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Vanguard's First Update of 2013

Firstly Kingcheese and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone that was involved in Vanguard over the last year. Many of you stepped up to be Spin Up leaders, Battalion staff and Battalion members. You all spent endless hours serving your Battalions whether it be hours of organizing the matches over TeamSpeak or burning the midnight oil planning and preparing your practices to administrate your teams and proving that servant leadership is the way to do our core business.

Now that 2012 is firmly on the back burner Vanguard has set their sights on even higher goals this year. We successfully launched 5 games into TAW last year and we aim to launch even more this year. With the newly implemented Horizon Division it will allow us to test more games with less administration thus allowing VG to bring more choice to the plate and every single game going through the same process as the last game that was launched. Some of these choices which we see on the horizon in no particular order are

Alien Colonial Marines
Arma III
Chivalry Medieval Warfare
Company of Heroes 2
Crysis 3
Dirtybomb
Elder Scrolls Online
Heroes and Generals
Rainbow 6 Patriots
Warface
World of Battleships
World of Planes

I'm sure you all have lots more games that you can think of and we always take into consideration every game. Should you feel that you know a game that allows our TAW game play and ethos then just fill in our game suggestion from this Link

Vanguard is an ever evolving unit which will see some changes in the first few months which allow us to operate effectively with more games than ever. As the Corps grows so does our ambition to do more and better. 2013 will be an excellent year for Vanguard which will keep Kingcheese and I on our toes with a fast pace and a flexible work process!

Happy New Year and May this year live up to last year’s great success

Regards

The Vanguard Staff

MGN Kingcheese VC
BGN Wardy VLC

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Hawken

- Incoming Transmission...

- Authentication Received...

- Hawken Division Recognised...

- Setting Polarity...

- Data Feed Stabilised:

The beginning is a very delicate time... Know

then, that TAW’s Hawken Division is forming
a strong and formidable force of expert pilots.

The NA Battalion has made a solid beginning and is

recruiting well. Despite being in open beta, our pilots are eager to improve their skills and are working well together to take on their foes.

The EU Battalion is also building steadily, pushing recruitment and constantly on the lookout for more members. Although the game doesn't yet have all the features we would like, we are making regular practices on Sundays and Tuesdays and enjoying the game with our teammates, these are the things we need most for a strong division.

The staff are opening an open screenshot contest this Sunday [20JAN2013]
for all members of TAW to enter. To enter simply head over to the Vanguard forum and look for the Hawken competition post. Winners will have their shots showcased and will be used for future division content.

Again, this is open to everyone in TAW! And the game is free to play, also, all

the members of the Hawken division are happy to help anybody looking to try out the game or take part in the competition. So please feel free to join us!

Coming up on Sunday 3rd February at 8pm GMT, TAW’s EU Battalion

will be engaging in it’s first skirmish against The Old World Lancers, a rival Hawken

clan. This will be the first competitive action the EU scene has had so stay tuned and don't forget to show your support for our pilots as they fly TAW's colours atop Illal’s

desolate surface.

Until next time, see you in the dust pilots!

- Transmission Ends...

