MAG Guide - Game Types and General Tactics

I did not write this, I saw it on the official MAG forum and thought it would be a good idea to have it here as well as sometimes these things tend to disappear over time and I know if it's here it won't go anywhere.

All credit to oHIKARUo and Thagmor for writing/compiling this stuff.

SABOTAGE

 

This 32 vs 32 player mission requires the attacking team to secure two computer terminals (objectives A and B) in order to gain access to the last objective (C) which needs to be destoyed by planting a demo charge on it.

 

 

 

Here are the roles that each team need to keep in mind in order to perform on this mission.

 

ATTACKING TEAM

 

Snipers: Prior to objectives A and B being taken under your team's control, you need to stay in a position that will allow you to have line of sight on the defending players guarding the computer access panels at objectives A or B.  After your team takes control of the objective you are watching over, you need to cover the entry way(s) into the objective to prevent it from being recaptured by the defending team.  If at all possible, a direct line of sight to the control panel is the best position possible here since it will allow you to score an easy kill while the enemy attempts to recapture the objective, this is superior to shooting a moving enemy through an entry point.

 

Once objective C is unlocked you will need to cover the entry points into objective C in order to reduce the number of defending players able to hold the objective.

 

 

Assault, LMG: The players equipped with the assault or LMG weapons are the bread and butter of the attacking team.  Head directly for the objectives and use smoke grenades to mask your assault into the objective location.  Prior to taking the objective fill the objective room with frag grenades to ensure the defending forces are wiped out completely.  After capturing the objective plant AP mines near the computer panel to buy your team some time in case you are killed while defending the control panel.  It is important to hold the control panel room while the other two squads are attempting to capture their objective.  Do not abandon your control panel at any time, cover the entry points into the control room and simply wait.

 

Once objective C is unlocked you must storm the compound and plant a demo charge onto objective C.  Bring AP mines to place around the demo charge and entry ways to buy your team some extra time in case you die.  Frag grenades will also assist greatly in cracking the enemy defense.

 

 

Medic: Stay near the Assault LMG players hang back behind cover.  If you see one of them take a mortal wound, quicky emerge from cover revive them then run back into cover.  You are the attacking teams anchor, they rely on your revive ability to keep the pressure on the enemy defenses.  Bring smoke grenades if you think a particular player is too risky to revive, throw the grenade on him and emerge from cover to revive him within the smoke.  This will also give him a chance to effectively perform his mission upon reviving.

 

This final push into objective C can be much easier if you revive every single person that needs a revive regardless of the immediate risk.  The reason for this is that with the intense fighting at this location, your life span is reduced significantly so you need to make the most of your life by providing the assault members of your team with another chance.

 

 

DEFENDING TEAM

 

Snipers: Keep scanning the battlefield for attacking snipers trying to take out the players guarding the objective rooms.  You need to take these players out before the attacking team can capture the objective.  Once the objective is captured, you have to focus your attention to the attacking players holding the objective and take them out to assist your assault/ LMB teammates.

 

Once objective C is unlocked you will need to focus on taking snipers from the attacking team out in order to allow your assault players to get into the objective room safely.  If you can manage to kill all snipers, take a moment to shoot at some advancing assault players on the attacking team, then check the typical attacking team's sniper locations once more and kill them before they can get their sights on you. Rinse, repeat.

 

 

Assault/ LMG:  You need to make sure that the attacking team does not access the objective's computer panel.  Planting AP mines in the objective room and entry points are a VERY good way of keeping the enemy at bay.  If you can maintain the AP mines placed throughout the objective and it's entry points you will defend the objective with little risk to yourself.  Never stop moving while you are inside the objective room or you are begging to get killed by a sniper.  Even if you think a shot isn't possible, you should never completely stop moving.  One unfortunate death while defending can mean the difference between holding the objective, and losing it.  Avoid easy mistakes like getting too comfortable.  Do not stay too close to each other in case the attacking team throws several grenades into the objective area.

 

AP mines and frag grenades will make the biggest difference here, you need to mine the objective (C) and throw grenades into entry points in order to keep the attacking team out.  The very last resort will be a direct controntation with firearms as that means the enemy has a clear path to charge you at that point.  LMGs using bipod can suppess a narrow entry way successfully and for a long time giving your assault rifle teammates a chance to reload and reposition.

 

Medic: The best position for you to be in is near the objective room, revive any teammates as soon as possible to ensure the defense of the objective.  You will be at risk the entire time since the objective is a small area so you need to make important decisions between fighting back and reviving.  Just remember that if you can revive players you can attempt to maintain numerical advantage over you attakers who have to spend more time running if they die without being revived.  You are responsible for how well your team can defend the objective.

