(this has also been called "baserape", but some object to that terminology and prefer this; also called base slaughter, and Home slaughter)
Base Ravage is when your team has been whittled-down to a single base, your home base, the enemy has air superiority, and they're constantly assaulting you, hovering over your base, tanks shelling your base, people sniping you, patrolling your base, probably dropping landmines, and the enemy is killing you the minute you spawn, or the minute you try to leave your base or take off in a warhawk.
Several conditions can lead to a base ravage occurring. Lack of teamwork by one team. One team being out-played by the other (due to either teamwork, lack of skill, etc). Can also occur if one team gets a lock on air superiority, or if yours simply wasn't paying attention to how many bases it was losing, or doing a good enough job in preventing that.
Once a team has more vehicles (primarily warhawks) easily available to it than the other team (because they have enough of an advantage in captured bases), it's very hard to break out of a base ravage. Some feel that in games with an APC it's slightly more balanced and you have a bit more of a chance to break out of a base ravage.
Stopping Base Ravage[]
The keys are communication, so you can work together to knock out some of the overhead warhawks giving you a chance to drive or fly out of your base, and putting pressure on the enemy (like by capturing their flag in CTF, or in Zones, capturing a base near their home) and capturing new bases so you'll have access to new spawn points and new equipment (especially warhawks).
- Get out of your base! - This is your number 1 objective. While you're trapped in your base you're not earning team points (just combat points), and the situation is static, with you on the losing end. You must get out. Drive out. Fly out. Sneak out. Once a new base is captured, you start getting a chance to turn the tide of a Base Ravage. In CTF Base Ravage if you all stay home defending the flag, the minute the enemy gets it out of your base, they're guaranteed another capture. Even if you get killed trying to escape, you may have distracted some of the enemy long enough for your team to rally.
- Rally your team - Get on the mic, encourage your team to start doing the "right" things...and you'll know what that is once you read this article.
- Get the enemy off your heads! - If you can't get out, then get the enemy off your heads! Pilots, even bad ones, harass the enemy, distract them, kill them, fly teammates to other warhawks so there's more of you in the air causing more problems. If you're strictly a ground fighter then follow the basic strategies on combatting air inferiority. If a whole bunch of you wait and then start firing RPGs at the same time, or hopping into anti-air turrets all at the exact same time, you guys will kill or drive off a lot of enemy pilots, making it easier for yours to get in the air. If you're on the ground, stay spread out, so you can't all be killed at once by an air strike.
- Go for a quick, easy base - If you've gotten out, tried to take a base, but it was too heavily defended and you died, if you get out again, go find a more lightly-defended base. It shouldn't be hard, most of the enemy is probably busy ravaging your home base. If you've got a Bio-field generator, use it while capturing the base...you really don't want to be killed while getting this done! And ideally, put landmines down so they can't easily re-take the base you just captured.
- Suicide to the new base - If you've been base ravaged, then a teammate captures a 2nd base, you may wish to Suicide immediately (Start button, then Suicide) then respawn there to ensure you keep that 2nd base. Once there you can use that equipment to either aid your home base, capture new bases, put pressure on the enemy, or attempt to re-establish a presence in the air.
- Avoid the base ravage - If you pay attention when your team is losing bases, and rally people to help at bases that you're in danger of losing, you can avoid being whittled-down to your last base in the first place. Also, follow the basic tip of avoiding air inferiority.