A Guide to Seaside as the USSR
One of my personal favorite maps to play on in the amazing World in Conflict (WiC) is the map known as Seaside (also featured in the demo multiplayer and campaign). When the game was finally available and Seaside wasn’t the only map, I thought playing the map again anytime in the next two months would be far too soon. Amusingly, I found myself enjoying opportunities to play on this map due to its versatility and playability by all roles. That’s why I am attempting to write this guide. I hope you enjoy!
For now, this guide will feature playing Seaside as if you were on the USSR team. It’s the team I most enjoy being on, for whatever bizarre reason. I swear I’m not an in-the-closet commie. This guide will be set up in a play-by-play style, and I will assume that everyone on the USSR is communicating and working as a team. The basic idea here is to treat this like a realistic situation and work your way through command points in a manner that will allow you and your team to hold the majority without struggling for control. That being such, you will have to make some early sacrifices for later success.
Starting Out
When starting out on Seaside, you will be able to spawn in the area pictured below. The area outlined in red is the USSR spawn zone. For the remainder of this guide, yellow will be the color of USSR infantry, green will be the color for armor units, cyan will be the color for air units, and support units will be a regular blue color. If the units need specification, I will state such. Note that infantry units will be represented as a whole, not as individual soldiers.
The spawn zone is fairly obvious, I have selected the positions I think are best for enacting my plan. The support spawns that are farther back are mainly for artillery pieces. If you are going to use artillery, which will be necessary at times, have each support player make a heavy one, or two mediums, or one go heavy, the other go medium. The rest of the points need to be used on anti-air vehicles, preferably heavy, and a repair tank for each support player. The air player(s) need to be spawning mainly heavy helicopters to begin with, for purposes to be explained. Infantry players are advised to use two standard infantry groups, two anti-tank groups, a sniper, and an engineer. These units should neatly use up exactly 4000 points. Armor players are free to do as they please, but my advice is to either A) Get one heavy tank, two medium tanks, and two light tanks, or B) Get a group of armor units that includes, but is not limited to, the armored transport. Should the armored transports be used, the armor players and infantry players need to coordinate to use their resources effectively.
Claiming Your First Command Point
The first command point that I feel you should claim is your ‘free’ command point. The USSR has one of these, while the U.S. could be said to have two. Observe the map and continue reading. The colored arrows will either be red, meaning that everyone could follow this path, or the color will correspond with a particular group. Blue spray paint spots indicate possible places for artillery to shoot. They mainly focus on major thoroughfares or command points that are likely to be occupied early and consistently.
What you must realize is that I feel you need to fortify the TV Station as fully as possible. It is going to be your main base in this battle, and you better be able to hold it. Smart U.S. artillery players will recognize this as an important USSR location and bombard it. That’s why there should be some heavy choppers coming up the sides. Those air players need to be observing the enemy and looking for artillery to take out. If the TV Station is being bombarded, either wait for the heavy choppers to deal with them, or take your chances being killed. If you’re taking chances, have the armor players do it. Put the tanks on the outside of the points and have repair tanks rack up TA and points by repairing the damaged tanks.
After you have claimed the TV Station and are satisfied with the fortifications, you should assess the situation. You have one command point, whereas they likely have three or more. Move it! Your units should be in positions to begin moving forward toward the Town Square, the central point of the map. Control it, and you can very well dictate the terms of the game. Word of warning: if you hear nuke incoming, get out of the Town Square, as that is probably where it is headed.
Air players should have dealt with artillery and racked up a fair score and some TA points. Good for them. They can either A) Continue to watch for artillery and deal with the increasing risk of anti-air, or B) Have someone drop some airborne infantry to watch key artillery points. Either way works, both require attention and care.
Town Square: The Battle Begins
Up to this point, it is unlikely that serious blows have been exchanged. With luck, they won’t be in Town Square yet. If they are, this will be considerably harder. Even if they aren’t, you have your work cut out for you. Note: If you went ahead and made some engineers, don’t waste time at the TV station with them. Have them run ahead and plant C4 in the front two command points at the Town Square. This will be detailed in orange on the map.
Those C4 charges are powerful, and should only be used if the enemy gets to the command points before you do. Wait until the point is relatively loaded, but not until after the whole Town Square is captured. The detonation will do some damage and help you out. If you are not forced to use the C4, leave it be and hide the engineers in between some buildings in case the C4 is needed.
At this point in time, the infantry should be in their designated space in that small building enclosure, with the support and armor behind the buildings at the back of the square. Time for me to focus on something very important on this map: Building Cover
Building cover is what will make attacks successful. It saves your units’ lives. It denies your opponent points. It’s a good thing. Use it. Infantry have the best time with this. I don’t tend to like shoving infantry in buildings unless I know that X amount of armor units are coming backed up by Y amount of medium choppers. In such a case, I will use buildings, but using buildings just because is asking to get hit with artillery, gas, or something similar. Gas is a big danger here, just warning you. Infantry can slip through alleys and hide inside such enclosures as pictured. The one above is my favorite. There are a couple exits, plenty of buildings to hide in, and it’s hard to shoot into without being able to be hit by the infantry. Hide in there, it’s all going to be part of the plan.
