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Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-26 16:27
by combatwombat
Inca_Killa wrote:And get destroyed in seconds by any technical in the area that figures out that a LB is patrolling? I don't think so. Lb's are too easy to shoot down, the only viable option is to strafe and GTFO before any insurgent AK happens to knock out your rotor -_-.
this is what i had in mind re: LBs serving a defensive function around FOBs

but yeah, I can only see the LBs serving as an adjunct to armor defense around FOBs, and a minor one at that... maybe just to provide temporary cover while tanks RTB for ammo or whatnot. All I meant to suggest was that patrolling/defending FOBs could be a new role that LB pilots could take on (instead of just "wait in base for someone to laze something" or "fly into city and 1337pwn ppl")

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-26 18:36
by Cassius
On the games I played insurgency so far holding FOBs wasnt much of a problem.

Except for some spots that look good, but aint that good after all, like building in the far north of Ramiel with a cache nearby. On paper it looks good, good distance to take advantage of scopes and firepower for blue force, however its easier for insurgents to acquire targets and harrass the blueforce than the other way around.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-27 01:25
by badmojo420
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote:This isn't AAS. In Insurgency, its all about the caches. Even if you have every squad defend all 6 FOBs like you say, for every 1-5 people that die defending that FOB, the US/UK team gains nothing like the Insurgent team come closer to winning. And the caches are NOT easy to find. Korengal is a nightmare to find the caches unless they pop up in very obvious spots which are spottable from the UAV. I've seen a cache spawn in a cave that required a rope to get into the cave, then a trek to the end of the cave, then another rope to go down a 20-30 foot drop and across a pool of water just to get to the cache. Essentially, the US was never going to get that cache and their arty couldn't even penetrate to destroy it. Even if you have intel and know exactly where the cache is for instance, you still are going to take massive casulties on most of the insurgency maps, especially Ramiel, Korengal, and Archer because all of the approaches are really obvious.
So what are you saying in this paragraph? The coalition should just give up and go home?

Defending an FOB is painfully easy when you have people DEDICATED to doing that. Sure, when you spawn into a FOB that is under attack, it's hell. But, when people built the FOB and want it to stay alive, they can defend it pretty easily. Unless of course a cache spawns right beside it, which happens from time to time. The FOBs go down so easily now, because the squad who built the damn thing tends to rush out and try to assault the direction the attackers are coming from. Leaving the FOB wide open to a 1 man flank.
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote:All the while, the Insurgents and Taliban lose nothing from having a couple guys continously attack the FOB and get kills while the rest stay back and defend.
They lose intelligence. Which leads your team to the cache locations. And also while attacking your fortified position, they can't defend a cache or setup and ambush.
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote:BTW, how do you call "wandering around the city" unrealistic behavior when we call that essentially a patrol which is realistic? The individual squads going around and searching different parts of the city, locating enemy movements, and then relaying that to the rest of the team to come help them is a lot more realistic than sitting at an FOB and killing an endless wave of attacking insurgents. And recon squads can't cover the ground that full 6 man squads can, nor can you even have recon squads when you need full 6 man squads to defend all the FOBs like you intend.
I call it unrealistic because it's always a maximum of 6 people running around the hostile city, with no backup or armored support. I would like to think that in real life, the military would not send 6 soldiers alone into a hostile city,(with confirmed enemy presence) kilometers away from the nearest friendly squad or heavy armor. That sounds more like a task for special forces or Rambo.

I would love to see squads performing combat patrols around the FOBs. Instead of just heading directly into the city. Because currently we have 6 man assault teams all over the place, who usually only report contacts or ask for assistance when they get wiped out. I know this is not always the case, but it happens a lot. This strategy works because of the rallypoints. I can't wait to see what happens with the new rallypoints.

