6 simple mistakes even decent player make

Good list, Nuke.

1. Failing to provide proper escorts for capital ships and ocean convoys is DUMB ---- with a capital "D".

2. Yup. Anti-aircraft regiments are one of the key components in winning any serious air war. Anti-tank regiments make excellent tank traps, especially in cities where armor strength and tank hit points are reduced by 50%. Both units, however, must be employed in sufficient numbers and supported by infantry or other units so they are not killed too easily and before they can inflict maximum damage on enemy attackers. Also, small correction: both L1 AT and L1 AA units move at 20 kmh, and L3+ AT units and L5+ AA units later graduate to 25 kmh.

3. Most players, even most experienced players, gratuitously use their infantry as cannon fodder. Infantry serves an important purpose in not only capturing cities, but in supporting AT and AA units in a variety of other terrain environments. Conventional infantry are the only ground unit that does not suffer some strength reduction in at least one type of terrain. That said, I rarely maintain more than 20 to 25 conventional infantry regiments, but I will add more commando units and mechanized infantry regiments when available.

4. This is your only point with which I take issue: I am not a fan of 50% complete L1 air bases in every province. Having a new L1 air base appear in a handy spot can give you a significant tactical advantage when your opponent does not see it coming. That said, an aircraft unit takes 15 minutes to refuel at a 100% complete L1 air base, and 30 MINUTES to refuel at a 50% complete L1 air base. If your opponent has rockets or a decent size air force of his own, that 30-minute refueling window provides a ready-made trap for any of your air units that are using that 50% complete air base.

5. Artillery, both conventional and self-propelled, are by far the most under-rated and under-utilized units in the game. And many players who do use them, misuse them, either by placing them on the front line of attack, or by failing to provide adequate AA protection when firing from behind the line. I could write a dissertation on this topic, but let's just say that arty is one of the key standoff (or ranged) weapons that can help you reduce your own casualties while inflicting disproportionately large losses on your opponents. For tactical bomber fans, arty is also the perfect complement to your tactical air force, either working in tandem, or arty working solo when your TBs are occupied elsewhere.

For the air bases, I said 50% in your core provinces at the binning of the game. Air warfare is low at such times, and by the time it becomes a big thing, you should have taken the surrounding players and their airbases, thus creating a shield for your airbases. also, the point of the 50% approach is to save enough materials to expand and when your economy recovers, then finish the job.

Also, artillery is very handy in that new Antarctica map. I know that there are *spoiler alert!* railroad guns in each camp, but the non-player countries have virtually no ranged attacking units. on the other hand Anti air is common for all non player countries, rendering Tac. bombers useless against them(been there done that).

I agree (and use extensively) artillery and bombers to be force multipliers on the battlefield. I have placed in numerous games by using these correctly. I am now playing my first Antarctic game and again artillery is killing both the NPC and real players. This game is a great example of the criticalness of foot infantry. the whole map is dominantly mountain, making tanks less than great. Heavy use of infantry negates the mountain terrain. I think the secret to success is infantry, arillary and bombers. I disagree with Nuck's comment on the TBs. They are crushing formations with out AA, and in sufficient numbers, with fighters as HP takers, can heavily influence both players and AI.

m1tanker632 wrote:

This game is a great example of the criticalness of foot infantry. the whole map is dominantly mountain, making tanks less than great. Heavy use of infantry negates the mountain terrain. I think the secret to success is infantry, arillary and bombers.

Try them in pairs (think of it as the full 75th Ranger Regiment), not single battalions, for best results, and they will simply overwhelm single ground units of most other types in mountains and cities.

Yeah Montana, I don't use them enough...I will have to change my use of them. To bad you can only make them in your capital.

m1tanker632 wrote:

They are crushing formations with out AA, and in sufficient numbers, with fighters as HP takers, can heavily influence both players and AI.

Have to agree on the list in some areas.

1. No durrrr. May be good for the start of the map, when naval units simply do not exist, but that's about the only time units should travel across the water unescorted. Anything unescouted beyond that stage is suicidal.

