Favorite advanced tips?

[MaxDoge]

Since there's a lot of very experienced players around I'm sure they have a lot of tips and tricks that they discovered during the years

Started playing the Allied Corps campaign with only British units and loving the scenario designs, realized how incredible their Chevy-WB recon unit actually is since it can switch into a standard infantry unit. So what I did was just buy a bunch of them at the start, instead of normal infantry and they serve both purposes. By having more scout units I have a high chance to get the invaluable +1 spotting heroes. The only issue is that the Chewy-WB has only 5 ammo compared to 7 ammo of infantry, and supplying in the desert sucks because it will only get +2 since the game rounds down to half of the ammo. But if you switch to an inf unit before supplying you will have 7/5 ammo on this scout unit (3 on a desert tile) It is the only recon unit that has all-terrain movement in the British army so it's basically an extremely mobile infantry unit with good armor values while scouting. No need to use regular infantry unless you want a specialist like an engineer unit. There is no downside to switching to infantry, the experience bonus to stats changes when switching unit type, so the infantry version will have normal infantry exp bonuses. Not to mention a normal infantry unit costs nearly twice as much with transport compared to the Chevy unit, and it has less armor etc.

[Cerberus51]

The problem with using the LRDG Chevy trucks as your infantry is that they do not upgrade to anything better, unlike a normal infantry unit which will upgrade to the 43 pattern unit in due course. The 43 pattern infantry have a much higher hard attack so are much more effective at engaging enemy tanks in close terrain. You can use several Chevys now and disband those that do not get spotting heroes, the downside is that your infantry will get less experience.

Personally I go with 3 core infantry as the British in Allied Corps, initially regular infantry, then Engineers and finally 43 Engineers. I am a big fan of engineers for their special abilities (improved bunker attack, quick clearing of minefields and, most importantly, ignoring enemy entrenchment - so no rugged defence by some irritating Italian infantry).

The British will also get one infantry as a SE unit. It usually starts as SAS and can be upgraded to a Commando. You can disband it of course in the hope of getting something better but all the other British SE units are fighters. I find it worth keeping that one SE infantry and taking the other 4 as fighters.

In most categories of units there is little choice with the British. For fighter, read Spitfire (always upgrade to the best model available). For tac bomber, read Mosquito. Strat bombers give a little more choice. For my money the Lancaster and the Halifax are both worth considering. The early Stirling has poor stats so I rule it out, although the upgraded Stirling is good, as are the upgraded Lancaster and Halifax.

The big issue with the Brits is tanks. The Firefly is the best tank the British or Americans can field for a considerable period of time (then eventually the Comet - but that is getting rather pricey). Until it comes along the best choice is a Churchill. However it does look a bit boring and unimaginative when you have all Churchills. You might consider playing with a self imposed rule of not more than 3 tanks of any one type. That can be interesting and does increase the challenge.

The other big question is whether to use anti-tank at all. The truck mounted AT you get in the desert are of moderate use but there is no really good late war AT unit available to the Brits. So I don't bother with AT whatsoever, preferring to build an experienced tank force instead.

You asked about tips. The British (like the Americans) have really good strat bombers. They are worth overstrengthing to the max throughout the game (I only use 3 so it is not that expensive). When confronted by a Tiger, just flatten it with a heavy then bring in a Firefly (or similar) and do serious damage so a follow up attack finishes it off. Maximum chance of a kill and minimum damage to your unit.

[huckc]

CTRL + LMB before attacking to get important information not in the basic prediction such as rugged defense chance, suppression damage (retreat/surrender), and enemy counter-attack kill probability.

Counter kill probability for example can be 0% or 49%, a huge difference, and show up as the same -0 in the basic prediction. This can help decide which unit to attack first or to butter them up with artillery/mass-attack bonus to get it as close to 0% as possible.

[goose_2]

Having all of those Recon's/Inf will help tremendously with the 3 S's.

You know the 3 S's right?

Suppress
Surround
Surrender

Suppress a unit with Strat Bombers or artillery
Surround use your units to surround the suppressed unit

Hit the suppressed unit with the smallest amount of push as possible to get the needed Surrender for much needed prestige and bragging rights.

This has been the key to handling Afrika Korps at 25% prestige.

One newer advanced technique/cheat I have found recently is moving my recon to get needed sight of the battlefield and save so you have 1 more move, make that move and press undo. BOOM you can press refuel on your recon as if they made no movement that round. Pretty slick little cheat that does not work if you attack with the recon that turn, but nicely works on all other occasions.

There is so much more I could go into but I have talked about so much of it already, and want to see what other people share.

[faos333]

Having not played the alled version of Afrika Coprs, I can only offer to the fellow player, few things but my experience as playing on the opposite side.

