Any advice on Realistc difficulty?

[Calas Typhon]

Is it just me or the "realism" difficulty is only for your army? My units just melt all the time, even the snipers get sniped from regular infantry and it takes several shots to destroy vehicles where mine get obliterated with just the bullet passing by it, not to mention that regular infantry regularly just kill my drivers. I don't want to keep doing quick reloads on my saves all the time. What are the ways to beat the game in this difficulty?

[Nelson]

Realistic difficulty means you and the AI fight on the same level. All other difficulties have damage reductions for your and allied units. And the jump from hard to realistic is like 50%.

The key to it is recon and engaging on your terms. Use crawling sniper teams in ambush mode to get an idea of whats going on, then decide on where to go with your army. Or just what to shell. Artillery is your best friend if you want to avoid losses.

Be mindful of your vehicle crews. Its often better to bottom up tanks when you expect to fight.

Lastly, something you can learn in other difficulties: Get an idea of the level of overmatch you need to minimize casualties by wiping enemies out before they can respond. Lower difficulties do NOT increase your damage. Enemies are just as easy to kill as they are on all other difficulties.

[Warnoise]

In realistic difficulty, there are 3 key points:
1-Scouting
2-Hit without getting hit
3-Protecting key units (ATGM, Tanks, etc..)

-Scouting:
Use a sniper squad, set them to defensive, make them crawl then press Q and click on the position you want them to scout. They will stop the moment they detect an enemy.

For buildings, try to throw a smoke in advance so your scout don't get melted by incoming fire, then bring your anti-garrison units and destroy the enemies trying to hit your scout through the smoke.

-Hit without getting hit:

After scouting, next is hitting without getting hit. Against legion, you get ATGM that deals with basically any vehicle other than legion tank and snipers that can kite legion homonculi all day long.
Another way to achieve that is by baiting enemies with smoke. For example for legion tanks, you can send your scout unit and throw smoke right withing max range of enemy tank, while it's trying to hit them, approach with your own tank from a different angle (no smoke within line of fire) and diable it from the first shot if it hits the cannons.

3-Protecting key units:
As you said in realistic, units die easily. In fact, you should expect losses in realistic because that's the nature of war. But there are key units that basically dictate the outcome of the mission. How to protect these units, through proper positioning. You should keep in mind the range of the units and their positioning in the Frontline.
You have "brawler" units like the infantry squad, militias, etc that are designed to be right in the mid of the fray. They should be in the first layer of defense whether inside buildings or in a prone position spread out to avoid multi kill hits, supported by tanks if possible when the situation allows it. Next the second layer behind them, longer range units like movement heavy weapon squad, vehicles, snipers, etc..

Never ever, group up your units and right click on enemies for that's the least effective method to not only get a decent k/d ratio but also to consume ammo as well.

[Rubaboo]

Originally posted by Warnoise:

-Scouting:
Use a sniper squad, set them to defensive, make them crawl then press Q and click on the position you want them to scout. They will stop the moment they detect an enemy. [/quote[
Great tip!

Does the sniper have a different range at which it is detected or detects enemies when compared to other squads?

I was mostly using guerrillas to scout because of how much smoke they have + 5 squad strength. I assumed that the detection bar in the unit information frame on the lower left of the screen was accurate and every infantry squad has the same detection radius vs enemies.

Originally posted by Warnoise:

For buildings, try to throw a smoke in advance so your scout don't get melted by incoming fire, then bring your anti-garrison units and destroy the enemies trying to hit your scout through the smoke.

Is it impossible to detect enemies hiding in a building while staying undetected with a scouting unit?

I read somewhere in-game something about a hard detection radius for infantry being 10 meters. Is this the case? When laying down, not firing and not within line of sight will all infantry be discovered at 10 meters?

Originally posted by Warnoise:

You have "brawler" units like the infantry squad, militias, etc that are designed to be right in the mid of the fray. They should be in the first layer of defense whether inside buildings or in a prone position spread out to avoid multi kill hits, supported by tanks if possible when the situation allows it. Next the second layer behind them, longer range units like movement heavy weapon squad, vehicles, snipers, etc..

By brawler, how specifically do you use the units?

I've found on hard that my infantry squads / ranger squads will take 1-2 casualties from the first 1-3 volleys of a machine gun. Most of the time dying before my supporting units can hit and destroy the enemy HMG on a truck or LMG infantry or HMG infantry team. I'd assume this would be even worse on realistic difficulty.

[HeathenSW]

Originally posted by Rubaboo:

Does the sniper have a different range at which it is detected or detects enemies when compared to other squads?

I was mostly using guerrillas to scout because of how much smoke they have + 5 squad strength. I assumed that the detection bar in the unit information frame on the lower left of the screen was accurate and every infantry squad has the same detection radius vs enemies.

