Capturing Beastmen Strongholds

[Gwynplaine]

With the resurgance of interest in Campaign, now's a good time for capturing beastmen Strongholds. Info on taking strongholds is disparately strewn throughout a number of older threads so I thought it was time it got it's own topic. Here's some suggestions. I'm sure other players can help suggest improvements or corrections.

Requirements and Goal
Firstly, what is a stronghold? A stronghold is the main base occupied by the Allies or Beastmen. These are Southern San d'Oria S, Windurst Waters S, Bastok Markets S, La Vaule S, Castle Oztroja S, Beadaux S, or I assume someday Castle Zvahl S.

An armies stronghold is not ordinarly open to attack by campaign battles. In order for battle to take place in a capitol all 6 zones in that region must be owned by the opposing force. (The same goes for Beastmen attacking Allies) Once that condition is met the stronghold is able to be conquered through successful Campaign battles.

The ultimate goal here is to open the Beastmen leader Campaign Ops for the juicy loot they drop. This includes: Cuchulain's Mantle, Orcish Gauntlets, Witch Sash, Cuchulain's Belt, Karasutengu, Roundel Earring, Crapaud Earring, Balestarius, Airy Buckler, Brave Grip, and Wise Strap. In order to unlock these Ops all 7 zones in a region must be under ally control. That of course means owning the stronghold itself. This is a difficult task that requires dedication. And so while judging whether or not to take a stronghold consider gauging these factors

Good conditions for overtaking a stronghold:
-If the Allied forces strategy that week is causing them to attack that stronghold relatively often.
-If it appears as though the Allies will own all other zones in their territory by tally.
-If, failing that, it appears as though the Allies will own all other zones except one by the tally.

If the allies aren't attacking frequently, you might come up short on influence by the time tally rolls around. And if they are doing poorly in campaign in the other zones you risk not meeting the Ops requirements next week. Losing a single zone can still be recoverable as you have the entire next week to regain all areas before losing ownership of the stronghold.

Also remember that to take an area the influence bar only has to be greater than the beastmen at the moment of the tally. You do not have to fill the bar. Campaign Tally occurs on Sunday at 11am EDT/ 8am PDT.

Method
The same basic method applies to all 3 zones so far. The idea is to keep lowering the strongholds fortification level until the beastmen retreat from battle. Doing this requires continuously killing the campaign enemies. Modifying a quote from Suiram, "When a wave of [beastmen] arrive, you have one hour to get the Fortification number down to 90% of what it was on arrival (e.g. 300 Fort >> Force retreat at 270). Each NQ [beastman] you kill lowers the fort by one. Every time a team is dispatched, they go up by 10."

Continuously killing off the campaign beastmen will ensure a slow but steady increase in influence. This means in and OUT of campaign battles. During downtime if there's mobs defending the fort they can be killed all the same either solo or in a merit party setup. Whatever's at your disposal.

It's obvious that if the allied NPC's simply rush the fort they will be easily overwhelmed. Therefore by setting mobs up for them you achieve two things; slowing their progress toward the fort, and their assistance in taking out campaign mobs. A job with sleep is recommended for this. Before the allies arrive pull an enemy off the fort and lead it directly into their oncoming path so they will stop to fight it. Now that you've assured their safety for a bit you can get a new enemy to sleep once they finish the first. Keep doing this and simply line them up like dominoes for the allies to topple.

In every zone there is a "split" in the attacking units path where the unit splits up to surround the fort from multiple angles. Ideally you want to prevent them from "splitting" to ensure more NPC's survive. If they do split up that's still fine it's just likely that the smaller group will be defeated. Also note that the allied NPC's do NOT spawn from the very distant edge of the zone line. They spawn some ways in, for example in La Vaule iirc they spawn outside the interactive gate. So don't pull a mob and wait right at the zone line for the NPC's to come.

Here's some maps to illustrate the paths the NPC's will take and where each fort lies.
http://i27.tinypic.com/wjbblc.jpg
(Sandy always gets it easy so the path NPC's take to the fort is direct and obvious.)
http://i29.tinypic.com/ohl0ki.jpg
(I'm unsure of the exact route NPC's take to the fort in Castle.O. Anyone know?)
http://i27.tinypic.com/33pbitc.jpg
(Beadeaux requires a fucking schematic to understand the layout. Take note: the NPC's ignore terrain and climb right over ledges.)

It's tedious and tricky but if you can manage all that the zone is yours. And so too are the millions of gil and fabulous prizes (at least pending apathetic linkshell members).

Helpful Tips
-Players cannot warp to beastmen strongholds from the Campaign NPC. And so having access to Recall teleports can be helpful. That way if you need to return all you have to do is Recall and grab a Chocobo instead of enduring the long run all the way there every trip.

-Capturing a stronghold can begin many hours before the tally. As long as you start on Saturday evening (NA time) and no later than perhaps 6 hours before tally occurs. Any earlier than that and it's likely that any influence you gain will ultimately be lost as the Allies lose without support.

-Once the zones intel message informs you of a unit being dispatched there's roughly 13 minutes until that unit spawns at that location. If you happen to have a separate mule account that can watch this stuff it can be useful for predicting when allies or enemies will appear.

-Using an enemy can be a good tool to guide and position the Allied NPC's exactly where you want them. Dragging a campaign mob into them will cause them to attack it and if you can keep hate on it over them you can place it where you like.

-Remember every NPC acts like a countdown to losing the battle. In consideration of the above, keeping the allies safe is a major priority. This can be very difficult especially when the generals use their deathwish AoE spam. Occasionally some NPC's will even appear ot just ignore mobs and run off to a whole other spot. Sometimes NPC's just want to die, it's dumb but it happens.

-If your making a good effort and some progress gaining influence is apparent, you might (hopefully) attract attention from other players. JP players seem especially keen to stronghold takeovers and it's not uncommen for them to assist on their own.

-For older info see these helpful threads:
http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/69744...and-s-yet.html
http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/64052...orts-week.html

[Sci]

Occasionally some NPC's will even appear to just ignore mobs and run off to a whole other spot. Sometimes NPC's just want to die, it's dumb but it happens.

I believe the exact conditions for this is the NPC has minor hate on a mob, while it's fighting a different mob. Then the mob that it had lesser hate on dies, while it's still fighting the other mob. The lesser hate mob respawns, and then the current mob the NPC is fighting dies. The NPC will still remember the hate on the respawned mob, and make a beeline for it. The hate doesn't get reset on the mob with lesser hate, because it wasn't the primary target when it died. Pretty much the same concept with players dying.

Anyhow, this can be really bad because most likely all the NPCs are going to link and run off. The only way to avoid that is to pull another mob early, and hope it does some sort of AoE.

[yayajax]

Sometimes NPCs charge down to the Fort or a cluster of enemies because of the wandering Imps. When an Imp cures/buffs one of the mob currently fought by NPCs, it builds hate on NPCs. Eventually the Imp will go somewhere else after curing/buffing if it has no HP damaged hate. Before the NPCs have hate from any surrounding mobs, they would charge down to get the Imp and suicide.

[warrior2582]

Do imps count as a "nq Beastmen"?

[Rocl]

Do imps count as a "nq Beastmen"?

From what I can tell, killing a Fiendish Leechkeeper does not change the Fortification count at all.

[Gwynplaine]

Do imps count as a "nq Beastmen"?

No medics don't count, and I'm pretty sure things like Belfries and Mantlets don't either (idk about units spawned from belfries, recons, or freelancers but doubtful). I would think only defeating unit members or their leader and attacking/bombing a fort lowers it's rating.

Nevertheless, killing off medics and mantlets would still helps toward overwhelming them.