My take on the game

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    • My take on the game

      (I wont be able to finish this today. Will post it anyways. Will be a work in progress)

      Hello all,

      like the title says, i want to share what my take on the game is. This is meant for beginners and advanced players. Feel free to answer in this thread if you want to add things i forgot after i finished. Ill cite it with credits to you :)
      One last thing before i start, dont be to harsh on my English. I am a german and didnt write in anything but german for around 10 years now. Doing my best :)

      I will adress my take on economics, military tactics and units. Additionally i'll adress the techtree in a superficial manner.
      I will NOT talk about timeframes. Mainly because i dont have one myself after the first 10 days or so. Totally dependent on map, country played and the enemies...
      I am not using money, so i dont know a thing about elite units. Obviously, i wont talk about them then. This guide is assuming you do not use gold.
      This is meant for open maps without a lvl cap. As i am writing more, i am increasingly convinced this guide is pretty good for open games. I am also increasingly convinced it would not work nearly as well on maps with denser concentrations of decent players.

      Please note again: This is my personal opinion, it is not the one and only way to play the game. There are other setups that will work just fine, or way better than this one.

      Lets start with some general things. You will never win if you dont respect this:

      1. This game is about Ressources. You will NEVER have enough. Arms industry in your homecountry cities is the fastest way to ramp up production. Max them out fast.
      2. Its also about troops, they are expensive and production takes FOREVER. Do your best to conserve them.
      3. Mainly using ground Melee troops is a BIG no in my opinion. They always take damage, you cannot conserve them. And you will find out how fast planes and copters are in comparison in a painful way.
      4. There is no real way around a fleet. Especially if you are adjacent to the ocean. If you are not, you have some things to compensate for mid and late game.
      5. If you did not earn a winning percentage of at least 50 %, dont try to win anything but flashpoint alone. Join a coalition. If you join one, look up the members' players information before.There are some stats there indicating decent players you'd want to join.
      - K/D (Kill/Death) ratio against live players (credits to "The Pale Rider".), provinces conquered per game (credits to "kurtvonstein"), ratio provinces conquered vs. provinces lost and winning percentage. If you look at those as a whole, you should be able to get a good idea about anybody.
      6. When you start a new map, choose a country with enough cities to produce every ressource. You are destined to lose otherwise. Period. The developer team really did not do us players a favor with that last update..
      7. Read. The. Newspaper. I cannot express just how important this one is. If i could, i would let this point shine like a neon sign. The newspaper tells you who fights whom, what units they use, who is developing chemical or nuclear warheads. You can read about literally EVERYTHING that happens on the whole map there. For example: Search the strongest player (if thats not you ;) ) and inform yourself (for free! On a silver platter!): What units does he use? Focus on rockets, navy, air force? How many? Where? I am regularly granting myself weeks of preparation time, resulting in many opportunities to hardcounter my enemies' units.

      Economics:

      "Base of your military strength"

      Like i said, max out every arms industry in your homecountry. You NEED ressources. There will always be kinds of ressources you are especially short of. In my case electronics..all the time. Max out in the cities producing those first. I would also recommend to build an airport there. It provides another little bonus. Everything counts :)
      You may also want to annex a city or two midgame to ramp up ressource production where you need it. Mechanics behind it: A conquered cities ress production falls to 25% compared to "normal". Annexing a city gives you another 25 %. Building arms industry there after annexing will yield even more. You can also produce troops there after annexing. Its expensive, so choose a city unreachable by ships. Safer for the big investment you make.

      Build local industries, but only in provinces where ressources are produced. Its only boosting ressource production, not manpower or money production. You can see where ressources are produced by looking at the map and clicking on the provinces with ressource pictures in them.
      Use the market to buy ress, especially in early game its better to develop faster. I am regularly sweeping the market clean. Never sell your own ress in the first 15 days though, it hampers your development. Selling ress early is like taking an arrow to the knee... fus ro dah! its pretty dumb to give up ress if you have enough money. Thankfully, there are always people who do it anyways. Buy ress, but dont go bankrupt either. Money is needed for everything you build or produce, you have to find a balance. Im doing well with always having around 20 - 25k in stock.

