Gears of War 2

With the latest Gears of War update (update 6), you can get this achievement easily by using "Social Xbox Live". You do not have to do it in a ranked match and with Social Xbox Live, the game will automatically start with Bots if it does not match you to enough or any players. Social Annex takes away the hassle of finding other players who actually play Annex.

Simply select this option in the drop down in Multiplayer and choose Annex in the Game Type drop down. From here start your matchmaking and with any luck you will get Bot players or only 1 or 2 human players. Once the game starts, capture the ring location (area on map you have to defend). This ring will have a certain score amount which will deplete then a new ring will appear elsewhere on the map; 3 rings on each map. Get your teams score up to 180 to win the round. Win two rounds and your team will win the match.

Do this on all 8 maps from the map packs to win the achievement. Unfortunately you don't get to choose the map but you will eventually cover them all since this game mode also includes the map packs in the playlist.

Bots are difficult in Social Annex but might be easier then doing it with expert human players.

MAPS NEEDED:
Canals
Gridlock
Mansion
Subway
Tyro Station

Flood
Gold Rush
Fuel Station

NOTE: If playing with other players you will get the full experience that you would in Ranked. If playing only against bots you will only get a certain amount for winning. You ALSO REQUIRE ALL MAP PACKS to play this mode.

EDIT (credit to guycarb): Rotation has changed yet again, the new list is as follows (will pick a random start point on creation):
01 Grind Yard
02 Security
03 Memorial
04 Sanctuary
05 Jacinto
06 Ruins
07 * Gold Rush
08 Under Hill
09 Way Station
10 Pavilion
11 * Canals
12 Blood Drive
13 Day One
14 Avalanche
15 * Flood
16 * Mansion
17 War Machine
18 * Gridlock
19 Fuel Depot
20 * Fuel Station
21 River
22 Courtyard
23 Allfathers Garden
24 Highway
25 * Subway
26 Nowhere
27 Stasis
28 Hail
29 * Tyro Station

As of 17 Sept 2011, this list incorrect. Confirmed by FMA Wrath 2069. Note the map cycle may change during the next weekend event.

Thanks also to all who have contributed to previous lists.
If there are further updates, please let me know. Thanks again for all who help & contribute.

Current map cycle as of (10-Sept-2011)
Fuel Depot
Highway
Nowhere
Under Hill
Security
Hail
Grind Yard
Jacinto
*Tyro Station*
Way Station
Memorial
Ruins
Pavillion
*Gold Rush*
Avalanche
Day One
*Canals*
Blood Drive
*Mansion*
War Machine
*Fuel Station*
River
*Gridlock*
Courtyard
Allfathers Garden
Stasis
Santuary
*Subway*
*Flood*

The method I'm posting is a boosting method, and will allow you to get this achievement while you sleep and go to work/ school. My friend Maathyas came out with this idea and it had worked perfectly.

Please do not leave a negative comment if you're not into boosting. I'm just trying to help people who want to get this fast.

You'd need:
- 4 people (including yourself), each with second controllers
- to leave your xbox 360 on while you're away

Play:
- Social Xbox Live
- Annex

Decide on who'd get the achievement first. Out of the three persons who're not, two should login with their second controllers as guests at the main menu. The person without a guest should start a lobby and invite the two of them to make it a team of five punching bags. Start the game and inform all in the party of the loaded map.

Now, the person who's getting the achievement should form a team of five, which should include four bots. Nine out of ten times, he/ she should be able to join the friendly game. If the map isn't correct, simply quit and re-search.

When all are in the same game, leave your xbox on, turn off your TV, and all can now go do their own things. With a team of five dummies vs a team of one dummy plus four insane bots, it's pretty obvious who'd win the rounds.

After each match/ map, the parties involved will automatically rematch as long as neither party leaves the lobby. This makes it impossible for any randoms to disrupt the boosting.

Based on my experience, the team with four bots takes on average 10-15 minutes to win a map. Meaning it'd take about five to seven hours for the bots to win on all the maps for the person who's getting the achievement.

