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[Question] Military strategy for conquering the Arctic Future continent

jlshetler

Member
Six 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...trategy-for-conquering-the-pe-continent.8011/

ME:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/me-military-advice-request.8585/

PME:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...conquering-the-pme-continent.9210/#post-91580

CE:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...rategy-for-conquering-the-ce-continent.10128/

TE:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...-for-conquering-the-tomorrow-continent.10701/

FE:
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com...gy-for-conquering-the-future-continent.11625/

Now as we all take a shot at the new AF 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) What is the best use of earlier age units to get started?

(2) Does AF 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) Are the AF Champion, Drummer, or Color Guard at all useful?

(4) Are Rogues useful in any of the AF continent provinces? If so, which ones and with which supporting units? Does the enemy AI vary by province in this age as it has on some previous continents?

I found that with five Hover Tanks, three Rail Guns, and my +72/+63 bonus I could conquer all seven sectors of Nutarniq (the first province) without losing a single troop. I'm not using diamonds to speed up the scouting, so that's as far as I have gotten.

On Guild Expedition I have experimented with the AF Champion and Surrogate Soldier. I find they're just okay.

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

-Joe
jlshetler, Houndsmoor
 

DeletedUser9184

1) All Rails, all the way, unless there are a lot of swarms in a sector in which I would switch to hover tanks or AF/FE champions. I think I only had [1-3 unit] losses in the last two provinces (though my boost was 107/93). Really drop the bar on difficulty here, granted this is only the 1st part of the map/age. I'm assuming by the last part, I will need to try out some different troops ;)

2) Blinding white maps :D (other than that, no)

3) I don't have them, but it just looks like an upgrade from the FE Champion, so if you found the FE Champ useful, then this will be even better

4) No, unless at times you can pair them with hover tanks if you don't have enough of them
 

DeletedUser13838

So far I haven't seen anything new. I think you can run through the first province or 2 with a stealth unit and 7 rogues. After that maybe 4 rails and 4 rogues, depending on the opposition. Too bad we can't look at past provinces to remember the defeated enemies.
 

jlshetler

Member
I thought I would give this thread a bump now that the AF2 provinces, Battle Fortress, and new Rogue priority are released. I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts.

For the AF1 provinces, I successfully used 3 Rail Guns, 4 Hover Tanks, and 1 AF Champion in each battle. Obviously that strategy will change now.
 

DeletedUser13838

I completed 5 provinces so far. In the first 3 provinces, I used 1 surrogate soldier and 7 rogues. There is a nice spot in the corner where your units are protected from attack by a small pond. You can move your units and safely wait there and let the enemy come to you. I think I lost 1-2 rogues total. The next 2 provinces I used 4 rail guns and 4 rogues. My strategy was to move the rogues out front and draw fire while moving the rails back towards the rear. I think I lost a total of 2 units (1 was due to me hitting the wrong hex).
 

DeletedUser8152

I haven't come across a good use for it yet; any time I'd be inclined to use one I think I'd do better with hovers.
 

DeletedUser13838

Given the 3 normal units we have now the only way I can see the battle fortress being useful is if it could see through stealth.
 

jlshetler

Member
I thought I'd bump this thread again now that AF3 is added.

* Is eight Rail Guns still the best way to conquer the continent map provinces?
* Is the new Dragon Drone worth using?
* What are the best tactics to use against the continent AI? For example, in what order should the opposing units be attacked?
 

DeletedUser13838

The first province in AF3 is easy with 8 rails. I suspect it will be like that for at least a couple more but I'm still scouting. I haven't tried dds on the map yet but with 6 units in each defending wave that seem to stick together, it looks like dds will work ok as well though you might take losses as dds don't seem to have much of a defense.
 

jlshetler

Member
I have also only done the first province but I'm hoping we'll have some people here with Beta experience. At 6 defenders per wave so far, the 8 Rail Gun attack is a no-brainer. Target order Dragon Drone, Recon Raider, Battle Fortress, then Surrogate Soldier in descending order of how much damage they do to Rail Guns. Stay in back row. Minor damage, no losses. Pretty simple.

I'm guessing the other eight provinces won't stay so easy.
 

DeletedUser3679

I have also only done the first province but I'm hoping we'll have some people here with Beta experience. At 6 defenders per wave so far, the 8 Rail Gun attack is a no-brainer. Target order Dragon Drone, Recon Raider, Battle Fortress, then Surrogate Soldier in descending order of how much damage they do to Rail Guns. Stay in back row. Minor damage, no losses. Pretty simple.

I'm guessing the other eight provinces won't stay so easy.

Actually they are equally easy, mainly because they all have only 6 troops in both the first and second wave, and many have two surrogates that can be left to last as you suggested.
 

jlshetler

Member
The second province has 7 units in the first wave and 6 in the second. The one with two Drone Swarms and five Recon Raiders was the first to kill one of my Rail Guns, but I think the strategy is still the best. Makes me wonder about the other seven provinces, though.
 

DeletedUser11463

With the lower troop size and the not very strong A/D percentages, these continent maps are pretty easy. Much easier than Level2, Level3 of GE. I find most of the AA troops almost useless compared to the FE troops. Even the DD isn't that powerful and you can usually take it out early. I usually use 1 Surrogate Soldier just to get AA tower points but the remaining 7 rail guns will take out just about anything with minimal damage. I might lose 1 if they all gain up on 1 gun before I can clear the field. But the other 6 will have minimal to no damage.
 

wolfhoundtoo

Well-Known Member
I've mostly been utilizing 4 TE drones and 4 microwave blasters for these battles and winning relatively easy (my boost is above 100% from my attack GBs and my Speaker's Corner).
 

jlshetler

Member
The third province has 7 units in each wave. Rail Guns are taking some licks now.

That province reward is a fourth BA goods boost. Does anybody know why we need a fourth BA goods boost?!
 

jlshetler

Member
This thread needs another bump, for three reasons:

(1) the AF-4 section of the Continent Map is now out;
(2) the FE Rail Gun and all existing AF unit stats are now completely changed; and
(3) there are two new AF units.

We probably need to re-evaluate what best units / strategies to use in conquering parts 1-3 of the AF Continent Map, but first, what are people finding useful for this new 4th section? Is there a way to blow through it with minimal losses? Or is negotiation the safest route?
 
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