Is defending your base still a viable strategy?

[Award]

I'm generally an "offensive defense" player. I play all weapons, main the eliters, carbon roller, luna. Getting into Hydra now. But I play everything. blasters, gals, everything. I generally rush out to mid, inking my trail out of base and/or inking vital trails for traversal of the base if, for example I'm using eliter. My teams, myself included try to each pick a different route out and quickly ink all the main trails in the base as part of that travel. Seems pretty standard. When I get to mid, I try to set up a defensive line, either inking in mid, or laying out a traversal grid around objects in mid to facilitate fortifying that position to stage an offensive position and hold mid against attack. Some maps like Dome might take a little different strategy where I'll try to flank mid as my team attacks from the other side, if I have a ranged weapon to make for a 2-front attack. But generally the above applies. Once that line is established and the team meets up (or usually just ignores me and mid and flies right into the enemy base to attack) I'll set up defensively, patrolling that area, fending off the attack waves trying to flank our base. This leaves me generally as one squid alone, and vulnerable, but I can generally hold that line alone for at least half a match before the enemy gangs up on me all at once and there's no saving that. While I hold the perimeter, I will fight aggressively, holding that defensive position and am generally successful with it. If our base seems pretty secure and the enemy distracted sufficiently by other events than raiding our base, then I'll go out and join the push (weapon pending) (that can lead to getting flanked, though, so I do so sparingly.)

I've noticed, at least in TW, though I saw it forming in ranked when last I played as well, a disturbing new meta forming. It pops up more or less sometimes, and more on some maps, but its been increasing. I noticed yesterday especially it's now the dominant form of play.

In the first 20-30 seconds of the match, the enemy team comes, in full force, specials charged, right into our base, often before we even get out to mid (maybe Opening Gambit in some cases I guess.) If we get to mid first, they just steamroll us straight through. They seem to be of superior skill as my whole team including myself get wiped out in this blitzkrieg. By the time we respawn the imediate area of our base has been covered in enemy ink and the enemy is camping throughout it. Any attempt to take any path from spawn yields getting splatted. At this point, the match is over. There is no getting out. If you can find them camping from on spawn and pick them off, they just respawn and jump to their teammates. The only way to take over is to sneak out (On Skatepark, Port, Depot, (Mall?), Warehouse, and even Piranha, doing so is exceedingly difficult undetected since the only way out is to paint your way out of what is now a solid enemy color map. They will know where you are and they have freedom of movement while you have only the trail you're sneaking out on. In the rare cases someone makes it out (usually me) my team continues battling at spawn rather than jumping to me, so I get picked off fast enough. Often times, it will consist of the 3 weaker players holding the spawn camp, and the enemy's "ace" out roaming for flanks and breakouts. No matter where you go, you're in danger. I've also noticed this strategy comes up most frequently when S+ or at least S players are involved.

Additionally, on other rounds, my team does not bother inking their own base at all, and they do not bother defending it. They just run to the enemy base over and over again. Unfortunately, in these cases, my team is clearly the inferior one as they get repeatedly splatted every time they head to the enemy base, while not apparently splatting many enemies.

In both cases, it seems like the "Zerg Rush" strategy is now standard at least in TW, maybe all of Splatoon, where both team's goal is to rush into the enemy base as immediately as they can race there, wasting no time to ink anything beyond charging a special. Whichever team has the more accurate shooters or the greatest volume of bomb rushes & bubblers will win that skirmish, and the rest of the round falls in place based on the outcome of the initial base raid. Even in rounds that don't end in an immediate spawncamp, I am the only one that seems interested in defending the base. Were I to follow my team we'd simply rush enemy territory again and again, letting them paint our base all the while. But is that now needed? Is it best to shed the support and defensive weapons and take only attack weapons that are good at lightening raids and focus purely on the quickest attack and spawncamp possible, leaving the base defenseless unless/until a spawncamp has been achieved at which point you finally paint it in the last 0:40? Is there a valid way to outmaneuver this strategy? It's become extremely frustrating to see time and time again. Part of the problem is a team that just can't shoot (even in a full spawncamp where none of us can leave the spawn area, I still end up with the best k/d, even if it is negative...) But aside from that, there has got to be away to avoid/escape this, and I can't accept the notion that base defense is not important and the enemy should have free reign.

 

[Vitezen]

It never was. If you're playing TW just do it at the end, and if you're not you shouldn't be covering it at all.

