That’s not my first post criticizing March on Stormbreak, so sorry if I’m already getting annoying. But I think this map is too unbalanced and 343 needs to make a few adjustments in order to make it more enjoyable.
The problem with March on Stormbreak is that the map is too linear. There are only two routes from the East side to the West side: the Cavern and the Fortress. The Cavern has absolutely no cover, so it’s out of question if you don’t have a vehicle, and even if you do, it’s exit is easily defendable by the enemy. The Fortress is the hardest base in the game to capture from the enemy because it’s very large and enemy Spartans have little incentive not to spawn there, since aside from the minor bosses that spawn here and there, there’s little action happening in the armories – precisely because there are few routes between the armories.
In my experience, if the same team kills Commander Lochagos AND captures the Fortress, it will win almost every time. The only chance the opposing team has to not be completely obliterated is killing Captain Wamik, but the team stationed in the Fortress is much more likely to kill him. For that reason, matches in March on Stormbreak are rarely balanced. It’s much more often that a team will win by large margin in March on Stormbreak than any other map, and these matches aren’t fun at all, specially when you’re in the losing side.
To illustrate my point, I’ll post my recent record in that map.
04/02/2016 - Won 1000 × 259
04/02/2016 - Lost 1000 × 187
04/02/2016 - Won 1000 × 306
03/02/2016 - Lost 1000 × 283
01/02/2016 - Lost 1000 × 444
01/02/2016 - Not finalized
01/02/2016 - Won 1000 × 990
31/01/2016 - Won 1000 × 328
31/01/2016 - Lost 1000 × 263
31/01/2016 - Lost 1000 × 710
31/01/2016 - Lost 1000 × 695
30/01/2016 - Lost 1000 × 447
30/01/2016 - Won 1000 × 906
30/01/2016 - Won 1000 × 650
30/01/2016 - Lost 1000 × 377
Most matches were either won by a landslide or lost by a landslide. Out of 14 matches finalized, in 9 the difference was higher than 500 points, although there were a couple really close matches. Of course I don’t remember specific details on each one of these matches, but I bet that in the ones with tight differences in scores, the team that eliminated Lochagos was not the same team that captured the Fortress. Or that was the rare match where one team actually managed to capture the Fortress from the opposing team in the middle of the game.
As I mentioned before, I’ve created other topic on this matter, but that ended up being more of a topic to discuss which maps the forum members didn’t like. In this topic I’d like to talk specifically about March on Stormbreak and how it could be improved. In the previous topic, though, cb3n made a few great suggestions on how to fix this map. I’m copy-pasting it below, but he is the author, not me:
"This “what is your least favorite” Warzone map is always interesting because players are so divided on what the worst one is. I used to hate Stormbreak, and probably still consider it the worst Warzone map, but it has grown on me some. Of all the maps, it is the easiest one for one team to roll over their competition, especially if that team is blue as they seem to have a slight advantage in terms of getting into the Fortress. On the other hand, it is actually one of the better vehicle maps, and it is definitely the one where good use of Req cards can make the most difference. I no longer think it is horrible, just needs some tweaking.
As you say, it is way too easy for a team to basically lock down the map once they take Fortress. The Fortress itself is very easy to defend due to its size and lack of entrances easily available to the attacking team (3 entrances with no easy way to loop around to the back). The Frozen Cave is incredibly easy to plug up due to the lack of cover on the route (best strat I’ve seen for that is comboing a Scorpion at the defending end of the tunnel backed up with a competent sniper behind to pick off boarders, very hard for attackers to dislodge without their own heavy weapons). The platform on the other side of the Fortress gives the defending team a decent vantage for sniping off approaching attackers too, so ultimately, whoever holds the Fortress can pretty much dominate 2/3rds of the map, preventing their opponents from getting a shot at the majority of bosses while racking up base points.
I believe the solution here is a 3rd route, with the easiest to implement option being the addition of a mancannon route going both ways along the Cargo Dock side. This would force whoever is holding the Fortress to commit resources to the Cargo Dock itself or give up the advantage of using the platform between that point and their base to harass approaching Spartans. Simultaneously, attacking Spartans would have the option of mancannoning to the Cargo Dock and getting another approach into the Fortress or continuing along to make a play for the opposing Armory. Supplemented by the possible addition of two more cover points in the Frozen Cave route (midway between the current cover on the catwalk and each entrance to the cave, probably on the side of the platform where Eternal spawns) I think this would go a long way towards balancing Stormbreak."
do not lose lochagos and be the team to capture fortress first and it should be pretty smooth sailing from there. I can’t complain about losing the fortress or not killing lochagos simply because it is my, and my teams fault, not the maps. If My team does not capture fortress first, we got outplayed. If we can not capture fortress for the rest of the game then my team is simply the worse team. It is part of the game and I don’t blame it on the map.