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[Radsoc]

It was a long time ago, but I proposed a formula for computing costs (rather than doing battle trials to create an artificial magic-number balance). From a programming point of view this should be preferred, but for game design (flavor) reasons, I guess, they settled for adjusting costs manually subject to subjective bias and listening to the complaints of people who usually could be found asking for nerfs or buffs (and the ensuing discussions with no basis in reality other than personal opinions). I remember that I usually lost all battles when I switched to RD from ALB, and that it took ages to fill up the red side in the lobbies. Then when I jumped in a year or so later I found that nobody wanted to play for the Wall Street guys, and that it was easy to win as the reds.  All this could be avoided by simply inputing production data and getting cost as a result - in a model that doesn't have to be extremely detailed, but a good enough approximation, which also would bring a more accurate intuitive feel for the real unit counterparts.

It's true that you get a lot more T34 per T90, but the numbers they come up with are arbitrary. Availability should reflect actual availability too. If it's a trash tank in low supply it should still be relatively unavailable in your repertoire to get the "feel" of a country, but easy to produce (low cost) etc.

MP is nice, but stressful. In 10vs10 you're responsible for your part of the front (+ some support players that can jump in and help or just do artillery stuff on demand or not), but it's anonymous, people leave, and generally the games are less serious. Smaller games are more intense, and your responsibility is greater (more satisfying if you win, especially when outnumbered, but it's a bit like a chore). In larger games, there's always some guy that tends to heedlessly attack fortified positions, which eventually leads to a major point loss (which is why conquest can be a nice mode). 

[Anvilfolk]

So, I understand the desire for realistic availabilities, but couldn't you easily end up in a situation with uninteresting factions? Like, is the Netherlands or Israel really ever going to win in a war against the USSR? It's reminding me of War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition, where the game was mostly about the Japanese side trying to survive as long as possible, as opposed to ever winning. Real world is often not balanced or fair.

If WG:RD took the same approach, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone willing to play the sides that consistently lost. I feel like it might be an acceptable decision to choose balance over absolute realism for competitive MP games. Games of historical simulation tend to be more of a niche



And yeah, MP games can be stressful. I'm trying to get myself in the mindset of them being intense rather than stressful because I no longer care that I suck a lot. And then gradually sucking less as time goes on

[Xardalas]

Bought the game. Sheesh. It seems complicated as fuck.

[Ozyton]

I bought the game as well. Thing is, I had already bought the previous two games for about but the same price but never really got to play them.

Bought the game. Sheesh. It seems complicated as fuck.

One of the interesting things is that issuing orders to your units is pretty simple. You only have attack and move orders, and splitting units into groups or merging them, but that's about it. The complexity comes from how many stats each individual unit and weapon has.


Also I'm in the discord but not sure if I'll be able to play right now.

[Xardalas]

I bought the game as well. Thing is, I had already bought the previous two games for about but the same price but never really got to play them.

Bought the game. Sheesh. It seems complicated as fuck.

One of the interesting things is that issuing orders to your units is pretty simple. You only have attack and move orders, and splitting units into groups or merging them, but that's about it. The complexity comes from how many stats each individual unit and weapon has.


Also I'm in the discord but not sure if I'll be able to play right now.

Really? I've had issues with my units not actually attacking unless I order em to.

[Ozyton]

Well they have to be in range to attack. ATGMs have a ridiculously long range, so if you keep getting hit with ATGMs and you only have cannons that could be why.
Also make sure you haven't accidentally disabled their weapons by clicking them on the bottom of the screen.

[Flying Dice]

You also have to have line of sight. Thankfully the UI actually shows you if you do or not. When you're hovering your cursor over an enemy unit, if the line is solid all the way there, you have line of sight and are close enough to be able to fire. If it isn't, either it's being blocked by terrain (which tends to be fairly self-evident) or you're out of range. You can check ranges when you're building decks, too.

Honestly half the game is in deck-building. Gotta pay attention to accuracy, range, AP damage on cannons & AT weapons, those three are the most universally important. There are a good many units that are functionally useless for one reason or another, most often because of some combination of those.

