Top Ten most valuable "elite" units

2 Aug 2017, 17:03

My top ten list of most valuable "elite" level units:

1. L7 tactical bomber squadron: offensive strength against units of the "infantry" armor class increases from 11 to 13; against "armor" class units from 6.1 to 7. If your opponent loses air superiority over his territory, the "elite" tactical bomber becomes the Queen of the Battlefield.

2. L7 interceptor squadron: offensive strength against other aircraft increases from 13 to 15. This is 75% of the Answer to the tactical bomber swarm.

3. L5 self-propelled anti-aircraft regiment: defensive strength against all aircraft units increases from 11 to 13; speed increases from 50 to 55 kmh -- can keep pace with "elite" medium tank units.

4. L4 self-propelled artillery regiment: offensive strength against all other ground units increases from 3.5 to 4.0; speed increases from 45 to 50 kmh.

5. L6 mechanized infantry regiment: better than all other infantry regiments in every way except in fuel consumption, the mechanized infantry regiment is also stronger and more versatile than the light tank brigade in every way except one ("elite" light tanks are 0.2 stronger on offense against armor). Given the choice of building mech infantry or light tanks, I will build mech infantry every time once they are available.

6. L6 anti-tank regiment: defensive strength against "armor" class units increases from 12 to 14. Quick and easy to produce.

7. L6 medium tank brigade: strengths against infantry and "armor" class units increase from 8.0 and 8.5 to 9.0 and 9.5, respectively; speed increases from 50 to 56 kmh.

8. L6 anti-aircraft regiment (conventional, non-SP defensive strength against aircraft increases from 10 to 12. With the AA strength buffs of the recent units update, this old friend is starting to look a lot more formidable, especially when several of them are embedded in larger defensive formations. Quick and easy to produce.

9. L7 destroyer squadron: offensive strength against submarine units increases from 11 to 12; defensive strength against aircraft units increases from 7 to 8. Given the DD unit's far-better ASW capability, two DD squadrons are better than a single cruiser squadron.

10. L6 tank destroyer brigade: defensive strength against "armor" class units increases from 16.6 to 19. If you are faced with a defensive struggle against a well-balanced enemy who possesses a large armored attacking force, a few of these in reinforced fortifications could help turn the tide.

Honorable mention:

11. L7 strategic bomber squadron: I may never build a vast fleet of heavy bombers, but with the recent range buffs of the last units update, these puppies have another use that ensures I will build two or three of them for long-range reconnaissance. The "elite" strategic bomber has a range of 1,210 km, which is enough to fly across the narrow points of the Atlantic Ocean on the 22-player European map. That means you can do aerial reconnaissance 7 to 10 provinces behind the borders of your rivals and potential enemies ---- that's huge.

Least valuable "elite" level units:

1. L7 militia regiment: (added per VorlonFCW's comments below) I would say that militia are almost completely worthless, but their jacked-up defensive strengths in hills and forests may continue to justify their existence within the game. Militia may be produced quickly and relatively inexpensively, but they consume the same amount of food as a commando battalion and have nearly twice the daily manpower upkeep ---- both of which become key consumables when maintaining a large army.

2. L5 armored car brigade: Only suited for ground reconnaissance, a role in which it can be easily replaced by high-level, fast-moving light tank, motorized infantry or mechanized infantry units, all of which are far better fighting units. Elite armored cars are almost completely useless for fighting other "armor" class units, and easily destroyed by high-level aircraft of all kinds at virtually no cost.

So, which "elite" level units are on your wish list?

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36 Replies

9 Sept 2017, 02:10 (edited)

Elite Armored Car: YOUR TERRIOTRY: A lone elite armored car only travels at 37 km/hr (.5 * 75 km/hr) in enemy territory. A LV4 LT travels at 55 km/hr in its own territory. Get too close to the LT and the LT catch and destroy it. An armored car, in its own territroy, travels at 100% speed and can often catch an elite enemy armored car traveling at 37 km/hr that has ventured too close. Your armored car can attack and hold the enemy armored car long enough to bring up more troops to finish off the elite armored car. If the enemy is offline, even infantry can catch the elite armored car In its own territory, a lone elite motorized infantry at 69 km/hr will catch and shred an elite armored car. In its own territroy a lone elite mech infantry will also catch and shred an elite armored car.