 

[Award]

It never was. If you're playing TW just do it at the end, and if you're not you shouldn't be covering it at all.

The question wasn't so much about ink coverage of the base so much as defense of the base. As in: Not letting the enemy into your half of the map to paint it, and therefore cut off your mobility (and or be camping for you within your own base.) It seems to me that if both teams just rush to the enemy base as fast as they can, assuming one side doesn't get mauled en-route (which is almost always my team) you just end up with the "Triggerfish Situation" - I.E. your base is their color, their base is your color, and you just go in a circle. That seems like a terrible strategy, but it seems like the one that's currently popular. But the prevailing theme is whichever team gets to the enemy base faster wins. Zerg rushes ruined Starcraft's fun, and they're runing TW's too.

Regarding painting though:
I can see value in "just paint at the end" in TW, but then you have a problem of no mobility within your own base when the opponent inevitably tries to invade (and if you're not defending, they simply will, and will easily paint it and your team has no advantage.) I thought the reigning thinking was "it gets painted over time as you pass through the base between splats/jump"

I mean, are we really down to "ignore mid, rush the spawn, and whoever wins there wins the match in the first minute" for TW?


I'm primarily talking about TW, but I've seen it in TC, too. Early rush in Depot, painted our base, camping in our base, we couldn't even get to the tower. The match was won in 35 seconds, the rest was just waiting for them to dunk the tower. Clearly that strategy "works" but it's also a frustrating strategy to deal with if there's zero way to force an inversion. Might as well really make it Team Deathmatch after all.

 

[Vitezen]

Your base has no value, and therefore isn't worth defending. The only time that immediate area is important is when you've been pushed back to your spawn point, but you still have the advantage there because you're invulnerable. This just means that the value is in your spawn point, not the base area, and because your spawn point's value can never be removed, there's no incentive to defend the base.

These zerg wins aren't happening because the other team can hold the enemy base; it has no value. It's because they hold the entire map, including the enemy base.

 

[XionFate]

From what I have seen not really, though there are matches where it can work. The "zerg rush" attack strategy only works to the extenet that one team can hold the other down for an extended period of time. If a team does get in to your base and begins spawn camping you the very first step should be to escape. At that point your base no longer matters, as has been stated above, and should be neglected. What matters at this point is getting to their base. In most of my come back wins it has been because I or another teammate have escaped the camping and begun inking their territory. When that happens the enemy starts to fall back and allows you to begin pushing.

If you can keep the enemy out of your base at the beginning then developing a defense of your territory is a good idea. I always say you have to consolidate home before you can win a match. Ink your territory and check back consistently to assure that it is still inked in your color. In close matches having your base covered can be the difference between a win and a loss.

 

[BlackZero]

The key is not defending your base. The key is to always attack from a position of strength. If you don't do that, you leave your match up to lady luck and she's bipolar. Most people who die running for the enemy's base are pulling off a Bonzai Charge: a disorganized full forced race towards the enemy with guns blazing. You can practically see the words "shattered jewel" tattooed on their foreheads. Most successful drives towards the enemy spawn have been done via Rommel's Blitzkrieg. Erwin Rommel was a smart guy who figured out that speed meant nothing if you couldn't hold on to the territory you take. The key isn't to rush headlong into the enemy team. The key is to rush to a forward position that gives you an advantage over your enemy. This doesn't always mean to meet in the middle. Sometimes its better to rush to a forward defensive position on your side of the map and wipe the enemy out when they attack. Sometimes you're better off racing to the middle and fighting the enemy off. It all depends on whether you have the advantage when attacking. Most people who charge forward settle for parity or even a disadvantage when attacking, and that's why they get wiped out. After the enemy wipes your team out, they've got free reign to drive forward and keep you on your back foot.

Most of the successful drives to the enemy base I've experienced always advance in steps. The team moves from one advantageous position to the next until we find ourselves at spawn. Getting to the enemy base may be the end goal, but it is also a process. Don't rush to the other side and get caught in a bad position when the enemy counterattacks. Always make sure you have the advantage when the other team shows up and don't worry about racing to the middle; focus on racing to positions you can defend and effectively attack from. It may not give the instant gratification of rushing to the middle to meet the enemy, but will put you in a better position in the long run.