A tip, if you're wanting to pull extra high-end aircraft with the really good A2A missiles or the A2G radar-seekers, check the naval card list. It includes Marine/Navy versions of some such vehicles and they're counted against your naval card costs rather than planes which can let you cram in two or three more cards for cheap. Same deal with a lot of other stuff that has versions deployed in landing craft (obv. not usable on maps without any water spawns). The aircraft, of course, can be deployed on any map.

[Xardalas]

Any tips or tricks? Cause sheesh. I suck at this game.

[Anvilfolk]

Right?! Super hard

I think the best thing I ever did I stop needing all my units to survive. You are gonna lose troops, and lots of them, and that's OK. There are more!

Super duper tip: the mouse-cursor turns blue wherever there is cover (forests, hedges), making units in there harder to spot. Always put troops in blue spots or towns unless making a big push.

Here's a few generic tips that I feel are a good enough baseline strategy for defending (which is what you want to be focusing on at first probably).


Recon is super important. Every front should have 1 or 2, with Very Good optics eye-sights. You get Excellent optics on choppers, but they are more vulnerable. Use relatively cheap recon so you can deploy more.

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This comes down to see'em first, shoot'em first. Optics on non-recon units can be pretty crap, so if you want them to engage at range, you need recon.

Put fair amounts cheap regular infantry (10, 15 strength per unit) inside buildings at strategically relevant locations. In buildings behind them, have AA infantry (get the best, with 70% hit chance if you have them). On the buildings on the edge of town, put ATGM infantry if you have it, or the longest range AT inf you can find.

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This makes it so enemy vehicles get destroyed on approach, any planes coming to bomb getting attacked, and any vehicles that actually enter town or get too close get attacked by tons of effective close-ranged AT.

Put a couple of tanks behind infantry, in cover, with line of sight and range to incoming roads.

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This isn't always possible, but ensures that any lighter vehicles, usually bringing in reinforcements or supplies, get taken out as far as possible. Infantry walking out in the open is as good as dead!

Behind tanks, consider having ATGM vehicles (anti-tank guided missile, GUID in weapon descriptions).

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ATGM vehicles tend to have little to no armour, so they'll go down at the first hit. Tanks with stronger armour will take the brunt of enemy fire and survive for longer, while your longer ranged ATGMs take enemies out from safety

On more open areas, focus on using tanks and ATGM in forests/hedges. Keep your ATGM vehicles separated from each other, because an AoE weapon will take them all out.

Where your support and command units are going to be, have strong AA consisting of more than infantry. Turn off radar on their weapons until enemy planes show up and are in range, or they'll get destroyed.


During defensive battles, just keep shoring up your defences as you lose units. Try to keep an eye on AT ammo and get some supply in before you need it (guarantee that's going to be during the next major offensive). React to what the enemy is doing... if they're bringing in lots of cheapo tanks or vehicles, maybe get a few extra tanks/ATGM in, or some spam arty on their approach. If they're getting heavy tanks tanks in, get some of your own, or long-ranged air-based ground attack.


Also, just watch some youtube battles, and realise how little micro the pros are doing all the time. They only do it when it's necessary, or to set up the troops. Then they are mostly on their own!


Final tip is, after you've tried a couple of battles, just build your own deck for fun. It's what allowed me to truly understand all the different unit types and how they might fit together. You don't even need to use it - feel free to go back to SP afterwards. It just really helps get a feel for the units

Hope this helps!

[Anvilfolk]

On Discord and playing for a while if anybody wants to join

[Burnt Pies]

I'd be up for a game or two

[umiman]

Any tips or tricks? Cause sheesh. I suck at this game.

1.

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Your first task (and most difficult) will be to get to know all the units in the game. Yup. ALL of them. Until you know this information, you will remain completely in the dark. This is because while most of the units seems similar, until you know what a Jaeger is and if it's stronger than the USMC Marines in a direct firefight, you're never going to get anywhere. Similarly, you need to be able to look at an oncoming threat and when you see a bunch of M60A2E1 Starships coming, you need to know how to react (in this case the correct answer is to laugh).

If you think this is too difficult, then you can start with something easier by knowing what each faction kinda does. This will help a bit but you'll still find yourself lost all the time. In this case, the US has all the fancy but expensive equipment. France tends to be a glass cannon. The UK is slow and lumbering and about the defense and air. The USSR likes missiles and cost-effective units. Etc.

