While it does seem like it has a lot of health at m3, it is nothing compared to everything else. Two thunder shots will kill it, and a rail will always one shot it if you don't have protection. Yes, It gets in and out of an enemy base very quickly, it does have a tendency to die very quickly.
 
Instead of Wasp,I would say Hornet for capping a flag, it has more health while slightly less speed, enough to escape in time, while still having enough armor to take a rail, and maybe a shaft if you have double armor, or even the right paint. Compare the stats.
While very close in health at m2, all the others see a  difference in hornets that favor on all accounts except speed, but that is not a huge difference, M3 wasp goes slightly faster than m3 hornet by about 10 mph, give or take depending on MUs. The extra health makes a huge difference, as everyone on the opposing team wants to kill you, and, unless they have a freeze as you are screwed anyways,you will be able to run longer, which is useful if you are playing on a large map.
I strongly suggest that you don't use anything heavier than hunter, as you won't be able to run away fast enough, and you will be destroyed. The exception is viking and maybe, MAYBE dictator on small maps like ping-pong. If you want to read more on light hulls, go here--> http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=234333&p=4121577 
P.S. For the m2 rank, go with m2 wasp if you can afford it. It has a difference of 2hp, and around 1 or 2 mus will solve that.
 
2. What is the best Turret
This answer is slightly simpler, whatever turret you prefer the most. While I suggest against Vulcan and Shaft mainly due to the fact that they are not good at close range, due to rotation with the barrels with Vulcan and arcade mode on Shaft being a lot weaker than in scope mode. I am not saying it is in possible, it is possible, but it is harder. Stick to what you shafts and vulcans are good at. Aggravate anybody stealing the flag, play midfield or defense, please. More on those two styles later, as in next month(s).
 
Strategies for each turret.
 
Firebird:
The king of close range, a powerful turret that does high damage up front, and after m1, leaves burn damage. If you are going for a capture, try and sneak into base. Avoid deep frying enemies unless you are attacked, but in that case, don’t go for the flag, you won’t have enough help. Deep fry anybody there, leave them burning, and run. Due to fast turret rotation, do a 360 with your turret every now and then, to see anybody coming at you. Equip wasp for this, speed is more important than armor for fire birds.
 
Freeze
Similar to fire in approach. However, once you get to enemy base,you must freeze your opponents before getting the flag, as they won’t be able to chase or attack you, good luck. Look at firebird for more info. Maybe hornet, circling is better with drift.
 
Isida: You are probably better of healing. Anyways, similar to the other close ranged turrets, I would suggest not using any of your charge before grabbing the flag. The most important supply for you will be double armor, and damage if you can grab it. You don’t need to run away fast before anybody catches you. In fact, sometimes it is good if they do decide to catch you. Due to your healing factor, you can heal up after anything that comes your way. In a perfect world though, you would get away unscathed. Either light hull works well here,
 
Hammer: Starting to move away from the close ranged weapons, is a middle of the pack between short and medium. You are most effective at a close proximity, but don’t deal much damage after around 45ft, ish. If you are going to capture a flag, make sure you have all three shots, waste that last one, trust me. If you can, pick up that double damage lying around waiting for a hammer to wreck with. Get in there, blow up tanks, and run and wait for reload. Use on hornet or hunter, wasp just doesn’t have the stability.
 
Smoky: Probably a better choice than hammer. I faster firing rate allows for great amounts of damage quickly with high impact force. You don’t have to worry about making sure that you have 3 shots. Tip, if you haven’t used a critical hit yet, pump a few shots into random targets, boost that chance. Getting a critical hit while running away is like a little gift just for you, and your team, and the guy who got it, sucks ta be him. Doesn’t matter what hull, it is smoky.
 
Thunder: I would prefer smoky over thunder for capping, purely due to the problems of splash damage. If an enemy comes too close for comfort, well, I hope you have a real good thunder protection paint. However, splash can be useful in crowd control, by hitting many of the tanks following you. Besides that, it is similar to smoky, except with more damage and no criticals. Not much else to really say. Don’t put on wasp, it can work, but the aesthetics and splash damage won’t work out. Use hunter of hornet.
 