That's all assuming your teammates don't suck and you don't have a major weapons disadvantage (all brushes against all Gals, or something stupid like that)

 

[Flareth]

I'll admit I'm guilty of rushing for the middle ground. But base defense isn't something that I've done in a while, nor have I seen anyone else do it (that I can recall). It annoys me a fair bit, as if our mini-blitzkrieg fails we usually get spawncamped since nobody was there to back us up.

...suddenly I have the urge to do some testing on this. Try to guard the base the whole match, attack anyone who wanders in, and see if it amounts to anything.

 

[LMG]

I'd say it's viable in pretty much any map, although it only trully shines with a well coordinated team. Whenever my teams lost our base used to be the only area properly inked, with me being in the top 2 scoring players without crossing my half of the map. That said, it can be very stressful and requires a ton of map awareness, as you have to be an impenetrable wall for it to work properly, but when everything goes your way it'll usually make the enemy team crazy mad ;) (I think I once ended up with 11 splats due to the enemy trying to focus me down to no avail).

I don't want to brag about it, but I'm sure I've been a huge factor in a large portion of my wins by keeping the enemy off my turf, and I ended up top score more often than not as well

 

[Award]

Your base has no value, and therefore isn't worth defending. The only time that immediate area is important is when you've been pushed back to your spawn point, but you still have the advantage there because you're invulnerable. This just means that the value is in your spawn point, not the base area, and because your spawn point's value can never be removed, there's no incentive to defend the base.

These zerg wins aren't happening because the other team can hold the enemy base; it has no value. It's because they hold the entire map, including the enemy base.

I see your point, and I suppose I should clarify: When I say "our base" I mean "the area starting at the entrance to our half of the map on the inside of mid. " For Skatepark for example it would be everything starting from our side of the mid tower (and all of the half pipe that leads into our base. . For Mall it would be everything on our side along which our catwalks to the sniper perches run. For Piranha, it would be everything on our side of the center conveyors including the bottom section and the bump. So when I say "our base" I mean "our half of the map minus mid itself which is presumed to be in contention."

What you said probably means something a little different if viewed in that context - it's not really near spawn, so the spawn itself isn't in play for it. If I assumed all that had no value we'd be saying "let the enemy take over most of the map because nothing but their base has value." I doubt you meant that ;)

I will say, regarding spawncamps though, the frustrating part is that they generally don't stay in shooting range of the spawn, of course, they park in ink just outside range and bunny hop around knowing you have no choice but to approach them in the open, or just squidparty on your spawn.

However you're also on point to a degree, my initial question was more in terms of if it's viable to care about that half of the map at all, or just race right into the enemy half, fast as possible, and either win it at their spawn, or throw the whole match which appears to be what both teams seem to be doing often these days. That's what they appear to be doing, and it appears to be working, and yet, I can't fathom how abandoning half the map to the enemy can possibly be a winning strategy. It may also simply be that my team mates can't shoot for beans and the result just appears that way.

From what I have seen not really, though there are matches where it can work. The "zerg rush" attack strategy only works to the extenet that one team can hold the other down for an extended period of time. If a team does get in to your base and begins spawn camping you the very first step should be to escape. At that point your base no longer matters, as has been stated above, and should be neglected. What matters at this point is getting to their base. In most of my come back wins it has been because I or another teammate have escaped the camping and begun inking their territory. When that happens the enemy starts to fall back and allows you to begin pushing.

If you can keep the enemy out of your base at the beginning then developing a defense of your territory is a good idea. I always say you have to consolidate home before you can win a match. Ink your territory and check back consistently to assure that it is still inked in your color. In close matches having your base covered can be the difference between a win and a loss.

Very good thoughts there. And I know I'm not as quick to abandon the base as I should be, but I've been trying it more. Unfortunately it seems my team generally does not do so, and does not join me if I manage to get out, fighting over spawn instead. And since most of my mains are not weapons like gals that will fare very well roaming around lone for long, I'm fairly dependent on the team following. My most "offensive" main is a carbon roller. Yeah...

And yes, I do often have rounds that the base is not covered, mostly at all. Just "wagon wheel lines" I painted with eliter on the first outing, and everyone just traverses those lines. Hard to win TW if you paint nothing.

The big question though is, in those cases, what's a good way to get away from the camped spawn. Most of the time if you leave the spawn itself, they'll get you. A few times I can sneak away, but when they have everything inked, getting away isn't an easy idea, especially in a map like warehouse or skatepark.

