DeletedUser
One of the most important underlying concepts of fort fighting is the move order - this can make or break you unless you really understand how it works, and people who really understand the implications are masters of dancing to avoid shots whilst always find themselves close to the front with LoS - big damage out, low damage in, and much less chance of being KOed.
Here is the official move order from the help files:
http://wiki.the-west.net/wiki/Help:Fort_Battles#Order_of_events
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Now let's see the implication of this.
Defenders go first
You always shoot before you move
This means that if you are a defender, you will shoot people who are in your LoS at the start of the round, and then you will move.
If you are in the enemy's LoS then you have an opportunity to move out of their LoS before they even get a chance to shoot at you - you have time to check and evaluate all the LoS at the start of the round before you make your decision where to move, and whether to take shots. You should always have a rough idea of how much damage you will take, and you can make an informed decision about whether you will get KOed and move or arrange a swap as necessary.
This also means that to maintain LoS you need to anticipate where the enemy will be on the following round - you will not get a chance to shoot next round if the enemy move out of your LoS this round after you have moved. This is where people learn to "dance" - they anticipate where the attackers will move, get LoS for that position, and then on the next round move out of LoS to a new position where they hope to get LoS the following round, the attackers don't get a shot because they shoot after the defender moves out of LoS, but the defender needs to anticipate the attacker's move.
If you are an attacker then things are a lot more challenging, your enemy will shoot you and move out of the way before you can shoot them back, as a result it is critical for attackers to think one round ahead, you get to shoot after the defenders have already fired their rifles and made their move, so you don't need LoS on where they are, you need LoS on where they will be afterwards.
This also makes it difficult for attackers to gauge their damage received. They need to arrange swaps and moves with 2 rounds of health left, when a defender calls a swap he knows if he gets out of LoS or arranges a swap he will not take any damage that round, but an attacker will always get shot in his current position if he is in LoS before he gets a chance to get out of the way.
Okay - I mentioned "swaps" and from experience on the battlefield it is clear that some people do not fully understand a swap. The move order has other implications that make swaps important.
You cannot move into a sector that is occupied by the enemy, or into a specific position that is occupied by anyone (friend or foe). Often people are set to move to a sector, but are later confused that they didn't move there even though all the enemy in the sector died. What has happened is that the player had already had their "turn" in the move and shoot order, and there was still an enemy alive in the sector when they came to move - the sector wasn't cleared until later in the sequence of moves, so the player missed their turn that round to move into the sector.
This also applies to stepping into someone else's space. You need that person to have moved out of the space before you can move into it - if they are lower down in the move order, then they will block your occupation of the space, even if they go on to move later in the round. This would mean keeping towers filled would be incredibly difficult unless everyone has a deep understanding of the move orders...but there is a clever solution.
Swaps - if you and another player move on to each others specific squares, then you will be set for a "swap". You will switch places regardless of the move order, and you will not block each other. You can tell when a swap is set and both players have queued the appropriate move because your movement arrow will change from orange to green to confirm the swap. If you are in a tower or on a wall and you want to vacate your space for someone else to move in, please arrange a swap - do not just step out of the way, as someone else may fill the space due to the move order. This also allows very specific placement of players and tanks.
A keen knowledge of the move order, swaps, and an awareness of how much damage you will take in a given round whilst thinking ahead is what will keep you alive on the battlefield. Of course you need to also be watching LoS carefully the entire time, not just yours but the enemy's too - particularly some of the strange little wall shots that aren't always expected. The players who manipulate and use this information the best are the ones at the top of the table with the most damage output and surviving long enough to deal it out.
I personally used to (when I had a low amount of hit points compared to my level) take a massive amount of my damage towards the middle/end part of the battle to help to tank a tower when there is no better hpts around, yet I use the move order, swapping, and careful eye on LoS to survive until the end rounds.
Sorry, I know it's a lot to read, and possibly difficult to understand, but if you can master this part of fort battles, then you will find your survivability goes up, your damage output goes up, and hopefully our wins go up! Remember, we want people to follow orders, but that doesn't mean getting yourself KOed (except in very specific circumstances where people are requested to hold or block an area to prevent an enemy advance) - your gun is more useful when it keeps shooting.
-- Pete.
Here is the official move order from the help files:
http://wiki.the-west.net/wiki/Help:Fort_Battles#Order_of_events
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-----Order of events
Moving and shooting occur in the following order.
