General Flagging Tips

General Knowledge
Specials - The use of specials such as brick, port, burst, thor, etc are key in winning all games. When using these items try not to just use them but use them effectively. There is no excuse for having one and dying before getting it off. With brick as an example, you can rush with your hand on the brick key so when you're about to die you lay the brick. It is not difficult and is a necessity to use your items. Always remember that a bad item is better than none at all. When in doubt please use it.

Game-Play - You’re part of a squad and that should be your number one priority. During game-play, always think squad first. If your squaddies are playing on a pub, I suggest you wait for a spot on it and not even suggest forming a priv unless there are 10 squaddies in arena ready to play on it. Playing on public freq is a sign of a strong player. The players that are truly exceptional do realize that they are, and know how much of a difference they make by joining a certain freq. If you see a priv that is losing to an obviously stronger priv, take the next available spot and help them out. You have to understand that by being on that team, you make a big difference. When you don't have enough to form a squad freq, I suggest you pub. You can also form the squad freq with 6-7 players, if you are all not playing in the game. Never refreq unless there are circumstances on your current freq that would prevent you from competing with your opponent, and you have a full 9 or 10 squaddies that are ready to play. If you only get 8 or 9, do not freq someone just to fill. In big games, squaddies/potential squaddies are all that matter. In little games you can jack around with your friends, but you should always try to play squad only even if you can't quite fill the freq, just full D and play smart until you can. I believe in losing with a 6-8 man full squad freq, over winning with a full freq, because squad play is that much more important. If you want to be successful, you must play together, and there is no excuse for every playing or even asking to play against a squad member.

Squaddies - Treat all members of squad with respect. If you guys have an argument, please think of how silly whatever you were arguing about really is:D. If it's about something that happened during a game, come to myself or another council member and explain what happened. We should try to be as close-knit as possible. Never, ever, ignore any member of the squad, for any reason. LISTEN to all members of your squad when they ask you to do something. Communication is the key to success. If for some reason someone on squad tells you to do something that you consider to be obsurd, pm someone on council because you might have misinterpreted what he was getting at. Also, when assigning rolls, do so in pm. Players tend to get defensive when asked to do something in front of a group of people, and it only leads to problems. <3 each other, and we'll have no problem coming out with the wins. Respect is something that is earned, so if you are a leader, please lead. Step up in the games you play. There should be no reason that you can't come away with the wins when a council member isnt online.

Communication - Listen to your squaddies and perform the tasks they ask of you right away. If for some reason you're in a position not to do those, reply as quickly as possible with a message such as "I'm nme anchor" or "In fr". Being deep in nme is never an excuse.

If you accidentally attach to front/defense and there are people attacking, go right back to nme. It takes away from our attack if you stay and defend. Front knows what he's doing, he'll pm people as needed.

Never ever attach to flanker unless pm'd by him or saving the flank (you see him die and you lag attach to him so we don't lose it). If you attach to flanker on accident, you hurry your ass back to front anchor. Always have X when flanking home, and if they're in your fr and it looks like your going to lose it (your flank isn't doing any good) you pm someone to get anti for you if you don't have it. If you're still on flank when they take base, you yell for anti right away.

Flying - When flying through bases, about 75% of the time you get more speed by bouncing off walls in certain areas. You should always be holding down shift for acceleration, and using "bounce" to your advantage. Getting further into/out of a base in the shortest amount of time is a necessity.

The Use of Repels - Repels are the most useful tool in flagging when used correctly. There are many ways to use them to your advantage;

-Obviously if there are bombs or mines in the way of your team, repel for a faster entry.
-Repel nme bomblines/defenders to make it easier for your team to attack.
-Repel Front anchor into your team fire to kill him.
-Repel Front/defenders into corridors so your team can fly past them.
-Repel nme fr anchor when his time is running out on ball so you can steal it for your fr or for more attacking power.
-Repel nme flagger to create a bad drop. Often times you will be able to tell when he's about to drop, and if nme has all with the last carrier holding enough flags, get your team to green some reps if you don't have time to attack or if you want the game to continue, then rep his ass all around fr and hopefully you can hit a flag before the game ends if you get his drop to go outside the fr.
-If you are in a corridor behind, and your teammate lag attaches deep, repel their defense so he can get by
-Repelling while chasing red is very effective if you go on another team and follow your squaddie. When you see red repel your squaddie into the carrier using the repel as a rocket. It's tough as a flag carrier to defend against and more often then not you'll be able to kill him.
-Repel to defend your teammates (especially anchors and flag carriers)
-If you take front, use your repels to hold the nme defense back. Stalling them allows you to get deeper into nme before they can push out.
-In flag rooms that have thin walls such as the current top and bottom middle (both central flag rooms as well), get two or more weasels... then repel the nme fr anchor and when he hits the wall, bomb him.