The key is not defending your base. The key is to always attack from a position of strength. If you don't do that, you leave your match up to lady luck and she's bipolar. Most people who die running for the enemy's base are pulling off a Bonzai Charge: a disorganized full forced race towards the enemy with guns blazing. You can practically see the words "shattered jewel" tattooed on their foreheads. Most successful drives towards the enemy spawn have been done via Rommel's Blitzkrieg. Erwin Rommel was a smart guy who figured out that speed meant nothing if you couldn't hold on to the territory you take. The key isn't to rush headlong into the enemy team. The key is to rush to a forward position that gives you an advantage over your enemy. This doesn't always mean to meet in the middle. Sometimes its better to rush to a forward defensive position on your side of the map and wipe the enemy out when they attack. Sometimes you're better off racing to the middle and fighting the enemy off. It all depends on whether you have the advantage when attacking. Most people who charge forward settle for parity or even a disadvantage when attacking, and that's why they get wiped out. After the enemy wipes your team out, they've got free reign to drive forward and keep you on your back foot.

Most of the successful drives to the enemy base I've experienced always advance in steps. The team moves from one advantageous position to the next until we find ourselves at spawn. Getting to the enemy base may be the end goal, but it is also a process. Don't rush to the other side and get caught in a bad position when the enemy counterattacks. Always make sure you have the advantage when the other team shows up and don't worry about racing to the middle; focus on racing to positions you can defend and effectively attack from. It may not give the instant gratification of rushing to the middle to meet the enemy, but will put you in a better position in the long run.

That's all assuming your teammates don't suck and you don't have a major weapons disadvantage (all brushes against all Gals, or something stupid like that)

I think you and @XionFate are on the same train of thought as I've been with it. @Vitezen may or may not hold the opposite opinion, depending on what he thought I meant by base. You've fairly accurately described my approach in general

It may very well be that the team just plain old sucks and gets wiped out so fast I don't even see what happened to them because I was busy establishing a position while they were eating paint. Usually for these guys a "push" means find something that moves and shoot at it.

The part that's a problem is when the other team does it, it seems to work.

 

[Award]

I'll admit I'm guilty of rushing for the middle ground. But base defense isn't something that I've done in a while, nor have I seen anyone else do it (that I can recall). It annoys me a fair bit, as if our mini-blitzkrieg fails we usually get spawncamped since nobody was there to back us up.

...suddenly I have the urge to do some testing on this. Try to guard the base the whole match, attack anyone who wanders in, and see if it amounts to anything.

Oh I don't have concerns about rushing to the middle ground. Just like in DarkZero's methods, I find the beest place to hold the base is just inside it from mid. It gives a lot of room for maneuverability IF it is inked, My teams however rush to enemy ground, past mid. As does the opposing team.

But what you've witnessed is exactly why I started playing that way. I observed nobody else doing it, and often found it annoying. In most cases, their mini-blitzkriegs WILL fail and if I'm not there to catch it, we end up losing mid and getting pushed back. The part that's frustrating about it is it seems rarely can one squid alone hold the base from the ENTIRE enemy team. It's hard enough with no support at the end if they rush, but in the beginning, if they all rush straight to enemy territory, and the entire enemy team pours into our base, usually I end up trying and failing to fend them off. I might get one or two. But especially with the fleet of bubblers, wails, and strikes they come at me with I'll never et all of them. And then once they're in they can easily fortify our base. Our team either comes back, or gets splatted by one of theirs, and then can't get off spawn.

In that situation, the base can't be defended, and yet, not defending it simply ALLOWS them to take our half of the map while we run past them.
And they WILL run past. Tonight I lost several rounds in Museum as a Hydra, not because I failed to hold mid half decently (I think we had more ink there than the enemy), not because the enemy got into our base, I held them off each time they tried. We lost because the interior of our base up on the balconies was entirely bare ground. The enemy's was painted. Thus we lost. Theys guys are always in a hurry to get splatted.

If you do not get ambushed in FORCE like that, though, it can be fun to hold the base. I generally get 7+ splats never leaving our half. My ink coverage varies depending on how bloodthirsty my team is and leaves ground for me.

I'd say it's viable in pretty much any map, although it only trully shines with a well coordinated team. Whenever my teams lost our base used to be the only area properly inked, with me being in the top 2 scoring players without crossing my half of the map. That said, it can be very stressful and requires a ton of map awareness, as you have to be an impenetrable wall for it to work properly, but when everything goes your way it'll usually make the enemy team crazy mad ;) (I think I once ended up with 11 splats due to the enemy trying to focus me down to no avail).

