Beating Bloodmounts

Here is the best strategy I have seen for beating bloodmounts…

- Do not count on sandbags or short walls to stop a bloodmount, they can jump over them.
- Bloodmounts cannot jump over a planted shield so make sure you have plenty of them.
- Always aim for the rider first. If he is dismounted he can kick your shield down to let the bloodmount through. Then your dead.
- Always aim for humanoid locust before shooting a bloodmount because they can knock down your shields.
- When your team is shooting, have everyone shoot at the same bloodmount rider and kill all the riders one by one before the bloodmounts themselves. The riders can shoot over your shields so take them out ASAP.
- Let tickers get next to bloodmounts before shooting them. Their explosion damages the bloodmounts (or any other enemy).
- Flame boomers cannot kick down a shield but flamers can. Shoot down flamers before they get to your shields, but let flame boomers get next to the shields by the bloodmounts before shooting their tanks. They explode like tickers once thier tank starts spewing fire.
- Holding shields a few steps behind shields planted in doorways is a good way of protecting yourself. Magnums and gorgons can take out the riders easily. People not holding shields can stand behind the shield holders with shotguns, lancers or hammerbursts to take out the riders.
- Once you take out a rider, leave the bloodmount until all other riders or humanoid type locusts are dead (assuming you have shields planted to keep them out).
- Bloodmounts only come out in waves 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
- Make sure to get ammo at the end of wave 9, 19, 29, 39, 49.
- Never run for ammo in wave 10, 20, 30… you won’t make it back 90% of the time.
- Never run to save a teammate in wave 10, 20, 30… let them try to make it back to safety where you can revive them, otherwise you won’t make it back 90% of the time.
- Grenades, sniper rifles, mortars and the hammer of dawn are difficult to use against a bloodmount because they move so fast.
- Don’t waste ammo on bloodmounts when they are far away, let them come up to your shields before firing. You’ll need all of your ammo.

Horde Friday Night!

There is going to be some crazy horde action Friday night and I’m looking forward to it. I swear if I get another group that drops out or another group of 9 year olds I’m going to snap my GOW2 disc in half. Its getting ridiculous. Oh, and thanks to the group that left me in wave 10 on day one a few weeks ago. No, I didn’t get beat on wave 10, I played by myself until wave 14 and gave up because it was boring playing alone. But thanks for giving up on the game as soon as you got beat. Quitters suck.

Rated M for Mature

I’m not sure why parents think it is ok to let their kids play games that are rated M for Mature. GOW2 is not a game that children and some teens should play (maybe even some adults). DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS PLAY MATURE GAMES! Too many times I have found myself playing with kids younger than 10 years of age online. Why are your kids playing these games, and WHY ARE YOU LETTING THEM PLAY ONLINE! GOW2 is an awesome game, but kids should not play it.

Plus your young punk kids suck at GOW2 and hurt the team.

Oh So Close!!!

We made it to wave 40 on Friday. We first had a great group playing together on River and we made it pretty far. In the end to horde chased us inside the building which faces upstream. I think the best defense may be to set shields in the doorway to keep back maulers and have two more players holding shields immediately behind them. Follow this up with the other three players shooting over them from the ramp and walkway in the back of the building. It is important to stay spread out to keep from getting killed by the boomers.

Upstream and downstream are great ways of identifying the direction of the horde. Used in combination with near, far or river ramp helps pinpoint the horde location. This is very important when calling out targets for the mortarer.

Later on we played Jacinto with the same group. We also did a great job on this map until wave 40. We took shelter at the top of the stairs. We were pushed back by maulers, grinders and boomers and were all finally killed at the top of the stairs. We needed to take flight earlier once they got our shields down. We didn’t have enough time to run once they got through.

Wave 49!

We made it to wave 49 last night on River by creating a private party and starting at wave 35 after making it past wave 35 as a group on Day One. Everyone did a good job planting shields and reviving each other. Everyone also did a great job switching between weapons and getting to cover when necessary. No Rambos, just teamwork. Our group included nosaj625, mahleea, Turner Joy, Sally the Clown and N3RDI3. Holding the shields in the barn doorway and getting to the mortar before the end of each round was very important. We had a good mix of weapons on our team which also helped a lot. Great job everybody!

