Advance Strategy

[Coup_de_grace]

The following is a guide to help everyone be a better strategist. Let me start by the emphasis of a team setup. Different maps suits different play styles and commander abilities for example bridge map work best with multiple sniper setup and artillery due to the fact that most of the central area with full cover is not secure in the sense where an artillery strike will knock a toon out of cover. A right setup for a right place is like having the right tools for the right job. Choose wisely.

1. Knowing oneself and your opponents.
It is critical that one identifies the primary targets in your opponents ranks while taking extra care to keep your own primary units alive. Understand the roles that the toons play and the lethality it holds in both mobility and offense against you. Eliminate(completely kill) primary targets 1st whenever possible as this will greatly reduce the amount of damage your opponent can deal with less toons. Generally i would say there is three main roles toons play: Calvary, Damage dealer and Support. All toons can be categorized in one of the roles but they have their own sub-roles like : Tanker, Blocker etc.

Calvary are 200HP light toons that can be used to attack flanks or as frontline army. It is advised to utilize their mobility to keep them alive while still harassing your opponent. I would also like to point out many RAD commanders are hasty in using Dave’s frag grenade, even if Dave cant take secure cover after the toss for the sake of damaging a bunch of toons in the early 2nd or 3rd turn making Dave one of the earliest “expendables”. The frag can provide a slick push back to push opponent toons into line of fire within a 2 square radius coupled with Daves mobility, it can provide the push back one needs when the artillery fails to deliver. Do i even have to add that the frag is one of the ability that has a high DMG/Energy ratio? Use the ability to deal a death rather than just getting em’ hurt.

Damage dealers are toons that plays primary roles in offense. This is not subjected to heavy toons only but also middle class toons. A common and famous dmg dealer is “Juan+Botherer”, Pete, Ivan etc. These toons are out to hurt you and that’s what they are good for. Positioning of damage dealer toons is the most crucial point to maximize both their lifespan and offense capabilities.

Support Toons. Angela Merci would be a toon catered purely for support, although with a melee weapon she could be a semi hybrid of damage dealer role. Gus excels in both positioning and healing support while at the same time functioning as a near range damage dealer. Support toons does not mean they are expendable as they can provide vital and helpful support to other members.

2. Taking Cover is as IMPORTANT as attacking.
In many instances RAD commanders are solely focus on dealing damage and have little or less thought about defense, what more in the case where return fire deals less damage. This is a mistake!!! Take secure cover, one that the toon can’t be knocked out of full cover and cant be attacked from another direction. Live to fight another TURN, Live to be HEALED in the next turn. Executing a mad rush without detail planing, standing in the open to end the turn with only succeeding in hurting an opponent toon will only result in an easy kill for your opponent. Take your time to think, its what RAD Soldiers is about to come up with a better move.

3. Maneuvers
Maneuver warfare is as important as attrition warfare(killing toons). Using deployed crates, solid objects, shield-o-bot and deploy-able cover to block or trap opponent toon is as effective if not more effective than killing the toon itself. Another point to note is that toons themselves act as obstacles in blocking paths if you ever have to resort to doing so. Another possible smart use of maneuver tactics is to deny opponent toons in capturing objective area by either denying access or knocking them out of objective area.

I hope this will provide a general insight on how to make better movements to everyone, even if you are new on the block. If anyone would like to share or contribute their own ideas please do so…

[Warchest_Andy]

Good advice.

One general suggestion from me would be to slow down and think! Too often I fall into the trap of rushing a turn because I have a lot going on, kids nagging me, etc. My game always suffers when I do that. Slowing down, thinking about your opponent’s turn and your next turn, working through all of the likely moves and counter-moves in your head, all really helps to avoid mistakes and improve your chances.

A specific tip that I am finding useful as part of my ‘slow down and think’ philosophy is to tap the enemy toons one at a time to see which tiles they can target now (i.e.: at the start of their coming turn) then to think about their movement distance and how many AP they need to fire their weapon. Where can they get to and still have enough AP to shoot you? Then think about their abilities. Do they have a grenade or a rocket or something else which might dictate how you position your toons? Can they blast or Squhurter you out of cover from where they are now or from a position they can reach in their turn? Will that drop you straight into the crosshairs of another enemy toon who has a sniper rifle trained on the tile next to you?

It’s amazing how much pain you can avoid by thinking carefully before you commit. I have lost count of the number of times that I have left myself in a bit of a predicament simply by rushing a turn. Don’t do it!

[Sandman77]

Nice insight…

[Hot-Wire]

Here’s a couple of advance strats I came up with during my last much with Ranger.

