Tips and Tricks
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 4:21 am
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.
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.
