I am writing this mostly from the observations perspective of world versus world which I've participated at times in frequently as of the past the year, and running more so presently. I add to this caveat neither having served directly in general in specific leadership roles (other then organizing in some very rare instance simple things like tower captures on our server's home turf where ever it is). Hopefully, somewhere maybe there could be useful feedback for those considering leadership roles in world versus world gameplay. Before I get started this will be keeping on a positive note, still wanted to thank all of those leading in our battlegrounds today. We've been in general running at times lower in staff at times, but still managed with contributors to actually have gains, in the previous week, and there's always room for improvement.
So here are the observations:
1. Enough players not enough supply. This would be an addendum to previous post mentions. The biggest killer for groups having lost a borderlands or being wiped generally from a given map in Eternal Battlegrounds. May not be exactly the numbers. Sure some morale loss, may have players frustrated at such an experience, but if you've participated enough, you learn the leadership of groups play in different sorts of strategies. Some opponents like to cap and defend, while other groups, may often leave your side of the map, simply looking for more offensive captures right away. League systems may have some incentive effect of cap and hold strategies, but at the moment, world versus world systems seem to be more slated towards offensive captures in general. In terms of experience, monetary rewards and much else, this actually may provide good news, since firstly even if you've spent time trying to defend on your turf and lost, you still have the reward gains of re capturing stuff that were lost in the first place. The problem here is that most spending the time defending may have burned much supply defending. If you are more experienced, you may notice others like yourselves immediately looking to re establish a supply camp (at least two of these firstly), while hoping that the timing of your re capture of supply hasn't meant that a large passing zerg hasn't stripped everything in the process. If you were a leader, you might be inclined to rally people at a given way point (stopping for adequate man power resources), to go ahead with supply camp recapture. There are also other leadership strategies such as guiding players to inquire on another map (you presently occupy with convenient waypoint) to gain supply. Whatever the case, a leader may be estimating based upon head counts the amount of supply to replenish a groups supply momentum, otherwise, dropping prints that can't be built at a given objective may prove fruitless. Thus when losing ground on turf, the important mantra. Check a groups supply, and rebuild this as quickly as you can. If you have 20 players with 0 supply keep in mind at 10 units per head, you are looking at 2 supply camp captures to replenish a zergs supply hauling capacity. In this respect, it might also help, to work capturing supply camps throughout the map, while doing some educated guessing as to where an enemy zerg might be heading if your manpower resources are generally smaller relative theirs.
2. Time is of the essence. Sometimes, it may help to lead for recapture right away that an opponent server isn't really interested in defending much they hold on your territory or their likewise. While other times, when resistance is heavy working towards capturing an alternative objective may be a better option all together. If you see heavy fortification, and able opponent bodies laying in defensive wait, for some it may be wise to back of right away, while at other times, if you are a leader and sense that there are some well positioned man power in your group to assist and support in terms of heals and manning the rams (with level 4 or above experience) to take the risk in throwing down rams right away. In the later case (heavy resistance), generally on the more successful ventures, a leader not only drops 2 or 3 rams, but also drops an arrow cart position where it can be used against opponent defensive siege (such as other arrow carts) or generally to ward opponent defenders in numbers of the wall, and fortunately under this years world versus world gameplay revisions it makes it easier then ever despite more formidable arrow cart resistances to capture objectives even with rams at the doors. The quicker that you can capture an objective generally tends to be positive for any number of reasons: opponent servers are slower in mobilizing to defend, and quick captures can be a big morale boost for your group potentially attracting other players on map. I've seen leaders in some cases, moving rapidly throughout the map generally running on principle to successful capture strategies. This may be in avoidance to obvious temptations, like capturing this biggest objectives in sight while working more rapidly through a series of smaller ones which may have the effect of off balancing opponent servers strategies of mistakenly staying put at the biggest objectives (while under defending the smaller one's on their turf). Planning a large scale golem zerg where larger sums of golems end up getting lost in a barrage of defense at the largest fortified objective, may not only de moralize your server for the effort but end up costing a little (unless your server is generally well ahead of the game and care less for the expense), more tight competitive play may result less in this sort of tactic. Especially if in sum, the reward for doing a capture may have been accomplished in other ways cheaper in terms of prints, and in terms of little man power desire to hold a defensive position at such capture (generally being less consequential to points gained on the timer. Mostly though, I tend not to see these (as opposed to the more ancient days of yesteryears server), these sorts of tactics. If you are a leader, generally speaking as you've grown accustomed, you'd likely being making decisions right away, providing adequate pauses (for rally), and generally keeping your groups momentum going with a solid plan. Enough wipes on your map with a zerg can be a problem to holding a group together while providing an opponent some inkling as to what your numbers are like, where you might be heading, and so forth. Of course, irrespective of these factors, your leader might have some momentum counter balances, such as attempting to organize in mass players from their respective guild to help maintain a groups critical mass composure, newer less experienced players may be more likely to join in on your zerg if they see bigger numbers in group likewise, and the more the numbers may translate more likely in steadier numbers ranks. A leader will generally be quickly reactive in decision making to resistances for objectives, while keeping in mind, potential defense on their own server's turf, and knowing any number of offensive capture strategies for a given structure while keeping in mind their opponents ranks. Faster may be generally better when you need to recoup losses, while slowing down the fight when you are top for the given week's matchup another strategy.
