Notes
Two fortified bases seperated by a valley with the flag fairly exposed on a tower balcony next to the main base. The bases are close enough that attacks will be fairly frequent, but not quite at the mad rush level of maps like Rollercoaster. Because of the tower's exposed nature scouts tend to dominate with HPCs featuring generally in the later stages of the game.
The Rocket turret is one of the key defences on this level. Keeping it active will ease the pressure on the defenders considerably and someone should be tasked with keeping it active as much as possible. Due to the wide open nature of the map flanking assaults are common and the defence needs to be alert for enemies trying to sneak their way in. Finally this map has a disturbing habit of degenerating into a mutual flag hold where both sides have the flag but neither can capture it.
Defence - internal
Four turrets can be squeezed into this base. Two should go down on the floor of the base and two on the upper ring. Placing them on the two opposite 'flanges' that overlook the entrance, and are away from the command station, give the upper turrets good coverage - not to mention they are fairly hard to remove. Most attackers favour running past them and heading straight for the generator. Finally two turrets can be squeezed outside the base entrance - these die frequently but slow attackers down a fair bit.
The commander should be in heavy armour, with a shield pack and doubles as interior defence. Plasma fire should be favoured, most equipment in here reacts badly to mortar shells. Finally it can be worthwhile mining the floor of the base, but warn the team if doing this.
Defence - external
One person in medium armour should be tasked with exterior repair duties. In particular keeping the rocket turret active. When not repairing they should help out with flag/base defence.
One heavy on or near the flag at all times. Placing two turrets on the balcony is a good idea, recess them back a bit so that scouts trying to do a fly by removal will hit a wall. These turrets get destroyed often so require constant replacement. Mine the rear of the balcony as enemies do frequently like to land back there and sneak around the front. To aid in this, the flag defence should carry an inventory station up initially, deploy that inside the tower - to the back is usually best, set the defences up and then use a shield pack. Carry a chain gun, airborne assaults by scouts are frequent on this map.
One Heavy or medium, if the man power is available, should be on the hill near the flag tower. Take an INV station and start scattering turrets around the landscape. Enemies frequently attack/escape out past this hill. Again, carry a chaingun.
One light, with energy pack and possibly an ELF gun if they are comfortable with it - grenade launcher is a good idea too, to act as flag chaser and interceptor. Their brief is to prevent enemies getting near the tower if possible, otherwise chase down any flag runners as required.
Importantly the defenders should immediately move to defend the flag, with the designated flag defender being the first to head for the station. Shuffle in an orderly fashion one at a time through the station ensuring that only one defender is away from the flag defence at a time. This is critical in the opening stages of the match as the enemy will try for a quick flag capture early on in the game.
If we have the man power then one or two field snipers are a good idea too. Thanks to the good visibility ranges on this map along with the fairly open terrain snipers become a bloody nuisance and need to be dealt to fairly quickly. Defensive snipers are good for this and can serve a dual role of general advanced defence as well as flag chaser as required. Also useful are sensor jammers, deploy these around any defence positions to make the spotting of defenders that bit harder by snipers.
If manpower is tight then offence players should aid out with defence as required or when waiting for the next assault. Let your team know so that one of the defence players can then begin deployment of remote turrets and other items while you fill their position. Importantly warn people when you go off station and on assault again.
Offence
Immediately on the match starting two or three offence players should go out with scouts and try for the enemy flag - do not equip yourselves just go with the default spawned equipment. Run low around the edge of the enemy base to avoid the rocket turret and try and sneak in before they can get their defence up. Once the flag has been grabbed support the flag runner back to base - if they make it to a scout and clear the region safely then return back and try and keep the flag defence down. Sneaking around the back of the base and destroying their vehicle pad is useful too. A fourth offence player might like to consider a kamikaze raid on either the vehicle pad or go for the enemy rocket turret. When kamikazing the turret try to time your strike for just after the turret has fired a rocket, it's energy reserve will be at it's lowest then and you stand the highest chance of destroying it.
Once the intial flag assault is done then a team of two Peltasts should do a turret trash raid. The first equipped with an ELF gun, the other with a Plasma gun. ELF/plasma first the bridge plasma gun then the rocket turret. The plasma gunner should hold back a little to prevent both attackers being taken out in one mortar blast.
If possible time this with a Heavy rush in by foot - their aim is to get into the enemy base and trash it. If a Heavy can carry an inv station in, setup turrets in the base then the base can be locked down for quite a while. The ELF/Plasma Peltasts should support the Heavies till they are safely inside the enemy base. Then they should try for the flag. Hopefully the defence will now be split trying to deal with the dual threat. Once inside the Heavies should trash the base and then prevent the enemy from retaking it for as long as possible. Let your team know once the generator is down. If you have the time, mine the enemy repair pack and near the entrance. Tuck the entrance mines hard in against the wall, under the lip of the entrance, and for the first few times they will be missed.
Once the generator goes down any spare offence members should go for the flag. If we have the manpower then an LPC with two Heavies should be dispatched to support the Heavies in the enemy base. If pilots are unavailable then the Heavies should assault on foot, skiing into position as much as possible with one carrying an inventory or ammo station to resupply. If the ammo station is placed on the upper ledge of the enemy base, in view of the entrance, then a heavy can keep up a sustained mortar barrage of the entrance. If we can keep raiding the base with Heavies on assault while simultaneously doing flag assaults then hopefully we can keep the enemy off balance enough to not really put up much of a resistance.
Canny enemies, in this situation, will try and steal our flag to prevent further captures while they try to retake their base. And this is something that offence members should do if our base gets over-run. If at all possible plop the flag carrier onto a scout and hide in the high atmosphere. Alternatively hide the flag carrier inside the flag tower - place a camera on the walls above the entrance for them to stand on. Done properly even the flag glow can be hidden and not many people seem to expect this trick. This is best done by chucking the flag to the flag defence heavy and must be done out of sight of any enemy units to work.
Otherwise the flag runner should hide out somewhere out of sight until such time as the base has been retaken.
Repair Priorities
Generator
Inventory Station
Ammo Station
Rocket Turret
Vehicle Pad/Vehicle Station
Pulse Sensor
Plasma Turrets
Command Station
The ammo station is more important on this level than most because there is only one inventory station. Having the ammo station available for resupply and repair eases the pressure on the inventory station.
Tips/Tricks