How I won a Fort KNS campaign battle versus 3 squads of Yagudo...

[Guppy]

True Story, and here's how it happened.

Fort Karugo-Nakugo battles are typically a lost cause on Midgardsormr. Typically the NPCs spawn, run up to the tower, and then within a few short minutes are swarmed and wiped out. End of Campaign Battle. Yark Yark Squawk! Great Yagudo victoly!!!1!eleven!

Few players even bother showing up. Those that do fight typical campaign style -- grab a single mob, whack on it until the battle ends. Which is usually pretty fast, since the Windurst NPCs go down quickly.

As a White Mage, I've tried healing up the NPCs, but even a tarutaru's MP pool is a drop in an ocean, extending the NPC general's life by a few minutes at most. However, looking at the way the NPC AI works, and the way the fort is laid out, I figured there might be a way for a single player to make a difference, and after many rounds of practice, it finally came together tonight.

While idling in town, the message that a Yagudo squad had been dispatched to Fort KNS came up. Heading out there, a campaign battle had not yet started, but it wouldn't be too long. After a long wait, another set of Yags show up. Eventually, the campaign battle announcement rolls by, and then the announcement that the Libran Warlocks (Zolku-Azolku's squad) is attacking from the Southwest. I'm not sure when, but at some point, a third squad of Yagudo show up. Typically, this would be the setup for a Tarutaru-piñata party, but this time it's different.

To start, I pull a Divine Sentinel out the Southwest door of the fort, then out to F-11 or so on the exterior map. The Warlocks are just coming out through the tunnel there, perfect. As soon as they see the enemy unit they stop their movement and begin attacking. Now that aggro is off me, I head back for another.

This time I pull two, which is fortunate, as the one Yagudo didn't last very long, and the Warlocks have moved up quite a bit along their path. Sometimes all of the Yagudo will properly aggro onto the NPCs and vice versa, but not always, one of them may prefer to beat on the player instead. I let them aggro one, and sleep the other. The slept Yagudo must be placed in front of the Windurst NPCs to get proper aggro, as they may ignore an mob to the back or side. In addition, as a WHM/sch my Repose/Sleep spells are single target, so I may have to knock off shadows first -- some Yags blink themselves natively, while others get it from the Leechkeeper casters.

From there on I follow up, trying to pull 1-2 Yagudo at a time -- Sentinels, Disseminators, and Ascetics. The WHM Sentinels are the easiest, as they stop to cast, which allows me to keep well ahead of them. I don't bother with Leechkeepers, they tend to de-aggro quickly and don't last long versus the Windurst NPCs. In previous attempts I've ended up being flattened by a Yagudo train, but this time it goes off well, and I'm able to pick from the edges of the group. A few players have shown up but they're all at the east ramp, fighting a single mob at a time and not really interfering. The warlocks are gradually moving closer to the tower, since I don't always get there in time with fresh mobs -- they kill very quickly when everyone's on a single target. Occasionally the group "leaks" an NPC, who runs up to the tower and gets swarmed, but the majority stay together (tunnels are best for this, as usually the NPCs run off when they spread out to the sides).

After a while the Piscean engineer units build a Belfry in the southwest corner, which makes it even easier to pull. Then Patriarch Protectors (Nyumomo's unit) shows up. Usually I see them enter from the East, around J-9 (Outside map), but this time they came in from the Southwest and are walking the same path as the Warlocks, what luck!

After a few more mobs, I pull a Yagudo General (Yuu Mjuu the Awakened, WHM with SMN traits). By "Pull" I mean "screw up and get aggro". About this time the Belfry is obliterated as well. Fortunately, the Yagudo have thinned out quite a bit and there's only a one or two links, which allows me to reach the Windurst NPCs just before dying (at this point realizing I've been so focused I didn't notice RR3 fell off and I haven't even gotten Allied Tags). After a quick Homepoint, I get back just in time to witness the combined group of Protectors and Warlocks beating the stuffing out of Yuu Mjuu.

This must have been the breaking point, for shortly after a series of messages scroll across the screen: "The Yagudo Theomilitary's Divine Disseminators have retreated from the frontlines of battle." Quickly followed by the Ascetics and Sentinels. The Beastman Confederate forces have retreated!

[Cairthenn]

Awesome. You did it.

[miokomioko]

Advanced.

[omgaggrohelpme]

nice job man, in Ragnarok Windurst is the only nation with any outside control. They currently have 5 areas, and Beastmasters have the rest.

This after Yagudo took over Windurst for about 1 week.. seems it lit a fire under the tarus ass.

[Seraphise]

Interesting read, but still should have been in WOTG/Campaign discussion! Anywho, sad to say but you're accomplishment won't sway the final turn out. I wish it was more like the old days of Conquest where one devoted rich person could actually do something.

[Guppy]

Update: Did it a second time as well tonight. This time wasn't quite as smooth -- the Patriarch Protectors came in from the East and I missed quite a few of them at first (but manage to snag Nyumomo and keept her healed up and fighting 1-2 Yagudo at a time). When reinforcements finally arrived, they came from the Southwest instead, so I ended up sacrificing her for the stronger group, which I almost lost as well when I linked too many and got myself and numerous Python Mercenaries killed. Ended up doing the last few pulls weakened (Celerity + Reraise is wonderful in Campaign). By the end of the battle though, there was also a squad of Scorpion Warlocks, plus another Belfry, plus Dalzakk and Duskraven running around at the same time (Windurst has nearly all of the Freelances on Midgard this week). We ended up forcing the Sentinels, Assassin, and Disseminators to retreat, at the cost of a retreat by the Patriarch Protectors.