1. You don’t have to attack if you have the opportunity to damage the enemy, because chances are you are either walking into a trap or placing yourself into a less opportune position next turn. Sometimes it is better to move into a more advantageous position and end your turn with energy left for return fire, especially if the enemy is weak.

… but than again if you have the chance to take out a unit entirely, take him out, but remember to calculate the position you are placing yourself in and how much damage the enemy can deal towards you if you are to make that move, and if it does kill your one character, are you willing to trade?

2. Try boxing in your enemy if you get the chance. The enemy can not move through your characters and if you really want to get rid of someone who is playing hit and run. Box him/her when you get the opportunity. Of course make note where the other enemy are on the map and how fast they can come to that units assistance, plus how much health you have left with the units you are boxing the enemy with and how many hits they can take if the enemy attacks you on their turn.

3. Kill the medic the first chance you get.

[Mitsid]

[QUOTE=Hot-Wire;431834]Here’s a couple of advance strats I came up with during my last much with Ranger.

3. Kill the medic the first chance you get.[/QUOTE]

True! Therefore i advice that you should have 2 or better 3 medics in the team to avoid the possibility of your single medic being eliminated at the start.

[Coup_de_grace]

True! Therefore i advice that you should have 2 or better 3 medics in the team to avoid the possibility of your single medic being eliminated at the start.

Too many medics and you will be banking heavily on your one or two Damage Dealer units. This would be working against your advantage as the focus would be switched to your Damage Dealer toons instead of killing medics first. Even if you are left with all your medic units there is little firepower you can lash out. That is why you should aim for a balance team of toon setup, where they are all a good amount of threat to your opponent. This would also be advantageous where your opponent would be (hopefully) indecisive as to which toon he should eliminate 1st as they all pose a formidable degree of threat one way or another.

However, it is a Formidable formation as i’ve experience it against Mitsid. It is also an uncommon formation that i’ve encounter which is a refreshing change. Keep the primary Damage Dealer toons alive as an ABSOLUTE priority and you would hold the upper hand with this formation.

Keep in mind that this does not mean this formation isn’t good as all formation has their strength and weakness. I am merely highlighting the weak links that should be taken extra precaution of so that our opponents will not have the chance to exploit them.

[Jerry-Rigs]

Don’t know if one has to have qualifications to talk about advanced strategy. If not, here I go.

-The most important thing to remember is the goal of the game: Kill or defend. Either is a victory. If your opponent has all their characters with max HP and you haven’t scored any damage and are down to 1HP but you have 5 turns of defense, you win. (I wonder what the coin distribution looks like then?
-Flexibility is key
-Position is more important that damage.
-Killing 1 is better that seriously wounding 2.
-Although it is better to kill than wound, a wound presents the opponent with a choice they don’t want to have to make: 3EP to heal 20HP now (bad energy management and restricted movement) or risk that those 20HP are critical next round.
-Medics are prime targets.
-A character with unused abilities (frag, gas, nora, arty), is a better target that a character that has none left.
-Every turn is a new game. Don’t get locked into a single plan or strategy.
-Delay, delay, delay, strike hard! (Expressed by others as: Maneuver until you can’t, then fight.)
-Don’t be afraid to take damage but don’t take damage without a payoff.

[Sandman77]

I like no guts no glory attitude I loose more then I win though.

[Jerry-Rigs]

@Sandman77, You can tell how much I follow my own advice, … or not.

Don’t stack your only medic so close to your commander, it’s too tempting of a target, as you found out. Even if I have to leave 3 of my guys exposed.

[Warchest_Andy]

However, it is a Formidable formation as i’ve experience it against Mitsid. It is also an uncommon formation that i’ve encounter which is a refreshing change. Keep the primary Damage Dealer toons alive as an ABSOLUTE priority and you would hold the upper hand with this formation.

I’ve just finished a game against Mitsid which he won handily. He used Kate and Gus in tandem to really good effect with Juan and Ivan to bring the pain.

I tend to use Kate as my (sole) medic because I like her mobility and the offensive power of her poison grenade. However even when I placed it reasonably well early in the game Mitsid was able to rinse off the poison DoT almost immediately. He could even clear it off of his medics, which I would normally prioritise as a target for the poison because a solo medic can’t do anything about it.

Even though I inflicted fairly monstrous damage on Ivan he didn’t go down because he could be given substantial healing support. Mitsid then positioned a cloaked Juan really well too (something I should have anticipated but didn’t, d’oh!) and I was on the ropes from that point onwards.