Rail: The first (and only) long ranged, high DPS weapons. The ability to deal massive amounts of damage without with a slow reload. Slow turret rotation. But if you hit, they gonna pay. For rail you have to rely more on your teammates that the others, you have a slow reload, and slow turret rotation, best on large maps. Anything smaller than a sandbox should not be used with rail to capture flags. Make sure you turn your turret, duh, and that about sums it up. Be very careful with rail, a missed shot can spell your doom. Hornet and Wasp are popular, but any hull besides heavy can effectively use it. Speed is a factor here, but you need the extra health, so I would say hornet.
 
Shaft and Vulcan: No, just no. Stay on defense or midfield, I get to focus on you guys next time. Don't bother, you will die, and it is just not worth it. Change that daily mission that says capture flags
 
 
 
3. Strategies for capping flags.

•  
• 
  Drug up, or at least get a nitro on. It is needed to cap a flag, especially nitro and a heal kit. Armor and damage is nice, a comfort really. You can even go without a heal if you don't have someone trailing taking pot shots at you like you are a fish in a barrel. Most of the time you will have a trailer, if you are unlucky, isida or freeze, which are hard to kill and get out with enough health. So that heal kit you have been waiting to buy is useless, and you have to hope for a teammate or luck, like gold, but more on that later. Having full drugs is one the best ways to escape with a flag.  
• 
  Don't change directions. I know, I am being Captain Obvious here, but try not to turn your hull around, you don't get out as fast and the other team has extra time to shot you, which makes you more susceptible to death. To sum it up, plan which way you want to come in, and run straight out of it. Return to base, capture flag, yay, you got some XP, now go back for a second run.
• 
  When the flag returned, run the opposite way. This next one is a little bit more advanced, and requires more planning than the previous ones. For this, a teammate needs to steal the flag and run, easy right? Now pay attention to which way he leaves, because everyone will follow him. If he/ she dies and the flag is returned, take the flag, and run in the opposite direction, as there will be less attackers running that way, and you have a better chance of survival. While it seems kind of obvious, practice is harder, but beneficial..
• 
  Here is one that goes against all instincts, if you have the flag when gold drops, ignore the gold, capture the flag. Statistically, gold will not fall, (1/10000 per crystal added to fund) and if it does, the likelihood that you will catch it is low also. So while both teams are running around searching for the gold as is instinct, you have an easy capture, as people pay more attention to gold than flag. If you are really lucky, the guy that took your flag got caught up in the gold festivities, and was killed and the flag returned. Easy capture, probably didn't even have to drug.
• 
  Drop mines when running. The amount of times I wished I'd dropped a mine when running is unbelievable. Hindsight is 20:20 as the old adage goes. So if you can spare a supply, drop a mine, it can only help, not hurt. P.S. If you need to drug latter, save the mine, do the important drugs now, and mine latter.
• 
  My final one for this section, use teammates as cannon fodder. Wait bry, aren't we on the same team? Yes, but when was the last time you ran around to help the team, and not do it for yourself, isidas, you don't count, you get XP for heals. Again, pretty obvious, but a wasp running towards the flag makes any shaft’s and rail’s mouth water, I mean, who cares about that hornet behind him, I want the easy kill. It is better if you have many teammates ahead of you, as all those big rangers now have to reload.
• 
  I lied use decoys, get those pesky attackers out of the way. Self explanatory, send a decoy one way, run the other way. This takes a little bit of planning, and unless your team isn't nub, then they should agree on the best of the team first. If your team wins, you get more crystals. Don't be scared to be a decoy yourself. The more you know...
• 
  I will also add that dropping off flags to full [/size]health[/size] team mates when you are running low has the possibility to save the capture. Note: Sometimes this is not [/size]possible[/size] if you are in the middle of a firefight, it is more likely that the other team will return it instead of getting it to a teammate. Make sure you are in your base when you do this, or the guy is right behind you, remember, if no one is around when you drop the flag, you can not pick it up for a few seconds. Try to do this in base. Very Useful in XP battles, surviving that extra shot makes a big difference. Do be careful though, bad handoffs can cause you to ruin a flag capture, so be careful, but not too careful, crystals are on the line.