Windurst now has a tiny red sliver on the influence bar for the zone now. Probably be gone by morning, though.

[Cairthenn]

This is so amazing, you have almost inspired me.

[siknoz]

I wish more people would try like you, maybe then we would have a few zones. I've done the strategy of pld/rdm, get buffs up, aggro the whole yagudo squad and kite it outside the fort for the entire 20-30min while the npcs wail on the fortifications. It works, but like you said, by morning it'll be gone.

[Guppy]

Here's a pair of maps marked up with example NPC paths. The paths are not exact, sometimes the NPCs will take alternate routes around and up the various ramps. I usually don't have widescan set, so this is my best impression of things (ie, the "start" zone is probably further out, but the circles were drawn where I usually run into them). I also haven't seen any enter from the northern areas yet but can't rule it out. If some Rangers or Beastmasters out there would be interested in volunteering to camp zones for path information that would be excellent.

This tactic only works when the Yagudo spawn before the Windurst NPCs. Sometimes the Windurst NPCs get there first, in which case they will run up to the tower and beat on the fortifications until the Beastmen spawn on top of them. Your nation's selected strategy for the week may influence what happens more often (maybe).

Typically, you want to start intercepting them early on in their path, as you need to give yourself lots of room to work. Once they get near the ramps up it quickly ends up in a uncontrolled melee. Watch out for Rafflesias on the east side, they are sound aggro.

SE has previously mentioned that NPC forces will grow stronger or weaker as they win or are defeated. The various Yagudo squads rotate through the different zones, and I suspect that when they are defeated in heavily-fought zones (Sarutabaruta, Sauromugue, Meriphataud), they can "recharge" with easy victories in abandoned zones (Garlaige, Fort KNS). If this is so, then even if the overall conquest for the zone is lost, if enough people fight it once in a while it will have a positive effect on the overall campaign.

Also wanted to add: The messages indicating attack directions might depend on your nation's Intel level, so they might not always be offered. People tend to spam the Intel operations though due to how easy they are, so it's usually pretty high.

[Cairthenn]

Your intelligence is astounding.

[Mega]

Very high level of epic.

[Max™]

To be fair, this will all be totally appropriate once it gets moved to the WoTG discussion section.

[Thorshammer]

Good job!
Now you can help Bastok! :D

[Teffy]

way to be a completely useless dickface cairthenn

[Tomiko]

Pro tip: If you wear a beastmen hat, beastmen of that type won't attack you. Just ask Jkun!







Siriusly.

[Cairthenn]

way to be a completely useless dickface cairthenn

Not to be rude, but this post accomplished milestones of progression in Campaign endeavors.

May I recommend a coherent thought process before you attempt to flame someone by being a hypocrite?

[Gwynplaine]

Yah that is a good way for a single person to possibly make a big difference. Sometimes things can go wrong and you wind up horribly murdering the entire unit, but that's rarer (and a little bit funny).

RDM does this well especially with -damage gear. All you have to do is keep setting them up in their path, sleep them, and let them plow through them. Sometimes even that isn't enough though if there arent enough players to fight respawning mobs, they can just respawn within a few anyway and there's no apparent result. Fort K sounds tricky because of all the doors involved and winding corridors.

[Meian]

I was going to post a thread like this but I thought it was becoming more common place (at least on our server sometimes).

Bastok on Hades often gets their victories via at least "one" person pulling mobs toward the npcs before they get near the fort and repeat this action until reinforcements come which in turn lays waste to the enemy.

I have done this tactic several times in Grauberg, North Gustaburg (bit harder because of the spell casters and range), and Rolanberry Fields. This, however, is a bit harder to do on Pashlow Marshlands since the BST Quadav is broken on all ends as a boss. Once we won while they were in mid fight with him because we were able to pull a some mobs to the side.

Least someone told the tactic so hopefully will be able to do this. Easier to do on a mage that can sleep a mob or is capable of soloing one until the npcs finish with what they were fighting and join you. Leveling the last few levels on my WHM, I'd pull with Flash/Banish and sleep them near the NPCs. Slow/Paralyze/Silence (points and it helps anyway in general).

Sadly, not many people will do this. They are paranoid they'll get killed or not get their xp from DDing since most people who do Campaign on Hades so far love subbing WAR (then complain why they weren't healed when they are going ape shit on the mob). I still do this, I get my 2k+ xp, so I'm happy XD

[Ryphen]

This is a lot of fun to do if you can pull it off correctly. Having another person around to help makes it a good deal easier too. I just wish the mob placement didn't have to be so exact. The NPCs need proximity aggro instead of line of sight. So frustrating to have them run off to their deaths just because the mob was just a hair too far off to the side.

The misleading directions you get sometimes are also annoying. Even with the highest recon ranking, occasionally I get screwed over because the NPCs will show up from the complete opposite direction the message said they were coming from. It seems like there are two different paths in each zone for them to follow, but I've never actually tracked them with widescan to work it out.

And this works kind of the opposite way too if there's a group of NPCs defending a fort. You can generally run out and intercept the NM of a wave since it tends to run ahead of the other mobs, and pull it into the NPCs and have them kill it before the rest of the wave shows up. Useful when there aren't a lot of players around so the NM doesn't go on a rampage and pick the NPCs off one by one.

And one last bit of advice that's probably really obvious, but, use terrain elevations to your advantage! You can usually avoid getting hit with Sweep if you tinker with your positioning a little. Most awesome thing ever is finding the sweet spot and watching Kazan the Peerless whiff all his Sweep spam on you. It's too bad you can't teach the trick to the NPCs.

[Max™]

Any melee /Dnc can do this too, Step > Grav > Kite > Win!