Post by coleb87 on Feb 16, 2016 21:33:46 GMT
Hey guys, I've found two nice looking articles on calling. Pictures were supposed to be included, but due to the nature of the forum i was unable to get them here. As a result some sentences may not make sense. Otherwise I thought these were good articles.
------Start-------
DISCLAIMER
I know there are some very experienced people who will read this and disagree with some/much/all of it: this guide is meant to get people up to a certain level of competence and be comfortable with the basics. If you’re an experienced battle caller, please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments and/or contact me to do a piece on advanced battle calling.
WHAT TANKS TO HAVE PEOPLE BRING
I will say something mildly controversial: It doesn’t really matter what types of tanks for random battles, just that all 42 points are used and that there are 5 tier 8 tanks and 2 tier 1 tanks. Most people playing 7/42’s will have roughly the right tanks as other battle callers can be pretty strict. Having a scout makes your life easier, but putting a medium in the scouting role is just fine.
The tanks generally fall into a few groups:
Mobile heavies: IS-3, 110, AMX 50 100, IS-6, T32
Lights: AMX 13 90, WZ-132
Vanilla damage dealers: Everything else not in the following category
Really shouldn’t take these tanks: artillery, KV-4, KV-5, T34, Lowe, Super Pershing, turretless tank destroyers. The super slow tanks just can’t participate in group battle, and neither can the TD’s without turrets. You can try and take them, but don’t blame me when the slow tanks can’t get to the fight in time or the TD’s can’t get shots off. The battles are too fluid for artillery to be effective.
Against people bringing slow tanks or just having a pile of IS-3’s that don’t react fast enough, they often will get capped without even being able to fire shots. Against teams that have poor coordination or spread out too far, the mass push of 5 tier 8 tanks just wrecks them. Against teams without tier 1’s, it’s almost impossible to lose unless you over-push because the back-cap is so strong. Seriously, there are so many free wins just by doing the sheer basics!
Almost every battle caller over-thinks it and tries to micro-manage the fight, when a simple plan of smashing your face into theirs is often the best.
ROLE OF TIER 1 TANKS
Early Scouting
Scouting for back-cap
Suicide scouting if necessary
Back-capping while opponent occupied
Tier 1 tanks are woefully under-appreciated in 7/42 battles. Without tier 1 tanks, the enemy can’t move anywhere from their cap zone without the fear of getting back-capped while they are away from base. The Tier 1 tanks need to stay alive as long as possible, and be ready to jump on the cap if they can.
ROLE OF SCOUT
Find the enemy position early without taking damage
Flank before the big push
Defend cap
ROLE OF MAIN FORCE
Shoot things
Stay within ~100m of each other unless specifically told otherwise
People always want to be in the tier 8 heavies, but those jobs are the least interesting.
HOW TO BREAK A CAMP
Find campers
Surround them – you have time and they aren’t going anywhere
Push at the same time
OR
Find campers
Slam into them in a big brawl
Breaking a camp is mostly tactical rather than strategic. It’ll mostly depend on the lineups of each team as well as their focus firing abilities (which tend to be the weak link of nearly every team).
MICROMANAGING THE BATTLE
Don’t. If you absolutely must give specific commands, repeat a single command over and over and make sure that command is one word. Surround. Defend. Cap. Run. That’s it.
Once the battle starts in earnest, it’s best just to let people do their thing. Don’t call for focus fire because it won’t happen. Most land-holding clans aren’t able to focus fire; a pick-up group for 7/42’s has zero chance of doing it.
TIPS
Scouted a tier 1 on this flank: the enemy main force is on the other flank.
See an IS-3? He’s never alone: the main force is there.
Enemy scout killed your tier 1’s? Push immediately and get an easy 5 vs 4 advantage before he gets back.
Surround when you have a simple numbers advantage to quickly eliminate the enemy.
The games we lost were almost entirely my fault and not my teammates: I tried to micromanage the battle so I put the team in situations where they weren’t going to succeed. If I would have just let them fight it out, it’s likely we would have gone 12-0. I kept trying to get them to do a swarming push, only for me to suicide ahead of the group and watch them die shortly after.
SUMMARY
There should be 3 groups at the beginning to direct: Main force, scout, and T1’s. After the initial setup, it’s one or two groups: main force [and if necessary, flank group]. The tier 1’s shouldn’t require hardly any micromanagement.