May I ask you why a recon squad would need to 'cover ground'? Should they not find a good location and observe? I mean we know there are insurgents all through the map, we need to find the location of the caches. How is walking around with no destination going to help the team? It's not like the real world where they have to send out a patrol to see where the enemy engages you. You know there are insurgents within the map. You know there are two caches around. Without having a target to assault, any "patrols" are a waste of tickets.

That is the main issue I have with the way insurgency is played as coalition. The lines between patrol, recon, defense, and assault are all blurred beyond recognition. People leave on a so called patrol, only to switch to a 6 man assault as soon as intelligence is gained. It's just stupid tactics and with any half decent insurgent team is a game loser.

Oh yeah, 6 FOBs with 6 man squads defending each. That's 36 people. Guess we'll just defend FOBs the whole round right? :roll: Did I say 6 men defending each FOB? Did i say we needed 6 defended FOBs at all times? I believe i said 4 fobs with 4 people on each. Half the team defending our spawn points isn't exactly absurd is it? Or would you rather walk/drive/fly from main everytime you need to respawn?
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote:It still doesn't change the fact that taking out FOBs is relatively easy as an insurgent. It takes half the number of insurgents to take one out while it takes double the number of US troops to successfully defend it. Even ones placed in good spots are easy to take out with a technical and a little skill. Once the enemy gets close, they get overrun pretty easily too.
They get close it gets overrun? Heres a crazy thought, don't let them get close. Push your lines out a bit. With the new changes in .9 that will be even easier.

Not sure what you mean about needing double the people to defend a FOB. I've seen times where only a few people are defending a FOB while technicals full of insurgents are get wiped out trying to assault it.

It's kind of funny really, your complaining that caches are so hard to assault and take out. Yet a FOB with guns, foxholes, razor wire, etc, etc. are the easiest thing in the world to take out.

Guess what, it's the people defending that decide how easy or hard something is to take out. The location only makes it easier for the defenders, it doesn't ensure safety.
Bellator wrote:But firebases in their current form are fine. My suggestion to encourage convergence may be unpopular, but I think it would be nice: restrict the amount of humvees, increase the use of APCs and transport helis, etc. Conversly reduce the amount of insurgent 50. cals, so that the helis are not constantly dropped, which seems to be the case now.
Could not agree more with those suggestions.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-27 04:59
by 00SoldierofFortune00
badmojo420 wrote:So what are you saying in this paragraph? The coalition should just give up and go home?

Defending an FOB is painfully easy when you have people DEDICATED to doing that. Sure, when you spawn into a FOB that is under attack, it's hell. But, when people built the FOB and want it to stay alive, they can defend it pretty easily. Unless of course a cache spawns right beside it, which happens from time to time. The FOBs go down so easily now, because the squad who built the damn thing tends to rush out and try to assault the direction the attackers are coming from. Leaving the FOB wide open to a 1 man flank.
No, I'm saying that when 0.9 comes out, we will know pretty soon if the FOB thing works with insurgency or not. And I've seen FOBs be defended by "DEDICATED" squads, but they are still pretty easily overrun. Take VCP in Basrah for instance. It could have 2 full squads there, but it still gets overrun pretty easily. And you really can't say to place FOBs in "less obvious spots" because it only takes a week of playing to figure out which spots are good for FOBs and which ones aren't, and we are months into 0.85. I can pretty much tell you every spot on every map that is a decent spot for an FOB and at least 1/3, if not 1/2 of the people here would know those same spots.


They lose intelligence. Which leads your team to the cache locations. And also while attacking your fortified position, they can't defend a cache or setup and ambush.
The intelligence system requires wayyyy too many kills in order to get intelligence. Sacrificing 20 tickets to defend an FOB is really not worth it for the intel when you factor in that another 20-40 tickets will be lost when the team actually attacks the cache. And the whole "can't defend a cache while attacking" is a myth. Because of the respawn time of the insurgents/Taliban, it really only takes a couple to successfully assault an FOB since they will kill the enemy, be killed, and be back to attack before the US/UK can even respawn back in.



