The Golden Rule

[Kyranzor]

The Golden Rule of RTS Games:

EX PANSION



this means getting out of your turtling base and DO something! Get that engineer squad to capture the nearest points, while scout units in some kind of transport is quickly driven to the OPPONENT's side of the field, and capture THEIR area. This puts the enemy on the defensive right from the start, which leaves you free to capture their territories, your immediate area, and everything in between.

Fast movement of vehicle-mounted infantry is what you need most - men on foot take too long to reach the furthest points.

After taking a distant flag, you must endevour to hold it for as long as possible, to make the enemy waste resources they dont have yet, on trying to get the flag back. Use KMOD's awesomeness that gifts all basic infantry with the ability to build sandbags and barbed wire to fortify the flag points with boxes of sandbags and wire, so slow down enemy progress.

When you have captured and fortified as many flags as possible between you and your enemy, and have an infantry squad sitting behind walls at each flag point, you can expect to hold on for a long time - using grenades to repel charges, and long range fire to pin down and keep the enemy at bay.

next, you want to transport some MG's to the frontline defences you've made.

if the enemy uses snipers at this point, either get some of your own or rush for light vehicles to hunt down the snipers and eat them FOR DINNER!

okay so you get the idea? great, now go and rush some poor noob into non-existance.


The basic thing to remember is: dont try to fortify your main base. It is far more effective to defend the outer perimiter while you use MOBILE units to attack, rather than wait to react. Reactions come too late.

[Aussie]

This is what i couldn't really get down when I first started playing CoH and DoW because I was used to fortifying an area and turtling. Expansion is much more essential in this game.

[Kyranzor]

almost all RTS games you will find, the player who has the most territory/resources wins.

[Dietrich]

To elaborate on the "expand" principle*:

- Deploy scout units ASAP and send them to key locations (not points per se but areas the enemy is likely to pass through on the way to your base). From there they can provide advanced warning of the enemy's approach, slow down his own scouting efforts, and skirmish with point-capturing units.

- Once the scouts are sent out, secure your main line of resistance (MLR). Buildings provide good cover but often disallow abilities such as throwing grenades, so I suggest avoiding them; they're also too obvious. Once your infantry have put up sandbag walls or dug trenches, lay wire just beyond grenade range of your positions; this way the approaching enemy will be unable to really assault your positions until they cut through the wire, and in the meantime you can lay waste to them with rifle and MG fire.

- Lay mines as much as possible. (It bugs me that most mods retain the rather high cost per mine, since mines were used extensively -- which kinda implies they weren't expensive, doesn't it?) Mine-laying forces the enemy to bring relatively vulnerable engineer units to the fore -- and when an engineer unit has a mine detector, it doesn't have a flamethrower.

- Position MGs near the front of your MLR, mortars behind the MLR. The MGs will suppress/pin, and the mortars will pulverize.

- Position AT guns, where possible, for flank shots on enemy armor. Putting an AT gun behind (relative to the enemy) a building means that an enemy tank won't spot the gun until the tank has already set itself up for a broadside.

* These points apply to CoH pretty much no matter which mod you have; though some specific tactics are not possible with certain mods.

[Kyranzor]

KMOD tries to make mines a reasonable alternative, i think 25 ammo for three little useless mines in normal CoH is totally retarded, so i make mines like 5 ammo haha

[Dietrich]

It's been so long since I played a complete version of KMOD (i.e., since before OF) that I can't quite recall if grenades cost anything in KMOD. If they were free, good, keep it that way. If they're going to have a nominal cost, anything is better than 25 munitions per grenade. In a typical infantry squad (regardless of nation), wouldn't most of the guys (excepting whoever had the automatic rifle or LMG) have two to four grenades each? As with mines, that kinda suggests grenades weren't expensive. For example, I've read of instances where German troops were on the assault and some of them carried satchels full of grenades slung over their shoulders.

Of course, I understand that it can be a toss-up: either standard munitions cost per ability, or nominal munitions cost with long cool-down. To use grenade-throwing as an example, is there a way to increase the cool-down time markedly after a certain number of consecutive uses, to simulate a squad using up their immediate supply of grenades and having to send someone back to get more?

[Kyranzor]

unless there is a sickeningly large quantity of SCAR coding (which i havnt tried to use yet) i dont think we can get the game to count how many times an ability has been used, and then apply modifiers.

grenades in KMOD were indeed free to use, and had a minor cooldown, because if there is 10 men in the squad, i'm sure they could all throw a grenade fairly soon after the other men in their squad, if need be.. i dont want a 'assault' grenade mode where all the men throw a grenade at once, but the normal grenade cooldown applies - fast and free ;D

if you get that close to an enemy squad, they've probably thrown a grenade also, so usually you dont have anyone left to throw a second 'nade :D lol

[Dietrich]

grenades in KMOD were indeed free to use, and had a minor cooldown, because if there is 10 men in the squad, i'm sure they could all throw a grenade fairly soon after the other men in their squad, if need be.. i dont want a 'assault' grenade mode where all the men throw a grenade at once, but the normal grenade cooldown applies - fast and free ;D

Why not an 'assault' ability? Maybe two or three in a squad each throw a grenade while the rest fire like mad?

if you get that close to an enemy squad, they've probably thrown a grenade also, so usually you dont have anyone left to throw a second 'nade :D lol

Proper spacing between squad members would minimize casualties from grenades.... >.>

[Kyranzor]

yeah well, why dont you ask relic to make a decent game with decent ai? lolz

[Dietrich]

As much as I dig CoH (especially with the many great mods available for it), or "a decent game with decent AI" I actually look to Battlefront (http://www.battlefront.com/) -- word on the street is that they're making a WW2 game using the engine of their fairly new Combat Mission: Shock Force, which is a combat simulator rather than an RTS. [ThumbUp]

[Kyranzor]

ooooooooaahhh that sounds extra sexy :O i cant wait

[Dietrich]

It is. =)

But don't take my word for it. ;-)