Mechwarrior Online

MechWarrior online went into open beta at end of October 2012, after 6 months in closed beta. The game is free to play and is based on the rich storyline from the MechWarrior universe.
The TAW division of MechWarrior online started in December 2012 and in just over a month has grown to 45 members. We have a good reputation in game and are sought after when grouping with other people in both teams and pugs. We have recently started developing training squads and I have recently completed the new basic badges for training to ensure all our new recruits are up to speed and continue to be sought after for our skill and teamwork.
The basic badges are restricted to TAW members logged in.
MechWarrior online does allow guild members to play together as a team in either 1-4 man drops with another 4 random players to bring the total drop to 8, or 8 man drops against other clans. We have been using the 4 man groups to recruit and dominate showing our skills as a team and training to improve co-ordination and team tactics, often playing 4 players down because the pugs are running around like headless chickens.
The 4 man game has gradually changed as people have been using sync drops to drop with 2 full 4 man teams against us, this is tougher and more challenging, but despite the difficulty we have overcome this by forging strong friendships with other guilds who in turn also sync drop with us.
While still training new people in 4 man tactics we have also started working on 8 man tactics, this requires a lot of thought and effort before the drop, having the right balance of mechs, tonnages, roles, loadouts etc. while also knowing how to deal with enemy mechs and their loadouts. At the moment this is a very competitive environment and limited to only a few big guilds doing 8 man drops. That said some guilds only have 8 or 16 players and only cater to 8 man drops, whereas we cater to demand across the board.
On the development front, the developers have started rolling out the red carpet and in December 2012 we saw the first of many big patches being introduced into the game, fixing bugs and adding new content. First they added a game changer like ECM and TAG into the game, then they modified weapon ranges, heat efficiencies, ammunition, armour loadouts, builds skeletons, modules etc. Over Christmas they introduced Christmas lights, hoola hoop dancers and new Camouflage paint. (I should point out that there is quite a variety of colours ranging from dour green and grey to bright pink and purple). In January 2013 we saw the roll out of another big patch, which introduced some awesome new content and some additional coding rewritten, next step is for them to re-write the ‘State Re-winding’ (for those not familiar with the term State Re-winding means that when you shoot at a Mech rather than check the shot against the Mechs current hit box location we rewind the Mechs state to the time in the past when the shot was fired and check the shot against the hit box position at that time), am sure you were equally bemused by that piece of information.
They also introduced a few new modules to boost target information such as Target Decay Rank 1 and 2 and Sensor rank 2, basically reducing the nerf on missile boats. Once you have gotten these modules it sort of feels like it’s a little better than it was before the patch, but not much tbh. For most of us though the introduction of the new Spider Mech was the real prize in the latest patch, that sees players being able to mount up to 12 jump jets on their chassis and use a combination of momentum and fibrillation to ensure you don’t snap your legs off when you land and keep running with the mech. WOW! So there I was travelling at 137 kph on my new Spider mech, no skills unlocked yet and I accidentally jumped in the wrong direction over the enemy team and introduced “skeet shooting” to the game…
TAW MWO continues to grow in popularity, we are still getting a lot of new people in and we have laid solid foundations as people continue to step up into support ranks before moving up to SO and XO ranks. I would still consider someone who is interested in taking on the role of a DI for the OC battalion, but all in all we are on the right track and set to deliver a division to be proud of. Well done to all for their hard work and thank you to all those who have supported us.
See you ingame.

Major Fides - SUL MWO

Minecraft

TAWcraft news!

TAWcraft server is developing and growing. We are currently running the latest version so everyone can update to 1.4.7! Big thanks to our wonderful ST Slipcor for the wonderful work and Reddie and Feinth for testing everything. With the new server update we are starting to see new faces as well around. The Minecraft group is slowly growing, having new smal addition the the staff team, and regular player base. Some of you who have missed the latest server activity’s can be informed, that we are in the process of transferring few epic projects here and there. Some big amounts of money are flowing around! Since teleoperation of giant hourglass or desert city’s require a lot of magical powers, so it comes with price.
Our community is actively building and creating. Currently we are having a building competition, and all the participants can use creative mode. So everyone who wants to join can do it, without worrying about where to get all the valuable materials. Each team is tasked to build a centerpiece for the future Polar city. You can read more on details in our forum section under the topic - Polar City.
In the meantime, while some people are working on technical aspects of the server, the staff team tries to bring new games into to the server. Developing and introducing new content, and now with some fresh ideas, we are working on some new. For anyone who is interested, we have brought dynamic map back up. All TAW members are welcomed to look, to see how our TAWcraft server looks from SPACE!

Natural Selection 2

Natural Selection 2 is a first person shooter/real time strategy hybrid,. The two teams are a completely different way to play. Marines largely rely on guns and other pieces of tech to annihilate the alien presence. Aliens however, rely primarily on melee attacks. Certain
alien life forms can walk on walls, teleport, and even fly. Players have a currency system which they use to buy better equipment or evolve into higher life forms. We love to have visitors so if you have the game why not come float on down with us.
It’s been very busy here at Natural Selection 2 since we joined Vanguard,.Over the last three to four months we've secured our public server and numerous private match servers as well as establishing two competitive ENSL League teams, headed by Enerccio And Grinser with
Howl taking over from Grinser mid season. Both teams have done really well and have enjoyed their first season of competitive gaming. As is normal in Vanguard, its taken time to choose leadership and assign positions but we have finally got there and we'd like as a whole to thank Ekis for all his hard work... a lot of us knew Ekis from Nuclear Dawn and it was pleasure to have him with us again.
Now as we head into becoming a division, recruitment is high and so are spirits.
Always up for some alien v marine fun our membership is growing. Our FS Phenom is working with the battalion and staff to finalise the internal tournament we plan will start mid February and our SA Dominator is organising what is, we hope the first of many gatherings... This year hosted in Berlin with many members gathering
For a BBQ over a weekend in July so if you’re in the area why not post on the NS2 forum and pop along and make a few more TAW friends.

