We played a tough game of One Flag on Hemorrhage against OscarTheFrog and his friends today. A Wheelmen, OcR, and BSG team made up the Red Team.
Game LinkPregame LobbyIn the lobby, the Red team continued its typical herpin and derpin and discussed a few strategic points before the game started. With about 15 seconds left in the lobby, I realized that we were about to play OscartheFrog and remembered he was from the site. I pointed this out to Jedi, and we both failed at quickly coming off Team and Party to say hi to Oscar.
With little time to talk, Oscar and I exchanged greetings and wished each other good luck.
Round 1: DefenseThe game opened up as any typical Hemorrhage game with a vehicle rush from both teams. We, the red team, sent a hog to Mouse Hill, a Ghost to pick up Plasma Launcher, and a Revenant toward Rock Field. The blue team sent two hogs and a Revenant. After pulling back the plasma launcher, we took early control of Mouse Hill and sent guys along the cave ridge to negate the use of their cave. For the rest of the round, Red team used their vehicles and team DMR to hold the middle of the map and didn't let anything through.
Round 2: OffenseIn our offensive round, we rushed a hog and ghost toward mouse hill, a ghost and revenant toward Rock Field, and a Wraith to the plasma launcher spawn. The Revenant dropped Kitty off at the plasma launcher spawn, and then 3 vehicles teamed up on blue team's first hog. The Red Team attempted to push their vehicles forward slowly to bait the blue Wraith out, but a sniper on the Ridge kept the hog at bay, and the blue team took down our Revenant. Despite the loss of the heavy vehicle, the hog and revenant continued to run around the Garden, Rock Field, and Trees to keep the pressure up, but the Revenant fell to vehicular team fire.
With a minute left, Red team blitz two hogs and two ground pounders on to the enemy side and managed to take down the wraith. Though we finally reached their base, a sniper took out one gunner just as the other hog bailed out to pull a flag. With no time left, and too many blue guys in the base to fight, they held us off from a flag.
Round 3: DefenseAt the start of round 3, we sent a hog to Mouse Hill to support the GPs coming through our teleporter, and Jedi (for the lulz) attempted to flip my hog because of a comment I made earlier about him (:D). Kitty rushed her Ghost at the Plasma launcher again. Their sniper stopped us from grabbing the plasma launcher, but we managed to take down one of their hogs on the opening push. Though we held mid well, the blue team's Wraith did serious damage to any of our vehicles that crossed over the halfway mark. In addition, Blue Team's team-shooting forced us to back off many times from mid. By the end of the round, my hog's dashboard was flashing red, telling me that it was on the verge of exploding.
With one minute left, Blue team went all out and rushed everything they had onto our side, and gave us a serious scare when they managed to get 3-4 people over our ridge right as their hog took down our Wraith. However, we managed to hold them off our flag.
Round 4: OffenseWith one round left, we were determined to score, and not just play for the tie. Just like our first offensive round, we rushed our vehicles to mid. This time, though, Bloody rushed his Wraith behind us to Mouse Hill and accidentally flipped us out, and then no-shielded us. Luckily, I threw a drop shield and Bloody killed the hog. We tried to push aggressively with vehicles, but the blue team showed they were not ready to give up and took down our hog with some well placed Revenant shots.
Even with the hog down, Jedi managed to keep his Revenant alive on the cave side of the map. Which allowed me to bring another hog, while two GPs pushed over their ridge, and Chuck pushed up to their shotty rocks. Blood also pushed up with his wraith and helped us pick off people around the base. Three blue members ended up pinned in their dark spawn, while two others ended up trapped by our sniper as our 3 GPs pushed onto their base. Jedi managed to pick up the flag carrier in the Revenant, while the rest of us covered their backs.
Post-Game LobbyBoth teams exchange pleasantries after the game, saying "Good Game" and mentioning how well both teams played.
What I LearnedA lot of the game is decided in the first 30 seconds. We took control of Mouse Hill every round, and well as taking control of the plasma launcher.
As for the flag pull, we managed this because everyone on our team pushed up. Azn sniped from the rocks, and took out two spawns and people off the base. One guy went over their ridge, and another went under their ridge. A third went across mid to their shotty spawn, while we kept a hog, revenant, and Wraith on their side. We kept 5 of them out of their base, so our 3 guys who pushed to the top of their base rained nades down on the few left inside. And as soon as we pulled the flag, we pulled it out on a vehicle immediately, while everyone else covered their backs.
For Defense on this map, there is absolutely no reason to push past the middle of the map, except insofar as you need to neutralize people coming through the cave and their teleporter.
