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[Question] Military strategy for conquering the Arctic Future continent

DeletedUser13838

After 6+ months of using rail guns in GE I forgot artillery doesn't hit flying units. /facepalm

Things are going to change a lot.
 

jlshetler

Member
Using eight Hover Tanks I was able to beat every sector of the first AF4 province (Atka) without taking any losses. Other than staying on plains, of course, the only trick was to stay out of the Surrogate Solderis' retaliation range (one shorter than the Hover Tank's range, thankfully).

I'm not sure how long this combination will be useful, but I'm scouting the second province now.
 

jlshetler

Member
Eight Hover Tanks does not work in the AF4 second province, Glacial Peak, because of the addition of Plasma Artillery and Behemoths. I found that either a combination of eight Recon Raiders or eight Surrogate Soldiers was effective, depending on the combination of defending units.

I tried eight Rail Guns in a few sectors, and it failed miserably.

I can't decide whether I should build Behemoths.
 

DeletedUser13838

I've tried keeping a rail gun or 2 to counter BFs but they are killed too easily. I used 2 SS a BF and a plasma with 4 rogues which works most of the time but not consistently. I'm still working on it and it will probably take a while to work through so for now I'm upgrading my traz. :)

Unfortunately there's nothing in AF to counter reactive armor but at least infiltration will reduce the number of hits required from 4 to 3. I will have to get rid of my RG building but not easy to fill a 6x3 space without a lot of changes. I figure I'll get plenty of plasmas in GE over time but so far haven't gotten any behemoths so will have to find the space to put a behemoth hangar in my city (6x6).
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
I've tried keeping a rail gun or 2 to counter BFs but they are killed too easily. I used 2 SS a BF and a plasma with 4 rogues which works most of the time but not consistently. I'm still working on it and it will probably take a while to work through so for now I'm upgrading my traz. :)

Unfortunately there's nothing in AF to counter reactive armor but at least infiltration will reduce the number of hits required from 4 to 3. I will have to get rid of my RG building but not easy to fill a 6x3 space without a lot of changes. I figure I'll get plenty of plasmas in GE over time but so far haven't gotten any behemoths so will have to find the space to put a behemoth hangar in my city (6x6).

I'm actually wondering if it's possible to get Behemoths from anywhere besides a barracks (and subsequent Alcatraz collections with a barracks in your city). Can treasure hunt, Guild Expedition, or even events reward them or do those sources only provide Battle Fortresses? We've never had two 'official' units of one type in a single age (Champions have always been considered an exception, since they're special units).

Behemoths themselves, at least on paper, seem like they'd be better to use than BFs against all but Raiders and Plasma. Force Field is great against weaker hits, much better than Reactive Armor, and Behemoths possess much more power with a token stealth ability that can really hammer down units forced to strike them from an adjacent tile. In addition, despite their low movement they're rather mobile, as they get a reduced movement cost on most if not all types of terrain they can cross.
 
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DeletedUser13838

It seems the easiest solution is to infiltrate each sector and use hover tanks. No losses. I use 2 HTs + 6 rogues when there are BFs in the defense. Probably won't work if there are plasmas and behemoths but I haven't seen those yet.
 
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qaccy

Well-Known Member
It seems the easiest solution is to infiltrate each sector and use hover tanks. No losses. I use 2 HTs + 6 rogues when there are BFs in the defense. Probably won't work if there are plasmas and behemoths but I haven't seen those yet.

Why include rogues? Would there be any difference in the outcome if you just used 8 hover tanks from the start? I feel like that would actually work better in battles where you can do that, since the hovers would actually be able to attack in their first turn whereas rogues would not.
 

DeletedUser13838

Why include rogues? Would there be any difference in the outcome if you just used 8 hover tanks from the start? I feel like that would actually work better in battles where you can do that, since the hovers would actually be able to attack in their first turn whereas rogues would not.
I'm not sure if that's true. It might be but I'd rather keep my HTs out of range as long as possible.

