This thread is partly to vent my frustration at noob teammates - but also it will hopefully help noobs avoid schoolboy errors!

1. Using command jeeps. They are easily destroyed by just about anything, so a little armour on your command vehicle makes a big difference. Remember to swap your starting command jeep before the game starts - you need to place an armoured command, before you are allowed to cancel your starting jeep.

2. Undefended command vehicles. They should always have at least a little defence, especially against air, even if you think they are safe and well behind the frontline. Don't over do it by spending half your starting points on units to defend your start command - but every command should have a least a couple of units close by to help defend it, and always have it in a thick forest or if that's not available, then a hedgerow. When sending commands to new zones, never have it near the front of your units or it will be sniped -it should always have other units well ahead of it. Almost as important as the defence is recon, so that you have warning of an attack allowing you to move the command and giving you enough time send help.

3. Over spending on artillery/rockets. Sure, you will get some kills and may even lead the points table for a while - but ultimately you will lose the game for your team (and no doubt blame them). There is no need for more than 4 tube artillery or 2 Sermch/MLRS. They are support units, so you still need your own recon and attack forces.

4. Heli spam - it doesn't work against against reasonable players - don't even try.

5. Fielding all light units. Some of the light units in W:EE are pretty awesome - but you still need some meat in your force in the form of armour. Let the armour take the damage while your light forces do their work. Always have supply trucks just behind you units to resupply and repair them - this has the effect of making them even more heavily armoured as they repair damage as it is inflicted.

6. Grouping units. Never group units into squads of more than 2. Units such as AA should always be on their own. If you want to control several units at once with ease, then select them and then press CTRL+a number - this will set them as a control group that can be selected at any time by pressing the assigned number.

7. Bunching units. People love using MLRS systems in W:EE, which destroys a large area so never keep all your units in a tight group. This can be easier said than done, but spread them as much as is feasible to minimise the effect of rockets/artillery. If you have been reconed and started taking enemy artillery fire then move your units fast. Accurate fire by the enemy often means they have a recon unit close by that you haven't spotted.

8. Exposing flanks. Even the heaviest tanks turn into light tanks when attacked from the side. Think about where you are heading and what the risks are - have good recon - and don't be scared of making a tactical retreat to stop you being hit from the side (When retreating, click the map slightly behind your units, so they reverse instead of turning and exposing their weak rear armour)

9. Fighting hopeless battles. If you can see a large force approaching (you have got forward recon right?) and you're heavily outnumbered, then run away to fight another day! There's no such thing as 'base' in W:EE (though you do have a FOB) In some games the enemy team will choose to fight all on one side of the map, and wipe your team out one by one - If necessary join your teammate across the map, and maybe together you can hold off their forces. Also if you make a push and it becomes obvious that it is failing - then fall back and save what you can - the few units that make it out can be very useful later.

10. Bad economy. Income is slow in W:EE but it does make a big difference over time. On some of the larger maps you will have a deployment sector close to the starting zone that may be worth double the income, so don't be afraid of abandoning a starting sector to make more money (though remember Point #2 above) If your opponents cap a lot of sectors early in the game, then it means they are vulnerable because they have spent alot of money on expensive commands - you either need to take advantage of that quickly before they get rich, or you need to match their economy. Never just sit in base making low money, waiting for them to attack - they will be more than happy to boom their economy and then crush you later.

11. Understand Line-Of-Sight. Your leet AA unit will not hit anything in the middle of a forest so it needs to be at the edge, and even then it will only hasve LoS away from the forest. It will also have its LoS affected by hills (zoom in to see them and some of them have the big grassy contoursand other forests. The same applies to all other units, so having long range ATGM's at the base of a hill where the enemy is likely to attack from, means that you will lose your range advantage a die fast.

12. Unbalanced army. Making most of your force all one unit is a bad idea, because the enemy will just dig in and then spam it's counter. You should have a mix of light and heavy units, and always have AA and recon.

13. Rushing. It might work against noobs, and it will even pressure good players but W:EE makes defence very strong so it's generally a bad strategy. It's much better to quickly take key points on the map with a quality balanced defence.

14. No recon. If you don't have recon you will die fast - really fast! You wont even be able to see the units that are killing you. A recon heli sent forward carefully at the start of the game is good to see your opponents strategy, but they are easily shot down. Any attack force should have at least 2 good quality recons (they're so important you need a backup) and be careful that they do not rush forward and die - keep them slightly behind your front units.

Sticky this!

Great and neat.

