What is Combat Pacing in CoD Vanguard? Tactical, Assault, and Blitz explained

Keshav Bhat
Call of Duty Vanguard

Sledgehammer Games is introducing a brand new feature to Call of Duty: Vanguard MP called Combat Pacing, which gives players more control over the paces of their matches than ever before. 

Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer will feature 20 maps at launch, with 16 of them being core 6v6 maps for players to experience. 

Combat Pacing allows players to pick the number of players that will be in the match, alongside the intensity of the game itself. 

With Vanguard MP, there are three Combat Pacing Options for players to pick from. These options are also filterable through the Quick Play filter menu, allowing players to constantly change the Combat Pacing option they are matchmaking in. 

Vanguard player shooting out of a plane.

Combat Pacing Options 

The three Combat Pacing options in Call of Duty: Vanguard are: All Tactical, Blitz, Assault.

  • All: By choosing this preference, expect a mix of all the following Combat Pacing types. 
  • Tactical: These are the lobbies that franchise veterans know well. This is the experience that you’re used to with classic Call of Duty combat timing. Tactical Combat Pacing is always 6v6.
  • Assault: Balanced combat pacing that gives you enough room to breathe and a lot of targets to kill. In Beta Weekend 1, player counts will vary between 20-28 players.
  • Blitz: High-action lobbies where the intensity is cranked up to frenetic levels. Prepare for plenty of combat when choosing to join a Blitz. In Beta Weekend 1, player counts will vary between 28-48 players.

When selecting Tactical, this is the standard Call of Duty experience you expect: 6v6 with a focus on the average time for gameplay. It’s nothing new or different from what the traditional 6v6 player is used to. 

The new options, Assault and Blitz, crank up the intensity and gameplay depending on the maps. 

Three CoD: Vanguard characters

Assault increases the player counts from 6v6 to 10v10 or 12v12. In Assault, the matches are a bit more chaotic as there are more players packed into the maps, and there’s more action around every corner. 

And lastly, Blitz is all-out chaos in the maps of Vanguard. Players who like Modern Warfare’s Ground War and Black Ops Cold War’s Combined Arms will enjoy this playlist. It’s the same maps that players experience but packed with more players than ever. There are 24v24 options, which creates a full-blown intense match with players around every corner and every line of sight. 

With Combat Pacing filters, it’s unclear how Sledgehammer Games plans to incorporate Hardcore and other variations of modes into the action. We’ve already seen the devs incorporate ideas from Modern Warfare, with Dead Silence returning as a Field Upgrade while also using the game’s minimap system too.

Image Credits: Sledgehammer Games / Activision