Battle calling is fun and interesting, and I hope this gives you an introduction on how to do it. Once you have the basics down, by all means branch out into other strategies! Take wacky lineups like all light tanks or experiment with all IS-3’s and no scout. These will offer different situations with their own unique pros and cons, but first you have to learn the simplest ideas out there.
Discuss this on WoTLabs
---------END OF FIRST ARTICLE---------
What is calling?
Aka known as field commanding calling is the act of giving commands in battle in competitive play.
Pros of calling
+You feel in control
+Compliments if you win
+Notoriety, stats are usually null if you are a proven FC
Cons of calling
+commitment
+being blamed after a loss
+sometimes stressful
How do I get into calling?
As of now there isn't a way. But in future updates you may be able to make training rooms or participate in organized play. Getting good at calling is all about breaking out of your comfort zone.
Terms you should know
Overmatch:Have more than them.
Crossfire: Shoot the enemy from more than 1 direction
Push/Pushing:To swarm your tanks into an area, breakthrough. Typically lead by brick or spear head heavies (Is-7, E-hundo) then followed by softer tanks.
Applying pressure: To force the enemy to make a move. Whether by cap or by the presence of a tank
Poking:Going around a corner. What you do when you peak-a-boo
Flanking: Duh
Initial lights:Lights that are gotten at the start of the battle
Baiting:To bait the enemy to move somwhere
Developing your Strat
Know the map
Obvious enough,
Know the side
You don't want to make the wrong strat
Know the meta
Get an idea of what the enemy team will do and knowing key points in map will help in developing strats
Know tank speeds
Helps you situate your slow tanks in the area of main push
Know where you can generate crossfire
Fair fights are for bads
Also don't split your tanks.
Hyper defensive
-Camp Camp Camp. Hard camps *can* work. But assuming the matches are encounter camping will be useless.No examples, not my style
Reactive
-How this strat works:Green area is area of crossfire. East rushes are easily countered and so are full heavy pushes. Easy to react to any situation.
Hyper Aggressive
-How This Strat Works:This puts our tanks in a really forward position and forces the enemy to react. But when they push in a crossfire is made and the enemy can be easily surrounded.
Gimmick
-How this strat works:Catch out the tanks crossing field.Then Blitzkrieg (kek), Yolo. into city with numbers advantage. Gimmicks are meant to be something so unexpected that the enemy is unprepared.Here's an example of a gimmick strat I made for a Pc tourney a while ago.
So, how did I make these? In competitive play you want to force brawls and make it so that every engagement you make is in your favour. First what lineup is ideal for that terrain. Half the map is city and half is open. Since the open part doesn't control much city is the safest bet. However I want to be able to surround the enemy to minimize loss. So I made most of the lineup meds for flexibility and being able to attack from anywhere. Also a group of heavies are better at bashing skulls than meds, so baiting is easier. Let them over commit then punish them by slamming your heavies into their side. Now the gimmick strat. I know it takes about 30-40 seconds to get in city from the east. So when the enemy is crossing into the open you're able to catch them off guard and remove a majority of their hp/tanks with minimal loss for your team. The reactive one uses the same principal as the aggressive one only it's more on the defensive side.
Tl;Dr Make a situation where you can come from different sides or have a number advantage. Simple as "we have four tanks they have two"
Note:When making a strat make for both sides. For future reference and it helps you find flaws easier. Trust me
Preparing for battle
1 hour before battle
Check who's going to be able to play/make sure people know what's going on
20 minutes before battle
Tell people to get food, drink, etc
15-10 minutes before battle
Lineup creation, organize people
10-5 minutes before battle
Go over the strat in detail make sure everyone knows the plan
5-3 minutes before battle
Questions
2-1 minutes before battle
Check if people are here and do swaps if necessary
Last minute
Final go over.
In battle
Tell people if they are going to the right spot
Tell people what targets to shoot/who to focus
Approve/Deny requests that people make during battle.
Tell people to group up and push.
After battle
Gather feedback. What worked and what didn't
Did you win by a landslide? Was it because of skill or the strat?
Did you lose because of rng? Why did the match go in such a way that RNG would dictate who won?
Why did you lose? Were you outplayed or did people poke poorly?