(Some maps take longer because the bots seem to have trouble finding their way to the nodes, especially when it's located on the upper floor.)

As such, do so at about 10:00pm at night, and then go to bed. Wake up the next morning, check that you've gotten the achievement, and redo the process for the next person while you go to school/ work. Depending on how fast you get it and switch the teams around, you should be getting the achievement in about two days of "dedicated not-playing".

As it is, I did this method with three of my friends last night, and two of us have gotten it, and one is two maps short of doing so as we checked this morning.

With this, you won't need to worry about maps cycle. Just leave the box on for some time and the achievement will unlock without you having to fire a single shot.

PS: See comments for alternative boosting method involving similar setup.

NOTE

tHIS IS THE DEFAULT MAP LISTING WHEN THE SERVERS ARE PLAYING UP, WHEN THEY ARE FINE DVSTEZ SOLUZUTION IS CORRECT.....
......................................................................................................................................................
Helped a friend on 16th November 2013, and i can confirm that both map rotations can be used in the same day.... Usually a System cache will restore to the normal map rotation.....

As of today November 1st, a few of us just realised while boosting that the previous map cycles where incorrect so obviously Epic has changed them again.....
It took us roughly 3 1/2 hours first team and 4 hours for second team so a long sitting needed.....
I recommend volunteering for 1 hour shifts as this worked well for us since we had 8 people.....

Select the option social matchmaking as this is by far the best way to connect and it runs through in a straight cycle in the list provided below....

It seems to be an easy method to remember now as it is alphabetical order......

**DLC required for this**

1 <> AllFathers Garden
2 <> Avalanche
3 <> Blooddrive
4 <> Canals ***
5 <> Courtyard
6 <> Day One
7 <> Flood ***
8 <> Fuel Depot
9 <> Fuel Station ***
10 <> Gold Rush ***
11 <> Gridlock ***
12 <> Grindyard
13 <> Hail
14 <> Highway
15 <> Jacinto
16 <> Mansion ***
17 <> Memorial
18 <> Nowhere
19 <> Pavilion
20 <> River
21 <> Ruins
22 <> Sanctuary
23 <> Security
24 <> Stasis
25 <> Subway ***
26 <> Tyro Station ***
27 <> Underhill
28 <> War Machine
29 <> Way Station

Hopefully this helps the few remaining players who still need this to get the last of these achievements.....

It seems that this list is the default for when the serves are playing up and some have reported another map cycle is running with this 1....
So depending whether the servers are good or bad depends on which cycle you get....

I'm new to this site and this is my first post on this site so forgive me if I'm out of line. Sorry the instructions are so long as I tried to write in layman's term so hopefully everyone would understand it. Ask questions if further clarification is needed.

I was just thinking of a way to boost this achievement but haven't tried it yet because I never have enough people, while, not everyone has the time required to do this. Searching for each other online can be the most difficult thing, along with the time consumption with the map cycles, thus everyone's patience is needed. You can get lucky and find each other right away, then, your patience will be tested.