Always remember that a poor repel is better than no repel at all. Use your specials.

The use of Balls & Tips for Effectiveness - Balls can be used for several things that can help quite a bit during the course of a game;

-The most obvious use; flagroom anchor protection.
-When you have a ball on the attack, buy full energy and try to rush past the defense.
-If you have the ball attacking and only their front anchor is left.. push towards him and pass him the ball, as a result he wont be able to shoot so you will be able to kill him or fly past him.
-Gives more power to your wall bombs.
-If nme is deep in your base, shipchange into a shark, get cloaked, buy full energy, recharge, and bounce. Grab a ball from your fr, rush past the attackers, and kill/fly by nme anchor.
-When retrieving balls utilize ballwarping. I'm sure all of you know how to do it. As you're hitting the ball proximity you shipchange and end up with the ball in center safe.
-If you only have only one ball in fr, fly backwards hard as you shoot the ball, it tremendously decreases the time until you can pick the ball up again.
-If you're in your fr (with thin walls) and you can see the nme anchor, fly backwards a bit and shoot the ball slowly towards the wall that he is next to. He may take your bait and fly up against the wall waiting for the ball to hit it, thinking he will steal it and become a hero, when he does that, wallbomb his ass to hell so they no longer have an nme anchor.

Defensive/Offensive Tactics

Here are a few ideas that can help quite a bit during big games, and can be integrated well during squad play.

The "Harass" Attack - Often times you will have trouble attacking nme because whenever you fly there and your base is clear, they'll have flanks coming in and a full defense at front. Also when your defense is pushing nme out after "all home" has been called, usually when home is about 60-70% you can send one person to go green in lanc (shipchange in and out of lanc a few times to see if you can get a repel right away). After the lanc has 2 reps he can buy full energy, recharge, multifire and bounce (whatever he still doesnt have). Try to keep as little bounty as possible. Fly solo to nme and when the front anchor sees you, he will usually try to face you one on one. Lancs have the shortest delay in firing after use of a repel, so what you'd want to do is try to repel him strategically, and then use your powerful blue multifire cannons:P to own his ass at front. However, if he does call someone home, ask what home status in and if home is holding/pushing out well, pm one more person to help you attack. Try to take front or push them way back into their base by yourselves. For every person front calls home, you call one to nme. Make sure you have someone calling home status for you, because if all home is called and you aren't deeper in nme base than nme is in yours, you must get home immediately. Even if you're at their fr, if they are at yours, you must go home immediately. Often times using this attack will cause the nme attack to die out because they'll lose so many people (due to front calling helpers home). Also, a good way to practice the solo lanc attack on nme front, is to join your own freq in big games and goto the base that isnt being attacked. If you're good at this tactic, you can be a huge help to your team.

Defending Against a Possible Port - If you are the fr anchor, try to get to a central location in the base (where portal would not be). Set up a temp fr anchor (doesn't need anti), and someone to mine up areas that could stall an attack after nme ports. Also have this person fire in areas where the port may have been dropped. This way if/when they port, the temp fr anchor can spam for help. Everyone goes to him, and then the fr anchor with anti who went to the middle of your base, can pm one person to help him flank. You still have anti on at home, you also have a flank, and even more importantly, you have anti on if somehow they take your base. Everyone can attach to you and take base back (you have their carrier anti). Just be careful and do not die on the flank if you're the fr anchor.

Attacking Tips - Things to keep in mind while your attacking, also some things you can work on.

