Battlefield 2: Special Forces MULTI-PLAYER!

This one is more for Rob, since he'll certainly appreciate it a little bit more than you other two. I'll let you all give it a shot anytime if interested!

Ok, so my first foray into the online version of BF2 was... interesting. For my first few maps I consistently had my ass handed to me. As I got used to the speed, the problem persisted. But I finally realized that this was LARGELY due to the fact that the Autobalance function does not mean your team is really balanced. Firstly, my team had two fewer players. Secondly, three of my team were not playing.... ARG! Thirdly, the three or four BEST players in the map were all on the other team. So although I was the start student on my team, we kept losing.

One thing I realized is that I NEED to learn how to fly the helicopters. I found them to be the dominant force on several maps.... able to destroy tanks and trucks, and also to put a hurtin' on ground troops while remaining relatively untouchable.

But here's a good story.... I was on Mass Destruction map and we were getting pressed back to the chemical building. I had been a sniper, but switch to anti-tank and go out the top floor window onto the sub-roof. Right in front of me is a Hind hovering over the water after blowing up everyone by the flag there. He was already smoking. It seemed like the pilot JUST saw me as I leveled the RPG launcher at him and fired.... he was pulling max pitch to fly over and past me but the rocket slammed into the cockpit and he blew up on the other side of the building.

Later I played the same map on a different server where there were no vehicles allowed. This made it MUCH more fun for me. So I played on both teams with my sniper rifle. By this time I'm getting handy with it and people are learning to be wary of open spaces.... particularly the train tracks, the island flag, and the junkyard flag. I just kept hopping walls and sneaking off shots at people. Was a lot of fun. One guy had set up shot and was icing my friends on the island. I managed to sneak up behind him and knife him. =)

The Warlord map was early on when I was still getting my bearings. Played as the SAS and tried their sniper rifle... HATE IT. It's bolt-action, so it takes forever between rounds. The problem is that I KNOW I will have hit someone, but the shot doesn't kill them and then I get nailed. Not fun. So I switched to anti-tank and went wall-climbing in random spots looking for juicy targets. Didn't enjoy this map so much.

My FAVORITE map was one I haven't played before. Night Flight! Played first as SAS and drove them out of town. I played as the assault character with the grapple hook. The enemies had two last flags and one was on a roof. I grappled up the side (couldn't find the stairs) and quickly ducked behind an air vent. Hucked a grenade forward, then charged while firing. Got two guys on the roof and a third as he came up the stairs and managed to hold the spot.

But then I played as the Insurgents!!! Back to my precious SVD semi-auto sniper rifle. I am SICK with this thing! Instead of charging off with the group, I start picking non-obvious spots to hide and cover a lane of fire. Usually this meant being out in the open surprisingly. But the other team couldn't deal with me. We won the map at 53 - 0. So it was long-fought battle. At one point everyone is firing away in a big fight on the east side amid the buildings. I move west and discover my DREAM sniper realm.... the runway! First time out, I was content to sit in the divits and try to spot guys. Had some success here before getting killed. Then we took the flag at the plane and I set up shot northeast of the nose by the edge of this 20-player map. I went prone and just started having fun. The SAS came for the plane and managed to take it. But I just kept dropping their guys left and right. Outside the plane, on or among ground equipment, even INSIDE the plane going up the ladder, LOL! But I totally wiped out THREE whole respawned groups. They got pissed and learned to stay away! So several minutes have gone by. My guys drop a reload and I ammo-up. Then I move further north and get some cover behind a low mound with a bush. I'm not there longer than a minute when I see an SAS guy crawling in from the side with a knife in his hand trying to get the drop on what he thought was my position. I didn't do anything extravagant, just whipped out the silenced pistol and dropped him. =) But then I did get popped by a grenade. =(

So on my final life in this particular map, I tried finding a spot on the west side of the runway. I actually found a deusy. (Deusenberg - "It's a Deasy" - that is the origination of the term) Anyway, there's a hangar with a small building next to it. This is just south of the tail of the C5 and the small building is actually raised on cinder blocks..... I can't get UNDER it, but I CAN shoot under it. =) So I sat here for a LONG LONG time. They couldn't find me. TWICE I found and killed a sniper who was running along this way or that trying to anticipate where I might be. He wasn't happy, but he put up with my slaughter good-naturedly and kept swearing "I'm going to find you." Nope, never made it. But I was able to pop a bunch more guys from here before the end. The BEST part of all this is that the SAS team got spooked when they were near the plane. By then end, whenever I fired and there was more than one of them they all hit the dirt!!! Plus, I DID get some sick humor out of this one guy who I dropped. The medic revived him. I killed him. Medic revived him again. I killed the medic. The first guy is still prone, trying to crawl "away" but remains fully visible. I give him a minute to breathe, thinking he's safe. Then I pop him in the head. =) Oops! It is definitely fun when I get to take people down and they don't know where I am shooting from. I'm putting my mind to work finding creative spots. One obvious spot was the same sub-roof in Mass Destruction. When we played without the vehicles I got up there once when it was an enemy flag area and would jog back and forth between the windows. I was rather successful!!! In one life I managed to totally surprise and kill 5 guys. Then when I went to change windows I ran across the room as a Heavy Support guy came up the stairs and wiped me out. But when you go across any map there are 'obvious' spots like rooftops, knolls, windows and the like. I'm trying to find spots that DON'T draw the eye so much where they might pass over me without noticing while I pop one of their guys from behind. Once I got a little better at the game, I highly enjoyed the 'shoot and move' approach. Too much fun!

One thing I do NOT understand is why the programmers would equip the sniper with a zip line? Useful for a quick escape or something? Total waste. Snipers need the grapple hook, dangit!! We have the good guns, and we ought to have an easier time getting to elevated positions or rooftops which are inaccessible to others. Ah well.

When I quit, I was still a Private. My next level bar is about 99%, so I'll get my first promo next time I play. I just can't wait until I can unlock some new weapons!

Hope I get to play a few maps with Rob soon. He definitely has the time/skill advantage on me, but I'll catch up. Would be fun to play on the same team and give everyone hell. Tandem untis I have thought of are: Medic/Support, Sniper/Sniper, Sniper/Assault, Sniper/AT. The rest of the units are fine, they just don't have the advantages I look for. And we DEFINITELY need to learn how to fly the helos!!! Not just ok, but GOOD like the guys I was against tonight. It really swayed the battle in their favor. That's another way of saying that it REALLY SUCKED having to try and deal with the armored flying buggars who kept firing unending missiles and bullets down. By my reckoning, if they have AT guys in the game and snipers with zip lines, why don't they have an AA rocket guy? One final pet peeve was that I would often get several rounds off and miss or hit but not kill a guy... and this is me getting the drop on them... but they would managed to jump, go prone or just let loose a burst and I would be toast. It seemed a bit slanted to me.

Anywho, fun game. HL2 was a little more fun, imo, but since that game has gone to hell BF2 will definitely fill the gap!

TGIF, guys.