I don't want to brag about it, but I'm sure I've been a huge factor in a large portion of my wins by keeping the enemy off my turf, and I ended up top score more often than not as well

I think you hit the nail on the head, well coordinated team :p It's nice to see someone else that plays it like I do. But the impenetrable wall is the issue I suppose. Like I said to Flareth, no squid can fight off the entire enemy team assaulting in force all alone. In the last minute they'll do just that, but the "zerg rush" issue, is when they do that first thing. Storm right in, specials charged, first 20 seconds, my team already ran past them to get to their base, so there I am alone fighting them all off. Gut reaction is "I guess I just have to go out storming the enemy base right away" - but I just can't get myself to believe in that straegy - we'd get boxed in and flanked.

 

[Vitezen]

Okay, I think I see what you're getting at. The real problem is, since you're describing turf wars, that your team isn't realizing the importance of kills. Instead of controlling the map and protecting territory with ink on it, they just ink it, die, and let the enemy take it back.

Maybe try killing more, and the match system will match you with people who focus on killing lol. I thought I saw another thread a while back where people who were playing support weapons complained because they got stuck with teams of nothing but supporters. There's also teams.

 

[Squix]

The secret is: Be a supporter that can also kill people!

 

[Award]

Okay, I think I see what you're getting at. The real problem is, since you're describing turf wars, that your team isn't realizing the importance of kills. Instead of controlling the map and protecting territory with ink on it, they just ink it, die, and let the enemy take it back.

Maybe try killing more, and the match system will match you with people who focus on killing lol. I thought I saw another thread a while back where people who were playing support weapons complained because they got stuck with teams of nothing but supporters. There's also teams.

You could be right, but I'm almost seeing it as the other way around. It's as though it seems like they're SO interested in finding anything that moves and killing it they will not ink any territory at all, they will race straight to the enemy base looking for kills, and either get splatted on the race, or can't fight well enough and lose when they get there. (And then go right back out to do it again, until the enemy painted everything up to our spawn.)

Different scenario than the zerg rush, but I actually lost several rounds on Museum last night because our base was not painted. At all. I was trying CHydra, and the straight line on the upper ramps I took to get to our rotating wall were the only thing inked in that whole area by the time the match ended. The enemy neatly painted every corner of their base. Mid was contested. By the end we had more of it, but only because I kept hosing it down with hydra when it was fully covered. I never got splatted so I never made it back to the interior of the base to even drop a sprinkler and was kept highly busy at mid on the spinning tower on our side. When the stat screen came up I looked at mid and thought "yeah we did it!" and then looked at the base area...black empty area everywhere. And of course we lost.

Now lets take that scenario, of the team that seemed to rush out to battle and get splatted over and over and over and paint nothing. Now lets add in an opposing team who's strategy is "charge at the enemy spawn in 20s or less via the fastest line possible." who can actually run PAST my team who's trying the same, and paint our whole base, and anchor themselves there. If my team tries to take mid, we get flanked from our own base. If we try to retake our base, we're on our back heel. if we kill them it doesn't matter because they can jump back and forth between our spawn and theirs (via jumping to their team) faster than we can take ALL of them out, since they're hiding in their ink in our base. Then we have ourselves the zerg rush. And my role in that situation is to get splatted since, trying to hold the whole invasion back alone is unlikely. Especially when they have bubblers. Or chained bubblers.
I suppose if we do the same, rush their spawn, they rush ours....we have equal odds again. And yet I can't get myself to actually back a strategy that willfully turns over our half of the map, "hoping" we get it back and hoping they don't get all 4 of us (and then have us totally camped) before we get all 4 of them.

I've also seen it in TC. It applies to TW mostly, but TC definitely experiences the same, except instead of "not inking the base" the trouble is "they don't cover up enemy ink" leaving convenient access routes everywhere. But the pattern of "instead of controlling the map and protecting territory with ink on it they just ink it, look for a fight, die and let the enemy take it" is spot on.

