v1.7.4 The Forgotten secret to good INSURGENCY

[waldov]

OVERWHELMING FIREPOWER.

All the ubiquitous, classic, established favorites of Insurgency understood this very basic formula:

A BLUFOR faction with a significant advantage in firepower, scoped infantry weapons, bulletproof vests, armored vehicles, helicopters, thermals, area attacks, CAS etc. tries to search out caches from a poorly equipped insurgent faction that has to rely on unconventional tactics: stealth, ambushes, IEDs, hideouts, suicide vehicles, snipers etc. to defend them and bleed the BLUFOR forces dry.

Somewhere along the way this great and simple formula seems to have been blurred or outright forgotten.

Think of the classics:

Al Basrah
Fallujah
Kokan
Gaza
Karbala
Lashkar
Ramiel*
Dragon Fly (kind of)

Still to this date the most popular and loved INS maps for that very reason.

But now we have a number of maps and layers where this formula has been skewered and the playing field far too balanced in favor of the Insurgents. I think of maps like Sahel which has so much promise, but also 2x T-62s and an armada of technical's against a singular French APC and 20 minute delayed light CAS.

Or I think of nearly every single INS layer with Russian BLUFOR. Did some of the layer makers forget Russians have nearly NO scopes or Thermals? Grozny is a great example, a single BMP is all the Russians have to their name in heavy assets (the BTRs are as useful as humvees for all intents and purposes) on one of the most unforgiving, urban heavy INS maps of them all.

By comparison on a map like Fallujah against an Insurgent faction half as well armed as militia, and a city half as comprehensive, multi-layered and nightmarish as Grozny the Americans get not one but TWO APC's with Thermals, automatic grenade launchers/cannons etc. either of which is objectively better then the BMP-2 on Grozny for the addition of Thermals alone. All the infantry have scopes too boot and on one layer they replace one of those APC's with a damn TANK, with thermals, modern protection and firepower. AND IT WORKS.

Heck look at maps like Dragon Fly, Gaza and Lashkar where 2-3x modern, thermal equipped laser gun/auto-cannon APCS and even Modern Tanks are standard, and those maps are still hard for BLUFOR.

*Ramiel is another sad story of the INS winning formula being thrown to the wayside with whatever nerfed, shell of a great layer we have now. The dismal popularity of it these days compared to just a year or so ago says enough on that matter.

I could go on with examples, but the truth is the majority of Insurgency maps/layers made since the classics suffer from this issue to various extents. Lack of scopes, thermals and the difficulties of attacking an urban/forest/jungle defender are factors that I think are MASSIVELY ignored or not given their due credit when deciding the balance of many Insurgency layers. A good litmus test is if a map often ends with the INS side having a equal or greater K/D, something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the balance.

Especially now that the Horizons have broadened from the traditionally powerful BLUFOR factions like the US, Germans, Canada, French and UK. No thermal, poorly protected Russian IFV's/APCs while easily capable of going toe to toe with Western IFVs in conventional combat, are worth 0.5 of modern Western counterparts in Insurgency/infantry dominated maps. The G3s and AKs of the MEC, FSA and RUS factions are also certainly no equivalent to the scoped laser guns of the traditional western Blufor factions.

Without some re-balancing I think many otherwise great maps with great INS potential are destined to be reluctant second choice maps when all the classics have been exhausted in a map rotation; or just outright laid to rest in the graveyard of maps that are resurrected every now and again when people occasionally forget how much they regretted playing them the last time.

There's absolutely no reason Grozny shouldn't have taken place as the king "go to" INS map, or why Sahel, Kafr and Sbeneh shouldn't dominate the top 5 INS maps. But it simply comes down to the superior balance of the "classics" despite the otherwise better map making and design of the aforementioned maps.