[b]My Experience as Platoon Leader coordinating an assault on Mao Tech Plant[/b] There I was, a brave soldier fighting for the NC on Indar, watching as my platoon retreated from a failed attack on Mao Southeast Gate from the south, moving down toward Abandoned NS Offices. I'd seen this happen too many times, and in an act of complete defiance for my outfit's code of conduct, I publicly questioned the tactics of my platoon leader. I insisted a retreat to NS Offices was pointless because it was impossible to defend. It was a much better tactic to send as many people to Howling Pass Checkpoint as possible where we could use the turrets and high walls there to halt the TR's wall of tanks headed toward us. Well, somehow I ended up as platoon leader (for the first time ever) and I followed through with that plan. We basically let TR take NS Offices, and spent a good 20 minutes or so slowly blowing up all their tanks with turrets and teamwork from Howling Pass's wonderful defensive position. Then the REALLY fun part started. It was time for a glorious assault on Mao Tech Plant. With the new lattice system in place, we HAD to capture Mao Southeast Gate before we could take the tech plant. No easy task attacking from the south. No matter the matchup, northern forces always had a height and cover advantage against an attack from the south. So I split my platoon in half. Squads 1 and 2 made a cautious frontal assault from the south, only pushing as far as we could until we encountered heavy resistance, so we didn't advance from there but we didn't retreat. In the meantime, squads 3 and 4 attacked Mao Watchtower, which as I expected was relatively empty (all the TR forces were busy defending along the ridge just to the north of Mao Southeast Gate) and easy to take over. Of course, the lattice system meant we couldn't really capture that territory, but that wasn't the goal... the plan was to set up a pincer attack. At my command, squads 3 and 4 attacked Mao Tech Plant from the east while squads 1 and 2 started to advance from the south. Just as I'd expected, this two-pronged attack split the TR forces. They could no longer focus all their firepower against our vehicles and troops to the south, and when their defenses were spread out, we overtook them. Within minutes, all 48 members of my squad had not only captured Mao Southeast Gate, but we were inside Mao Tech Plant. I couldn't have been more pleased with myself! My plan had worked perfectly! That's when I let things fall apart... The leader for squad 3 was confused and thought he had to take his 12 players back to Mao Watchtower before we captured Mao Tech Plant, and that "Command" had told him that. I didn't realize he was talking about me, and not the higher-up members of our Outfit, so I urged him to proceed. Well, squad 3 started taking fire, so I sent squad 4 to support them. Then the TR started coming back and with fewer people left to defend Mao Tech Plant itself, our remaining soldiers inside the base were soon overwhelmed. I tried to pull everybody back together and get them all to just defend Mao Tech Plant, but it was too late at that point. We got within 1 minute of capturing Mao Tech Plant, and I let it fall apart because I didn't command my squad leaders clearly enough. From there, we were all swiftly pushed out of Mao Tech Plant and thrown further and further south. That's when I had to call it quits because I'd played for quite a long time at that point and needed a break. Even though things didn't turn out exactly the way I'd hoped, I was still happy with the experience! I proved to myself and many other players that falling back to a further-back more defensible position was much better than trying to hold the line as far forward as possible. And I showed that Mao Tech Plant really COULD be captured with an attack from the south, and the lattice system could be worked around if you were clever... and if your platoon commander can think a little more clearly than I did. xD GOD I love this game!!!!!