3. Communication and understanding what happens with your zerg. Unfortunately, more often then not, it seems zergs that run less tightly often times run into the momentum problem of moving forward towards any potential objective that you seem to be headed but neither paying attention to what their leaders are doing. Comunication is key here. In my experience, good leadership may keep organization more tightly running, and quite actively communicating in chat as to what he/she may be doing both in advance and during game play. While some may resort to voice over the internet services to keep players organized, other leaders do spend the time actively communicating on their given map to let their group know what's going...whether to skip a potential objective nearby, and I've seen our maps big zerg diminish, as the momentum nearby seems to naturally gravitate towards a to be skipped objective. Use communication, be active, learn to use the auto run toggle while using active communication to let your zerg know what your intentions might be. Know fluently how to actively switch between map, and local chats. It may be important to help, especially for new comers and less experienced players alike to at times re iterate keeping together. Active communicating leaders tend often to fare better then one's that communicate less. A leader should also pay attention to their groups movement, building a huge tail on a zerg certainly may not help if an opponent's zerg in waiting has the numbers to pick off the head while the tail struggles to catch up, and vice versa. A little bit of pause for group rally, may pay off as finishers can provide excellent stack buffs to your zerg likewise, and/or those with buffs to be provided. In these cases, your zerg even in thinner ranks may cost a generally larger zerg a wipe if caught unawares with enough organization.
Thus, in summation some of the big three key ideas, I'd say in my experience when leading keep the following in mind: have a plan where you are going before you are going, have an array of plans for offensive capture, be well stocked with prints, insist on leadership in dropping prints (so that these aren't haphazardly thrown ...leading to problems in group supply), communicate actively with your group, keep your group well supplied, keep it moving, avoid too many zerg wipes, try to encourage guild participation (if you aren't already in a larger world versus world oriented guild), keep your group moving together, and keep your success momentum going, make note of players that have potential world versus world skills and keep them in mind when allocating manpower to siege resources (if you need you can always take ownership of siege, for instance, to provide space for another player with such skills).
Some groups may enjoy the more long standing bunkered down siege captures, but the longer that you wait around, means potentially the easier for opponents to bunker down likewise, building supply lines (if you haven't adequately managed cutting off theirs), and fortifying structures if you provide incentives (albeit in my experience, I see less of that in recent days). Rams now (with ram mastery skills) in my opinion, tend to rock, since they are faster then ever for bringing doors down. If you can stock for the week, any number of superior rams, and superior siege prints (as you can afford), this will likely aid in speeding captures up. I've seen at times less trending in use of Golems in general for larger scale zergs, while I've seen occasional golem groups tending to be more successful (wee hours of the morning North American time zones). Generally speaking world versus world populations for our tier tends to increase during certain hours, while diminishing during other hours, and throughout the week. Weekend gameplay differs from week day population game play, keep this in mind. Catapults at nearest to walls can make for excellent keep captures where catapult reuse avoids the obvious problems of re stocking a groups supply. For instance, on your server's borderlands: if you work bay, working catapults literally closest to the south wall west of the south gate) allows for hitting both inner and outer keep walls. If you run into a resistance on one gate, try another gate, and test for resistances before laying siege if you can (for instance, a bogey print drop may tempt resistances that much more, or sometimes it just takes hitting the door). The three highest frequent prints that I've seen in use: flame rams, arrow carts, catapults, and ballista s. There is informally speaking status built from what I can tell with commanders in world versus world, if you are new and show up with a commander tag, it takes time to build an informal reputation likely amongst veteran players that consistently play. If you are together and generally are well together enough in planning, however, or at least show consistent gains in aptitude in leading successful will likely build better group loyalties, being active well enough (doesn't have to be for long long hours I'd imagine, but with enough consistency so that your name is recognized) on map will likely attract groups of players. As you gain leadership experience, likely you will recognize with your resources what you can handle even if there is resistance. We've been able with certain group compositions, for instance, to handle heavier resistances at doors merely by having the assurances (of a healing core) coupled with ram mastery trained players (coupled with adequate player gearing and skills) manage successful captures (opponents with 4 arrow carts and one superior carts), so just because their is resistance doesn't mean always avoidance at all costs...you'll likely learn your groups tuning as you participate as a leader over time.
