Day 1 guide

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    • Day 1 guide

      Hi guys.
      I have played this game for several years now (4x time mostly) and I think I could contribute a bit.

      Why.
      • I think this game is great. It is browser-based, no client (well, except crippled mobile), it has no artificial delays like "build this building, oh my, it will take a week on lvl XXX, if you want it now, pay $". No, no such nonsense.
      • It is deep. It is actually more deeper that you might think when you first start it. It's kinda simulator of what could really happen in a real world.
      • It seems that 80% of players simply don't understand what are they doing.


      Here's a set of advice that can make you into a rookie who probably survives long enough in your first public game to have a little fun, and to decide if you want to play more and learn more.

      Now let's start from the very beginning.
      You are the Player 1. I am your hypothetical foe. Treat me like that until you get bored and quit reading this text and/or playing game.

      So, Player One, you start as nation _put any name here_.
      You have some infantry, recons, one artillery and one fighter. Scattered among your cities. 2-3 in each, arty and fighter in your capital.
      Where would I start ? What should I do ? How the hell did I get into this mess ?

      Part 1

      Ok, let's start.
      Choices.
      • You think you may play 1-2 hours a day ? Quit. I will kill you if I play more. Time is crucial. When you sleep your foes don't. So prepare yourself for a 2-weeks journey. Sometimes this game becomes realtime and I mean it.
      • You chose Korea (North or South) ? Choose another game. Why ? You have only 4 cities while all others have at least 5. Big countries have 10 or 11. You have no room to expand except into your human neighbors. Quit. Forget it.
      • You were lucky to pick a big nation. Like Russia, US, Canada, Brazil or so. You finally got yourself 10 cities. Quit. You won't be able to handle it. Trust me.
      • You're a land-locked nation, i.e. you have no shore city with naval base ? Quit. You may struggle but for the beginners game without navy is pain. Trust me again.
      For your first game you could select some small or medium nation with at least 5, better 6 cities, sea access and preferably not in the middle of the continent. Possible choices: Venezuela, Philippines, Japan, Mexico

      Advice: Try to figure out if there are any bots around you. They are your first source of resources, i.e. power. Easy to take, easy to hold. The more the better. But you may not be the only one who wants to get them.

      Now when you chose your country the game actually begins. What would be your fist move ? This is very important. Your first hour may shape up the whole game.
      You look at your available resources and see that there's like tons of them. Main point is to use them wisely. Throughout the game - do not research things you don't need. Resources and time are always limited.
      So what should you do ? Attack ? Build ? Wrong. Research.

      Let's take a look at research options from left to right.
      Day 1 you have quite limited research slots available and your first choice must be infantry. Why ?
      • It is researched instantly.
      • Infantry is one of few units that actually can conquer (others available day 1 are National guard and Airmobiles but these we'll discuss later). Infantry is the main tool to conquer. You may build 100 tanks or AFVs but at some point you suddenly discover that they fight well but they don't get land. Oh my.
      • Infantry is one of few day 1 unit that can be airlifted, i.e. transported between airbases. Thit is the key point actually. You gain MOBILITY you can't get with virtually any other unit upto lvl 4. And it is the cheapest one.


      So infantry is being researched and you have second research slot and still a lot of resources. What would you pick ?

      Recon. Maybe. Pros: stronger than infantry, can be airlifted, can see exact army composition, instant research. Contras: More expensive, can't take land. On higher levels infantry is better. You have 2 of them, so you can test.

      Armor. Useless. For many reasons. Can't be airlifted, vulnerable in cities, can't take land. 0 defense vs planes.

      Arty. No. Day 1 options are towed arty (and you already have one) and barreled AA. First is very slow and weak (go test it yourself). Second is good against helos and sometimes infantry. Some people build their strategy around it. Never seen them among winners. Moreover, much better units are MRLS, but they are not available day 1.

      Helicopters. Well, maybe. Maybe not. They are good in the early game, useless later on. They have 0 defense against planes, very short range, slow.

      Planes. Most people, myself included chose fighter. And that's wrong. It is very good for scouting. Research is instant. Fighter can engage airborne targets only. It is virtually useless against ground/naval targets. One can always defeat fighters with strike planes. I will not explain how, just one point: planes must land after attack. Figure out the rest yourself. So I'd better wait for one day and start researching strike jets instead.

