WyldRage’s Tactics:
Written
by:
Matthieu “WyldRage” Vallée
03
November 2004
Index
Welcome everyone to the latest (as of November 2004)
chapter in WyldRage's Tactics. For the new ones among us, I also wrote the
first strategy guides for all other Timegate Studios games, as well as a few
other games.
This is based on my experience in the beta
test. If there are any differences between what you play and what is written
here, then it’s the developers’ fault. J
On this note, welcome to Axis & Allies: RTS
1
Objectives
1.1
Supplying your troops
There are 3 basic resources in
A&A: money, ammunition and fuel. Your economic goal is to produce as much
money as possible on a per minute basis. Money is also the only resource which
is accumulated, though not spending it means you are basically wasting it.
Ammunition and Fuel cost, respectively, 2 and 3 units of money per minute for
each unit in negative. Positive units are not accumulated, so it is best to
keep those resources as close to 0 as possible.
You also have two caps: buildings
and regiments. It is always 20 for buildings (though not all buildings are
added) and, for regiments, it is basically the number of unit slots in your
corps buildings. You can go over it, for regiments, if you start losing corps
buildings.
Being greedy, you will crave money.
There are 2 ways to bring in more: building corps and capturing villages.
Therefore, at the start of the game, the goal is to build a few corps, recruit
a few regiments and capture towns as soon as possible.
For ammo and fuel, you’ll notice
that your regiments will use up the production of those resources: this is
called maintenance. You can get more of those resources by building buildings
(except the airfield, which needs maintenance), especially ammunition and fuel
depots. Don’t forget to deploy them to get the full production.
Another thing to remember is that
your troops need supply, which is provided by the supply radius. Without being
in supply, or if they are not attached to a corps, your regiments will not
heal. The supply radius is produced by villages and your HQ, and can be
extended via depot.
1.2
Protecting your assets
There are two protections: mobile
and fortifications. The mobile protections are your regiments. Hopefully they
won’t always be at your base, since they are your main method of attack as
well. If your caught with your pants down, remember that scout (and the
Japanese sniper) regiments are recruited fully healed.
Your fortifications are buildings
built by engineer regiments. They consist in bunker (Anti-Infantry), Artillery
(High Explosive) and Anti-Aircraft (guess). They don’t count toward your total
buildings fortunately, but they do require maintenance. They don’t heal, but
can be repaired by engineers. Note that airfields with free Fighters will send
them against an enemy airplane incursion. As long as you have something near
the town center, the enemy cannot capture it.
Finally, in desperate cases, most of
your buildings can pack up and move elsewhere.
1.3
Fighting the enemy
There is no single best way to fight
the enemy (with the possible exception of going nuclear), but there are a few
pointers to keep in mind. For one: only if you completely destroy a regiment
will it cost anything to the enemy to make it again. Therefore, you have to
pursue those running away.
You have to remember the terrain. In
general, if there are terrain modifiers, it will either benefit infantry,
hinder vehicles or both (like towns).
Using combined arms mean that you
can use the most effective unit type against his units. You can generalize this
with rock-paper-scissor (tanks-infantry-halftracks). Of course this isn’t on a
1v1 basis, but it can help a lot. This is mostly due to the attack types: AP,
HE, AT and Flame.
Make the enemy lose morale if you
want him to flee, or be forced to stop (when exhausted). Artillery or flame
attacks are nice ways of accomplishing this.
Flanking is a good way to use your
half-tacks or tanks. The units in the back are usually the big hitters, and, in
the case of artillery, the most vulnerable. Plus, you can prevent him from
retreating.
1.4
Finishing the enemy
I cannot emphasize this enough, but when
thinking about attacking the enemy base, you need and cannot hope to win
without a nearby supply point (a village most likely). Always secure one before
attacking him.
After having reduced his immediate
threat against you, your next objective is to eliminate his ability to wage
war. This means 2 things: eliminate his source of money or eliminate his
ability to recruit new regiments.
The first option is basically to cut
him off from his villages, and hold them against eventual counterattacks.
Another way is, if possible, to destroy his depots. If he is already close to 0
resource production, losing a depot means a lot of money production lost. Of
course, this is more dangerous since you will be playing in his base.
Which is exactly where you will be
when trying to destroy his corps. Doing this will remove his ability to recruit
new units in most corps (due to a reduction in the regiment cap) and will
remove the ability to heal to all units previously attached to that corps. At
this point, you probably are near to winning the game.
On a side note, unless the game is
very long, destroying one’s HQ twice effectively means game over for him, since
he won’t get another for 1 hour (countdown from the destruction of the first
one) and he can’t build new buildings without one.
