How to Succeed in Community Warfare, Part 1
The big picture goal of CW is to flip planets for your faction. However, this will focus more on match level performance which is what ultimately earns cbills, XP, and loyalty points. As a new player thinking about getting into CW, consider grinding at least 4 CW viable ‘Mech variants of your favorite tech base in the regular queue first. Pilot lab masteries also make a considerable difference in ‘Mech performance. Basic and elite unlocks impact handling, speed, and cooling. Modules are nice to have but won't make or break your CW experience. To fully kit out 4 ‘Mechs with modules it will be around another 50+ million cbills, so save modules for last. You can grind these additional module earmarked cbills in the regular queue or the CW planet queues.
Strong solo players can still do well in CW. Even with the most rotten team, a good player running solo can break 1500+ damage but may not be able to carry hard enough to make much of an impact on the outcome(it can be done though). Luckily, even on a loss, a good performance will still give a decent amount of loyalty points and cbills. This is why unit play is highly recommended for Community Warfare. The extra preparation an organized unit puts into CW is a huge force multiplier(dropdeck synergy, player cohesion, drop commanding, etc). It is tough for unorganized players to overcome these handicaps but it does happen from time to time. The ingame VOIP can only do so much all on its own. Playing CW solo occasionally is fine but expect to run into 12-mans often and bring your biggest backpack.
You also need to learn the proper balance of armor sharing and keeping your weapons online as long as possible. This balance comes eventually with practice. Sometimes you will get focus fired during a gate push and there isn’t much you can do about it. However, with that said, you don’t want to be suiciding all 4 of your mechs into the meat grinder over and over. If this is happening too frequently you might need to adjust how you play. You also don’t want to hide too far in the back of the group not having absorbed any hits at all. This can partly be achieved by cycling your ‘Mechs out of extreme danger before you lose weapons to allow healthier players to get ahead. (but don’t stop in choke points and jam everyone up)
How to Succeed in Community Warfare, Part 2
The Community Warfare meta has its own subtleties compared with the regular queue. You need to start thinking not just what’s possible with your set of 4 ‘Mechs but also your team of 48 `Mechs. Themes, variants, classes, weapons, and even quirks can be stacked, mixed, and sequenced in interesting ways that have much more impact than what your 4 ‘Mechs can mean.
Intermediate range attrition standoffs are common but different strategies can take advantage of open areas or choke points. (Now with quickplay maps there are even more possibilities) Closer range engagements can be forced during gate pushes and in various forks and choke points. Emerald Taiga and Vitric Forge, the most recent map additions, situationally promote more close quarters combat. For those maps, this shifts some extra favor towards weapons like Medium Pulse Lasers and SRMs.
Stripping rear armor as much as possible can help you take extra hits as this armor may go to waste. Brawling exclusively in CW may perform poorly for some players(especially those solo’ing) as closing to brawl distance without proper team support is very tough. Short range themes excel at gates, chokepoints, and near buildings and maps like Vitric Forge and Emerald Taiga offer lots of this. If you find yourself ranged far too often, consider marginally tweaking your deck as you go(for example, +1 intermediate range poker, -1 brawler). Repeat a process like this with your ‘Mechs until you find a suitable deck that starts to perform well for you.
Bringing lots and lots of LRMs will likely backfire because of the almost guaranteed heavy presence of ECM ‘Mechs and the feast or famine behavior of LRMs themselves. Smart opponents will also do what they can mitigate LRM intensive dropdeck themes with other means like buildings and natural cover. I wouldn’t consider bringing more than 4 LRM support ‘Mechs out of 48 and they should also never be the Assaults. Realize that if your 12-man or collection of random solos has a total of 12+ LRM ‘mechs, this is a whole wave worth of ‘Mechs that can’t do anything without locks and are likely sitting back. It’s okay to use some LRM ‘Mechs to get that flavor of indirect fire support but you don’t want to bring so many that it cripples your group’s overall direct fire. Ammo dependant ‘Mechs such as LRM support or dakka may need to pack extra ammo compared with what is adequate for the regular queue(as there is no way to refit).
