"Spare assets"

[Boris.T.Spider]

The assets on the maps are an optional means to accomplish victory. Just because they are there doesnt mean that they should be used, so I am 100% behind the named squad/reserved assets policy. This of course means that the 'whatever asset' squad is also 100% accountable for the success of failure in their particular area of responsibility, so if the team are having transport issues and there are hueys in reserve, this failure can be taken up directly with the air trans squad.

I have seen some of the finest displays of tactical ownage thanks to this policy, as Rudd points out on Quai, the APC's of both sides represent a sustained ticket bleed. A few month back I was in a striker squad, running only one striker, keeping the others in reserve. As it happened, we only needed one of the reserves for the duration of the round. We used the Striker in a similar manner to a Huey, keeping it in main until it was requested specificaly, not roaming around looking for kills. As such, no squad went without transport, resuply or anti infantry support when requested. The Chineese APC's spent about 2 hours roaming the map hunting none existant Strikers while being fettled by well supplied and well equiped infantry squads. By the end of the round, the TOW squad alone, was something like 200 tickets in credit and the Striker squad had broken even.

Similar situation on Kashan 64 last week, I was dumbfounded when the round began, the server was full and there was no asset squads! Eventualy we setled on 5 squads with assets 1xBTR, 1xMBT, 1xMBT, 1xMIG, 2xSky Cow. Yep thats right, we couldnt even find a dedicated Frogfoot pilot! So the MIG pilot was shooting down the enemy jets landing and sadling up the froggy. The US team, as far as we could tell was at the opposite end of the spectrum as we never encountered any less than 3xMBT or 3xBrad. Needless to say, these large armor collumns were easily identified and suffered horrific losses to HAT teams, CAS and ambushes by the single vehicle armour squads who would just sit with their engines off and wait. It takes some co-ordination to stealth 3 Abrahams! And as the US armor squads never had the opertunity to kill more than one armored vehichle at any one time, recouping their losses from any deployment was impossible. To make matters worse for the US, as we only had 9 men at any one time in assets we were able to deploy three full 6 man infantry squads and two 2 man HAT teams. The battle for the bunkers was a forgone conclusion. The end result, after a slow start for MEC, the US flags fell like a house of cards, even if they hadnt, they could not possibly win on tickets.

Something to think on when you join a round mid way through and want to grab your favourite asset. Mabey, the team were getting on quite fine before you joined and were all happy with the strategey they have been agreed on for the last hour?

[snooggums]

Reserved assets have their place in an organized game with a commander with a plan.

Let's take Barracuda as an example:

Most games are lost by the US due to chopper loss. Since crates are only provided by choppers there must be enough choppers available in case a couple goes down, and you need 4 to get troops on the ground at the beginning of the game.
So the main points are:

• 4 choppers need to be available for team insertions at all times in case the team gets pushed off (similar conditions as the beginning of a game).
• Only two choppers are needed at one time (to drop two crates).
• Choppers losses really hurt the US team.

The best solution is to have two active pilots and have two choppers in spare reserves. On an organized team with a commander the best solution is to have the commander order the chopper squad to have two choppers only, and have the rest of the troops on the ground because that is what will win that map.

Jabal and Muttrah are the same. There needs to be a large number of choppers at the beginning and at some point during the game in case they are pushed off. But only a couple are needed during most of the game. So having spare assets is beneficial to the attacking team.

On maps like Kashan, asset losses are the primary cause of teams losing because they are worth so many points. Having less on the field and more troops on the ground is necessary to capture and hold flags, and you have less points on the field to lose at once in case they get air superiority.

Additionally, a squad that is dedicated to an asset will be able to continue with that role if they die because there will be another ready. If a tank squad has two tanks and loses one, and they don't have another ready to go they are suddenly a 'lone wolf tank' squad and not as effective as two working together. Same with air assets, they will tell each other where the hotspots are more easily in the same squad.

So in short, in an organized game with a commander the assets should not all be on the field at once in most cases. Dedicated asset squads with spares are beneficial to the team because they will be able to continue their role if they do lose an asset and less tickets will be lost.

Of course if the team is not organized and it doesn't matter if you win or lose, then sure, there is no reason for spare assets. If you prefer that kind of game play, go play on one of those servers.

[job86]

A reasonably good Commander could be the solution for all mentioned "problems".

This.

Or if there isnt a cmdr, ask an admin to decide whether the squad have the right to reserve a spare chopper.