I call it unrealistic because it's always a maximum of 6 people running around the hostile city, with no backup or armored support. I would like to think that in real life, the military would not send 6 soldiers alone into a hostile city,(with confirmed enemy presence) kilometers away from the nearest friendly squad or heavy armor. That sounds more like a task for special forces or Rambo.
And since when do squads go in with no armor or vehicle support? I see that all the time, even multiple squads together, and I'm one of the SLs who does that. And you say to not send in 6 soldiers, but the military also doesn't use 6 man squads, so you really can't throw out "realism" on this one.

I would love to see squads performing combat patrols around the FOBs. Instead of just heading directly into the city. Because currently we have 6 man assault teams all over the place, who usually only report contacts or ask for assistance when they get wiped out. I know this is not always the case, but it happens a lot. This strategy works because of the rallypoints. I can't wait to see what happens with the new rallypoints.
That serves no purpose at all. This isn't AAS. You can't have squads do 3 different things at the same time (build FOB, patrol/defending, while hitting caches). That's an AAS strategy, but in insurgency, you don't have time to wait around because somewhere on that map, people are dying (not always intentionally either) and that will slowly drain your tickets out in insurgency. Add in ticket losses from vehicles and it only compounds the problem.

May I ask you why a recon squad would need to 'cover ground'? Should they not find a good location and observe? I mean we know there are insurgents all through the map, we need to find the location of the caches. How is walking around with no destination going to help the team? It's not like the real world where they have to send out a patrol to see where the enemy engages you. You know there are insurgents within the map. You know there are two caches around. Without having a target to assault, any "patrols" are a waste of tickets.
Because on a huge 2K map, sitting in one spot is a waste of time, especially with the terrain on maps like Korengal or Archer. Sure, sit in that one spot for 10 minutes, but chances are, you aren't going to see but maybe 1 insurgent go by that entire time. Most of the time, insurgents stay within 50M of the cache and on maps like Korengal or Archer, you don't even see those insurgents unless you are within 100M because of the terrain. That's not even counting caves or underground caches.
That is the main issue I have with the way insurgency is played as coalition. The lines between patrol, recon, defense, and assault are all blurred beyond recognition. People leave on a so called patrol, only to switch to a 6 man assault as soon as intelligence is gained. It's just stupid tactics and with any half decent insurgent team is a game loser.

Oh yeah, 6 FOBs with 6 man squads defending each. That's 36 people. Guess we'll just defend FOBs the whole round right? :roll: Did I say 6 men defending each FOB? Did i say we needed 6 defended FOBs at all times? I believe i said 4 fobs with 4 people on each. Half the team defending our spawn points isn't exactly absurd is it? Or would you rather walk/drive/fly from main everytime you need to respawn?
"Intel" isn't even the reason why people get caches most of the time. They usually just come across or see enemy movement, relay it to the team, and move in. The Intel takes so long to receive and is so inaccurate, that you are actually better off just patrolling yourself. As for the FOB thing, even 24 people (4 x 4) is too much to redirect from cache killing. You sound like you have never assaulted a cache before (I know you have). It can sometimes take up to 2-3 full squads with armor support just to get one (Fallujah Mansion, Cave caches, Archer village and mountain caches, Archer Airfield, etc.).

They get close it gets overrun? Heres a crazy thought, don't let them get close. Push your lines out a bit. With the new changes in .9 that will be even easier.
Ummm, that's one of those "easier said than done" arguments. Like I already said, every FOB spot is pretty much known and even with the weaponry, it is not very hard for a half decent couple of guys to take out an FOB with a technical.

It's kind of funny really, your complaining that caches are so hard to assault and take out. Yet a FOB with guns, foxholes, razor wire, etc, etc. are the easiest thing in the world to take out.
Ummm, maybe because caches don't spawn out in the wide open and only take 2 knive strikes to take out?