Once you know which of the 4 modes you are playing(Attack, Defend, Counter Attack, Counter Defend), you can make additional last minute dropdeck tweaks to tailor yourself for that particular game. This ranges from just changing which ‘Mech you bring first to changing decks entirely when you realize the map is hot or favors shorter range. Having more than 4 mechs kitted out and on standby for Community Warfare opens up these options.
Dropdeck Creation Considering Waves & Frontloading
Note: Based on a 240 ton dropdeck
No Frontloading
Equal-Equal-Equal-Equal
Quickdraw, Quickdraw, Quickdraw, Quickdraw
Minor Frontloading
Equal-Equal-Equal-Reduced
Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt, Blackjack
Incremental Frontloading
Big-Smaller-Smaller-Smallest
Battlemaster, Thunderbolt, Griffin, Raven
Strong Frontloading
Equal-Equal-Reduced-Reduced
Battlemaster, Battlemaster, Raven, Raven
Max Frontloading
Equal-Equal-Reduced-Reduced
Atlas, Atlas, Locust, Locust
Running equal or near equal tonnage across the board allows you to return to the fight at the same strength each wave(a good starting point for those new to CW). The downside of this is being less able to initially deal with tonnage shock as a group theme, such as suffering a 12 Assault rush. Equal tonnage is still hands down a solid way to go for new players and vets alike.
Frontloading tonnage, in theory, allows you to deliver tonnage shock to the enemy. This is when you try to use raw tonnage to throw the enemy off balance while also hoping to kill more than a wave or wipe a wave and “dunk” the objective. It can be a big gamble, especially against near equal or better opponents. The more you frontload, the weaker your replacements will be. If it doesn’t work, you may have dug a hole you can’t possibly recover from as you will be fighting against greater tonnage for the rest of the match.
Community Warfare Drop Decks
Inner Sphere:
color code: DPS, LRMS, Jump Fighter, ECM, Brawler Build List w/ Alts (ranging from close to wild)
##Notice: Tonnage limit now 250!!## Assault: BLR-1S, BLR-1S, STK-4N, STK-5S,
Deck Ideas BNC-3E, BNC-3M, HGN-732B, 732B, ZEU-5S,
AS7-S, D-DC, KGC-000, HGN-733C, BLR-1G
[BL-6-KNT, GHR-5H, GHR-5H, Oxide] MAL-1P, MX90, BLR-2C,
[GHR-5H, GHR-5H, JM6-DD, BJ-1X] BNC-3M, BLR-3S
[BL-6-KNT, GHR-5H, QKD-5K, BJ-1X]
Heavy: TDR-5S, TDR-9SE, SE, 5SS, 5SS,
[MAD-5D, MAD-3R, BL-7-KNT, 7-KNT, 6-KNT, 6-KNT, 6-KNT
[WHM-6D, WHM-6D, WHM-6R, Oxide]*** QKD-5K, QKD-5K, DRG-1C, CTF-1X, 5SS,
[WHM-6D, WHM-6R, TDR-5SS, BJ-1X] WHM-6R
[BLR-3S, GHR-5H, QKD-5K, FS9-S] QKD-4G, QKD-4G, QKD-4H, 4H, 4H,
CTF-3D, CTF-0XP, ON1-VA, ON1-M
JM6-DD, GHR-5H, 5H, GRH-5H, TDR-9S
MAD-3R, 3R, 3R, MAD-5M, MAD-5M,
Medium: SHD-2K, TBT-7M, GRF-2N, GRF-2N
SHD-5M, BJ-3, BJ-3, GRF-3M, SHD-2H, 2D2
WVR-6K, HBK-4P, HBK-4P, BJ-1X, HBK-4SP
CDA-3M, HBK-4G, ENF-5P, VND-1AA
CDA-2A, CDA-2B, WVR-7K, HBK-4J, CRB-27B
JR7-F/D, RVN-4X, RVN-3L, PNT-9R, WLF-1A,
Community Warfare Drop Decks
Clan:
color code: Streak, LRMs, Jump Fighter, DPS, Brawler, ECM
##Tonnage now 250!!##
Deck Ideas
Assault: WHK, WHK, WHK, WHK, WHK
Heavy: TBR, TBR, TBR, TBR, TBR, TBR, TBR,
TBR, TBR, TBR, ON1-IIC-A, SMN, SMN, HBR,
HBR, HBR, HBR, HBR, HBR, HBR, HBR, HBR,
HBR, EBJ, EBJ, EBJ, EBJ, EBJ, EBJ, EBJ,
EBJ, EBJ, EBJ, EBJ, MDD, MDD, MDD,
EBJ,
