To put it right out here, I favor doing the second-line support role a whole lot, providing ammo, medkits and a steady stream of reinforcements the most. While playing online shooters I usually favor Engineer or Combat-Medic classes because of this. For this reason I wanted to ask here how the whole Support Tango should look like from your perspective. For me, well, I'd like to play Combat Engineer as hard as possible, preferably even something like a battlefield architect. I also like to roll Orks so I can help the sheer masses of boyz survive more than twenty seconds on the battlefield. My general idea has been the one of a role that can a) create cover b) provide fire support c) provide medical and material supply off and on the main battle line and d) enable other players to do the same for our army. So, to elaborate on a). I play an Ork Mek and I arrive at some barren hilltop overlooking a good deal of the battlefield. I want to go full Gallipoli Hill 60 on this location, so what do I do? What I'd like to be able to do is to put down sandbags or crude metal scrap serving as firing cover, preferably in multiple stages of enhancement. Stage one would be just some chest-high wall that you can duck behind and that blocks infantry small arms like Bolters and shuriken launchers without deteriorating significantly, but can be damaged with a charged plasma shot or something in that size category. Stage two could block even those weapons with a reasonable amount of sucess and would probably be visualized as a real fortification like a small makeshift bunker or trench line and would require multiple shots of a rocket launcher with AT-ammo or a plasma cannon to breach effectively. On point b), a mek should be able to put down something like a tripod-mounted Big Shoota or a Rokkit-Launcha for his or his fellow boys' use. I bring this up because the average Ork army will consist mostly of F2P scrubs which most likely won't be able to use much better guns by default. When building a firing line like described above, plonking down a few Shoota turrets for the boyz to man (to ork?) would pay off immensely in the defense of the area. It would also give the F2P players something to do other than just charge to their deaths, so there's that too. Maybe those emplacements could be enhanced just like the fortifications described above, from a simple shoota to a twin-linked one, and a rokkit launcha to a Kustom Mega-Blasta. The second aspect of b) would be indirect heavy support. A Mek could try and set up heavy guns like Lobbas, looted Basilisks or Katyusha-like rocket launchers somewhere in one of these strongpoints, preferably off the battle line. Then these guns could be linked to a frontline Waaaghboss or sneaky Ork Kommandoz via a radio uplink so they can give the Mek grid coordinates to fire at or just call in the artillery barrage with a skill they can learn in their skill tree. The Mek could try to fire the guns himself without a forward spotter but would risk hitting his own troops or just missing alltogether. Part c) would be the most interesting, in my opinion. The devs have mentioned before that running out of ammo is a very real part of gameplay and most of what I described further up would need either spare parts to keep running after an intial period, ammo just to keep shooting, regular maintenance by a skilled person or all three together. At the same time, the ammo and other supply has to come from SOMEwhere. So after setting up a Forward Operating Base (i.e. a bigger stronghold somewhat further from the action), it may pay off for a Mek to clear an area inside of the hub and set up a landing pad for Deffkoptas and Chinorks / Warkoptas there as well as a Motaagh Pool for Buggies and Trukks together with a Pile O' Gunz / Dakka Stash. Whenever a call comes in from the front that some mob is running out of dakka or boyz, the Mek could hop into a modified Deffkopta with ammo bins instead of guns mounted on it, zoom over to the area in danger and drop a fresh load of bullets on the boyz in need. Or take a Warkopta loaded with boyz and reinforce any attack or defense. Part d) just feeds into all of this, all the structures a Mek sets up should be possible to be used if not repaired by the average F2P boy. It'd give them much more to do and sending fresh players out on ammo delivery runs over enemy FlaK-riddled territorry has got to be a hoot every single time. Well, that was that mostly. Very presumptious and probably way too demanding, I know, but playing a role like this would be gamer heaven for me. 'Ere comes da kavalry!
Would love to see support classes and i am mostly interested in seeing them! this was indeed an interesting read.
Indeed, I'd love to see options available to the attackers and the defenders to spend time, energy and resources into building and improving their odds before a fight has even begun, especially in the case of siege engine and support and supply lines making sure that if the battle is lost, the war is not.
I like the idea a lot, although a) as you currently describe it is too powerful. The actions of one support class player shouldn't be able to bring two teams' worth of tactical ranged classes to a grinding halt. What you need is a new a) in before it, which is one step before current a), giving some level of cover but that will collapse in short order under sustained fire. If upgrading cover requires increasing resource from Meks both to set up, and their attentions to prevent its natural decay, that makes pushing towards the top-level defence something that can only be achieved by several Meks working together.
That makes sense. How about just a dug trench then? That should work the fastest and would make sense when you reach the stage three of a half-underground bunker then. But really, these only provide limited cover against direct-fire weapons. A mortar, artillery and thrown grenades or flame / acid weapons would completely bypass them, as well as just sufficient ordinary dakka.
Dunno, a trench is a pretty defensible position - including against mortar and artillery fire. Just look at WW1. What I was thinking is that Stage 1 is something you hurl down quickly before the excrement hits the fan - its not going to hold long, but its better than a bare hillside. So for the Orkz, a few bits of flakboard and a banner most likely - its not going to stop many shots, but its better than nothing. If its not directly under assault and needing repair, you've then got the possibility to dig trenches/lay heavier cover for Stage 2, etc. That way building defences is both blessing and curse. If you try and do it at the point you need them, its too late. If you do it before you need them, well...who's to say its going to be in the right place? The other side may just circumvent you. So what you'd most likely end up with is the odd screening defensive position near a key location in the world (I'm guessing the locations themselves wouldn't be somewhere you could throw up an "additional" fort) plus ammo dumps and other fortified holding points / outposts as armies advance. It'd also help break up larger armies, as the ammo dumps wouldn't be worth turning a whole army towards during a major battle - but would justify a skirmish force, if it meant the enemy would be denied resupply...
It was an amazing read and I really agree, also that is pretty much what you see in Killzone Shadow Fall. Mainly where I see support roles are the "Game Changers". A support class is most of the time heavy weaponry. So our Devastators would be them for example. With Heavy Bolter or Laser Cannon they can destroy either hordes of enemies or obliterate tanks. And with Plasma Cannons even kinda both in AoE fashion. But what also Supporters cover for Wh40k in my opinion: Psykers Docs / Apothecari (Eldar / Chaos equivalent???) After all those are our healers or Warp Magicians which can be also pretty game-changers if they retrieve enough fire support. Though to make shields / blocks etc. could be either Psykers or Techmarines / Ork Mekboys used. Psykers could make warp shields probably similar to the Zoanthropes ; Techmarines / Mekboys could create small barricades / walls or perhaps even shield generators
This was a VERY interesting read. I liked the concept. One place my mind went was if a holdout such as this was to remain in say ork hands against a SM counter push, the the orks would need to at least attempt to "save" the base. One game that handled this concept VERY well is "Mount and Blade: Warband" the napoleonic expansion. the game was set in, you guessed it Napoleonic times. so there was definately fortifications around to hide behind while you reload your musket. In the game Sappers drew from a collective "buildpoint" pool to build different fortifications such as sandbags, planks to bridge gaps in walls, and simple dirt mound. different covers and such take different time to build, have different hitpoints, and cost different buildpoints. For your scenario id say pre-a would be a quick and cheap like dirt mound to hide behind, then if you had the extra BP you could build a heavier more time and costly fortification. Step A. This would encourage groups of meks to work together to build a place like this and the whole faction would need to be supplying the resources for even the most basic of strongpoints. Just my thoughts. anyways good point.
