strand of the ancients strategies
More than any other battleground, SOA depends on communication. The fight is straightforward: the offense fights its way south while the defense impedes progress. However with two gates on opposite sides of each of the first two levels, both teams must be able to switch forces back and forth from east to west and vice versa. A team with an alert leader and players who are willing to follow directions has a significant adavantage.
Basic Defense
The defensive plan seems obvious, and the same pattern is used in most battles. As noted above, the key is not the strategy but the execution.
- On the beach the weakest players take the guns and everyone else goes forward to meet the enemy on the docks and hold them there as long as possible. If you destroy the tanks on the docks, and kill the enemy before they can reach the gate with their bombs, you will be off to a good start.
- Note that the enemy will rez at the single gy in the middle of the beach. If you are strong enough to camp that graveyard, you can hold them there indefinitely.
- Once the enemy gets off the docks, you want to put two or three CC-capable players in front of the gates (position 1). Their job is to control bomb carriers, defuse any bombs that get laid, and blast any tanks that make it that far. The rest of your team wants to stay on the docks and kill demos when they rez.
- When the enemy breaks through either of the blue or green gates, immediately move all forces on the opposite side to the threatened gate (position 2). For example, if the enemy breaks through green, move your blue-side defenders to purple. Whether or not you lose the other gate, you MUST stop the breakthrough before it gets to the next level.
- As soon as the enemy breaks through on red or purple, move everyone to the yellow gate (position 3). Since you can mass your forces here, enemy tanks will have a harder time reaching the gate ... but bombers become a serious problem. You will need a good CC bomb disposal team in front of the gate.
- When the yellow gate goes. put a melee phalanyx at the gate ... the gate may be gone, but it is still a choke point. If the guns are still up, they should be used to damage incoming tanks and players. Put a strong CC team in front of the main door (position 4) to defuse bombs. Put ranged in the middle of the yellow zone. They should kill players going for bombs on the west side, and they should pick up any incoming tanks that pass the gate defense.
It is important to monitor the battle closely and move forces east and west as needed.
Try to keep the two north grave yards. Until they control them, the enemy must rez on the beach. Also, control of a gy opens its associated tank workshop, giving the enemy more vehicles.
Defense in SOA is about time. Your first priority is tanks and bombers. The losing defense is the one that gets lots of kills on enemy players while the enemy tanks smash through to the relic. The winning defense fights a battle of deny and delay, protecting gates and falling back in good order to keep the enemy out of the relic room.
Offense: PRO on PUG
The goal is to get up the hill as quickly as possible. The more you have to fight, the slower your advance will be. Melee should drive tanks. Ranged and CC should ride in tanks. Healers should run. Everyone should have a bomb.
BEACH • While the ships are coming in, you should choose a beach gate as the main assault point. Either will do. The plan is symmetrical. In this example, the assault gate is "blue".
Send most of your forces from the off-gate across the beach to the main gate. Send a small group to the off-gate to keep the enemy occupied.
Blitz the assault gate. If a tank dies, everyone who was in the tank runs to the gate and delivers their bombs. Anyone who rezzes while the gate is still up goes back to the dock for more tanks and bombs. Repeat until the gate falls. Do not melee ... c.c. and get to the gate.
NORTH • Once you are through the beach gate, use your superior communications to reorganize on the fly. Sometimes your main assault team can break through to the next level before the enemy notices where you are, but even so, there are other tasks that need to be done.
As your tanks roll on, send a small team across the map, to cap the two grave yards. This will bring up four more tanks and open the two graveyards. The new tanks should immediately join the assault. If you act quickly, you can have four tanks at yellow, with two more coming up the other side.
From now on as people rez they should get tanks and bombs at the workshops. You want to set up waves of assaults on the remaining gates.
SOUTH • Most team do not cap the south grave yard. This lets your players rez back by the workshops where they can get tanks and bombs.
The enemy will likely mass at the yellow gate, so bombs become a major weapon. All stealth players should be running bombs from the south bomb pile to the yellow gate. Everyone else should be driving or guarding a tank.
YELLOW • Once the yellow gate is down, the fight has a tendency to fragment. A PUG group will often be spread out by now, but some will get inside and set up a defense. You want to avoid melee and stay focused on bringing tanks and bombs to the relic room door. Coordinated your attacks to bring multiple tanks and mounted bombers to the gate at the same time. This kind of rush will often get two or three bombs to the door.
After the door breaks, you only need to get inside and click on the relic to end the phase.
Offense: PRO on PRO
Against good defense, you need a more flexible strategy. As always, communication is the key.
- The fight starts as above ... chose a gate and try to rush it.
- If the gate is too well defended, switch some forces to the other side and break through the other gate. The north graveyard has priority. Once you control it you will get a rez point and tanks.
- Push south towards the next gate. If the enemy adjusts, then again switch some forces to the other side. Cap that gy, break the gate and push south.
- Against a good opponent, the yellow gate defense will be fierce. Be sure to cap the second north gy so that you gain more tanks. Do not cap the south gy yet ... because you want to rez at the workshops. Break the other gate and come at yellow from two sides.
- There is no special plan for yellow. If you can, try to group your tanks and bomb runners so as to overwhelm the defense. They have the advantage of rezzing in the yellow area ... if you arrive piecemeal, they will likely cut you apart.
- With about 2 minutes to go, be sure to cap the south graveyard. At that point there is no time for demos to drive all the way to the relic room, and you want to be rezzing as close as you can. There is a pile of bombs right next to the rez point ... use them as your weapon in the final minutes.