-Always hold down shift for acelleration.
-Bounce off walls not only to fly through base faster but to avoid bombs and gunfire.
-When full attacking, have a strong balance of ships, no more than 1 terrier, and try to always have a shark on the attack as well. You're full attack should have spiders as the majority ship.
-When using a warbird, bounce off walls a lot down corridors to avoid the bombs and gunfire, and after that you can make a run at the anchor which even if you dont get a kill, sets up a perfect lag attach to break nme front.
-Spiders should try their best not to let any nme by them. They are key to keeping nme anchor alive.
-Shipchange and attach to the deepest attacker in nme when you are further behind.
-Utilize shipchange lag attaches but do not play stupid. If you use shipchange lag attaches no when to go for them. Never ever sit back with someone tickered and wait for them to rush. Always be rushing yourself... you have to learn how to ticker the deepest player as you rush/fly through base. Never shipchange lag attach if it wont get you anywhere.
-Be aware. There is no reason not to notice everyone that is at nme, who your anchor is, and where the nme is around you. If your anchor is having to back up because everyone else is attaching deeper into nme and looks like he's going to be killed, attach to him. Also, when noticing who's deepest you should be able to play out the scene in your head... who is going to die when... and attach to that person. Utilize lag attaches. They are the most effective means of attacking. Play against full public frequencies with just 2-3 people and work on your lag attach timing. It's very good practice. Make a couple macros saying "LA me" and "Rush for LA", then try and work your way into base. If you have 4 people or so, say/assign numbers 1-4 as u enter the base. Have the #1 rush first (most often he'll be the 1 that has a special such as a repel), when you see him die the #2 will shipchange lag attach and so on. See if you can take a full freqs base just by doing this.
-Portal in corners that anti doesn't reach. Do not use this if your attack is pushing though. You do not want to have to call "everyone die out" after you port. Just calmly watch the death lists and attach to someone who died. Then fly from center safe to just outside nme base and when your attack is pushed back behind that point, spam "all attach to me for a deep port". This works very well; often times the front defenders are slow to attach to fr and you can take it with ease.
-Utilize Specials effectively (went over this earlier)
-Do not be afraid to hit flags if that is the most effective way to kill nme fr.
-When getting deep into nme base/right outside fr, do not all shipchange into terriers. 1 person buy full energy, recharge, bounce, and multifire in a lanc and double anchor. This way when you lob your bombs effectively you won't lose any ground if all of your rushers die out. It also allows everyone else on the attack to rush, lag attach, and force their way into fr without worrying about their anchor getting raped if they die out. The lanc's guns are very effective, and as long as your double anchor knows what he's doing (doesn't tk your whole team whenever they try to enter fr) then it holds your position deep in nme.

Defending Tips - Some things that may help you while your on defense/things we can work on:

-Utilize mobile bomblines. You should never (or very rarely) be sitting still/holding backwards while bombing. There should never be more than 1 terr at home. When using the mobile bomblines, after a bomb is fired, use your bullets to strafe rushers as your backing off.
-Utilize l3 (blue) bullets. Their importance is overlooked by many. It takes so few l3 bullets to make a kill, especially after they attach and are rushing or have fired.
-A mediocre brick is better than no brick at all. Another example of if you have specials, use them. If you see that you have brick, make sure you have your hand on your brick key so you can lay it before you die.
-Utilize defensive ports. Pm someone to turret you, and then go. Make sure you anchor if it's your port. Also, if you lay port, nme anchor is just around that area, and your defenders clear the rushers, go on the port and kill their anchor (make sure you finish your kill because there will most likely be lag attaches).
-When flanking home always have X and preferably anti as well. Never call more than 2 people to help you. 95% of the time you should only have 1 person help you. The idea is to hold nme/give them nowhere to back up to and force them to try and push in further or back out (into your flank). Do not rush/kami on flank if you're the helper unless you've cleared the nme anchor's helpers and are going right at the nme anchor himself. Like stated under communication, never attach to the flanker if he doesn't pm you, and if nme's going to take fr (or looks like they may), pm your helper to get anti right away. If they do take fr you spam for anti right away. Never die on flank.
-Get in a shark and tell someone to lag attach to you when you cloak past rushers and rush the nme anchor or if he lag attaches behind them, to flank them out. It's a very strong tactic for taking out their anchor and clears base quite often.

