How do you check the horde leaderboards?

You can check the horde leaderboards at http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/Leaderboards/Gearsofwar2.htm

N3RDI3 (me) is currently ranked 6,877 out of 2,413,256 on Security!

Wave 49 on Horde – Day One

Three friends and I teamed up with a random player to get to Wave 49 on horde on the Day One map before we were all killed last Friday.  We made it that far without restarting.  We dominated the entire game until we all were taken out by ink above the regency balcony.  We were doing fine until we all 5 ended up over regency due to the two players over the arcade being taken out and spawning on our side at the start of the next wave.  This allowed the horde to focus their fire on one side and take us out.  We restarted at wave 49 and split up between the balcony over regency and the balcony over the arcade.  Three over the arcade and two at regency.  We quickly beat waves 49 and 50.  The key is to keep people on both sides (regency balcony and arcade balcony).  One person always needs to run the heavy weapons on the regency side.  Another person always needs to guard the base of the stairs on the regency side.  The remaining three players better be using sniper rifles and torque bows nonstop.  I’m pretty confident we could have beaten all 50 waves without restarting if we could have stay split up between the two sides all 50 waves.  Its only a matter of time before we beat it start to finish without restarting!  Currently ranked 6,066 out of 2,760,842 in horde on Day One.  That is the top .22%.

Strategy to Beat River in Horde – GOW2

Here is my latest strategy for beating all 50 waves of horde on the River Map on GOW2. This strategy should highlight a proposed strategy that changes between rounds and repeats every 10 waves.

Waves x1 – x5 (like 1-5, 11-15, 21-25…) should have a sniper in each sniper/torque bow spawn location. The fronts of their buildings should be defended by two more players using the lancer as their primary weapon and whatever weapons they want as secondary weapons. I suggest using the default weapons since the ammo automatically reloads after each round. The final player should be using the mortar. While the mortar is respawning, this player should also be helping to defend the two snipers. The person with the mortar on the bridge and the two players defending the buildings are responsible for healing everyone. The snipers should keep busy sniping the incoming horde. At the end of every wave everyone should try to get more ammo. The mortaree should be picking up a fresh mortar, and the two building defenders should be picking up the grenades in the nade spawn buildings. Below is the map highlighting this stategy.

River Strategy Waves x1 - x5

The next phase of this strategy requires the group to start migrating to one of the two sniper buildings during waves x6 – x8 (6-8, 16-18, 26-28, etc). The mortar should be picked up and moved closer to the building being defended at the end of each wave. The two snipers should now be up in the top level of the building sniping down field and across the river. The other two players should be defending the mortar and the house. The snipers should revive each other and the mortaree and the defenders should revive each other when necessary. There should also be a focus on collecting shields. The shields will be a necessity in waves x9 – x0 to keep the bloodmounts at bay. Snipers defend the bridge and front side, defenders defend bridge and front side, mortar shoots at largest group of enemies and fights closest enemy when without the mortar. Same as before, everyone tries to get ammo at the end of each wave and two people try to get the grenades and the mortaree gets a fresh mortar.

River Strategy Waves x6 - x8

The final phase of this strategy applies to waves x9-x0 (9-10, 19-20, 29-30, etc.). During these waves, the entire group sticks to the one building which is being defended. Do not worry about the mortar during these waves unless it is wide open to go get the mortar. You should have a minimum of 4 shields by now. Two in the doorway to the building, one on the ramp going upstairs and one in front of the most vulnerables sniper. Two snipers should be upstairs trying to take out the horde while crossing the bridge and coming from straight ahead of the building. Its more important to take quick shots than accurate shots at this point as the grinders and boomers will take out the snipers very fast. A third person should hide behind the columns on the second floor straight back from the door and should help defend the doorway. The final two players should be defending the doorway. If a shield is kicked down, those players are responsible for picking them up and holding them in the doorway. Everyone should help defend the doorway if this happens. The only thing that can hurt you from the other side of the shiled is a mauler so they should be taken out when they get too close. There should also be an emphasis on taking out the kantus right away because their ink will down you very fast in the higher rounds. Nobody should ever go for ammo, go for the mortar, or leave the building for any reason during these rounds. You will not make it back. Someone will usually go to save you and they will not make it back either. That leaves three people and they will not beat the horde. Stay in the building.

River Strategy Waves x9 - x0

I drew my strategy on the over head map of River which I borrowed from http://www.infektedmedia.com/gears_of_war_2_overhead_multiplayer_maps/gears_of_war_maps.php which has awesome maps.

Can you play the arcade games on day one?

I didn’t know this, but apparently you can play the arcade games on day one. Or you can at least according to this youtube video. Maybe you shouldn’t believe everything you see on the internets.

