• We are looking for you!
    Always wanted to join our Supporting Team? We are looking for enthusiastic moderators!
    Take a look at our recruitement page for more information and how you can apply:
    Apply

[Question] Military strategy for conquering the Future continent

jlshetler

Member
Five times I have asked advice on this forum about strategies for attacking the new continents, and you have always had excellent advice. Hopefully others have found those discussions useful as well. Here are the links again:

PE:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...tary-strategy-for-conquering-the-PE-Continent

ME:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/showthread.php?8585-ME-Military-Advice-Request

PME:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...ary-strategy-for-conquering-the-PME-continent

CE:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...tary-strategy-for-conquering-the-CE-continent

TE:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...trategy-for-conquering-the-Tomorrow-continent

Now as we all take a shot at the new FE continent together, I thought this thread would be a good place for sharing the useful strategies we learn as we go. Hopefully those who have already done this on Beta will have some insights for the rest of us. In particular, I thought we could focus on the following questions:

(1) Is it possible to conquer the first few provinces with TE units? If so, which units work best, and using what attack strategies?

(2) Does FE introduce any new battle formats (like the urban terrain of CE or the two-wave attack of PME)? If so, what are the best tactics for dealing with them?

(3) If someone were only going to keep two FE unit types at a time for the purpose of conquering the FE continent, which two would be best (may be different at first than in the final provinces)?

(4) How is the FE Champion?

(5) Are Rogues useful in any of the FE continent provinces? If so, which ones and with which supporting units? Does the enemy AI vary by province in this age?

Again, many thanks to all willing to lend their expertise.

-Joe
jlshetler, Houndsmoor
 
Last edited:

DeletedUser8152

Only thing I've figured out so far is that the drone swarms seem really awful. Is there any redeeming feature I'm not seeing?

Champions seem to do pretty well. Railguns and hover tanks seem like the strongest regular units, at least for fighting against.
 

DeletedUser9732

So far, I'm only 1 province in, but TE units worked fine for that. 8x Stealth tanks for most, and 8x Combat Drones for the sectors with multiple Rail Guns.
I haven't seen the new tanks yet, but the rail guns look like they're going to be interesting/difficult to work against.

jaelis - That's what I've heard about the swarms, I'm wondering if it makes sense to skip that tech entirely, what with it being a dead end and all.

On the new champs - I haven't used them yet, but in G jaelis destroyed my stealth tank based defense with one and 7 rogues with barely a scratch. So they are definitely working for him :hmph:
 

jlshetler

Member
With three and a half days to scout the new continent and a day and an hour to scout the first province, I’m still waiting... ugh.


Traxxed, I’m surprised by your suggestion of eight Combat Drones against a sector defended by many Rail Guns. My understanding is that Rail Guns have the special skill Power Shot which “ignores defensive skills and terrain.” Combat Drones have the defensive skill Flying. Is this not ignored?


-Joe (jlshetler, Houndsmoor)
 

DeletedUser10415

I suspect the rule that prevents artillery units from even shooting at flying units is applied first.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser9732

Actually, with the combat drones I've never had a chance to test it, they kill the rail guns off before they get a shot in.
I'm also now 2 more provinces in, 8x stealth tanks or 8x combat drones for all sectors, never more than 1 loss (98/81 boost).
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
With three and a half days to scout the new continent and a day and an hour to scout the first province, I’m still waiting... ugh.


Traxxed, I’m surprised by your suggestion of eight Combat Drones against a sector defended by many Rail Guns. My understanding is that Rail Guns have the special skill Power Shot which “ignores defensive skills and terrain.” Combat Drones have the defensive skill Flying. Is this not ignored?


-Joe (jlshetler, Houndsmoor)

Rail guns can hit flying units.

And on the subject of drone swarms, looking at their bonuses they I think they're better than people give them credit for, but not by much. Range of 1 seems bad, but they're intended to attack ranged and artillery units, which don't normally counterattack anyway. However, considering the fact that no high-age ranged unit has stealth, a combat drone's additional mobility and impressive range does make it seem a bit dubious that drone swarms would be worth the investment. Perhaps against an opponent in the GvG map (thus barring you from using Tomorrow troops) who likes using rails and satellites for defense?

Champions are as strong as ever, I see them continuing to be a solid unit. Perhaps even moreso than in Tomorrow, as Hover Tanks have the same attack and defense values as Stealth Tanks (though different bonuses and are much more mobile), and no unit in The Future has Contact to whittle them down with.

Rail Guns I haven't used yet, but I've heard people lamenting the fact that rogues only hit them for 1 damage. :D
 

jlshetler

Member
jlshelter, do you have threads like this for lower than PE?

Afraid not, though it would be useful to new players.

-Joe

- - - Updated - - -

Does anyone have thoughts on the usefulness of Rogues, Exoskeleton Soldiers, or Satellite Spotters in conquering the FE continent? So far it seems that if somebody is only going to build two FE Military Buildings, it should be the Hover Tank Base and the Rail Gun Range.

-Joe
 

DeletedUser9184

Does anyone have thoughts on the usefulness of Rogues, Exoskeleton Soldiers, or Satellite Spotters in conquering the FE continent? So far it seems that if somebody is only going to build two FE Military Buildings, it should be the Hover Tank Base and the Rail Gun Range.

-Joe
You have a chance with hover tanks if you want to use rogues. This is a bit more dangerous compared to last age since there will be Exo soldiers, rail guns, and microwave blasters that could attack the tanks before the rogues. Exo soldiers would be great if they weren't so easily hurt from rail guns, and they are a bit weak against the ranged units, so wouldn't depend on them. You definitely don't want to use Satellite spotters, they have a weaker attack than anti-materiel snipers.
 

jlshetler

Member
All good advice, thanks.

Although it is a bit of a tangent from the original question, what does everybody think the ideal 8-unit city defense is for FE?
 

DeletedUser9184

All good advice, thanks.

Although it is a bit of a tangent from the original question, what does everybody think the ideal 8-unit city defense is for FE?
If you have a high enough defense boost: 8 Rail Guns (or maybe 7 Rail Guns and 1 Champion/Tank). If not, I would stick with 8 Hover Tanks
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser8152

It would have been interesting if they'd made drone swarms have Stealth.
 

jlshetler

Member
I must be using Champions wrong. How are they helpful in fighting for the FE continent sectors? Without stealth, reactive armor, or anything like that they just get pounded down first.
 

DeletedUser9732

I dunno, I haven't used champs for the FE continent for exactly those reasons.

In other news, 5 provinces down, now with some hover tanks to augment stealth tanks. They are quite nice, although I didn't realize until I built them that there isn't an attack/defense upgrade, only better range and the reactive armor. 8x combat drone may have seen the last of its usefulness, I only used it a couple times in the latest province and it had significantly heavier damage.

Also, these scout times are ridiculous.
 

jlshetler

Member
I'm currently scouting the fourth province and agree about the ridiculous waits. I built Hover Tanks early and have enjoyed using them, more for their range than for their reactive armor. In the third province I used your 8x Combat Drone strategy with much success against the two sectors heavily defended by Rail Guns.

Perhaps someone else has tips about using the FE Champions correctly? So far I'm feeling like I wasted a Renovation Kit to get them...

-Joe

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and which province has the third goods boost?
 
Top