Pork Learns to Love the Pubbies Solopub Challenge

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

The FCM 50t is generally regarded as it's squishy and can't hold a flank alone. I'll openly admit that I'm pretty bad at solopubbing the thing, myself.
 
Well, I've got some credits to make, some free and convertible XP to generate, and some learnin' to do so without further ado I present my "Pork Learns to Love the Pubbies Solopub Challenge".
 
You might ask, "What is the point of this solopub challenge?" I'm glad you asked! Here are my goals:

• Stop trying to farm damage. I've been guilty of playing the FCM as a pure support sniper in the past in the hopes of boosting WN8 and my credit earning. That's bad. I've uninstalled session stats to get out of the stats-chasing mentality and into the win-at-all-costs mindset. Damage is not always king; local advantages are often better for winning than sniping at a tank that's positioned himself effectively out of play.
• Trust my teammates more. My current mindset while playing involves me conserving my HP at all costs. No more! I'm going to start using my HP as an expendable resource that I can use to keep my teammates alive. If there's an autoloader that's about to get rekt while he's reloading, I'm going to jump in and save him if the opportunity looks favorable. Basically, I'm going to try to be the best team player I can be so that our team gets and maintains a numerical advantage, even if it might involve a bit of self sacrifice. Even though pubs be pubs, I need to trust that they're going to continue to shoot at enemy tanks if I can keep them alive to do so.
• Do what it takes to win. If my team forms a lemming train, the best play might be to secure a defensive position near our cap or the other flank to stall or defend against a capfast. If my team is pulling slightly ahead in endgame with 5 tanks left to their 4, it might make sense to go ahead and cap instead of trying to kill every tank. I'm going to try to make the best play that would tilt a questionable game into a winning one, even if it's not optimal for purpledom.

I'm going to post replays and session stats in small batches whenever I work on this challenge. The goal is to solopub the FCM 50t and E-25 for something like 100-150 games so I can improve on all of the above points. I feel like the E-25 fits in the same sort of niche that the FCM does: great for getting damage and platooning but not so great for winning without a good team or platoonmates. I'm not going to be doing this challenge exclusively, but I am going to focus on it until I feel satisfied with the results.
 
Wish me luck, gents!
 
Solopub Challenge Overall (Incomplete): Won 48 of 77 games for a 62.3% winrate.
 
Session 1 (won 10 of 16 games, 62.5% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 2 (won 2 of 3 games, 66.7% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 3 (won 6 of 9 games, 66.7% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 4 (won 7 of 8 games, 87.5% winrate). [

Stats:

One loss is missing from the stats because I played it a few days prior.
Replays are available here.

Session 5 (won 5 of 6 games, 83.3% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 6 (won 9 of 22 games, 40.9% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 7 (won 1 of 3 games, 33.3% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 8 (won 4 of 4 games, 100% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 9 (won 1 of 3 games, 33.3% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

Session 10 (won 3 of 3 games, 100% winrate). [

Stats:

Replays are available here.

[Otis 370]

Mother of god.

 

RIP your sanity.

 

Good luck.

[Deusmortis 4,618]

I find platooning more enraging that solo pubbing.  Good luck to you.

[Letchy 4]

Good luck. This is how I play constantly, have never really chased stats even with sessions stats installed.

 

It can be a fulfilling way to play I find.

[Yuffy 34]

do you have any concrete goals?

 

I can play some games in the 50t and we can compare our epeens stats. We have similar recent stats, should be close ?

[LanterneRouge 160]

fuck the fcm50t. Last tank I would EVER pick to do a solo challenge in. Good luck. 

[Patient0 794]

You had me until I saw :

 

• Trust my teammates more.

[callmeguilty 0]

Good Luck! Hahaha

[nova123311 31]

I generally like to get early spots in the fcm and then choose one of two paths. The first is to yolo hard and the other is to......snipe...like....damage....farmer.........

 

 

 

Good luck with the challenge though. I'm 50 games into mine, and even though the results are great so far, I just want to throw something at the wall when I play this tank too much

[KnobbyHobbGoblin 1,002]

• Trust my teammates more

No pork don't D':

[SgtKnispel23 30]

• Trust my teammates more 

rip your sanity,i know i could never do that.

 

gl pork 

[Guthixnut 22]

I applaud your willingness, and think a more team oriented mind set can help you to become better.

 

Trust my teammates more.

 

If you start to lose your sanity, you know where to find me.

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

First session complete. Won 10 of 16 games while learning how to fight fires all over the map. Shitty WN8, but doing the dirty work is a thankless job and I knew that going into the challenge. I'd consider this night a success!

 

Two things to note: the unwinnable games are rather infuriating. Seeing your whole team derprush the Ruinberg field or put all the heavies in the trainyard of Himmelsdorf is rather anger inducing. In both situations, I honestly can't think of a thing I could've done to eke out a win. Ahh well.