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"Rocks are OP. Paper is fine" signed: Scissors

My Youtube Channel

Amen to all of that dude, said what is on most our mind's most game's lolz

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Lexus LF-A in GTA4

Maybe in a 2v2, but in a 3v3 or 4v4 one player going all arty is often very effective.

It may work sometimes, but I suspect that when it does that team would have won anyway. With teams of equal skill, I think that each player having a balanced force is more effective.

Quite the contrary, I think it be a game winner. The other players only have to hold the enemy in place so the artillery can kill them. Artillery is more effective when massed. In a 4v4, if each player has a smerch and a large enemy force is spotted, players will be distracted managing their combat units. They will not open fire at the same time, nor will they open fire accurately, and some may not open fire at all because they only have so much attention. One player might even refuse to fire on the best targets because he wants to fire at the targets facing him. If one of the player has four smerches, he can be much more effective. He doesn't have to worry about managing his frontline units. His only purpose is to call down steel rain on whatever enemy groups are spotted, and he can divert all his attention to that. He can decide that the small force player A is facing doesn't need artillery, while the very large force in the center zone needs all 4 smerches. The other three players can then fight more effectively as they have more attention to give their frontline units. Attention is a very important resource in this game.

I play almost exclusively large team games, and in at least half of those games, one player on each side has made only artillery. Most of the time the artillery player has the highest points on his team. When I play as artillery I usually get more than 3,000 points in a 6,000 point game.

+1 Space especially about arty in 3v3 and 4v4...

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Brogan I'm not sure if it's you that played on my Pact team on hammerhead earlier this evening, but the player had the same name as you. The NATO player had 8 MLRS which destroyed most of my force near the start of the game - for some reason you then followed me and lost all of your forces, which then caused you to rage quit. I actually had sent sneaky infantry to the MLRS base and despite the defences I managed to kill them all, and then went on to kill several commands. So after a terrible start we won the game despite the heavy losses to rockets at the start. They would have had a far better chance if that player had not deployed 8 MLRS, despite the early success it gave them.

It depends on how well it's used, how good your comms are, and how well the guy in front of the arty base is holding. I played a 4v4 on Joint Strike the other day where PACT had something like 20 Danas, and all we had to do was get a bunch of SAS in the woods to get him off balance before 4 corrected AuF1s started tearing them apart.

If your a pre-made team, especially with voice comms, then one guy on arty can be huge, bu that pretty much implies your no longer a noob and you have the proper support from your whole team, hence defeating the purpose of this thread.

Having 1 guy strictly arty isn't really necessary even that that point. I find when each person brings their own small quantity and uses it as necessary it's still equally capable. Hell I've had games where the only artillery being properly used is my 2-4 Danas/AuF1s and I still get 3000+ points. The only maps I've seen huge quantites of uncorrected fire actually work is Hell's Highway in a 3v3 or 4v4, because everyone is focused into those 2 little areas of combat.

A suggestion for the list: Don't quit the game at the first sign of distress. Too many players just flat quit once they lose some expensive unit or their first/only command. There has been quite a few games I've seen won by a team that was definitively losing, simply because they pulled back and reformed with what they had left. If this happens to you, stop crying and just pull back to your teammates position and start buying in support of him, or survey the field and start command hunting/doing backfield work if they are pounding you with artillery. You still get XP towards more stars when you lose, opposed to getting nothing for leaving. Hell, you'll probably learn something just watching the rest of the game.

I can't even count how many people I've seen leave in the first 15 minutes because they lost the initial engagement.

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To be fair, I think they would have had a better chance had they been more skilled. Using artillery is valid strategy that can work, although whether it works depends on the skills of the player involved. Also, it was a 3v3 and a player going all-out arty is probably less warranted than in a 4v4, and sacrifices front line strength.

I have seen a team with an MLRS player win time and again, even if I have also seen it lose. Surely you must have too? Being successful something around 50% of the time means its a valid strategy.

And others agree with me. from the unofficial strategy guide viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1371:
"Artillery Spam: In a team game, if one player decides to build a lot of (spam) artillery, the shell density can be increased to a point where strategic area fire becomes annoyingly effective, and any concentrations of troops are at risk if they enemy knows your general area. You need to position and reposition your troops to mitigate the risk of random shell impact, prevent them from knowing where your concentrations are, and know when your force has been spotted and reposition before the hell starts to rain.

If you can withstand the bombardment, or make him waste his shells on empty ground the enemy will exhaust their supplies very quickly, strategic artillery can be effective in team games of 3v3 or more, where one player can dedicate their assets to their artillery, supplies, and the defense of the artillery."