Beacon Rush Tactics - Dreadnaught Map

::momentum::

Since Hover has so much "under-cover" with the big ship below, I can usually control to a degree who comes on the ship.  If 2 or more come on top to chase me, that's great, I'll fly over to cap.  If doing this draws a re-spawn, as happened in the video, this works out well too if they have to ditch to do this, otherwise I can usually handle most builds with rockets.

Also, center beacon I can swoop down and cap at will, as soon as the coast is clear, as well as flank support many locations on the map.  The key, to me, if you're not with player you know is looking around early on, and figure out how to support what it is they're trying to do, or exposing a weak spot somewhere.  The map is medium-large imo, but the huge ship makes it seems smaller for me.

I definitely agree to try to get the home beacon and use that as a spawn point, happened on both sides in this match!

Thanks for your tip(s)  

If you have or ever record cool BR vids on this map, kindly post them here! 

I had to Google how to do it, and put a string of vids up last Oct from a single session, and posted them to the “Hover Guide Thread”, fast forward 5 months and I’m at it again, not really aiming to do much more than show tactics I use, encourage others to post vids to these “BR Tactic” threads, and discuss whatever.

My workmates when I lived in Australia provided me with lots of great music, so its a lot of fun to pick out songs I like (maybe others don’t, ha ha too bad!) and YouTube link them here. Please google how to screen record and share. Also, record a few profiles of pilots your facing, so we can gage the league, play, and tactics accordingly.

Cheers bud!

Shotgun Gary is a legit capper, seen a few in Champions League too. There are better options, but this is more effective than many of the other first drops I see.

Thanks. Since it’s not a super-killer like Spectre, Quiz, Merc, etc. many wrote Hover off long ago, as everyone want to kill, get damage, win silver, etc.

That’s fine, but the hidden gem of this bot is it’s completely unique ability to troll, and if the bait is taken like it was during this match (happens a lot, btw), Hover played this way ends up disturbing the game dynamics. Frustrated reds end up chasing you all over the place and forget about more important things....like winning the match

Tactics:

1. Noticed my clanmate (and bodyguard) Tampa2ATL during the drop, so had a confidence boost...definitely motivates me when I see this

2. Also noticed two VOX pilots, but like Tampa and I, were not in a squad...whatever motivation I had by seeing Tampa, is now lost...ha ha ha, kidding, but VOX pilots are no joke, as everyone that has faced them knows.

3. Used Hover to flank (as usual), but also to scout and cap as a secondary support function, and this worked out to be useful in this sequence.

4. Red's respawing timing and locations was iffy.  They panicked about the loss of the home beacon, and could have spawned to beacons less contested, instead they contested the home area, which won them no lost territory.

5. Support builds (Tulus etc.) have their niche in many situations, but just don't hold territory, which is painfully clear in this sequence.

6. Invader needs company to be effective, but it's limits (low mobility) is easy to see.  The reds needed to regain territory quickly with faster bots, Invador's can't (and didn't) help them much on a relatively large map with the beacon bar quickly draining.

Props to my clan-mate Tampa2ATL, for the usual ?bum-bum? kicking, he's an amazing pilot.  After this match, we squadded (all BR*1 savage-like ) together for an hour or more after this match.  Mostly one-sided 2-minute barn-burning slaughters...going both ways.

Music/artist: Vini Vici, song: Expender

10 Apr 19 - Randoms vs 2-squad clan w/forummite xCHIEFx ??  If so, GG!

1. ID flanking targets and get busy
2. In my opinion, the reds made two principle mistakes
- They over committed to the blue's home beacon E. Kudos for winning it, but they paid a very high price trying to defend it.  Defending E turned out to be a lost cause.  They would have been better off, imo, spawning elsewhere and regrouping there instead of getting flanked like they did
- Charge forward and hit the button...excessively.  The reds just came straight at us, sometimes this works, it this case, not so much
3. Blues, from what I could tell, did a good job of keeping of mostly keeping out of the line of fire, finding and staying behind cover during cooldowns, etc.  This isn't a pretty tactic when running bots with Stealth, but works.  Also, I saw one blue make good use of Quantum Radar when the red Ao Jun took off in the closing moments.

Music/artist: The Jesus and Mary Chain, song: Sundown
Music/artist: Charlie Parker, song: Max Making Wax

20 Apr 19, randoms vs randoms, tactics:

1. Went topside in Hover to flank (as usual).
2. At 0:49 saw a blue get attacked by an Invader, so went over to help.
3. Went back up to flank more, with e 2-3 beacon cap, I could still get away with being topside, and had a lot of success there in the sequence
4. Notice around 6:00 (after we got a 3-2) that the reds had 4 bots (indicating 4 in play) and no respawns were appearing, so I started to push, as it appeared we were meching them out (and we were)

Music: Bobby C Sound TV, song: Stickybud Sundae
Music: DJ Revan, song: Thunderstruck (ACDC)

9 May 19, tactics:

1. Get in a superior position and troll.

The reds had Legend League #1 (at the moment this game play played) on their squad and it didn't help them win. 

Trolling is an underappreciated tactic, which some (adriannnnnn ) don't get, and never will, because in their mind damage is king.

