A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste

By Red Pixels with contributions and edits by Ifurita

Mines can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Unfortunately, a lot of mines seem to be tossed down without a whole lot of thought behind why they should go in that particular spot. After all, you only get three of them at a time, should you get the most bang out of each one? Red Pixel was kind enough to put together some nice tactical hints, which I've supplemented.

Overview

Mines are no longer restricted to mineable terrain as in W:ET. It seems that the biggest mental shift people can make is that you can find mines on anything, including walls, Forward Spawns, and Objectives. They are visible and are also destroyable with any type of explosive weaponry as well as EMP/Scramble grenades.

There are two types of mines: proximity and trip. When planting mines, you select mines (6) then can use Mouse1 (_attack) to place a Proximity Mine or Mouse2 (_altfire) to place a Trip Mine. Trip Mines are activated by an enemy tripping the beam of light and explode immediately. Proximity Mines blow up when an enemy comes close enough, but give off a little audible beep and give an enemy some warning before they go off.

If you trigger a proximity mine, you should hear a audio cue just as is activates (a high pitched whine - this is not your significant other complaining that you're spending too much time playing ETQW). If you're quick enough, you have enough time to save yourself. I played around with this and if I strafe jumped away just as I heard the audio cue, I would survive but take 50-60 points of damage.

Tips

1. Mines supplement defenders, they do not replace defenders.
   

   Make sure you place mines where they can be covered by fire. If they aren't being covered, then you're wasting a valuable defensive resource because they aren't hard to see and if they aren't being covered, it's not to difficult to avoid them.

2. Use the mines to canalize, delay, or damage the attacker.
   

   Mines don't have to kill an enemy player to be effective. You can use mines to force the enemy into easier routes to defend. For example, lot of mines in the interior hallway of the multi-storey building in Sewer might make an attack group forego that route to the EMP generator. In this case, you can even use the red beam of the trip mine to your advantage. If the enemy can see a number of trip beams, they might decide it's not worth sacrificing the grenades to clear the mines and take another route, the one you want them to take.

   You can also use mines to delay an attack and make them more vulnerable to the defensive crossfire. Place mines on the outside rear wall to the Inner Generator Compound to make the attacking team hesitate for a little longer in the open area where they are vulnerable to your defensive APT. Or, just place your mines to scrub off some health from attackers so that they're easier to kill at the Objective.

3. Use the mines to protect vital interests.
   

   As a GDF Engineer or Strogg Constructor, you have the ability (and responsibility) to effectively cover multiple areas of the battlefield. While you are off assaulting or repairing, mines can provide security for the team's vital interests or cover blind spots. In particular, use your mines to defend forward spawns, Objectives, and likely staging areas where the enemy will group up to attack the Objective.

4. Place the mines appropriately.
   

   Don't feel the need to pile mines on the objective itself. That's the FIRST place the enemy is going to look for them and once found, a simple grenade will cancel out all of your hard work. You're just wasting the mines and giving the enemy grenades a bigger boom. Remember: friendly players are going to be in the vicinity of the objective! Even in war - safety first!

   Consider placing mines somewhere along the enemy's approach where they have to slow down, such as around blind corners and at the top of staircases. remember, if they hear the activation click and can jump away fast enough, they will escape serious injury. The goal is for the mines to remain unseen until they are triggered and to be triggered when the enemy is moving the slowest.

   Another good tactic is to place mines next to egress points that you can control with direct fire. Place a mine on the outside exit of the multi-storey building and wait for GDF attackers to push through the building. Once they exit, you can hit them with defensive fire and pin them up against the walls -- right next to your mine.

5. Use mines as an early warning system.
   

   Your HUD will tell you how many mines you have left to place. When all 3 mines are planted, your HUD will show 0. Keep an eye on this number and look for a kill message when the number changes. This might indicate that an attack team is pushing through your mines and has taken some damage or at worst, it's time to replant a new mine.

6. Change up where you place your mines.
   

   If you keep placing mines in the same spot over and over, they become very easy to bypass. Instead, keep the enemy looking and guessing. Change up where you place mines; closer or further from the objective, on the objective or not on it, try different approaches, plant mines in different hiding spots.

7. Mines need to "see" the enemy.
   

   A proximity mine require a sort of "line-of-sight" to the enemy in addition to mere proximity. When placing a mine, stand where you want your victim to be when the mine detonates. Can you see the mine clearly? If so, then the mine will likely "see" your victim. With any luck, your victim won't be as attentive.

8. Consider the blast pattern.
   

   When a mine detonates it will also explode any and all other mines within its blast radius. Be aware of how exploding mines are likely to interact based on their placement. Note that a mine needn't be active to explode. In fact, you can increase your explosive coverage by hiding non-active mines widely-spaced near an active mine. Enemy players might harmlessly and unknowing pass by the inactive mines to (hopefully) detonate the active mine. The result: One player could trigger the simultaneous detonation of multiple mines, which, thanks to the larger coverage area, might kill off multiple enemies.

9. Be mindful of chokepoints.
   

   Remember, friendlies will take defensive positions at chokepoints. In tight quarters one triggered mine can spell a tragic end for several allies. If you notice friendlies piling in to defend a chokepoint, disarm any mines you have in the area. They're a liability.

10. Mind other people's mines.
    

    Pay attention to the placement of friendly mines. If someone else has covered the area appropriately, placing your mines there as well would be a waste. If you still think you should add some mines, again, take note of the likely blast patterns. What will happen when your mine explodes? What will happen to YOUR mine when his mine(s) explode(s)? You might find that your mine, planted just outside the door, will accidentally detonate all the mines inside the room, thus freeing the enemy from having to clear the room himself.

11. Consider using mines offensively.
    

    Remember, mines can be exploded with grenades. If you're quick, you might find that you have time to throw a few mines on or near an enemy vehicle. One grenade will detonate the whole shebang, severely damaging the vehicle. Also, YES, proximity mines can be placed on vehicles! Throw an armed mine with a couple of unarmed mines on the grill of your Husky and drive toward a concentration of enemies. Hit the gas and jump off! The explosion shouldn't fail to impress. Realize, however, that (fun though it may be) suicide bombing probably isn't the best use of your mines. Your first priority is defense. You could use a variant of this by attaching a couple of mines to an Armadillo, then using it to block off the main entrace to the Objective while you build it. Strogg defenders may trip these mines as they try to move past hit to get into the EMP Generator Compound.

    As a GDF player who happens to notice a claimed Spawn Host, feel free to plant a mine on the Spawn Host as an early holiday gift to the respawning Strogg player.

    You can also just throw down some mines on the ground and not arm them, while the might not kill anyone, they might slow them down just long enough to get in that last little bit of progress on the EMP Generator.

12. Even unarmed mines are useful
    

    Unarmed mines will still explode. Throw mines onto the ground near enemy vehicles or turrets and do not arm them. Then throw a grenade at the unarmed mines and this will result in a bigger explosion which will help conserve your ammo.