The least amount of people you will need is 6, the most is 10. With 6, there will be two teams of 3, with four people singing in with guests. The host for each team cannot sign in with a guest while the other members can, to fill in spots for a 5v5 game. First, get everyone into a lobby together, even if it says too many players, no one will be kicked out. Have one person set up a lobby, lets say, Multiplayer, Social, Annex. Once everyone is in, have every player submit a prefer player on each other. You cannot prefer a player if you haven't played with them so this is why getting into a lobby together is needed. Once everyone has preferred each other, pick two people as host, that live closest to each other, whether by state or country. Remember, these two people cannot sign in with guests. The reason why they need to live close to each other is to hopefully increase the chances of finding each other while matchmaking. This next step doesn't really matter because you can't control how the maps cycles, but for less confusion, have the teams set up where everyone needs similar maps if you know what you need. Write down what maps you've completed or make a list and cross them off. If you don't know what maps you've already completed, then it doesn't matter how teams are set up. When the hosts are selected, they invite two of the remaining four people from the party. These four people needs to sign in their guests to complete a 5 roster team. Once the teams are set, have one host search for a match, Multiplayer, Social, Annex. You hope to get into a game versus all bots. Before you get placed into the match, you will see on the screen if its against all bots. If you don't see that on the screen and get placed into a match right away, odds are, its a game in progress and not with all bots. Either way, if it's not a match versus all bots, back out into the lobby and search again. If you get into the same match, back out into the lobby and have the other team try to search. When a team finally gets into a match versus all bots, have the other team search for that same match. Like I said from the start, this can be a hard process to find each other. Once both teams find each other and get into the same match, the time consuming process kicks in. The first hard part is finding each other, the second will be the patience for the maps to cycle to get the ones you need, and then take turns for each team to win on the maps needed. If you get into a map that isn't needed, hurry up and have one team win to move onto the next round or map. Continue this and when the map needed shows up, have the winning team write down the map or cross it off a list so you won't repeat the same map. When a map shows up that's needed, each team can take turns winning. As long as you get into a match together, from here on out, each team can discuss whatever on which maps to win on. If this method works for Annex, I suppose it will work for Guardian, Submission and KOTH as well. I had a group of 6 people that did our Submission achievement this way. Good luck everyone!

Currently the map rotation (depending on which one you start on) is as follows:

- Highway
- Canals ***
- Ruins
- Pavilion
- Blood Drive
- Avalanche
- Mansion ***
- War Machine
- Under Hill
- River
- Gridlock ***
- Way Station
- Fuel Station ***
- Tyro Station ***
- Security
- Stasis
- Hail
- Santuary
- All Fathers Garden
- Grind Yard
- Jacinto
- Fuel Depot
- Gold Rush ***
- Courtyard
- Subway ***
- Flood ***
- Memorial
- Nowhere
- Day One

We did this in Social Annex with 2 groups of 5.
1 Group finds a bot match then tells the other group to search & with any luck (like we had) you'll match up with each other 1st or 2nd try.
Then it's about 6 hours of play for all 10 players to get there achievement.

Just wanted to put up the new map rotation list so people going for this achievement can keep better track of what they need and how far along till they get the map then need

as of 4/25/13

memorial
sanctuary
jacinto
ruins
gold rush
underhill
way station
pavillion
canals
blood drive
day one
avalanche
flood
mansion
war machine
gridlock
fuel depot
fuel station
river
courtyard
allfathers garden
highway
subway
nowhere
stasis
hail
-------
tyro station
grindyard

HERE: So everyone knows. Because its been clarified, now. We just did it. To get this achievement with 2 teams, with no connection issues, or anything that will cause randoms, or INSANE bots to join......it takes 10.5 hours to get this achievement, doesn't matter how many maps you need either, because you're doing this as a team.

Social Xbox Live, pick 2 hosts, close by, if you can, and the maps have no starting order, that we also debunked last night. You may start on Gold Rush, one time, something else the next time you try this. However, once you begin on your map, they repeat the same rotation, so that both teams can win on every map. Each team takes turns. I will also add this note, I went up an entire rank playing, and got over 500 kills, because out of boredom you wind up killing the players that are asleep, left their Xbox on, etc.

You can also run a guest account, but the HOST CAN NOT. 1 player from both sides has to stay awake, or go through this session for the entire time, and honestly 2 or 3 is recommended. I really don't care what others have said about this achievement, and it appears that the maps change cycle. Players have told me that, they've gotten Annex in 4.5 hours, to 6 hours, sure with one team. If someone who has no wins on either map, 5.25 hours for you on 1 winning team.