It was an interesting and formidable formation and one that I might experiment with myself. I don’t know whether the sacrifice in offensive power would always pay off but the element of surprise alone makes it worth trying. (Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Or two freaking medics! ) Juan and Ivan are both beefy enough to soak up a fair amount of punishment and, with a healer each available to them if needed, you’d have to concentrate a lot of fire on them to put them down. I couldn’t manage that in this game, mainly due to good placement by Mitsid and clever use of Ivan’s grenade at a critical moment.

I would definitely want to adjust my own standard lineup before facing him again.

[Sandman77]

Jerry heh heh, hmm will win soon.

[Coup_de_grace]

Maximum Toons Team Setup
In another thread WillisYu was discussing about having a setup with maximum amount of toons, six. From a tactical point of view this setup has its strength and weakness. I have not went against this formation but i will try my best to give a comprehensive analyzation of this setup.

Strengths:

More toons is greater abundance. More toons is more units, this allows one to cover more area and have more flexibility. You can maintain the front lines while still having extra toons to circle around from another flank. The more toons you have in the team, the more complete or variety of toon skills you have at your disposal. More toons will also allow one to have multiple similar “deadly” skills which can be utilized with devastating effect in a combo . Total amount of team health pool is also increased with more toons and since team setup is determined by weapon equipped it is possible to march an intimidating battalion of heavy 300hp toons which can be a reckoning force. To bring 6 toons on to the battlefield, one would have to bring a number of 4SP toons equipped with either 9mm pistol, knarly knife or SMGs. This allows one to have a more wide array of weapon setup like a balanced long-mid-near range setup, fully mid range setup or even purely near range setup. The flexibility is wide to cover a range of situations. For example, snipers are at risk of being cornered at near range, near range toons can cover snipers in such situations making them a good team at dealing damage both near and afar.

Weakness:

With more toons it is harder to decide a good movement. More choices is not always good as this also allows for more chance of mistakes and error. Less individual firepower is a major concern. Some toons will have to carry 4SP weapons to make a team of 6, these toons will have little firepower to contribute in a focused fire attack either due to low weapon damage or range. It also makes positioning much more crucial to allow a number of toons to all contribute in lashing out damage at a target for a kill. Lastly, overconfidence may impose itself naturally when one has more toons. This might cause careless and short-sighted movements. Underestimating an opponent is a deadly mistake even when you have more units to spare.

[Jerry-Rigs]

My gut reaction is that more shooters is always better. Even pea shooters. Of course, I lose a lot too.
I am using 6 toons in 26pt matches and 5 toons in 20pt matches. The 26pt games allow a couple “reasonable” damage dealers but the 20pt matches require the use of special skills to do the heavy damage.
In order to do heavy damage (3 point guns, multiple shots), I may leave toons exposed, I try to make them heavies and have medics nearby. I don’t mind long games with lots of maneuver and sometimes that is what it takes with a bunch a pea shooters.

[Coup_de_grace]

Chokepoints

Apart from toon positioning on the front lines and battle formation, there is one other aspect of strategy that is equally important. As the suicide bombers calls it, its location, Location, LOCATION! I’m not talking about choosing maps here but determining the battleground where the exchange of fire is traded. In this post, we shall call it chokepoints.

So what is chokepoints? Why is it important? How do we lay out a strong chokepoint?

A chokepoint is an area or a pathway that one can deploy toons to deny access/passage/advance of enemy toons to areas of significant importance, for example the objective area, or flanks that will lead to your toons being attacked from an exposed direction. (from the back or corner etc.) Forming a chokepoint is not limited nor required to use blocking maneuvers with crates, toons or deployable cover, but simply by having toons placed strategically that will allow them to attack/kill/block/delay any enemy toons that attempt to pass the area/path. By doing so, you are denying your opponent the chance to secure the objective area while you casually capture the area. Blocking or delaying at chokepoints leading to exposed flanks will force you to assign a toon to hold the narrow corridor but it’s much more advantageous than being shot at from multiple directions. This can result to be extremely frustrating to your opponent as he/she will have to resort to:

1. Targeting toons enforcing the chokepoint delaying advance and allowing you to capture the objective area uncontested.
2. Slow advance by taking cautious movements to corners or squares that will provide toons with cover from the stationary defenders or cover from any attacks by the defending toons in its attacking turn.
3. Holding current advantageous position or taking up defending position him/herself as the toons are unable to reach or lacks the mobility to cross the chokepoint area to a secure position where it wouldn’t be attack/killed by the enemy.
4. Retreat to advance from another position.
5. Attempt to rush several toons in a go to pass or overrun defender’s position.
6. Use toon’s abilities like Ghost, Aoe skills, Gus water cannon etc. to break the gridlock. Not a bad thing since it might be used carelessly or less effectively.