2. I never build enough of those... I usually just use light tanks to counter the enemy light tanks. and have never really gotten into an airwar, in my entire CoW career. Not a frequent player, though.

3. That is actually the key reason why I have basically never build medium tanks after conquering someone else's territory(back when I had that much territory)... Mediums require level 2 infrastructure, whereas lights only require level 1. It only takes 24 hours to get a fully set up industrial center to the point where it can produce light tanks, compared to 3 days for mediums. Combining that with the SPG's(those got changed to only require level 1... right?), you can get a pretty mobile and hard hitting force up and running in a matter of a few days compared to almost a week. Light tanks are 'good enough', most times. But I also tend to use normal infantry a lot more than the others, again due to how long it takes to upgrade the barracks beyond level 1... Even if the others tend to be a ton faster. Again, 'good enough' tends to dominate for me. And I use them for cannon fodder, but I don't just haphazardly throw them at the enemy in an attempt to get rid of the units.

4. ... Going to be honest, that is a waste of resources right there. There is literally no sensible reason to have every province with airbases. You do it AS REQUIRED, not AT THE START. Or if you do do that, you don't go willy nilly with airbase construction. It means your economy gets going slower, you have less resources, and arguably more important, money to spend on other buildings, which are far more vital at the start of the game. And there is also the small fact your never going to use even HALF of the airbases you end up building, if you ever use any of them at all. A good network of level 1 to 2 runways is better than a core cluster of .5 runways, 19 times out of 20. You usually have ~30 core provinces when playing, and the amount of resources spent on .5 level airbases is astronomical compared to some economical level 1 runways placed strategically in your cores to facilitate air travel. You can spend the rest on upgrading your economy, and getting pre reques for new unit constructions like railroad guns, motorized infantry, and medium tanks.

5. I actually hated railroad guns up until their recent changes. Now they have some pretty good advantages, not least of which a range that dwarfs everything else in the game except aircraft. Until that, I had much rather have normal artillery over rail road guns. But now I see their use for seige assault and also for use as 'defensive structures'.

Otherwise, pretty good.

NovaTopaz wrote:

You do it AS REQUIRED, not AT THE START

NovaTopaz wrote:

It means your economy gets going slower, you have less resources, and arguably more important, money to spend on other buildings, which are far more vital at the start of the game

AIR BASES ARE IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NukeRaider33 wrote:

The problem is that you don't know where an airbase is required, and when you do, it is too late and you have to wait 8 9 hours, which can cause you to lose the game.

Goldfinger was a bad man. Heh.

NukeRaider33 wrote:

NovaTopaz wrote:

You do it AS REQUIRED, not AT THE START

The problem is that you don't know where an airbase is required, and when you do, you it is too late and you have to wait 8 hours, which can cause you to lose the game.

NovaTopaz wrote:

It means your economy gets going slower, you have less resources, and arguably more important, money to spend on other buildings, which are far more vital at the start of the game

I also said that build the air bases one you are done building everything you need for the first day.

AIR BASES ARE IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, Unless you are America in Europe, Road to war or 1939 Blitzkrieg, You will NEED air support to defeat the enemy, because you can bet they will have some sort of Air force. Also, you need to plan ahead. If your enemy has not build an airbase to defend his troops enemy is and you have, the enemy is screwed.

Sorry Nuke, but Nova is right.

While I understand your core idea behind it, its just throwing away resources.

What you can do, is a halfway solution. Get the important airfields up, and do a few 0,5 airfields as 'auxillary' airfields. I sometimes do that, if I feel that I need that extra bit of flexibility.

On railguns: always loved them, never got around to use them. To use them effectively, you basically need an 'and and and' situation.

So AND strong air (at least as strong as the opponent), AND AA to cover them, AND defensive units (inf/TD/AT) to cover them. But if you are patient, they are very useful. Im actually in a game where my opponent does this. Lets say I can do NOTHING about it. Its a 30 day game and my economy doesnt allow for rockets (produce too few rares), so his railguns are just advancing slowing, bombing everything in their path. Id only wish they bumped their antiship somewhat more (think Guns of Navarone), their regular stats are now fine as they are.