Medium: SCR, SCR, SCR, SCR, SCR, SCR,
SHC, SCR, SCR, SCR, HBK-IIC-A, HBK-IIC-A,
HBK-IIC-B, HBK-IIC, HBK-IIC, NVA, NVA,
IIC-B, IIC, SHC, SHC, SHC, SHC, SHC, SHC, IFR, HBK-IICA
Lights: ACH, ACH, ACH, KFX, KFX
JR7-IIC, JR7-IIC-A, IIC-A, MLX, MLX
What to do With Damaged ‘Mechs
Some of the interesting strategy to CW is how you manage your 48 ‘Mechs as a resource during the match.
As a general rule on attack/defend defense you don’t want to try to keep a bunch of ‘Mechs which are below ~65-70%, nearly cored, or out of ammo/weapons around for the next wave of enemies. After a wave, you have to quickly decide whether it’s the best decision to “suicide scout” a lane, push everyone left alive out and do as much damage as possible, or just simply eject.
Pushing out with all your damaged ‘Mechs lets you damage the next fresh wave of ‘Mechs and also gives some time to respawn and regroup to protect the objective again. Suicide scouting, if there is time, can give your team early warning and more time to set up in the correct spot. Sometimes you don’t need to do anything fancy and a simple eject is the best option.
Keeping a bunch of damaged ‘Mechs around for the full brunt of the next push opens you up to getting snowballed and potentially leaves the objective at risk. More importantly, you also can squander the 100% fresh ‘Mechs which are mixed in with the damaged ones. While your mix of healthy and really damaged ‘Mechs get bulldozed, other teammates have scramble to get back into the fight into a more chaotic situation.
On attack, don’t often try to retreat to save or salvage a used ‘Mech to join up with your next wave. You are more likely better off just doing as much damage as you can up with the team, “burning” the ‘Mech with override enabled, and then syncing up with your team on the respawn. The 30 min time limit may become an issue if you ever retreat and your 4th ‘Mech can’t do a whole lot when everyone else is dead anyways. Don’t get de-synced from your team and don’t reinforce unless its called. Don’t be the guy that runs out of 4 mechs when the rest of the team still has 2 left.
CW Prematch Screen Explained
Emerald
Vitric
Boreal
Sulfurous
Hellebore
Invasion Mode: Attacking or Defending. Attacker must destroy orbital gun to win.
Counter Attack Mode: Counter Attack or Hold. Attacker must destroy Mobile Point Base and have most kills to win.
NOTE:(defender wins on a tie w/ a destroyed MPB)
Defending this territory.
This territory has a mission in progress.
Map pattern repeats!
Red territory Held by attackers (us)
Blue territory Held by defenders (enemy)
Planet 15% defended. (we are winning)
Planet will flip to enemy side if 53% or greater at ceasefire.
Grim
When getting matched with an opponent, the map will be displayed here and the timer will be reset to 60 seconds. This is the last chance to change your dropdeck.
Emerald
This indicates how many groups are waiting for a match to kick off on both attack and defend.
CW Faq/General Tidbits
(new)
Recruit fee is 50k per total unit members
Leaving a faction as a loyalist will cost 25% of your total LP (ouch)
Mercs can only obtain 7 day contracts for a faction and earn reputation points(RP) rather than loyalty points(LP).
Mercs can lock in cbill rewards based on faction population