Obvious new comer leadership mistakes: leaving a sigil up when there aren't really enough players on a map to sustain the amount commanders there firstly, and too much idle with an active sigil while in battleground. A more respected leaders is working for the time that they are there and courteous to all in map when going on downtime by removing active commander sigil, and potentially trying to find another leader to sigil up.
So here are the observations:
1. Enough players not enough supply. This would be an addendum to previous post mentions. The biggest killer for groups having lost a borderlands or being wiped generally from a given map in Eternal Battlegrounds. May not be exactly the numbers. Sure some morale loss, may have players frustrated at such an experience, but if you've participated enough, you learn the leadership of groups play in different sorts of strategies. Some opponents like to cap and defend, while other groups, may often leave your side of the map, simply looking for more offensive captures right away. League systems may have some incentive effect of cap and hold strategies, but at the moment, world versus world systems seem to be more slated towards offensive captures in general. In terms of experience, monetary rewards and much else, this actually may provide good news, since firstly even if you've spent time trying to defend on your turf and lost, you still have the reward gains of re capturing stuff that were lost in the first place. The problem here is that most spending the time defending may have burned much supply defending. If you are more experienced, you may notice others like yourselves immediately looking to re establish a supply camp (at least two of these firstly), while hoping that the timing of your re capture of supply hasn't meant that a large passing zerg hasn't stripped everything in the process. If you were a leader, you might be inclined to rally people at a given way point (stopping for adequate man power resources), to go ahead with supply camp recapture. There are also other leadership strategies such as guiding players to inquire on another map (you presently occupy with convenient waypoint) to gain supply. Whatever the case, a leader may be estimating based upon head counts the amount of supply to replenish a groups supply momentum, otherwise, dropping prints that can't be built at a given objective may prove fruitless. Thus when losing ground on turf, the important mantra. Check a groups supply, and rebuild this as quickly as you can. If you have 20 players with 0 supply keep in mind at 10 units per head, you are looking at 2 supply camp captures to replenish a zergs supply hauling capacity. In this respect, it might also help, to work capturing supply camps throughout the map, while doing some educated guessing as to where an enemy zerg might be heading if your manpower resources are generally smaller relative theirs.
2. Time is of the essence. Sometimes, it may help to lead for recapture right away that an opponent server isn't really interested in defending much they hold on your territory or their likewise. While other times, when resistance is heavy working towards capturing an alternative objective may be a better option all together. If you see heavy fortification, and able opponent bodies laying in defensive wait, for some it may be wise to back of right away, while at other times, if you are a leader and sense that there are some well positioned man power in your group to assist and support in terms of heals and manning the rams (with level 4 or above experience) to take the risk in throwing down rams right away. In the later case (heavy resistance), generally on the more successful ventures, a leader not only drops 2 or 3 rams, but also drops an arrow cart position where it can be used against opponent defensive siege (such as other arrow carts) or generally to ward opponent defenders in numbers of the wall, and fortunately under this years world versus world gameplay revisions it makes it easier then ever despite more formidable arrow cart resistances to capture objectives even with rams at the doors. The quicker that you can capture an objective generally tends to be positive for any number of reasons: opponent servers are slower in mobilizing to defend, and quick captures can be a big morale boost for your group potentially attracting other players on map. I've seen leaders in some cases, moving rapidly throughout the map generally running on principle to successful capture strategies. This may be in avoidance to obvious temptations, like capturing this biggest objectives in sight while working more rapidly through a series of smaller ones which may have the effect of off balancing opponent servers strategies of mistakenly staying put at the biggest objectives (while under defending the smaller one's on their turf). Planning a large scale golem zerg where larger sums of golems end up getting lost in a barrage of defense at the largest fortified objective, may not only de moralize your server for the effort but end up costing a little (unless your server is generally well ahead of the game and care less for the expense), more tight competitive play may result less in this sort of tactic. Especially if in sum, the reward for doing a capture may have been accomplished in other ways cheaper in terms of prints, and in terms of little man power desire to hold a defensive position at such capture (generally being less consequential to points gained on the timer. Mostly though, I tend not to see these (as opposed to the more ancient days of yesteryears server), these sorts of tactics. If you are a leader, generally speaking as you've grown accustomed, you'd likely being making decisions right away, providing adequate pauses (for rally), and generally keeping your groups momentum going with a solid plan. Enough wipes on your map with a zerg can be a problem to holding a group together while providing an opponent some inkling as to what your numbers are like, where you might be heading, and so forth. Of course, irrespective of these factors, your leader might have some momentum counter balances, such as attempting to organize in mass players from their respective guild to help maintain a groups critical mass composure, newer less experienced players may be more likely to join in on your zerg if they see bigger numbers in group likewise, and the more the numbers may translate more likely in steadier numbers ranks. A leader will generally be quickly reactive in decision making to resistances for objectives, while keeping in mind, potential defense on their own server's turf, and knowing any number of offensive capture strategies for a given structure while keeping in mind their opponents ranks. Faster may be generally better when you need to recoup losses, while slowing down the fight when you are top for the given week's matchup another strategy.