      Heavies. Not day 1. Period. Too expensive and require airbase lvl 3. You'll get it next week at best.

      Navy. Corvette is a must have. If you build corvette and simply park it in your shipyard I won't be able to land in this city and all my land units will die trying. You won't build many, 1, maybe 2 of them, but they can really save you in the early game. Also corvette opens other ships so you'll have to research it anyway.

      Submarines. Require naval base lvl 3. Not day 1.

      Officers. Maybe. But not day 1. In my opinion the only officer that deserves researching/building is the Experienced Captain. With him you actually get Cruiser with naval base lvl 2 (cruiser requires lvl 4).

      Missiles. Not day 1

      So day one most obvious research choices are: Infantry and Corvette. But it's up to you of course.

      Remember, day 1 you pick tech tree you would develop for the whole game. So if your choice is wrong, you will lose time and resources and will not be able to win the tech race.

      Now when we have infantry researched we should get them. Build army bases. In every city. As soon as bases are built start building infantry. In every city again. These will form your second wave.

      Okay, so you made your choices, set up research and your army is building up. Can you finally go and kick some ass ? No.
      At this point people rush forward to kill someone and get those precious resources. These people quit on day 5 or even earlier usually. They forget about another crucial element of the game. INDUSTRY.
      Industry is really a key for winning this game. You can distinguish good players - they always have industry built and levelled up. Every day. Day 1 you should start building industry in cities with Rares and Supplies. This will fuel your research. You can also start Components and Electronics (both are used for planes and ships mainly).

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Drony77 ().

    • Part 2

      We're almost packed and ready to go. Just one more thing. COMMUNICATION. This element is very, very important. Very few people can win this game alone (well, not using gold, of course). So raise your head from your construction yards and look around. Who are your neighbors ? What is their level ? What are they building ? Try to determine if they are good players or not. Talk to them. Be polite.
      You may join coalition, but be smart. Never join coalition that is far from you. It is useless. Day 1 your allies will not help you, they will have their own problems. Coalition at this time only guarantees that your ally will not attack you.
      Example. I am Afghanistan, you are Pakistan. I joined coalition with Brazil. You joined India. You have your back covered and the only one who can attack you is me. I, in turn, can be attacked by you and Iran. So would I attack you day one ? If I had any brain, I won't. As soon as I cross your border, I will be invaded by Iran (if he's smart of course), will fight on two fronts and will die in 2 days. My ally is on other continent and is unable to help me in any way.
      Coalitions tend to dismantle pretty often. Joining good coalition is halfway to victory.

      So, finally it's time to kick some ass. Let's talk battle mechanics.
      First rule: DEFENDER ALWAYS HAS ADVANTAGE. Look at your infantry stats. Offense 3.0, Defense 3.8. What does it mean ?
      Example. I attack your 1 infantry vs 1 infantry, in the plains province. Your unit is standing still, mine approaches and attacks you. The battle will take several hours and attack is performed every hour. So during my first attack I inflict 3.0 damage to your infantry. Your infantry inflicts 3.8 because it is defending. Both units have 15 HP. After 4 hours of battle my unit is destroyed, your unit is damaged but alive with 3 HP left.
      Now let's put your unit into center of the same plains province. Here it gets entrenchment defense bonus (25%). So he'll take less damage and in the end will be healthier.
      Now we'll move your unit into the city. It is entrenched, plus it has city defensive bonus - another 25%.
      You can check where your unit fights best in the unit stats.
      Cities and infantry literally made for each other. Moreover, cities are the main source of manpower and resources. Provinces actually do not deserve defending, you can easily take them back later when you defeat your opponents. You home cities must be protected at all cost. If you lose your capital in the early game - you're basically done.

      So whom should you attack first ? If you attack player, you may win, but may lose too. I suggest attacking bots first. Think a little before you go.
      Example. You are Venezuela. You have 2 bots East of you and 5 bots on the islands. You have no allies. You can be attacked by Colombia from the West. You may be attacked by Brazil as well, but it is unlikely: his closest city is far and he have to cross jungles to reach you. So first thing: establish garrisons of at least 3 units in your two cities facing Colombia. Always have some troops in your capital, more on this later.
      Which bot to pick ? Cuba most likely will go to Kingston and Port-au-Prince. Brazil will go for Paramaraibo. So your best choices are Georgetown, Santo Domingo and San Juan. Port of Spain is an option too, but it has no resources and may be taken later. All cities are accessible by sea which gives you advantage - infantry speed on water is always 1.3 (shallow) - 2.5 (deep). While on terrain its never more than 1.0 and in this case it's much, much worse (jungles).
      Bot cities usually have 2 infantry inside. If you form a 5 unit stack (1 recon plus 4 infantry) you will take the bot city and all your units will survive. And this is important. Wounded units can be healed at no cost in any city. If you manage to take bot without losses (which can easily be done), you're good. ALWAYS STACK YOUR UNITS.