ENEMY TERRITORY: In non-urban provinces, an elite LT (31.5 km/hr on plains) will shread a lone defending armored car in unfortified provinces and probably some fortified provinces. An elite motorized infantry (34.5 km/hr on plains) or an elite mech infantry (34.5 km/hr on plains) will shred a lone defending armored car.

9 Sept 2017, 02:44

LordVoidVIII wrote:
I fully agree with a lot of these, but are commandos worthless? Granted, they may only be produced in one province at a time, but it can build up after a while, and besides which, they have some of the best ground attack values, have no speed deduction in mountains, and double their already excellent fighting abilities there! As long as you have air cover, few units can rival commandos one to one.

Commandos are useful as part of your armies. Commandos are better than infantry and militia. They add another unit type to a mixed unit stack. They don't use oil. They have better fighting ability but are slower than motorized infantry. Commandos eat 50 food day instead of 90 for infantry. if food is tight, that makes a differnece too. I prefer mech infantry over commandos for speed.

9 Sept 2017, 03:24

Lawrence Czl wrote:
VorlonFCW wrote:
MontanaBB wrote:
Least valuable "elite" level unit:
1. L5 armored car brigade: Only suited for ground reconnaissance, a role in which it can be easily replaced by high-level, fast-moving light tank, motorized infantry or mechanized infantry units, all of which are far better fighting units. Elite armored cars are almost completely useless for fighting other "armor" class units, and easily destroyed by high-level aircraft of all kinds at virtually no cost.
Armored cars are great for grabbing territory ahead of your artillery/anti-air group, giving them owned territory to advance on at 100% speed, rather than advancing on enemy territory at 50% speed.I am not convinced that an extra 5kph is worth buying the blueprints though.
L4 armored car travels at 70 km/hr. Armored cars can be great for grabbing undefended provinces. If the provinces are defended, not so great for grabbing provinces. L5 elite armored cars are slightly faster. Since you already have L4 armored cars, I would rate L5 armored car as least valuable elite unit as well. They would have a niche in charging undefended regular artillery and pinning the artillery in battle till more units can join battle and destroy them.

L5 elite armored cars are better than elite militia. The question would be are they better than which if any other armor researched elite units. Another consideration is how does it fit into your research strategy. I usually have higher priorites than researching another level of armored cars.

9 Sept 2017, 04:15

Lawrence Czl wrote:
L5 elite armored cars are better than elite militia.

Sure, but that's like saying "The __________ are a better baseball team than the 1962 New York Mets."

Lawrence Czl wrote:
I usually have higher priorities than researching another level of armored cars.

I run research 24/7, with the only occasional interruption when I miss the completion of a research cycle when I'm sleeping. I will spend some gold to work aircraft carriers into my research schedule for the Pacific map, which otherwise would never fit into that schedule. So, I can say completely without exaggeration that I will always have higher research priorities than armored cars until Day 80 or 85 of the game.

If the Bytro Labs brain trust were serious about getting more players to use higher levels of ACs, then they would reduce the length of the research cycles for them. Otherwise, ACs are just too easily replaced in the recce role by fast-moving light tanks, motorized infantry or mechanized infantry units, or by aerial reconnaissance in most situations.

9 Sept 2017, 08:52

MontanaBB wrote:
Lawrence Czl wrote:
If the Bytro Labs brain trust were serious about getting more players to use higher levels of ACs, then they would reduce the length of the research cycles for them. Otherwise, ACs are just too easily replaced in the recce role by fast-moving light tanks, motorized infantry or mechanized infantry units, or by aerial reconnaissance in most situations.

Well that, or seriously increase their stat increases, particularly speed and visual range. It would also be cool if they could disengage from battle, but I guess that requires too much programming for an "edge case" unit.

And I didn't get the baseball joke, that team was so bad that it is legendary by now, or what?

When the enemy is driven back, we have failed. When he is cut off, encircled and dispersed, we have succeeded.
- Alexander Suvorov.

27 Feb 2018, 07:55

I like the elite art and elite sp art. Against an enemy that only has art and sp art., the extra range can be nice. Can sometimes fire and then go out of range till the enemy art fires. This can be quite nice if the enemy is offline.