They are several conditions when it comes to forming a strong chokepoint :

1. Number of access points and landscape
Too many or multiple access paths (bridge map for example) will cause the chokepoint to be easily broken thru from another direction. Depending on the landscape, long single paths are one such instance of good chokepoints.(train station for example)

2. Availability of secure areas/covers
Toons will need secure covers where they wouldn’t be individually picked off easily by enemy toons while at the same time can still maneuver around to inflict damage.

3. Firepower and Maneuverability considerations of opponent’s and your toons
One needs firepower and maneuverability to hold a point or have enough energy to advance and attack enemies or your toons would be killed easily with a focus fire or overrun by calvary(light toons 200hp). By judging and weighing the opponents ability to yours make the best judgement posible whether you should hold, advance retreat or back down to a more favorable chokepoint.

4. Flexibility
One chokepoint position will not always work all the time against different formations and enemy’s advancing movements. Always advance/retreat or rearrange toons to form a strong chokepoint base on the battle conditions. This can’t be taught since it comes from experience and at times base on instinct.

5. Advance tactics
Turrets, mines and deployable cover etc. can be deployed to hold a point, break rushes and deal damage or even used as a blocking maneuver. It’s up to one’s creativity to make it as effective as possible.

Red lines represents sides which one can enforce the chokepoint. Double blue lines are chokepoint borders.

An example of exposed flank that enemy can attack toons behind market stall in red.Blocking any advance beyond double blue line will avoid such situation.

[Desparado]

interesting strategies…

I would say its hard to know your opponent right away, given the soldiers and playing styles. But there are general rules of thumb that go with each ability, map, class, and weapon that are widely followed to avoid quick death.

[Coup_de_grace]

The basic concept is that one does not need to be attacking all the time in their turn. Sometimes depending on situation and landscape, its much better to lie and wait, like an ambush till your opponent makes a mistake or an opportunity presents itself.

Screen shots illustrating good chokepoints are added to the original post…

[Coup_de_grace]

Maximizing Toon Potential

Different toons holds different weapons, maneuverability and skills. It is vital that one maximizes their potential to form a deadly combo. Let’s start with the cheapest in the price range list:

Suds

Stats :
Commando Type
Mid-class Toon
14energy, 2 energy per square movement
Remote C4 bomb Skill

Description :
Commonly regarded as an average toon with only ONE C4 bomb usage with less than impressive damage despite it being C4. As a Commando type class it has support fire ability during defending stage. Works best equipped with either Hoo-AR or Biffilo MG. Commonly seen to be used by beginners who lack the resource to buy higher tiered toons.

Strategy:
Due to the lack of mobility, the only way to maximize Suds offense is to use shoot & hide tactics. Placing suds well to step out, take a shot and hide back in cover can be severely tricky and hard to accomplish depending on map landscape. Suds cannot deal a huge amount of damage under normal circumstances, so other toon firepower support is important to make a kill. Generally, Suds is a soften opponents up and hold-your-ground type toon.

C4 Skill Usage:
With only one time use, it makes a huge waste if the bomb is not dealing significant damage. The best use of C4 is to “cover” dark spots. Dark spots are areas where due to full cover and landscape, your toons can neither attack or use artillery to knock back the opponent into line of fire. C4 serves its prime in dealing damage and knocking out the toon from cover(even if the toon is on the same square with C4). However the knock back direction (if the toon is standing same square with C4) seems to be random and it might not work out to what you would expect. Hopefully the handy knock out will at least allow you to use artillery strike to further knock back the toon into line of fire to deal more damage and kill the toon. Lastly, it is speculated that in a future update the amount of C4 will be increased to 3 making Suds a fine ace within the deck.

Keep an eye out on the next toon strategy, Iron Fortress “The Shield” Dee Hatlacker!!!

[Warchest_Andy]

I think these are great, Coup. I hope you keep them coming.

On Suds, I think I remember reading that the original plan to increase the number of C4 charges he carries had been abandoned but that the damage (and the splash damage) would be increased instead. I don’t know if that’s still the case or whether SD has found a way to give him more C4.

Suds was actually the last toon that I acquired (despite him being the cheapest) because I couldn’t see a real use for him. I quite like him though in a defensive role. He’s not easy to use but it’s fun trying to predict the movements of your opponent to get a really big C4 hit. I wouldn’t use him competitively though. I hope the increase in the number of C4 charges or the damage inflicted makes him more viable because he’s quite a fun toon and a bit of a bargain at his current price.