      The city is taken. What next ?
      City morale is at 25% (and a smoke column) which means insurgents can spawn here. NEVER LEAVE CAPTURED CITY UNPROTECTED.
      Example.
      You have 2 lvl 1 infantry in the city. Insurgent spawns. Your infantry is defending (with 50% bonus, see above). In 1-2 hours insurgent is dead, your units are lightly wounded.
      Opposite: insurgent spawns in the empty city. First, you immediately lose all its income and morale drops back to 25%. You have to take it back. You move same 2 infantry and attack the city. You will lose, because insurgent is now defending with all bonuses, not you. You gather more troops and capture it eventually, but all this time city did not bring resources and you still have to guard it for another 2 days.
      When city is just captured, leave 2 units in it and take surrounding provinces with another 1 or 2 units. This will speed up morale recovery. In 2 days morale will raise up to 34-35%, smoke column disappears and only at this time the city is safe to be left unprotected.
      When your infantry reaches lvl 3, 1 unit is enough to guard a city.

      Healing.
      Units are healed in your cities. 1 HP per day. But this can be accelerated. Build hospital. One. In the city with airport - day 1 it is your capital. Level the hospital up. At lvl 3 it will heal 4 HP per day. Each unit is healed individually.
      Example. You have 3 wounded infantry in the city with hospital lvl 3. Since it's stacked its cumulative HP would be say 32. In one day each unit will recieve +4 HP so tomorrow this stack would have 44 HP.
      It works even better with planes, because their HP in the air are greater than on the ground. Check on your fighter )
      And, as a bonus: since you return wounded units back to your capital, it always has some protection.

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Drony77 ().

    • I think it's a little bit limitative to only encompass day 1.

      I will not elaborate on how much i disagree with 70% of the part 1, and 50% of the part 2, i'm shellshocked.

      You know, this impression that somehow, we didn't play the same game at all, and i'm left in a spiral of self-doubt about "is it what someone that played for years reaches as conclusions pertaining to the game ?"

      I'll let anyone who is willing to follow this path, well, follow it. I'm ready to acknowledge that i'm a noob and all i think to know is wrong.
      Running an online alliance is pretty much like running a small company, except you need to find other way than money to keep your employees productive. May they play or work, they are humans.
    • Could you please point me to the good guide that covers initial deployment ? Or maybe you could share your valuable knowledge and tell how you play day one ?
      If you do, I will immediately delete this "genuinely terrible" thread that makes you, pros, so sad and shellshocked.

      Again, I tried to explain new people what they can do day one to stay afloat and get deeper into the game. I'm tired of noobs rushing me 1 unit a time with absolutely no understanding what they do.
    • Resarch based on what fits your longterm plan. If just planning on day 1 your doomed.

      I go with a fairly narrow stack to begin with than try best to keep up with depth of research as soon as that level is unlocked on day X.

      About only thing agree with is yes research Inf. I also research and produce NG to defend / hold cities (don't ever use to attack.)

      And you do realize you can combine armor with 1 Inf/NG and take territory. The fact you don't realize that you can combine different units which is actually crucial; is alarming.

      So I start researching SF (when unlocked); Inf; NG; lately becoming fan of Anti Tank (fast ; relative cheap builds) and no supplies which you need a lot of for Inf and research. Yes you have to research corvette to get to bugger ships; but build Frigs and Naval Officer. With proper naval tactics a 4 highly researched Frigs/ 1 Officer is formidable and Ive taken out many destroyer and even cruiser stacks as will have a second 5 stack of frigs near by and even a cruiser lead stack can only attack one stack at a time. I'm usually near coast clearing way for invasion and Frigs provide aircover for troops landing and don't get into locked down stack via stack battles and try to avoid open sea battles. So Destroyers good in open sea but limited air defense and if getting over powered by ships I have my SF near by to chip away. Opponents cant come into battle with their SF as 9 or 10 frigs near by will eat planes up for breakfast. My fast / mobile AA. (yes weakness away from coast) but generally if opponent has boat load of planes I make them come to me and fight on my terms. One game this dude must have been foolish and had like 10 planes split as in one sequence 10 ships fired full AA and took down his whole airforce in one volley. Never even saw them coming as in enemy territory but when looked at Newsfeed was like holy F&ck I didn't think possible to kill 10 planes at once.

