WOTBB 58 – Supremacy

Original date of blog: September 16th, 2016

So, a little while ago, we got Supremacy in the game. The previews I saw of it, and with what I heard of it, I wasn’t really looking forwards to it at all. Random players already have such troubles playing the regular game with one base, just how much harder will it be for them to understand the need to capture multiple bases and that there’s an interactive point system to everything they do or don’t do?

When the update came about, I was not disappointed and had a morning run of probably about the most frustrating games I’ve ever had, most of them losses. Luckily, we got a feature in game that allowed us to switch the supremacy mode on or off. So I, along with most players I know, switched it off that very day.

It wasn’t until a week or so later, that I read something on the forum that got me thinking. It’s true that Supremacy gives you more xp than regular encounter battles, and this guy on the forum was talking about farming aces because all the pro-players weren’t playing it. That actually had me switch it on again to try again. I mean, if someone could enjoy it, why not me, too?

And it worked. Somehow, in the time that I had not been playing it, the general public had gotten a bit of an understanding about what needs to happen to win Supremacy games. Not just that, it also turned out to be a heck lot of fun.

I’m fairly sure people have noticed me being less active everywhere (this blog is also a prime example of that), and that’s to do with me losing interest in the game for various reasons. One of those reasons is because, in my opinion, the game has become so predictable since we got the +/-1MM, with people always following the same tactics on the same maps with the same tactics.

The rest of the reasons is a topic for another time. Either way, the game has become hopelessly predictable, and switching Supremacy back on more or less saved me. It actually turns out to be a heck lot of fun.

Why?

Well, supremacy doesn’t allow you to use the same old tactics, the same old positions. You have to think outside the box if you want to win. The tank you drive, the team you have, are much more important. Much more so than encounter mode. Everything and everyone counts. And I find that to be a much greater challenge. It actually pays off to keep your team alive, it pays off to cap bases, and it pays off to move about a lot.

There’s a downside to it – this is not a gamemode I’d enjoy much when driving very slow tanks (think Maus, or T95 (though I for sure am not driving that thing…), for instance), because you often need to think and act fast. But considering I’m getting into meds (or at least, fast tanks) more and more, I’m just loving it.

With encounter battles, I look at team consistency to decide what side they are the most likely to go to. I either go that way, or the other way on purpose, or go for a position where my tank will do best and dominate from there.

A good supremacy match, imo, starts with looking at both teams, at all the tanks available. If you already know the map in supremacy, you know where the bases are, and what kind of position those are in. The key to winning any supremacy battle is generally to get two of those bases, then hold. That’s how I always start the battle. I tell the team which bases I want to capture, followed by ‘then hold’.

Usually, this works. With every base you capture, you earn several points every few seconds. So, capturing half, or just over half of the bases (some maps have 3, some maps have 4), means that you can then take up a position that’ll allow you to kill off any enemy red that tries to take either of those bases, and it means that you can then move about, being generally sneaky and annoying to the reds, and either damage and kill them, capture the bases they have already captured.

People often joke about my love for tier I. But frankly, I love tier I because of the same reasons I love supremacy – no set pattern of things to follow. You have to adapt and adjust so much more. The only difference is that in supremacy, you still can’t get away with mistakes, and the gameplay is a lot more serious than tier I.

The gameplay is completely dynamic, and you have to think outside the box, not just for starting tactics (like you often had to with +/- 2MM and you were bottom tier), but throughout the game. You have to make quick decisions, change positions, work a lot more with and around your team. It’s a lot more exciting for me than encounter mode. It’s the most fun when you get to 1k points at the same time that you kill off the last red.

Of course, there’s been some terrible losses too – but you get those in encounter mode as well, so that’s nothing new, really. And slowly, but surely, other players are trying it out again too. But what surprises me is that a lot of people are still very stuck in an encounter-mode mindset when they enter supremacy. Thinking outside the box is apparently very difficult for a lot of people, and I think that that is why most (still) don’t like supremacy much.

Once you play a heck lot, especially with the current MM, you get stuck in your ways, and basically go through the motions most matches. And when you enter a gamemode where you simply can not get away with that, you’ll lose a lot, and resent that mode, because it’s easier to blame the mode than admit you still have things to learn. Of course, it can be that you just don’t like the mode itself, but I find that most people I’ve played with, that have since then been forced to play supremacy as well, have turned around and have started to like it, now they’re getting used to thinking differently when playing.

I’ve had a few aces since supremacy came out that I didn’t have before, because you can earn more xp in supremacy than in encounter. One of those aces was in the STB. Even if only for that, I’d forever love supremacy. But I love it most because it’s making the game more fun for me again.

In all seriousness though, it’s fun, it’s exciting. Give it a try, find out for yourself.