Music: Bobby C Sound TV, song: Beans and Cornbread (Louis Jordan)
Music: Fatboy Slim, Jean Jacques Perry, song: EVA

19 Jun 19, randoms vs randoms, tactics:

1. I used to start with Hover and go to the top, but found Ao Jun to be a more effective capper, on most maps.
2. Went to B (center-right), capped it, and pushed to A red's home)
3. Didn't make it, spawned center in Ares, meched and spawned another Ares @ center.
4. Meched Ares 2, spawned Ao Jun #2 at E.  Didn't do much with Ao Jun # 2 either.
5. Spawned Hover and went Leroy Jenkins on LSD, which tells me there is still a good role and strong relevance for a well-piloted Hover, in spite of the dominance of the more "meta" bots.

Music: Atomic Blonde, song: Blue Monday (New Order)
Music: Chrome, song: Love is a Stranger (Eurythmics)

12 Jul 19, randoms vs 2-squad.

1. Saw strong reds, so kept the sphincter clinched.
2. Confronted HB at (D) - right side - so did my best to weather the storm, eventually won it.
3. From (D), I noticed we had CB capped, so I climbed the structure to help flank.  
4. Red won CB, in spite of my efforts to defend it, went to (B) to try to cap
5. Didn't make it, so spawned near home (A) to push to (B)  
6. Once (B) was capped, spawned back to (D) to push back in to CB, seemed the reds were getting boxed in
7. CB was well defended, but we were starting to mech the reds out so I took it to the roof of the structure in Hover to chip away.

Music: Nick Curran, song: Dr. Velvet
Music: Madness, song: House of Fun
Music: Machine Gun Fellatio, song: Mojo Pumping

Props to forumites (and friends) Sig  Old-Cat for the fun match.

19 Jul 19, randoms vs randoms.

1. Got up on the Dreadnaught structure and flanked like hell.  The reds were challenging my location, so that became the game.  My capping sucked, but I was just digging in, having fun, and got almost 900k and 4 kills out of Hover.  Good times. 
2. Don't try this at home kids.
3. Thanks ʂωєєтცяєα∂ for sharing the field.  We'll get em next time!

Music: Jean Jacques Perrey, song: Eva (Fatboy Slim Remix)

22 July 19, randos vs randos, tactics:

1. Took to the top, to flank, as usual.
2. Saw 3 reds go for (D), which is good news fore the blues (other blues can cap easier/uncontested).
3. Took a herd of Ares to take by blue 「bum-bum」 down, but they finally overcame.  Good reds.
4. The beacon bar wasn't doing great, so I made a desperate capping run, but now enough.  Flanked like hell, worth it.  We'll get em next time!

Music: ACDC, song: Back in Black
Music: ACDC, song: Thunderstruck

23 Jul 19, randos v randos, tactics:

The CQC fighting worked out well for my Hover in this sequence so I'll detail my thoughts on some of the fighting.

In general, when I immediately take to the top of the Dreadnaught ship, I'm relying on others to cap for me.  If I think I can cap, and the coast is clear, I do.  In this sequence I thought I had a clear path to CB...key word is THOUGHT

1. 0:00-0:31 (in Hover), saw what I thought was an opening at CB, but had to abort the landing due to the Ares steaming in to contest the beacon.
2. 0:37 - Taking a shot at anything and everything prompts reds to use their ability, and then I can react / counterpunch.  Doing this at 0:37 got the Ao Jun flying, and I assume it is something very problematic (Ao Jun or Ares). 
3. I can close in and kill the Ao Jun since I know where he (she?) is at during their cool down cycle, but I leave myself in the home spawn area, knowing full well the pilot will want his (her?) revenge.
4. 1:02, as expected, the pilot drops an Ares at home, and I'll share what I do to kill these out in the open...get immediately over it, and if you have a hit of green Phildo crack, now is a very good time to use it if you want to continue in your Hover.  I also assume they all have Last Stan, which is usually the case in Champions League these days.
4. 1:19, I drew 3 reds to spawn to their home.  This is the main point of running Hover, and why it works well in Champion, even high Champions League in the right setting (adriannnnnn ).  On this map, Hover is deadly, and like Loki, can force the reds to change their plans.
5. 2:11, knowing we're sucking eggs on the beacon bar, I took the path of least resistance to get back to a 2-cap.  I know where the red spawn point is on that beacon, and chose a landing area that places cover between me and the potential spawn-in.  
6. 2:53, the green Phildo crack hit was stupid (watching the vid), as I thought there was a spawn-in coming from home.  My situational awareness isn't always on point, I didn't need the crack at all.
7. 3:52, spawned Ao Jun to home to deal with the home beacon (Fenrir), and the red pilot did a good job of countering my attack, immediately spawning in with Ares to wipe my Ao Jun out...I might have made the cover corner if I knew the structure better
8: 4:26 shows the effectiveness of Pursuer not just as a fighter, but mid-late game capper.  The three pilot skills that I think are important are 1. Deft Survivor (thank you Manni), Gust Sharp shooter (to extend the weapon range), and Mechanic (the best general skill, imo).  The Falcon I engaged with there would have been better off to not go fangs out, Gust Pursuer is no joke at point blank range.
9. 4:42, 2 Ares drop in almost simultaneously at the beacon I'm trying to cap, I think it is important to get fire to them quickly, forcing them to raise their shield.  Also, it is helpful if they spaz-Quantum Radar, which one of them did, so I can delay my stealth.  It was the "Deft Survivor" skill that allowed me to kill off both Ares....with Pursuer, always a good day when I can pull that off.

Thanks for watching.

Music: Gary Newman, song: Cars (remix)

29 Jul 19, randos vs randos, tactics:

1. Single bot match, a total Hover 「bum-bum」 kicking, I love this map.

Music: Fatboy Slim, song: Apache
Music: Eurythmics, song: Love is a Stranger (Chrome remix)