      Recruiting offices are needed because they generate more manpower and are a condition to produce officers. Also the only building you need to produce National Guard. By the way, they also cut those insane production times down. I recommend to build at least one in a coastal city and one in a city with an airport. Thats if you dont build them everywhere anyways.

      This should outline my basic rules for Economy. Ill continue with my opinion on units.

      The post was edited 11 times, last by Aican ().

    • Military Units:

      Infantry:



      You will always need Infantry to take and hold cities and provinces. Infantry is the only unit type capable of this. No Way around it.



      My MVP's: Motorized Infantry and National Guard. I dont really use the latter myself, but they can be great.

      Motorized Infantry ist cheap, needs very little infrastructure to be produced. Additionally, they are granted a ranged attack at LVL.6 i think. This means you can start to conserve them too at this point.



      "Why do you ignore Airmobile, Mechanized, Naval and Special Infantry?"



      Thanks for asking. Firstly, its a Ressource Management thing. Normal Infantry and National Guard cost no electronics and a manageable amount of components to produce.

      In the recruitment window you will see the following: Airmobile, Mechanized, Naval and Special Infantry do cost way more in components, electronics, or both. Those are Ress you desperately need for Air Force and Navy, so i think its a waste to use them on Infantry.

      Another reason is the infrastructure you need. For Motorized Infantry you only need Army Base 1, for National Guard you only need Recruitment Office 1. Thats pretty neat, you can start producing after 2 - 30 mins in the game if you want.

      In comparison: Naval Infantry. I would LOVE to be able to use them regularly, im super excited about their feature of being able to make landfall literally everywhere, without needing a port. But, Army Base 2, Naval Base 2 and Recruiting Office 1 is needed. Thats 2 days delay by building time alone. They are also pretty expensive components wise. Not to mention, if you recruit them they block a place for ship production. Just not worth it IMO. The other Three types of Infantry got similar problems in my eyes.

      They definitely have their uses, but normally not worth investing in.



      Armored:



      I ignore those completely to be honest. Where do i start. To slow, to expensive, sitting ducks if en route somewhere. Perfect targets for missiles. Depending on the terrain they are going through, they become even slower. You cannot conserve them because of the melee fighting style. I hate them. [b]If i see you using them on a large scale, i know you are very likely to be no threat. Only thing i see some worth in are Combat Recon Vehicles, especially early game. Dont need extra infrastructure for them, the scouting part is cool and they rip infantry apart.[/b]



      Support:



      Very juicy topic. You will want SAMs for passive defense, because strike fighters are relatively broadly used. Tip: Develop them to LVL2 to increase their range drastically.

      You will also want Theatre Defense, because nothing hurts like investing 45 days into a map. Then your enemy nukes your core cities, congrats, you lost. Normally you need this one in late game, around day 35 at the earliest. If you are unlucky and someone uses gold, they can fly as early as day 7 - 10. Got a map like this right now...



      I dont use towed/ mobile Artillery or MRLS. They can be great, i know that. You can conserve them because of ranged attack, get even more range in Mountain Terrain and you mostly dont even need components for them. Another setup to play the game. Never focused on them, but i think it would probably work.



      Radars are pretty useful, especially if you develop their range somewhat. Personally, i am unable to fit them into my research calendar until my homecountry is a fortress anyways.



      Lastly Mobile Anti Air. As a player having a warm feeling by seeing big copter fleets i can tell you this much: They dont do their job. If someone tries to counter you with them, (because they are intended mainly against copters) use a stack of attack copters and the patrol function to stay as far away as you can. Tadah, you win the war of attrition. Needs rework in my opinion. Shouldnt be so manageable to grind something down with a unit it is supposed to hardcounter. MAA should get another small to moderate attack buff against copters, tilting the scale in their direction somewhat.



      Generally for support units: In my opinion, SAM's and Theatre defense are compulsory. Everything else depends on your enemies. Read the newspaper.