The other units only advance to the range needed to atk the rogues since the HTs are stealthed. If I didn't have rogues they might advance further. So they attack my rogues which turn into HTs which can then attack and reduce enemy numbers. Those enemies attack any remaining rogues. Pretty much all that's left are the BFs when my rogues are all turned. Typically the only dmg my units take is from DDs and the AI seems to have been tweaked to go after multiple units.
 

jlshetler

Member
I am finding Hover Tanks useless in the third province. Depending on the defenses I am having luck with either

8 Recon Raiders
8 Surrogate Soldiers
4 Plasma Artillery and 4 Surrogate Soldiers

It makes it difficult that no AF units can beat Reactive Armor. I have Behemoths now but there are never enough hills to make them worthwhile, I find. Is anybody using them to attack on the Continent?
 

DeletedUser13838

I don't remember the 3rd province - are there any units that see stealth?

I use hover tanks when facing battle fortresses - but you have to fight manually and you have to infiltrate so you only need 3 hits to kill a BF since you can't get a crit from your AO. Just keep your units back and you should be able to kill them before they reach you. The other good thing about HTs is they have better range than surrogates so can stay out of contact! range.

I don't have any behemoths. If you're not getting hills you can keep surrendering and restarting until you get hills where you need them.
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure if that's true. It might be but I'd rather keep my HTs out of range as long as possible.

The other units only advance to the range needed to atk the rogues since the HTs are stealthed. If I didn't have rogues they might advance further. So they attack my rogues which turn into HTs which can then attack and reduce enemy numbers. Those enemies attack any remaining rogues. Pretty much all that's left are the BFs when my rogues are all turned. Typically the only dmg my units take is from DDs and the AI seems to have been tweaked to go after multiple units.

But in that opening turn, if they're hitting your rogues they're already advancing pretty much to their maximum range anyway. If they're not hitting your rogues, then starting the battle with HTs would allow them to advance on their turn and actually attack something, especially since even HTs are slower than all AF units except for behemoths and plasmas. Ultimately, maybe the whole thing is of no consequence anyway.

I don't have any behemoths. If you're not getting hills you can keep surrendering and restarting until you get hills where you need them.

I don't believe this works in the maps, because terrain isn't randomized like it is in every other area you can battle.
 

DeletedUser13838

That may be true but one of the problems with playing on mobile is that you can't easily tell terrain, especially if you're colorblind. I like the range of the HTs but I don't want to risk moving an HT too far up (I don't have many left).

I didn't realize that about the continent maps not being randomized. Are you sure about that? It's the only one you can freely try over and over again. I thought I remembered doing that with strike teams back in the day.
 

jlshetler

Member
I have just finished the AF continent map and have indeed found that eight Hover Tanks tends to be the best offense in just about every sector. Remaining on plains and staying out of retaliation range of the Surrogate Soldiers is the trick. However, in the final province (Spirit Plane) I used eight Recon Raiders to attack the sectors that had four Plasma Artillery in the first wave, and took some losses. If there were three Plasma Artillery or fewer in each wave I would do fine with eight Hover Tanks and lose only one of them per sector.

Ready for OF.
 

DeletedUser8152

Gotta watch out for the invisible hills though. Sometimes they look just like plains hexes.
 

DeletedUser26965

Does it matter what you use if you have a 300% a/d boost?
 

jlshetler

Member
My experiences here are based on my 104/90 boost, but at a point it doesn't matter because no boost will counteract Stealth, Reactive Armor, Flying, etc. A Battle Fortress, for example, takes three hits to kill regardless of your boost, unless you use Rail Guns. A Plasma Artillery cannot hit a Dragon Drone regardless of boost.
 

DeletedUser13838

I have just finished the AF continent map and have indeed found that eight Hover Tanks tends to be the best offense in just about every sector. Remaining on plains and staying out of retaliation range of the Surrogate Soldiers is the trick. However, in the final province (Spirit Plane) I used eight Recon Raiders to attack the sectors that had four Plasma Artillery in the first wave, and took some losses. If there were three Plasma Artillery or fewer in each wave I would do fine with eight Hover Tanks and lose only one of them per sector.

Ready for OF.
Think what that says about af troops even after multiple rebalances and the rail gun nerf. I'm not hopeful that of units will be well balanced.
 

wolfhoundtoo

Well-Known Member
Actually it says that stealth and a person making better decisions than an A.I. is very powerful. Add in that Hover tanks have reactive armor and that makes them pretty durable overall.
 

DeletedUser13838

Actually it says that stealth and a person making better decisions than an A.I. is very powerful. Add in that Hover tanks have reactive armor and that makes them pretty durable overall.
Think you can complete the map with behemoths?
 
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