Playing the lanes

[sunshineduck]

Playing the lanes
a sunshineduck & Apathy production

http://i.imgur.com/4ZPzC.gif

This is a semi-advanced strategy that a couple of members of what used to be Twisted and I ran almost flawlessly. It allows for maximum flexibility and scoring opportunities on fast breaks, and gives a role to each plane on offense. I've posted pictures depicting what I view as the lanes in several official maps that will be played a lot. The majority of maps have a clearly defined top (green), middle (blue), and bottom (red) lanes. The object of playing the lanes is maximizing the amount of area the defenders have to cover. This strategy relies heavily upon passing ability, but a lot of these passes are very simple and practical to make with a little bit of practice. The more advanced bounce passes (which you will see me attempt a lot) take a lot more time and practice on the maps.

First and foremost, the only way running the lanes will be successful is if you understand a basic concept: always clear DOWN. When you save the ball near your goal, the optimal play is to pass it or fly it downwards and take the low route to mid and the enemy goal. On occasion the opposing team will stack the bottom lane and do what Beagle described as "salmoning". Imagine a group of salmon swimming upstream in a river, and apply that to planes all compacted in one lane. If they are salmoning low towards our goal, take it either high or middle instead. Otherwise, taking it low allows for maximum speed out of our side since you are flying downwards, and slows down the enemy push since they have to fly upwards to score.

Once you get used to clearing low and getting past mid, playing the lanes actually comes into effect. The ball is low, but that does NOT mean the rest of the team goes low as well. In fact, everyone else on the team but the ball carrier should be taking a different route. You take the middle or top lane and basically shoot towards the goal, effectively killing the defense around the goal as the ball handler in the low lane looks to either get off an open shot, pass it high to an open teammate, or dunk it in the goal if nobody on the other team shoots him. This works like a charm nearly every single time. By extending your attack from just one lane to three, you are putting three times the amount of pressure on the defensive team. If there are two whales back on defense, there is no way they will be able to coordinate shooting into all three lanes at once; therefore, someone is always open.

This strategy applies not only to loopies and biplanes, but to explodets and bombers as well. The heavies will typically arrive late to the show, but this works to the team's advantage because they can compensate if the ball carrier gets ambushed and the ball is cleared back towards our goal: they are there for cleanup duty. If the ball carrier manages to evade being killed and gets to a prime passing position, it is critical that someone be there to receive the pass regardless of plane. A mistake many novice explodets make on offense is that they rarely cross middle. Whales can take an incredible amount of punishment and therefore make prime receiving candidates near the goal regardless of plane speed - at that distance, the only thing that matters is dunking it into the goal before the plane is killed.

It's rather difficult to fully explain this strategy in just text and pictures, but if you run it well then it will serve you just as well.

http://imgur.com/zkb75
http://imgur.com/kon5X
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http://imgur.com/3a5Rj

PS: On planepark, I threw in a dashed line on the bottom route that signifies that it's purely a passing lane. It's rarely advantageous to actually fly through that hole, but if the enemy team is starting to salmon the low route then passing it straight up through that hole often leads to easy goals against a weak defense.

all glory to TeH ApA

[Threevenge]

Spacing should come naturally to players as they continue to gain experience, but this guide is well-written and might be handy for some new players or those who just haven't broken through the basic concepts yet.

I know that I'm not the only player who actually feels equal (and in many cases greater) satisfaction when I find a good assist to a teammate who took a different lane and can sneak behind the opponent's defenses than scoring a goal myself. So, having other teammates take these routes to tie up defenders and threaten these passes is a wonderful thing.

That said, there's one thing that maybe it's just my personal preference.
I don't mind as a ball carrier when at least one of my teammates acts as an escort/bodyguard, so to speak. The buddy can add firepower to help clear a path (or emp in the case of loopies), a target for a quick pass if I'm taking serious damage and the angle is right, and...possibly the biggest thing...attract enemy fire and be a human (or plane?) shield if fire is heavy and I'm almost at the goal. At least this is my reasoning when I try to lead a ball carrier.