      Ill continue the next time i feel like it :)

      The post was edited 5 times, last by Aican ().

    • thx @kurtvonstein . Though about your comment regarding winning percentage and provinces conquered. I think you are right, provinces conquered is 100% work of the player you are looking up. No opportunity to ride shotgun, should be the main criteria, with winning percentage giving you another hint. I will change my post accordingly, thx for the input.

      ill share my opinion on golders and spies while talking about tactics. Will need a little time to get there. With golders, i will only talk about how i deal with them.

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

    • Aican wrote:

      thx @kurtvonstein . Though about your comment regarding winning percentage and provinces conquered. I think you are right, provinces conquered is 100% work of the player you are looking up. No opportunity to ride shotgun, should be the main criteria, with winning percentage giving you another hint. I will change my post accordingly, thx for the input.

      ill share my opinion on golders and spies while talking about tactics. Will need a little time to get there.
      K:D ratio against live players biggest indicator.

      Anyone can (well should) smoke AI and take AI Prov; but performance vs live opponents cant be faked. I also look at ratios in Navy (requires most skill / strategy); 2nd Fighters. If very few navy / air kills than indicates a ground stacker who wins through attrition; which could result in high prov ratio but take forever and not ideal. This hurts in long game as they may keep trucking but day 30 really havnt grown their military capability; which doesnt help me when/if we get in big coal war so I have to do 90 pct of the work.

      Scenarios:

      1. High ranked players live on Rep and just vulture areas without actually killing active opponents.
      2. Players who wait till 70 pct of world inactive than fights AI.

      I had a 110 lvl partner with 60 wins who sucked as he was lazy and would try to "help" everyone else in coalition after they defeated actual opponents by flying over and scooping up Prov (which requires zero effort/ skill).
      "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

      The post was edited 3 times, last by The Pale Rider ().

    • The Pale Rider wrote:

      Aican wrote:

      thx @kurtvonstein . Though about your comment regarding winning percentage and provinces conquered. I think you are right, provinces conquered is 100% work of the player you are looking up. No opportunity to ride shotgun, should be the main criteria, with winning percentage giving you another hint. I will change my post accordingly, thx for the input.

      ill share my opinion on golders and spies while talking about tactics. Will need a little time to get there.
      K:D ratio against live players biggest indicator.
      Anyone can (well should) smoke AI and take AI Prov. But performance vs live opponents cant be faked.

      Scenarios:

      1. High ranked players live on Rep and just vulture areas without actually killing active opponents.
      2. Players who wait till 70 pct of world inactive than fights AI.

      I had a 110 lvl partner with 60 wins who sucked as he was lazy and would try to "help" everyone else in coalition after they defeated actual opponents by flying over and scooping up Prov (which requires zero effort).
      That should be true too, sounds logical to me. Got the thought that you should look at all those criteria, K/D against live players, Ratio of provinces conquered to lost, also winning percentage. Should be more about the overall impression you get from those scores if looked at as a whole.
    • I will continue with military units:

      Helicopters:

      Wont lie, those are my thing. Gunships as well as attack copters too. Will try to be as objective as possible here, because we will meet them again in the tactics section.

      Helicopter Gunship:

      Meant to fight infantry, objectively very good doing that. Basic damage against infantry on LVL.1 is 7, can go up to 12 damage when fully developed. But: Bad at fighting anything else. In early stages unusable against anything but infantry, in later stages very mediocre against other copters, unusable against Armored Ground Units and Navy, cannot target jets.
      Infrastructure needed is an Airport LVL.1 and Arms Industry LVL.1. Somewhat basic. Youll need more infrastructure to use them to good effect, but thats more like, military strategy.
      They got a deploy range of 400 on LVL.1 and get a 500 when fully developed. Speed starts at 7 and goes up to 8 somewhere along the line ( For comparison, ASF Jet LVL.1 Range and Speed: 750/12).
      They need supplies and electronics to be produced. Only aviation unit except UAV's to need supplies rather than components.
      Hardcounter are ASF Jets and MAA's.

