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Swadius · (This post was last modified: 15-01-2013, 01:17 PM by Swadius.)

Updated: Jan 15, 2013

This is a general barricade placement guide. It deals mainly with how we put down barricades in-general, and not in specific situations. For example, "place cade at x and y on map z" will not happen in this post, "these are the reasons why the cades are at x and shieldwall is at y" will. Instead, this will focus on the things that all those cades on those maps have in common and the same factors that make them such successful fortifications- the principles of cading so to speak. This will of course, focus on people shield walling. How you want to place your cades while kiting is not my business.

The reason I'm writing this is that I've often encounter situations where people seem to have no idea how to use cades effectively or differ in their hypothesis on how to cade effectively resulting in one part of a group doing one thing and the other part doing another and weakening the entire host. I've also broken a lot of cades in my time, and although I've been very lucky in that no one has reported me yet, I've little doubt that many people have wondered why that dude was wrecking shit up for no apparent reason :-[.

Here's what I've discerned from my time cading:

1i)The basic rule that guides all cade placement can be found in the question of what we want most out of a map. I think we all agree , from an infantryman's perspective that a good map is any map that has a tight choke point. This is so because it's a given that the nords will always outnumber us, and funneling them to where their numbers advantage can't come into play is imperative to reaching higher levels. A choke point is precisely the thing that will give us this.

1ii) Take for example the previous outskirts map. All that was required on that map was one shielder to hold the nords in place.
With cades, we aim to create these sorts of chokepoints.

1iii) With we agree on point 1i, and the example of 1ii, we can proceed to take into account some very important aspects of cades that most people who are new to own a cade or dep shield seem to overlook: Barricades are not indestructible, they cannot be repaired, and come in very limited numbers. Even heavy cades can go down in around a minute even on low levels like 6 or 8, and everyone can only bring 1 per spawn. The main point of this section (1iii) is that we don't want the nords touching our cades as much as possible.

1iv) But then the question might arise "if we don't want our cades actually blocking the nords' way, why put them down in the first place"? Ah! But we DO want them to block the nords, we just don't want the cades to block the path of the nords directly. Cades are not road blocks, they are railings that keep cars from spinning off the road. As per point 1iii, they will not do a good job stopping the nords, they fail incredibly fast, and even if the wave of nords can be cleared it will likely not be able to last through 3 more waves. In the game generally, they are the railings that keep the nords from flanking us.

2i) With this we come to the relationship of the shieldwall to the cade itself. The shield-wall is the road block. The cades cannot do this job for the sole reason that we can repair our shields after every wave, but can only replace our cades every four waves.

2ii)Even more important than this is the shieldwall's ability to take out the nords in front of it, where as dep shields and light cades usually can't tolerate much punishment, and heavy cades won't allow slashers to do their work, and in some cases, slashing behind cades will hasten their destruction even faster due to friendly-fire.

3) With points 2i, 2ii, and 1iv taken into consideration, we can conclude that the shieldwall has to be the spot that meets the nords first and foremost, with the cades blocking the flanks of that shieldwall.

LEGEND:
NORDS = N
SHIELDERS= S
SLASHERS = A
RANGED = R
CADES = C

Examples

<= <= < =N |
________|
|
? |
|
[1] / [2] |

In the picture, the nords spawn in the corner ("N" is the spawn point, arrows is their path). Points [1] and [2] are your potential cade placement positions.

Lets looks at two situations.

A) The cades need to be in position [1]. Only when the shieldwall is is spot [2] will the nords uniformly turn that corner and head straight into the the shieldwall without banging on the cades first. The nords will lock onto the closest character to them, and that is the right most shielder. Since the wall to the right is indestructible, and to the left of the right most shielder is another shield, the cades won't getting touched unless the nords aren't being killed, they're forming a gigantic blob, and spreading out past shieldwall and to the cades.

<= <= < =N |
|| ________|
V |
|| |
V |
CCCCCSSSS|

C= cades
S = shields

B) If the cades are placed at position [2] and the shield wall is placed at [1], what would happen is that the nords would lock onto the shielder at the right most of the shieldwall and start banging on him first. The right most shielder of course, is standing right next to the cades, and the nords will bang on that as much as they bang on the shields.

<= <= < =N |
|| ________|
V |
|| |
V |
SSSSCCCCC|

x= cades
S= shields

CCC
CCCC
S
S
CCCC
CCC

Here's another example. The funnel. In the early days I've played with some people who did this. This would be a great design if not for 1iii. While this might funnel the nords to the shieldwall, the nords will be banging on the cade all the way down until they get to the shieldwall, and there's no guarantee that the nords will all head towards the shieldwall either, they might just decide they like banging on the cades better. The cades will have an extremely short lifespan in this configuration.

Funneling: The art of minimizing nord contact and maximizing yours

In a nut shell:

\ NORDS /
\ v /
\ v /
| v |
| v |
| ^ |
| ^ |
/ ^ \
/ ^ \
/ SWADIANS \

Your basic choke point. A bridge, a tunnel, a hallway,, doorway, some sort of hippster rave, etc.
This is a top down view. The nords will arrive from the top, and we'll be defending on the bottom.
Keep in mind the middle part doesn't have to be so long, it might be as long as a rather thick door frame, and this principle still applies.

The slim middle there is what we use as a choke point, but where exactly on this diagram will cading be most effective? We'll explore 3 possibilities.

LEGEND:
NORDS = N
SHIELDERS= S
SLASHERS = A
RANGED = R
We won't be using cades for convenience, in particular mine.