Infantry especially Brits very stubborn to get. Good for investing especially in Paratroopers that can offer some easy wins on far away objectives.

Tanks poor performance do not invest too much.

Artillery ok

Airforce: the basis for building overall map superiorty, especially Mosquitos can deliver lots of damage.

Recon only time I worried was when they attacked from the rear artillery units, rest was easy targets.

Overall, my feeling that allied as a newcomer to this game, are of average performance. I might be wrong of course since I have not played with them. My notes based only as playing vs AI on the other side.

Hope this helps

ps thanks for the 3s clarifications

[Cerberus51]

Not wishing to start an argument with anyone but having played the Allied Corps campaign as the British several times I would stress several issues about the British units.

Tanks are, ultimately, the British strength. The Churchill/Firefly/ Comet upgrade path gives them the best tanks of any Allied army most of the time. I remember my shock when a green Tiger bounced off one of my 3* Churchill IV's at Tunis, taking more damage than it inflicted. Coupled with the excellent strat bombers this is a real killer of the German heavy tanks and SPAT.

Infantry -good for when you need infantry but the German and American units are more powerful.

Artillery - towed is good, particularly the 6" you get early on. Self propelled less so as only medium units, not heavy, are available.

Recon - Chevy is interesting and useful. Armoured cars are pretty good (even with road movement only).

AT - I don't bother so no further comment.

AA - never buy any for my core, usually have more than enough fighters and auxiliary AA.

Bombers - strats are a key unit as I have said. The Beaufighter then the Mosquito are very good as dual role tac bombers. Useful attacking ground units but also capable air to air, certainly good enough to finish off damaged enemy units.

Fighters - Spitfire does not come with much fuel or ammo so needs careful management but is a first class fighter. Tempest is excellent and Meteors own the sky.

A couple of further thoughts about tactics. Allied Corps is really a campaign of two parts. First North Africa, then a transition through Italy to fighting in NW Europe. What is effective early on will need upgrading or replacing for the later scenarios. You get ridiculous amounts of prestige later in this campaign so don't hold back, always buy the best equipment available. The British have the shortest and most efficient upgrade paths of anyone. After Ovrrlord the only significant upgrades are fighters and the Comet tank. So spend it like you stole it.

Always manoeuvre around your artillery. Artillery support is vital in breaking up enemy attacks on your units (a 7.2" gun will even dent a Tiger).

Fighter traps are generally effective. Show the AI a juicy artillery unit and park a fighter one hex back. Very often they will try and bomb the artillery only for your fighter to chop them out of the sky. Even better if you have an AA under the fighter but I don't use much AA as the brits. Conversely, if you are tempted to try and bomb an enemy unit on the edge of your vision, move your unit over the target then click off it. Don't just attack. This will give you sight around the target so you don't walk into enemy fighter traps. You may have to abort an attack and have to deploy a fighter to cover your tac bomber but that is better than an expensive repair or losing a unit.

[MaxDoge]

Some good tips here. I was always a fan of air traps from PG2 days, sometimes could string a chain of 3 of them Noticed the AI in this game loves to target certain units, like Panzerflams or Pioneers. Loved learning the hidden mechanics in PC, learned a lot from Braccada, the game is much deeper. It's a shame that the devs made AA so weak, they only get a decent hit if they are defending something because the enemy planes get a -5 penalty to defense. I feel the planes have too much ground defense, so I don't fear nearby AA as much as I did at the start, because most of them won't hurt too much without this -5 penalty.

Btw in my Allied Corps campaign I'm not sure whether I should use 7.2 inch arty with 70% ROF or 5.5 inch with 90% ROF. For late game I will probably get the biggest guns but not sure they are worth getting too early. I've gotten a nice A3 D3 Crusader mkIII that effectively has 18 hard attack and 13 defense, an absolute monster at this stage. Churchill tanks are insanely tanky but nearly all of the British tanks struggle against soft targets.

[Cerberus51]

Some good tips here. I was always a fan of air traps from PG2 days, sometimes could string a chain of 3 of them Noticed the AI in this game loves to target certain units, like Panzerflams or Pioneers. Loved learning the hidden mechanics in PC, learned a lot from Braccada, the game is much deeper. It's a shame that the devs made AA so weak, they only get a decent hit if they are defending something because the enemy planes get a -5 penalty to defense. I feel the planes have too much ground defense, so I don't fear nearby AA as much as I did at the start, because most of them won't hurt too much without this -5 penalty.

Btw in my Allied Corps campaign I'm not sure whether I should use 7.2 inch arty with 70% ROF or 5.5 inch with 90% ROF. For late game I will probably get the biggest guns but not sure they are worth getting too early. I've gotten a nice A3 D3 Crusader mkIII that effectively has 18 hard attack and 13 defense, an absolute monster at this stage. Churchill tanks are insanely tanky but nearly all of the British tanks struggle against soft targets.

