Apologies for the length.
After playing Reich Chancellery in Berlin I got to thinking about how it shares some similarities with Fortified District and it could provide an example for how to improve everyone’s least favorite Moscow map. Namely, they both feature distinct “lanes” that are separated from each other by a no-man’s land. So I’ll talk about the two lanes of FD separately and why I think rearranging some things and adding more points might make it a better experience. It’d sure be hard to make it worse…
The A-C Lane
Oh boy, I hate and love this part of the map. The house to house fighting around C is great fun, and I like the rhythm of the riverside flank being more or less dangerous as the snowstorm waxes and wanes… but the relative balance between the two sides feels completely out of whack.
The team spawning C side spawns inside a building and goes to attack a point inside a building with plenty of homes along the way to take cover in incase of artillery or bombs. These houses also make great spots for rallies on the way to C.
The A team spawns in a open field to attack a point in a open field and taking it often comes down to RNG. Am I going to survive this artillery and take it or am I going back to the spawn screen? Also not great that if you want to build a rally on the way to A you’re stuck sticking it in that forest where the first 250kg bomb that comes by is going to blast it to smithereens.
So I’d really like to see 2 things done with this lane, focus the fighting more around the village (where actual cover exists) and try to improve the parity between the 2 sides’ spawns / first objectives.
On A side I’d cut out a chunk of the empty space around A and move that point up to somewhere within the field of tank traps while also pushing up their spawn to somewhere within the forest. It’d be nice too if something like the crashed plane that Ruins of Vaux has at A or maybe a half-wrecked pillbox (this district is supposed to be fortified afterall) were added to give players on that side something to take cover in on the point.
On the other side I’d push their spawn back into the field a bit and turn one of the areas around their current spawn into a point. With A-side spawn moved up and C-side spawn moved back this should allow both teams to get into their side of the southern trench around the same time and both sides’ engineers will be putting up their “safe” rallies around the same time.
The church point remains as-is because I think this layout would make it a much more rewarding point to fight over. Currently it’s a commanding position (all those windows, the tower) that one team just gets for free. If it were smack dab in the middle of 2 other points it becomes instead the main prize that both teams are going for in the lane.
(horrible paint job with very rough locations of points/spawns as described above)
The B-Side
I don’t care for this spot very much. It’s got two major problems for me. First, we have a rather narrow front that gets funneled into one spot and that allows planes and artillery to feel really oppressive. Second, there’s usually a fight over the northern trench line because it provides a solid vantage point over the pillbox. That in and of itself isn’t an issue but C-side team has access to much more of the hilltop and trench network than the other side.
So to kill 2 birds with one stone here I’d suggest simply formalizing the fight for control of the northern trench/hill top by adding a control point somewhere up there. This would even up access to the hilltop for both teams while doubling the width of the front line so that you might actually need a mark to land artillery or bombs on a squad.
Having a third point on the map that is fairly exposed to artillery would also probably help to diffuse artillery strikes over more of the map so that it isn’t just being called on A every 30 seconds.
(more shitty paint)
So, what do you guys think? Would this make it worse? Better? Is it even possible for it to be worse? What would you change to improve FD?