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Every non supremacy game you have ever played has always had one base. Most of the time it is ignored, and anyone who goes there is, often rightfully, called a noob. For most maps, the cap is severely lacking in cover and is exposed to fire from nearly all sides while simultaneously not allowing one to fire back. But on some maps, the cap is a great tool to use to draw the enemy out from hiding positions, cause panic amongst their ranks, and maybe even win! The base is a powerful tool in the hands of those who know how to use it, which is why I am making this guide.
As soon as you approach the base, you need to decide on a few things:
1: When to cap. It is almost never a good idea to immediately go to the base at the start of a match. No one knows where the enemy are and if your whole team meets the whole enemy team head on then you will already be a tank down. In a lemming train vs lemming train situation don't cap. But if the teams go on opposite sides, then its the time to strike.
2: Objective of capping. Do you want to cap to draw the enemy out of hiding positions to get clear shots on them or cap as a way to win? On some maps its better for the former then latter and vise versa. Take Rockfield, if both teams go on opposite ends of the map a sniping battle soon starts. The base on that map would have 3/4 sides covered by your team and the hills. Only one side would be exposed and you can point your armor at it. Capping would force the enemy to come out and be obliterated.
3: Is it possible to do damage to the enemy while capping? If you decide on capping to win, you need to be in a spot to do damage. Going back to our Rockfield scenario, if you are in a tank with good turret armor and you go hull down on the small but steep hills, you are in a good position to do damage. When the enemy starts coming out to reset the cap they will have to aim on the weakpoints of your turret to do damage. While they are aiming you and your allies can pull off shots and maybe even destroy the opponent before he can fire. If you cannot do any damage while capping, make sure that you know your team can cover for you. If they cannot you have just lowered your win rate.
4: What is the available cover? On many maps, the cap lacks any hard cover and the soft cover is almost useless. Lost Temple, Desert Sands, Oasis Palms, just to name a few. Only cap there when you know the enemy won't be able to pull off shots on you for a good while. On other maps such as Copperfield, Rockfield, Middleburg, and Dead Rail there is a degree of hard cover. Make sure to use it! Go hull down if possible or just simply hide behind buildings. These are some of the best maps to pull off a successful cap.
5: Are my allies willing to help or take shots for me in the cap? The answer is almost always no. Sure, some will help cap once you have passed the 40 mark, but before then its all you. If you happen to be in a platoon, see if you and your mate and cap together or server as one's "punching bag", the target that enemy tanks can shoot at thinking they can lower the cap counter. However, you will be capping solo most of the time.
Once you have decided when to cap, what your objective is, how much damage you can likely do from it, the available cover, and if you'll have any help you can use the answers to have a successful cap. Capturing the base has 3 phases:
1: Between 0-30 points most users will ignore it. They will think its either someone passing through or a dumb noob.
2: Between 31-70 points. Greens will start to take notice and may or may not join you while spamming "capture the base." At the same time reds will see this and spam "defend the base" in their chat. One or two may peel off to reset the cap but most will stay put trying to do damage. When you approach 70, if your goal was a distraction, you probably have succeeded and can expose yourself.
3: Between 71-100 points. Bum rush! Every single red with a brain will attempt to rush the base to reset the counter! At the same time greens with a half decent IQ will try to stop them or move into the cap to hasten the timer.
If you are the 'cap cow' stay calm and don't make any sudden moves. Pull off shots occasionally to help allies but don't expose yourself to much to enemy fire. When the counter starts closing in on 100 know that you will probably be bum rushed by 3 or 4 reds at the same time. Make sure to be ready! Before that critical moment ask allies to get near you to help fight the bum rushers. If you are not the 'cap cow' and only recently joined in the base, make sure to protect the cap cow at all costs. During the rush, the reds will probably have gone into brown alert mode, with them losing all sense of awareness and strategy. If you have decent players on your team several of the bum rushes can be killed to quickly gain a commanding advantage numbers wise. If your team is down on players, balance firing on the closes enemies and the ones with the lowest HP. Hopefully that will buy the cap cow enough time to get to 100 points and win.
Capturing the base is overrated among noobs and underrated among unicums. In low tiers these strategies won't work as often as they do in mid or high tiers. If you cap to draw low tier enemies out, they probably will just spin their tier II turrets around. If you cap to win you will be bum rushed by the entire red team with no assistance from your allies. At mid and high tiers, only cap after your team has either secured the area around the cap or you can do so from within the circle. Try to talk to your allies and explain your goal and some may listen and help. However don't stay on the cap if you have less then 70 points while your team is starting to collapse, they are likely falling because they were down by one gun: yours!
I hope this was a helpful guide, I spent more time then I should writing this out. I cringe whenever I hear someone say "the cap is always useless" and this partly explains why. This guide is not perfect and doesn't cover everything, but I have yet to see a long and detailed guide written in the past few months about capping. If I am wrong please link it in this thread!
Happy hunting - Tomio_Hara
