Tactics Repository

[tarcobom]

I thought I'd start a thread just to accumulate whatever tactics advice people might have for Call to Arms. I know that veterans might find this all a bit elementary, but I think it would be helpful for a lot of new players so that they understand how the game works a little better so they don't get frustrated and walk away from it.

I'll start by reposting a bunch of stuff I put in a different thread that was on another topic, but that I kind of derailed into tactics more generally (hence the new discussion). So, in no particular order:

I recommend direct control for the following uses:
with vehicles to target the enemy vehicle
with snipers
to cook grenades
otherwise it just takes you away from the overall gameplay too much.

You should attempt a flank if possible. If you mess it up you can lose your whole flanking force for nothing, but done right you can slaughter the enemy units by hitting them from the direction where they have no cover, or by chucking some grenades in where they aren't expecting it. Be wary of the enemy spawn zone, from which they might bring in some units to flank your flank if you get too far around.

You can also try mircroing one guy, moving from over to cover and behind buildings, to throw a grenade where most of their dudes are bunched up. You can often throw grenades over buildings.

Try microing your dudes medkits when they get down to half health. Just click the individual soldier with the low health and click the medkit symbol on the tool bar at the bottom center, its red with a white cross. He'll take a knee to do it.

It requires a lot of micro at the moment because the hotkey isn't in, but you can use smoke grenades to block the enemy view so your guys can advance in the open without getting shot up.

Also, your machine gunner is the most important unit in your squad and should be kept to the back and center of your formation, protected by the rest of your men and at a range where he can reach the enemy but they can't reach him (MG's have a little more range than the normal assault rifles).

Vehicles are in now, and if the enemy has one and you don't they'll annihilate you in a straight firefight. The USA vehicles have better armor and their tier 1 and tier 3 generally come out on top vs the GRM equivalents, BUT the GRM tier 2 can destroy anything from a range at which it cant be touched by USA vehicles, so save for the tier two (when playing as GRM), direct control, and target the enemy vehicles from max range.

The more spread out your guys are the more directions their fire can come in from on the enemy position to get a little around their cover. The more bunched up your guys are the more fire the enemy can concentrate on your position and so the less they'll miss and the more your guys will be suppressed.

If you get to the zone and behind cover before the enemy does, so that your guys are aiming down their sites and protected while the enemy is running out in the open to their cover, you'll absolutely slaughter them (and vice versa of course). One way to help guarantee this is to select your first unit during the preparation time when the game first starts, scroll the camera over to where you want them to go (preferably the middle, big advantage to cap that first), double right click on the cover as soon as the game starts so your guys start running there ASAP, and as they are running there select individual guys from your squad from the bottom menu to redirect to individual cover spots (with the mg guy at the back).

Only use the hard, good cover like cement barricades and stone walls and Hesco boxes, not the wood boxes or pipes or fences with gaps in the cover or whatever else (if possible).

GRM gets more, cheaper units, and you can benefit from this by covering the enemy in fire from more directions with more guys, or flanking with your extras, especially with the militia who can bolster your forces in a quick pinch. USA get's better, more accurate guys with more health packs who will win in a prolonged firefight from range typically.

I do recommend, after sending your first squad to the middle (ALWAYS take the middle first by the way, thats key to winning if you get the middle), getting the cheapest 3 man team you can, probably support team, maybe militia, and taking a second point quick so you can have the defensive advantage at the other point. Using the teams instead of whole squads is a good way to "get there the firstest with the mostest" as they say. Fire teams especially cuz machine guns are so pivotal.

Move forward under covering fire one guy at a time from cover to cover, always under covering fire to suppress the enemies who will slaughter you otherwise.

If you're definitely gonna lose a skirmish in one part of the map then pull your guys back to save a few, don't fight to the last man

Grenades in close quarters always, its worth it even to kill one enemy to get the fire advantage. Especially useful when getting rushed and enemies are temporarily bunched up.

If you notice your attacks on one enemy point are failing cuz its too heavy, pull back and try another point on the other side of the map. They probably wont have enough men to defend everywhere heavily on standard settings. Poke and prod to figure out where the enemy is.