Guess what, it's the people defending that decide how easy or hard something is to take out.
And.......that makes absolutely no sense at all..... I guess the Nazi's at Normandy decided that they were just going to let the US come ashore right? If the attackers put in enough force and don't let up, they will eventually run the defenders die of materials, support, and morale.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-27 17:59
by MAC$DRE
The idea of making firebases more important is brilliant. It will force the team to work together in the objective. The whole team moves out, builds an FOB, and one squad stays back to defend it. The heavy assets and infantry move in. The FOB defense is critical to the team and needs a DEDICATED 6 man squad capable of holding up the backbone of the BLUFOR effort.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-28 01:55
by badmojo420
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote:...even 24 people (4 x 4)....
4 x 4 = 16

It's obvious we have different opinions about the proper strategy of the coalition team in insurgency mode. I stated my opinions, and you responded. No point in arguing further.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-28 19:25
by combatwombat
After thinking it over, I've decided that in 0.9 I won't put too much faith in the new assets and will probably put my FOBs either in the tried-and-true locations I used in 0.87 or way out in open areas... Open areas seem like the best way to minimize ticket bleed from the sniping and low-grade firefights that typically surround FOBs within sight range of urban terrain. I'll also load them up with HMGs, TOWs, and foxholes.

HMGs - While their lack of zoom and narrow turning range probably won't make them very useful, they'll still provide cover and just might come in handy in a pinch.

TOWs - these will probably be helpful against techs, bomb cars, and big red/OMG truck (assuming it's included in 0.9 :) ) - although how helpful will depend on the TOW's warmup time...

Foxholes - these will provide cover in the event of technical raids. In 0.9 they should also be able to protect from arty; so if the entire FOB gets taken out by a well-placed mortar barrage, a few players who managed to take cover in a foxhole could be able to re-shovel it.

I'm not sure about how I'd use wire in wide-open areas. Seems like it would mostly be a waste of time to set it up.

Anyways, I agree with mojo in that most FOBs are lost because players just do not defend them. Thinking about my time as an insurgent, probably at least 90% of the FOBs I've taken out were simply abandoned. However, SoF is right in that FOB defense can ruin BLUFOR teams through chronic ticket bleed...

So, to balance these two sides of the equation, here's what I'm thinking: I will probably play my first game in 0.9 as the SL of a "FOB squad," and make it my mission to provide the team with reliable spawn points. I'm thinking I'll try set up 2 FOBs, each within ~400 m of each other, each defended by 3 players with a .50 cal jeep at their disposal. This way, if 1 FOB comes under heavy attack, 2 defenders from one FOB can drive over and support the other. Both FOBs will be out of sight range of the city (unless the map is Ramiel or Karbala or one with very high draw distance), and I might place 1 extra "safety" FOB another 3-400 m behind the first two, further away from the action just in case they go down. The way I envision it, this should work beautifully on Basrah in the desert west of the city and south of village... i hope :mrgreen:
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote: "Intel" isn't even the reason why people get caches most of the time. They usually just come across or see enemy movement, relay it to the team, and move in. The Intel takes so long to receive and is so inaccurate, that you are actually better off just patrolling yourself.
Re: leading a squad in to find a cache without an intel marker on the map - I agree with mojo in that it seems like a terrible idea & a great way to cost the team tickets while wandering aimlessly. However, you've got to keep in mind that finding a cache often has more to do with tracking enemy movements & deducing things like where they are coming from, what location they seem to be defending, etc. Also, even more importantly, unknown caches are often less defended than revealed caches, since insurgents always know when a caches has been revealed. In my experience, the caches that cost the team the most tickets are frequently revealed ones!

