4Game

I tried to describe this match as fairly and accurately as possible, but if anyone is willing to watch my replay, I'd really appreciate that. I am genuinely conflicted about whether my team could have won.

Replay Link

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So, I just played a match on the Ruinberg map in my T-44 in an all Tier 8 game. For most of the game I played like I usually do. The village flank fell pretty quickly, but the friendly heavies in the town managed to clear it pretty quickly, as well. Since it was a standard battle some tanks went for the enemy cap while another and myself tried to get shots on the tanks that were in the village.

After the first group of tanks tried to cap and were either sniped to death or killed by the enemy Bat Chat. At this point, the T32 and IS-3 start berating us remaining tanks in chat about how we could have capped. I'm skeptical, to be honest, considering how the first group were all killed.

So, with around seven minutes remaining, there are three of us left. All mediums (a Bourrasque and a Kpz 07 RH) and all of us around half health. The enemy team also has three tanks left: a Rheinmetall-Borsig, the Bat-Chat 12 T, and a Bourrassque. One of their tanks is capping our base. I have no idea which one is doing that. It wasn't the TD, though, as he was recently spotted up on the 2 easternmost lines of the map near the village.

This is where things, I think, get controversial. I'm more than willing to accept the idea that how I played going forward caused us to lose the match.

So, the two friendly meds are capping and the dead tanks are encouraging me to do that as well and hide. Under normal circumstances I would have done that. However, I can't help but think that the reds can just outspot us and snipe us all to death. As I start to consider helping them cap, the enemy Bat-Chat comes screaming out of the town and resets the cap. While it dies in the attempt, our Bourrasque now has less than 100 HP. So, I decide to try and find the other enemy tanks instead of capping, but the dead friendlies keep telling me to cap so I turn around and head for the cap. Meanwhile, the friendly Bourrasque is sniped by the enemy Borsig. Likely from the eastern edge of the map. That all takes place in the course of thirty or so seconds.

At this point, I am really indecisive about what to do. I keep turning my tank towards the town then back towards the cap. At the same time, the friendly Kpz bugs out of the cap. I suspect he came to the same conclusion I had that there is no way to win by capping now. Either way, neither team is capping now. I suspect the remaining two enemy tanks had entered NO CAP, KILL ALL mode.

Another thirty seconds or so goes by. The Kpz heads off to the northwest corner of the map while I'm still being indecisive. Chat is not happy. Well, mainly just the IS-3, T32, and the Skoda. They're telling me to hide. Anyway, I eventually decide to head into the town to hunt for the two enemy tanks. At the same time, the Kpz is sniped by the Borsig. At no point during this ending phase of the match has the TD revealed himself until now. However, he is outside of my view range as I'm inside of the town. Also, I haven't seen the enemy Bourrasque in quite some time so it could be anywhere.

So, I decide to head along the big central road to try and flank around the Borsig and kill him. As luck would have it, the Bourrasque was (likely) spotting for the Borsig and spots me. He gets off two shots. One shot penetrates and one shot bounces off of my armor. I duck into cover. The Borsig also gets a shot off of me and it, too, bounces. The Bourrasque tries to race south to also get behind cover. As he races past me, I manage to get a shot off. It hits him and takes off most of his remaining health.

So, I turn back towards the center of the town and take a long circuitous route around the map border, going counterclockwise, in order to try and flank around the TD or spot the Bourrasque. In hindsight, I probably should have stayed within the town since the Borsig ended up hunting for me inside of the town.

After unsuccessfully trying to catch the Borsig unawares (and I wasn't spotted at all during this maneuver) I decide to head into the town. Now, here, I clearly messed up. I accidentally rolled into the cap circle. This, obviously, told them where I was. Long story short, as I try to race back into the town I stumble on the Borsig and he kills me.

Now, I'm not saying I did everything right or even played particularly well. I clearly made a lot of mistakes and got lucky more than once with those two bounced shots. If they'd hit I would've been dead. I was clearly the cause of the loss.

What I'm wondering here is if my initial decision to not cap was the right one given what I knew at that time. To recap, the first group of tanks that tried to cap were all sniped to death by the enemy tanks that were in the eastern village. The second were, admittedly, hiding well, but the remaining enemy tanks (the Bourrasque and the Bat-Chat) could have easily reset the cap. Which the Bat-Chat ended up doing anyway even if he did die in the process.

Any comments are appreciated. Also, just for the record, I don't blame the friendly players in chat for being mad at me. Some of them ended up doing very well.