Maybe I need to just use aerospray for a month to make myself an inker so I can get actual support players. ;)

Edit: I should add that as I looked at the positions of my allies in one of those rounds losing in Museum due to an unpainted base, there was one fighting (or painting) in the side sections off from mid, me holding mid from the rotating platform on our side, another dead & on the spawn, and the last: Deep inside enemy ink in a small circle of our own ink in the enemy's base. Surrounded by a sea of enemy ink as far as the eye could see. That's not an uncommon scene for me. There's always at least one of them surrounded and cut off, far in advance of whatever line I was holding. That's not a push, It would be a push if the enemy were in FRONT of them. When the enemy is BEHIND you, that's something else. ;)

 

[Flareth]

Oh I don't have concerns about rushing to the middle ground. Just like in DarkZero's methods, I find the beest place to hold the base is just inside it from mid. It gives a lot of room for maneuverability IF it is inked, My teams however rush to enemy ground, past mid. As does the opposing team.

But what you've witnessed is exactly why I started playing that way. I observed nobody else doing it, and often found it annoying. In most cases, their mini-blitzkriegs WILL fail and if I'm not there to catch it, we end up losing mid and getting pushed back. The part that's frustrating about it is it seems rarely can one squid alone hold the base from the ENTIRE enemy team. It's hard enough with no support at the end if they rush, but in the beginning, if they all rush straight to enemy territory, and the entire enemy team pours into our base, usually I end up trying and failing to fend them off. I might get one or two. But especially with the fleet of bubblers, wails, and strikes they come at me with I'll never et all of them. And then once they're in they can easily fortify our base. Our team either comes back, or gets splatted by one of theirs, and then can't get off spawn.

In that situation, the base can't be defended, and yet, not defending it simply ALLOWS them to take our half of the map while we run past them.
And they WILL run past. Tonight I lost several rounds in Museum as a Hydra, not because I failed to hold mid half decently (I think we had more ink there than the enemy), not because the enemy got into our base, I held them off each time they tried. We lost because the interior of our base up on the balconies was entirely bare ground. The enemy's was painted. Thus we lost. Theys guys are always in a hurry to get splatted.

If you do not get ambushed in FORCE like that, though, it can be fun to hold the base. I generally get 7+ splats never leaving our half. My ink coverage varies depending on how bloodthirsty my team is and leaves ground for me.

Heck, I can recall even in the early days of Splatoon, I'd be busy covering the base with my Krak-On roller whilst my teammates would go forth and die in the middle. This being the early days, though, the opposing team wasn't so focused on the dominating and spawncamping.

I can try and play defensively with the Heavy Splatling or my Hero Charger, but inevitably there will be that one squid who sneaks past me and eschews splatting me in favor of taking our base. I should know better than to abandon my spot to try and deal with them, but... so it's not entirely my team's fault, haha.

I've found that quite a few times I'm the only one who bothers to ink the base, which is a serious headache if I'm rockin' the .52 Gal. That thing isn't meant for extensive ink coverage, yet in those matches I'm often stuck with the brunt of getting the base inked. That said, those matches don't occur often, and so long as I'm not using the .52 Gal we usually do okay.

Unfortunately, yesterday's rotations weren't ideal for testing my particular idea of base defense (plus the Museum is an awful awful map that I hope I never have to play again), so I had to postpone it for today. I see the Underpass and Skatepark are going to be in around 2:00 today—that should work well for what I have in mind.

 

[LMG]

I think you hit the nail on the head, well coordinated team :p It's nice to see someone else that plays it like I do. But the impenetrable wall is the issue I suppose. Like I said to Flareth, no squid can fight off the entire enemy team assaulting in force all alone. In the last minute they'll do just that, but the "zerg rush" issue, is when they do that first thing. Storm right in, specials charged, first 20 seconds, my team already ran past them to get to their base, so there I am alone fighting them all off. Gut reaction is "I guess I just have to go out storming the enemy base right away" - but I just can't get myself to believe in that straegy - we'd get boxed in and flanked.

With proper positioning it is possible to at least hold back the enemy, especially with long range weapons like the Jet Squelcher or the Heavy/Hydra Splatling. It's just a matter of knowing where you have the advantage and where you don't, and reacting accordingly. Even when fighting specials you can keep them at bay as long as they don't have an Inkzooka (which I still consider both annoying to play against and way too strong since there's no real way to deal with it). Trying to see what weapon sets the enemy has at the start of the battle is a key component of coming up with possible scenarios and preparing for them. In any case you can also put on something with Haunt so your team at least knows what's going on.

