Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

You’ve flaunted your muscular physique through many fights, crushing your foes beneath your mighty fists. Other players fear your very name as you’ve left nothing but broken bodies behind you through numerous UTC fights and B.A.S.H. free-for-alls. Now, you have come to a PvP match unlike any other in Champions Online; a match called Apocalypse: Stronghold. What makes Apocalypse: Stronghold different than the other PvP matches? Mainly, it is the fact that there is actual strategy involved in this scenario. We are here today to provide an overview of this PvP scenario, thus hopefully allowing you to gain the upper hand over your foes.

Premise
The premise of Apocalypse: Stronghold is rather straightforward. Namely, a group of villains are attempting to escape from Stronghold Prison whilst a group of heroes is attempting, naturally, to stop said villains from escaping. To win the scenario, you have to defeat the two leaders (villains or heroes) that are assigned to each side. When you join the queue for the scenario, it shouldn’t take too long to get the action going as typical wait times for new matches to begin tend to be fairly short. Once you have entered the scenario, you will be assigned to either the villain or hero team. You will begin in a starter area that has an elevator that will take you to the main map where all the action takes place. In the starter area is also a computer that, if you use it, will give you the particulars for this scenario.

Using the computer to get all the pertinent information about the scenario, you will find that there are a few more wrinkles to the scenario. First, each side has a number of turrets that guard the base room of the opposing teams. These turrets do a good deal of damage and can negate travel powers. Also, each side can summon reinforcements from time to time using the communication consoles. Reinforcements are additional heroes (or villains) that will appear and head towards the enemy’s base to take on their leaders, and everybody that gets in the way! There are also two control consoles, one located closely to each side’s base room. These control consoles can be taken over by either side. The more consoles you control, the greater the number of reinforcements that you summon.

Therefore, to win the scenario, you have to fight your way to your opponent’s base room, taking out the turrets (and hopefully taking control of their console) and enemy players along the way. Once inside their base room, you have to overcome two strong heroes (or villains). Once both leaders have been eliminated, your side wins.

Strategy
Basically, it is important to work with the other members of your team. You need to, as a group, fight your way to the enemy’s base room and then engage the leaders. If you go running off by yourself, you’ll probably be beaten down, either by the turrets or by enemy players (if there’s more than one). If you can, take control of the enemy’s control console, while also not allowing them to take control of yours. Summon reinforcements any time that you can. Having additional super-powered allies is a good thing. If the enemy is attacking your base room and you are defeated, run back as quickly as possible. You will respawn in the starting area. All you have to do is run over to the elevator to get back into the action.
That being said, it is best to concentrate on bringing down the enemy leaders as quickly as possible. First, the longer the fight drags on, the greater the chances that the enemy will take control of the consoles and swing the advantage back to their side when they summon reinforcements. Also, you don’t want to get trapped in the scenario for forever. There is no time limit to Apocalypse: Stronghold, so there is no real benefit to taking your focus off of defeating the enemy leaders. In fact, I have actually stood by and done nothing as the opposing team attacked my leaders as that I desperately wanted the match to end after being trapped in it for so long.

It is far easier to play defense in this scenario in that there are only two approaches leading to a single entrance to each base room. In addition, players respawn just a room away from the base room and can back in the fight in a few seconds. Therefore, if you die during a fight, get back to the base room as soon as possible! The opposing players have a great deal farther to travel than you do when they respawn.  Conversely, if you’re on offense, don’t let up! Have the entire team attack at the same time and make sure to heal each other if you’re able to. Defeating a defending player means they’re out of the fight for about 10 seconds or so. If an attacking player is dropped, they’ll be out for at least 3 times as long.

Tips
The main tip in this scenario is to work together. Going lone-wolf will get you killed most of the time. Your group needs to attack and defend as one. Another decent tip that is useful for attacking is to have most of the group draw out the opposing team to one of the corridors, while a member or two of your team tries to slip behind the opposing team using the other corridor.

Impressions
Overall, Apocalypse: Stronghold is not a terrible scenario, but a bland one with some design flaws in it. Sadly, it is the best PvP scenario in the game as that it is the only one with some strategy to it. Hopefully, in the future Cryptic can improve this scenario (and create a few more!). The best bet for ultimate victory is to work together, whether it be on offense or defense.