Tips & Tricks for New Players?

[CROSSROADS]

Greetings fellow Commanders & Dictators,

Anybody have any good tips & tricks or video suggestion to learn about the game?
I often struggle with the fact my armies sustain heavy casualties and loss of vehicles/weapons/items while the enemy armies are always full stocked and seem "undefeatable" with a infinite wave of armies/reinforcements, even though i play on easy difficulty?

Thanks in advance from a inexperienced commander!

[Nomad]

I recommend starting to play without alliances at the start and focusing on conquering the main island, and only then on individual islands.
First of all, think through your war strategy in advance. That is, choose the country with which you will fight first, and conclude non-aggression pacts with other neighbors. And so gradually move from one to another. For the first 1-1.5 years, the AI ​​usually does not attack. During this time, you will move to 2025 and first of all research anti-aircraft or vehicles with autocannons.
In tactical battles, try to play defensively. The AI ​​tries to act in the center of the location, and sometimes goes to the flank. Find convenient lines and position your troops along this line, first sending 1-2 infantry detachments forward as reconnaissance so that they identify enemy fire weapons. At the beginning, try to knock out enemy vehicles using anti-aircraft or autocannon weapons, taking control of them. Try to shoot at the tower of the equipment, this makes it possible to kill the shooter and then the destruction technique becomes useless. And if you are lucky and it is not destroyed, then at the end you will receive it as a trophy
I can recommend not making large battalions of 30 units each, but making smaller ones in larger numbers. After the battle, the recaptured battalion should be withdrawn to a city that has everything necessary for restoration. A fresh battalion will replace him. Try to conduct all defensive battles outside cities, since the starting positions of troops in defense are not always advantageous.
Gradually rearm from armored fighting vehicles to infantry fighting vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles to tanks. Gradually acquire aviation and make artillery battalions for support, this will help knock out enemy artillery in the late stage of the game.

[CROSSROADS]

Originally posted by Nomad:

I recommend starting to play without alliances at the start and focusing on conquering the main island, and only then on individual islands.
First of all, think through your war strategy in advance. That is, choose the country with which you will fight first, and conclude non-aggression pacts with other neighbors. And so gradually move from one to another. For the first 1-1.5 years, the AI ​​usually does not attack. During this time, you will move to 2025 and first of all research anti-aircraft or vehicles with autocannons.
In tactical battles, try to play defensively. The AI ​​tries to act in the center of the location, and sometimes goes to the flank. Find convenient lines and position your troops along this line, first sending 1-2 infantry detachments forward as reconnaissance so that they identify enemy fire weapons. At the beginning, try to knock out enemy vehicles using anti-aircraft or autocannon weapons, taking control of them. Try to shoot at the tower of the equipment, this makes it possible to kill the shooter and then the destruction technique becomes useless. And if you are lucky and it is not destroyed, then at the end you will receive it as a trophy
I can recommend not making large battalions of 30 units each, but making smaller ones in larger numbers. After the battle, the recaptured battalion should be withdrawn to a city that has everything necessary for restoration. A fresh battalion will replace him. Try to conduct all defensive battles outside cities, since the starting positions of troops in defense are not always advantageous.
Gradually rearm from armored fighting vehicles to infantry fighting vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles to tanks. Gradually acquire aviation and make artillery battalions for support, this will help knock out enemy artillery in the late stage of the game.

Thank you so much for this information, this will definately be usefull!
Is there a way to make squads bigger so i dont need 30 battalions?

[Captain Jack]

Depends on your combat style. You can defeat 300 enemy infantry with 50 own motorized… or even 30.

If you learned the game a bit, you can fight even with a balanced army 1:2.

I use at start of tactical battle a screen of 3 infantry squads with 2 APC behind. As reinforcements i call in 2 infantry, then 1 APC, and so on.

[MitigatedFever]

While the following is a monotonous and very cheap tactic, it is highly effective if you are pushed into a corner, and I have defeated armies of 300-400 stacked with late game tanks and anything else you can imagine with 100 troops or less. You also burn very little ammo. This tactic will not work if fog of war is turned on or you play above easy difficulty.

To do it from the start, you would need to be on easy difficulty, no fog, and have an airbase. When combat starts, switch to tactical, find the enemy, call in your helicopter or aircraft in rapid succession right at the beginning, and then retreat after all the strikes hit and you kill a bunch of infantry without taking many casualties. If you want to be really cheap, hit the AI in its spawn point to take out 15-20 or more per air strike. Later in the game you must lead with aircraft strikes to take out anti-air before trying to bring in helos to attack, or you will lose all the helicopters.