4. How to be attack support. Not quite midfield, not quite attack, eh, attack it is.

•  
• 
  Actually help the teammate with the flag. Now this doesn't mean go kamikaze, yet, just some support. This means go actually shot the guy following your teammate with the flag, don't wait for him to die and drop it, you won't get there in time, the flag will be returned, and your team will hate you. The amount of times a teammate has captured my flag or made me lose the with the flag with the being returned is around 50ish, probably more. Honestly, this can only help you, gain some XP, let your team win, it is a win win. P.S. You get more crystals if your team wins.   ;)
• 
  Go Kamikaze if you have very little health. That rail gets ya, and ya don't have enough health to get the flag back to base? Charge 'em, just charge 'em. This strategy is especially good if you have a turret like hammer, thunder, rail, fire or freeze. These weapons can deal massive amounts of damage in a short time, and if you have fire or freeze,you can leave them burning or freezing for a while still. Eventually you will die, but you should have taken plenty with you with high damage, and your buddy who is behind you has an easy capture. Remember, you are only as good as your team, but you can definitely make your team better.
• 
  If a teammate has the flag, run near him, so that if he dies, you can continue with the flag. This goes under support as you didn't take the flag, you are finishing it off, and you will probably get less XP.
• 
  Go and return the flag. You can't be an effective team if you camp all day and don't get back the flag. Run in with a double damage and have fun.

5. The DON'TS of Attacking.
1.)Never try and flip your teammate with the flag, or sabotage them in any way. They will hate you, and be annoyed with your score for that will be fairly low. Plus, if you cause the flag to get returned, and the other team gets a capture, you will be hated by all. If you do this, learn to cap a flag yourself  
2.)Don't ignore the spawning freeze. I have seen the people get caught by a freeze and they always die. (EDIT: Sometimes I have gotten away only by hitting 1) If you can, drug and one shot as them as they spawn, rails and hammers only, or give em hell. If you give em hell, the other guy will get the flag, but that freeze is gone. NEVER leave a freeze around with health, kill him asap. I have ignored them and rarely gotten away without help.
3.) Don't use a heavy hull if you are going to capture a flag. This is almost always guaranteed to not work. You don't have the speed to get away in time at all. Some say that you need the extra health. As previously mentioned, anything more than hunter is to slow, and even hunter is a bit slow in terms of speed. Particularly on big maps, the Shafts and Rails will turn you into a shooting gallery, and you will be dead fairly quickly. Also, they take FOREVER to get back to base and get a capture. I have camped around a flag for about a minute or two while a Titan was returning a flag in Lost temple. It was really quite sad, and extremely boring. I don’t see the point in using titan in lost temple anyways.   
           
 
4.) Don't try and return your flag if you have the other team's flag. Please don't ever try this, I beg of you, I am on my knees to beg of you. Your team will hate you if you lose the flag, you have to run back to your base after wards. You will die more likely than not, and the ¨evil¨ team gets and easy return and capture. What to do instead? Go find yourself a hole and hid in it. Be a coward, save your skin, mine yourself, get an isida, keep yourself alive. Make your team go and get the flag back while keeping 1 or 2 back to protect you. You should live, and get a good capture. The only exception is duels. Don't hide in a duel, you will both be bored to death, pro tip of the day right there. 
 
That is my Guide to attacking your flag. Good luck, have fun, Capture flags, and if you have any ideas that I missed, please tell me below.
 

Edited October 6, 2015 by Quarks

[Penguin40 1,714]

Nice job, Big. Very good.  :)

[thunderousrailgunner 1,934]

In the Section of 4 , you can add that if a team-mate has low health , You can Pass it to the full-health teammate . Points doesn't matter though , winning as team does ^_^

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

I'm really a nub at capping flags, and finally I learned on how to capture flags like a Pro.

 

Nice Guide!  ^_^

[Quarks 2,255]

In the Section of 4 , you can add that if a team-mate has low health , You can Pass it to the full-health teammate . Points doesn't matter though , winning as team does ^_^

Probably in section 3, not 4, but thanks.

[DonCarnage 1,270]

Title edited upon request.

