Airborne - Wanna Go Blow Up HQ by Bloodsent
Transcript of Airborne - Wanna Go Blow Up HQ by Bloodsent
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Airborne - Wanna Go
Blow Up HQ?
By Bloodsent
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Contents
Chapter 1: Cracking open Airborne ................................................................................................ 2
Basic Allied Doctrine:................................................................................................................... 2
Airborne Premise: ....................................................................................................................... 3
An Overview of Airborne Abilities: .............................................................................................. 4
Paratroopers: ........................................................................................................................... 4
Supply Drop: ............................................................................................................................ 5
Smoke Drop: ............................................................................................................................ 6
Dummy Paradrop: ................................................................................................................... 6
Strafe: ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Bombing Run: .......................................................................................................................... 8
AT Gun Paradrop: .................................................................................................................... 8
Air Reconnaissance: ................................................................................................................. 9
Chapter 2: Looking at the holes in the Parachute, or Airborne's weaknesses ............................. 10
Allied Philosophy: ...................................................................................................................... 12
Allied Units and their Tactics: .................................................................................................... 14
Barracks: .................................................................................................................................... 14
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About the Author: This is my second attempt at a guide for new players looking for information
about doctrines and faction tactics. My primary is a Terror commander, but Airborne has been
a great deal of fun lately, and has some nice abilities, even if some need some tweaking. My
tactics tend to focus on strong basic units coupled with a mid-game modular fighting unit, and
low-cost abilities. This lends a versatile force capable of wielding every weapon they have
available to them well. While it's not as flashy as an artillery heavy AB commander, it is
economical and resilient; giving the units I use strength throughout a game. It's been interesting
playing AB from Terror, as I took some of the philosophies from that guide and applied them to
Allied doctrine. The result has been some great success, though I am still learning the faction,
and any contributions are, of course, greatly appreciated.
Chapter 1: Cracking open Airborne
Basic Allied Doctrine: The Allies, compared to Wehr, need to have some heavy focus on
map control and recon superiority. More than Wehr, they need to use each and every unit to
their advantage, and know where and how to hit, because each of them has a special place.
Wehr allows some unit tailoring to fit a strategy that you like, but the Allies' units are all
wrapped up into their strategy. Each of them is in some way necessary depending on Wehr's
strategy, and only a few can be truly cut out without suffering some weakness. In this way, I've
actually found the Allied faction to be much more reactionary than Wehr, at least after the
opening moves. You need to prepare for them at least two steps ahead, because your strategy
is often apparent by your unit builds and choices through the game. Veterancy is all the more
important to remaining superior throughout the game, so you need to be more careful with
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units than with Wehr, to make them into walking murder machines by the end game. This will
become clear as you employ higher-cost, higher-upkeep units in the late game, and overall will
be able withstand losses with less resiliency in the late game, when Wehr is stronger. But
having a single Vet 3 BAR rifle can for the most part counter any infantry Wehr can throw at
you.
Neither Wehr nor Allied are more tactically challenging, rather, they each have different tactical
philosophies, and the Allied faction is a little less familiar than most. Wehr needs to have strong
area denial and the right unit for the right job. Allies have all the units there for them, but need
to wield them correctly. One focuses on meta-game superiority, and the other direct game
superiority.
Airborne Premise: At first, I believe Airborne to be very similar to Terror; a strong offensive
doctrine with built-in fragility. I have discovered, however, that Airborne is very much its own
play style. AB typically has a specialized tool for every job, and a few multitools to support that.
It relies heavily on keeping the momentum, second-guessing your opponent, and providing
versatile reinforcement. Your job as Airborne is to harass the enemy, flank him, and keep his
forces from organizing. Use your talents to destroy his defensive emplacements to open his
flanks, and your mobile troops to deny him map control. In short, Airborne is much like a
spear. They're fantastic for poking holes in the enemy's defense, but once they get past the
point, there's not a lot of protection to offer. Specifically, my take on the doctrine has been
modular offense, or getting the tools to where they need to be, to defend against a variety of
situations.
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An Overview of Airborne Abilities:
Paratroopers: The signature ability of Airborne commanders, this is a must have unit. They
are as versatile as riflemen in terms of what they can do, and they are resilient to boot. Paras
make excellent flankers or meat shield for a flank unit. They can cut off an enemy's supply,
circumvent their defenses, hunt down tanks, decimate static defenses, and survive attrition to
the squad itself. They are a self-contained destruction machine. That's not to say they have
weaknesses. They have no elite armor, and they cannot gain vet. They're not very effective at
anti-infantry combat unless you employ grenades, and along those lines, a fully utilized Para
squad is your most muni hungry ability for AB. They're also costly to reinforce, and have a high
upkeep. But combined with other abilities, Paras become the basic unit that will deny an enemy
an area without a concerted push. They are best fully upgraded, as each upgrade in their tree is
useful in some way, and the ability to drop paras in fog of war should not be underestimated.
When employing Paratroopers, you should also consider what sort of synergy works well with
them. Obviously, they have strong abilities on their own, but by combining them with, say, a
Supply Drop, you now have a fighting force capable of repelling both tanks and infantry, while
pushing. All without crossing miles to get there. Paras are excellent backup for basic rifles,
giving them the AT ability that the rifles lack, while providing excellent flank support. Though
they lack elite armor, in reality Paras are quite resilient. Their health regeneration and
reinforcement makes it so that they can survive long term low-to-medium damage. And they
seem to have some in-built suppression resistance, which combined with effective use of fire-
up, will let them effectively engage light vehicles, and tanks. In addition, they are fantastic MG
decoys to use while flanking with other units, because of this survivability. Most volks and
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grenadiers won't be able to quickly dispatch them (If at all), and even pio flamers will have
trouble ousting them. They're weakest against Ostwinds, and you should immediately pull them
back or get them into heavy cover, if possible.
