For those that have followed this site’s history, you will know that I finally became fed up with mainstream shooters earlier this year and took a bit of a sabbatical from the FPS genre. Most of my gaming this summer took place in the RTS arena, but one game — AVA, sparked my return to FPS. AVA, or Alliance of Valiant Arms is not the best FPS I have ever played; however, it is the best free FPS game I’ve played. Say what you will about AVA, but one thing is for sure, it has been able to hold my attention far longer than CoD:BO and MW2 combined.
There were several things that sold me on AVA. Unlike many of the recent mainstream FPS titles, its weapons required skill to use and the game was virtually “spamless”. There are no aimbotting, non-player-controlled choppers, no homing missiles and no RC cars laden with C4. If you get fragged in this game, you can be certain that it was an opponent who pulled the trigger on you.
While there are many things that I have issues with in AVA, the positives currently outweigh the negatives. Certainly, one of the big positives is that the game’s devs (Red Duck) spend an inordinate amount of time making sure their game is competitive. This is seen very clearly in the way they put maps together.
A Crash-wannabe?
For example, take the map Airplane. It’s a demolition map (demolition being similar to CoD’s “search and destroy” gametype). The maps name come from the wreckage of “The Spirit of Gregory” C17 cargo plane which provides a backdrop to the map.
When I first saw ads for this map, way back in the spring of this year, the wreckage of that airplane immediately brought to mind a similarly themed FPS map: CoD4′s Crash map. I remember thinking, gosh…these guys are trying to compare their free-to-play map with one of the best FPS maps of all time. Not only was that ballsy, it seems to border on the sacrilegious. If this Crash-wannabee sucked, AVA’s devs would certainly lose some serious face with the shooter crowd.
Most of my previous experience with AVA had been playing very linear Annihilation (team death match) maps and the nuance and subtlety of Airplane caught me completely by surprise.
Not only does this map not suck, it certainly deserves the honor of being a map good enough to be compared with the likes of Crash.
Map Overview
Though a bit primitive, this video gives you a nice walk-through of the map:
Map Overhead
Here is the overhead for this map:
The Strats
AVA Tournament Demolition map Airplane is essentially a one-bomb, 2-bomb-site, no-respawn, CoD-style S&D gametype.
On Airplane, the EU plays offense and picks up the lone bomb (C4 actually) at D. To the left you have bomb-site 1 and to the right is bomb site 2.
Main Street splits the map down the middle. At the far end is the Temple, which overlooks Main Street and is usually the destination for NRF snipers. The Bridge at A connects the two bomb sites.
Flanking is the key to any FPS strategy and in AVA it is an absolute must. To get to either bomb site, the offense has to squeeze through two tight choke points and usually, the most efficient way to do this is to have some of your team flank the opposition which can typically be found camping out those spots.
Bomb Site 1 push
While it typically is the bomb-site of choice for most offenses, I hate going 1. The main reason I can’t stand it is the close in fighting you need to do to get through the Market at B. Inevitably, the fighting around Market will get you seriously “lit up”. The deck is stacked against the offense here as it has to get through this dark, closed-in space in single file fashion. Once inside the door of Market, you will probably get sniped and naded from the front, and/or flanked by campers on your left and right who are already in-place waiting for you. As well, if your team doesn’t watch for the enemy to cross at Bridge, you will find them coming up your rear. Never a pleasant situation.
If you have managed to break through the initial defense at Market, many teams take the bomb along the tunnel on the left called Market Aisle. The Aisle ends with a plate glass window that must be shattered to gain access to the bombsite. You can hear the glass shatter from across the map, so it’s a clarion call to the defenders. If you are sneaky, you can use this to your advantage…fake a plant by shattering the glass, then come out into the Plaza through the Market main doors.
If you have talented individuals on your offensive team, planting 1 is probably a good choice because they will be typically fighting 1v1 or 1v2 battles. If you have an especially gifted player, this is advantageous. Team play comes from preventing any flanking and defending the plant once it goes down.
