Commandos

They are good now that there was a stealth upgrade. I still shy away from using them in battle in the lower levels just so I can upgrade them later as a healthy force. I like them at the blue print level.

But say you upgraded to level 3. That will give you stealth 5. So it would take a blue print armor car or level 5 motor infantry or interceptor to detect them. If detected they are very susceptible to air attack. But they are great in stealth to approach artillery without detection. And unlike infantry they will do considerable damage to heavy armor.

A ten pack of level 3 commandos will have 500 hit points of heath. That 10 pack will hit infantry at 145 points, light armor at 165 and heavy armor at 110. And they get a 50% bonus in forests and mountains. Unlike other stealth units they can't be seen on any terrain. And the level 3 is faster then a blue print infantry. A blue print commando is faster then an level 2 SP rocket artillery and level 3 SPAA so it can run with the pack until needed.

The blue print commando is crazy tough and fast. Split them up and the opponent just sees all his provinces switching over and can't see what's going on. He sends troops to intercept and you just get out of his way until he passes then retake the province and continue on.

They are expensive and take long to build, especially in the higher levels. So good to build allot of level ones early and upgrade later. They are not great on defense ( about half the power ) so should be used mainly as an attacking force.

They are strong indeed. The problem with using them on "offense", meaning sending them into enemy territory, is once they aer spotted the enemy air force can wipe them out without much trouble. They are traveling without any AA cover, so they can be invisible, which is great only as long as the enemy doesn't spot them. A fun unit, to be sure, but not a game winning investment, in my opinion. More of a nuisance unit to slow down enemy runners in rough terrain.

I just realized one more thing regarding Commandos. It's the strongest unit against buildings other then level one strategic bomber. Stronger then level 5 battleship and heavy tanks.

I just attacked a group of planes waiting on an airstrip. Planes didn't defend. Then they attacked as trucks while Commandos defended. Then ordered commandos to attack. Took little damage. If I had tried to attack as planes I probably could have damaged the air strip but I think they would have got a defensive shot back at me.

I wonder if the commandos attacked a fully built up city with level 5 airport and a bunch of planes, would the planes revert to trucks if airport still healthy. Does the city change hands? Guess it would but maybe it shouldn't. Why can't planes hold city until reinforcements arrive.

So if you want to take a city and not damage the buildings much, don't use the commandos.

If you want to minimize damage to the city, then you avoid all fighting inside. That means clearing it with planes. It's important to keep the patrol center outside of the urban area so the planes only catch the units, not the structures inside. Then you can drive in with a single armored car and flip the city with no fighting.

Everything ender said