Swing

-Don't rush/kami unless its the nme anchor.
-Work on holding ground by using your bombs to kill the rushers, then rush to take out their anchor. If they are in terrs, dodge first/bounce off walls, and then take them out. Terrs are very easy to defend against because of their gun delay after shooting bombs.
-If you have 2 swings at home do NOT attach to the other swing unless the nme anchors helpers are dead and with the attach you are sure that you can take out nme anchor too. Attaching to your anchor while playing swing defense is essential in keeping your front anchor alive.
-Repel and take bombs for your front if it looks like the bomb will hit them, it's better that you take it rather than trying to run away from the attack and stay alive for your front anchor.
-WATCH your radar. Cloakers don't usually spawn with stealth, and there's no excuse for a cloaker to fly by you and kill your anchor.
-Be aware of what's going on. If you're constantly getting pushed back and it isn't your fault, tell the front to pm one more to help. A lot of people don't think well under pressure so you must think for them. If you see your front anchor die, mine and back up. Make sure you lob bombs at them as you fly backwards. You must stay alive until your anchor has a chance to attach back.
-If you brick home goto nme and have front pm you when brick runs out. Sometimes that extra man on attack can bring everyone at their base home. Something else that ties into this is if your home is clear and nme is 90+%, have the front anchor move up towards front of the base and tell him to spam you if he sees anyone on his radar. That the front anchor can attack nme and have it 9 on 10 rather than 8 on 10. Also when you have all, make sure you tell your fr (if he isnt already) to go defend base. There is never any reason to have 2 people in fr when you have all the flags.
-If for some reason you and your fr anchor die at front, shipchange for extras, X, anti, etc. When you're done shipchanging, attach back to front. There's no reason for both of you to fly all the way from fr to the attack (as long as you make it back to your front anchor quickly, you have plenty of time to do a bit of shipchanging first).
-You go when you are pm'd. If you are nme anchor/last at nme you reply promptly with a message to the front anchor. Being deep in nme is no excuse for not attaching to front immediately when you are called upon.


Anchoring Positions


Front Anchor

-?buy. Have a set of macros specifically for front anchoring/lanc anchoring where you can ?buy full recharge, bounce, and energy. Rotation and multifire are optional as well.
-Use repels to save your ass. If the bomb might hit you do not chance it. A wasted rep is a lot less significant than a dead front.
-Utilize bomb thrust but don't depend on it. Do not put yourself into a place where you HAVE to bomb just to get away from the attack. It should be used to dodge single shots and to back up quicker than you normal would be able to.
-When mining, do not place more mines in one position than needed. Place one mine in an area where it covers the whole passage, because often times one mine will kill multiple rushers. You can also place the next mine a couple shiplengths behind the previous one to take care of any lag attaches. Remember not to waste your mines and to place only as many needed at each choke point.
-Finish your kills and your defender's kills with guns, or bombs if the attaches are further away.
-When using bomb thrust to back up, try to place your bombs off walls so they have a greater chance of bouncing into the attackers.
-If you lay a portal, clear the attackers, and the nme anchor is next to your portal, go on it. Lanc guns are nothing to joke about and will kill the nme anchor and any lag attaches he may have with ease.
-If nme comes with more attackers than you have defenders (say 4 vs 3), play defensively to stall/hold their attack. A good way of doing this is the use of double anchoring. Have another lanc play more agressively in front of you.
-Be aware of any surviving defenders when you die. Also make sure to use your ?buy recharge macro right away so you can attach to base as quickly as possible.
-Pulse your guns. Do not use a steady stream because it will wear the lanc energy down in no time at all.
-Let your swing defenders know who they are before hand. This will allow them to stay in a position not to be stuck at nme (they wont take up an nme anchor position). They will also be able to keep it in the back of their mind so they can shipchange out of nme and get to you faster than if the pm comes out of the blue.
-If you are playing in a public arena and there are multiple freqs, when you see an nme full attacking (after making sure nme status is less than 50% or so), call all home right away and try to stop their attack before it begins. When a full freq is attacking you, it is impossible to do well at nme, so it's best to keep your base clear and not be forced to play defensively for hours on end because 2 freqs are relentlessly attacking you.
-When it looks like someone has a thor, hit the nearest wall to absorb the thor for you.


NME Anchoring

-Use your bombs to keep defensive rushers at bay.
-Be aware of terriers. Make sure you don't get caught by a stray bomb.
-Don't anchor so far in that you are relying on others to keep you alive, because that won't happen. While attacking going for lag attaches is vital so you must be able to anchor a safe distance away, but close enough to hit defensive rushers. If a warbird or shark(cloaked) rush past your attackers, use you bullets to kill them around the corner. You have much more accuracy with guns than you do with your bombs (bullets cover a wider range as well).
-Have a pm for someone to take flank set as a macro. It's your responsibility to make sure flank is covered. You don't want everyone to start pushing back all of a sudden and losing ground. That's when their flank is effective and you're forced into nme fire.
-In public games when there are multiple freq, it is inevitable that you will be flanked if a full freq is attacking behind you. In this scenario, push forward for as long as you can. Do not lose any ground in the base, because you will be flanked out whether or not you try to push back or not.
-If you are 90% or more in nme, pm someone to try to cloak behind flank. If they don't make it, pm them to reflank right away. When you're flanked out and attach to the person you told to reflank, spam team chat to get anti to the attack (because the nme will most likely be knocking at the other freq's fr door).
-Be aware of people who are still alive so that if you do die you can attach to someone. If you die, spam team chat with "D" or "dead" so that people who may not be aware back up for you.