27 Feb 2018, 08:41

Then there is the possum tactic with elite versus standard art. and SP art. If your art. doesn't show that it is firing and your enemy wasn't watching that particular battle, he may think he killed your art or that your art has left the area. After he fires, you come into firing range and fire again.

27 Feb 2018, 09:30

Imo TB, LT, and mechinf are the best since they are best units anyway.

28 Feb 2018, 01:22

Armored cars a basically worthless unit. I would never bother researching or building them. The only thing that would get me to consider building them is if you didn't need infrastructure.

Militia can be useful if you want a cheap static defense.

The one unit I have never understood is tank destroyers. They aren't bad units on paper, but it has never made sense for me to build or use them when anti-tank guns do basically the same thing, are much cheaper, and can be built without infrastructure.

28 Feb 2018, 13:09

Gitargy wrote:
The one unit I have never understood is tank destroyers. They aren't bad units on paper, but it has never made sense for me to build or use them when anti-tank guns do basically the same thing, are much cheaper, and can be built without infrastructure.

Same, I like the idea but the use of 1 research slot for them is not worth it imo if you can just spam tanks easier.

2 Mar 2018, 19:43

Heh, Guess I am like the Russians then, I mainly build Militia and Armored Cars. With MAYBE[u][/u] a single L1 Artillery Battalion as fire support. Then I have a L1 Interceptor Wing as air support. Then if things get really serious, I send in La Infantrie with 3 Infantry Units, 2 LT Battalions, and a single Artillery Battalion.

This is a joke, I don't actually play like this, pls no roast.

3 Mar 2018, 21:06

I have found that in long games, armored car does have a role when you don't have a lot of air bases to work with. When expanding into an area where there aren't a lot of air bases, the armored does serve a nice recon purpose for seeing what is ahead.

3 Mar 2018, 21:30

Lawrence Czl wrote:
When expanding into an area where there aren't a lot of air bases, the armored does serve a nice recon purpose for seeing what is ahead.

Exactly right, Lawrence. Of course, the problem is that absent gold-spending to accelerate my 24/7 research, it is usually Day 80 or 85 before I can work armored car research into my research schedule. Any unit I produce in significant numbers, I believe in keeping at its highest then-current research level and that's difficult enough to do without trying to keep ACs in the research loop during the first two months of a big-map game.

4 Mar 2018, 05:02

1) L7 Tac bombers

2) L6 interceptors vs. L5 interceptors of same stack size is a nice advantage

3) L6 art range of 80 km vs. reg art range of 70 km. Can get a free shot at the enemy first. If you can keep the enemy art out of range, it becomes even more significant. 3.5 versus 3.0 against armor.If the enemy art. has already attacked, you can move in range, fire and take no damage. Then move out of enemy art. range. Takes 500 steel vs. 1,250 for elite sp. art. Useful in many situations like attacking fortified units, or stacks with a lot of AA.

4) Elite sp art: 80 km range. faster than L6 art. Takes more steel to produce and needs oil to build and to maintain.

5) Anit-air AA 12; 500 steel to produce

6) Sp AA: faster than AA; takes 750 steel to produce; needs oil to build and for maintenance.

7) Mech inf: good for attacking urban provinces; versatile; great at destroying infantry; good at defending against armor attacks/counterattacks; great for diversifying stack.

8 Anti-tank: Cheap to produce; great against armor; doesn't take oil to produce or maintain.

9) Medium tank: great for stack diversity when it has AA coverage.

10) Cruiser: 60 km vs. 50 km cruiser range (or elite destroyer's 30 km); an elite cruiser/elite destroyer stack can be deadly. Crusier's AA can be important near coastal areas to protect naval units against air attacks.

11) Destroyer: improved offensive/defensive strength against subs; 11% stronger attack/defense against non-elite destroyers

18 Mar 2018, 04:45

While not in my top 10, the elite naval bomber deserves honorable mention. Having a stack of elite int, tac and naval bombers can deal a lot of damage to

destroyers and convoys. Even decent against a sub or 2 sub stack. For a long game, they are a nice addition if you can fit them into your research schedule.

500 km range vs 430 for L6 naval bomvers. Finally has a decent range.

20 Attack vs ships; 5 vs subs. Excellent at damaging/destroying naval convoys that are trying to disembark.