Why are my Mars units not dominating?

[jsc29]

I recently aged up to Space Age Mars and my units do not seem to do any better than Oceanic units on the campaign. I have about 1000/1000 boost.

For example, my Wardens are 4428/6972 after boost and the units opposing them in Artic Future are never any stronger than 250/250. Even so, they seem to have no trouble killing my units and the performance of the SAM units is not much better than Hover Tanks.

I did a test with Anti-Aircraft Vehicles and they literally perform just as well as Steel Wardens. AAVs are from the Contemporary Age. Gee, maybe I should use Bronze Age units?

WTH??? I mean how can 250/250 units be doing anything to units with 6900+ defense. That is ridiculous!

 

[Sharmon the Impaler]

Can you post a screen shot of the attack screen with the numbers please? Something isn't right , Sentinels are the top fighters in SAM.

 

[jsc29]

 

[Agent327]

You are using 1 Warden with 7 Rogues on the Continent Map, where Rogues are ignored and your one unit gets attacked first by units with a way longer range than your one unit.

Autobattle?

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

Good point Agent.

 

[jsc29]

Whether I use rogues or not, my Mars units take heavy damage (screenshot below). Note that the units shown in this screenshot have over 7000 defense compared to the enemy units which have about 200 attack. Even so they can do heavy damage to my units and even kill one of them.

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

You have to be aware of how far units can move in one turn. how far the enemy can shoot from. If your troops in autobattle are not moving forward they are not hitting the enemy and those enemy can stay out of your troop range and still hit your guys.
I would say that autobattle is not doing you any favors.

 

[jsc29]

Dude, I have SEVEN THOUSAND (7000) defense. The question is how units with 200 attack are killing and damaging units that are 3 ages ahead of them and have a HUGE numeric advantage.

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

No matter how big your attack or defense.even if your defense is 194.903,4937,000,0000,000% any hit by an enemy will take one uint of health. Period. If your units go second. that starts out the enemy gets eight hits on your guys. If the AI does not move your guys forward enough. the enemy gets a free pass and again gets eight more hits against you.. etc...
Now if you're getting the same results manually battling.. ???
I m just trying to explain the results...
I will often use units that go first. with a lot of range. just because then I shoot first, I can kll four enemy before they even get one shot.

 

[Sharmon the Impaler]

The 2 Turturrets have 2 shots each before the Steel Wardens even get to hit them. They hit anything lateral to their primary target too. That's about 16 hits to your 1. They can't hit flying targets so put 3-4 flying units in the mix and you will slaughter the board.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

In addition to the excellent points made by @Ebeondi Asi and @Sharmon the Impaler, the other 5 units in the enemy army have Contact! skill, which means that every time you hit them but don't kill them they get a free shot back because their range equals or exceeds your units'. And each one of those free shots will cause at least one unit of damage. And on top of all that, to reinforce the point that @Sharmon the Impaler made, the Turturrets have a boost against heavy units.

 

[Sharmon the Impaler]

In addition to the excellent points made by @Ebeondi Asi and @Sharmon the Impaler, the other 5 units in the enemy army have Contact! skill, which means that every time you hit them but don't kill them they get a free shot back because their range equals or exceeds your units'. And each one of those free shots will cause at least one unit of damage. And on top of all that, to reinforce the point that @Sharmon the Impaler made, the Turturrets have a boost against heavy units.

Sniperbots and Sentinels would erase the enemy with hardly a scratch in this case.

 

[Sharmon the Impaler]

Sentinels go first and you erase the ones around the Turturrets because they can't hit them and the Sniperbots mop up the rest.

 

[Agent327]

Dude, I have SEVEN THOUSAND (7000) defense. The question is how units with 200 attack are killing and damaging units that are 3 ages ahead of them and have a HUGE numeric advantage.

Dude you could have 700.000 defense. Your units get hit multiple times before they hit anything and every hit gives at least a damage of 1. Your units are wounded before they hit anything and wounded units give less damage.

 

[Xenosaur]

This is an excellent discussion because it's capturing the essence of fighting in this game. It's NOT only about A/D, it's about how the AI was written (especially for higher era fighting...) and the unit's special skills, matchups you have on the battlefield, and even terrain and ... ORDERING (ie, who goes first, and how often they go).

I agree is perplexing to wonder why seemingly immense A/D stats don't by themselves make you prevail, but the ORDER of fighting is damn important (as both Sharmon, Agent, Eb, and Johnny cited).

In CE, and with (or even without) a strong AO, you can drop 8 Strike Team against almost anything, and win - convincingly. Why?

They * AL L * GO FIRST! - all 8 of them. Ever hear of swam battle design? You're looking at one such application.

Additionally, with a strong AO, they go first and get lots of 1 shot kills, giving you less wounded warriors for your next autobattle.

The reason the Hover is so popular and powerful is NOT it's order of fighting, but rather it's that special skill it has: Stealth.

Fighters here especially with a Traz' mentality of endless supply - make war an almost "disposable" warrior battle game. So many people have thousands of "X, Y and Z..." and play irrespective to all the "science" of FoE war.

But a richer set of tools and play awaits you when you can use all the other facilities at your disposal to come out less scarred, and go for higher utility.

In summary (and one of my favorite quotes...): When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.