River Massacre

Our most recent game on River turned out much like the past games we played on River. We hold up in the house near the bridge which faces upstream. This time we tried a different shield strategy which was awful. Instead of placing shields in the doorway we placed one shield to the right of the sandbags in front and two shields to the left of the sandbags. The bloodmounts just jumped the sandbags and killed us all inside of the building. That strategy was poop. The best shield strategy we have used was to have two people holding shields in the house doorway and have two additional shooters standing behind them to keep away maulers. Bloodmounts get close but they do not get through the human shield barrier. The gorgon pistol which spawns in-between the vehicles outside of the house to the left complements the shields well with this strategy. The mortar is also key in doing well on this map, but you need people defending the person which holds the mortar. At the end of each round, have 4 people replanting shields and one more person picking up the mortar from the center of the bridge. Don’t plant the last shield until the mortaree is safely inside the shield barrier.

Playing on Security

Security
Our most recent attempt to beat the horde was in security. We made it to level 37. Shields were collected throughout the game and placed in the doorways by the lasers. Each member did a great job calling out which shields they were going to reset between each wave and we lost no or very few shields each wave. Players also made a dash for the grenades located at the end of each hallway to the left and right when it was clear.

We were overtaken by a few locust because the barrier went down and they were able to kick the shields down and get the jump on us. The lasers were not the main line of defense and we did not count on them ever being up since the locust can shut the lasers off on the other side. We did have a sniper or two that tried to prevent them from shutting off the lasers. We also made good use of the have artillery. The mortar and mulchers were key in getting as far as we did.

When we play this map again we can probably make it further by having two people watch the left and front left, two people watch the right and front right and one person running the heavy artillery and watching the center.

Key takeaways…

1) Call who is getting which shield(s) at the end of each round.
2) Don’t count on the lasers being up ever.
3) Grab the grenades when possible.
4) Make sure each player has a zone they watch (rarely deviate from your zone).
5) Call out enemies for the heavy weapons person.
6) Stay spread out in case of ink, tickers and boomers.
7) If a shield gets lost, replace it with bullets.

Horde Etiquette

Horde Etiquette
I would like to propose a few points of etiquette when playing Horde.
1. Don’t start a game if you can’t finish it – This is the biggest annoyance when playing a public game of Horde. You’ll have a good game going and all of a sudden you’ll notice someone drop off. Going from five people to four is a huge disadvantage, none-the-less if another person drops at wave 33 to leave only three people (you know who I’m talking about).
2. TALK – Communication is key in making it far in Horde. If you don’t have a headset, get one. If you’re in a party, make sure you are in Game Chat. Tell your teammates what is coming, where you are when you go down, if you need ammo after a wave, confirm who is grabbing what shield at the end of the wave, etc.
3. Don’t be Rambo – I realize it is fun to see how many kills you can get each round, but don’t go running around solo all over the map. While in the early rounds you might be able to get away with it, it will catch up with you quickly. And when you are yelling to have someone come revive you, nobody wants to risk themselves to help a loner.
I will now get off of my soapbox and look forward to playing tomorrow night.

It’s all about the shields, baby

We just got done playing Avalanche. We made it to wave 30 with four people, which isn’t bad. However, the only reason we didn’t make it to wave 31 was because of poor shield management. We had only one shield at each stairway, our first mistake. We should have grabbed at least one more shield for each side. Plant one shield at the bottom of the steps and another about 3/4 the way up. This should have been easy for us to manage, since it would have only been one shield per person. However, we didn’t make it a point to grab more shields in rounds 27, 28 or 29.

So, when a Sire came and knocked down our one shield at the bottom of the stairs, I decided to go after it, my second mistake. I got the shield, but there were so many carcasses lying around the base of the stairs, I was unable to place it. That was when I saw the Mauler coming my way. I quickly backed my way up the steps, while trying to plant the shield every once and a while. Obviously this didn’t work, the Mauler got me over my shield and as my teammates came to save me, the Mauler knocked them down too.

Moral of the story: You can never have too many shields. By the time you are done with wave nine, everyone on your team should have a shield and they should be in charge of it after every wave.

This looks like a good article…

http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/gears-of-war-2/faq/g-2007031211164597054/c-306298