www.winged-warriors.com

Winged Warriors

    Legendary Mark wrote this helpful article about clan training after playing with the Winged Warriors. Mark is a contributing member to the Halo community, an excellent writer and a great player. He told me that this article was triggered from playing with us for the first time and browsing our website the next morning. I am proud to host this on our site, and I hope that it will help anyone who is looking for advice on how to take your clan to the next level. -Night Rider 7, Winged Warriors Overlord and Webmaster

    The addition of "clan" support in Halo 2 Xbox Live play opened up a whole new window for community players. Clans emerged for various reasons, including clans formed around websites (HBO clans), similar types of players (PMS or halowiki's very own Clan of Bobs) or even around individual people (Team Schooly D or the Marty Army). However, the clan type that is by far the most prolific (especially since the average "casual" gamer has mostly moved on from Halo 2) is that centered around skill. A good skill-based clan not only values adeptness at all aspects of individual multiplayer (aim, movement, awareness etc) but also great teamwork and a good spirit. After all, a clan where everyone hates each other's guts is not going to be very successful. You might find it easy to form a basic clan, maybe you've found a few pretty good friends and won a few matchmade games together, but how can you turn it into a real clan, a force to be reckoned with? If you are serious about getting your clan into shape then read on my friend, read on.

"You could have a bunch of very skilled individuals, but as countless management and motivational gurus have said, "There is no 'I' in 'team'".

    Quite obviously, team games are about just that, the team. You could have a bunch of very skilled individuals, but as countless management and motivational gurus have said, "There is no 'I' in 'team'". When taking your clan into clan battles, especially pre-arranged ones against other clans, you can be pretty sure that your teamwork will have to be top-notch in order to triumph. But how to achieve this wonderful level of teamwork?

    There is of course one simple answer, play together. The more you play with your clan members, and particularly with the same team of clan members, the more you will get to know what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are. You'll also start to gel as a unit, you'll find what works and what doesn't. You'll get to know your teammates emblems off by heart (see note below on emblem selection), crucial in the heat of battle when you see someone running up behind your friend, but don't want everyone on your team to turn around after you cry "Behind you!!". You'll get a feel for who works best in each role, who is the best sniper? The best at rushing? The best power-weapon controller? Communication is also important, you might not notice it but you'll get a feeling for when your teammates are about to say something important and maybe you'll hold off reporting a felled enemy until you are sure the more important communication has been relayed. In essence, you'll find what works for you and your team.

    But is playing together enough? Sure you could just go into clan matchmaking lots of times, but would you come out the other side the best you can be? Strategies are very difficult to work out in the 10 seconds leading up to a game start, and arguably more difficult to discuss while rounds are actually being played. While "on the fly" tactics must be discussed in game (although there shouldn't really be much discussion involved), general strats take a lot more planning and must be worked on beforehand. Common gametypes like 1 Flag CTF on Zanzibar or Team Slayer on Lockout are very easy things to practice strategies for. Go into a custom game as a team and with no opposition (or maybe an inactive guest making up the opposing team so the flag is present in flag games) and just talk about things. If everyone knows where to go and what to do it'll get done a lot faster in game, saving valuable time and communication space. A common example is setting up your team at the sniper tower on Lockout. One on the Plasma Grenades, one above him, one or two just down the ramp from the Sniper Rifle is a nice setup, and if everyone knows which one they are, then they will get into position more quickly, but perhaps more importantly, any holes in your defense (e.g. from a teammate being dead or out of location) are easily identifiable, so any sneaky enemies looking to exploit these are much less likely to succeed. Similarly, in 1 Flag CTF on Zanzibar, you can practice your offensive and defensive power-weapon rushes so that no time is wasted in the confusion as to who is doing what.

"...when time is running out and your pre-worked strategy obviously isn't working, you can't just pause the game and discuss at length opposition tactics and counter tactics. You need a leader."