The point of AA is partly defensive but also to take the edge off enemy planes so that your fighters can one shot kill them (or at least a good fighter can reduce them to only a few strength points and a tac fighter bomber finish them off). The AI targets your air units to wear them down to the point where it may be able to swarm one.

With towed artillery I go to 6" asap for 2 units and move to 7.2" during the Italy scenarios as the heavier panzers start to appear. I buy one 5.5" (sometimes just straight to a 7.2") and upgrade after it gets a star or two. With 3 M7 Priests for the mobile element that is my artillery component.

The Churchill III is the way to go after cruisers and Matilda 2's, despite the low soft attack, simply because it takes less damage. Once the Churchill IV appears it is clearly the way to go until the Firefly. I go to 6 tanks pretty quickly. I then add a further 3, Churchill Mk IV's or VI's. (The Mk VII is insanely tough but too slow), later, at around the time my original 6 upgrade to Firefly's. That way the new ones stay alive long enough to gain experience. Eventually the 6 Firefly's become Comets. I may do a further upgrade on the 3 newer Churchills or I may not.

Just for giggles, I run a Churchill Crocodile and an AVRE in NW Europe in addition to my main tank units. They are quite handy in street fighting (the Crocodile offers the attack against soft targets of the Flamm without the fragility).

[MaxDoge]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the British units.

Just remembered a little trick that I like to use with my recon units, to make them effectively scout a much larger area than they should, I've just used it in the First Alamein scenario to see if Rommel AI was trying to flank my defensive positions, which he did but I spotted him in time. Because recon obviously has a unique mechanic that when they spot something at distance they can't undo their move, but they can still move again moving by "sacrificing" 1 move point. So when I'm unsure from which direction the enemy will come or for scouting in general I like to start moving in one direction with my recons and if they don't spot anything I'll cancel the move and move in a different direction, which enables the scout to recon a much larger area than it really should. And the pathing that the unit takes is also very important, if it takes a bit of a scenic route then it can reveal a lot more as well. A bit exploity but it's part of the default game settings, helps to quickly check whether your flanks are safe or not. Obviously, you can do the same with non-recon units but it's less effective, sometimes even necessary unless you want to get ambushed by units or mines. I find the recon units important and their positioning often has to be planned 1 move ahead, kind of like chess, I get them into a position from which they can next turn effectively scout a strong enemy position before retreating back to safety, pushing them carelessly forward will just end up in getting killed, even with arty support behind.

Btw does anyone know the details on how strategic bombers actually work? I always thought they destroy half of the ammo/fuel or something like that but my extremely experienced bombers destroy like 90% of it which is absolutely remarkable. Would love to know the exact calculations on how their suppress mechanics work.

[dalfrede]

Btw does anyone know the details on how strategic bombers actually work? I always thought they destroy half of the ammo/fuel or something like that but my extremely experienced bombers destroy like 90% of it which is absolutely remarkable. Would love to know the exact calculations on how their suppress mechanics work.

Strats use indirect attack, like Art. If you look at 'combat equations' post it give the suppression numbers.
The ammo effects have not been quantified in the forums.

Here is a post with a spreadsheet I made to check out Art and Strats. Both use indirect fire.
I did not do direct fire because if the enemy shots back the calculations becomes much more complicated.
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 55#p704955

[faos333]

Btw does anyone know the details on how strategic bombers actually work? I always thought they destroy half of the ammo/fuel or something like that but my extremely experienced bombers destroy like 90% of it which is absolutely remarkable. Would love to know the exact calculations on how their suppress mechanics work.

Strats use indirect attack, like Art. If you look at 'combat equations' post it give the suppression numbers.
The ammo effects have not been quantified in the forums.

Here is a post with a spreadsheet I made to check out Art and Strats. Both use indirect fire.
I did not do direct fire because if the enemy shots back the calculations becomes much more complicated.
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 55#p704955

thanks !

[ArtyFarty]

Baiting. My favourite trick.

Scout with recon, have 2. Then put two tanks just in visibility range in two different places 3 hexes apart at least so attackers visibility do not spot your trap during first attack, place fighter and aa behind tank if you have.
Then, you might score a double whammy.
You get ambush for the fighter, so the attacking plane, fighter or bomber, gets hit hard. You take a lot away from it for free.
You rarely get damaged yourself. If you have AA as I wrote, and fighter, you more than half the strenght of the attacking unit most of the time, during their turn.

Just love it, when it works, works best at the start of a campaign, when their AF is jumping at the chance to attack you.
It really gives me that warm fuzzy feeling.