      Current USA map I have so many kills via SF its not even funny as no one build any Air or AA. Love seeing Troop fatalities ... country X 15,000 -- Me like 500.

      As game progresses will get on Missiles (SF with CM a good combination as hit armor with CM to save wear and tear on SF). Also build a level 5 Hospital and capital to send back dinged up SFs. Fly back 5 SF at 6 HP healing its like getting a free plan built.

      Once set with my base set. Ill scope out what I feel biggest threats are and see what they have and build accordingly to counter them down the road. ex... If see a country also big on SF will build backup fleet of ASF to take them out. I dont want to get into an even match of my SF against his. And I usually have my SF researched to max and by level 6 decent in dog fights against lower tier planes.

      Luxury items ... Ballistic Sub with conventional BM. Don't do mobile launchers or ICBMs. Park the sub in strategic "safe" spot. And great for taking out enemy homeland cities to cripple production or use for defense if I think I may get over run in enemy territory. By this time I am generally fighting multiple fronts and will have Sub ideally able to launch at both fronts. I save it as a rainy day thing to surprise big threats and break glass only when needed.

      Late in game when have so many resources you can spend fast enough will research and experiment with new toys.
      "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him "

      aka ...The killer formerly known as BuckeyeChamp
    • Buckeyechamp wrote:

      The fact you don't realize that you can combine different units which is actually crucial; is alarming.
      Okay now I see the point.
      You think I don't know how to play the game which may be true of course.
      But do you really think that high matters like combining DDs with CAs, ballistic subs and ICBMs are the things that new players have any idea of ? They build army base at most (some don't even bother), rush forward, die, "this is unfair", quit.
      Do you really think that anyone who just started the game will read pages and pages of detailed description of combined warfare or terrain advantage ?
      What I want is to attract their interest so they survive day one, and maybe a bit longer. They will see things for themselves, they will start to search for information, play better etc.
      But you simply can't explain them all in one post or it will take month just to read.

      And again, if there is a good guide for new players, please give me a link. If it exists, indeed, I might have done useless job but I've never seen one so far.

      P.S. There are different strategies involving different units but I think that arguing on one's strategy is off this topic.
    • Drony77 wrote:

      Buckeyechamp wrote:

      P.S. There are different strategies involving different units but I think that arguing on one's strategy is off this topic.

      Yes I agree with this. my bad.

      But some Newb might take a guide as gospel instead of ones opinion; which we all have our own styles that work for us as you said. I guess my point is day 1 depends on your longterm strategy and sets the stage. If users dont have a strategy then yeah not going to end well.

      My first win I didnt have a clue really (second game after I was one of those quiting guys as started the game without reading anything). But second game I was part of experienced coalition and learned from them and even though I was a green private I actually had enough VPs as #1 player that could have left coalition and got solo victory. As almost did as our coaltion leader was a cranky old vet and our whole coalition did not get along but we fought well together and all our territories were so inter twined it made leaving impossible.

      He was the one that demonstrated the use of strike fighters (he basically was airforce; one dude navy guy; one guy was a Nuke em guy; I figured out heck build a balanced force (which to me is key in longterm). Leader got mad as he was playing this super long strategy game preparing for this huge counter attack that never came. As I was Pedal to the Medal and learned a fast/ aggressive game early is best... take the fight to them and dont wait to get attacked.
      "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him "

      aka ...The killer formerly known as BuckeyeChamp
    • Indeed, it's not good to passively wait for "something to be ready". Everything must be part of the offensive momentum. I mean, in the hypothesis of a turtle that would be very good against strike fighters, you still lose against strike fighters, even if you do a excellent K/D ---> Missing on the growth curve for industry and economy defeats the purpose of doing a good build, if one sacrifices the other.

