How to SGQ
1. Bring your tanks close together in a tight group by clicking repeatedly in one spot near the enemy.
2. Press S, Press G, hold Q and click one far spot repeatedly, until your tanks make a tight group again.
3. Repeat.
GQ History
MB-Tiger, ssanai and others used GQ on MPlayer (per Blitz and Sucky) and it is in JCFarmer's guide from the late nineties:
There was, however, a long period somewhere between the demise of MPlayer and start of CnCNet when this GQ knowledge was lost. All players were only using Q to fight with, which probably led to the development of maps such as Platinum Medal Challenge and some highly skilful Q fighters such as RC1985:
The player RC is playing against above, ehy, was probably the only one who knew about GQ at the time, having updated Milo's guide with it. He's the only player from this era (c.2006-2016) where I have spotted GQ use in videos. But for some reason, nobody else used GQ until Ford wrote an article around 2017 about beating RC with a secret technique (ehy had retired a few years ago by this point).
A group of us then tried out different GQ techniques. Green was using a wild drive into the pack type strategy, which was initially the most effective. But once we began learning to control our tanks better, 'GQing away' defeated Green's method. How to control your tanks better? We found 3 methods: Lovehandles developed 'Double Click GQ', Faust developed 'Attack GQ' whilst I developed 'SGQ'.
Ford's blog was full of interesting RA topics - the guy analysed the game in detail, finding all sorts of bugs and tricks. One of them was using S to make your trucks drive faster, so my brain suggested trying it with GQ - and to amazement, tanks were behaving better. This was confirmed when I beat Ford for the first time ever on a game of Ribbon by aggressively SGQing into his tanks, and thereafter was unbeaten on Q Master Max for about a year, before my hand gave into old age. Trust me, shifting tanks for hours can hurt!
After I released the following video, it took years for others to effectively use SGQ. It was counter-intuitive, because why would stopping your tanks help? The answer is to reset your Q points.
After inviting Milo234 back to the game, even he wasn't aware of GQ. Our first Q-Max battle together in 2020 was amusing, because it demonstrated how the map maker played it - by stacking! At first I doubted SGQ would win vs this (new to me) stacking technique, but we soon learnt that SGQ was superior (at least until the stack got too big). Milo then became super interested in learning SGQ, and with the lens of a scientist we played 100's of games together to break down the mechanics:
The issue with tanks not listening to GQ orders became clear when we tested single tanks vs each other. Consecutive Q commands are not cancelled by G alone - a double click, S or targeting the enemy tank is needed. Else, your tanks become scattered easy targets and without focussed firepower.
Milo, Blitz, San, Zoro, Jacob, Kickn & Hezb all became strong GQers after we played many games of Q Max together, with San giving me the most trouble then and now. I would say it's easy on paper, but hard to master. Timing your G command to maximise targets whilst keeping your tanks moving is easier said then done. I think SGQ is more efficient than Double Click GQ, but Attack GQ is useful to pick off lone tanks.
Stacking
As alluded to above, stacking is still a great option in certain situations. On a closed map like Ribbon with limited movement, stacking tanks beats Q and SGQ after your group of tanks reaches a large number. You should use the Stack Shift method to do this, by sending tanks before adding them to a group.
Stacking is used to good effect by Yuzgen - he controls multiple groups, often leaving them in your ore patches or at choke points while doing something else. Small stacks can be devasting if left unnoticed, and large stacks are very powerful on closed maps with little movement.
For reference (and you can try this for yourself), the map Platinum Medal Challenge can be beaten via Q, GQ and Stacking! In an open map both Q an SGQ will beat a stack - in fact, the current record for platinum medal challenge is held by Blitz with only Q!
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