by Haloeclipse » Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:16 pm
I apologize for the word wall.
This was my first time at the farm and I have to say that this is an excellent field. Way better than splat action. The village is a ton of fun to play whether attacking or defending.
This was my first real game since the bsp challenge and since Ive been back in the states so it was pretty exciting. This was also the first time Ive commanded an entire team in one of the large games.
As far as objectives went, the first phase was essentially to defend the city, which we did despite going back and fourth on the eastern side. We did have some issues with spawn camping and people hiding behind the porta potties, but the issue was addressed, I started pushing my guys further into the spawn point to make sure there wasnt any confusion on who was dead or living, and the area around the porta johns was made off limits and very clearly announced to the players. I was given one mission during the first phase, and despite repeated attempts to secure the objective (explosives) we were unable to do so, from what I saw it was because the NG and infected were doing a very good job of keeping us backed into a corner. Whoever had the black dildo on their gun screaming his battle cry and leading a bunch of guys to take the orchard, awesome. It was awesome to watch my guys assault those log cabins as well as the loaners going on suicide runs and more often than not getting a grenade into the building. Kudos
Phase 2 started with 2 objectives, retake the city and cut the power. Once we got the power station I was given 3 more objectives. I had been told that the explosives were 'somewhere' in phase 2, and got clarification later on that they were still at the coordinates given to me in the first phase. As soon as I got my new missions I dispatched teams to the grid points, and spread the word that the city was worthless to us without the explosives. We immediatley secured and began defending one objective from the infected and another team secured the remaining explosives. The team dispatched to the remaining objectives, a intel point and a water facility were unable to secure it because the infected were doing too damn good of a job (the somewhat close vicinity of their spawn gave them a little help). With the somewhat close proximity of the infected spawn, and our low numbers i made the decision to focus on getting into the city and blow the objectives instead of trying to get the water and intel points (possibly a bad idea) The explosives team reinforced the poi we were defending and myself and my newly made sappers returned to the spawn to rally our forces and begin our assault on the city. I led a group to the far western side of the city to be a diversion while the rest of the team tried to get a foothold on the city. While in transit the game ended.
In the second phase a lot of the motivation and aggression had died down, and our numbers had dwindled as well, the heat probably played a big part. Radio's were a big issue throughout the game, namely that hardly anybody had one, and the ones that did generally didnt stay on the survivor net. Finding the numbers to effectively do near anything was an issue in the second phase and without commo it was hard to rally guys.We also had a lot of young players (inexperienced) on the survivors side and most of the team consisted of unaffiliated players. I will disagree with the need for 16+ events, I saw some awesome sportsmanship in the younger players and more than a few were a huge help for me. I would drop names but many of them aren't on the forums or I never caught them. I did hear a lot of griping from random people on all sides about people calling hits and witnessed one or 2 myself but that has been addressed both at the game and on the forums. To the girl that safety killed me in phase one, please speak up, I didn't hear you say safety kill until after I tried to safety kill you (due to very close proximity and being unsure as to what side you were on), nor did you gun look to be in any way pointed towards me, you were also right in front of me which led me to draw down on you and could have killed you myself. I took my out to ensure there was no feeling of hacking but really I don't think I needed to. Next time take the shot, I don't think many other people would have taken the out, specially since you didn't really seem to have me dead to rights. As far as not knowing what to do, every objective I was given was immediately assigned out to teams, as well as any extra people they needed to secure the objectives. There weren't a ton of missions and most of the survivors job came down to either defend the city, or attack the city/power station. This is fixed by more radios, more teams and more team leaders.
Lessons learned-Survivors needed more radios, end of story. (I lent out my 2nd one to one of the 2 affiliated teams on my side). Along with radios I needed more teams, next time I would organize the people not on teams into more organized squads (the QRF I made worked really well, props to you guys) When maps are available to players I'd secure a few extras to hand out for when I need someone to go on a mission, but I saw them handed out before the game and nobody seemed to have one when I needed to send guys out. (I wasnt willing to give away my command map either). Given the location of our spawn point I probably could have all but abandoned the city in the first phase, taken our objectives and worst comes to worst simply respawn our team and take the city back. We had many times where guys were chillin in the spawn point, next time Ill do more to kick them back out onto the field. Ill also bring more water for anybody to drink, its cheap and you can never have enough and it helps keep motivation up. I did have a few issues raising people on the objective channel, but I switched to the admin channel and instantly got the answers I needed.
MY QRF did an excellent job you guys were so motivated it was scary. Team SCARS (did I get that right?) and Team double tap were a huge asset. I cant remember the name of the player from double tap, but you were pretty much my second in command, if I needed something done, you made it happen. I dont know how many times you simply dropped your gun and ran unarmed to grenade a building.
I hope I didn't screw over my team too much.
Rick, great game, worth every penny. Liked the pregame raffle, good bbq, good location (great weather too). I look forward to the next.
Never ever insult Halo he is a god among men ~achillesnick~
