This month Mythic Entertainment brings us another high end scenario for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in the rugid Dwarf vs Greenskin battleground. Howling Gorge is a sinister enough name, but engaging in something called "WAR Football" will be anything but easy. Lead RvR Designer Brian Wheeler goes through this interesting Tier 4 bombing run scenario and points out exaclty how it works and what strategies you can use to win. Check this out before you grab the bomb and run.

 

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by Brian Wheeler, Lead RvR Design

Welcome folks to another episode of Scenarios 101! With this episode we continue on our Greenskin vs. Dwarf track covering two Tier 4 Scenarios!

Howling Gorge

Howling Gorge is a 12 vs. 12 Scenario in Tier 4 Greenskin vs. Dwarf. Anyone between levels 30 and 40 can play this Scenario.

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This is another bombing run Scenario, aptly nicknamed “WAR football” from our Beta testers. The goal is simple… get the powder keg from the middle of the map and take it to the enemy camp destroying their cache. Each time you successfully bomb the enemy, you’ll get points towards winning the Scenario. The bomb does have a fuse though and if you don’t deliver it within 90 seconds, expect a nasty surprise!

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Spawn points in this Scenario are on opposing sides of the map (north and south). You can either rush straight out towards the central powder keg or go to the right and drop into the play-area on a higher level. This side path gives each Realm an alternate path out of the spawn areas as well as a faster route to defend your camp. There are various Orc bridges that span from the centre as routes towards the bombing targets. Order and Destruction banners mark the various routes you can take towards the enemy’s cache.

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This Scenario may seem straightforward, but the terrain should play a key role in your strategy. If you decide to send a group to capture the powder keg and send a group to defend your target location, while ideal, this could easily leave you overwhelmed by twelve enemy players that were sent to the powder keg. Routes out of the centre area are varied and you can take high or low paths, but with player collision a few tanks can block off routes on the bridges, ruining your escape plan. Similar to Talabec Dam, this Scenario requires a good balance of offence and defence to win!

Gromril Crossing

Gromril Crossing is an 18 vs. 18 Scenario in Tier 4 Greenskin vs. Dwarf. Anyone between levels 30 and 40 can play this Scenario.

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This Scenario features a tug-of-war mechanic where one capture location will be open at a time depending on the status of the other capture locations. There are five total locations to capture that run north to south in the snowy terrain: The Bridge, Repair Depot, Pile O’ Warstuff, Engine 9 and Da Base. The Bridge is the first one that’s open and can be captured by clicking the banner located here. The banner will switch over to your Realm after defending it for a short period of time (which grants points) and the next location towards the enemy camp will open for capture. The deeper you go into enemy territory, the more points you get for capturing an area. Conversely, recapturing areas close to your home base will grant you fewer points.

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Each spawn location has two exit points: one leads right into the play area and the other leads into a tunnel that offers a faster path to the first capture location. The Bridge is a narrow capture area and it’s elevated (it’s a bridge!). You’ll need to defend this central capture area from both sides as enemy players can use the prior mentioned tunnels to hit you from behind. Once the bridge is captured, you’ll move to either the Repair Depot or Pile O’ Warstuff. These capture locations have roughly three directions they can be assaulted from, so attacking and defending these can be tricky. Once either of these have been captured, the final capture locations will be available: Engine 9 or Da Base. These two are very close to the spawn locations so defenders will have a good chance at pushing the enemy back if they group up in the spawn areas.

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Due to the nature of the single capture locations being open at a time in this Scenario, you really have to focus on assaulting, then defending these areas. If you simply grab a capture area then run off to chase down the enemy, expect to lose it again quickly. This is a true tug-of-war, and whichever side exerts their will the most will win each capture location. You can either send a massive force at each capture location to inflict an incalculable massive battle or you can splinter off forming miniature “cut off” squads to delay would-be attackers/defenders from reaching the capture points. Remember to use the side tunnels from each spawn area and you’ll find this Scenario has a lot of depth even though it focuses on a single capture location at a time.

That’s it for this episode of Scenarios 101! These are two out of the four Scenarios offered in Tier 4 Greenskin vs. Dwarf. Stay tuned next time for information on Thunder Valley and Logrin’s Forge!

Until next time… BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!