On the defensive side, you need communicate and spot the direction of the plant. If you know the C4 is going into 1, you can concentrate on slowing the enemy down through Market. It should be easy enough to pick off one or two of the rushers right off the bat. You should remain calm, even if the bomb is planted. While the bomb-site is hard to defend against, that can work both ways. The offense will find that defending the site when the bomb is down to be very difficult. In fact, one strategy on the defense is simply to let the plant go down, play TDM against the remaining players and then go for the defuse. The one key in this is that the defense needs to control the Temple window that overlooks Bombsite 1. Placing a rifleman, or a really good sniper in there, will snuff out the challenge.
Bombsite 2 push
I personally find Bombsite 2 a tad easier to navigate, but that’s because I like to stand off the fight as a Rifleman. I’m sure that if you ask the Pointman class on your team the same question, they’ll find it tough. Bombsite 2 is a nadefest and thus your frags will be somewhat random. Random is always hated in seriously competitive circles.
To take Bombsite 2, you need to quickly get through the Storage A and Storage B (confusingly depicted by the letter “C” in the above map).
Here’s one typical tactic. Remember though, AVA maps are fairly nicely balanced and for every move you make, you’ll find the enemy can find a counter. So the following ideas are definitely not foolproof.
On the offense, once the C4 is snatched, one rifleman should take and hold the Bridge. Drop a set nade through the open window leading into Storage B …half the time you’ll get multi-kills because that set nade lands on the steps leading into the storage area choke point — a fave camping defensive camping ground. You can see this nade being thrown in the pic below …and in the video down the page.
Of course, if there’s a really good sniper at Temple, chances are you’ll be dead (bullets can travel through light wooden structures in AVA)…and in all likelihood he will have picked you off as you went up the ramp to the Bridge. Like I said…measure/counter-measure.
The rest of the group can try a head long charge through the Storage area hallway. It’ll be nasty, but you can bang your way out the other side. Once there, Site 2 is easy to hold once you have planted, especially if you can get inside the Temple.
A less bloody, cloak-and-dagger method of getting into 2 requires a sniper to cover Mid and have your Pointmen climb into Temple by climbing the boxes at the end of Main Street. Once there, they can flank the campers defending the Storage area.
I love defending on this map, especially defending Bomb site 2. As long as you don’t get yourself set-naded, you can sit on the steps of Storage B and just wait for the offense to charge. If you have a reasonably heavy weapon, like a Para or a Sako Rk.95, you can just crouch there and pick off the offense as it comes out. That’s harder to do in pubs of course, because there’s a greater chance of you being swarmed from behind and flanked. Actually that’s one of the more common terms you’ll see being typed in an AVA chat box during the game: bh! bh! (bh = behind you).
Offensive minded defenders typically charge through mid at the beginning of the round, hang a left to surprise the attackers going through Storage. Like I said… bh! bh!
Bring on the nuance
What used to set CoD2 and CoD4 apart from many shooters were the wonderful set-nades frags that you could get. Nerd-naders could memorize these nades and pop them off in game against unsuspecting opponents. Note that nades are most effectively thrown by riflemen, as they can toss them farther and quicker than other classes.
While the grenade mechanic in AVA is nowhere near as refined as CoD’s, set nades can be thrown in game and Airplane has some pretty good set-nade spots.
Here’s a You-tube vid showing some of them. The first two in the vid are probably the most commonly used on the map. The first nade wipes out the defense’s Sniper and the second takes out a favorite choke point into Bomb Site 2. I throw these two a bit differently, but tomato…tomat-oh.
The great thing about AVA is that you can practice your game by entering a practice room. You get an infinite number of nades to toss and you can really learn your set-nades quickly.
Another good vid to check out some cool nade spots is this one. Note that the player is tossing the Heartbraker nade. Aside from having above average power over the regular M67 frag (which has a 5m blast radius), the Heartbreaker chars a heart-shaped figure into the ground.
Warping
There are significant issues with AVA as you all know. It is a game that really is rough around the edges. Warping is definitely one of the problems and pre-Sep11 patch, this map had some pretty nasty warping issues. For example, if you find yourself near a wooden crate (box), you used to warp a bit. Heck…going to Bombsite 2, just hugging the boxes in Storage you’d warp all the way down the hall…made it very difficult for the defenders to hit you.
I found the warping a bit noticeable when I started playing, but very rarely notice it now. The game is improving; however, it is still a free-to-play game.
You can see more Airplane gameplay pub action here:
