Tips and Tricks

[Mojko]

Tips and tricks

Hello everyone!

I really like the Order of Battle series and I would like to share some tips and tricks I learned. I have finished all the campaigns on middle difficulty. My objective is to sum up the most important general stuff, so I won't be doing specific scenario tips. I may use some scenarios as examples, though.

All right, here we go!

First section is for Panzer Corps veterans who seek smooth transition to this game, so if you didn't play Panzer Corps, feel free to skip this section.

Main differences between Panzer Corps and OOB

- efficiency (replaces suppression and supply mechanic)
- artillery units do not provide support fire, anti tank guns provide support fire instead, but only against mechanized units
- random damage is much more centered around average, extreme damage values (high damage or low damage) are practically non-existent
- it is not possible to overstregth units
- unit slots are now weighted which means a recon will not take same amount of slots as a heavy tank, this makes weaker units much more viable since you can have more of them deployed (and you want that because of flanking mechanic)
- damaged units may retreat up to two tiles (even crossing rivers), this makes much easier to keep units alive (retreat is possible only on own territory)
- you can move a unit and reinforce it in the same turn (another reason why is it easier to keep units alive)
- aircraft have to physically land on the airfield when they need to refuel (this makes them vulnerable to ground attacks)

There are obviously more differences, but I think these are most important. Now onwards to victory!

Deployment

Look carefully for deployment zones during deployment phase and during the first turn. Developers really love to set up "trap" deployment zones. By this I mean tiles that have for example rivers or tiles on water. If you place a unit on a river, you can move it only one tile which is in most cases a waste of turn. Another case is a tile on water (for ground unit). This is even worse, because ground unit is deployed in a transport ship and has to move to the shore and deploy the unit. This costs extra turns and the deployment itself lowers unit's efficiency which is a big deal (for most units). There are cases where it is much better idea not to deploy all your units in the deployment phase and simply deploy them during your first turn instead. In the first turn, you can move your already deployed units, thus freeing deployment zones. Good example of this is Battle of Shanghai.

Other important thing is that you may not undeploy auxiliary units, but you may switch their modes or armaments. For example you may switch anti-air guns to anti-tank guns (Battle of Lanfeng) or you can switch between bombs and torpedos for tactical bombers (Battle of Pearl Harbour).

If you don't feel comfortable with not seeing the enemy units, you can start up the editor and load you save file from there and see how the map looks like. I consider this as cheating, tough.

Reinforcing units

There are two possible ways to reinforce. Small reinforcement is up to 2 points. This is available if unit has moved, but has not attacked. Large reinforcement is up to 5 points. This is available only if unit has not moved, attacked or used any abilities. You should never reinforce a unit that has 9 strength, because it wastes RP. You should never reinforce auxiliary units with elite replacements, because it's not worth it. There are some cases that auxiliary units have their own RP pool tough. It this case you should decide how to reinforce based on RPs available. Separate RP pools are lost once the scenario ends, so there is no need to save those RPs.

If you have foreign units (like captured US tank when playing Japanese) you may reinforce only 1 strength at a time. There is also another option how to reinforce - by upgrading. Don't forget that you may upgrade any unit that didn't do any action and on own territory. This is a very good strategy for fighter planes. Upgrade will recover unit strength to 10 (full recovery), also in terms of RPs, it is cheaper (or the same) to upgrade a damaged unit compared to healing the unit and then upgrading.

Retreat

Unit that gets beat up will retreat up to two tiles (even crossing rivers), but only on own territory. Retreat causes a large drop in unit efficiency, however it is highly unlikely that unit with high efficiency gets killed in a single attack even when it has for example 4 strength left. Always keep space for retreating units. Don't give your opponent the opportunity to cut off your units from your territory, because such a unit will not retreat.

Flanking

Surrounding and flanking enemy units is important, because it increases combat effectiveness of your troops. This is where it is better to have more units even if they are weaker compared to only having few really strong units.

Units with a switch

Some units may switch between unit types which opens up and interesting way of passing experience to units. For example you can switch an anti-aircraft gun to anti-tank gun, then upgrade it to another anti-tank gun which can switch to artillery. Then you switch it to artillery and upgrade it to artillery which can switch to a tank mode. Of course, this consumes a lot of RPs.

That's it for now, but I may add some more stuff later. Feel free to share some tips and tricks of your own.

[bjarmson]

Nice list Mojko. A couple of additions. If you want to do the anti-air to anti-tank switch make sure you buy guns that are switchable, not all are. Something I found is a big help is when the end game approaches use all available RPs (you often have a lot at this time) to upgrade important carryover units. This can save you a lot of points in the subsequent scenarios as many upgrades will already be accomplished and you can use the points to buy more stuff.

[Genad]

Tips and tricks
Main differences between Panzer Corps and OOB

- efficiency (replaces suppression and supply mechanic)
- artillery units do not provide support fire, anti tank guns provide support fire instead, but only against mechanized units
- random damage is much more centered around average, extreme damage values (high damage or low damage) are practically non-existent
- it is not possible to overstregth units
- unit slots are now weighted which means a recon will not take same amount of slots as a heavy tank, this makes weaker units much more viable since you can have more of them deployed (and you want that because of flanking mechanic)
- damaged units may retreat up to two tiles (even crossing rivers), this makes much easier to keep units alive (retreat is possible only on own territory)
- you can move a unit and reinforce it in the same turn (another reason why is it easier to keep units alive)
- aircraft have to physically land on the airfield when they need to refuel (this makes them vulnerable to ground attacks)

* I love the new efficiency system, it offers more tactical options, although I have yet to use it to its full extent.
* Its anti tank/air guns provide support fire instead. Probably because there is very little reason to use them otherwise.
* I love the weighted system, to add to the above it also means you can't add transportation left and right and need to plan who and where will break behind enemy lines.
* I am not a big fan of the retreat mechanics, especially when they do the retreat\heal combo.

* I love the new air system:
- Aircraft need to land to resupply\repair, during that time they are sitting ducks for enemy bombers.
- Only one Aircraft can take off at time, during the take off turn they are vulnerable to enemy fighters.
Both offer richer gameplay and more scenario options.

[Mojko]

* I love the new air system:
- Aircraft need to land to resupply\repair, during that time they are sitting ducks for enemy bombers.
- Only one Aircraft can take off at time, during the take off turn they are vulnerable to enemy fighters.
Both offer richer gameplay and more scenario options.

Actually, since the Morning sun DLC, 2 planes can take off from an airfield during one turn. An airstrip (new addition) has 1 plane per turn limit for take off.

[Erik2]

In v 2.2.5 (the latest) two air units can launch from a hangar each turn.
But only one air unit may launch from a carrier or a constructed airstrip.

[TDefender]

... and what about the next patch? Any "eta" ?

[bru888]

... and what about the next patch? Any "eta" ?

I think what they intend to do is to update the game at the same time as releasing the upcoming Marines expansion. Someplace here, somebody mentioned that Steam is showing a release date of April 7 for Marines and a dev confirmed it.

[Genad]

Actually, since the Morning sun DLC, 2 planes can take off from an airfield during one turn. An airstrip (new addition) has 1 plane per turn limit for take off.

Making airfield more valuable strategically. Overall I like that system because it adds some realistic and exploitable vulnerabilities which IMO makes for a better gameplay in land and in sea.

Also the weighted system allows for cheap scouts (which in Panzer corps were usually a wasted slot) that can be used to reveal opportunities, and can be serviced on cruisers.

[Horst]

If any ship with land-supply output is on a port-hex next to a village-/town-/city-hex then it's output is doubled!
After noticing in the editor, I saw it's also mentioned in the manual, but I bet not many know that. I guess reading carefully the manual is also a useful tip!

[TripleCP]

If any ship with land-supply output is on a port-hex next to a village-/town-/city-hex then it's output is doubled!
After noticing in the editor, I saw it's also mentioned in the manual, but I bet not many know that. I guess reading carefully the manual is also a useful tip!

Recently discovered this by accident playing the Shanghai scenario.

[Mojko]

If any ship with land-supply output is on a port-hex next to a village-/town-/city-hex then it's output is doubled!
After noticing in the editor, I saw it's also mentioned in the manual, but I bet not many know that. I guess reading carefully the manual is also a useful tip!

Wow, nice find. Didn't know that. This game really needs a wiki, keeping this information in threads is nice but there are limitations here on how the information is structured and accessed.

I started playing XCOM2 with Long war 2 mod and without a wiki I wouldn't be able to play it because the game doesn't bother explaining its mechanics. OOB has the same problem. You simply can't find the information in the game. Btw has anyone found the "sight range" attribute of a unit in the game?

[Horst]

Sight Range is LOS in units.csv file. The LOS-cost for terrain types is in terrain(_winter).txt.