Intense games

[Polaris]

I was just wondering if anyone had any anecdotes from a match they remember because it was up for grabs most of the match or it was anybody's game, or you made an epic comeback, or felt like you destroyed the enemy.

Feel free to share!

[Twelvefield]

I just like the crescendo of violence in this game. The trick is to be the one left standing after the wave of destruction passes. There's something vicious yet logical about taking in the map and mentally dialling in your waypoints. The enemy will travel this road, infiltrate that industrial park, lay out AA by this forest and keep anti-tank troops nearby. You set out your recon and they spook out an armored pincer on its way, close to where you expected it.

You deflect your main force out of heading to Alpha and get the drop on the flankers. Suddenly, your own flank is blanketed with smoke, and the enemy main force appears like a horrible magic trick off the axis of attack. Alakazam! Armor swirls, rockets erupt from the trees and vehicles collapse under fiery mushroom clouds. A network of angry tracers whips across the open countryside as troops jockey for position.

Then it gets crazy. The whole rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air scenario, times a hundred. Artillery gets their bead, and the sky is laced with arc-flung projectiles. Tanks punch through the line, but are themselves impaled by rocket troopers.

The air cavalry charges over the hill. Massive choppers rain death from above, clearing the way for the air assault. Jets scissor overhead, letting fly a bewildering collection of killer payloads: iron bombs, napalm, laser-guided weapons that punch through armour like can openers.

Sergeant Zim spots a Brain Bug! You see that glorious little white star painted on the side of an otherwise innocuous enemy truck, one that has too many radio wires for its own good. Alpha strike on that puppy: even the Vietnam-era ghosts of Phantoms and Intruders race in for the kill, are reduced to pillars of smoke and flame searing across the blue sky, then wham! Finally, a good strike on the enemy C&C. Sector denied! Points for the good guys!

Almost as suddenly as it began, the storm dissipates. Craters everywhere, and burning woods. You count your losses, maybe about even, except you nailed that sweet command rig and blew it to Mars. That's enough victory for now. Next, reforming the line, sending out the scouts, we do it all again. Some good men are dead, friends, brothers, their names flash on the bottom of the screen. But the enemy is hurt, wary, and unknowing of where you will strike next. He will protect his command truck all the better the next time, but that leaves more territory for you to liberate today. Today we live and he dies. Tomorrow brings the next storm. Hate the war, but respect the warriors.

[LifeLyne]

Three cheers,

[Polaris]

*salutes*

[Patton]

Twelvefield, your narritive is amazing.

I've had a lot of extremely close games in 1v1 ranked. Often I find myself in a battle that I feel like I'm losing, but after twenty minutes or a half hour the match will have evened out or I'll take the lead. Ranked matches are way way more intense now than in European Escalation because of airplanes. Everyone uses a huge amount of air support and uses large amounts of units like infantry that rely on defensive tactics.

In one battle that ended in a tie for me, I could have won if I had stayed put. I thought I could rush at my opponent because he had been spending huge amounts of resources on planes, but even with Abrams, Leopard 2s, and LAV-25s all rushing in at once, he destroyed most of my attacking force. That brought our scores to a point where they were even and the match still had a long way to go.