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2.

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Almost every unit has a purpose. At the start you're going to want decks that are highly generalized. So get some of everything. Recon is also extremely important, both the expensive good ones and the cheap disposable ones. Actually that kinda applies to everything, so just get a bit of everything.

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3.

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It used to be in previous iterations in the franchise that you could spam units and smash through enemies with cost effective blobs of troops. This is not the case any more. If you try this you will get obliterated by airstrikes. Playing this game has made me truly understand why the grand giant battles of yore have gone completely extinct. Seriously, air will annihilate your push if it's too concentrated so you want to feint a lot and have lots of angles of attack. Or just maintain air superiority first.

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4.

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Air is super important. Without air superiority you will lose. Don't rely on ground-based AA for this unless you have huge amounts or they're all BUKs or something.

Remember what I said earlier about knowing all the units? Doubly so here as you MUST know if an F-4J Phantom II can outfight a MiG-23M before you send your points to commit suicide. Also be aware it's not just the stats that matter here. You need to carefully choose your angle of attack (always try to arrive at the enemy from the flank or rear) and know the capabilities of your planes. So don't send a plane that is only equipped with long-range missiles into a dogfight.

Also remember that it's possible to kinda ignore ground-based AA to a degree. For example, if the ground-based AA is just a vulcan cannon, just ignore it. If it's something incredible like a BuK however, you are basically rolling the dice. That being said, there are a lot of planes that excel at destroying enemy AA as well such as stealth bombers or even just suicide runs of stupidly cheap planes.

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5.

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Artillery has its place, but if you're thinking to go artillery heavy in a 1v1, 2v2, or other small games like that you will get roflstomped. That being said, do not underestimate how powerful something as minor as a mortar can be in such games. I highly recommend you always bring at least one card of front-line artillery like mortars because they are amazing at disrupting enemy troops quickly. Long range artillery is super strong but uhh... their shells take QUITE awhile to arrive because of how far away they are and how slowly they reload.

Artillery also gets significantly more accurate if you have vision over the area. So pump out that recon.

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6.

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Infantry is extremely important, but also probably the hardest unit type to use due to how fragile they are. Again, you want all kinds. You need conscripts to hold a line. You need specialists to actually kill things. You need tank hunters to secure a town or city. You need paratroopers so you can exploit holes in the enemy's air defense and cause havoc behind their lines (because they come with a helicopter) Etc. etc. Also pay attention to what kind of troop carrier the units are in as they can range quite heavily from complete garbage like an unarmored truck to something godly like a Marder 2.

Be aware that no two infantry units are quite the same. Spetsnaz for example come with... rocket... propelled... napalm. Yup. They will obliterate any infantry 1 on 1 or even 2 on 1. They're absolutely worthless against vehicles though. The SAS on the other hand come not only with anti-tank but anti-air as well. However, this means they don't have an LMG for anti-infantry and must rely on their (accurate) rifles.

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7.

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Always be aware of fuel costs, especially now in Red Dragon where the maps are so bleeding huge. You need to know which of your troops can actually make it to their destination. Having a death march of super heavy MBTs is great until you run out of gas halfway and are now all sitting ducks. For this reason, you're also going to want to be aware of which fuel trucks have what kind of fuel capacity and don't do something silly like sending a single fuel truck to refuel an entire battlegroup.

Shooting enemy fuel trucks is also a damn good idea too.

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8.

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Recon and visibility is amazing. You cannot play without it. There's two kinds of recon. There's cheap stuff you just kinda plonk everywhere and hope they don't die like the M3 Bradley scout and then there's the expensive amazing stuff that you use to uh... "actively reconnoiter". So if you've ever wondered why a OH-58C Kiowa recon is doing flying by itself, it's because it's a sniper and loves to obliterate your tanks from an extreme distance.

By the way you're also going to generally want to bring along some recon on your assaults onto the enemy. This is because regular troops can't see far enough and if you don't have recon they'll just get ambushed nor will they be able to use their weapons at max range.

Lastly, you're always going to want to get recon behind enemy lines somehow. Whether it be slowly marching some infantry through a forest or by flying a helicopter behind them, you need to have some idea of what the enemy is doing.

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9.

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Smoke is king. It completely and totally obstructs enemy vision and can really fuck with the enemy when they least expect it. If you're advancing on a position heavily entrenched, do yourself a favour and smoke your path before you advance up. This way you won't get bombarded by ATGMs, long-distance fire, ground support aircraft, etc. before you arrive.

You can also feint very well with good use of smoke. If you smoke a larger area, the enemy won't really know where you're coming from. Or you could smoke one spot but attack another. Stuff like that.

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10.

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Don't think that just because you've completely locked down a city or sector you're invincible. If your units are all known to be in a single spot, you can be prepared for all kinds of artillery to smash your face in (it's also something the Buratino loves). Learning how many units you need for the defense and how many for the offense is something you'll have to pick up as you go.

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11.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can manually target flame units. You actually should do this all the time as their range is a lot further than what their engagement range is for some reason. So treat your flame tanks are some kind of short-range artillery and incinerate towns and forests from a distance. Their flames create smoke as well.

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12.

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A good practice is to stop your artillery pieces from shooting their entire barrage. This is especially important for units like the Buratino who have absolutely no business firing their entire arsenal in one shot. Basically once you think the artillery has shot enough, tell it to manually stop. This is because artillery pieces cost a shittonne to replenish and you'll fuck over everything if your team runs out of supplies because of wasted artillery that didn't hit anything.

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13.

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For certain units, it can be a good idea to turn off specific weapons at times. For example, if you're using an attack helicopter and want to snipe specific high value targets with the missiles, you should turn off the other weapons. This way, the helicopter won't try to fly into gatling gun range when you want to engage from 2km away. Similarly, if you want to spring an ambush with your infantry, you should probably disable the long-range ATGMs so they don't reveal your trap.

If you want to get really anal, you can disable all your weapons on your sniper units as well so they don't waste shots on worthless crap. The reason to do this is because it costs so much to resupply missiles and it will reveal your position. This applies very strongly to the Hellfire missiles of the US as those bad boys can be fired while moving, so if you let the AI handle it then it'll just shoot your entire supply in one go... wasting your precious points on some stupid infantry carriers when they could have OHKOed a Leopard.

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14.

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It's a good idea to defend your command units even if they're hidden. You can always bet on the enemy sneaking some troops behind your lines or a helicopter or something like that to hunt your command units. My preferred defense is 3 gatling-gun type AA vehicles spread out around the command unit. They're usually more than enough to deal with whatever sneaky unit the enemy sends in and failing that they can buy time for me to run away.

Also be aware of what kind of command unit is best for you as there are many variations. There's infantry versions which tend to be cheap but uh... they'll die to almost everything. There's helicopter versions which are fast but they can't really hide as well as the others. There's trucks, which are relatively fast but unarmoured so they will die to artillery easily. Etc. etc.

If you're really baller you can use MBTs as command units and have them in the front lines. This isn't as stupid as it sounds as for example the Soviets have a T-80U command unit. This is one of the best tanks in the game in command form. So you can plunk it at the edge of a forest right at the front lines and it can wreck face while you don't have to worry about a fragile truck being destroyed up there. So now you have to babysit a super expensive tank instead.

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15.

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I have no clue how naval battles are won. I don't think I've ever won a naval battle and went "yeah, I meant to do that". Then again, I don't really understand naval battles in any game or real life in general.

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That took awhile to type.

[Flying Dice]

A command unit addendum:

Hide the fucking command unit.
Halt the fucking command unit.

That guy who drives his command units into the middle of a zone because he mass-clicked and doesn't notice until they get shot up and the enemy command unit hidden in a forested far corner secures the vital spawn route? Don't be that guy.

Shoot the fucking command unit. Do it. Even if you can't see it, if you have flame or arty or air you can usually guess where it is and fuck it anyways.

[Anvilfolk]

Thanks for the tips folks - this is great stuff Still getting hammered in multiplayer, so always looking for more tips

Have been playing a few games with someone from the Discord chat as well as with others from the forum. Great fun so far!

[Digital Hellhound]

I see talk of a Discord chat but, uh, could someone tell me how to get there? I'd be up for multi - haven't played anything other than SP in a long, long time.