[ryebone]

Just to play devil's advocate here, playing passing lanes effectively requires teammates to have an IMMENSE amount of trust in each other. Very often, passing from one lane to another requires you to make completely or semi-blind passes. For the passer, you have to trust your teammate to be in the right spot at the right time. For the receiver, you must have faith that your teammate will find you even if his actions look like hes going elsewhere. It seems so obvious and straightforward, but even now, there are only a small handful of people in ladder I trust enough to play this style of ball with. To be fair, this kind of coordination probably requires mumble or something (so its not very feasible for ladder). Nonetheless, it's definitely the next step in terms of tactics development, and one that I believe will make the game much more interesting than it stands now.

[Smushface]

Just to play devil's advocate here, playing passing lanes effectively requires teammates to have an IMMENSE amount of trust in each other. Very often, passing from one lane to another requires you to make completely or semi-blind passes. For the passer, you have to trust your teammate to be in the right spot at the right time. For the receiver, you must have faith that your teammate will find you even if his actions look like hes going elsewhere. It seems so obvious and straightforward, but even now, there are only a small handful of people in ladder I trust enough to play this style of ball with. To be fair, this kind of coordination probably requires mumble or something (so its not very feasible for ladder). Nonetheless, it's definitely the next step in terms of tactics development, and one that I believe will make the game much more interesting than it stands now.

We could actually build a pretty beastly ball team from the wreckage of the Lobwiches if we hugged people like Noobo.

[sunshineduck]

Spacing should come naturally to players as they continue to gain experience, but this guide is well-written and might be handy for some new players or those who just haven't broken through the basic concepts yet.

I know that I'm not the only player who actually feels equal (and in many cases greater) satisfaction when I find a good assist to a teammate who took a different lane and can sneak behind the opponent's defenses than scoring a goal myself. So, having other teammates take these routes to tie up defenders and threaten these passes is a wonderful thing.

That said, there's one thing that maybe it's just my personal preference.
I don't mind as a ball carrier when at least one of my teammates acts as an escort/bodyguard, so to speak. The buddy can add firepower to help clear a path (or emp in the case of loopies), a target for a quick pass if I'm taking serious damage and the angle is right, and...possibly the biggest thing...attract enemy fire and be a human (or plane?) shield if fire is heavy and I'm almost at the goal. At least this is my reasoning when I try to lead a ball carrier.

fair point, but i'm of the mind that an additional body down low doesn't really improve anything for the ball carrier (especially if they're expecting to receive a pass) unless he's carrying a shield. from there, it should be a decision as to whether to lead the ball carrier in with the shield or attack from another angle and disrupt the enemy.

[Threevenge]

Yeah, I can see that SSD. As I said, probably just a preference thing.

I guess the only other counterpoint I can think of is whether the farthest lane needs to be taken if the ball carrier is low. Really, the defense only needs to really cover two lanes if the carrier takes the highest or lowest routes in maps that have 3 lanes.

The farthest lane is usually too risky to throw a direct pass to without fantastic communication and a huge gap in the defense. Two passes takes a long enough time that the defense can respond easily if they coordinate. Plus, those planes in the farthest lane aren't likely to be killing much since the defense will be targeting those in immediate passing range of the ball carrier and carrier.

This of course only applies if they don't take mid. If the carrier takes mid, by all means take all lanes to give the most threats and options. It's only logical.

[sunshineduck]

all lanes meet at the goal anyway, and the passing distance from bottom to top isn't all that far on most maps

[beefheart]

The rule always clear downwards unless a salmon swarm is coming your way is too simplistic in my view. I would say clear the thing in default downwards, but it can be more wise to clear it upwards in the following cases:

1) Your team is dead. Throw the ball towards the spam area and hope that your team will catch it first. If so they can have, a 5 plane strong counterattack.
2) Opponent will expect you to clear it downwards after using aboves tactic for a while. It can be suprising to clear it upwards.
3) Some maps particularly are suitable for clearing upwards and have immediate offensive possibilities. Darkwar is such a map and the reason why arr used to never lose there was that they did this all the time.