You can retreat from any battle whether offensive or defensive by hitting escape during combat and clicking retreat in the menu that appears near the bottom left, and there is also an option to replay the battle in the same menu, but once you hit retreat any units lost before you retreat are gone. After you retreat, the AI will attack you immediately, and you can repeat the sequence above indefinitely until you grind the opponent down.

This tactic becomes even more effective when you gain access to artillery. The AI often waits to use its own aircraft or use artillery until later in battles, rather than front loading cheap strikes like this.

Killing vehicles with aircraft takes more attacks, but is doable. My preference is to pick the vehicles off with my own when ready.

Like I said above, this is a cheap and monotonous tactic, and it’s not a particularly fun way to play the game, so I have only used a few times when my back was really up against a wall (e.g., my first play through when I was getting hit by 2-3 30 stacks from the AI every few days because I started on an island and let the AI get way out of hand on the main continent….)

Also, the only way I know to get 400 troops in battle is to have 100 in garrison and a 300 army in the same city. You might be able to get even higher if you parachute more in using helos (helos can drop 10 a helo I think if you are an island nation). I am not sure if there is a limit on helo-dropped troops and may experiment with it at some point.

Lastly, I think only 100 troops can generally be on the field at any time, so I often lead with my best vehicle mix. You can set the order in which units appear on the field by clicking and dragging them up or down in the army screen to get the right sequencing. This took me a while to learn and it makes a big difference when you can lead with tanks and APCs vs a random mix of infantry and other units.

[CROSSROADS]

Originally posted by MitigatedFever:

While the following is a monotonous and very cheap tactic, it is highly effective if you are pushed into a corner, and I have defeated armies of 300-400 stacked with late game tanks and anything else you can imagine with 100 troops or less. You also burn very little ammo. This tactic will not work if fog of war is turned on or you play above easy difficulty.

To do it from the start, you would need to be on easy difficulty, no fog, and have an airbase. When combat starts, switch to tactical, find the enemy, call in your helicopter or aircraft in rapid succession right at the beginning, and then retreat after all the strikes hit and you kill a bunch of infantry without taking many casualties. If you want to be really cheap, hit the AI in its spawn point to take out 15-20 or more per air strike. Later in the game you must lead with aircraft strikes to take out anti-air before trying to bring in helos to attack, or you will lose all the helicopters.

You can retreat from any battle whether offensive or defensive by hitting escape during combat and clicking retreat in the menu that appears near the bottom left, and there is also an option to replay the battle in the same menu, but once you hit retreat any units lost before you retreat are gone. After you retreat, the AI will attack you immediately, and you can repeat the sequence above indefinitely until you grind the opponent down.

This tactic becomes even more effective when you gain access to artillery. The AI often waits to use its own aircraft or use artillery until later in battles, rather than front loading cheap strikes like this.

Killing vehicles with aircraft takes more attacks, but is doable. My preference is to pick the vehicles off with my own when ready.

Like I said above, this is a cheap and monotonous tactic, and it’s not a particularly fun way to play the game, so I have only used a few times when my back was really up against a wall (e.g., my first play through when I was getting hit by 2-3 30 stacks from the AI every few days because I started on an island and let the AI get way out of hand on the main continent….)

Also, the only way I know to get 400 troops in battle is to have 100 in garrison and a 300 army in the same city. You might be able to get even higher if you parachute more in using helos (helos can drop 10 a helo I think if you are an island nation). I am not sure if there is a limit on helo-dropped troops and may experiment with it at some point.

Lastly, I think only 100 troops can generally be on the field at any time, so I often lead with my best vehicle mix. You can set the order in which units appear on the field by clicking and dragging them up or down in the army screen to get the right sequencing. This took me a while to learn and it makes a big difference when you can lead with tanks and APCs vs a random mix of infantry and other units.

Thanks for sharing! think this will be helpfull for my play through.
But how does one assign vehicles to squads etc. for me it currently looks like it randomizes what vehicle my squads get so i wish to learn more on how to build good squads

[Agmar]

Yeah, one advantage of a dumb AI is using it to learn the game, see what combo's of tactics and units work best.
Hopefully the AI will get better in time.

[Captain Jack]

If you choose a nation with an airfield, then you can directly build 4 helicopter units.

You can use these to directly destroy the spawning enemy infantry, yes.

But i reserve these to take out enemy APCs.

If you form a defensive line downhill and let the AI charge, you will win your battles.

Sometimes this takes very very long, but if you try an APC charge, your APCs will quickly be turned into scrap by the enemy RPGs.