      Hopefully, people with a brain tend to learn pretty quickly that one is not contradictory to the other. You can deploy good builds while being on the move.
      Running an online alliance is pretty much like running a small company, except you need to find other way than money to keep your employees productive. May they play or work, they are humans.
    • Drony77 wrote:

      Okay now I see the point.. . .


      And again, if there is a good guide for new players, please give me a link. If it exists, indeed, I might have done useless job but I've never seen one so far.
      Drony77,

      You're on point when you bemoan the lack of a public-game, brand-new player, Day 1, 2, 3 User's Guide. What does exist is better than nothing ("Thank you "to whoever created it), but there is room for it to improve.

      I think some of the criticisms here are on point when they disagree with some of your public game, brand-new player, Day 1 advice. That's my opinion

      I also think some of the criticisms above are a little off target (not a lot, but a little). I think that occurred because you didn't describe your goal clearly enough.

      If your opening paragraph had said, "Here's a set of advice that can make you into a rookie who probably survives long enough in your first public game to have a little fun, and to decide if you want to play more and learn more.", then I think this thread would contain less criticism.

      My suggestions:
      • Scrap 90% of section 2 - There really are some big mistakes and/or controversial opinions in it. Come back to those subjects after nailing down the section 1 material.
      • Do a rewrite to produce something more along the lines of listing starting resources, and then listing actions to take (build some units, build some buildings, move some units, maybe pick a fight with an NPC or a slacker neighbor). Write waaaaay less about A vs B vs C vs D tradeoffs. Instead, write a script for the player to follow for the first 48? (maybe 72?) hours of their first game.
      • Then ask for help from the forum, and take a step back.
        • Ask for several someones to improve your core script (don't ask for grand-strategy theories and discussion - you want specific, first 48 hours actions to take)
        • Ask for the several someones to specialize the core script for a Naval emphasis, an Air emphasis, a Ground/MLRS emphasis, etc.
        • Maybe ask for people to produce both a 5-city and 6-city version of anything they contribute
      • Then take a look at the results.
        • Find the areas where everyone is agreeing,
        • Find the area where people are disagreeing about how to accomplish the same (first 48? hours) goal
        • Find the areas where people have done well at describing way to adjust the core script to match different goals (Navy, Air, Ground, 5- vs 6-city, etc.)
      • Try to organize the chaos (find the patterns that emerge) to produce a set of core instructions, and a handful of options that line up with different goals
        • Again, stay away from the grand-strategies, nuanced tactics, and the A vs B vs C vs D prose (it's a both a black hole, and not very useful for someone who is test-driving their very first game).
        • Just list (don't describe them, list them) the core/basic steps to carry out.
      Good luck - I'll try to lend a hand.

      My guess is that your most difficult task will be keeping contributors focused on supplying simple instructions (not complex advice about trade-offs), for a first-time user, in a public game.

      KFG

      PS: Players who read the result(s) will deviate in a zillion ways from the basic advice. Don't try to describe all the consequences of deviating. I think you can leave it up to them to decide when and why to deviate. That's part of the fun. Let them learn for themselves.

      The post was edited 7 times, last by KFGauss ().

    • Drony77 wrote:

      Could you please point me to the good guide that covers initial deployment ? Or maybe you could share your valuable knowledge and tell how you play day one ?
      If you do, I will immediately delete this "genuinely terrible" thread that makes you, pros, so sad and shellshocked.

      Again, I tried to explain new people what they can do day one to stay afloat and get deeper into the game. I'm tired of noobs rushing me 1 unit a time with absolutely no understanding what they do.
      Eh there exist some guides for early gameplay, tho they're usually more generalized advice then the "do what i do your quit the game"
      this thread immediatly comes to mind for example: BEGINNERS GUIDE TO NOT SUCKING & BEING A PAIN IN THE ASS OF YOUR COALITION
      there is also the offical con tutorial (lmao)
      i think there are a couple more floating around in the discord, but in general really any guide posted on the forum just gets buried after a while
      Yours is terrible tho cuz
      Part 1 the first half pretty much comes down to "don't do x or you might as well just quit", not offering any insight or advice regarding that situation ... "just quit" very advice, much wow
      the second half of Part 1 is mostly useless because it mostly doesn't contribute to day 1 stuff

      Drony77 wrote:

