Hold The Silos - Titan Strategy

This Titan strategy is for 24 players player on a 48 player Titan server with Titan Movement on and VOIP.

1 Commander
6 Ground Squad
6 Ground Squad
3 Titan Guns
4 Titan Defense
4 Titan Attack

General Strategy

During the opening, it is important for the Commander to move the Titan into a position that can cover as many silos as possible. On most maps, the Titan can cover four silos, but the enemy Titan's movement may limit this to three. Moving close to the enemy Titan will also eliminate the need for APCs and Transports during the endgame. During the opening, all troops except the Titan Gunners will be on the ground or in the air with the goal to capture and maintain all 5 silos. Titan Gunners will provide support in this goal. Ground Squads cover 2 silos each, with the center silo being covered by whichever squad the Commander sees fit. The Commander will be very busy directing troops during the opening and should stay in verbal communication with squad leaders.

Once one shield has gone down, the midgame strategy shifts. The Titan Attack and Defense squads will move off the ground and into the Titan. Hopefully, they will both be attacking the enemy Titan, but if the ground game was going poorly, they will both be defending. The Commander should take great care in analyzing the enemy and exploiting its weaknesses. If the enemy is typical, they will commit too many soldiers to Titan combat. If they do this, quickly take and hold all the ground silos and continue to hold them through the endgame. Either at the beginning or end of the midgame, when the friendly Titan shield goes down, it is important that the Titan Defense Squad be in place. The Commander should make the defense order before the shield is completely down. This will give the squad to set up APMs, RDX, Infantry Sonar and Sentry Guns and to get into position.

With both shields down, the endgame strategy is simple. Holding the ground and defending the Titan are most important. It is possible to win without ever setting foot in the enemy Titan. If the team is doing well at these goals, or the enemy has left their Titan unprotected, then the Commander will issue attack orders on the enemy Titan to the Titan Attack Squad and possibly a Ground Squad. The team should never sacrifice silos for additional attack strength. Slow and steady -- the enemy's core will be destroyed.

Vehicle ownership and use

Games are easily lost by greedy or incompetent players misusing vehicles. Gunships, tanks, and walkers have secondary gunner positions for a reason -- they are more effective that way. Tanks are especially vulnerable to engineers and gunships is they have no secondary gunner to mow down infantry and aircraft. The gunship gunner can use the machine gun to damage aircraft that are using counter-measures. Never get in a vehicle and immediately drive off. Wait for your Squad mates to join you in the vehicle. This strategy calls for certain squads to use certain vehicles. By having a clear understanding of which squad uses which vehicles, there will be little wasted time waiting around for vehicles to spawn. Ground Squads should use tanks, walkers, FAVS and APCs. They may also use Transports and Gunships which spawn on the ground, but not those on the Titan. The Titan Attack Squad uses Transports and occasionally APCs. The Titan Defense Squad uses Gunships. The Titan Gun Squad may occasionally need an APC to return to the Titan if they were sent to the ground to repair Commander assets or provide SAAW support.

The Commander

The Commander should stay on the Titan. Many Commanders who stay on the Titan end up being useless as a soldier, but this doesn't have to be so. One very simple thing a Commander can do is to stand in the hallway behind the force shield behind the control room. He is still invulnerable to damage, but he can stand holding a medic or supply crate, and be of some small additional assistance to the defense squad. He should be entirely focused on strategy and know how to use all the assets and zoom-spotting effectively. His main communication will be with the Ground Squads. He should also be able to choose a good location for the Titan. It is important to cover as many silos as possible. The Titan gunners will be able to provide help in exact positioning.

The Ground Squads

Each Ground Squad is responsible for attacking, defending, and, if necessary, recapturing 2 silos. Depending on the map, Grounds Squads should be labeled North-South or East-West. They should be able to do this without much assistance from the Commander. The Commander may occasionally ask one of the Ground Squads to capture or defend the center silo.

Ground Squads may elect to stick together at one silo, or split into 3 man teams. In many maps, a squad leader beacon between the two silos may be of use. Ground squads should be well practiced in armor, transport, and use of ground and AA guns. They should expect to come under heavy fire throughout the game, and should always be aware of where the Titan is.

