Firebases in cities

[lucky14]

Well, I guess I'll do this with Muttrah as an example.

I've noticed a lack of the potential use of blockades in cities, mainly to stop vehicles.

For example, let's say I build a firebase as MEC at the Red Point in the map:



Most people might put an AA on a nearby roof, and a Tow in the streets, and perhaps some HMG's, and some wires to block entrances, looking something like:



There would be a lack of wire and blockades, giving vehicles freedom to role around the TOW without getting in danger. Now when I build firebases, I decide to use my blockades (hey, I have ten of them!). My FOB would start to look more like this (with green being wires):



This would inherently cause the enemy vehicles to move to not hit the wire (or causing APC's to start shooting them, leaving them open for a HAT) (Dark Blue dotted line; red dot if in POV of TOW):



As you can see, unless if they destroy the blockade, the vehicle would run into a direct line of sight of the TOW, or would have to go around towards construction and head south that way. All that can be done with about 9 blockades, assuming one per road. Some can be moved to other positions, such as the ones on the East facing north to south, allowing more efficient placement. A system like this will effectively disallow the US APC's to assist their team effectively, if your team is semi-coordinated.

This also allows more conservative placement of the TOW to protect the gunner. Placing him within a compound looking out on a road, which an APC must use due to the blockades, gives the gunner much greater protection from an enemy infantry squad.


Now don't get me wrong. This completely gives the firebase location away (as in, a single firebase without anything will obviously be harder to detect), but if your going to be fighting there (as opposed to spawning, which of course a secondary firebase would be useful for), use all your resources to help you win.

[Feriluce]

You're right that is a good idea.

However was there a question somewhere in there or are you just sharing your idea?

[lucky14]

You're right that is a good idea.

However was there a question somewhere in there or are you just sharing your idea?

Kinda both. I was kinda wondering why so few people do this, at least in my games. Is there some devastating reason to not?

[Rudd]

quite frankly on servers where I play an APC gets through blockages like this quite quickly since all is needed is 2 guys to help it out with incendiaries. so the effort in building a blockade really isn't worth it alot of the time unless you have a combat engineer placing mines as well.

but then if you have a CE....there wasn't much point in the wire because you want the enemy vehicle to go on the mine.

wire is for funneling rather than blocking for me.

[BloodBane611]

I think a big part of it is how easy it is to destroy wire. Also, most careful APC drivers will know there is a TOW around if they see wire, and avoid the area entirely.

[Trooper909]

On paper that is a great plan in practice it would take like an hour to build all of that.More if you count all the messing about trying to get the wire in the right place etc.

If wire was to be instant build if there was no enemy around would be a different story.

[Celestial1]

I think a big part of it is how easy it is to destroy wire. Also, most careful APC drivers will know there is a TOW around if they see wire, and avoid the area entirely.

What would be the consequences in making wire harder to destroy? They are made out of metal and have nice sharp wiring surrounding them...
Could make wires take quite a few incendiaries to destroy--or perhaps only Combat Engineers should be able to remove them, say, with a special incendiary that is the only one that can destroy wires (simulating the idea that the CE would carry around proper tools like wire-cutters and whatnot for this sort of thing).



I should really start doing this more where I can. I rarely do, usually leaving the FO shortly after building it for whatever reason. Also, I would consider funneling them to anywhere where a TOW would have the greatest FOV... like putting it just barely concealed by the edge of a building on the coastline, and only needing to build 2-3 blockades, one on the Western-most road parallel to the mountain, and the other being the Northern most "in TOW's FOV" entrance. This would allow for more wire elsewhere (perhaps others to stop infantry in the area, etc), a more direct funnel, and a much larger FOV and range for the TOW.

[lucky14]

I think a big part of it is how easy it is to destroy wire. Also, most careful APC drivers will know there is a TOW around if they see wire, and avoid the area entirely.

Perhaps .9xx should strengthen them :/ lol

[sprint113]

I have found that the most effective TOWs are the ones that catches the APC by surprise due to lack of intel. From the UAV view, low resolution, graphical glitches, speed and relatively narrow Field of View usually means that a fob and TOW may go by unnoticed. But throw in a whole elaborate defense of wires and the commander will start scouring that area until the FOB, TOW and HMGs are spotted, marked and positions relayed to the appropriate squads.

Not to mention, building that many wires in that wide of an area would require more patience than I have seen any squads have.

[Skull]

id say putting mines is way more worth since defending an firebase in the middle of a city, especially muttrah, can only be done at the cost of a lot of tickets - at least on servers that dont really encourage teamplay. though i like the idea, on some server with guys, who actually know what theyre doing, it might, i think im gonna try that out.

[Arnoldio]

I think a big part of it is how easy it is to destroy wire. Also, most careful APC drivers will know there is a TOW around if they see wire, and avoid the area entirely.

Wich is also something you want to achieve. Either he goes away or you kill him.

[mat552]

Kinda both. I was kinda wondering why so few people do this, at least in my games. Is there some devastating reason to not?

In a word? Time. Figure between 10-15 seconds with 5 guys shoveling for the assets, between 30-60 seconds travel time (a fairly generously low number) That time adds up into sometimes tens of minutes, an absolute eternity in PR. If you put it up in the wrong order, you leave gaping holes in your defense that even a moderately well informed opposition can quickly exploit. The UAV may not be great in cities, but it can surely detect a mass building effort, thanks to the shovel/smoke grenade combination currently in use by every army on the planet.

[TheOldBreed]

i use wires for area denial quite a bit. also putting up MGs and TOWs. i've found the best place for this is at the top of the bunker hill on op. archer, where you can look down on the vill, but the fort looks down onto you. TOWs are real decent anti-personel weapons too.

i'm not sure why i always tend to see FOBs just on their own in random places

[goguapsy]

i'm not sure why i always tend to see FOBs just on their own in random places

Harder to spot, most of the times.

[Rudd]

i'm not sure why i always tend to see FOBs just on their own in random places

for one thing, you can build 200m away from teh FOB

I prefer to defend the FOB from as far away as is practical, means that my guys can spawn if we get killed, e.g. if we got killed on a HMG or whatever.

[Unarmed Civilian]

Perhaps we need something other than wire. I'm talking about solid concrete structures, way more resistent than wire. The difference is that foot soldiers can walk though the gap between the concrete blocks, whereas with razorwire you have to walk around or destroy it in order to go through.

I'm talking about these things: EDIT: Think it's called "dragons teeth" or "hairpins".

[Rudd]

^ there is a static like that in the files already, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to mount it on the deployable dirt.

though that kind of static would be cool if only the wrench could build it since its more specilised than wire.

[Unarmed Civilian]

Maybe so. Then perhaps we'd need to review the Combat Engineer class. Since we can only have two kits at a given moment, that wouldn't be enough. Maybe we'd need Combat Engineers, with the shovel, wrench and a mine(optional), plus a Demolition Specialist or w/e you name it. This guy, the D.S., would have one mine and two C4, but no wrench, nor shovel, maybe a wire cutter to remove traps and such, and real breach charges to open locked places.

[Hulabi]

You can actually drive over the barbed wire with an APC, just hold shift and go for it. It glitches a little but in 2-5 seconds, you're over it.