Carrying Flags - When carrying flags it is very important to play smart. Using your head while flagging is what separates the good players from the great ones;

-If for any reason you cant have full energy use walls to take your hit for you (as you would if you were front anchor).
-When you have last flag you base it or you have a fool-proof way to stay alive with flag. Have someone who will green for thors/bricks or any other useful extras for attacking or defending your base, and be safe for you whenever you need it. Do not warp to center with the last flag if you can avoid it. If you do have the last flags and are antied in a base, be aware of what's going on. Look to see who has flags and who doesn't. If its only one or two flags and there are multiple freqs, give the flag to the team without flags if it is impossible for you to get out. When carrying last, do not go for the double kill to avoid anti unless its to a team with no flags (in multiple freq games). Never stop hitting the attach key if someone is safe for you. Keep following around corners trying to get out of the anti's reach. If you warp to center make sure you spam chat to let everyone know that you are out and need help.
-If the flags are in a two way split and there is only one freq attacking you, neut the flags.

--Specific Flag-Carrying Situation--

Say you have flags and your freq doesn't have that many people on it. Whether it's a pub or a priv, prolong the game by going to a base with a door or multiple doors. Have 2 macros, one of which being a pm asking for help, and the other being a pm telling someone to get safe for you. The base you goto must have a safe zone at the front of it so it's easier for you to get kills when needed. Use the safe zone to get in a better ship for the base, such as a greened spider with X, antiwarp, and maybe a couple specials. Keep the base by yourself, this allows your team to attack nme effectively because they'll be able to have more people there than if you'd drop. If your time runs low, pm someone to get in the safe at the front of the base, change freq, and give you a kill. When nme attacks you, stall but don't do anything stupid like trying to clear them with a rush. You can pm someone to help you but if that isn't enough don't call anyone else home. Pm someone to get safe for you so you can doorwarp out if you're antied, then try to get a base with similar attributes to the one you were at and repeat the process. When you fill your freq and can drop your flags, yay you're the new fr anchor. Go for the win homies

This brings up FR anchoring; We have one of the best flag room guides I have ever seen, so I'm not going to say much except to stress a few key points.

-Utilize balls.
-Do not lose anti by rushing with guns thinking you can clear out their attackers, because 90% of the time there will be a lag attach or a stray bomb to kill you after your energy wears down.
-Pulse your guns to conserve energy when their pushing into you fr.
-Use safe mobile bomblines to help keep the nme at bay.
-Always cover the whole base with anti and be aware of what's going on with the nme attack.
-If you happen to have cloak and their taking fr is inevitable, try to grab a ball and cloak behind their attackers so you can anti their fr and have everyone attach to take back your fr.
-When you see the front die, make sure that you call fr.
-Most importantly of all, do not go afk.

Spectating Matches

First off, make sure everyone knows the correct use of chats during game-play. There is a reason that the squaddies in spec are on their own freq. Do not use squad chat (red) to talk about anything other than game specifics. Use it if you're in the game to ask questions relating to the game, and if you're in spec, use them to answer them;

-Communicate home and nme base status consistently with each change. Use squad chat to relay this information.
-It should be second nature speccing for ports when our fr anchor dies. Look everywhere for people in safe zones outside of center, for people sitting at the front or fr of their base while no nme's are attacking, and look for people greening in center. If they're greening in center during a squadmatch there is probably a port. If you clear the opponent's attack and most of the team attaches/stays at the front of their base to defend, while very few or none goto nme, there is probably a port. If someone that you think may have left their attack early is greening, tell someone who is playing their coords and have them chase that person. If he attaches to a squaddie at home rather than warping to center, he has a port and you should get anti to nme right away.


Adapted from Moggy's Tips

otaku goood read even if im drunk, got some good tips

1: ALWAYS TURN ON CLOAK BEFORE U DEATTACH

2: NEVER FLY ALONG BLS EVEN IF IT'S THE MOST DIRECT ROUTE AND UR RUSHING, u don't have to hug every corner but fly at slightly diff angles to the usual bomb routes and you'll survive farther a higher % of times