I've found that when confronted with an enemy vehicle, when I lack a vehicle or an AT crew, the best thing to do is to put all of my units in the vicinity of the zone that the enemy vehicle is attacking into the prone position. This prevents them from firing straight ahead, but also prevents the enemy vehicle from being able to return fire unless he rolls up right on top of you, which the enemy is often tempted in to doing, which gives you the opportunity to throw a grenade, which will instantly kill the vehicle if it explodes on it. Try cooking the grenade to prevent them from driving away from it during the count down.

This tactic saves your men to fight another day instead of seeing them slaughtered by a vehicle, and they can continue to hold the point. Be wary about doing this for too long though as it opens you up to grenade attacks yourself followed by an enemy infantry rush. Experienced enemies are less likely to fall for this and moving their vehicle up into grenade range, but if they don't then it will still buy you some time to get an AT infantry or a tier 2 vehicle for AP maybe.

It can sometimes backfire, but I find that against most players aggressive flanking early on is very effective. They will just want to defend their point, and will expect you to do the same. They won't expect you to send your first support team you buy, after your initial full squad, up in to a position that flanks their access to their main cover and barricades. With just three riflemen in positions along the route that the enemy sends reinforcement in you can easily slaughter whole squads if your enemy is not careful, or at least throw off his game-plan if he is. Moving up aggressively in this manner can allow you even to approach your opponents spawn point (don't get too close cuz they are invincible in their spawn points for a few seconds, that's when they are blinking upon spawn). Typically this involves taking the middle and one side quickly, and then moving up your units on the side out of the zone and behind cover more towards the middle of the map and on your enemies side.

The AT infantry isn't that good at destroying vehicles at the moment, so i don't really recommend them for that atm (dunno about the heavy at) cuz they die before they get in range mostly.

Do though use an RPG soldier in direct control mode to blow up stone walls (doesn't work on concrete barricades, hesco boxes, or other non-destructables of course). This is especially useful if paired with a few infantrymen who can gun down the enemy quickly once their wall is destroyed.

Micro-manage grenades to cook them. Put an infantryman with a grenade in direct control, change his weapon to grenade, and then aim at where you want the grenade to go and hold down the left click as long as you want to cook it. This way the enemy doesn't have a chance to run or jump away. Make sure not to blow it up in your hand though! More elite units seem to have longer grenade throw ranges but I'm not sure about that.

Use the direct control button on the HUD for old style direct control. It's the small button in the lower left of the screen that looks like an arrow facing upward with a hat.

Try the sneaky grenades if you want your opponent to hate you. Go prone and crawl up to the enemy behind a wall and chuck a grenade from the prone, preferably cooked.

Use a sniper to take out an enemies entire defense slowly but surely in a part of the map where they aren't paying much attention, especially with a couple of infantry guys to protect the sniper from getting rushed. Without input from the player, the ai will just sit there and be slaughtered by snipers if they aren't in range to return fire.

Snipers are also useful for taking out the gunner in enemy vehicles (especially exposed GRM vehicles), which will give you a brief respite from their heavy MG fire so you can advance.

I've noticed a glitch where sometimes soldiers won't fire on one of their old vehicles that the enemy has captured. An opponent used this on me and ran over what seemed like half of my army with impunity, and then crashed into my allies tier 1 truck and they both exploded lol.

If the enemy does an infantry rush then throw a mass of grenades behind all available cover.

If the enemy throws smoke, then you can bet that they will probably be moving dudes forward through it. Chuck a grenade in there for good measure.

Put one infantryman in the prone behind the hesco barriers that make up the flag base. It's very difficult for the enemy to kill this last guy, and will delay the capture of your zone, letting you squeeze out a few more points.

Hide a cheap infantry unit in a building in or near your zone if the enemy is about to overwhelm that zone. Even if he's a cheap militia unit, if the enemy doesn't notice him in there and sends in dudes then he'll kill 2-3 of them before they get him.