He’s also quite good in offline challenges against the AI because the enemy toons can’t shoot the C4 until the next patch and they are daft enough to stand on it and let you blow them up. Online opponents are rarely so obliging.

One final interesting fact about Suds - he gets the (normally very expensive) Decon Suit for a mere 10 Rad Bucks atm. That may be an error and not everyone cares about the outfits but it’s perhaps worth mentioning for those that do. He looks quite funky in orange!

[Coup_de_grace]

[QUOTE=Warchest_Andy;435522]
On Suds, I think I remember reading that the original plan to increase the number of C4 charges he carries had been abandoned but that the damage (and the splash damage) would be increased instead. I don’t know if that’s still the case or whether SD has found a way to give him more C4.[/QUOTE]

Yes, one of the devs have said that the coming update will be increasing the damage for C4. Due to how the game code is currently programmed, it is difficult or impossible to change the amount of C4 to 3. But they have expressed agreement and interest to change it to 3 usage to make Suds a finer soldier which will be done some time much later :3

[Coup_de_grace]

Dee Hatlacker

Stats :
Engineer Type
Mid-Class Toon
14 Energy, 2 Energy per square movement
Shield-O-Bot Skill

Description:
Tougher than a coffin nail, lethal like a panther. Few have a fancy to use this toon, and much less have survived encountering this toon in battle under the hands of a skillful commander. Boosting an ol’ faithful menacing silent fortress with 250HP and 4 Energy(one energy per movement) that rings with the sound of toughness when shot at, Dee is a versatile and formidable toon on the battlefield. Dee is very much like a Spartan phalanx advancing ever steadily with its shield, healing 50Hp to his shield when damaged keeping the pressure on the enemy to back off or face their doom. After creeping up close enough, Dee pounces at his prey and fills his opponents with guts full of lead. Deadly when equipped with Stumpington SG (57Dmg point blank, 3 Energy per shot) but also works well with Hamjak Auto-SG (90Dmg point blank, 5 Energy per shot). Dee is a tanker, pusher or even hold ground and works well for up close and personal style game play.

Strategy and Shield-o-bot usage:
The whole rage and strategy is surrounding Dee and his shield bot. Use it well and maneuver swiftly will give one the upper hand. When Dee loses his bot it is pretty much like a warrior losing his shield, he is no longer complete. That can put quite a damper on your offensive pace as Dee by himself has only average mobility, not quite enough to deal significant damage and take cover.

The shield-o-bot is a pile of metal, but that leaves no reason as to not provide or seek cover for it. Behind cover, the opponent will need to deal much more damage to destroy it. To facilitate your advance and the bot’s survivability, Dee can also fix 50HP to his bot for only 3 Energy(unlimited too). One very good point about the bot is that it blocks line of sight. Anyone behind it can’t get targeted, that also includes skills (Molotov, Frag, Artillery etc.) thus providing essentially a mobile secure cover. A useful point of the bot is that it suffers no knock back effect, so it does not need to take “secure cover”, any half cover will be sufficient.

Another way to use the bot is to provide cover to other toons from another flank. This is exceptionally well at market map where bot is placed behind half cover fences providing cover to any toon hiding behind market stall at danger from sniper fire from side flank.

The last strategy of the bot is to use as a blocking obstacle. Blocking maneuvers is one of the main tricks up Dee’s sleeves, boxing enemies in a corner limiting toon movement and finishing them off with high damage shotgun shots. Corners are good spots for Dee and his bot to advance, while any poor chap hiding in a corner is your trapping prey.

Dee serves not only to advance, but also to directed attacks away from other toon members. This serves on par with Dee’s advancing psychological intimidation, as the enemy can try to hold ground and deal as much damage possible to destroy the bot to halt Dee’s dangerous advance, and risk getting attacked by other of your toon members; or retreat, losing objective area ground.

Another important aspect in using Dee is keeping up the battle pace. As the saying goes, when attacking, attack with the ferocity of fire, when defending, stand strong like a mountain. So when using Dee to push or attack, be sure to use other toons to back up and keep the pressure on the enemy. Be threatening, keep the pressure on your opponent but don’t over do it, a desperate army fights the hardest. We don’t want our enemy to realize how much danger he/she is in (and thinks a whole lot before making a move) and make radical movements. When defending, Angela Merci can assist in endurance while in wait for the enemy to make a mistake.