Option 1) THE IN YOUR FACE APPROACH

\ | /
\ v /
\NNNNN/ 5+
|SSSS| 4
|AAAA| 4
| |
| |
/ \
/ \
/ \

We make our stand at the end of the funnel on the Nord's end of the opening. What happens here as you can see, is that the nords will have more surface area, or attacking area, than our slashers. This is clearly disadvantageous as the nords will get in more hits than our own slashers in a set period of time.
In short, 5 or more nords are attacking to 4 slashers that are relieving pressure from the wall.

Option 2) THE EVERYTHING IN MODERATION APPROACH

\ /
\ /
\ /
|NNNN| 4
|SSSS| 4
|AAAA| 4
| |
/ \
/ \
/ \

The "N"s are kinda fat.
We make our stand in the middle of this choke point. In this case, the nords will not have a numerical advantage over us. They are restricted as much as we are in the small space. 4 slashers can fit to the 4 nords that can cram into the space. It's not particularly bad, but it's not the best option either.

Option 3) THE CUP-HALF-FULL APPROACH

\ /
\ /
\ /
| |
| |
|NNNN| 4
|SS SS| 4
/AAAAA\ 5+
/ \
/ \

This is the optimal approach if reducing the number of nords that can come at the shield wall and maximizing your own slashers matters to you. For the 4 nords, you can fit in 5 or more slashers behind the shield wall because you're using the choke point to your advantage.

Other shapes where this might apply. All of them are from the top-down perspective.

Nords
\ /
\ /
/ \
/ \
Swadians

_____________
Nords >>>> |
________ v |
| ^ |
________| ^ |
Swadians >> |

NORDS
_______ ________
| |
| |
|SWADS|
|______|
Take note that in this case, option 3 is not available. But do keep in mind that option 2 is still better than option 1 here.

Lanes of Fire

What this section is about is showing some basic ideas on allowing half of your team (or often more than that) the ability to participate in the fight when the nords are at the wall. This section is dedicated to the archers who often need to put up with infantry centric cades. While a good cade and shielders can keep the whole team alive, buttoning up everyone with a ranges weapon in the corner where they can't do stuff isn't very efficient.

1) Be aware of angles of fire

Take for example this:

NORDS
| v|
| v|
| v| EMPTY SPACE
| v|
| |________________________
|
| < < < < SWADIA
|_______________________________

In this L shaped path, the nords are again coming from the top and Swadia is coming from the right. There are two cade locations that I want to talk about. This about this as the L spot in Laketown. The empty spaces outside the path is empty space. There are no walls obstructing line of sight from the right end to the nords as they walk along the path. Think of the edges as cliffs that keep the nords and swadians inside of the space in other words.

A)

NORDS
| v|
| v|
|CCSSSS|
| AAAA|
| |________________________
| R R R R R R
| < < < < SWADIA
|_______________________________

In this diagram, the infantry has decided to cade up along the path. This works well and good, with the exception that it leaves archers little to no room once the nords reach the shield wall to shoot at them, and in particular shoot at the nords who might be hitting the cade. This is an infantry centric cade.

B)

NORDS
| v|
| v|
| v|
| v|
| |________________________
| SA R R R R R
| SA < < < < SWADIA
|______C________________________

Contrast with the first pick, as the nords bunch up against the shield wall, the nords will do so at the top most shielder's right hand side. This will allow the ranged people to shoot into this blob while the slashers are slashing at the nords. Keep in mind though, the issue with no one hitting the nords when they spill over to the cades is not addressed in this setup.

C)

NORDS
| v|
| v|
| v|
|C v|
| CCSSS|________________________
| AAA R R R R R R R
| < < < < SWADIA
|_______________________________

It's not that clear, but the cades in this case begin from the red C to the blue C forming a diagonal line in respect to the straight borders of the map. Not only do the ranged people be able to shoot at the nords as they approach, they can also shoot them once the nords have reached the shield wall. Not only this, but since the cade is slanted, the nords who are attacking it are in full view of the archers (assuming there isn't a nord blob in the way). The only shortcoming of this is that you might need to tell an archer or xbow or two to come closer since they're outside of the assist exp range.

2) The Reverse Slope Principle.

This is mainly for archers if a cade is ever built like this, since there are incredibly few maps that can provide this set up. If the team doesn't have a healthy dose of ranged, which is quite rare these days, there's really no reason to do this.

From a side view.

S /\ N
\|/ / \ \|/
| / \ |
/*!*\ / \ /^\
________/ \___________________________

From the top-down view.

___________ NORDS _________________
| |
| |
|---------- |
| |
| |
___________| SWADS|_________________
The dotted line is the crest of the hill.

_______ ___________
| |
|___________|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
SWADIANS

This diagram is not from a top-down perspective. It is a view from behind a hill. The green line there is the crest of the hill. If the green line is the horizon when you look into the distance, the nords will act like the sun as they both rise up from this line. In front of this line is a slope. The sides are flanked by impassible walls.

The reverse slope principle or reverse slope defence is a military tactic used to maximize the defenders' (that's us) ranged assets while limiting the enemy's. For those of you who have played the game [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_in_Arms_(series)]Brothers in Arms[/quote] you might remember it from their last mission in the original game. Because the Germans have to crest the hill, their own firepower had to be brought in little by little, and it also made it very easy for the American to shoot whatever they want with a clear line of sight of everybody on the defender's side.

I imagine this would work ingame as shielders holding the bottom of the ramp, and the archers basically have their free range of anything that tries to crest the hill top. One problem I encountered with this is that heavy cades tend to obstruct the view of archers when the nords get lower, normal cades, unless built from a higher elevation also won't work as any character in game can easily walk over embedded cades without jumping if they approach it from above. In most cases, I would recommend putting normal cades at the bottom of the ramp on flat ground instead of on the incline.