Note:there's no point in playing the blame game. Just determine why you lost. Was it because of poor play? a bad strategy? bad focus fire? outplayed?
------Start-------
DISCLAIMER
I know there are some very experienced people who will read this and disagree with some/much/all of it: this guide is meant to get people up to a certain level of competence and be comfortable with the basics. If you’re an experienced battle caller, please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments and/or contact me to do a piece on advanced battle calling.
WHAT TANKS TO HAVE PEOPLE BRING
I will say something mildly controversial: It doesn’t really matter what types of tanks for random battles, just that all 42 points are used and that there are 5 tier 8 tanks and 2 tier 1 tanks. Most people playing 7/42’s will have roughly the right tanks as other battle callers can be pretty strict. Having a scout makes your life easier, but putting a medium in the scouting role is just fine.
The tanks generally fall into a few groups:
Mobile heavies: IS-3, 110, AMX 50 100, IS-6, T32
Lights: AMX 13 90, WZ-132
Vanilla damage dealers: Everything else not in the following category
Really shouldn’t take these tanks: artillery, KV-4, KV-5, T34, Lowe, Super Pershing, turretless tank destroyers. The super slow tanks just can’t participate in group battle, and neither can the TD’s without turrets. You can try and take them, but don’t blame me when the slow tanks can’t get to the fight in time or the TD’s can’t get shots off. The battles are too fluid for artillery to be effective.
Against people bringing slow tanks or just having a pile of IS-3’s that don’t react fast enough, they often will get capped without even being able to fire shots. Against teams that have poor coordination or spread out too far, the mass push of 5 tier 8 tanks just wrecks them. Against teams without tier 1’s, it’s almost impossible to lose unless you over-push because the back-cap is so strong. Seriously, there are so many free wins just by doing the sheer basics!
Almost every battle caller over-thinks it and tries to micro-manage the fight, when a simple plan of smashing your face into theirs is often the best.
ROLE OF TIER 1 TANKS
Early Scouting
Scouting for back-cap
Suicide scouting if necessary
Back-capping while opponent occupied
Tier 1 tanks are woefully under-appreciated in 7/42 battles. Without tier 1 tanks, the enemy can’t move anywhere from their cap zone without the fear of getting back-capped while they are away from base. The Tier 1 tanks need to stay alive as long as possible, and be ready to jump on the cap if they can.
ROLE OF SCOUT
Find the enemy position early without taking damage
Flank before the big push
Defend cap
ROLE OF MAIN FORCE
Shoot things
Stay within ~100m of each other unless specifically told otherwise
People always want to be in the tier 8 heavies, but those jobs are the least interesting.
HOW TO BREAK A CAMP
Find campers
Surround them – you have time and they aren’t going anywhere
Push at the same time
OR
Find campers
Slam into them in a big brawl
Breaking a camp is mostly tactical rather than strategic. It’ll mostly depend on the lineups of each team as well as their focus firing abilities (which tend to be the weak link of nearly every team).
MICROMANAGING THE BATTLE
Don’t. If you absolutely must give specific commands, repeat a single command over and over and make sure that command is one word. Surround. Defend. Cap. Run. That’s it.
Once the battle starts in earnest, it’s best just to let people do their thing. Don’t call for focus fire because it won’t happen. Most land-holding clans aren’t able to focus fire; a pick-up group for 7/42’s has zero chance of doing it.
TIPS
Scouted a tier 1 on this flank: the enemy main force is on the other flank.
See an IS-3? He’s never alone: the main force is there.
Enemy scout killed your tier 1’s? Push immediately and get an easy 5 vs 4 advantage before he gets back.
Surround when you have a simple numbers advantage to quickly eliminate the enemy.
The games we lost were almost entirely my fault and not my teammates: I tried to micromanage the battle so I put the team in situations where they weren’t going to succeed. If I would have just let them fight it out, it’s likely we would have gone 12-0. I kept trying to get them to do a swarming push, only for me to suicide ahead of the group and watch them die shortly after.
SUMMARY
There should be 3 groups at the beginning to direct: Main force, scout, and T1’s. After the initial setup, it’s one or two groups: main force [and if necessary, flank group]. The tier 1’s shouldn’t require hardly any micromanagement.
