Miller vs Ceres

BLUF (bottom line up front): Planetside Battles hosted a 96v96 ServerSmash event (Miller vs. Ceres). Rules. YouTube Part 1 & Part 2. Miller won.

PS2 Pickup hosted its fourth server scrimmage between Miller (EU) and Ceres (EU). It was hosted on thePlanetside 2‘s Test Server (PTS), on Amerish. The third server scrimmage saw a dual-lane battle between Xelas and Onatha Bio Labs. This time, the fight was a dual-lane battle between Ikanam Motor Pool and Sungrey Overwatch. Miller played VS and Ceres played NC. Both sides brought 2 platoons (96 players) to the fight. No inject was added…

Participating Outfits

Miller

• [252V] 252nd Spec Ops
• [LYF] Legio of Infanati
• [JNJ] Jianji
• [RNX] Ruffnex
• [RPS]/[RTRS] RockPaperShotgun.com
• [WASP] WASP Inc
• Miller Pilots

Ceres

• [BAWC] Broken Arrow Company
• [DHMR] Divine Hammer
• [MACS] Maniacs
• [RMIS] RedMist
• [UVG] UnVanquished Gamer
• [VESP] Vespiary
• Ceres Pilots

Force Commanders

Miller:

• Ulysees

Ceres:

• TorokF

The Match

The match started with… you guessed it, a gigantic air battle. As each side had no choice but to take the territory that gave them access to the dual-lane, it gave each server’s air force plenty of time to find one another. Both side’s collided like opposing tidal waves at Sungrey Amp Station. It looked a lot like the part in Star Wars when the Jedi fought the droids in the arena. Ceres won the air fight pretty handedly, they had dozens of reavers left over. Miller used the distraction to slip a forward unit into Ikanam Triage Station and LithCorp Fortress to stall the NC advance along both lanes. The NC air force tried to rocket pod the VS at Ikanam Triage while a proper attack froce arrived to deal with them, but the attack force did little to budge the VS unit on the cap point. Miller then pushed their LithCorp force into Ikanam Garrison and dug in, however it didn’t really matter as much there since the cap was already counting down in NC’s favor. As it stood in the beginning of the match, Miller had successfully occupied the two regions out of Ikanam Bio Lab, thereby significantly slowly down Ceres’ push along either lane, especially the southern lane, where the NC had yet to flip the point.

The NC decided to throw a small force at NC Arsenal as the VS started to cap it, but they didn’t stop the VS from starting the countdown. Meanwhile, the NC finally pushed through Ikanam Garrison to LithCorp where they were able to start capping there as well. The VS were able to very effectively hinder the NC, particularly in the south, and falling back to the next station as they lost the neutral cap point. But the NC still had near complete control of the air, bombing them wherever they went outside. The northern lane seemed to be lane that both servers were anticipating a fight over. As a result, each server sent ground forces to the half-way region, North Grove Post, before either side could actually start capturing it. The NC, despite the VS trying to delay them in the beginning, were able to somehow get to North Grove faster than the VS. The NC defeated the defending VS force there, while dropping an advance force at Moss Ravine to anticipate the capture of North Grove.

The VS decided it would be a good time to spawn scythes, and the two server’s air forces went at it again. This time, instead of a close-quarters match like in the opening battle, the two sides shot at each other from afar. It looked like trench warfare in the air. Back at NC Arsenal, the VS captured it and immediately set out to capture the Auger, which was still a neutral territory. At first, it looked like the VS were going to flip it unopposed. However, the NC realized how close to home the Auger was, and promptly dropped two squads to deal with the threat. The NC squads tried to execute a textbook assault on the building, but were slaughtered as they entered the doorway and stairs. Unable to stop the capture of the Auger, the VS took it. This put the VS on the outer region of Ikanam Bio Lab. While the VS tried to transition to Ikanam Triage, a NC force dropped on the Auger and was able to start the cap before the VS could start capping Ikanam Triage, forcing the VS to pull back to deal with them.

Meanwhile, on the northern lane, the NC were assaulting a VS held Moss Ravine. The assault slowed and was eventually overturned as Miller muscled their way to North Grove as the NC re-positioned forces south to stop the VS push into Ikanam Triage. The VS laid down motion sensors everywhere as two squads of NC dropped right on top of the North Grove [A] point building. Like ninjas, they tried to dropped down to the bottom floor and take back the point, but died. The VS successfully held the point until they captured North Grove, while a VS infiltrator began the LithCorp capture almost immediately. The air battle still was a trench war at maximum height, and distance.

On the southern front, the NC were able to push back on the VS and recapture the Auger. It seemed as though both servers were flip flopping on the northern and southern lanes. As one server pushed one lane, the other server pushed the other lane, and then flipped sides like a game of musical chairs. As the game clock counted down to 1 hours left, Miller stood with 7 territories to their name to Ceres’ 6.

While the VS pushed Magriders and infantry to the Auger, the NC attacked the Arsenal with vanguards, sunderers, and liberators and took the [A] point. The VS took back the Auger as they repelled the NC attack at the Arsenal. This time, the VS began the cap on Ikanam Triage immediately and pushed their infantry forward only when they the cap started in their favor, to avoid being caught in mid-transition like they were last time. They were pushed out of Ikanam Triage, but immediately started the cap on LithCorp while the NC defend timer was still going at Ikanam Triage.

It became apparent that Miller’s strategy seemed to be a “left-right-left-right” switch-a-roo, while pissing Ceres off in the process. As the NC defended one lane, the VS attacked the other. This pendulum strategy saw the VS inch forward to Ikanam Bio, albiet slowly. It was about this time that the VS air made another resurgence, destroying quite a bit of Ceres’ air force. As VS captured LithCorp, they immediately started the cap on Ikanam Garrison. At 20 seconds, Ceres took back the [A] point of Ikanam Garrison while Miller assaulted Ikanam Triage. When Ceres responded to Ikanam Triage, Miller went back to and retook Ikanam Garrison’s point. This time the distraction worked, and the VS took Ikanam Garrison, giving them direct access to Ikanam Bio Lab. From there the VS assaulted Ikanam Triage yet again to completely block the NC in at Ikanam Bio while the VS sent a squad to the Ikanam Bio to start causing trouble in the generator room.

The ploy worked, and the VS captured Ikanam Triage, giving them two adjacent regions to Ikanam Bio. Ceres valiantly defended their Bio Lab and kept Miller from attacking the objective, Ikanam Motor Pool, until the match timer expired. They even gained back air control from the VS and attempted to reclaim Ikanam Triage and Garrison. However, Miller won because they had more territories by match end.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Dotz0r and Allelujah created the schedule/rules, and both of them organized the Miller server. Fuzzbuket organized the Ceres server. Lanzer created the intro video. RedolentBastard was the host for the event. SteelDragon created the PS2 Pickup ServerSmash graphic. Fara and Dotz0r from INIcast, in association with ReachCast, were commentators for the event.