      Attack Helicopter:

      Meant to fight Armored targets and good with it. Damage starts at 7 and goes up to 13. A little more of a jack of all trades compared to the gunship. Usable against other copters on middle development Levels. When fully developed, AH's are great against armor, trade off okay against other copters and are moderately effective against infantry. You can also use them to little effect against Navy (except frigates) if its an emergency. But if you are desperate enough to send copters against ships...well, there are other maps out there. ;)
      Got the same mobility issues the gunship has.
      Needs an Airport LVL.2 and Arms Industry 1. to produce, thats doable.
      Requires components and electronics, as nearly every other aviation unit does.
      Only hardcounter are ASF Jets. Attack copters win a war of attrition against MAA's. Even developing MAA's fully and putting them into one stack with other units for damage mitigation does not change that.

      Anti Submarine Warfare Helicopter:

      Speed and range like the other copters. Requirements like attack copters, need components and electronics to produce.
      Great against subs on every development LVL, unusable against anything else on every development LVL. Maybe somewhat usable against ships on the later levels.

      I dont really get why somebody would use them. They are great against subs, but thats a job my navy is already doing. Not worth the research in my opinion. If you got another opinion on this one, please let me know why.

      The post was edited 4 times, last by Aican ().

    • kurtvonstein wrote:

      naval battle is basically melee, cause all units have ramgeattack. its a good counteron layers doing sub and fregattes. you prefersbly have a aucraft carrier. rest is your imagination
      Ah thanks for the input, i understand why i dont use them now: Im playing open games. Most players dont even try to raise a fleet in earnest. Looking at those that do, its even scarcer they develop their navy units to later levels. I do though, so i outgun them with longer range and never take losses, even when simply only using destroyers. There was no need for me to think about things like that, or make it more complicated than need be.

      I will have to add another disclaimer. This is meant for open Maps. Until now i never fought on maps with denser concentrations of decent players. If i join such a map, i think many parts of my play style must be changed.

      The post was edited 4 times, last by Aican ().

    • Fighters:

      ASF Jet ( Air Superiority Fighter):

      One of THE most underused and underrated Units ever. Especially on open maps. Meant to destroy every Air unit.
      Needs an airport and Arms Industry LVL.1, somewhat expensive in components and electronics.
      Damage against other fighters and copters starts at 6/7,5 and can go up to 18/15 when fully developed. Speed starts at 12 and can go up to 16.
      In my books,they are uncontested Nr. 1 Air defense.
      On later LVL, not only great against any jets or copters. I regularly use them to pick up stragglers (Infantry or Tanks). Their speed, combined with long range and mediocre attack stats against Infantry and tanks enables them to do so. For Main Battle Tanks (MBT) or Tank Destroyers, they cannot even retaliate against fighters. If your enemy does not have SAM's in vicinity and his air force is down anyways, you wont even take damage by doing this.

      Downsides: With increasing development LVL they tend to be really pricey. They are a melee unit, which means you will always take losses while using them. Always having a sizeable fleet of them can be a real burden on economy. But, air superiority being as important as is, i am ready to make some sacrifices here.


      Naval Air Superiority fighter:

      Able to land on carriers, i think thats the only difference to ASF Jets beside having to research more for them, and being marginally more pricey.

      Stealth Air Superiority Fighter:

      Dont know about this one, really. Little better in Air Combat compared to normal fighters, 21/15 damage against Jets and Copters. Research and production cost can only be described as massive (4.4k rare materials for research alone).
      You need Airport LVL 5. Arms Industry 1 and Secret Weapons Lab 1. For those massive cost and infrastructure you get a fighter with the ability to stealth. Stealth means not visible by enemies while not in combat.

      In my opinion surely a good scout and ambusher of airlifted ground troops, but waaaaay to expensive to really fight with it. If you can afford to have even 5 of them, youre pretty likely to be in the driver seat on the map anyways. Why do you need them then? build ASF Jets and SAMS with those ress..