It also depends on the map, as some are really bad for defense (like Saltspray Rig or Camp Triggerfish) or have too much of a snowball effect on pushes (like Port Mackerel or Urchin Underpass), but even then certain weapons can try to make it work out with mixed results. It's not the easiest job in Inkopolis, but it pays fairly well if you can stand less-than-helpful teams ;)

 

[Award]

can try and play defensively with the Heavy Splatling or my Hero Charger, but inevitably there will be that one squid who sneaks past me and eschews splatting me in favor of taking our base. I should know better than to abandon my spot to try and deal with them, but... so it's not entirely my team's fault, haha.

LOL, that one takes a bit of situational awareness, but can be done. Often with eliter there's that one squid who gets by. I'm picturing Piranha here but it applies to others. It's tricky but you have to look at the map and figure out where they're inking, where your team is, etc, and your general awareness to figure out where the OTHER 3 enemies are. if my team seems otherwise unoccupied, and I know the rest of the enemy team might come by any moment, once he's out of range (down the conveyor) and not harassing me, I'll let him go and let my team clean up the mess while I watch both for other incoming squids. While he's gone I might fire across to cover the access back from the conveyors, so if he tries to come back for me, he'll have to mess with my ink and I'll know. If I see a team mate carelessly head down there I'll to spam shots in that direction so it looks like I'm fighting and they might take the hint there's a camper (might...haha...)

Other times if I know there's a big battle going on between teams, I know this guy's all alone. I'll go down and take him out myself, often just in time to find an incoming attack. If I'm lucky I can take one or two of them out too before either getting splatted or jumping to spawn to catch them from the side. I've stopped some flanks on Hammerhead by persuing the flanker instead of holding my post too. It can work, but you have to know what's going on elsewhere to gauge the threat. Sometimes letting them go bites me in the rear because then they close in on BOTH sides. I'd rather fall back and fight 3 enemies in front of me than hold ground and fight one in front and one behind. Somehow I dont' think players expect snipers to be observant in general. I get flanked so many times on the side perches on Saltspray....they run real fast when the sniper turns around and shoots at them. :) But then their team comes into the main room, and I'll inevitably lose track of the flanker that's still back there and boom.

I've found that quite a few times I'm the only one who bothers to ink the base, which is a serious headache if I'm rockin' the .52 Gal. That thing isn't meant for extensive ink coverage, yet in those matches I'm often stuck with the brunt of getting the base inked. That said, those matches don't occur often, and so long as I'm not using the .52 Gal we usually do okay.

Unfortunately, yesterday's rotations weren't ideal for testing my particular idea of base defense (plus the Museum is an awful awful map that I hope I never have to play again), so I had to postpone it for today. I see the Underpass and Skatepark are going to be in around 2:00 today—that should work well for what I have in mind.

.52 isn't so bad to ink with. Eliters and hydras are painful. Bamboozlers can kind of suck too though they're at least fast. Blasters....are....disturbingly....slow....inkers....

LOL Museum is usually pretty good for me, though I'm often not in a role of pushing past mid unless I'm playing Carbon. WIth the mid pillar, kind of like with skatepark the whole thing plays a lot like splatzones. And because the mid access point is how it is, you're less likely to get spawncamped here, however if you DO get spawncamped there's really no way out. But yeah "base defense" happens entirely at the mid tower here because that's the only way in.

Skatepark and underpass should be good for it though, yeah. Although, permit a moment of whining, awwww, underpass AGAIN!? I hate that map. For an eliter it's torture, though then I'll have to play CHydra, that was kind of fun the other day.

 

[Award]

With proper positioning it is possible to at least hold back the enemy, especially with long range weapons like the Jet Squelcher or the Heavy/Hydra Splatling. It's just a matter of knowing where you have the advantage and where you don't, and reacting accordingly. Even when fighting specials you can keep them at bay as long as they don't have an Inkzooka (which I still consider both annoying to play against and way too strong since there's no real way to deal with it). Trying to see what weapon sets the enemy has at the start of the battle is a key component of coming up with possible scenarios and preparing for them. In any case you can also put on something with Haunt so your team at least knows what's going on.