Armor and support players need to make use of building cover as well. They can position themselves flush with a building to shield them from incoming artillery, as well as forcing opponents to round corners to initiate combat. This grants you a major advantage, especially if you have to take an area already occupied by the enemy. Back to the guide.
If you understand all those scribbles, congratulations. There is a method to the madness, all that needs to be done is the actual exploitation of the method. This is also likely to be a turning point in the game, some screwing up here will require you to take a different approach, which I will briefly talk about after I get through this.
Infantry:
From their hiding point, they should charge out and hide in buildings, behind them, whatever. They need to start fighting, and they need to survive. Leave the engineers alone, make sure the snipers are in a building. Have the infantry hold command points when necessary, but they should be regarded as backup. Keep the tanks in front of them, the anti-air behind them. The arrows that detail running to the forest near the Research Facility are a method of securing the Town Square. From that forest, the infantry players, later joined by armor and possibly some air, should be able to at least slow down reinforcements flowing from the Gas Station. Attacks from the Research Facility may also be repelled.
Infantry players may make use of engineers to further deter units from passing key checkpoints if they cannot hold. Just make sure you remember what engineer triggers what C4 and where the C4 is. Infantry should try to stay on the move, but not to the degree where they make themselves a target. Switching from building to building every few moments is good, don’t present a target. Standing in command points that are contested is a big no-no, artillery will hit you. Other than that, infantry players need to remember that they are flexible, but can’t do it all. They provide support for the less flexible units, and are a vital part to any army.
Armor:
Move those tanks! Get out from behind those buildings and rush the command points. Don’t stay still, and don’t get in a line. Target the threats first, run the infantry over. Take out the anti-air so your helicopters can help you out. Armor needs to clear those command points and take control. Repair tanks will help the tanks stay in fair condition, while racking up the needed tactical aid. Once armor has the center under control and the last few enemies are being mopped up, they need to split in half. Part of the force needs to support the infantry that should be guarding the main road from the Gas Station to the Town Square. Remember, tanks in front of the infantry to soak up fire. Use smoke as needed, but not all at once. The longer you can hold out, the better your chances of getting repaired or getting that last fortification built.
The other half of the tanks need to wrap up fortifying the Town Square, and then need to take up defensive positions on the spots marked with white stars. Those areas are where enemies could send reinforcements from, and until the team is ready to take another command point, the Town Square must be held.
Support:
Use your shells to take out heavily-fortified command points first, or buildings if infantry is hiding in such places. Then, fire indiscriminately on main roads where reinforcements could come from. This job is relatively easy, hopefully the choppers won’t find you. Anti-air needs to be backing up those tanks. They also need to recognize their vulnerability, and stay behind buildings. Helicopters can defeat anti-air, so the anti-air must stay out of sight, and attack the helicopters under smoke cover when the time comes. When the tanks begin fortifying, the anti-air needs to follow suit and guard the large concentrations of units, or where the enemy helicopters seem to be swarming the most. Repair tanks must follow the regular tanks, using their special abilities to keep themselves and their allies alive. Be intelligent, and don’t die. The loss of a repair tank could lead to a collapse in defense. Stay behind the tanks, and repair when necessary. Be talking about your repair tanks, make sure people know where you are. Make use of your skills.
Air:
Air players need to aid in the initial assault on the Town Square, but quickly begin moving outwards along the arrow lines. They must soften up incoming enemies, as well as hunt artillery. The air players in this scenario will back up fortified blockade points on major roads, and make enemies easier to defeat in general. Artillery must be sought out and destroyed, either by tactical aid or by missile fire. If the artillery is not handled, then the entire team becomes vulnerable to being torn to shreds by artillery.
Assessing the Situation
Right now, I’m going to give you what I think the map will probably look like at this point in time.
That doesn’t look so great for the USSR right now. We only have two command points at this point in time, while the enemy has up to four. The USSR looks like a break in otherwise complete U.S. control. How vulnerable the soldiers probably feel, how open to attack! I wouldn’t get down. Who has less area to worry about defending? The USSR. Who can strike at any of four command points from any direction? The USSR. Congratulations, you control the Town Square. Your helicopters have that artillery down, and you have held the enemy at bay. One more command point and things will finally be even.
Covering Your Back
Which command point next? Theoretically, you could make an attempt on any of them. I advise taking the Beach. Why? Let’s take a look.
The red arrows detail the paths you will want to take when attacking the beach. How many of what unit is yours to decide. The idea here is to cover your back. If you take the Beach, you no longer extend into enemy territory, and have only two sides to cover. True, your border is longer and may be harder to spread units over, but you should be able to predict where the attack will come from and you should be able to repel them. Once the Beach is yours, you can finally turn the tide of battle against the U.S.