      Strike Fighter:

      I think this is the one flying unit i have to deal with the most on every single map. Sort of like an all purpose tool against ground troops. In later LVL usable against copters and, if you dont have anything else, you can try using them against ships. Keep in mind to only use them against ships without air cover though. Damage against Infantry and Armored Targets goes 4/6/8 according to development LVL. Speed can go up to 12. If you want to know, you have to look up the other damage values yourslelf. I dont use them anymore, so i dont know those. You need Airbase 2 and Arms Industry 1 to produce them. Cost are not cheap, but manageable.
      Hardcounter are SAM's. ASF Jets on comparable LVL rip them apart pretty easily too, but will also take substantial losses while doing this: Strike Fighters retaliate somewhat hard in a melee.

      They are certainly not bad. In my experience however, most players you have to look out for are prepared against them. I have always been nervous when sending them to an enemy territory.

      Naval Strike Fighter:

      Pretty comparable to the Naval Air superiority Fighter. Hitting a little (exactly 1 damage point) harder against Infantry and armored targets. Are able to land on Carriers. You have to do more research for them and need to have an Airport on LVL3 (Normal Strike Fighter Airport LVL2). Dont know what else to say about them. Pretty comparable to the ASF Jet - NASF Jet relation in my eyes.

      Stealth Strike Fighter:

      Hitting Infantry and Armored Targets for 11 damage, most powerful Strike Fighter. Most expensive one too, needs an Airbase LVL5, Secret Weapons Lab and Arms Industry 1 to produce. Research and production cost are comparable to the Stalth ASF Jet. Very, very, very expensive, You even need 400 rare materials to produce them.

      In my opinion surely a useful unit. But it is so expensive, the cost/ use relation just does not convince me. I dont produce them.

      UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle):

      Dirty cheap unit with scouting purpose. Cannot attack anything, cannot defend. Speed is 5 and can go up to 6 if you want to develop them, which i wouldnt. Needs Airbase und Arms Industry LVL 1. Cost you little amounts of Supplies and electronics.

      Useful scout able to be spammed fast. Can give you an early edge in the information war. Wont win you the game though.

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

    • Aican wrote:

      kurtvonstein wrote:

      naval battle is basically melee, cause all units have ramgeattack. its a good counteron layers doing sub and fregattes. you prefersbly have a aucraft carrier. rest is your imagination
      Ah thanks for the input, i understand why i dont use them now: Im playing open games. Most players dont even try to raise a fleet in earnest. Looking at those that do, its even scarcer they develop their navy units to later levels. I do though, so i outgun them with longer range and never take losses, even when simply only using destroyers. There was no need for me to think about things like that, or make it more complicated than need be.
      I will have to add another disclaimer. This is meant for open Maps. Until now i never fought on maps with denser concentrations of decent players. If i join such a map, i think many parts of my play style must be changed.
      tell me when you start a new game
      @Dorado If you Close the Forum and move everything to Discord you will lose my Feedback for sure.
    • @japan samurai yeah that happened to me to at some point i think

      thx @GamePanda, thats about it. Rest would be in those stats you can see on mobile i think?

      @kurtvonstein i will!

      Little offtopic, got a map right now. Day 24, Rising tides. I am playing as china without coa. Rank 3 overall, not too far away from Rank 1 and 2. There is one african coa and the dominant one, nearly twice as strong than the african one. Coa Nr. 1 is golding rather shamelessly, first nuke was flying at day 12 at the latest i think. Morale of their enemies' core cities dropping to 0 spontaneously, you can imagine. But: They didnt get the morale mechanics quite right. One nuke after another combined with warring 11 nations at the same time. Europe is burning as a whole, as is iran, turkey, saudi arabia. Chosen are everywhere, Coa 1 is trying to clean this up for nearly a week now, but its not really working. Always lifts my mood when i look at it. Can use the time to prepare myself for showdown too. Want to give them the hardest time i can, finding opponents with a little backbone has become increasingly difficult in the last few month. I think ill lose at some point, but thats okay as long as i can fight my hardest for a week or two :D