Founder snipers are the most stealthy units. Rangers/Guerillas/Marksmen can be detected from 40 meters (I assume the number is meters in the game files), while snipers can be detected from 30, if they do not move. While moving rangers/guerillas/marksmen can be detected from 60, while snipers can be detected from 50.

So yeah, founder snipers are the best in stealth, especially with that perk. Also Kondo shares the stealth stat with founder snipers.

Range of detection/view is always 120 for every infantry unit. But whenever something shoots it's detected from a range of 100.

Originally posted by Rubaboo:

Is it impossible to detect enemies hiding in a building while staying undetected with a scouting unit?

To my knowledge - almost yes. I'm not sure why sometimes snipers can crawl close enough to reveal a garrison and stay undetected and why sometimes they cannot. Every other squad was noticed and shot at in 100% cases in my limited testing.

I swear the best scout is armoured dozer for almost every situation (at least on hard difficulty) - it can tank even a random ATGM or two from the front, while reverse move retreating. Second best scouts are Stryker, due to smoke and automatic turret (Bradley too for same reasons, but pimped up Bradley is much more valuable), and founder snipers due to stealth.

Originally posted by Rubaboo:

I read somewhere in-game something about a hard detection radius for infantry being 10 meters. Is this the case? When laying down, not firing and not within line of sight will all infantry be discovered at 10 meters?

Seems accurate. The enemy needs to be VERY close, almost on top of, to notice laying down squad with weapons disabled and in defensive mode.

[AMekhov]

Originally posted by Calas Typhon:

What are the ways to beat the game in this difficulty?

1. the easiest way - to know the future
2. a little more difficult way - to complete the game and remember everything

the game is designed in such a way that the firing range of any weapon overlaps the reconnaissance radius

i.e. it's a pure lottery about blind kittens and serious losses, even if you play through reconnaissance

without two upper options - no chance to play comfortable without saving and loading, that's how it is

[Calas Typhon]

Thank you for the advice! I was well aware of them having played the game on hard but the units just die too easily in my opnion, it's like all the enemy's troops are veterans, it's always a sure hit with every volley. Having played Cuban Missile Crisis a game very similar to this one, I know the power of scouting, weapon range and knowing where to strike. But the problem is just the units being too brittle, like that time when the Legion dogs sniped my Bradley crew, that must be a bug of some kind(I raged quitted the game for 4 days then), and it's like the shooters in my team are crossed eyed, they don't seem to hit as often or as precisely as the enemy. I feel like Mulans's Mushu:"You missed?! How could you miss, he was 10 feet in front of you!"

[23]

Funny there is nothing realistic about this game. Units can't even take cover. They forgot the "Strategy" part on the Real Time

[Nelson]

Originally posted by 23:

Funny there is nothing realistic about this game. Units can't even take cover. They forgot the "Strategy" part on the Real Time

True, the core of the game is tactics, not strategy. Sadly, most people can't tell the difference anyway. Especially the clowns that don't even play it.

[Easthaven]

Originally posted by 23:

Funny there is nothing realistic about this game. Units can't even take cover. They forgot the "Strategy" part on the Real Time

I never understood why they removed the original cover system from the game engine either. It was present back in Syrian Warfare, so we know it worked, and personally I liked it very much for the realism.
When you hit the cover button in SW, infantry used to hide behind the closest solid obstacle (stone fence, rubble, dirt pile, tree, etc.) or go prone if there was none around. Double tap cover forced everyone prone. And my personal favorite: earth mounds for tanks to park behind as covered firing positions. It made so much sense in holdout type of missions.
Also trenches for infantry, widespread in SW, but there was none in the base game here, we had to wait until the Legion DLC to see them come back.

It's like the apocalypse happened and everyone forgot the basic military practices of " how to minimize exposure to enemy fire".

[Nelson]

Originally posted by Easthaven:

Originally posted by 23:

Funny there is nothing realistic about this game. Units can't even take cover. They forgot the "Strategy" part on the Real Time

I never understood why they removed the original cover system from the game engine either. It was present back in Syrian Warfare, so we know it worked, and personally I liked it very much for the realism.
When you hit the cover button in SW, infantry used to hide behind the closest solid obstacle (stone fence, rubble, dirt pile, tree, etc.) or go prone if there was none around. Double tap cover forced everyone prone. And my personal favorite: earth mounds for tanks to park behind as covered firing positions. It made so much sense in holdout type of missions.
Also trenches for infantry, widespread in SW, but there was none in the base game here, we had to wait until the Legion DLC to see them come back.

It's like the apocalypse happened and everyone forgot the basic military practices of " how to minimize exposure to enemy fire".

Apart from the missing "look for cover" animations, the "cover system" works the same it did in Syrian Warfare. Bullets are simulated. If they hit an earth mound in front of your tank, they don't deal damage. If they hit a low wall in front of your infantry, they don't deal damage.