So it is here valid as well : “Patience, young Padawan”

[MitigatedFever]

Originally posted by CROSSROADS:

Originally posted by MitigatedFever:

While the following is a monotonous and very cheap tactic, it is highly effective if you are pushed into a corner, and I have defeated armies of 300-400 stacked with late game tanks and anything else you can imagine with 100 troops or less. You also burn very little ammo. This tactic will not work if fog of war is turned on or you play above easy difficulty.

To do it from the start, you would need to be on easy difficulty, no fog, and have an airbase. When combat starts, switch to tactical, find the enemy, call in your helicopter or aircraft in rapid succession right at the beginning, and then retreat after all the strikes hit and you kill a bunch of infantry without taking many casualties. If you want to be really cheap, hit the AI in its spawn point to take out 15-20 or more per air strike. Later in the game you must lead with aircraft strikes to take out anti-air before trying to bring in helos to attack, or you will lose all the helicopters.

You can retreat from any battle whether offensive or defensive by hitting escape during combat and clicking retreat in the menu that appears near the bottom left, and there is also an option to replay the battle in the same menu, but once you hit retreat any units lost before you retreat are gone. After you retreat, the AI will attack you immediately, and you can repeat the sequence above indefinitely until you grind the opponent down.

This tactic becomes even more effective when you gain access to artillery. The AI often waits to use its own aircraft or use artillery until later in battles, rather than front loading cheap strikes like this.

Killing vehicles with aircraft takes more attacks, but is doable. My preference is to pick the vehicles off with my own when ready.

Like I said above, this is a cheap and monotonous tactic, and it’s not a particularly fun way to play the game, so I have only used a few times when my back was really up against a wall (e.g., my first play through when I was getting hit by 2-3 30 stacks from the AI every few days because I started on an island and let the AI get way out of hand on the main continent….)

Also, the only way I know to get 400 troops in battle is to have 100 in garrison and a 300 army in the same city. You might be able to get even higher if you parachute more in using helos (helos can drop 10 a helo I think if you are an island nation). I am not sure if there is a limit on helo-dropped troops and may experiment with it at some point.

Lastly, I think only 100 troops can generally be on the field at any time, so I often lead with my best vehicle mix. You can set the order in which units appear on the field by clicking and dragging them up or down in the army screen to get the right sequencing. This took me a while to learn and it makes a big difference when you can lead with tanks and APCs vs a random mix of infantry and other units.

Thanks for sharing! think this will be helpfull for my play through.
But how does one assign vehicles to squads etc. for me it currently looks like it randomizes what vehicle my squads get so i wish to learn more on how to build good squads

You can assign vehicles to squads by moving the relevant vehicle to the town where your army is and then clicking re-arm. However, the army will equip itself with any vehicle in the city, including unarmed transports. Once equipped, the only way I know to remove a vehicle from the squad is to delete the squad, which means you will have to reform it and wait for the soldiers to fill back up.

I don’t waste time with any unarmed vehicles. When I get them from the enemy, I immediately sell them on the World Market.

[MitigatedFever]

Originally posted by Captain Jack:

If you choose a nation with an airfield, then you can directly build 4 helicopter units.

You can use these to directly destroy the spawning enemy infantry, yes.

But i reserve these to take out enemy APCs.

If you form a defensive line downhill and let the AI charge, you will win your battles.

Sometimes this takes very very long, but if you try an APC charge, your APCs will quickly be turned into scrap by the enemy RPGs.

So it is here valid as well : “Patience, young Padawan”

If you buy the DLC, the first wheeled vehicle you can research and produce (I forget the name) is very overpowered in the early game due to the 30mm explosive shell cannon on top that is its primary weapon. I think the cannon is probably more accurate than tank shells, too.

The cannon kills any of the early vehicles of other factions in 15 or so shots and has a high rate of fire if you hold down the trigger. Light trucks only take 5 or so shots, humvees 10ish, and so on. It is also fast, so you can often drive in, blow up the enemy’s initial vehicles, and drive out before being RPG’d.

Once the enemy is down to infantry only, form a firing line of your own vehicles and just pick the infantry off, but keep tabs on things and avoid getting too close or you will lose vehicles to RPGs. You will learn over time what too close for the infantry is lol.

The same vehicle I mentioned above has a secondary machine gun that is great for infantry, or you can use the 30mm explosive rounds that turn infantry into red mist on contact once you learn how to control the recoil.

I’m sure there are similar vehicles outside the DLC, but I have just been using the one above in my current play through. Tanks have not emerged yet, but I will update this post if the cannon is effective against them.

