To all the flames on primal datacenter...

[C00KIE_M0N57R]

The greatest strength of that method is also its weakness. I've encountered other teams who have tried that "all offensive" tactic and it is easy to out do. Since the main objective of the strategy is to get as many battle highs and battle fevers in the alliance as possible, it leaves their entire alliance visible on the map; one could easily see where the train of death is going. Alliances can can easily kite around the mob of battle highs and fevers, or simply avoid them. It is very similar to a strategies in wolves den where all offensive groups get kited around indefinitely. Any node they take will almost always be taken by an enemy team since it is left unguarded. Additionally, since this method relies almost entirely on kills, simply not getting enough kills can result in a loss.

[Februs]

The greatest strength of that method is also its weakness. I've encountered other teams who have tried that "all offensive" tactic and it is easy to out do. Since the main objective of the strategy is to get as many battle highs and battle fevers in the alliance as possible, it leaves their entire alliance visible on the map; one could easily see where the train of death is going. Alliances can can easily kite around the mob of battle highs and fevers, or simply avoid them. It is very similar to a strategies in wolves den where all offensive groups get kited around indefinitely. Any node they take will almost always be taken by an enemy team since it is left unguarded. Additionally, since this method relies almost entirely on kills, simply not getting enough kills can result in a loss.

I thought that would be a problem too. I figured, if they can see us coming, why don't they just run away? And, a lot of the time, they did. It was hilarious to roll up on a node and watch everyone at it take one look at us, then high tail it out of there.That being said, that wasn't a flaw or a problem. The thing is, because the other two teams are so busy trying to one up each other in node captures, even if they run away, eventually they had to stop to catch a node or fight one another. The Death train would then hit one flank of one of the teams, wipe out that team, then hit the other team and send them running. Having enemies run away from you was never a problem, because, even if they booked it before you killed any of them, they had to abandon their node to make a break for it. So for every team that chose to run and not fight, you're getting free node points instead. In that way, the Death Train is kind of a trap. You can run, but you're just making it easier for them to score points in the long run if you do.

Also, losing nodes that are unguarded was not a problem either. For one, you'd be amazed how many nodes you keep when left unguarded. People see the captured node on the map and just leave it alone, assuming it's gonna be hell to capture. Not only that, if the Death Train is rolling, most of the time the other two teams are too busy trying to defend to risk attacking a node. Furthermore, nodes deplete fast enough, and the map is large enough, that, even if your node is taken, you've already soaked roughly half of it's points PLUS the points you took from the kills while rolling. Assuming the Train is being successful, your surplus outweighs whatever the enemy gained from back capping your node, not to mention the fact that, by back capping, you're letting the Train know where your team is, so they just have one more "station" to stop at if they run out of things to kill in their direct line of sight. These things are not problems for a Death Train that is running well.

The real "flaw" in the Death train tactic is the possibility that you're not killing enough people. The Death Train needs a good balance of healers and dps. If too many of your team get killed because of a lack of healers, you can't do it. If too many of your dps are too noob to get kills, then you can't do it. Both of these scenarios result in the Train hitting a stall. As soon as it stalls or gets utterly stopped in its tracks, you've lost.

It's an extremely high risk/higher reward method, and that's why it is so IMMENSELY important for all 24 people on your team to commit to it if you chose to do it. It requires extremely focused dps. If a tank stuns a target, that targets MUST DIE before the stun wears off, or shortly afterwards. That's your dps check. If you can't do it, then the train will likely stall and fail. Most of the time, you'll be able to tell if your team can succeed at a Death Train in the fist charge, since it's the hardest one. If you can pull that off, you're good to go.