July 22, 2009

Be A Better Hero: Victory in Victory Village

Victory Village is arguably the best map in Battlefield Heroes. It's my personal favorite and seems to come up most of the time when I hit Play Now. Victory Village is an infantry focused map, with plenty of cover and only two vehicles total (1 jeep for each side). This makes for some wonderful street to street fighting moments and some not-so-wonderful camped in your spawn moments. Fortunately, I'm going to share a tip that will ensure you stay on the wonderful side of things.

Victory Village is comprised of four capture points: Guardpost, Church Square, Road Block, and Orchard. Three of these points provide respawn locations once captured; Church Square being the one that does NOT. However, Church Square lays smack dab in the middle of the first two capture points, making it a tempting target to strike.

Unfortunately, a lot of time is wasted and many lives are lost attempting to take and keep control at Church Square. All of this for little gain as there is no spawn point attached. The lack of respawn combined with a wide open area makes the Square nearly impossible to defend without over-committing players to the area. Not to mention the potential devastation that can be rained down from the Church bell tower and roof overhead.

Be a Better Hero: Victory Village

Most Victory Village matches are won or lost based on whether a team pushes Church Square or Road Block first. Road Block is easily the most important point on the map. It is, distance wise, the farthest point from both starting points. Secondly, when captured it provides an invaluable respawn point. From Road Block, access to the "back alleys" can be controlled via the myriad of tiny bottle necks. Not to mention, Church Square can easily be seen and dominated by sniping Commando's on the hills at Road Block.

The best strategy for securing Road Block early on is to rush to it in a jeep. Unfortunately, access to the jeep is "first come, first serve" and rushing players often times take off solo or rush Church Square. However, in the case you secure a jeep, load up with three players and drive on over to Road Block (best combo being a Soldier and two Gunners). Ditch the jeep short of Road Block and use the crates and walls for cover from incoming enemies.

Once Road Block is secure, defense is fairly straight forward: control the back alley ways! This means Troop Traps at the "doorways" and Gunners and Soldiers behind the walls. Keep an eye on Church Square for Commandos. As players respawn at Road Block, they have far better options on which routes to take and often times a match is all but over after Road Block is controlled successfully.

To recap, Church Square is a nightmare to capture and defend, with little benefit. Road Block is far more important, can easily be reached by a jeep rush, and provides an invaluable respawn point that often determines who achieves victory in the village of victory.