    The web is also a great help. You obviously have access to it, so make use of it! Chat on a chat client, recruit in forums (though remember the fine line between raising awareness and spam!), get the email addresses of your clan members so you can schedule practice nights. Some have even gone so far as to create websites entirely for their clan, a great way to recruit new members, organize things and provide a basic discussion arena. Going outside the game also helps immensely in building up a rapport between clan members, this helps both in matches and in the drive to play and practice. Even if you don't have the resources to get yourselves a site, there is still ample community support for clans (I'll use halowiki's clans page as an example, but there's clan support and links to affiliate clans on almost every community site out there).

    But what about organization? In the heat of battle, when time is running out and your pre-worked strategy obviously isn't working, you can't just pause the game and discuss at length opposition tactics and counter tactics. You need a leader. There is a reason that armies across the world aren't democracies, and it is that democracies are not very good at making the sort of snap decisions that need to be made in combat situations. If you have a player who is the delegated leader, every other player on that team must listen intently to what the leader says and do it. Don't say "but this" or "but that", just do it. A good leader will put enough trust in you to implement their new strategy, and they should really only set you a goal (e.g. distract the opposition sniper, go back and get the Warthog ready for flag carrier pickup), not dictate your every move to you. Great leaders delegate, they do not micro-manage. Depending on your clan size, you should have a few specified leaders and a clear hierarchy so there is never any confusion as to who is in charge. Try different players in the position of leader, see who works best. Typically, leaders will be among the "higher ranking" members of the clan, but the reverse should not necessarily be true. The overlord may be great at administration and pulling the clan together, but if s/he cannot make good quick decisions and display the right amount of leadership (i.e. less is more!), then s/he should not be a battle leader and should have the sense to admit it.

    So you've got your clan together, you've practiced those strategies and got your roles worked out, now who do you play? Matchmaking is a very good system for finding you players of similar skill (perhaps not in the "Clanmatch" playlist, but others for definite). Larger teams can enter the 6v6 or Big Team Battle playlists, and smaller teams have a plethora of playlists to choose from, great if you want specific types of games (such as Team Skirmish for objective or Team Hardcore for Battle Rifle start). However, this is not your only option. The "scrimmage" (or scrim for short) is a term for a pre-arranged clan match against another clan from the community for practice. Great because you can pick the gametypes beforehand and then work on them before the actual match, scrims are a great way not only to practice against other clans of similar skill (many of which will provide you with a very good challenge), but also to network and get some contacts in the Halo 2 community. Many websites have ample support for finding teams to scrimmage against. It is also quite easy, should you have deep pockets, to get training for your team from the pro players. Sites like Gaming Lessons (run by TSquared) and lessons from Exit Wounds are great both for improving your game and injecting a lot of excitement into the team, they too have ample support for finding other improving teams to play against. There is also an extensive online tournament scene, giving you teams to play and offering prizes for beating them, a great place to begin proving yourselves.

    And remember, most Halo 2 clans never make it to the big time, the chances of players finding themselves earning enough money from playing Halo to make success alone worth their while is slim at best. So make sure you're having fun whilst you're doing this! That's what this is about after all, it's a game, there for people's enjoyment. Clans are just another way to multiply that enjoyment.

    -- LegendaryMark

Published under the Free Documentation License

A Note On Emblems

    Clans may well have different rules on emblems, but above all they are there to identify which teammate is which. Sure it looks flashy if you all have the same emblem (like the phoenix or the skull), but if it makes it at all difficult to distinguish between team members, you should really consider emblem changes. Same thing goes for "clan colours", in fact this is often more confusing. Numbers are great, but not if you have more than 10 players in the clan! And changing your emblem at the slightest whim every 5 minutes is not a good idea, continuity means it's a lot easier for players to remember who is who.

A Note Tryouts

    Clan tryouts, where a potential new member must be tested before gaining entrance to the clan, are getting more and more popular. While they can be a very good method of selecting players and keeping numbers down, remember to test aspects other than skill. While one potential player may be more skilled than another, the second player may well have better teamwork, better attitude, better leadership, or any combination of those. If you really want to go as far as tryouts, an interview should probably be required alongside any test of skills, just to make sure this person will fit into the clan seamlessly.