In the first couple of minutes, the offense should crush the majority, or preferably the entirety, of the opposition going midfield, and prepare to charge in to the base to gather the flag. The remaining defense should stand little chance against a wave of 10 units. Any opposition which does res, and get your flag straight off will be interecepted on the way out by the zerg returning to base.
The idea behind this strategy is to demoralize your opponent in the first couple minutes of the game, so that several basically give up, and either sit at their graveyard, or fight aimlessly in the middle. It is common after the first flag cap, for several of the offense to basically spawn camp the graveyard, discouraging players from moving to useful positions, and instead fighting the first person they see.
A successful 10-0 mid game will look something like this:
As with the 7-3 strategy, dying offensive players (in this case, everyone) should immediately return to midfield to resume the zerging/griefing. This strategy is best used against a pug, as it will be harder to demoralize an organized group. Additionally, the opposition will likely have proper healing support making them harder to kill quickly.
3-6-1 Lineup
In this strategy, three units are dedicated offense, but will rarely kill anyone, followed by 6 units that are assigned to take control of the midfield, leaving a single unit to defend the flag. This is also a great lineup to run if you have plenty of healers, as it requires long-term control of the midfield.
The Set Up
Teams should be divided something like the 7-3 setup:
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Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Group 4
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Flag Carrier
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Offense/Healer
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Offense
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Defense
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Healer
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Offense/Healer
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Healer
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Offense
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Offense
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Offense
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This is a macro you can use to assign roles at the beginning of a battleground:
/bg – 3-6-1 Standard Lineup --
/bg Group 1 Flag Carrier/Support
/bg Group 2 & 3 Midfield Control
/bg Group 4 Base Defense
In the first few moments, the flag carrier group should be moving away from the fighting, while the midfield is controlled. The map should look something like this:
Basic Game Plan
In the first couple of minutes, the offense record as many honor kills in the middle as possible, and quickly return to midfield after a res. Any opponent that makes it through will have to deal with the lone defender left at the base. For this reason, the defender should be a player who feels confident in their pvp skills, and has some good resistance to snares/cc. An ideal class is a BM hunter, who can track humanoids, lay frost traps, and send a big-red-immune to everything pet after whomever takes the flag.
The goal of the FC group, is not to kill anyone, but rather run in, grab the flag, and head out of the base as quickly as possible. Blessing of Freedom, and various Cyclones/HOJs/Roots can be used to stall the defenders as the carrier runs out of the room, returning to a friendly midfield, and eventually the base.
The general game play should look something like this:
In the event that your flag is captured, which will happen from time to time, it is vital to stop it in the mid-field, rather than having to hunt it down. Strategies for hunting down the flag will be discussed under the advanced tips/tricks section.
Advanced Tips/Tricks
What to do when things go wrong!
Things are going to go wrong, it’s inevitable. Below are some basic counters to the strategies listed above, as well as some general tips that can be used in your individual game play. First let’s discuss some counters:
10-0 Zerg Counter: While this strategy is very good vs a 7-3, or a pug, it can be countered by bringing all but 1 unit to the center of the map. Ideally, this will happen before they penetrate the base and capture the flag, but if you are caught off guard, bring out all resing teammates and all offense (sans the FC) to the middle of the map, focusing on killing the flag carrier, and CCing the healers. Staying in a 1-9-0 formation will force their 10 man zerg to run through your 9 man mid-field defense twice.
3-6-1 Counter: Often I’ve noticed a PUG strategy to counter a seemingly invulnerable flag killer, is to turtle with up to 8-9 units in the base. This will make it very difficult for a group of three to cap the flag. Now, a turtle has a very simple counter as well, which is to switch to a 7-3 (or perhaps even a 10-0 zerg depending on the size of the turtle). A defensive turtle is not really a viable long-term strategy, so I only listed it here, to point out a simple way to counter it.
7-3 Counter: If a team is controlling the midfield, with a 7-3, or has already established control with a 3-6-1, the best thing to do is switch to a 10-0 zerg. Bringing all 10 units to the midfield will give your team their best shot at regaining control of it. Once midfield control is regained, you can switch back to a 7-3, or a 3-6-1 if you choose. Offense/Defense strategies can be a bit like rock/paper/scissors, and is part of the charm of playing an organized vs. organized group in Warsong Gulch.
Here are a couple of tricks to try to change up a routine, or stalemate Warsong:
Sacrificial Lamb/Double Sprint Flag Capture: 2 or more rogues can stealth in to a base. One grabs the flag and takes off top side using sprint/cloak of shadows. The defense inside hopefully will all chase after the rogue, killing it around the graveyard spawn point. The second rogue has moved in to position, back at the flag return point. When it is returned, the rogue will grab the flag, sprint towards the boots in the tunnel, and then use the boots to sprint out in to a hopefully friendly midfield.
Top Level AOE attacks: If the flag room defense needs to be thinned out, you could have a mage run to the roof level of the opponents base, and use blizzard/flamestrike down on the defense guarding the flag. Hopefully, some of the defense will leave their post and run up to the rooftop to kill the mage. At this point, the offense, or stealthed units could solo the remaining defense, and proceed to steal the flag.
Lastly, what to do when you have your opponent's flag, and they have yours:
Ideally, your midfield control will allow you to focus fire on any flag carrier, before they make it back to the safety of their own base. There will be times however, when the above mentioned situation happens. When this is the case, you will have to scout. Try to determine what defenders the flag carrier has. Ask some questions, ‘are there healers?’, ‘what types of healers?’, ‘how many bodyguards’? If your opponents are turtling with3-4 units with the flag, you’ll have to send the appropriate numbers in to retrieve it. Be sure to send classes which can control healers, while providing good burst on the flag carrier. Mages, Rogues, Warriors, Hunters, are all good candidates. Keep your healers with your flag, but keep at least 1 or 2 dps classes as well, to ward off attackers.
If the case of an extreme turtle, where you need to bring 100% of your dps, or you need your healers to support your dps… you will have to bring the FC along also. The flag carrier can dps, but the healers need to be very, very conscious of the FCs health. Once the flag is returned, it will likely be picked up by the opposition again (you’ve got all 10 players in their base now). Treat this like it was the start of a 10-0 zerg. The opponent with the flag should be intercepted and killed midfield, which should be easier, as s/he will not have enough support. Return the flag again, and bring yours in for the cap and point.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Feel free to post any comments/concerns and I will do my best to address them.