1.5
Other factors
Experience gained by the troops is
very valuable, since it increase attack value, defence value, morale and health
points by substantial values. Try to make them survive for a long them for
really great troops. Due to fixed AV increase, the faster one attack, the
greater the bonus will be.
Entrenching occurs when troops are
idle for a bit of time. It increases DV and resistances, as well as reducing
morale loss.
Special Tactics (or whatever they
call those 4 little icons in the top-left corner) are a major factor. A
well-placed nuke or carpet bombing can eliminate masses of infantry and nearly
destroy buildings. Each general has his own set. Learn what they do: they will
probably turn the game around many times.
Artillery units have a special
ability called bombardment. It allows you to fire your artillery at farther
distance then normal; allowing you to destroy his fortifications in the comfort
of your own home.
Researches are also critical: new
company types are nice, but they pale in comparison to certain bonuses granted
by other researches.
2
Military
2.1
Infantry
Low hit points, low morale low
attack and defence values. And that’s not even mentioning slow. What good are
they then? Well, they are really cheap and are plentiful (9 with full
regiments). They are also versatile and you can mix them up (Artillery and
Anti-Tank to be ready for everything). They are good in heavy terrain and
towns, and can be efficient defenders (at least delaying the enemy).
But those are not the real reasons
to use them. They are resistant to AT attacks, and can be use in offence as a
shield between your tanks and theirs. They are quite useful if they can keep
up.
2.2
Airborne
Think infantry, only stronger and
you got the Airborne. Heavy Airborne regiments are very versatile due to their
high concentration of heavy weapons.
Their main advantage is the ability
to airdrop them. Send them all over the map to their cities and watch them
curse as their cash flow drains to a trickle.
2.3
Halftracks
With the exception of the Anti-Tank
and the Motorized Infantry (which is an Infantry), halftracks are fast, very
fast. While the basic half-track regiment is rather weak, the artillery one is
where it shines. Use them to flank, harass or respond to enemy attacks.
The AT halftrack regiment, due to
its medium speed, is best used in conjunction with tanks as cheap
tanks/anti-personnel support.
2.4
Tanks
Tanks are the real punch of your
army, at least towards the middle game. Not quite as fast as halftracks, they
still possess a decent speed. They pack quite a punch, but fighting against
infantry, with their AT resistance, numbers and your lack of area of effect or
attack speed, you’ll be wasting shots.
The Artillery tank is one way to
deal with infantry. They have the strength of the light tanks, with the HE AOE
damage and morale loss caused by the artillery.
2.5
Air support
Bombers cost a bit but act as
special tactics do. Can rapidly lay waste to your opponent’s plans (and that’s
not mentioning his army). Scouting missions can be useful to find out where the
enemy is hiding and fighters will protect you from such tactics by your
opponents.
.
2.6
Heavy Weapons
Artillery deal HE area of effect
damage which also hits the morale of the regiments. Very useful against
infantry and quite good against vehicle as well, this is the true king of the
battlefield.
Anti-tank will deal a great deal of
AT damage to its target, but that’s not all! Hit it now and cause paralysis for
2 whole seconds! They can be quite useful versus low numbers of tanks and other
vehicles.
Finally, Anti-Aircraft protects
against aircraft. Useful for one abusing bombing runs, but that’s it. Really,
there’s nothing else. They can’t attack ground units. And yes, I know about the
German 88s but you’re not complaining to the right person here.
2.7
Weapon Types
There are 4 weapon types: AP
(anti-personnel, looks like a pistol), AT (anti-tank, looks like 2 tank
shells), HE (high explosive, looks like a bomb) and flame (flame, looks like a
flame… they must have stayed awake for weeks to find that one).
Now, to understand how these attack
types affect the game, we must look at unit resistances. Infantry has a natural
resistance to AT, and gains more resistance to AT and additional resistance to
HE when entrenched.
Vehicles are resistant to AP and HE,
and gain resistance to AT and HE when entrenched. Tanks are the same as other
vehicles, but have greater natural resistance.
Terrain also provides resistance
(for infantry) or vulnerabilities (for vehicles). For example, when fighting in
a forest, infantry (AT resistance and DV gain) will deal a much greater amount
of damage to tanks (AP vulnerability) while receiving much less damage
themselves.
The last attack type, flame, is less
common then the others (in fact, only a few nation units have it) and, to my
knowledge, no terrain, tech or unit has or provides a resistance versus flame
damage.
3
Nations
Since I currently do not have access
to the full game (with it not released and with my no longer having access to
the beta test), I lack all the variations found in each nation.