      Missiles. Not day 1
      no shit sherlock, really just wasted space with stuff like that, could've instead elaborated more on pros/cons of the units that can be researched day 1
      list of stuff that can be researched day 1:
      - motorized infantry
      - airborne infantry
      - mechanized infantry
      - national guard
      - combat recon vehicle
      - main battle tank

      - tank destroyer
      - towed artillery
      - mobile anti air
      - heli gunship
      - air superiority fighter
      - strike fighter
      - uav
      - corvette
      - attack submarine
      - guided missile program
      - bunch of officers
      - technically elite attack heli
      the units marked with blue only require like 30 minutes research making all of them solid choices for day 1 research, in addition they also have really low building requirements. The other units on the list have research that can be started on day 1, but isn't quite as fast (ofc depending on doctrine the unlock for the research might change, that stuff is underlined). It's also worth mentioning that day 1-2 probably still day 3, recon vehicles and mobile anti air really do shine in combat, simply because they are the only armored units that early. (also not really a friend of the classic "build army bases and then infantry in every city")
      But by far the biggest flaw in your assessment is the hyperfocus on "day 1" cuz as Opulon already said, its a pretty limitative situation to look at.
      Part 1 TLDR: "Do as I say or quit", which really just sucks in terms of advice

      Now about Part 2:
      The part about coalitions and stuff is pretty okay

      now about the mechanics part:

      Drony77 wrote:

      So, finally it's time to kick some ass. Let's talk battle mechanics.
      First rule: DEFENDER ALWAYS HAS ADVANTAGE. Look at your infantry stats. Offense 3.0, Defense 3.8. What does it mean ?
      Example. I attack your 1 infantry vs 1 infantry, in the plains province. Your unit is standing still, mine approaches and attacks you. The battle will take several hours and attack is performed every hour. So during my first attack I inflict 3.0 damage to your infantry. Your infantry inflicts 3.8 because it is defending. Both units have 15 HP. After 4 hours of battle my unit is destroyed, your unit is damaged but alive with 3 HP left.
      Now let's put your unit into center of the same plains province. Here it gets entrenchment defense bonus (25%). So he'll kill my unit sooner and in the end will be healthier.
      Now we'll move your unit into the city. It is entrenched, plus it has city defensive bonus - another 25%, 50% in total.
      You can check where your unit fights best in the unit stats.
      Cities and infantry literally made for each other. Moreover, cities are the main source of manpower and resources. Provinces actually do not deserve defending, you can easily take them back later when you defeat your opponents. You home cities must be protected at all cost. If you lose your capital in the early game - you're basically done.
      It's one hell of a mess; con wiki even has a section on how engagements works and it pretty much directly contradicts you, not really gonna go into detail there, just read the wiki article
      wiki.conflictnations.com/Combat#Combat_Mechanics
      about entrenchment: you're wrong on a fundamental level, the bonus from terrain and from entrenchment are two completely different things
      the terrain bonus does increase/decrease the dmg of a unit, but entrenchment does not affect the dmg your unit does at all that is because entrenchment is damage reduction, standing in the center of any city/province gives a 25% reduction to any damage recieved (bunkers/outposts ofc increase the dmg reduction) so you really can't just add up the 25% def bonus and the 25% entrenchment and call it a 50% bonus lmao



      Drony77 wrote:

      So whom should you attack first ? If you attack player, you may win, but may lose too. I suggest attacking bots first. Think a little before you go.
      Example. You are Venezuela. You have 2 bots East of you and 5 bots on the islands. You have no allies. You can be attacked by Colombia from the West. You may be attacked by Brazil as well, but it is unlikely: his closest city is far and he have to cross jungles to reach you. So first thing: establish garrisons of at least 3 units in your two cities facing Colombia. Always have some troops in your capital, more on this later.
      Which bot to pick ? Cuba most likely will go to Kingston and Port-au-Prince. Brazil will go for Paramaraibo. So your best choices are Georgetown, Santo Domingo and San Juan. Port of Spain is an option too, but it has no resources and may be taken later. All cities are accessible by sea which gives you advantage - infantry speed on water is always 1.3 (shallow) - 2.5 (deep). While on terrain its never more than 1.0 and in this case it's much, much worse (jungles).
      Bot cities usually have 2 infantry inside. If you form a 5 unit stack (1 recon plus 4 infantry) you will take the bot city and all your units will survive. And this is important. Wounded units can be healed at no cost in any city. If you manage to take bot without losses (which can easily be done), you're good. ALWAYS STACK YOUR UNITS.
      Going for AI first or not is pretty much a debate as old as con itself, tho in general its worth keeping in mind that every unit busy with AI is a unit that you is essentially tied up for a couple of days to keep the city