 

Again, you are responsible for how long your team can defend the final objective from being taken.  You need to take every opportunity to revive a player.  For every player you lose defending the final objective, the enemy will close in  on the final objective.

 

 

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ACQUISITION

 

 

This 64 vs 64 player mission requires the attacking team to punch their way deep into the defending team's base and acquire two prototype transport vehicles and deliver them to the evac location which is back where the attackers originate from.

 

 

ATTACKING TEAM

 

Snipers: If you have a 50 cal sniper rifle (final sniper rifle), you need to focus your ENTIRE time on destroying every single bunker turret.  For every second you spend trying to kill players on the defending team, a member of your attacking team can be killed by an active turret.  Your role in this mission is support.  Constantly disabling the enemy bunker turrets will also allow your APCs to last longer and go deeper into enemy territory.  Disabling turrets is the absolute highest priority.  

 

If you do not have a 50 cal sniper rifle then you need to focus on taking out the turrets with an RPG.  Be sure to have a load out with an RPG available.  Find the nearest supply depot or APC and use that to reload after you shoot your RPG at the turrets.  Repeat until all turrets are destroyed.

 

After all turrets are destroyed keep an eye on turrets for a blue spark, glow, this is a player on defense attempting to repair the turret. If you don't have a clear shot with your sniper's rifle then shoot another RPG at the turret and the explosive splash damage will kill the player attempting repairs on the turret along with damaging the turret again.  If you can maintain this task throughout the offensive campaign you will be a tremendous help and will complete the mission much quicker.

 

 

Assault/LMG:  You will need to avoid direct line of sight with turrets as you approach the defensive front line.  When you plant a charge on a bunker plant any AP mines you might have and/or take cover in a nearby bush with direct line of sight to any defensive player attempting to defuse your charge.  Watch your charge until it explodes taking the bunker with it.  If you have to stay near the charge and fight to the death at the risk of blowing up along with the bunker, then you absolutely have to do so to assist your attacking team gain a better foothold against the defense. If you are having difficulty with planting a charge on a bunker, try smoke grenading the area that you plant the charge on followed by placing AP mines then take cover and watch over your charge.  

 

You are responsible for taking the transport vehicle from the enemy's base to the evac location.  Before you take the transport vehicle, make sure a clear path to the evac location free of gates, and any impassible terrain/obstacles is available before doing so.  Otherwise you will lose the element of surprise and will end up summoning several players from the defense team that will actively hold the transport location making your job much more difficult throughout that mission.

 

Bringing an explosive detector is very helpful when assaulting in case the enemy defense placed AP or Vehicle mines.  Bring smoke grenades to cover yourself while you are exposed accessing the transport container's control panel.  Bringing an RPG is useful in case the defending team has an APC near the prototype container.

 

 

Medic: You will have to make important decisions on whether a player is worth reviving based on your situation.  If you feel that your death will hamper your teams attack then you must not take risks reviving a player that is dying in a  high risk location.  If you absolutely have to revive somebody in a high risk location try smoke grenading his location first then go in for the revive attempt.  Once you are past enemy lines with more than one player, they will all depend on you for their continued success behind enemy lines, your death will be a big loss to the commando squad so you need to make calculated decisions.

 

 

 

 DEFENDING TEAM

 

 Snipers: The primary task for a sniper on the defensive team is to CONSTANTLY, and I mean constantly, without being distracted by anything else going on, watch over the bunkers rear section that is vulnerable to demo charge placement.  If you can watch this critical area for the duration of the entire defense mission you will without a doubt be the most important asset to the entire defensive team.  Once your squad loses their bunker, their effective defense ability is drastically reduced since it takes around a minute (out of a 20 minute match) to get back to the front lines, which the enemy is now infesting with their presence.  The most important thing when playing this critical defense role is to never be distracted, do not go for an easy kill, do not reload needlessly, aways be ready to shoot the attacking player attempting to place a charge in the head, for a one hit kill and to more importantly prevent your bunker from being destroyed.  If you attempt to multitask while doing this you will definitely fail.

 

If your defensive location gets overwhelmed by the enemy and you cannot get a clear shot on the attacking player placing the charge you will have to try killing everybody that you can in the area to provide your teammates at the bunker a chance to defuse the charge.  If the bunker still explodes despite your best efforts you need to watch over the next bunker as that will be the next logical target for the attacking team.  Try to prevent the next bunker from falling.  If you choose a smart location you are relatively safe from even attacking team snipers.  Survey the area and choose wisely.