3. Communication and understanding what happens with your zerg. Unfortunately, more often then not, it seems zergs that run less tightly often times run into the momentum problem of moving forward towards any potential objective that you seem to be headed but neither paying attention to what their leaders are doing. Comunication is key here. In my experience, good leadership may keep organization more tightly running, and quite actively communicating in chat as to what he/she may be doing both in advance and during game play. While some may resort to voice over the internet services to keep players organized, other leaders do spend the time actively communicating on their given map to let their group know what's going...whether to skip a potential objective nearby, and I've seen our maps big zerg diminish, as the momentum nearby seems to naturally gravitate towards a to be skipped objective. Use communication, be active, learn to use the auto run toggle while using active communication to let your zerg know what your intentions might be. Know fluently how to actively switch between map, and local chats. It may be important to help, especially for new comers and less experienced players alike to at times re iterate keeping together. Active communicating leaders tend often to fare better then one's that communicate less. A leader should also pay attention to their groups movement, building a huge tail on a zerg certainly may not help if an opponent's zerg in waiting has the numbers to pick off the head while the tail struggles to catch up, and vice versa. A little bit of pause for group rally, may pay off as finishers can provide excellent stack buffs to your zerg likewise, and/or those with buffs to be provided. In these cases, your zerg even in thinner ranks may cost a generally larger zerg a wipe if caught unawares with enough organization.
Thus, in summation some of the big three key ideas, I'd say in my experience when leading keep the following in mind: have a plan where you are going before you are going, have an array of plans for offensive capture, be well stocked with prints, insist on leadership in dropping prints (so that these aren't haphazardly thrown ...leading to problems in group supply), communicate actively with your group, keep your group well supplied, keep it moving, avoid too many zerg wipes, try to encourage guild participation (if you aren't already in a larger world versus world oriented guild), keep your group moving together, and keep your success momentum going, make note of players that have potential world versus world skills and keep them in mind when allocating manpower to siege resources (if you need you can always take ownership of siege, for instance, to provide space for another player with such skills).
Some groups may enjoy the more long standing bunkered down siege captures, but the longer that you wait around, means potentially the easier for opponents to bunker down likewise, building supply lines (if you haven't adequately managed cutting off theirs), and fortifying structures if you provide incentives (albeit in my experience, I see less of that in recent days). Rams now (with ram mastery skills) in my opinion, tend to rock, since they are faster then ever for bringing doors down. If you can stock for the week, any number of superior rams, and superior siege prints (as you can afford), this will likely aid in speeding captures up. I've seen at times less trending in use of Golems in general for larger scale zergs, while I've seen occasional golem groups tending to be more successful (wee hours of the morning North American time zones). Generally speaking world versus world populations for our tier tends to increase during certain hours, while diminishing during other hours, and throughout the week. Weekend gameplay differs from week day population game play, keep this in mind. Catapults at nearest to walls can make for excellent keep captures where catapult reuse avoids the obvious problems of re stocking a groups supply. For instance, on your server's borderlands: if you work bay, working catapults literally closest to the south wall west of the south gate) allows for hitting both inner and outer keep walls. If you run into a resistance on one gate, try another gate, and test for resistances before laying siege if you can (for instance, a bogey print drop may tempt resistances that much more, or sometimes it just takes hitting the door). The three highest frequent prints that I've seen in use: flame rams, arrow carts, catapults, and ballista s. There is informally speaking status built from what I can tell with commanders in world versus world, if you are new and show up with a commander tag, it takes time to build an informal reputation likely amongst veteran players that consistently play. If you are together and generally are well together enough in planning, however, or at least show consistent gains in aptitude in leading successful will likely build better group loyalties, being active well enough (doesn't have to be for long long hours I'd imagine, but with enough consistency so that your name is recognized) on map will likely attract groups of players. As you gain leadership experience, likely you will recognize with your resources what you can handle even if there is resistance. We've been able with certain group compositions, for instance, to handle heavier resistances at doors merely by having the assurances (of a healing core) coupled with ram mastery trained players (coupled with adequate player gearing and skills) manage successful captures (opponents with 4 arrow carts and one superior carts), so just because their is resistance doesn't mean always avoidance at all costs...you'll likely learn your groups tuning as you participate as a leader over time.
Obvious new comer leadership mistakes: leaving a sigil up when there aren't really enough players on a map to sustain the amount commanders there firstly, and too much idle with an active sigil while in battleground. A more respected leaders is working for the time that they are there and courteous to all in map when going on downtime by removing active commander sigil, and potentially trying to find another leader to sigil up.
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