Hero Combination Question

[scorehouse]

Strikes First, Aggressive Counterattack, Envelopment, Crippling Blow trying to find a combo to make units that attack mine be immediately overwhelmed and surrender. Any ideas? will the Strikes First negate the Aggressive Counter even though you are Striking First from an attack? i think? your thoughts and favorite combos.

[Tassadar]

If my understanding is correct and you want to have enemy units severely weekend when attacking you on their turn, so you can easily finish them off later then you need either Camouflage of Provocator. Anything else, such a Readiness, First Strike, Crippling Blow, etc. will only mean you attack first when defending regardless of initiative or just deal more damage. However, in such cases the AI is unlikely to attack if it does not see favorable combat predictions, so what it will do it make the enemy stop in front of such a unit, or make it chose weaker targets. If you do end up getting attacked then usually you unit will be weakened enough it is risky to follow up instead of using replacements.

However, if you are asking for hero combinations when attacking this has been done tons of times and the fun thing is, you have almost limitless options depending on unit class. I recommend Edmon's video on heroes or some other such refences.

will the Strikes First negate the Aggressive Counter even though you are Striking First from an attack? i think?

I vaguely remember these cancel each other out and normal initiative applies, but don't quote me on that, I might not be right here.

[VirgilInTheSKY]

Envelopement only stops enemy from retreating, and only the attacked side can be forced to retreat, so no, your combo does not work in the first place. Enemy attack, you shoot back first and deal considerable damage, then that's it. The attacker won't be forced to surrender because your counterattack crippled it. And as Tassadar mentioned, enemy would prefer not attacking such a hard target if the exchange is not favorable, in most situations. Replace Envelopment with Provocator and put some fragil unit next to this unit to lure enemy into deadly trap.

[scorehouse]

my goal is to get the AI so surprised that the Envelopment Hero gets him to surrender immediately. so I'm going to try it with Provocator on the Finnish Hard Attack infantry..

[nexusno2000]

my goal is to get the AI so surprised that the Envelopment Hero gets him to surrender immediately. so I'm going to try it with Provocator on the Finnish Hard Attack infantry..

AI does not recognize Provocateur at all, so you can abuse it in many ways.

Parking an Engineer or Mnt Inf on Close terrain next to a weakish unit in the open will make the AI kill itself. Over and over and over.

[scorehouse]

just reread Virgil's comment about envelopment and that only the attacked unit retreats. but if I have envelopment plus Aggressive Counter wouldn't my attacked unit now be the Attacker?

[VirgilInTheSKY]

just reread Virgil's comment about envelopment and that only the attacked unit retreats. but if I have envelopment plus Aggressive Counter wouldn't my attacked unit now be the Attacker?

You are the defender. Above all you must be the defender to have Aggressive Counterattack triggered. The side started the battle is the attacker, the side accepted it is the defender, so to speak.

[scorehouse]

got it. thanks do you know if City Fighter works on Airplanes? specifically increasing Bomber damage.

[Grondel]

got it. thanks do you know if City Fighter works on Airplanes? specifically increasing Bomber damage.

Put it on a plane, move it above a city and make sure there is a combat prediction then hit "L" and check the red marked combat. in there is all u want to know.

sers,
Thomas

[scorehouse]

thanks. I always play with prediction results hidden and use the slots on another feature.

[DefiantXYX]

thanks. I always play with prediction results hidden and use the slots on another feature.

Is this not annoying or at least exhausting? I often cant see if its closed terrain, especially in the big mods cities are larger that one hex and sometimes its hard so recognize where the city ends.
Oh wait, I think I can answer my one question. When playing without prediticions I guess you always double check, before you attack?!

[Tassadar]

I tried Arrogant once recently on the Italian side of the Frontlines: Cyrenaica DLC and it was perfectly fine, a minor inconvenience with a few things to note:

1. It only blocks predictions for attack, it still shows defensive predictions when the enemy would attack you on their turn, so it's possible to abuse that element if some one would like to go this route.
2. Defensive playstyle is favored, especially multiple Provocator heroes in the DLC worked well with it. As long as you try to ambush the enemy or try to force them into other types of traps, it does not matter as much.
3. Instead of looking at combat predictions, I ended up checking the enemy suppression levels more and was relying on softening up targets a lot to not risk accidental misplays.
4. Early war this trait is not as punishing, since base attack values and defense values are set-up in a way that losing 50% or more strength due to an attack is less likely (infantry excluded). I can see how late war with hero stacked units on the AI side, harder hitting units and more overstrength this would be more dangerous - especially for fighter planes which tend to suffer a lot of damage at this stage without First Strike or Readiness. If I were to choose Arrogant in a late-war campaign I'd pair it with AA Veteran and Denied Air Force, using the extra slots to get something empowering me to use more towed artillery, for example Meticulous Planning.

[scorehouse]

I rely on captured equipment. any ideas on how to get an entrenched AA gun to lose entrenchment but have enough left to surrender instead of just get blasted away instead of surrendering?

[VirgilInTheSKY]

I rely on captured equipment. any ideas on how to get an entrenched AA gun to lose entrenchment but have enough left to surrender instead of just get blasted away instead of surrendering?

Use Entrenchment Killer 3x or 4x units and heroes to reduce the entrenchment level as quickly as possible, better on units with low attack value since the trait does not require actually dealing damage.

[Tassadar]

Take light artillery and split it - ideally if you have Flexible Command you can do it without any empty core slots required. Overall if you are doing a captured equipment run then smaller field guns (7.5 cm and 10.5cm) are your best friends. They deal close to no damage and remove entrenchment plus apply valuable suppression. You will need to spend a few core slots on these, but you will soon see the value in it. With time the only issue is that they gain experience and as such begin causing hits instead of just suppression, but the enemy overall gets stronger, so you will need to upgrade them anyway. The catch is to ideally get a large stockpile in the early game.

I rely on captured equipment. any ideas on how to get an entrenched AA gun to lose entrenchment but have enough left to surrender instead of just get blasted away instead of surrendering?

Use Entrenchment Killer 3x or 4x units and heroes to reduce the entrenchment level as quickly as possible, better on units with low attack value since the trait does not require actually dealing damage.

This as well. Best option is to use a mobile AT vehicle that has low soft attack value with the following heroes - Entrenchment Killer 4x and Hit and Run (or No Retaliation instead as this will give it extra utility for regular combat).

[scorehouse]

thanks. never considered those tactics