 

In the event that the bunkers are all destroyed, you will need to quickly make your way to the prototype vehicle storage and position yourself in such a way that you are overlooking the transport vehicle container's access panel.  Your priority at this point in the game is to headshot any attacking player attempting to access the control panel to take the prototype from your base.  Again, as before, you cannot be distracted, do not multitask, just watch over the control panel.  Most people access the panel from the front so it makes things easier, if possible position yourself so that you can take a shot at the enemy whether they are in front of or behind the access panel.  This task will provide the greatest help to your team as you will effectively cut off the enemy from completing their objective.

 

 

 Assault/LMG:  Your priority is to defend the bunker from being destroyed, your secondary priority is the front gate.  The majority of forces should be NEAR the bunker, not in front of it but near the bunker watching over the entry points that the attacking team must take in order to approach your bunker.  A common mistake that people make is charging the enemy at the start of the game.  This is not very effective since it isn't defending at all.  To do your job properly, prevent the enemy from placing charges on the bunker.  Let the turret operator kill all the front line enemy forces charging your base.  Defuse the charge at the gates as needed.  The primary focus needs to be defending the bunker.  If you can defend the bunker the enemy cannot effectively get past you.  Repair the turret as soon as it is down to maintain suppression of attacking forces.  The turrets highest priority is killing the attacking team's APCs.

 

 If you lose control of your bunkers, fall back and immediately get an APC. You will need to park the APC near the prototype vehicle's container.  In the event that the attacking team accesses the control panel you will need to drive yor APC into the container pinning the prototype in the container with no way out.  You will need to hold this position as long as possible until help arrives and destroys the vehicle while it is trapped inside the container.  This will prove to be a critical factor in winning as defense.  If you have a gunner in the APC that shoots the prototype this will be much easier.

 

 

 Medic: If you stay near the bunker along with the assault team you can revive players as needed, then get back into the bunker to avoid dying, and only emerge to revive.  You are also the last bastion of defense in the event your entire assault team dies defending the bunker.  You will have one chance to kill anybody at the bunker before/after they place the demo charge and you will be the last hope in defusing the charge.

 

 

 

While attacking or defending, it is important to keep your APC at full health, at all times.  While defending, if you lose a bunker it is usually not worth going back to repair it unless the rest of your team is successfully holding the enemy.  It is more effective to defend the transport containers if you feel that too much of the enemy has already passed through the front lines.  This is afterall, the primary mission and victory condition required for the attacking team to win.

 

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DOMINATION

 

This 128 vs 128 player mode requires EACH attacking platoon to capture TWO pairs of towers followed by a pair of computer control panels located inside a building complex.  There are 3 stages to the attack.

 

 ATTACKING TEAM

 

 Snipers: Just as in Acquisition, the highest priority here is to concentrate on taking out and maintaining bunker turret destruction throughout the first 2 phases of the attack. Your performance in keeping the bunker turrets down will give your ground troops the much needed edge when capturing the first stage's objectives.  If you spend time hunting individual ground troops you will not be providing the assistance your team requires in order to capture and maintain the objectives.  There is PLENTY of opportunity in the final stage to snipe individual ground troops so wait until that time, your team comes first.

 

After the first stage of objectives is taken, advance to the nearest supply depot and once again maintain the destruction of turrets for your entire platoon.  Focus on destroying the turret your own squad has to face, then follow up by destroying every other turret in case the rest of the platoon doesn't have somebody as dedicated as you destroying turrets and preventing their repair.  Once again, do not spend anytime at all on taking individual troops out, the continued destruction of bunker turrets is the highest priority at this point.

 

After the bunker line is destroyed you can now get to the anti personnel part of sniping.  Keep a long distance between you and the second stage's objectives.  Focus your aim at the objective that your squad is attacking.  Keep your aim on the objective so you can take out any defending players attempting to recapture the objective.  These kills should be VERY easy since the target will be immobile while attempting to recapture the objective, you get about 1-2 shots before it begins the recapture routine.  During this part of the attacking mission focus on killing as many ground troops as possible.  If you packed your RPG you can attempt to take out enemy APCs as necessary, but your priority here is to keep enemies away from the objective.

 

The final part of the attacking mission involves breaching a complex and capturing the objective inside and maintaining it to do damage to the facility over time.  You will have to be creative at this stage in the game and find a SAFE location that will also provide a long distance shot  at ground troops and cut them down as they make their way from the spawn point to the objective.  Since you do not have a clear shot into the complex you will have to shoot moving targets. This will require a high level of sniping.  A technique you can use to help you is pre aim a headshot and simply hold your line of fire until the enemy is just about the cross it then pull the trigger.  Or you can take this time to practice this difficult shooting technique at long range.