[momy950666 960]

nice ;)

[dilsharox 2,395]

nice guide

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

This is one of the best-written guides outside the Press I've seen in a long time! Keep it up!

Also, as a suggestion, I'd just advise you to remove the spoilers, it kinda takes away the pro-ness of the article ;)

[drazeruzumaki 5,021]

nice

[Zephyr98 71]

Nice guide :)

[Quarks 2,255]

This is one of the best-written guides outside the Press I've seen in a long time! Keep it up!

Also, as a suggestion, I'd just advise you to remove the spoilers, it kinda takes away the pro-ness of the article ;)

Thanks, that just made my day. The reason I used the spoilers was that it is a huge block of text, and that can be a bit overwhelming, and I wanted greater separation between the different topics, I did not want them blending together, and make it harder to find things again. In my opinion, the pros that it gives out weighs the cons of the lack of pro-ness.

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

Thanks, that just made my day. The reason I used the spoilers was that it is a huge block of text, and that can be a bit overwhelming, and I wanted greater separation between the different topics, I did not want them blending together, and make it harder to find things again. In my opinion, the pros that it gives out weighs the cons of the lack of pro-ness.

I agree, but if you wanted to make it stand out, you could have used different headings :) And I've always believed that visual content is just as important as the content itself....

[Quarks 2,255]

^not a bad idea, might do that.

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

VERY well written, I would totally agree but one issue! I THNK there was a tiny typo here? If not, dw! I'm just saying so u can edit it, I don't mean to be rude!

 

'I am not saying it is in possible, it is possible.'

Shouldn't it be:

'I am not saying it is impossible, it is possible.'

 

And another one:

'extra time to shot you'

Should be:

'Extra time to shoot you'

 

Another:

'The ability to deal massive amounts of damage without with a slow reload'

Maybe:

'The ability to deal massive amounts of damage without a slow reload'

 

Just saying, pls don't h8 m8!

Edited October 4, 2015 by marc.jp_44

[1-Last_Ride 112]

Don't need ur noob guidance i know how to play

[BlueDragon_tamki 3,204]

So do I, but this is a bit helpful

 

for shaft for playing on CTF, I sometimes go attack and try to capture the flag: I can succeed only 25% of the time

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

Don't need ur noob guidance i know how to play

Don't need ur noob hating. Go be a noob and come last in a battle. Can't you just ignore this article? It worst even a bad article, it was very good, in fact!

So do I, but this is a bit helpful

for shaft for playing on CTF, I sometimes go attack and try to capture the flag: I can succeed only 25% of the time

25% is very little, that's why he said not to do it! It's pretty useless using Shaft for capturing, no offense!

[BlueDragon_tamki 3,204]

25% is very little, that's why he said not to do it! It's pretty useless using Shaft for capturing, no offense!

yes but I do that anyways :mellow: & ik that it's useless for capturing unless you have the right skills, time, and route

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

yes but I do that anyways :mellow: & ik that it's useless for capturing unless you have the right skills, time, and route

Yeah because Ranki made stupid Arcade Mode SUPER weak! So capturing ain't easy, it isn't supposed to be tho!

[Quarks 2,255]

Yeah because Ranki made stupid Arcade Mode SUPER weak! So capturing ain't easy, it isn't supposed to be tho!

Yep, that is  exactly what I meant. It is possible, I have done it when I was in my inevitable shaft run. I failed a lot. The problem is shaft is only powerful in sniping mode. Arcade mode is a last resort that is not powerful enough for attacking, only for needed defending. Go ahead if you want to trying to get a flag, go ahead, but it is not likely to succeed. 

[BlueDragon_tamki 3,204]

Yeah because Ranki made stupid Arcade Mode SUPER weak! So capturing ain't easy, it isn't supposed to be tho!

unless the opponents stupidly let ya cap their flag

[Quarks 2,255]

unless the opponents stupidly let ya cap their flag

Very true, but with the nub score cap battles, a crappy defense/ team makes it so that the match is done in 7 minutes. So it is worthless anyways.

[Mr.Cashier 1,622]

Well Written Article!

[Quarks 2,255]

Well Written Article!

Thanks, really appreciate that. :wub: