do you guys like the heavy platform and semi truck? or is it useless?

[SuspiciouspegasusTTV]

TBH I am wondering, since I really like the heavy platform but it doesn't seem to be as good on the offense as it is on defense and so im wondering what the advantages of having a semi truck with a heavy platform is vs having an abrams tank? Since Iv'e been playing the movement in skirmish and while I first beat the campaign on medium my second playthrough has been on normal. but the semi seems to not be as good as a tank for offensive ops, or maybe im using it wrong? Would the dozer have better performance?

And what about other movement units? Truth be told I kinda just like neglected the light platform during my playthroughs I don't tend to use them all that often.

[Nelson]

Its not useless by any means. But as you worked out, a semi-truck, even with cage armour, is not a tank.

My experience with heavy platforms is that they are a strong defensive and fire support asset. The 155mm howitzer can decide battles even if you only have one or two of them.

If you NEED to go on the offensive with heavy platforms, the Dozer is the better choice between the towing vehicles. The dozer blade has a very high armour and armour type, giving you the closest thing to a tank outside the Abrams.

Light platforms are great. Again, howitzer access. Within a light vehicle slot. So you can bring them even in situations where the game doesn't expect you to bring artillery.

For most uses other than fire support or the 120mm in ambush, I would advice against the platforms. The troop carrier trailer is surprisingly good with its ability to mount 2 light and 1 medium weapon between it and the towing vehicle. I like using them to guard a flank by itself.

[SuspiciouspegasusTTV]

Originally posted by Nelson:

Its not useless by any means. But as you worked out, a semi-truck, even with cage armour, is not a tank.

My experience with heavy platforms is that they are a strong defensive and fire support asset. The 155mm howitzer can decide battles even if you only have one or two of them.

If you NEED to go on the offensive with heavy platforms, the Dozer is the better choice between the towing vehicles. The dozer blade has a very high armour and armour type, giving you the closest thing to a tank outside the Abrams.

Light platforms are great. Again, howitzer access. Within a light vehicle slot. So you can bring them even in situations where the game doesn't expect you to bring artillery.

For most uses other than fire support or the 120mm in ambush, I would advice against the platforms. The troop carrier trailer is surprisingly good with its ability to mount 2 light and 1 medium weapon between it and the towing vehicle. I like using them to guard a flank by itself.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Nelson how did you survive Trafalga? Damm those frenchies didn't stop you!
but yeah that makes a lot of sense and gives me new strategic possibilities, also yeah my latest playthrough I have been using the armored carrier trailers, their great fun. I like to use heavy platforms with 50 cals to deny enemy air support and also use dozers the same way, heavy platforms when stationary are great for locking down areas especially if you have like 3-5 of them with the 120mm and about 2 or 3 heavy platforms with howitzers like I do.

[Nelson]

Lemme put it like this, England expects every man do their duty and my oath didn't specify anything about duty ending in death...

The 50'cal is also on a 155mm platform. Very useful indeed.

I gotta ask, how do you afford 5-8 heavy platforms? And where do you take the slots from to use them in most missions?

I get it as a kind of late-ish game army but I dread at what cost.

[Nelson]

Added note:

I must try out a supply HEMITT towing a heavy platform with 155mm at some point.

[SuspiciouspegasusTTV]

Originally posted by Nelson:

Added note:

I must try out a supply HEMITT towing a heavy platform with 155mm at some point.

I tried it, late game its very fun, not sure if fuel tankers can tow but I wish... TBH I wanna love the HEMMT more but without upgrades I just use semis instead.

[SuspiciouspegasusTTV]

Originally posted by Nelson:

Lemme put it like this, England expects every man do their duty and my oath didn't specify anything about duty ending in death...

The 50'cal is also on a 155mm platform. Very useful indeed.

I gotta ask, how do you afford 5-8 heavy platforms? And where do you take the slots from to use them in most missions?

I get it as a kind of late-ish game army but I dread at what cost.

Well I played my first game on medium and I tended to sell off squads I didn't need due to goodwill points being useful for buying supplies and I disbanded squads that had missing members at the end of many missions(like if I no longer needed them) TBH I did save scum a lot. I often bined manpower and I took every single vehicle I could out of every mission and didn't resupply them right away but instead took them to a dealer and sold them. But I tend to play on normal or medium TBH I dislike the high supply cost on higher difficulties which is why I don't play on hard or expert. I feel the Cheating AI and the damage/unfair difficulty spikes are bad enough without supply shortages, but I also tended to always choose supplies over goodwill points even in later Missions where founder command supply guy would always offer upgrades, vehicles or weapons, I chose supplies instead, I did choose the heli from the ranger gurl, but that was cuz its legit the only freaking way to get an ATGM heli, up until that point I used a movement helicopter. I could have probbly played better by disbanding all my tank crews besides my hero ones and the one you get at vega, and instead use engineers since engineers and technicians are better anyways. More firepower in case they need to bail and the possibility of leaving their vehicle to set up mines then jumping back in.

TBH I think movement techs are hands down one of the S tier units in the game, very well all round balanced can be equipped with various rifles and such, can be used to drive tanks and helicopters. can turn machines into nukes, can EMP, can throw smoke, lay mines and even remove mines(not so sure about that last one) while yeah having 1 less guy than a founder tank crew can be bad. Its not the biggest deal.

[Nelson]

Ah, difficulty supply scaling it is.

I played the first game on Medium, lost half of my troops in Haven and made do with only my founders until Chihauha. There I ended up realizing I didn't have enough infantry and went back to Tortuga to gather all mercs I could buy.

After Vega though, I was back using only Founders.

Right now I'm playing on hard. I don't feel cheated by the AI nearly as often as during the first playthrough.
--

Movement units tend to be very good at their jobs. The techs are just flat-out mandatory IMO. They can salvage tanks and do almost everything else.

Shoutout to mercs though. One of the most slot-efficient units in the game.

[SuspiciouspegasusTTV]

Originally posted by Nelson:

Ah, difficulty supply scaling it is.

I played the first game on Medium, lost half of my troops in Haven and made do with only my founders until Chihauha. There I ended up realizing I didn't have enough infantry and went back to Tortuga to gather all mercs I could buy.

After Vega though, I was back using only Founders.

Right now I'm playing on hard. I don't feel cheated by the AI nearly as often as during the first playthrough.
--

Movement units tend to be very good at their jobs. The techs are just flat-out mandatory IMO. They can salvage tanks and do almost everything else.

Shoutout to mercs though. One of the most slot-efficient units in the game.

My issue with mercs is they don't gain promotions. Maybe were just built differently, although yeah their pretty versatile. TBH the rangers feel lackluster when your not doing a stealth mission TBH the only time C4 is really ever useful is on new tortuga where you use guerillas to set up like a gazillion C4 charges

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

I'm making a "bad" play through. Where i make wrong decitions and piss-off factions. And my army is 90% Movement forces.
And when you don't have a choice - they work fine. It's not tanks, but at least they have a punch of tanks.
And in general Movement army almost X2 cheaper in total than my Founder army.

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

Troop carrier unfortunately does not give Exp to crew.

[Goel]

They are great ways to put down some firepower and they are very inexpensive supply wise, even considering the truck towing the vehicle.
I have also found the 50. Cal and the heavy plasma machine gun to be great sidearms.

In my first playthrough I have towed around 2 arty and 2 heavy platforms since you get them in Santa Fe I found them effective in Vega, but the AI also delivers so many in that map, that you don't really need to bring anything but arty beforehand and you can just steal new ones

I took 2 more after Vega, I used all 6 in Oklahoma
Most of the time they sat behind LOS, so they could surprise units coming around a building or the bridge openings around the map.
I definitely recommend the Heavy plasma cannon for this, but I don't think Ill bring more than 2 platforms for my next run, if any, I just find them too static, most of the time, they are just sitting there, doing a job my light platforms or infantry in ambush could be doing - as in killing light units

Against legion armor, I just found that they couldn't consistently trade without receiving too many return shots and the return shots just hurt too much.
Planting mines and moving in when the legion armor is static is a safer way of finishing them off I find.
Often the armor might repair the initial damage from the mines, but at that point you will probably have killed everything that was supporting the armor.
If you planted the mines near a building you can probably EMP the legion armor and take it out / hack it, quite safely.

Anything that gets through the mines and on the other side of the building, separated from legion armor view, can be killed by a light platform with light rotary.

Using the platforms offensively with a dozer might work, at least early campaign, but against legion my experience is that the dozer goes down before it becomes anything but a target.
And in general, the platforms are just too inaccurate when firing on the move.
If you want to use a dozer, that's an extra 2000 supply and you have to use 2 infantry squads for it, which in my view is the worst thing, because you have to keep those 2 squads together at all times and if things go wrong, you are too slow to get anywhere fast.
Having a light platform on the back of your light vehicle with rotary, I have found very effective, even with decreased accuracy, enough shots hit

Instead I have used the armored carrier trailer, with the dozer to move infantry up.
I then place the armored carrier just behind the building, so the one AT weapon the carrier has is peeking out, and then it just works as a resupply point and sometimes shoots

Tbh, it has really grown on me throughout the campaign.
Only thing letting it down is low spare parts.
But it has so many good things going for it, it is able to carry 5k of supply, it has 2 weapons slots, so it can be kitted out for different things, troops can shoot from the sides.
When you get the steel upgrade it gets a MASSIVE amount of armor value on ALL its sides.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3192067219

Gotta say though I only really used the dozer push effectively on Vega, maybe I just didn't use them right.

Originally posted by Crystal meth enthusiast:

Troop carrier unfortunately does not give Exp to crew.

Good to know, Ill add that militia, while they can fire from inside the carrier, will not use the weapons, you need someone in who can drive a vehicle.

Another note on the Techs - they are not 1 less guy than a Founder tank Crew, when you take the skill for them to drive tanks, they are upgraded to 4 people.
WITHOUT EXTRA DAILY SUPPLY COST, making them the most cost effective unit in the game pr. person.

[14285714]

Originally posted by Nelson:

Added note:

I must try out a supply HEMITT towing a heavy platform with 155mm at some point.

Even some stray bullets are enough to destroy a HEMITT, so better not put it anywhere near the frontline.

[Nelson]

Originally posted by 14285714:

Even some stray bullets are enough to destroy a HEMITT, so better not put it anywhere near the frontline.

Well, hence the 155mm... No need to have my heavy artillery anywhere near where its shot at.

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

Originally posted by Nelson:

Originally posted by 14285714:

Even some stray bullets are enough to destroy a HEMITT, so better not put it anywhere near the frontline.

Well, hence the 155mm... No need to have my heavy artillery anywhere near where its shot at.

3 times you need to.