 

Another technique is to throw grenades from long distances into the path that the defense team's reinforcements run through in order to get indirect kills like a mortar strike. Simply repeating this technique will ensure kills over time. This will also demoralize the enemy as they will get frustrated with this and will seek alternative routes that usually take MORE time to get to the same destination.  This is also a very safe technique that you can use to rack up kills with little to no danger to yourself. In place of frag grenades, you can throw smoke grenades in the wide open areas that will provide the assault team with much needed cover and diversion.

 

 

 Assault/LMG: During the first stage of the mission you need to capture and hold a pair of objectives.  Concentrate on the objective that is on your side of the map.  If possible bring AP mines or frag grenades.  Use frag grenades to clear the area around the objective before moving in for it.  Once you capture the objective plant AP mines around the objective to prevent the enemy from retaking the objective.  Once you capture the objective it is important that you do not attempt to go to the other objective, you must hold and defend the objective you captured.  Have faith in the other half of the platoon that they can manage to capture their own objective. Afterall, once they do capture their objective it is time to move onto the next since you are already holding your objective.

 

After completing the first stage of objectives, move on to destroying the bunkers.  Just like in Acquisition, watch your demo charge after planting it and kill anybody that attempts to defuse it.  AP mines are useful here but a high risk move to plant them since the enemy will spawn right next to you and catch you off guard before you can re equip your primary weapon.  Keep this in mind.

 

After the bunkers are destroyed immediately move towards the second stage of objectives BEFORE they are activated and show up on the mnini map.  This head start will give you a much needed advantage.  It is very possible that if this headstart is taken full advantage of, your platoon can capture both objectives and move onto the third and final stage immediately.  If this isn't the case simply do the same thing you did in the first objective, capture and maintain the objective, wait for the other half of the platoon to do the same.

 

The final stage of the mission requires you to breach a building and capture and maintain an objective for a longer period of time.  LMG users really shine in this part of the mission because of the 1)narrow entries 2) high damage and large quantity of ammo per "magazine".    The LMG user can setup a bipod and maintain constant vigilance over an entry point and mow down almost any number of defending players that attempt to recapture the objective.  The more LMG users you can setup at this point will ensure your team the victory.  If you lose control of the objective and your teamates are all killed, bring frag grenades, a lot of frag grenades.  Evenly distribute your frag grenades between the entry of the building you need to breach, the next hallway/room, and the control panel room.  You should reduce the risk of dying upon entry significantly by clearing the area with frag grenades first.

 

 

  Medic: This will be a full time job for you as the battle will only increase in intensity as you close in on the final objective.  Just as before, you need to use good judgement when deciding who can be saved and who cannot.  Using a mic is good (in any mission/map) because you can let various members of the squad know to bleed out because you cannot take the risk of reviving them, or you can let various members of the squad know to hold on just a bit longer and you WILL revive them.  Keeping constant communication with the mortally wounded members of your squad is a large part of what makes a good medic.  This way you are efficiently controlling the casualties and you won't have problems with players who get angry at you for keeping them waiting and not reviving them (common problem), then when they die again near you they won't even bother to wait and immediately bleed out.  If you have a player like this, the easiest way out of this problem is to apologize (even if it isn't your fault) and ensure them that you will keep better contact with them and to have faith in your reviving abilities.

 

When you are in the final stage of the mission your ability to revive quickly will be an invaluable asset to anybody around you.  In the final stage of this mission every second of holding the objective counts towards victory.

 

 

 

 

DEFENDING TEAM

 

 Snipers: This is a difficult toss up between protecting your bunkers and protecting the first stage of objectives.  However, this decision is made MUCH easier when you realize one important factor between the objectives and protecting your bunker.  The factor is that with your bunker destroyed early on in the match your entire squad will lose 1-1.5 minutes traveling from the center to the objective your team needs to hold and defend or your bunker.  Having said that, it is absolutely imperative in this mission that you take it upon yourself to guard the rear of your squads bunker by positioning yourself far away and maintaining constant overwatch of your bunkers rear section that is vulnerable to demo charges.  If the bunker is destroyed it is almost guaranteed that the attacking force will continue to sweep and destroy each and every bunker belonging to your platoon.  I cannot stress the importance of this defensive goal enough.  There should be plenty of commandos attempting to plant charges and you should have no problem taking them out.  It will be VERY difficult to get killed by anybody because they should be killed as soon as they hang around your bunker for more than a few seconds by your squads Assault personnel.