1) Members of defending town shoot in rank order
2) Members of towns allied to the fort shoot in rank order
3) All other defenders shoot in rank order
4) Members of defending town move in rank order
5) Members of towns allied to the fort move in rank order
6) All other defenders move in rank order
7) Members of attacking town shoot in rank order
8) All other attackers shoot in rank order
9) Members of attacking town move in rank order
10) All other attackers move in rank order
Rank order: Generals, Captains, Privates, Recruits, Reservists, Traitors
Out of players with the same rank, the player with the highest leadership gets priority. If their leadership is equal, the player with the highest stamina gets priority when attacking, or the player with the highest hiding gets priority when defending.
Now let's see the implication of this.
Defenders go first
You always shoot before you move
This means that if you are a defender, you will shoot people who are in your LoS at the start of the round, and then you will move.
If you are in the enemy's LoS then you have an opportunity to move out of their LoS before they even get a chance to shoot at you - you have time to check and evaluate all the LoS at the start of the round before you make your decision where to move, and whether to take shots. You should always have a rough idea of how much damage you will take, and you can make an informed decision about whether you will get KOed and move or arrange a swap as necessary.
This also means that to maintain LoS you need to anticipate where the enemy will be on the following round - you will not get a chance to shoot next round if the enemy move out of your LoS this round after you have moved. This is where people learn to "dance" - they anticipate where the attackers will move, get LoS for that position, and then on the next round move out of LoS to a new position where they hope to get LoS the following round, the attackers don't get a shot because they shoot after the defender moves out of LoS, but the defender needs to anticipate the attacker's move.
If you are an attacker then things are a lot more challenging, your enemy will shoot you and move out of the way before you can shoot them back, as a result it is critical for attackers to think one round ahead, you get to shoot after the defenders have already fired their rifles and made their move, so you don't need LoS on where they are, you need LoS on where they will be afterwards.
This also makes it difficult for attackers to gauge their damage received. They need to arrange swaps and moves with 2 rounds of health left, when a defender calls a swap he knows if he gets out of LoS or arranges a swap he will not take any damage that round, but an attacker will always get shot in his current position if he is in LoS before he gets a chance to get out of the way.
Okay - I mentioned "swaps" and from experience on the battlefield it is clear that some people do not fully understand a swap. The move order has other implications that make swaps important.
You cannot move into a sector that is occupied by the enemy, or into a specific position that is occupied by anyone (friend or foe). Often people are set to move to a sector, but are later confused that they didn't move there even though all the enemy in the sector died. What has happened is that the player had already had their "turn" in the move and shoot order, and there was still an enemy alive in the sector when they came to move - the sector wasn't cleared until later in the sequence of moves, so the player missed their turn that round to move into the sector.
This also applies to stepping into someone else's space. You need that person to have moved out of the space before you can move into it - if they are lower down in the move order, then they will block your occupation of the space, even if they go on to move later in the round. This would mean keeping towers filled would be incredibly difficult unless everyone has a deep understanding of the move orders...but there is a clever solution.
Swaps - if you and another player move on to each others specific squares, then you will be set for a "swap". You will switch places regardless of the move order, and you will not block each other. You can tell when a swap is set and both players have queued the appropriate move because your movement arrow will change from orange to green to confirm the swap. If you are in a tower or on a wall and you want to vacate your space for someone else to move in, please arrange a swap - do not just step out of the way, as someone else may fill the space due to the move order. This also allows very specific placement of players and tanks.
A keen knowledge of the move order, swaps, and an awareness of how much damage you will take in a given round whilst thinking ahead is what will keep you alive on the battlefield. Of course you need to also be watching LoS carefully the entire time, not just yours but the enemy's too - particularly some of the strange little wall shots that aren't always expected. The players who manipulate and use this information the best are the ones at the top of the table with the most damage output and surviving long enough to deal it out.
I personally used to (when I had a low amount of hit points compared to my level) take a massive amount of my damage towards the middle/end part of the battle to help to tank a tower when there is no better hpts around, yet I use the move order, swapping, and careful eye on LoS to survive until the end rounds.
Sorry, I know it's a lot to read, and possibly difficult to understand, but if you can master this part of fort battles, then you will find your survivability goes up, your damage output goes up, and hopefully our wins go up! Remember, we want people to follow orders, but that doesn't mean getting yourself KOed (except in very specific circumstances where people are requested to hold or block an area to prevent an enemy advance) - your gun is more useful when it keeps shooting.
-- Pete.