 

Stats for the night:

 
Replays are available here.

[nova123311 31]

Wow, I don't think I have ever put in 16 games at once in the fcm 50t. For that, have a doughnut. 

 

[Yuffy 34]

did my best in the game against you >.<

 

Played 11, won 6. 1805 DPG, 1049 XP, 1.54 kills, 2346wn8, +22.2k credits

 

you don't use food, do you?

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

did my best in the game against you >.<

 

Played 11, won 6. 1805 DPG, 1049 XP, 1.54 kills, 2346wn8, +22.2k credits

 

you don't use food, do you?

Haha, yeah. Ran into you, Errants, and Valachio tonight all running preferential 8s. You mopped up some good damage that game on Northwest.

 

No food for me on the FCM. I'm in it to make credits and the tank has good enough soft stats to do well without food. It's honestly a fairly rare tank that I'll run food on. The STB-1 and the T-34-3 are the only two that I've run it on recently due to their horribru gun handling.

 

Additionally, I've changed my playstyle for this challenge such that damage is not my prime contribution. Rather, it's positioning in such a way that I lock down multiple enemies singlehandedly or flank and cause absolute chaos in a local area. Damage is still something I'll grab if it's available, but I'm done chasing it for its own sake. My focus is now on getting my team advantageous positioning and numeric advantages when I see an opportunity to do so.

Wow, I don't think I have ever put in 16 games at once in the fcm 50t. For that, have a doughnut. 

 

Mmm, fatty goodness. *salivates*

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

You know, I kinda wonder how the stats are going to play out after 100 games or so. I feel like I'm trading WN8 for winning, which is a wee bit counterintuitive.

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

Short but sweet session for the night. Won 2 of 3 battles before scurrying off to my 110 for some team battles with clanmates.

Stats:

Replays are available here.

[Patient0 794]

I think that you should keep your sessions short in order to maintain flow. 10 games per session should keep your level of play up. When you get those bad streaks, it's time to take a break and try again.

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

I think that you should keep your sessions short in order to maintain flow. 10 games per session should keep your level of play up. When you get those bad streaks, it's time to take a break and try again.

This is probably very good advice. I'll try to stick to 10 or fewer games in a session to prevent burnout. Might be good for my sanity to get some playtime in with Divinity, too. Thanks for the advice!

[Ollie Tabooger 614]

What you do sounds rather similar to what I do. I just have a tendency to use positions that I can keep my gun firing in if I see an opportunity by catching the enemy on their way to positions, but I do often try to take hits for my meatshields to keep their guns in the game and spot. Of course, it means that I sometimes potato hard, but it works most of the time.

 

For example, my favored opening move on Live Oaks from Spawn Point 1, if my team already has the bridge, is to make an active scouting run to D5, then to make a turn and either hold the village at C5/B5, or if they chase after me, run into the ditch at C3 until I'm no longer the point of attention, and decide things from there. It's a razor's-blade mix between aggression to spot and keep the gun firing, and exposure management to avoid getting hit and conserve my HP for trading it when needed.

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

As bad as it might have seemed from the outset, "trust my teammates more" is working out pretty decently so far.

 

To expand upon it a little more: you can generally trust that they're going to shoot at things in front of them, but reading the minimap is a bonus that shouldn't be expected but instead thought of as a pleasant surprise when it occurs. When I was in damage farming mode, I was basically doing the thing that they're already somewhat competent at and struggling to plug holes when the enemy broke through the weak side.

 

Now I'm spending my efforts by defending key areas of the map that my teammates have abandoned, providing vision to tanks that are camping sniper lanes that they can't see (e.g. across El Halluf's valley), and/or trying to keep teammates alive who have pushed a little too far out to get cover fire from the rest of the team. Essentially, I'm enabling my teammates to do the one thing they're good at: shooting red tanks. I figure that I'll have more of an impact if I can sacrifice a kilo of damage dealt to help my team get three.

 

Great experiment so far!

[dirtd0g 1,181]

I think, deep down, all of us know that WN8 doesn't always produce wins... Locking down lanes is a really good example of WN8 deficient play that can produce wins. Or those guys who would clog up the bridge on Sacred Valley prior to the changes; sideways TOGII...

I would go so far as to say some early yolos that set the tone and tempo of an initial engagement can directly lead to a win...

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

I would go so far as to say some early yolos that set the tone and tempo of an initial engagement can directly lead to a win...

I'd definitely agree with that. Grabbing a key position early or causing chaos by yoloing is one of those things that is incredibly painful to do but rewarding if you watch the game play out and your team trash the enemy using the advantage you've given them. I think that happened a time or two in my first session, but I can't recall which games they were.

 

I might try to highlight some counterintuitive winning moves in my upcoming sessions with a replay writeup. It could spark some interesting discussion on what it means to play for the win.

[Jade8 6]

I find platooning more enraging that solo pubbing.  Good luck to you.

 

Huehuehuehue