Home
Introduction
Group Survival
Know your limit
Communication
The art of retreat
Situation awareness
To predict
The Dance
To be useful
The Invite
Training
Places to see

The Group

The most important of them all, and the one that colors all my decisions - is the Group Survival. The benefit of the group goes beyond any single exiles want. The survival of the group as a whole, is more important than my fallen or unfalleness. Which means that if a beast is hitting the last standing healer, you, as a fighter - better be fallen before the healer. Or, if another fighter is in a better condition to fight a beastie in a dangerous situation, you fall before he/she does. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices like this. To dive right in front of a beastie, covering the stronger fighter/healer in order to protect and let them flee and heal up. Because then, the group as a whole have a better chance of getting raised.

That also means I don´t tag a beast when I know I can´t take another hit. Even if I can brick it. I simply don´t take the chance, and I can live with the experience lost. There will be other beasties, and I will be healthy and able to fight them. There are many reasons for this.

It costs a healer more to raise a fallen, than to heal a standing fighter. Chances are that if I get hit on low yellow, I will need two healers. Two healers that have to raise me instead of healing the battling fighters. One fallen fighter in a group means one less axe in case an ambush. That last tag, can mean in a worst case scenario - that the whole group falls. Don´t tag if you are not sure you can take another hit. The only exception is when the group´s safety as a whole is threatened, and your hit might be a way to diminish the threat.

A situation where I do exactly that. Look at this sketch. This is a very, very dangerous situation. We met 5 of these in the sne´ll just west of where we are. We retreated back here (bad place to retreat by the way, we should have been more in the middle and we would have avoided it completely), some dreadlocks went after us and we managed to kill them. When we are healing up - these two charges in. The whole group is about to fail, as the fighters are badly wounded, and these shoot lightning bolts - not your average Orga. My only thought is to kill the most wounded dreadlock before I fall, and I know I am going to. In charging in, getting the dreadlocks attention, I and Nerazus are buying us some time. I fall after the wounded Dreadlock is dead, then Yor attacks the other doing some good Zo damage. Thuja is then healed enough to rod the remaining beast, and so are Natas and Lucero and they can finish it off. Whew... We managed , but it was close.

It also means that I don´t rush in to save fallens first. My responsibility is to make sure the rescue-party survives. My thoughts are on the living first, not the fallens. Because the living then will be more able to save the fallens. Many times I have been fallen, and heard a rescue party were coming, only to see them rush in and fall beside me, and then toggle for a third party to come. If I fall, I would much rather wait a little extra if that means that when the rescue party finally do arrive, they are all healthy - and can protect both the healers and the wounded. Wherever the fallens are, the beasties that killed them will still be around and pose a threat to the rescue party. I usually secure the area first, before making any attempt to move towards the fallens. Securing can mean bricking one big beastie with a healer backpacking and a chainer on route to the fallens, it can mean trap all beasties while a chainer grabs the fallens, or it can mean kill the most threatening beastie or kill them all etc.

Because : Two healers are sometimes necessary to raise fallens. Sometimes, in small groups that would mean that the battling fighters would have no healers healing them. To leave the fighters without a healer is usually a dangerous situation. To let the living, rescuing fighters fall - is even more dangerous.

It also means that I stay close to the group I´m with. There is nothing more annoying than a fighter rushing off to the next sne´ll, only to come back yelling and screaming on low yellow, followed by a whole load of beasties. Every axe in a small group counts. Every hitpoint lost on a fighter or healer also counts. When that yellow fighter meets the group, he is indisposed for a period of time while healing up. Time that could have been used to hit and kill the beasties in a controlled manner with the rest of the group. To meet beasties together is better than to meet them alone.

Last : When hunting in a group, every action you do has an impact on the rest in the group. Every step, every wiff, every hit, every breath you take. There is a major difference between solo-hunting and group-hunting. If you want to solohunt, do it alone.