It also depends on the map, as some are really bad for defense (like Saltspray Rig or Camp Triggerfish) or have too much of a snowball effect on pushes (like Port Mackerel or Urchin Underpass), but even then certain weapons can try to make it work out with mixed results. It's not the easiest job in Inkopolis, but it pays fairly well if you can stand less-than-helpful teams ;)

It's so funny, but inkzooka, I just don't have a huge problem playing against. Everyone always says how great it is. I can't kill well with it, I can't pressure well with it, but I also don't often get killed by it. If you're the first intended shot, yeah, there's nothing you can do about it. But you only get one shot like that. It's easy to take cover until it's done after that one. So ti's an effective one shot for one squid, but it just doesn't have the mass pressuring that a bomb rush would have where you cant just duck behind cover, you must FLEE. A well placed wail can get you, and the one shot of a zooka can get you. but the one special that terrorizes me is the bomb rush. And an offensive bubble huddle. And map pending the zone denial of wail will get me killed to. But nothing makes you retreat to your base like a splat/suction bomb rush.

I do wish they showed the weapons pre-match longer, or listed them with the player list. Sometimes it flashes by much too fast.

Saltspray is just weird. "Base defense" there to me is the top - it's the only part that matters. There's really only one "base". Though that's an easy one for defense, it's a fortress. It's also the only place I've seen team defense happen. Triggerfish....I've found that triggerfish is one map that absolutely essentially needs defense. The enemy pours in through the gates in 30 seconds, every time. IF I'm not there guarding the gates and bridge, the base will be overrun instantly. What then happens is our base is their color, their base is our color and then you start defending opposite sides, or going in circles. It gets weird. So I generally hold the base as long as I can while the team goes offensive (because they run out of things to kill I guess?) If I have Carbon though I go offensive there. Mackerel, Underpass, Warehouse.....the snowball effect is HORRIBLE there. Skatepark can be too.

But it's still nice to hear someone that supports the defensive strategies! :)

 

[BlackZero]

With proper positioning it is possible to at least hold back the enemy, especially with long range weapons like the Jet Squelcher or the Heavy/Hydra Splatling. It's just a matter of knowing where you have the advantage and where you don't, and reacting accordingly.

Most maps have points near your base that are designed to help you repel the other team. The first turntable you encounter on D'Alphonso is one example. The first apartment building you find on Flounder is another. Most times I get spawn camped, it's because my teammates didn't make proper use of these. Instead, they ran headfirst into the other team repeatedly thinking they could brute force their way through. It doesn't work that way.

As you get closer to the enemy spawn, you'll run up against one of these as well. You have to keep the other team from taking advantage of their superior cover and positioning if you want to keep pushing forward. The best way is to pull them out of position so you can splat them and buy time to overtake those positions, though some maps make it much easier (like Hammerhead's catwalk). You can also sneak up on them and ninja kill. When I used the Heavy Splatling on D'Alphonso, I could keep the shooters at bay by guarding the first turntable, but the Brush Ninjas got me every time. After that, our team would get in a bind because the brushes not only made a flanking route, but they also were good at wiping out defensive weapon users. Support weapons are pretty weak to close ranged attacks, so keep that in mind if you're packing an Aero or Brush and there's a Splatling or charger keeping your team from pushing ahead.

 

[Flareth]

Well,I went and did that testing. 'Twas... weird, to me.

What I did was I used a quasi-stealth build using Ninja Squid and the Octobrush. I'd ink up our base, and then stay behind to attack anyone that wandered in. Essentially camping, which I realized could be aggravating to those I fought against.
It backfired at first, as I'd hide near the spawn point and rush towards the intruders, giving myself away. Once I switched to hanging around near the entrance to our base, things started going much more smoothly. Surprising only me, the job becomes much easier when it's "keeping enemies out" instead of "clearing enemies out." And depending on my teammates, I could easily get away with sitting back and doing nothing after the first minute or so.
Now that held true for Urchin Underpass, but Blackbelly Skatepark was a slightly different matter. It's definitely that I had to keep an eye on both entrances, meaning I had to be on-call for pretty much the whole match. So base defense for at least that map isn't worth it; I could do much the same thing by focusing on the middle ground.

I dunno, it seems like a job that only needs doing if there's a struggle for the middle ground and someone on the other team sneaks in—however, that is an important job, I feel. Otherwise you have situations where you successfully take the middle ground and part of the enemy base, only for it to be worth **** all because your base was successfully taken while you were busy.

 

[LMG]

Support weapons are pretty weak to close ranged attacks, so keep that in mind if you're packing an Aero or Brush and there's a Splatling or charger keeping your team from pushing ahead.

From experience, a Splatling user is only trully defenseless without a charge, so either take them by surprise or attack after the barrage ends (otherwise you're risking a trade at best), and beware short barrages in close combat. Remember that they're one of the fastest splatting weapons in the game, even if they have the accuracy of a stormtrooper