In the early part of the game, the Grounds Squads will be assisted by the Titan squads and aircraft. This support will not be available once the shields are down. The Commander may ask the Ground Squads to defend or attack the Titan, or to provide air support, if the situation demands.

Titan Guns

A three man team can run the Titan Guns. They should all be engineers and should arm themselves with the SAAW, if possible. The first thing this squad should do it plant a vehicle sonar near the front and rear of the Titan. Until the Titan is moved close enough to the silos, one member should remain in the forward AA gun, while the other two stand just outside of the Titan shield (either on the front or the top of the Titan) firing at any aircraft foolish enough to get close.

Once the Titan is close enough to fire at silos, the squad should man the guns. One soldier should man the 2 AA guns, and one soldier should man the 4 Titan guns. Players may switch seats using the F2-F7 keys. Only one soldier is needed for the four guns because of the long reload time. As soon as one gun is fired, he should rotate to the next gun. In this way, the Titan will be constantly firing at the enemy. Use the full and mini-maps to prevent firing at your own team on a FF-on server, and use the commo rose to spot enemy infantry and vehicles. The player in the AA gun can keep on gun spinning (but not firing) by tapping the mouse. This will let him instantly fire on approaching aircraft. The squad leader can issue attack and defend commands to receive additional points from the Titan gunner. The Titan gunner can also spot enemy troops for the Ground Squads.

The third soldier should repair the guns. (Note that repairing a gun that a player is sitting in will yield additional points.) With the constant bombardment, most opposing forces will eventually focus on attacking the Titan guns. If they do not, the third soldier can assist by capturing unguarded silos, piloting a gunship, or using the SAAW from the Titan. If the Titan guns are being attacked by a gunship, it is this soldier's duty to destroy the gunship with a pod, the SAAW, or a gunship. The repair soldier may also be called upon to repair commander assets.

A well run Titan Gun team can rack up huge kills, give the Ground Squads the extra time the need to defend a silo, and prevent the opposing force from gaining air superiority. It is not uncommon for the Titan Gun squad to be the #1 squad and score gold and silver. Unfortunately, this style of gaming requires more patience than being in the other squads. You may want to occasionally switch the AA and Titan gunner positions, to prevent fatigue and even out the scores.

Titan Defense

In the early stages of the map, the Titan Defense squad are gunship pilots. Since 1.40, the Titan spawns 2 gunships. If the enemy is inexperienced, they will fly the gunships without gunners. Use your gunner to ensure air superiority. Destroy transports, gunships and armor as frequently as possible. If no targets are available, the gunner can mow down infantry. Because it is never safe to land a gunship, this squad's role is mostly defensive. You may also assault a silo, clearing out infantry and armour to make the Ground Squad's attack easier.

Once the friendly shields are down, the squad's role is defense of the Titan at all cost. Depending on the strength of the enemy and their method of transport, the squad may wish to stay inside the Titan, or 2 soldiers may continue to fly a gunship to prevent landing on the Titan. APCs and Transports are easy prey for the gunship. The gunship may also fire at infantry that pod to the back of the Titan. Four man inside teams should have 1 recon, 1 support, 1 assault, and 1 more from any of those classes. RDX, APM, Sentry guns, Infantry Sonar and hubs should be well positioned. If playing a 2 man team, 1 assault and 1 support can keep each other alive and stocked with grenades.

If the enemy's shields go down first, the Commander may order this squad to attack the Titan until defense is needed.

Titan Attack

The Titan attack squad should be experts in transport combat. During the beginning of the map, the attack squad is a mobile, transport bound squad that quickly captures silos. After a capture, they should move quickly to the next silo, leaving defense to the Ground Squads. If all silos are friendly, then the squad should defend at the discretion of the Commander. Transports can be great for defense if the gunners are well-trained.

Once the enemies shields are down, they should attack the Titan. Pods, transports, APCs, and squad leader beacons should be used at the discretion of the squad leader. Remember that only recon and engineer units can destroy the consoles, and they will need support to resupply them. Recon units with the Lambert Carbine and RDX are preferred over engineers. However, engineers can damage the consoles with their base weapon, while recon units must have the RDX unlock, so this decision is influenced by rank. Many Titan attack squads consist of 2 recon, 1 assault, and 1 support. In this case, The Pulse Meter may be more useful than the Infantry Sonar, as movement is restricted and the Pulse Meter puts the icons directly on the HUD.

