[NGTM-1R]

I'm ending up with decks without helicopters trying to build a decent one, and that's the least of my sins.

[General Battuta]

That's totally viable, helicopters were a waste pre-patch (they may still be)

[Nemesis6]

No idea how it is in the Airland Battle, but it seems like choppers should be used either to deter enemy attacks, or halfway through the game when the enemy's convinced that you're just not gonna bring any in, and then he gets caught with his pants down.

[General Battuta]

No idea how it is in the Airland Battle, but it seems like choppers should be used either to deter enemy attacks, or halfway through the game when the enemy's convinced that you're just not gonna bring any in, and then he gets caught with his pants down.

These are actually both decent and viable ways to use them in ALB, as they are quite risky to forward deploy. THE BATTUTA DOCTRINE has mostly avoided them because they represent small appealing vulnerable packages of points for your enemy, but they just got a sizable buff.

[NGTM-1R]

The days of Hind Swarms roving across the map destroying all who oppose are kinda gone, but helos are amazing for a few particular tasks, like flankers or scouting denial.

[Nemesis6]

I am now even more angry at the artillery, knowing that they've made it accurate even at extreme ranges in Airland Battle... for the life of me I cannot figure out why; it's already absolutely devastating to infantry. If they can call it down with total precision now... **** me! :S

[General Battuta]

I am now even more angry at the artillery, knowing that they've made it accurate even at extreme ranges in Airland Battle... for the life of me I cannot figure out why; it's already absolutely devastating to infantry. If they can call it down with total precision now... **** me! :S

Powerful artillery is super important to keeping any dynamism in this game, which would otherwise reward static defensive positions with almost total impunity.

[crizza]

I had always the problem, that I was the inacurate factor using artillery, my shots went always wide...

[Grizzly]

I had always the problem, that I was the inacurate factor using artillery, my shots went always wide...

THat is no problem. The enemy becomes very inaccurate regardless.

[Polpolion]

Just got this game, and it shows. I had a perfect opportunity to crush an armored offensive from the rear but my M1A1s ran out of fuel just before they had LOS, and they got destroyed by artillery two minutes later. Derp.

[Grizzly]

Just got this game, and it shows. I had a perfect opportunity to crush an armored offensive from the rear but my M1A1s ran out of fuel just before they had LOS, and they got destroyed by artillery two minutes later. Derp.

That's why you should use Leopards .

[Polpolion]

Seems like every time I start to do something that seems kind of right I manage to get disconnected.  It's pretty sweet being able to hold off battalion strength numbers of T-55/64s with just a couple platoons of infantry and a platoon of Leopards. I probably would've been able push them back when my Bradleys and choppers full of infantry got there, too, but I was disconnected.

[General Battuta]

Check out your connection and port settings and stuff. I've never had a DC problem but I don't know if that's on me or the game just liking my hardware.

[Nemesis6]

Slight question -- How do you guys use tanks? I see myself mostly using cheap ones like the T-62 for woods where the enemy has stationed some strong units. So I throw, say 4 T-62 OBR 1972 at them. They start engaging the tanks, who more or less instantly make them panic or destroy them at such close range. If I know they have a little more than I'd like in the forest, I throw in motostrelki as well. Very late in the game, if I have the resources and the standing, I bring out heavy-hitting tanks for offensive purposes. I try to delay that for the late game because then they will arguably be facing less opposition, and therefore less chance of feeding the enemy team about the 120 - 200 points that they cost. This is still in European Escalation by the way.

[NGTM-1R]

I try not to. On offense, there's very little that tanks do that IFVs don't without handing away huge amounts of points, and the integrated infantry support is better for clearing treelines. On defense I usually go with ATGM vehicles backed by infantry.

The only tanks that typically turn up in my strategy are when I have to block a major push, I'll drop small numbers of T-80s or M1A1s. Lots of vehicles can run my ATGMs out of ammo. The tanks don't run out as quick. Cheaper armor has ****ty accuracy and gets whacked by return ATGM fire or artillery/airstrikes because they're spotted too long. The targeting computers on the high-end tanks are worth their weight in gold for first-round kills.

[General Battuta]

What that man said is the pro truth. Heavy tanks are essentially unkillable when faced with large numbers of light enemies at long range, making them perfect for a defensive hold (or a running retreat if you have good stabilizers). As a bonus/risk the enemy will send in their heavy air, possibly giving you a few hundred extra points.

Heavy tanks must at pretty much all costs avoid woods, towns, and ridgelines that break LOS, as up close they lose all their advantages and turn into liabilities.

[StarSlayer]

I haven't had much time to try out ALB but at least in EE I have seen cheap tanks used pretty much to soak up ATGMs and ammo on a push.  I once had a massive U shaped defensive position playing Pact.  Was a thing of beauty, it ground up three major pushes by the NATO team no sweat.  Unfortunately the rest of my team was getting shellacked and OpFor was sitting pretty on a mess of reinforcement points. The fourth push lead with a mass of Leo 1s.  My T64s, Shturms, Havocs and ATGM teams smacked the **** out of them.  But then came the second wave of Leo 2s and M1A2s after I had pretty much shot off all my ammo and used up the logistical backup.

[crizza]

I'm realy tempted to buy this, but I sucked in EE...so I better don't^^

[NGTM-1R]

Okay, so.

Cluster bombs are god. I stopped a company of T-72s with a pair of Alpha Jets and their dinky little two clusterbombs a piece just now.

When I was fighting a friend a few days back I basically wiped an entire battalion of French infantry in VABs off the map with successive waves of F-111Fs and F-4S for the cluster-naplam roundhouse, so I knew cluster munitions worked. But it's not until you're head-on-the-chopping-block "oh **** I have a pair of Leopard 2s and a pair of Alpha Jets to stop a company of heavy armor" that you really get a chance to see how incredible these things are.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, that's what the HEAT clusters are for. Generally it's always worth packing a cheap plane with a few cluster munitions for the 'oh ****, that's a breakthrough' moments. Pubbies like to try to use the HEAT bombs on infantry, though, which is generally super ineffective.

Currently this game is all about autocannons, I ****ing love autocannons.