Basic Defensive Tips
How Many Should We Have On Defence?
It’s thoroughly recommended to run a five man defence for pretty much all maps. If your defence gets badly beaten with five men, in their right positions, it’s more than likely that you defence is underskilled, rather than undermanned. If you have more than five on defence, it basically makes it impossible for your offence to cap, as well as cluttering up your own defence which may make you vulnerable to spy attacks.
Feeling Confident About Your Defence?
If you’re feeling confident about your defensive prospects (perhaps playing a clan with a weak offensive set-up), then it’s strongly advisable that you switch to a four man defence. Many clans run four man defences on maps such as 2Fort5 and Bam4, which are considered easy to defend. I would not recommend running a four man defence on something like Well6 and Rock2 if your defenders are not of extreme quality as these large maps give the opposing offence a lot of options.
In some situations, say, if you need a cap quickly, or the opposition’s offence really sucks, it’s risky, but OK to run a three man defence. PnP attempted this against MOO, with reasonable success. If your offence is good, perhaps a three man defence may be used simply to allow for five people on offence, in the hope that you can outcap your opponents. However playing opposition of a similar ability to yourself, I definitely would not recommend playing with three people on defence.
Defending Against Spies
All newbie clans can easily be cracked by spies. The easy way to protect yourself against spies is to make sure everyone on your team always swings their axe when they’re moving into position. If you see anyone who isn’t axing, simply shoot them until they prove to you that they’re not a spy. If your team-mates don’t axe, they’ll soon learn to axe after copping a few rockets. Remember to always keep an eye on the “showscores” menu by pushing tab. This way you can see if the enemy has any spies or not. If you see that someone has changed colour on the opposing team, make sure you let your team know to be on the lookout for spies with a simple “SPY ALERT!” message in mm2. The bottom line; don’t trust anyone. If they’re not axing, kill them.