Marcus Fenix goes to the Arcade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dcOZbdaoIM&fmt=18

Cheaters removed from GOW2 Leaderboards

Confirmed cheaters had their scores removed from the GOW2 leaderboards. Also players who were playing in a game that had a cheater had that individual score removed as well, but there other scores were not removed. http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/Templates/Secondary.aspx?id=1822

Beat the horde on Pavillion

A random group and I beat all 50 horde waves on pavillion last night.  We had to restart a lot of times, but eventually beat all 50 waves.  We had to use two strategies to make it through all 50 waves.

Our main strategy was to stay in the hallway where the ammo spawns (in front of the room where the shield spawns).  Every wave we grabbed the shield that spawned and placed it in the doorway at the end of the hallway.  At the end of every wave 2 or 3 players would reset the shields.  One or two players would run for grenades in the halls on the side of the map.  The last player would run for the mulcher in the gazebo.  We would all take turns grabbing the ammo box as soon as it spawned to make sure we all had max ammo at all times.

We shot over the shields on both ends of the hall to keep the horde back.  When the horde got past the shields we would all focus on the side that was breached, eventually falling back in the shield room and defending the small hallway to that room.

We were all beaten at wave 40 and restarted at that level.  We did not have any shields.  We kept trying to defend the shield room, but the bloodmounts were too fast and that room was too small to beat wave 40.  Finally we tried a different strategy which was to go to the lowest part of the map (down the stairs on either side of the gazebo).  From there we spread out so it was harder for the bloodmounts to take us all out.  There is a small corridor between the two sides on the lower part of the map where the mortar spawns. We made sure to grab the mortar whenever it was available and kept firing rounds at the stairs to the lower areas (whether we saw an enemy or not). If a bloodmount did make it to the lower area, we would run through the corridor to the other side and fire back through the corridor at the bloodmounts who had a harder time making it through the narrow corridor.

We had to try that strategy a few times before beating wave 40. Once we beat that wave, we went back to our original strategy of defending the hall and we were able to do that without much trouble once we have a few waves to get our shield defenses built back up.

Beating Bloodmounts without Shields

Lately I have played in a few games where we forgot to replant key shields or they get knocked down and the bloodmounts are able to come at us without anything to stop them – and we make it through the wave.  I think this is due to a new strategy we have started using.   I like to call it – “Let the newb die”. 

I must admit not everyone I was playing with knew about this strategy, but it has been working.  When a bloodmount attacks the newbs try to go toe-to-toe with the bloodmount.  This is bad for them, but good for you.  This allows the rest of the team to fall back.  Everyone needs to shoot at the bloodmount (in the head!  always in the head!) and ignore the rider until the bloodmount is dead.  The newb might get knocked down before you kill the bloodmount, but the bloodmount will usually leave that player and come after the rest of the team (at least in the earlier waves 10, 20, 30).  By that time the bloodmount is pretty much ready to die and only makes it a few steps before it is downed.  Right when the bloodmount is ready to die, or when it dies, the rider falls off and it stunned for a little bit.  Use this time to run up on the rider and saw him down.  This saves your ammo to use on the next bloodmount.  One person can be sawing down the rider while the others revive the downed teammate.  Since you can only go down three times before you die, you might have to take turns going toe-to-toe with the bloodmounts.

I only recommend this strategy if you don’t have shields.  Also make sure you have plenty of room to back away from the bloodmount.  This strategy doesn’t work well if you can only back up a couple steps.  You need to have plenty of distance between you, the newb and the bloodmount.  You also need a team that works together to bring down the bloodmount by shooting it in the head.  If the newb can stand in a doorway while fighting the bloodmount toe-to-toe it also prevents other enemies from making it past them so you only have to fight one at a time.

Gears of War 2 on PC

Looks like GOW2 might be getting ported to the PC

http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/11/22/rumor-gears-of-war-2-finally-coming-to-pc/

Gears of War II is celebrating its first annivesary by providing players with triple experience from Nov 6 to Nov 16.

There will also be a new tactical mode where you have increased health while down but not out.  There will also be increased weapon damage in that mode.  Difficulty will default to Hardcore.

http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/Templates/Secondary.aspx?id=1816

Why do the Kantus turn white?

The kantus turn white when they are reviving their teammates.  If you look around, you will see other teammates that are down coming back to life.  They will also be white.  Don’t waste your time shooting at the guys that are coming back to life, instead concentrate your fire at the kantus and call its position out to your teammates so you can take it out faster.  You don’t want to waste too much time re-killing the locust horde.  That is about as much fun as taking calculus twice (not that i’ve done that (lately)).