In the rare case that the team's Titan shield goes down before the enemy's, the squad should aid in defense until the enemy is able to be attacked.

Variants

In some servers, depending on how the enemy is reacting, it may be better to have 5-man Ground Squads and 5-man Titan Squads. 5-man Ground Squads can free up 2 soldiers to join the Titan Attack Squad (5/5/4/6), who can then use a Transport Repair Strategy. A 6-man Ground Squad can also use the Transport Repair Strategy, but they will also need to occasionally land to recapture a silo.

Objections/Issues

The Titan Gun crew has one guy who just repairs, why can't the other 2 guys repair their own guns?

A soldier can not fire the gun while they repair it, making it difficult to kill the AA gun that is shooting at the gun. Having someone else repair it makes it easier. You could have the Titan AA gunner handle all repair, which would free up the other soldier to join one of the Titan Defense or Attack Squads, but this may let a lucky or well-timed attack through.

Another consideration is that this is not just a winning strategy, this is a high-scoring winning strategy. Frequently, the repairman ends up with the gold medal, as he may have well over 100 repair points by the end of the round. If he is also the squad leader, he will also get squad leader success points for kills.

Titan Defense is boring. If you are bad at it you just die a lot, and if you are good at it the other team stops attacking.

As soon as you stop defending your Titan, your team will quickly have consoles destroyed by even a mildly competent enemy. Be patient, even if you are very good, the enemy will start attacking you out of desperation when they find out they can not hold the silos.

This will never work. You'll never find 24 people who have read this, have the right kits, and have VOIP. Even if you did, you wouldn't be able to find a Titan movement-on sever that you can all join and get on the same team.

You are probably right. We have not been successful in coordinating a game with 24 willing teammates. Even the few tournaments that DICE has run were 8 vs 8. Of course, it would be easier if we had our own server (as 2142cc allows you to force players to switch teams, making setting it up easier).

So you mean this has never been tested?

Well, yes and no. We have been successful with all of the squad types, and if we can get even 2 or 3 squads working together, victory is almost guaranteed on a public server. When playing in movement-on servers, I can usually predict if my team will win based on how many people they have manning the Titan guns. 2 or 3 is a good indicator of a win, while 0,1,4,5, or 6 is an indicator of a loss. Not enough wastes a valuable resource, and unless the other team makes that mistake, it's hard to make up the deficit. I think DICE made the air superiority a clear goal in this game. More than 3 soldiers means that you aren't being very efficient, and some of them should be on the ground. I also try to emphasize that Silos and Titan defense are more important than Titan attack. Many Titan rounds are won without destroying any of the consoles, just as long as you keep the enemy out of the reactor room. Covering two silos is easier than moving haphazardly around the map, and many times two good squads can keep 4 of the 5 silos. In my observations, teams who focus on keeping the silos after the shield go down fare much better than those that try to attack the Titan.

The real key to victory on a VOIP server is the "B" key. If squad leaders and commanders actually talk, the have a huge advantage over teams that lack verbal communication.

Strategy is hard for new (or bad) players.

True. But even an engineer with no unlocks can be a Titan gunner. The repairman's job is a great way to build points and confidence, and to introduce teamwork as an important aspect of the game. Also, the commander's position uses a completely different skill set than your average FPS reflexes, so it can be a good position for a strategically minded player with imperfect aim. Even in the Ground Squads, if you can teach a new player how to spot the enemy, they become a great asset. Spotting does not require accurate aim.

VOIP causes my game to crash.

It is important that each squad leader and the commander have VOIP enabled. Squad members should also be able to communicate by using VOIP, a 3rd party voice program, or by being in the same room. If you can't use VOIP, don't be the Squad Leader or the Commander. If you have no means of communication at all, the Titan AA gunner and the repairman don't need much talking. If you join other Squads, make sure you are proficient in using the commo rose.