The Importance of Having a Plan by KraftLawrence

[rocketbrainsurgeon 1,043]

This is for discussing The Importance of Having a Plan by KraftLawrence

[TheMarine0341 4,973]

Excellent write up! Ive found myself progressing to this line of thinking, but I was unsure of my approach

[CAMN 151]

 

You load into Ruinberg in your Leopard 1. Easy, you think to yourself. I know where to go – field! Two minutes later, you find your tank in smolders. Your teammates, nowhere to be found, are all in town. What went wrong? You’re a Leo. Field does seem like the natural choice.

 

You see this happen almost in every single battle, quickly followed by a chat message saying: OMG you guys suck, no one helped me!

 

People pick that point in the map they always go to, that point where once they did 3k damage and never again, but they now think that is the one and only possible spot where their tank can be. It doesn't matter what their team or the enemy team composition is.

 

 

They'll even crash against friendly players going some other place in the rush to get there ASAP.

[precambrian 789]

You underestimate the no 1 reason for the southwest yolo:

 

It's absolutely positively just plain FUN

[KFAJ 40]

You underestimate the no 1 reason for the southwest yolo:

 

It's absolutely positively just plain FUN

Exactly! It's not like there's any fun in winning or doing well, right?

[cd169 19]

I found this article to be trite and cliche.  

 

A more useful topic would have been the key factors to analyze when making your plan.  Some of these were indirectly discussed (team composition by tank type, platoon status).  You don't want a plan, you want a good plan.  To get a good plan, you need to know what drivers are most relevant when making the plan (which looks to be largely driven by understanding of the map and team composition).  I'm certain that KraftLawrence is doing that analysis, but he didn't go into very much.

[SWG112 299]

The article was very good. I liked it a lot. Very well done.

 

Side note:

You underestimate the no 1 reason for the southwest yolo:

 

It's absolutely positively just plain FUN

DIZ IZ DA TRUTH BRO

[precambrian 789]

Exactly! It's not like there's any fun in winning or doing well, right?

 

Did the point at least ruffle a few hairs as it passed by?

[CAMN 151]

Exactly! It's not like there's any fun in winning or doing well, right?

 

 

 

 

I found this article to be trite and cliche.  

 

A more useful topic would have been the key factors to analyze when making your plan.  Some of these were indirectly discussed (team composition by tank type, platoon status).  You don't want a plan, you want a good plan.  To get a good plan, you need to know what drivers are most relevant when making the plan (which looks to be largely driven by understanding of the map and team composition).  I'm certain that KraftLawrence is doing that analysis, but he didn't go into very much.

 

Pretty sure KraftLawrence's article was meant to make people think a bit more about all the options they have and what the best course of action would be, considering a whole lot of factors.

 

Writing an article analizing all those factors and the possible combinations would be a huge waste of time and also useless. There are just way too many things to take into consideration, and those combinations could only happen once in a while depending on the map.

[KraftLawrence 1,435]

I found this article to be trite and cliche.  

 

A more useful topic would have been the key factors to analyze when making your plan.  Some of these were indirectly discussed (team composition by tank type, platoon status).  You don't want a plan, you want a good plan.  To get a good plan, you need to know what drivers are most relevant when making the plan (which looks to be largely driven by understanding of the map and team composition).  I'm certain that KraftLawrence is doing that analysis, but he didn't go into very much.

 

having a plan of how you're going to win the game is pretty common across good players. how to actually go about doing that is often very different from player to player.

 

I'll quote an article by Day[9] that I really liked called "The Marginal Advantage".

 

In WarCraft 3, StarCraft, Marvel vs Capcom2, and CounterStrike alike, we see the individuality of players shine through: some play aggressively, some play defensively; some are renowned for their solid, steady play, others for their unorthodox tactics. We respect the brilliance of their expert skills; we admire their ability to win. Yet, at the same time, we appreciate the aesthetic of each player's technique, that each player finds a solution that is so different from the next player. If too many decisions are clear cut, the player has no need to discover his own marginal advantage over the field, and the competitive game collapses into redundant, unexciting play, unappealing to master and unappealing to watch.

[CarbonatedPork 1,585]

having a plan of how you're going to win the game is pretty common across good players. how to actually go about doing that is often very different from player to player.

This article might just be the line of thinking that takes me over the top, and thus may be my favorite RBS article to date. Thank you, Kraft.