Artemiss NS2 CO

Planetside 2

"Being a part of Planetside has never been better. We have made huge advancement since our spin-up days in Horizon. We just recently came back with a successful battle with the major Outfits on our server during the FNO(Friday Night Ops) hosted by SOE. Also to mention is our Oceanic Battalion is raking in huge numbers and is growing to be the largest OC battalion I have ever seen thanks in part of the wonderful staff that’s in placed, and to not forget with the other battalions.
The NA Battalion came back with its recent battle in the FNO event and everyone had a lots of Fun. I would also like to mention that our Training Office is working on our Division specific badges which will prove to be a lot of fun once we have them implemented.
Both the EU battalions are both hard at work on creating fun and exciting events. Fifth Battalion right now is creating fun events for its members and if you play VS in TAW and are not a part of PS, come and join them. Fourth Battalion is always having a blast and I encourage everyone to come and join them.
Planetside is the game TAWs been waiting for. It allows TAW to really flex itself and to show the community that TAW is the number one place to be to fully enjoy the game to the fullest. If you are interested in playing with us, our battalion times are:
■ North America
Terran Republic [PS 1]
Server: Waterson
Operations: Thursday & Sunday - 21:00 EST
Training: Tuesday - 21:00 EST
■ Europe
Terran Republic [PS 4]
Server: Miller
Operations: Tuesday & Sunday - 21:00 GMT +1
Training: Thursday - 21:00 GMT +1
Vanu Sovereignty [PS 5]
Server: Woodman
Operations: Tuesday & Sunday - 21:00 GMT +1
Training: Thursday - 21:00 GMT +1
■ Oceanic
Vanu Sovereignty [PS 8]
Server: Briggs
Every Sunday & Wednesday - 20:00 GMT +10

See you on the battlefield,

GundamMKII

Smite

Smite TAW Community group

Greetings to those reading this article. I am Nukeybrown FS for the TAW Smite division. Within this brief article I am going to explain the basics of what Smite is and how the division is progressing as a community and competitive play. Smite has recently entered open beta, you can register and download the game from www.smitegame.com.

What is Smite? Smite is a third person MOBA (Multilayer Online Battle Arena) developed and published by Hi-Rez Studiosfor Microsoft Windows. As the player you can choose any of the 28 gods within the game. After doing so you're thrown into a match where you use your abilities to fight and co-ordinate as a team to win.

What is the population like? Population wise smite is very strong and constantly growing by the minute. Both North American and European servers alike have a strong player base, the game offers a preference to the two allowing you to be matched to other players corresponding to your location making for a very stable game when playing.

Smite has one of the highest conversion rates with around 50% of players who try the game become active and also one of the highest retention rates of 70% of players who are active coming back the next month to play again. The statistics are extremely high and are considered to be world class for a F2P model game.

Why is Smite different to other MOBA games? The most noticeable difference would be the third person perspective which is a huge change from the birds eye view of LoL, DOTA 2 and HoN. This means that much more map awareness is required to stop you from being ganked and makes for much more fast paced combat. Another noticeable change would be pace at which matches progress as combat is much more present in the lane/early game phase. The art style within the game is visually pleasing due to the amount of detail across the maps. Graphic fidelity is also higher with lots of particle effects going off within combat making for a higher minimum requirements than other MOBAs.

Below are the requirements:
OS: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista or Windows 7

· Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Althon X2 2.7 GHz

· RAM: 2GB (XP), 3GB (Vista, Win7)

· Graphic card: ATI or Nvidia graphics card with 512MB video ram or better and Shader Model 3.0+ support. (ATI Radeon 3870 or higher, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or higher).

· Sound card: DirectX compatible sound card

· Hard drive: 10 GB free

In regards to the community we currently have within the Smite division we have a nice mixture of NA, EU and OC players who are all fairly active. We are currently seeking anyone who is looking to give Smite a go and join the friendly fun community we have going on. We are also still looking for more competitive players to participate in the tournaments that occur every Saturday. We have little presence within this area but are known by the streamers and HiRez to be a “big multiple gaming community full of really nice guys and would recommend them if you are looking to play as a group” - HiRez Bart.

Published 02/02/2013 0:07 by QuinoaAOC

Filed under: Media, Kingcheese, Vanguard, OS

Comments

# re: Vanguard's First Update of 2013@ Sunday, February 3, 2013 7:59 AM

Gogo VG :)

by NupidStoob

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The Art of Warfare Blogs: TAW Blogs

Vanguard's First Update of 2013

Comments

# re: Vanguard's First Update of 2013@ Sunday, February 3, 2013 7:59 AM