What follows here is what I remember
of these nations, their advantages and unique regiments, as well as general
tips on how to play them. It is probably full of holes so I will apologize in
advance.
3.1
USSR
Factors:
+
1 more infantry company per infantry corps.
+
More survivable tanks
Regiments:
·
Conscript: A cheap and weak unit. Except for the fact that you get half
maintenance, don’t expect much from them. Weak Molotov cocktails (flame).
·
Sniper: The same as a normal infantry regiment, but with snipers instead
of machineguns. Can be useful, but usefulness decreases with experience.
·
Rocket trucks and tanks: Special artillery. Can be useful for saturation
fire. Will be weak against high DV troops.
Tips:
With those tanks and the increase
number of infantry available, you will probably mass infantry until you reach
the tank level. You can have a (in-)decent amount of artillery with the rocket
trucks, which can be useful when taking down his infantry or his base.
3.2
UK
Factors:
+
Cheap buildings
+
Strong Machineguns
Regiments:
·
Heavy Infantry: Same as Heavy Airborne but a bit weaker.
·
Flame Tanks: Tanks doing flame and morale damage. Since no unit I know
has flame resistance, this can be useful.
Tips:
Your cheap buildings mean a faster
start than most, and really help when building those corps. That alone should
give you a great edge on the competition. Otherwise, your halftracks are good
and your special units are no pushovers. I’d recommend running up that tech
tree fast.
3.3
USA
Factors:
+
More money from corps.
+
Infantry have garand rifles (faster and more damage)
+
Best special ops (nuke anyone?).
Support units:
·
Assault Infantry: Good infantry with rifle grenades (HE damage). Very
useful and versatile. Also comes in Airborne flavour IIRC.
·
Flamethrower Infantry: Basically Artillery infantry, but the artillery
is better but more vulnerable (they have to move up front). Does flame damage
too.
Tips:
Out producing your enemy is the way
to go. Can’t remember much about the Americans, but Assault Infantry was really
useful. Heavy infantry use will probably carry the day (with tank and air
support of course). Abusing special ops is also a good way to come through.
3.4
Japan
Factors:
+
More tanks in normal tank companies, but they are weaker.
-
No Heavy tanks.
Support units:
·
Kamikaze: Infantry with a few who are going to blow themselves up. Could
be useful, but I personally don’t use them much.
·
Snipers: Scout but with a sniper replacing one of the 5 rifles. Rather cheap.
I prefer full regiments.
·
Tankettes: Little tanks, literally. Sound bad? It’s nowhere near as bad
as it sounds though. They deal HE damage and they can be recruited from
mechanized or armour corps. Great little buggers.
Tips:
As weird as it may sound, the
Japanese are the tank lover’s choice. Their tanks suck, but with so many tanks
and Tankettes, it more than makes up for it. And their infantry won’t let go so
easily as the other nations’.
Also note that, while they sound
weak on paper, the truth is that they are actually one of the best nations (at
least pre-release). TANKETTE POWER!
3.5
Germany
Factors:
+
Good machineguns
+
Good AT capabilities.
Support units:
·
Goliath: Infantry with explosive rolling mines. Think Kamikaze without
the morale questions.
·
Tigers: If you don’t know what Tigers are, read up on World War II.
Tips:
Good halftracks due to machineguns.
Good tanks due to AT and Tigers. “Achtung Panzer!” would probably be a good
read J.
Seriously, if I know you, you’ll probably go with super-heavy tanks with
some halftracks for support.
Yes, you are that predictable.
4
Conclusion
A few terms you have either read
here or will see in game:
·
AOE: Area of Effect.
·
AV/DV: Attack Value and Defence Value.
·
AP, AT, HE: Anti-personnel, anti-tank and High Explosive: 3 of the 4
damage types. The other is flame.
·
Gl hf: good luck, have fun. Usually said at the start of a game.
·
GG: Said after a game, when you recognize you lost. Also response to
recognize your opponent’s skill after you utterly crushed him.
Since a game, or more specifically
the strategy involved in a game, changes and are not set in stone, this guide
will become obsolete sooner or later. Since I do not have access to the release
version as I am writing this (
·
Timegate’s webpage: www.timegate.com
. Visit the forums here for all sorts of information and discussions.
·
Atari’s webpage: www.atari.com .
Same as TG’s webpage.
·
The Spotter’s Guide: http://www.strategyplanet.com/axisallies/
. This will probably be a reference for the community. By Chimaeros.
Good Luck and Have
fun!
-Matthieu “WyldRage” Vallée