These are good tips especially for 25 maps were navies and airorces ARE LIFE!!! To bad Im playing as Italy fighting U.K who has his massive navy doing raids

Railroad guns are fine, just that they take forever to produce and move slower that a snail. As a result, they are easily hit by bombers and sometimes even rockets. as for air bases, THOSE ARE IMPORTANT!!!! In the later stages of any game, if you don't have bases in the places you need them, you are screwed(unless you have a spare 850 gold times however many places you need your aircraft to go)

I am just playing for about 3 weeks actively and I gotten to like the game. Figured out most of the things by playing some "trail runs" and I would add one thing.

Jeeps are fast and if you want to expand the territory fast to create a buffer zone and to conquer small countries at the start of the game it is great to use them in the combination with those few planes you got. You bomb the shit out of the enemy and follow up with jeeps. This way you can get small countries in matter of hours.

I use jeeps to encircle the enemy with the support of air cover.

I use Heavy bomber in combination with mobile Tank divisions which all have at least 5 regiments of heavy artillery to advance the line.

I use Infantry to pacify the conquered areas and to protect AA Units.

I use Heavy Ships, cruisers and battleships as coastal artillery when I am taking over coastal regions.

Destroyers I use for anti submarine warfare and Submarines to hunt down enemy ships.

(Economy is the key and to have airports all over the place. Dominion of the air will give you eventually dominion of the ground).

I think each player finds their own combination that works for them. I am still testing tactics and seeing what it works. The only gripe I have is the inhumanely long game play.

Komandant_Stane wrote:

The only gripe I have is the inhumanely long game play.

Now that the new update came out, I have one thing to add to the list:

Transport ships- Used to transport land based units or air based units that can't fly over a body of water. Even if level 1 transport ships are just enough for the first day, they become target practice for submarines, cruisers, battleships and naval bombers later in the game. I know this ties in with the convoy part, but you also want to level up your transport ship, since they gain speed as they level up, allow the entire convoy to move faster.

Yes I did add this in the original post and changed the title, but I just wanted to draw attention to this specific one, since it is so new.

I'm not going to add this to the list, because there are already excessive amounts thread on this topic. State Based Efficiency (SBE) is another factor that influences the strength of your troops and is affected by the condition of your troops and THE AMOUNT OF TROOPS. Most unit stacks with condition of 100% have a SBE of 100% up until 5 units, and when you attack with those 5, their SBE falls dramatically. On a side note, SBE of 1 type of unit in a stack does not affect the SBE of the whole stack. Each individual type of unit has their own SBE for some reason.

NukeRaider33 wrote:

NovaTopaz wrote:

You do it AS REQUIRED, not AT THE START

The problem is that you don't know where an airbase is required, and when you do, you it is too late and you have to wait 8 hours, which can cause you to lose the game.

NovaTopaz wrote:

It means your economy gets going slower, you have less resources, and arguably more important, money to spend on other buildings, which are far more vital at the start of the game

I also said that build the air bases one you are done building everything you need for the first day.

AIR BASES ARE IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Komandant_Stane wrote:

I am just playing for about 3 weeks actively and I gotten to like the game. Figured out most of the things by playing some "trail runs" and I would add one thing.

Jeeps are fast and if you want to expand the territory fast to create a buffer zone and to conquer small countries at the start of the game it is great to use them in the combination with those few planes you got. You bomb the shit out of the enemy and follow up with jeeps. This way you can get small countries in matter of hours.

I use jeeps to encircle the enemy with the support of air cover.

I use Heavy bomber in combination with mobile Tank divisions which all have at least 5 regiments of heavy artillery to advance the line.

I use Infantry to pacify the conquered areas and to protect AA Units.

I use Heavy Ships, cruisers and battleships as coastal artillery when I am taking over coastal regions.

Destroyers I use for anti submarine warfare and Submarines to hunt down enemy ships.

(Economy is the key and to have airports all over the place. Dominion of the air will give you eventually dominion of the ground).

I think each player finds their own combination that works for them. I am still testing tactics and seeing what it works. The only gripe I have is the inhumanely long game play.