Are Soldiers worth using?

[SquareCircle]

I tend to skip straight to snipers but I'm curious what more experienced players think.

[Heau]

I don't use em for 5th map max diff, and I prefer snipers for 4th map as well. But they're clearing faster than snipers for maps 1-3 in the early game if you are looking for score.

I mostly go from rangers to snipers because I hate to micromanage placing them in front of snipers when giving just simple clear directions.

[QWEEDDY2]

Just grab all your soldiers, assign them to group and press (C).
Add some snipers as buck-up against Mutants and Giants. Better attract them to your defenses positions where snipers are in Watch Towers (and Titans and/or Thanatos behind walls).

Still soldiers - main unit for everything. Against Giantes and Mutants too.

[Andrewbh2003]

yes i enjoy having 10-15 soldiers as an insurance policy for my sniper balls

no more than that and on wastelands i would be more reluctant to do so

[Leiraion]

Soldiers are insanely powerful especially for clearing the map. In the majority of maps massing soldiers is just too powerful to pass up imo.
I tend to do soldiers in nearly every single map in the campaign early on and depending on the map I'll swap to pumping out snipers IF the map calls for it.

Just my opinion -- cleared 800% campaign

[Liro Raériyo]

i totally skip over soldiers in the campaign, dont find em worth it since a lot of the early maps are real stingy with iron, so i just pass em over for snipers since they cost the same iron anyway but are more practical for dealing with threats.

that said, soldiers in the campaign have a LOT of upgrades available for them, so i doubt they are anything close to useless.

[QWEEDDY2]

What? Soldiers are useless? In CAMPAIGN? CAUSE THEY HAVE ADDITIONAL UPGRADES??? Bruh

They even best for survival.
Soldiers are best units exactly for treats. In mass they even can do it against Mutants and Giants too.

You deffinetly can skip snipers on maps with enough oil. Thanatos are wa-a-ay better, same as Titan as 2-tier soldiers.

And still soldiers - best unit for everything. WITHOUT campaign upgrades. They lower cost, lower XP requirements for Vet., best armored without upgrades, best against venoms and harpies, best attack.

I think there is no enough Research points to have +20% armor for soldiers. I choose only all units +5. They anyway have 40(+5)(+additional against venoms).

[QWEEDDY2]

Since EA status someone post threads about soldiers uselness. They all trolls or noobs cause every one of them use some nonsense as arguments.

Never look to attack points, look at DPM and additional things (splash dmg). It too much obvious even for noobs that snipers are too much slow to deal DPS. It is why i think some threads about soldier vs sniper is from trolls who want do wrong advise for newcomers.

And i dont know... For me same obvious that units cost rating should be countet by UPKEEP cost. It absolutely not matter how they buying cost.


You cant complete campaign without soldiers. Hordes missions, harpies...

[QWEEDDY2]

And again about research tech tree. Soldiers tech lead to next one - +1 additional soldier at start (exclude 1 worker) and more important YELLOW hp bar incelrease for buildings.

Green hp bars - absoluteky fake thing for buildings that have two bars.

Another one (cost more but give less) add more yellow bar. They must have too. And lead to something else (one of the wonder at the end).

Ofc it not increase defense buildings HP, but increase also attack towers HP.

Again, i think better skip any soldiers upgrades (same for every else units if it not give additionally something). Snipers are must have two. Even some for missions with oil. I prefer pick them instead of upgrade any else units. Better have any tech/building/units same as for skirmish.

Upkeep is most important for units. And that mean best units are first tree ones - rangers, snipers and soldiers.

But if you skip snipers - you can pick +20 armor for soldiers.

Or if it first walkthrough you can cheat all about 14200 research points and choose everything. But it only for 800% and that at same time only for beginers and not for them. Im not sure if it acceptable even for newcomers. Doing it on lowest difficulty is something... not fun

But that allow plauer to pick not only every technology but also every upgrades. And it actually a lot upgrades FOR ALL 3 units (ranger sniper soldier). Only oil units... Not have upgrades at all?

[Ramonkey]

In survival snipers are better. In the campaign soldiers are better because they get a LOT of upgrades from tech

[QWEEDDY2]

Soldiers can clean map way earlier than snipers. It must be group of rangers+soldiers. It sodiers who do defending and damage more danger infected - not snipers. Snipers are good for wstch towers. Against some midde waves when bot enough defense (and you want do it across whole map for finale way). For last wave better place some tanatos andtitans between Executors Shocks ans Whisps + few hundreds soldiers.

[Crypto Gamer]

In my opinion based on 500% almost done(abandoned at final mission)campaign and "nightmare pop in 100 day" survival games played about a year ago.
Campaign:
Soldiers are the best in the campaign with the MOST upgrades.Even with only one +20% dmg upgrade they kill most zombies in 1 LESS shoot.
They can also easily/cheap have 120 hp 60% armor aka 300 EFFECTIVE hitpoints (same as barricades),or even MORE effective hitpoints AND range AND better regen with the+20% hp upgrade+ a SECOND+20% dmg.As a bonus they've 50% fire and more imporant 50% venom resist sadly not affected by armor upgrades.
Majority of the 1-3 difficulty missions have very little/no special infected even during final waves.Soldiers kill 45hp runners and 35hp walkers FASTER then snipers do, at a CHEAPER price AND maintance even with ZERO upgrades.Even 4-5 difficulty missions tend to have more runners/execs than survival maps.You can complete the campaign only using upgraded soldiers+eco upgrades.Only used snipers a little during campaign so I won't comment on them much,they are IMO less usefull in 90% of the cases.

Survival:
Soldiers usually kill most dangerous infected with MORE total noise spent,they have less range and faster attack so noise can not decay as easily,so they can pull more than snipers.Few soldiers are better then a few snipers in almost everything.
Snipers are more efficent at killing execs and specials and"bosses".In big numbers around 50-60 they can kill almost everything without loses with no/low micro.Nightmare population has way more special infected,mutants,giants than most 4-5 diff campaign missions.50-60 unmicroed soldiers can lose a few units.

Snipers need some money to research suck in low numbers,more expensive,2 more gold maintance,slower movement speed.Because of their superiour range many can fire at once in very big numbers+very good range in towers.Becomes ultra powerful when in big vetted numbers with very low chance of unit loses.

Soldiers in very big numbers and small spaces sometimes can get stucked not all of them able to fire due to low range.With pause/good micro you can switch them around they have good hp regen.Oh they also vet faster than snipers.

Survival nightmare pop 100 day me usually has 2 "deathsquads" constantly clearing the map,while thanatos or rarely titans defend waves with towers+few guards.I found 10-15 soldiers+40-45 snipers/squad more effective at clearing in speed than either 60 soldiers or snipers.Most sniper on high priority.Soldiers attack closest.Soldiers tank for snipers but sometimes clump together and die to mass venoms if I use no mirco once a while.
60 sniper is more expensive+time needed to get there+lower gold income+slower usually.

During final wave I hugely prefer snipers if possible towered all on high prio behind many stone walls supported by mostly thanatos/execs towers.Because of the many walls far range most non towered soldiers won't have the range to attack,while snipers will melt away infected while AOE deals with trash.

[Silenius]

Also it is a good thing that soldiers can retreat, sometimes 30 snipers and they still get overrun and die because they shoot slowly: so you can't kite them! And they return more slowly to the base. I was going like 20 soldiers to snipers only, but it was probably a mistake. Also snipers will ruin your income quicker... But later on get some probably. Don't forget to pull 3 soldiers in front of army (ahead) so mutants do 0 damage.