 

If your team cannot hold the first objective, you are already in position to defend the bunkers.  As long as your platoon can maintain all four bunker turrets and keep your teammates from allowing the attacking team to slip through any cracks you will have a sound defense.  Maintain watching over your bunkers weak spot and hold position.

 

Sometimes, despite the best efforts from you and your team you simply cannot stop the oncoming enemy.  If you lose your bunker then you will have to position yourself in such a way to prevent the enemy from capturing the next stage of objectives.  Maintain constant vigilance over the objectives and always be prepared to take down an enemy as soon as they begin to access the objective (easy headshot as long as you positioned yourself properly).

 

If the enemy is persistant enough and pushes you back to the third stage of the mission, there is little you can do as a sniper.  The most effective thing you can do at this point is to get frag grenades, a lot of them, and start throwing them into the common entry points and throw some past the entry point in an attempt to indrectly kill the attacking team.  Reload repeat.  The grenade defense you can provide your team will be invaluable because in this final stage of the mission your primary goal is to prevent the enemy from controlling your objective at all.  You will hopefully have absorbed enough of the match time at this point that you are only required to hold out for less than 10 minutes.  The reason that I recommend switching to an assault role at this point is because shooting at random people outside the complex doesn't help your team.  The most direct way to help your team at this point is to maintain the defense of your final objectives.

 

 

 Assault/LMG: The name of the game is, "Time" and your job is to absorb as much time as possible in the first two stages of the enemies offense during this mission.  The first stage objectives must be defended using any means possible.  Maintain a barrage of grenades, artillery, AP mines, and Assault personnel at every entry to the objective.  Once again, the main goal is to absorb the enemies time.  You want to have the attacking team waste as much time as possible here, at the first stage of defense.  The second stage of objectives are much more difficult to defend than the first stage so make it count.

 

If you are unable to hold the attacking team off then the next part of your defense is to keep the enemy from passing your bunker line.  You must make sure that not a single enemy can cross the line and get to the second stage of objectives.  You need to remember that at this point in the mission you do NOT want to move in front of your bunker.  You want to stay behind you bunker and watch for infiltrators.  Most infiltrators are more concerned with moving quickly past you so you will usually have the advantage against them.  There are members of the attacking team that only want to over run bunkers and these are the real threat.  Maintaing your bunker turrets health is very important as the bunker turret really shines at this point of the mission by holding down choke points with deadly efficiency.

 

If your bunker line is lost, do not ever stop going for the second stage of objectives.  Remember, time is the key here.  You need to do whatever it takes to absorb as much time as you can from the attacking team by holding the objective.  If possible hold the area just in front of the objective and cut off entry points while maintaing a defensive position against incoming attackers.  Hiding behind corners are nice to attack the enemy as they pass by and head blindly towards the objectives.

 

 Finally if your team is pushed back to the final stage of objectives you will have to do your best to get inside the complex and watch over any enty points into the complex and defend the objective.  AP mines and plenty of grenades will be a huge factor in deciding whether or not you can hold this final objective or not.  If you are currently in control of BOTH your objectives, the best defense you can put up while being relatively safe is to throw all of your grenades outside the building towards the attacking team, reload, and repeat.  This will score you several kills and prevent a full squad of the enemy making it into your complex. If you did a good enough job in the first two stages of the mission you will be in the position to make it neary impossible for the attacking team to win.  This is possible because the damage over time that occurs with the attacking team holding the final stage of objectives, if time runs out then they simply fail thei mission, while you succeeded in holding them off.

 

 

 Medic:  Reviving players throughout this defensive mission will determine whether your team can win the mission or not.  The defensive team has to focus on absorbing as much time as possible in the first two stages of the mission in order to achieve a decisive victory.  Reviving teammates will need to be a top priority because if both objectives are taken your team will have failed to take advantage of that stage and would not have absorbed as much time as possible.  It is almost worth it to throw yourself in bad situations if you can revive a player simply because the bunker respawn isn't too far from the first stage of objectives.

 

During the second stage of objectives you will have to be much more conservative in reviving players as there is a 20-30 second jog ahead of you if you die.  At the same time you need to consider the impact if the attacking team takes control of the objectives.  Remember, use your mic to talk to your mortally wonded squadmates to let them know whether to bleed out or not.

 

In the final push you will need to be in the entry points, and revive as many players as you can while maintaining a safe defensive position.  If your squad gets pushed back be sure to head back to the control room to put up a last stand and revive ANYBODY you can during any control room skirmish, as any additional forces can make a huge difference when fighting over the control room.