General feedback on the Alpha Force

[ChaosKhan]

Now that I finally reduced the invading force to only a fraction of what it was, I thought that I would give some feedback on the experience that it provided.

How I prepared for the invasion:
- I trained up a total of about 300 top of the line troops, namely Spetznaz, Trained Infantry, Cossac Fighters, Women Infantry, Pozna/Owl Snipers, Bodyguards and Terrorist and equipped them with high/top tier gear. That said, I didn't know the invasion would come, I just like collecting shiny stuff. ^^
- When the notification went off and I knew the invasion would hit in a week, I garrisoned most vets and recruited a batch of about 100 new soldiers, mostly made up of Militia to use as cannon fodder if the situation demanded it (since I hate it to throw away shiny stuff^^).
- As the date approached, I called for my companions to follow me, took about 100 vets to the militia recruits (2 Cossacks, 2 sniper squads, 4 rifle squads, 3 armed bodyguard squads and a few squads of maxed out and well equipped Milita SMGs) and went to intercept them on the supposed landing point.

How I fought the invasion strategically:
- I concentrated most of my companions on following me, therefore forming a doomstack of 600-1000 troops at any given time.
- I basically intercepted a huge chunk of the Alpha Force upon landing and proceeded to piecemeal it with autoresolves. Later I stopped doing so simply because it was way too easy to delete their stacks that way.
- I filled my losses usually by just turning prisoners. Especially Alpha Special Forces und Alpha HMG Fighters are exceptional/good soldiers, so the more I lost, the stronger my army actually became. It's ironic... Turning prisoners is way too strong.
- I concentrated on holding onto the Pozna settlements, who were my allies by that point of the game, so in the end the highest number of settlements the Alpha Force had at any given time was 2.

How I fought it tactically:
- Since the bulk of my companion forces was made up of the lowest of the low militiat one could get, I relied on my sniper and rifle squads most of the time (which were equpped with quite high grade sniper rifles and AWR rifles respectively by the time). I placed them behind the human waves of women militia and let them do the damage, while the militia soacked up the bullets.
- I fought the Alpha Force in settlements whenever they presented an opportunity to do so, since buildings forced their troops into chokepoints, which could usually be easily covered by my long ranged gunline. I slaughtered them by the hundreds usually not losing even one of my vets. The militia screen took the losses... ^^
- Since the battles started to take on completely different dimensions, I mostly spent them in the overview mode without doing much shooting myself, coordinating/microing my troops and rotating in fresh squads.

Technical issues while fighting the invasion:
- It seems the AI isn't able to handle so many stacks properly. Often my companion stacks (and Alpha Force stacks) just stopped moving for no reason and had to be "redirected" by me running back to them so they start to follow me again.
- The bug, where enemies "flee" from the battlefield and end up outside of the map boundary hit nearly every second battle. I had to suicide again and again because of it, since those "fleeing" soldiers can't even be killed with cheats.
- In the battles, a sizeable portion of the soldiers just hang back and do literally nothing as if they are stuck. When the AI loses enough it usually sends them into battle too, but this leads to just a continuos tide of soldiers, so the AI is incapable of using its numbers. It really needs to swarm out its forces so it can bring more guns to bear at once.
- The bug where a squad starts to move in a random direction, usually ending up somewhere on the edge of the map, after losing 1 or more squad members hit especially often. Retreating it is highly problematic since the squaddies quite often "retreat" into enemy lines where they get shot do death, which is ridiculous... Hence, 2 or 3 of my squads were rendered useless every battle.

My verdict:
While certainly a fun addition the hardest part about the Alpha Force was the fight against the numerous bugs. Autoresolve is way too effective and the vendors were utterly incapable of dealing with the amount of loot that I had to sell. It felt like the game was never designed for such a large scale conflict so all the missed quality of life improvements were especially noticeable when grinding the invaders.

[JohnBart]

Thanks for the detailed tips! I'm close to finish my campaign as well, so I was looking for some information on how to deal with these guys once they land the island. I'm a bit worried about the plethora of bugs you mentioned though. Here's hoping we'll see the next patch soon...

[Badger BrownCoat]

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

alot of feedback

That's alot of useful feedback, alot of the mechanic things, I've noticed as well... hopefully it will be read by intended audience.

In any case, I read it, and to me, -why i haven't pushed to get this far in new 'test' play-throughs- the "Empire" Alpha Forces, felt like a tack-on;

did they feel that way to you; having not played old versions ( if I understood correctly );

AND- I'm going to presume you've spoken to the companions here:

in YOUR take, *IF* the Alpha forces had not been "empire" , but rather a PMC ( or PMC's )
employed by the Costopoli arms dealers ( the family referenced in some companions ) -
hired to take over once the player's interference ruins their intended coup;
would THAT have tracked for you?

[ChaosKhan]

I did play a few older versions, but it was before they removed vehicles. I don't think Alpha Force had been implemented yet back then. In any case, it was the first time I fought it, so I had no idea what to expect or how it would go.

What does PMC stand for?

[Badger BrownCoat]

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

I did play a few older versions, but it was before they removed vehicles. I don't think Alpha Force had been implemented yet back then. In any case, it was the first time I fought it, so I had no idea what to expect or how it would go.

I hear that :I played before vehicles- then next time i came back; after vechicles...
missed them completely somehow-
It gets confusing which version was which, when. - Fair enough?

What does PMC stand for?

PMC = Private Military Companies ...
Mercs, such as Einherjar, no-longer-blackwater; all those. ..Or; or if you prefer the euphemism "Private Security"; like GSS in older versions- remember the GSS security became "armed bodyguard"

But i was really asking if rather than "evil empire" ( alpha is 'empire' in the in-game files )
if you agreed it would "track" if they were sent by the plotters when the Atov Coup didn't go as intended as the player "winning " is the trigger.

( again, if you didn't get to that companion story- my apology - no spoiler intended )
It was imo one of the best new stories- and the one I felt explored/used the least by new content.

[Shadow Bear]

Great information, and thanks for sharing.

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

I placed them behind the human waves of women militia and let them do the damage, while the militia soacked up the bullets.

Intellectually, I know that "War is Heck", but man ... that is some serious force protection.

:)

[Grand Merchant]

Originally posted by ChaosKhan:

Technical issues while fighting the invasion:
- It seems the AI isn't able to handle so many stacks properly. Often my companion stacks (and Alpha Force stacks) just stopped moving for no reason and had to be "redirected" by me running back to them so they start to follow me again.
- The bug, where enemies "flee" from the battlefield and end up outside of the map boundary hit nearly every second battle. I had to suicide again and again because of it, since those "fleeing" soldiers can't even be killed with cheats.
- In the battles, a sizeable portion of the soldiers just hang back and do literally nothing as if they are stuck. When the AI loses enough it usually sends them into battle too, but this leads to just a continuos tide of soldiers, so the AI is incapable of using its numbers. It really needs to swarm out its forces so it can bring more guns to bear at once.
- The bug where a squad starts to move in a random direction, usually ending up somewhere on the edge of the map, after losing 1 or more squad members hit especially often. Retreating it is highly problematic since the squaddies quite often "retreat" into enemy lines where they get shot do death, which is ridiculous... Hence, 2 or 3 of my squads were rendered useless every battle.

I have to say that I've encountered these same exact issues in my game. Mainly after Alpha invaded. The worst being when one of my squads decide to flee into the enemy. These have become so frustrating I stopped playing for now.