Arathi Basin Strategy Guide
I found this Stradegy and thought is could be helpfull when we play as a group...originally posted by- Minimighty @
www.knightsofarcadia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1345[/URL]
Arathi Basin Strategy Guide
I played many rounds of Arathis Basin today, and after a quick learning curve, Im proud to say that my groups won every time with maybe one exception. If anyone else has any additional insights, feel free to post them in this thread. But this is what I learned:
When the round starts, get the groups formed quickly. Start talking strategy in general chat right off the bat, because you won't really have enough time between when you get all 15 raided and when the round starts. And you will want a quick and efficient first minute. Split your team into 3 groups of 5, something that is conveniently already done for you. Send one group to the mine, one to the mill, and one to the smith. Take what you can. At best you will end up with all 3 forward positions taken. At worst, none. But 9 times out of 10, you will take one or two of these positions.
If you take only one in the first push, pull the two teams that failed back to the stables. Wait a little bit to get organized and for the horde to start moving around, then lean all 10 of your reserves onto one position. It should fall quickly. If it doesnt, fall back and regroup and quickly hit the other position. Keep the group that successfully captured their area in position: They MUST hold until you can take two forward bases. This shouldn't be a problem because at this point the horde should be reacting to your assaults, not mounting their own. Keep pushing until you have taken 2 forward bases, along with the stables.
At this point, you have the setup you need. You have 3 bases, they have 2, so your resource flow will be greater than theirs at all times. Distribute your defenders so you have about 3 at the stables and 6 in each forward area. Discipline is key. If people start wandering around looking for fights, the defenders will get picked off, your base's defenses will weaken, and you will lose areas. If the horde spreads out their forces and does an even press on all bases, you have already won. Reenforce where necessary, but for the most part stay where you are and fight off the horde. Defenders have an advantage because as long as a base is in your control, you respawn there. So if you are defending a base and die, you can immediately throw yourself back into its defense. On the other hand, an offender will have to run all the way from his nearest base in order to continue the offensive. Player level and skill will make a difference, but for the most part, in an even fight, defenders win easy.
Soon the horde will begin to realize that an even assualt won't work. They might even realize this right off the bat. They will leave a few reserves in the areas they have already taken and get a big force together, some 8-10 attackers, and charge one of your positions. Hold as long as possible and rack up those HKs, but the second that your base has been overrun, regroup at the stables and IMMEDIATELY counterattack the horde's forward position. They must have pulled people off of their forward base in order to make that huge mob, so the defenses there should be weakened. You will usually have a force of 8 or 9 attackers against 3 defenders. The base will fall quickly and easily. Keep your offensive forces present until the base stops being contested and goes fully over to your control. Then try and re-establish a balanced defense.
Arathi Basin is all about balance. Push hard at their weak points and establish a perimeter. Then wait for the horde to mass up and attack. This is inevitable, and its a good thing. Whenever you see a mass of horde, you know that their defenses are small everywhere else. If they hit you in force, resist until the battle is lost, then fade away quickly, regroup, and hit one of their undefended positions. Rinse, repeat.
A few words:
CAPTURING - Do not leave the base until it has gone from being contested to being yours. A quick horde counterattack can gain their base back for them. Remember, it takes you a minute to capture, but it takes them no time at all to recapture. Also, you don't get to use the graveyard of the base - and thus don't get the advantage on defense - until the capture is fully made. I lost a few rounds because I made the quick capture and left a token defense before the base was fully ours, and the horde quickly recaptured.
THE FARM - It's a fine idea to attack the Farm, but only in two circumstances. One, if the horde is reeling from a major defeat and spread out all over. Then send a small force in to take the farm to further disrupt horde activity. The objective here should not be to take and hold, but rather to keep the horde respawning all the way back at the BG entrance and to cut off a resource point temporarily. You probably won't get the full capture, but making the farm contested for thirty seconds is still a good day's work. Just don't dedicate too much to the skirmish and lose your defenses elsewhere. The other time you want to attack the Farm is if you are reeling from a major defeat. If the horde put a full court press on you and are able to take significant gains in territory, you should hopefully have enough left to make a quick push and establish a forward position at the farm. There you will get a good amount of HKs as the horde panic and trickle back to their base to stop you from holding the farm. You should be able to hold the farm for a few minutes of full capture while you rally both at the stables and at the farm, then do a pincer attack to start retaking the middle bases.
DEFENSE - Keep a minimum of three people at a base at any given time for defense. This will allow you to put up decent resistance against any horde group up to 6 attackers in size. As long as you keep the horde fighting, they arent capturing. If the attack is small enough, 3 can drive the attack away, or at least hold long enough for reenforcements to arrive. If the attack is large, those three can at least survive long enough to get a count of how many horde came on the offensive, and thus help you plan your counterattack.
MOBILITY - This is pretty much the key to Arathi. You don't need footspeed, like in WSG, but you need the ability to regroup and strike out quickly after each attack. If the horde manage to take one of your bases, they should just start to get the full capture as you are polishing off the defenders on the base you just counterattacked. Use discipline and tactics. Keep an eye on the map. Know where your entire team is. Ask around to find where the enemy is. Then move. Quickly. Decisively. The horde may take one resource point or another, but never give them time to enjoy it. Take something else. The horde should be spinning in circles, trying to figure out where you are hitting next.
LOSING A BASE - When the horde sets that flag to contested, the battle is over. Well, mostly.... sometimes they just hit the flag in the middle of the battle and you still have enough numbers to drive them out. But in general, once a base becomes contested you lost it because you can't use the graveyard anymore. Do not counterattack the base you just lost. They will have a large force present there and will have the defenders advantage of the controlled graveyard. When you respawn, it will be at the nearest graveyard, usually the stables. Your entire failed defending force will be there. At this point, that defending force becomes the attacking force that immediately counters some other horde position.
Keep talking. Let everyone know what is going on. Teamspeak might help, but just a simple "forget the mine, the mine is gone, everyone to the MILL, NOW" is amazingly effective.