Friday 4 September 2015

Value of ground targets and victory conditions


Bomber players most often attempt to bomb the minibases (or "depots"), for these are the easiest to hit and they're convinced they yield the most reward.

A good player intent to win wouldn't waste time like that, but go after ground targets instead.


Both teams begin a match with a certain" ticket count". This may be 2,800 tickets, for example.
The teams usually have quantity of ground units (including boats and ships) that's equal to tickets divided by 100.
2,800 tickets ~ 28 ground targets. You win on such maps (NOT on the domination maps) either by annihilation of the other team, by destroying all ground forces, by destroying the minibases and airfield or by destroying a mix of ground targets and minibases.
The quickest and thus safest path to victory up to approx. BR 4.7 maps is to go after the ground targets only.
28 ground targets could be killed by 16 players within 3-4 minutes without anyone reloading, but hardly anybody plays the objectives. Instead, the wish their team "gl" as if winning was about luck, not about actually doing it yourself.

You can look at the "N" screen to see the current ticket count, and there you can observe the value of destroyed targets. The values are as follows:

  • Heavy cruiser: 200 tickets
  • A minibase: Depending on BR about 180-200 tickets
  • Any other ship: 100 tickets
  • Patrol boat: 100 tickets
  • Tanks: 100 tickets
  • Artillery: 100 tickets
  • Armoured cars when they are mission critical ("blinking"): 100 tickets
  • AAA when they are objectives ("blinking", but not airfield defences): 100 tickets
  • non-objective ground forces: zero tickets
  • aircraft kills: zero tickets 
  • damaged, not yet destroyed airfields: zero tickets
  • destroyed airfield: All tickets, reduced over time
All three minibases are worth at most as much as six tanks. But tanks kill each other on many maps, so you can save a blue tank worth 100 tickets if you kill an opposing tank before they kill each other in ground combat. That tank kill is then worth 200 tickets advantage to your team usually.

In short, to destroy a minibase takes multiple passes by a bomber up to about BR 4.x, and destroys at most as many tickets as a single mediocre pass over a group of tanks or destroyers. That's why it's a waste of time almost every time.

This changes in some matches BR 4.7 or higher. That's when Do 217 bombers appear in groups, and they can drop 4x 1000 kg bombs when upgraded. They are furthermore fast and somewhat agile - more able to reach rear red targets than Yer-2, Wellington and most other earlier bombers with 4,000 lbs or more.

There was an event a couple months ago where players suddenly wanted to win - almost all of them. Some incentive was given. The result was that many rushed to victory with the old bomber rush tactic that led to the addition of minibases in order to make 'victory by airfield kill' slower. Back then the best way to win was to have a couple quick-climbing bomber destroyers, a squad of Do217E or more of them, a handful B7A2 Ryusei as escort fighters and additional base bombers and a handful of players who actually killed a few ground targets. The usual ground strike match in those days saw both airfields killed. The winner was the team which had the airfield earlier or compensated for being slower by having killed more ground forces. Those few days made visible how to win Era IV "Ground strike" maps the quickest.

On lower-level "Ground strike" maps you better focus on killing ground targets ASAP - mass destruction! You may have a squad member or two who prefer air combat; they should pay attention to the "N" screen and prioritize those red pilots who've killed 5+ ground forces already or fly the best planes for the job (Su-2, A-20G, B-25J and the like).



No comments:

Post a Comment