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-28 21:02
by 00SoldierofFortune00
badmojo420 wrote:4 x 4 = 16

It's obvious we have different opinions about the proper strategy of the coalition team in insurgency mode. I stated my opinions, and you responded. No point in arguing further.
Yep, poor math on my part. Lets just leave it at that though.


combatwombat wrote:Re: leading a squad in to find a cache without an intel marker on the map - I agree with mojo in that it seems like a terrible idea & a great way to cost the team tickets while wandering aimlessly. However, you've got to keep in mind that finding a cache often has more to do with tracking enemy movements & deducing things like where they are coming from, what location they seem to be defending, etc. Also, even more importantly, unknown caches are often less defended than revealed caches, since insurgents always know when a caches has been revealed. In my experience, the caches that cost the team the most tickets are frequently revealed ones!

That's exactly my point. You are going to have to track their movements to the cache anyway you cut it, so why not already be searching the city and have the benefit of the insurgents/Taliban not know you are coming to the unknown cache? With a revealed cache, you can pretty much guesstimate that the enemy will be there within 5-10 minutes, so the insurgents get all their defenses up. With an unknown, its not until its revealed that many people even spawn near it. Usually, the US sees a few insurgents moving from the unknown and traces their movements back to the cache, making it an easy cache kill.

Also, with a known cache, you have so many people in the area that you can't properly trace the flow of troops to the exact cache, especially if they have a hideout up. With an unknown, how many people honestly spawn on the hideout as opposed to the actual cache? Not many, because US troops shouldn't even be in the area (in theory). Also, all you need is a hunch that a cache maybe there and then have the commander use a UAV to verify it.

Really, though, would you rather be searching for unknown caches and having a 50% chance of coming across one or would you rather be sitting at an FOB and providing a static target for the insurgents? Being static is part of the reason why the US lose on insurgency in the first place.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-28 21:06
by Herbiie
I think people are forgetting that there was a Beta, I think I played a round on Karbala with it on and it was fine, you either had a hidden FB (LOADS of places to hide one in a city) or a well defended one.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-28 21:27
by Lzryde
I'd like to see that red semi-truck-******* survive a TOW.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-29 00:32
by badmojo420
00SoldierofFortune00 wrote:Really, though, would you rather be searching for unknown caches and having a 50% chance of coming across one or would you rather be sitting at an FOB and providing a static target for the insurgents? Being static is part of the reason why the US lose on insurgency in the first place.
Why not have both? Some people keep the FOB safe, while others assault the suspected cache locations.

Edit: Here's some food for thought, if the coalition sat in their main and did nothing until the timer ran out. They would win, without getting 1 cache. It would end up being something like a 250-100 US Victory. I wouldn't expect any team to adopt this strategy,(its boring) but it just shows that the coalition have the victory from the start. Caches are optional, and only become needed if the coalition suffers heavy losses.
Herbiie wrote:I think people are forgetting that there was a Beta, I think I played a round on Karbala with it on and it was fine, you either had a hidden FB (LOADS of places to hide one in a city) or a well defended one.
I think the problem with the beta was that is was done on mixed mode servers. People who enjoy insurgency (like me) tend to flock to the 24/7 insurgency servers. So I would guess a lot of people playing the beta weren't devoted insurgency players. I find the quality of an insurgency round is far greater on the insurgency servers because people joined for that, it wasn't forced upon them.

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-29 01:15
by fuzzhead
badmojo, that is wrong... its always an Insurgent victory even if they only hold 1 cache left and US have many tickets...

Re: Speculating about FOBs in 0.9 insurgency?

Posted: 2010-01-29 01:59
by Blakeman
combatwombat wrote:
I'm not sure about how I'd use wire in wide-open areas. Seems like it would mostly be a waste of time to set it up.
Use wire as entry denial for vehicles and infantry. If a technical full of insurgents can drive right up to the FoB they will, in an attempt to stab it and destroy it (even more so now with their importance). Placing wire in places that cannot be covered by the tow or MGs will increase the effectiveness of your defenses.

Foxholes are also useful now with the changed deviation since someone crouching and still is just as accurate as one prone. This allows long shots from cover you can place down, plus the benefit of the cover in mortar strikes.

Funnel the enemy into your fields of fire and you will see a lot of bodies. ;-)