Battle calling is fun and interesting, and I hope this gives you an introduction on how to do it. Once you have the basics down, by all means branch out into other strategies! Take wacky lineups like all light tanks or experiment with all IS-3’s and no scout. These will offer different situations with their own unique pros and cons, but first you have to learn the simplest ideas out there.
Discuss this on WoTLabs
---------END OF FIRST ARTICLE---------
What is calling?
Aka known as field commanding calling is the act of giving commands in battle in competitive play.
Pros of calling
+You feel in control
+Compliments if you win
+Notoriety, stats are usually null if you are a proven FC
Cons of calling
+commitment
+being blamed after a loss
+sometimes stressful
How do I get into calling?
As of now there isn't a way. But in future updates you may be able to make training rooms or participate in organized play. Getting good at calling is all about breaking out of your comfort zone.
Terms you should know
Overmatch:Have more than them.
Crossfire: Shoot the enemy from more than 1 direction
Push/Pushing:To swarm your tanks into an area, breakthrough. Typically lead by brick or spear head heavies (Is-7, E-hundo) then followed by softer tanks.
Applying pressure: To force the enemy to make a move. Whether by cap or by the presence of a tank
Poking:Going around a corner. What you do when you peak-a-boo
Flanking: Duh
Initial lights:Lights that are gotten at the start of the battle
Baiting:To bait the enemy to move somwhere
Developing your Strat
Know the map
Obvious enough,
Know the side
You don't want to make the wrong strat
Know the meta
Get an idea of what the enemy team will do and knowing key points in map will help in developing strats
Know tank speeds
Helps you situate your slow tanks in the area of main push
Know where you can generate crossfire
Fair fights are for bads
Also don't split your tanks.
Hyper defensive
-Camp Camp Camp. Hard camps *can* work. But assuming the matches are encounter camping will be useless.No examples, not my style
Reactive
-How this strat works:Green area is area of crossfire. East rushes are easily countered and so are full heavy pushes. Easy to react to any situation.
Hyper Aggressive
-How This Strat Works:This puts our tanks in a really forward position and forces the enemy to react. But when they push in a crossfire is made and the enemy can be easily surrounded.
Gimmick
-How this strat works:Catch out the tanks crossing field.Then Blitzkrieg (kek), Yolo. into city with numbers advantage. Gimmicks are meant to be something so unexpected that the enemy is unprepared.Here's an example of a gimmick strat I made for a Pc tourney a while ago.
So, how did I make these? In competitive play you want to force brawls and make it so that every engagement you make is in your favour. First what lineup is ideal for that terrain. Half the map is city and half is open. Since the open part doesn't control much city is the safest bet. However I want to be able to surround the enemy to minimize loss. So I made most of the lineup meds for flexibility and being able to attack from anywhere. Also a group of heavies are better at bashing skulls than meds, so baiting is easier. Let them over commit then punish them by slamming your heavies into their side. Now the gimmick strat. I know it takes about 30-40 seconds to get in city from the east. So when the enemy is crossing into the open you're able to catch them off guard and remove a majority of their hp/tanks with minimal loss for your team. The reactive one uses the same principal as the aggressive one only it's more on the defensive side.
Tl;Dr Make a situation where you can come from different sides or have a number advantage. Simple as "we have four tanks they have two"
Note:When making a strat make for both sides. For future reference and it helps you find flaws easier. Trust me
Preparing for battle
1 hour before battle
Check who's going to be able to play/make sure people know what's going on
20 minutes before battle
Tell people to get food, drink, etc
15-10 minutes before battle
Lineup creation, organize people
10-5 minutes before battle
Go over the strat in detail make sure everyone knows the plan
5-3 minutes before battle
Questions
2-1 minutes before battle
Check if people are here and do swaps if necessary
Last minute
Final go over.
In battle
Tell people if they are going to the right spot
Tell people what targets to shoot/who to focus
Approve/Deny requests that people make during battle.
Tell people to group up and push.
After battle
Gather feedback. What worked and what didn't
Did you win by a landslide? Was it because of skill or the strat?
Did you lose because of rng? Why did the match go in such a way that RNG would dictate who won?
Why did you lose? Were you outplayed or did people poke poorly?
Note:there's no point in playing the blame game. Just determine why you lost. Was it because of poor play? a bad strategy? bad focus fire? outplayed?