In general:

If you are in defense passing it upwards (i.e. towards spam area) means that new spawning players are involved in the game quicker, which means you have more planes in that area and can defend and push the ball better from that position.

[sunshineduck]

The rule always clear downwards unless a salmon swarm is coming your way is too simplistic in my view. I would say clear the thing in default downwards, but it can be more wise to clear it upwards in the following cases:

1) Your team is dead. Throw the ball towards the spam area and hope that your team will catch it first. If so they can have, a 5 plane strong counterattack.
2) Opponent will expect you to clear it downwards after using aboves tactic for a while. It can be suprising to clear it upwards.
3) Some maps particularly are suitable for clearing upwards and have immediate offensive possibilities. Darkwar is such a map and the reason why arr used to never lose there was that they did this all the time.

In general:

If you are in defense passing it upwards (i.e. towards spam area) means that new spawning players are involved in the game quicker, which means you have more planes in that area and can defend and push the ball better from that position.

1) no. just no. i have seen this done so many times in ladder and the risk is never worth the potential reward. the enemy grabs the ball for an easy score far too often.
2) so what if they predict it? basically all they can do in defense is to salmon that way, and in that case you would clear another way.
3) the distance from goal to spawn on darkwar is immense, and if you're doign a clearing strategy similar to what's implied in your first option then it's bound to fail. if you mean an organized team push upwards, i disagree that it's a better option unless the bottom is badly congested considering how easy that middle choke between the spawns is to lock down.

[Tekn0]

Asteroids is one map where clearing up is probably a viable option since the spawn is so near and the downwards angle is not that steep like on darkwar where you can even bounce it off the vertical wall.

I've not really experimented with clearing UP on darkwar to be honest and I had no idea {arr} does/used to do this. We might try this in some LF vs random scrims ;)

[drunkguava]

lost city, clear up duh

[elxir]

Asteroids is one map where clearing up is probably a viable option since the spawn is so near and the downwards angle is not that steep like on darkwar where you can even bounce it off the vertical wall.

I've not really experimented with clearing UP on darkwar to be honest and I had no idea {arr} does/used to do this. We might try this in some LF vs random scrims ;)

clearing up on asteroids is one of the worst things to do unless you have a line of sight between each plane for the pass and you can see far enough ahead to ensure that no loopy or miranda is lurking to pick the ball

[elxir]

clearing up on darkwar is a very good strategy if your whole team is aware of it, and as usual if you actually pass TO people instead of to blank space

[Tekn0]

clearing up on asteroids is one of the worst things to do unless you have a line of sight between each plane for the pass and you can see far enough ahead to ensure that no loopy or miranda is lurking to pick the ball

hmmmm But your own team spawn is so near that you can actually see them spawn and pass to them fairly reliably. And if a whale get its on spawn, he can carry it to the middle of the map before he gets taken down. I'm not saying it's always the right approach, as clearing blindly anywhere when mirandas are lurking about it bad, but I think I get your point about quick interception between you passing and your team-mate spawning.

[Kuja900]

You all should include something like how to defend against such a strategy or something so this can have enough content to get moved to official.

[JDR]

cross is probably the worst map to clear up on, lol
snow's bad too because it takes so damn long

[evilarsenal]

pro guide, so drunk, understood everything, now im gameguard, hi guys im gameguard i rape everyone at thios game (obviously me "gameguard" speaking in my prime)

[Boko]

pro guide, so drunk, understood everything, now im gameguard, hi guys im gameguard i rape everyone at thios game (obviously me "gameguard" speaking in my prime)

Hey buddy, here's a comic for you to get you through your hard times.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2277/alcoholicjpgt1241889860.jpg

P.S. My post is just as random as evil's.

[Flexio]

It's rather difficult to fully explain this strategy in just text and pictures, but if you run it well then it will serve you just as well.

http://imagesi.com/1726e.png
http://imagesi.com/88fc6.png
http://imagesi.com/8703d.png
http://imagesi.com/05292.png
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PS: On planepark...

Just a heads up, all of these links show up as "Imagesi.com - Simple image upload" when you open them. Might want to re-upload or try a different site.

[sunshineduck]

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