When attacking the Beach, remember that there is no cover whatsoever. That means that you need to have any artillery of the enemy destroyed. This is the most vulnerable position for your units, they are making an obvious assault on fortified ground with nothing in their favor. This may be bloody, and it may be long, just because of the sheer funneling of units straight into a battle. I’d advise you keep your infantry out of there for the most part, as they will be easy targets with a relatively short range, compared to the tanks. Keep the infantry mainly in charge of blockading roads, and let the tanks and the anti-air deal with the Beach. Have the air soften the units up as they come, and have the artillery disable key positions and help out the infantry. Keep pushing, but don’t take all your units away from their positions on the road. Losing the Town Square now will make life very difficult.
Once the beach is yours, note that the hardest parts are over. As long as you maintain control now and keep repairing and restocking, you can win.
Bartering for Victory
Time to make the attempt on the Super Market that will buy your victory. Through the capturing of the Super Market, the USSR can essentially split the map in half, and hold the majority of the command points, thus tipping the scales in their factor. You can, after taking the Market, launch raids on the spawn points on the hill top, as well as launch the final assault to win the game.
How to take the Market though? Follow the arrows. After the Beach is taken, re-fortify any weak points, and then move on for the Market. Keep the key routes under your control, don’t put all your efforts into the Market. At this point, control is key. As long as things remain as is, the U.S. will not gain any advantages over you.
Have the infantry move from wherever they are into the buildings in front of the Super Market. From there, they will provide light support. Their main job is to continue the guarding of important routes. However, if infantry becomes an issue at the Super Market, send snipers and regular troops to help.
Armor needs to move in first and assess the situation at the Market. If the building is occupied, try not to destroy it if you can help it. Such a building provides cover for infantry and a place to hide behind. As soon as the fortifications are downed, move into those command points and duke it out. I do not think this will be the difficult part. The issue here is to deal with the fresh units streaming off of the hill to fight you. Because of the way the U.S. spawn zone wraps, the USSR has to cover multiple bases in order to secure their holdings. Use tactical aid such as napalms and tank busters to discourage enemy units from advancing, as well as providing a shield.
Support players must focus artillery on hitting the key points on the hill from which enemy units will come. This is up to the artillery player to determine. In case you haven’t noticed, the plans are becoming less detailed. This is because the situation will differ every time, and the team must decide what is best. Anti-air needs to continue guarding the armor, and the repair tanks continue with their job. Support will do this for the rest of the game, bombard key points and protect other units.
Air players, have the choppers sweep over the hill, hitting whatever they can. Air is such a flexible role, you won’t have a problem finding something to do. Some key thoughts: Help infantry hold those key points, soften up heavy tanks, and be annoying in general. Just don’t get swatted.
Clipping the Eagle’s Wings
At this point, I have no idea where your units are nor what kind of shape things are in. Therefore, this shall be short. Throw your entire weight into the Gas Station. Head up various routes, take it down! By doing this, you seal off the U.S. spawn zones from the last command point. At this time, use whatever tactical aid you can get to blow the enemy to kingdom come. This tactical aid should hit right as you are arriving, leaving you to mop up what’s left, and then take the points. From here, follow the brown arrow from the Gas Station to the Research Facility. Odds are there is very little there. Cover your back now, as the resistance is likely to be greater from behind than in front. Crush the remainder at the Facility, and take it for Mother Russia! If you have been this successful, the game is likely yours. Just station all units at the U.S. spawn zones and kill them as they come. Congratulations!
Final Points
Killing Buildings
On this map, or any map for that matter, please, oh please don’t use laser guided weaponry to take down buildings. Why? They’re just too expensive. I’ll provide some alternative solutions.
- Don’t kill the building. Use some gas to clear out the infantry and then use the building yourself. While this is as expensive as using a laser guided weapon, you save a building that you can then use yourself. General II suggests using a smokescreen to conceal the chemical strike, which is an excellent idea.
- Use a tank buster. I’m serious. Look at the shot of the market, that’s what a single tank buster did to it. Putting a shell in there would send it down. A tank could probably even do it. And it’s much cheaper. A good idea, I’d say.
- Use a fuel air bomb or a carpet bomb. Observe the shots to see what a fuel air bomb can do. Not only does it kill units, it wipes out buildings in a decently large area. No unit is safe from this weapon, not even helicopters. Highly effective, and a bit more conservative than a carpet bomb. You can get two FABs for one carpet bomb plus another five points. Not bad. General II warns that fuel air bombs don’t always work as planned. Be weary of this and think before placing.
INCOMING NUKE!!!
Yeah, you’re screwed. It’s probably headed towards the Town Square. Just try to run. If the Town Square goes down, at this point, screw it. Leave it alone and try to take all the other points instead, forming a circle around the Square leaving it for you to pick up when you have a chance. If things are really bad, just revert to fighting normally; make a new battle plan.
Closing Thoughts
Thanks for reading my guide, I hope you enjoyed it. I hope to soon add a U.S. part to this guide, but I’m not sure I can handle sitting at a computer typing for this long again soon. If you see anything that needs fixing or adding to, please suggest it. Thanks.
~Shanks13