[Deusmortis 4,618]

I honestly find quite a bit of upside in the south and east.  It's a good path for armored tanks, and presents opportunities for flanking the other paths there.  Granted, I don't go all the way to the far SE path, I prefer the higher paths.  Less commitment, more opportunity.  I usually don't push to cap either.  I transition through middle or work one of the return paths, usually giving me opportunities to flank and crush whatever is left of NW.  

 

I find that NW is suicide (if solo) or very passive.  I have had a much better time pressing the issue SE.  

[Anwindo 14]

Outstanding post. Having read this helped me getting  a new perspective on the game and how to deploy. Thank you for that.

[LordFozy 10]

Wait! You mean I don't have to suicide into a bunch of mediums just because I'm in the same kind of tank!? This changes everything!

[jackquerudo 2,405]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyz_2DEah4o

 

What this article sorely lacks

[Frashal 0]

What would you guys recommend in a similar situation to that ruinberg example if you are in a glass cannon td, like the nashorn for example? It lacks that flexibility to poke corners in the city so ends up having to expose itself more to get shots in. I always struggle to figure out what to do in that situation with a tank like that and either to barely any damage and my team wins for me, or do something like defend the field and farm a bit of useless damage before I get spotted and killed.

[KraftLawrence 1,435]

I would still go city. You can shoot when enemy tanks are reloading, which is mostly what I did anyways.

[SFC_Storm 58]

I loved it. I never thought about drawing out a game to make better decisions than the pubbies. Lol it seems so simple and in practice I do it everyday its why we don`t Yolo out when the game gets stale for a few minutes and why Reds do. But put in those terms it just makes so much sense to me personally because its what us instructors taught in in JFK Center [special Forces School].

 

We always were taught to prolong engagements that we couldn`t end with near 100% confidence with swift action. So basically if we could not end a mission with complete success in one movement or one swift series we were to prolong it and make enemy kill themselves, because we had superior training and gear and brains. Also if you look at it like a hand of blackjack where you already have a 75% advantage, rather than betting big and risking 25% it would be smarter just to drain the other player the way the house does with a slight odds favor.

 

Anyways very cool the way you worded this for some reason it designated in me. I loved how it came down to Win or Loss, Epic battles didnt matter....At high level anything this is true. You either did what you wanted, or you didnt.

 

Also every good article from RBS I find myself agreeing with me doing 1 "Greeny" you guys mention and its helped a lot to get rid of them. My 60 day still sucks but my games since i have quit CW and just played is nearing 2600 Wn8 and is much cleaner....Im still to aggressive by far but at some point I dont wanna be a 4k Wn8 Unicum who gets thrashed when Wn9 comes out and I never spot or never to assit DMG etc.

 

My biggest thin is realizing while DMG is king I still want to be ready for next WNx and if its ONLY Dmg and not wins or spots etc my scores will come crashing down. Anyways thanks a lot. What a great place this is compared to WOT forums.

[_pip_ 89]

Nice one Kraft!

[Nisa 355]

I haven't been doing much thinking in tonks nowadays because its rather tiring,thanks for reminding me how to win properly again ror.

[PlanetaryGenocide 676]

Hi kraft, thanks for this article, was pretty good.  I started trying to apply some of this stuff recently before the article went up, the only real success I've had so far was pushing SE on Arctic in the -54 because their team had 0 top tier heavies.

 

I think the points most relevant to me though are "Nothing clever about playing shitty against reds" and "more important to not lose than to win big", as those seem to be what end most of my games early on in higher tiers.

[tibson 15]

Great article.  Kraft's posts and articles always get me thinking.

 

RBS,

 

The topics and discussions on your RBS site have been superlative, even on the great site that is WOT Labs.  I hope you find a way to make sure this continues.

[MajorStewie 24]

thanks for this. was playing pretty badly with the t-54 getting a 1900 wn8. after playing all day with the t-54 today i got a nice 24 hour 2700 wn8. was paying closer attention to how i used my armor getting more bounces, playing more cautiously since before i would suicide a few times, and ultimately trying to figure out how to win games in the way you put it in the article and video.. instead of blaming your team for the lost instead blame the enemy team for the loss more.

Edit: ooo nvm got at 3000 24 hour wn8 wonder if i can keep this up.

[sniper_012 38]

Kraft, this is a very good guide, but imo it only really focuses on flexible mediums. How would you recommend you initially deploy in slow tanks such as the T28 Prot?

[KraftLawrence 1,435]

i just spent a whole article saying how you shouldn't think of it as a "one size fits all" sort of thing. Each game is different...