      Drony77 wrote:

      If this post gets 100+ likes I can write another reg some game mechanics and tips
      lmao not happening
      I am The Baseline for opinions
    • Teburu wrote:

      This is genuinely terrible.
      This is the absolute worst: "Corvette is a must have. If you build corvette and simply park it in your shipyard I won't be able to land in this city and all my land units will die trying."
      *** The Creator of Zombie Farming ***
      The KING of CoN News!!!
      The "Get off my lawn!" cranky CoN Forums Poster - not affiliated with Dorado in any way


      "Death comes to us all. Shall I deal you in?" - DoD
    • Corvette can be research day 1 yes, but it takes you about 1 day to get the required buildings for it :D

      ASF is always a good pick for early, takes you half a day for the AI 1 but they are most versatile unit

      if you have 6 cities with 2 supply best to go for motorized infantry
      if you have 5 or more but only 1 supply city better go with recon, they are better for offense, spaming only infantry would put you in a serious supply imbalance and hinder further researching

      As Teburu already pointed out, most units are not even researchable on day 1 (except on apocalypse maps) so no point even considering

      You could consider day 2 researches, if you want to safe up resources for it though

      Saying choppers are not worth it, because they are weak to ASF is a stupid arguement, every air unit except of stealth units and ASF themselves is weak to ASF
      Just ask @Opulon how much this 'weakness' matters if you know how to play choppers :D
    • Kalrakh wrote:

      Opulon wrote:

      I won, but still, i was terrified :D
      But because of other reasons though *cough*
      The choppers also helped you win the challenge with PK :D
      It allowed me to demonstrate to Nelva that "in theory", a pure ASF build could allow to spare on Mobile Anti-Air.
      However, i also added that the sheer tensions and the odds that the air player would "fuck up" at some point, making a bad call, of yielding to pressure and taking a SAM hit, made it... counter productive.

      The f***** helis invisible on their side of the border, with no awacs T2 at that point, and the knoweldge that if you approach too much with the ASF, you'll get evaporated by the SAM, before your ground troops get evaporated by the choppers.

      I think that since that time, the meta in challenge has evolved a bit, mostly because people are more aware of their incredible "kamikaze" power, but they of course remain a sight to worry
      Running an online alliance is pretty much like running a small company, except you need to find other way than money to keep your employees productive. May they play or work, they are humans.
    • Okay gentlemen, thanks to everyone for the input.

      So all in all here's what I get from it.
      There's no guide for beginners. This one is terrible. Must be improved. Or deleted.

      But you know, I'm not paid for it so my job ends here. If it's not needed it will "bury itself deeper into the forum". So be it.

      My personal thanks to Teburu. Your sarcastic comments are invaluable example of what is usually called a toxic community. "Sucks", "no shit". You know it's a very productive way to talk to people. And simply shows your intellectual and social level.

      KFGauss, I do really thank you for your ideas and help offer, but I have neither time nor desire to do anything else here. If you want to improve, you can use any portion of this text. The only thing I will change is your absolutely correct note reg purpose of this guide. This part I will rework.

      Thanks again,
      Bye
    • Drony77 wrote:

      Okay gentlemen, thanks to everyone for the input.

      So all in all here's what I get from it.
      There's no guide for beginners. This one is terrible. Must be improved. Or deleted.

      But you know, I'm not paid for it so my job ends here. If it's not needed it will "bury itself deeper into the forum". So be it.

      My personal thanks to Teburu. Your sarcastic comments are invaluable example of what is usually called a toxic community. "Sucks", "no shit". You know it's a very productive way to talk to people. And simply shows your intellectual and social level.

      KFGauss, I do really thank you for your ideas and help offer, but I have neither time nor desire to do anything else here. If you want to improve, you can use any portion of this text. The only thing I will change is your absolutely correct note reg purpose of this guide. This part I will rework.

      Thanks again,
      Bye
      Dude, chill, no one wants you to go away, and you can't take this shit personally. No one is saying YOU suck, and your motivation behind this was laudable. It just needs work.
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