If you do decide to knock this one out, I wish nothing but the best of LUCK!! :D

NOTE: If you do happen to lose someone, they quit out, or they get disconnected, are unable to search, or find game again, and gets replaced with a BOT. Don't sweat it, the team that the bot is on, 2 players can trap the bot, corner it, or whatever. Also, Randoms are not always bad either. We actually had 3 last night that were willing to help out, but a few that weren't, so we had to trap them in as well.....lol

This was an annoying achievement to get. It kinda depends on luck. You gotta hope to land on your map, and hope your team is good enough to win twice. Also you have to hope the host is on your team while winning, cause if the host is losing, more than likely they'll leave and you won't get it. A few times I was 10 points from winning the match, when the other team would quit along with the host. I got most of them easily, cause I wasn't trying hard to get them. I would work on this achievement along with other online achievements at the same time. Eventually this was the only team based achievement I needed. Once you have one map left, it seems you'll never get it. Subway was mine. I played 7 games of Annex on Subway before I finally won. I started on the losing team, and noticed the winning team had a couple of bots. I quit out, and kept searching, and eventually it put me back on the same map, but on the winning team. A cheap, dirty tactic, but I got the achievement now.
To summarize my solution:
1. Play Annex in between matches for other achievements.
2. Try to be host or make sure the host is on your team.
3. If there are bots on the winning team, try leaving and coming back to be on the other team.

As DVSTEZ said the maps needed are:
Canals
Gridlock
Mansion
Subway
Tyro Station

Flood
Gold Rush
Fuel Station

But if you've given up on lvl 100 or don't care and want to make up the exp. Just quit if you dont get the map you need. You'll have to dashboard and you'll lose 1500 EXP everytime but this is the fastest way to get maps you need without a team. can be done in social but normally you re-join the same match. This is the way I got the achievement. sometimes you get lucky, I got flood 5 times in a row. Hope this helps. Also if you haven't lvled up much or are lvl 100 you wont lvl down.

disregard the solutions above you dont need to do 10 hour sessions and have friends help you i did this myself in a 2 hour period what you need to do is make sure you write down these maps on a piece of paper and just search for a game and get a map you need if you dont find it back out as no one is playing annex in social matches during the day odd person every couple hours but thats all and the bots arent to bad in this mode compared to submission but as i said just search and back out till you get the map you need here are the maps needed

MAPS NEEDED:
Canals
Gridlock
Mansion
Subway
Tyro Station

Flood
Gold Rush
Fuel Station

I am a bit late to the game - but thought I would share my thoughts for those still going for this achievement.

Getting the right map

There are 8 maps out of 29 that you need to complete - and rather than waiting for the map to appear, I would cancel out of a match if it wasn't the correct one, prior to the match starting.

It takes around 55 secs to cycle to the next map if you cancel out, and the greatest number of times I had to repeat to get a map was around 25 times. So 20 mins to complete a map, and roughly 1 - 1.5 hours of cycling maps - you should get this achievement in roughly 4 hours or so - total.

I have heard that you lose 1,500 experience points if you cancel out of a match. I didn't seem to experience that myself. For example - after one match where I levelled up - I then had to cancel out of the next 25 maps prior to completing. In theory I should have dropped 37,500 points but this didn't seem to be the case. Maybe it was because I cancelled before going into the match proper that allowed me to keep the points.

I had a thought that if multiple people were playing co-operatively on one team - they could all search for a match separately, then invite the others to join once someone got the map they needed. A lot quicker to find a map, and if any points were to be deducted, it would be shared amongst many. I didn't try this myself, but could be worth a go. Let me know if it works or not.

Gameplay

I got this achievement solo - playing exclusively against bots. I always executed my opponents rather than leaving them in a DBNO state - for 3 reasons:

1. The opponent couldn't be revived.
2. I thought it took the opponent out of the game for longer, as they would have to wait to respawn, then make their way back to the fight.
3. It usually means that the opponents would spawn alternating between 2 and 3 opponents each round - easy to dispatch with your group of 5

If you can grab the big guns it always helped. Torque bow, mortar, chain gun, boomshoot, all decimated the opposition, giving my team a chance to regroup and hold a ring.

As you get close to last few seconds on a ring, start moving towards one of the other capture points - there's a chance that you guess right and are able to capture the ring without too much interference.

On a side note - I mostly found that the bots on my team were dumber than I was. They wouldn't capture a ring when they had a chance, wouldn't revive you when it would be in their best interest to do so... just saying it was more than frustrating at times.