Finally, if you still feel overwhelmed, you can go into the Gameplay options I think and seriously nerf the enemy’s vision range and accuracy while significantly boosting that of your own troops. You can also set enemy outlines to constant so that you can essentially see what the AI sees when it snipes you through full cover (plus a little more as you can see through smoke). This will not let you see the enemy anywhere on the battlefield at all times, though. Instead, the outlines seem to appear when your troops spot the enemy.

The above should also help you level the playing field a bit with hordes of AI.

[Zentra]

I suggest working with the power of the squad editor. You can do whatever you want when it comes to vehicle assignments. Fir instance... I have Lt and Hvy infantry as base units (Militia and Regulars). The primary positions all have RPGS. I then took that base setup and expanded some with trucks so now I have MOT inf.. 10 men.. and assault 5 men. I then created some attack vehicle units; 2 man armor units. (so I don't waste and expose 8 infantry) 2 man IFV units (just cause some of those vehicles are tough and work well), 2 man AA truck units, etc. I can quickly assign all the types.. Now all I have to do is click that type and if a vehicle is available and fits, it fills the slot automatically. I will sometimes just click until no more vehicles assign then I move on to the other vehicle squad types. Quick.

[MitigatedFever]

For anyone who does not know, you can create a custom squad by renaming it in the squad creation screen and then saving it.

[Proteus]

A bit necro but it's a top search result so here we go my two cents based on playthroughs and my personal style

1) garrison police based on dictatorship percentage bottom left (disband preexisting squads and replace with fully clothed cops. Optimal garrison quantity depends on population so towns or places with apartments need it the most. Typically hovering the dictatorship icon will tell you of any towns are out of control. Lower unrest won't show up aside from percentage being globally below 100%.
2) start on island (Arvik or whatever) . Storm the other side after merging battallions (within few months)
3) food production is the first thing. Some bakeries and fisheries.
4) wheat sells well, better than gold.
5) keep an eye on operating reserves in construction menu. If negative it means lack of employees. Keep it positive but don't grow too fast or famine will overwhelm you.
6) research and build boats after subjugation of other side on the island. Consolidate economy and invade bear island and then the other small islands.
7) vassalize every island as they will provide huge amounts of reserves and vehicles as well as guaranteed trade throughout the game. This is invaluable as you will have a lot of money from selling wheat and strategic resources you may lack on your island can be gained through import and trade. Sitting on 5k reservists and hundreds of vehicles.
8) keep your vehicle behind infantry and obstacles and maximize range and vision in doing so while also protecting them from rpg. This depends on tactical map.
9) avoid placing battallions and garrisons with valuable vehicles as they will get obliterated in the initial assault on maps where enemies spawnpoint is close. You can just recapture and be the attacker with more margin of maneuver.
10) stability is given by food (seems bread is more important than fish in that regard not sure). Avoid cigarettes and alcohol unless you can afford. Maximize stability research first before other policies.
11) tank destroyers are invaluable
12) missile artillery is tricky to use but in many circumstances is great for aoe mayhem. Needs to be micromanaged.
13) 40mm mortar vehicles can be very useful also in late game as anti infantry support.
14) tactical placement of silencer sniper team can be a good thing
15) trade trade and trade vehicles. Buy stockpiles of them from vassals. In addition to their tributes and your own production that results in massive stockpiles or war material and reserves
16) don't spam apartments. Unless you came up with an attrition war approach you won't need an extreme surplus of men. Mouths to feed means you won't be able to keep up with the food production.
17) apartments are most beneficial in farms since they are the only place asides from cities that can spawn reservists. Cities typically don't need them and their slots are better used for factories. I typically build one apartment per farm. If for whatever reason you need more, build one in ports or cities (ports don't give reserves tho )
18) banks are useless: 10k is hardly worth it and once your trading is up and running you will be swimming in 100k's
19) sell wheat as it is easy to generate in surplus. Already mentioned but can't stress this enough. It's basically free money.
20) research and produce uniforms. Misleading labels make you think these are units but they are actually uniforms. One garment factory and one cotton field are enough. Militia uniforms are plenty enough. Police uniforms for the garrisons.

[Agmar]

Thank you. Good food for thought.

[Zentra]

Originally posted by MitigatedFever:

You might be able to get even higher if you parachute more in using helos (helos can drop 10 a helo I think if you are an island nation). I am not sure if there is a limit on helo-dropped troops and may experiment with it at some point.

As long as the AA is down and you down;t drop too close to their guys firing, it is a great tool. There was one time I was about to lose.. almost down to 10 men. The paratroopers saved me... I dropped them in my spawn AND their very rear area.