Hope this helps someone else!

This is NOT a boosting solution, it is a solution for players willing to do this solo it is not as bad as you think.

Search for Social Annex (you must have all DLC to do so) once you find a lobby it should be yourself and the rest are bots.

Maps Needed:
Canals
Gridlock
Mansion
Subway
Tyro Station
Flood
Gold Rush
Fuel Station

If you do not get one of the 8 maps back and out and try again. Keep doing so until you get one of the 8. There is no consequence for leaving a match so keep doing backing out and searching until you get one of the maps.

If you do get one of the 8 maps try your best to win the match, play objective only,doing anything in order to win the match. It will be a fairly even match since everyone else besides you is a bot but it is really not hard, get in cover as much as you can, plant grenades, always have active reloads, etc.

Once you have won a match stay just to see what the next map is, if it is not one of the 8 back out, search until you get one you need, WIN. That's all there is to it.

Also keep track of the maps you have won on so you will know exactly what maps you need.

I recently did this alone on social and it is easy. nobody plays anymore so you will get games with bots. I wrote a list of the maps and ticked off every map i got a win on as I didn't want to forget. if the list above has changed try and google search gears of war 2 annex playlist you should find a complete list of the order of all the maps in the playlist that appear and check the dates to see if the list there is more recent than the list above as it has been known to change, but not lately obviously. so if you have been keeping track of the maps you still need simply start a game up and see what the first map is and then check the list and see how close the map is that you want in regards to the map you are on. so if it is close you stay on and if it is a lot of maps away just return to menu and restart the search. this is very handy if for example you cannot play through all the maps you need in one sitting and/or you only need a couple of maps. obviously if you play in a group the chances are you are all going to need different maps so really it pays to go it alone to reduce the time you will spend playing this. if you know you all need all the maps then sure its good to party up. but in the 20 or so games I played on annex against bots I lost only 1 or 2 and they were very close so it is not essential to play as a group so don't worry if you have no-shows etc it is very do-able alone. and in those 20 games I never came across another human player once. it took me about 4 hours of playing 20 games as I played a few and sat out idle while i waited for the next map as I knew the order from the list. I did this about 2 months ago. I hope this can be of some help to you guys.

Just as a heads up, the prince jame5 map rotation is still good as of 10 Aug 2017.

^ map rotation still accurate. I found that finding a match can be strange. Either I can never get a game even with bots, or I'm put into one straight away. So don't give up, come back in a few hours or the next day. Bots can be tough, but not impossible they stick to lancer fire, but suck up close against gnasher. I'd highly recommend having an idea of the ring rotations, once you get down to about 10 get to the next ring. Bots are relentless once they get hold of a ring, if you can get there before them it makes all the diffirence. There's no way of tracking maps you've won properly, so make a note of them. ( I learned that the hard way having attempted this achievement 8 years after the last time lol, with 3 maps to go)

Map order as of 2022 (Alphabetical cycle)
**Asterisk** maps are the ones you need for the achievement (8 in total)
>Maps start at random point

-Allfathers Garden
-Avalanche
-Blood Drive
-Canals**
-Courtyard
-Day One
-Flood**
-Fuel depot
-Fuel station**
-Gold rush**
-Gridlock**
-GrindYard
-Hail
-Highway
-Jacinto
-Mansion**
-Memorial
-Nowhere
-Pavilion
-River
-Ruins
-Sanctuary
-Security
-Stasis
-Subway**
-Tyro Station**
-Under Hill
-War machine
-Waystation

For info, there's now a special playlist for this achievement at the bottom of the list. Try it!

The easiest way after TU6 is,if you play Social Xbox Live matches on the following 8 maps:

Flashback Maps:

Canals
Gridlock
Mansion
Subway
Tyro Station

and

Combustible Maps:

Flood
Fuel Station
Gold Rush

Everything is what you have to do just win! :) And don't forget every Annex match is about 2 rounds and 180 points to earn!

I hope this could help!