Supply Drop: Another signature ability of Airborne, this has become a fantastic ability since its
redesign a couple of months ago. It can be tailored in a way that it functions in three different
ways, each effective with different play styles. When looking at this ability, resist the
temptation to fully upgrade it. That will lead to a high-cost, late game ability that is so much
better used earlier in the game, when you need critical resources or equipment. Instead,
consider the three play styles it supports: A fast-tech approach, where you upgrade its fuel. This
allows you to get vehicles out early and effectively.
However, this is somewhat of a one-trick pony, as the Allied faction rarely lacks for fuel, but
often lacks for manpower and munitions. But nothing beats the look on the enemy's face when
you field an M8 long before they get their Pak out. The second approach is a munitions support
role. It can provide 135 munitions to you for a very low cost, allowing you the choices you need
for your high-powered abilities and arty. I call this a Trump style, because it grants you wild card
tools such as strafe, to deal with specialized situations. It can help with inferior map control, or
especially in larger games, when the enemy coordinates their attacks in a single vector.
That said, I prefer the third choice: A cheap, early infantry support ability. This ability gets you
heavy weapons early in the game, saving you the need for building a WSC if you so choose,
while giving paras strong support weapons later in the game when they're beyond your front
line. It can be upgraded to instantly heal all surviving troops, with some moderate reductions in
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manpower costs. If you want, it can also give a negligible muni-fuel boost. But having a mortar
and HMG available right there can be the difference in holding the line or losing it to a wave of
volks. This not only frees up many points for other abilities in the meta game, but it makes the
ability available, cheap and useful throughout a match.
Smoke Drop: Another powerful ability for Airborne, this is an economical talent that gives you
extra flanking power, retreat support, and entrenchment nullification. Drop this on an MG, and
it will clear your infantry to move up and flank it. Drop it in front of a blob, and it will slow
them, while the cover debuff will give your MG extra suppression and effectiveness. Drop it in
front of your tanks, and you can save them from certain destruction at the hands of a Pak. And
you can almost always have it at your fingertips. It's cheap and on a fast cooldown, and a well-
used smoke drop will swing a battle to your favor. It has universal effectiveness across the
match. Beware that it does have a fairly short duration, so you need to move quickly when
using it. In addition, it does have a slight delay, so it's best used as a proactive ability, rather
than reactive. Drop it in front of the M10 engaging the Panther so it will survive longer while
another flanks its rear. If you use it when your M10 is already in bad shape, you're in trouble.
Dummy Paradrop: This ability needs to be upgraded, but when it is, it's like a sinister
combination of blackout and propaganda, and is the bane of units that aren't properly microed.
On its own, it drops a squad of fake paratroopers that have an extremely high targeting priority
for anything that's not an AT cannon. Unless the enemy is focus firing his troops, they will stop
what they're doing to fire on the dummies. This can be upgraded so that the dummies take tons
of hits, and that up to four in total will spawn around the drop area. Finally, the most
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importantly, there's a high chance that these dummies will explode, inflicting reduced accuracy
on enemy units while simultaneously slowing them. The final upgrade will temporarily disable
the weapons of all infantry and bunkers affected (May affect secondary weapons on vehicles as
well, not confirmed). All for a low cost. Unfortunately, there is a slight chance of the dummies
not going off, and it's on a somewhat prohibitive cooldown.
The applications for this ability are strong indeed, especially in the early-mid game. However,
before it's upgraded, it's more or less a minor support ability. It also has good synergy with a
real paradrop, as all units will prioritize the dummies before attacking any paras, meaning you
can do a hot drop without fear of casualties. This is ideal for taking down well-defended 88s, or
support in an intense fight.
Strafe: This is the final answer in anti-infantry firepower. A near instant attack, with no smoke,
means that anything not in a vehicle is going to be absolutely destroyed. It's a somewhat
overpowered ability, in my book, as it deals damage despite cover, and without inflicting
friendly casualties, but its cost is prohibitive, and it only affects infantry. That said, this is the
primary reason Wehr will go armor against you instead of infantry. In addition to destroying
most enemies within its field of affect, it will also pin all enemies there. Usually, the enemy will
retreat all the survivors, but in the event that they don't, you can walk all over him with your
engineers, to say nothing of rifles or paras.
This ability, along with bombing run, is best paired with a high munition supply drop to support
you, unless you have strong map control. It also comes later in the game, which can limit its
effectiveness against Wehr opponents, as they'll start rolling out armor at this point. Honestly,
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unless you're dealing with a huge piospam blob (Or even if), or a line of weapon teams, you
may be better served laying down 6 mines or so with the extra muni, and flanking the enemy
with Paras or Rifles.
Bombing Run: Unfortunately, Bombing Run suffers from several issues that make it a less
desirable artillery choice compared to other doctrinal choices and other doctrines. Fully
upgraded, it deals a fair amount of damage, but is best used against static defenses. It deals
okay damage, but only in a narrow vector, and units can usually move out of its path by the
time the second plane makes it onto the map. And addition, it's fairly easily nullified in larger
games by ostwinds later on. Personally, I think there are better choices out there for the AB
commander, though in a pinch, it can do. Its cost requires that it be supported by munition
supply drops to be practical, but if you're doing so, you can alternatively give that supply drop
to an infantry commander ally and let him off-map barrage your target.
AT Gun Paradrop: Honestly, despite the prohibitive cost of this unit, I have found some good
use for it. When it's fully upgraded, it gives a strong AT defense in a location, while providing
that support without having to drag an AT gun across the map. It's not good to bring out on a
hot zone, but rather to set up behind your line, while using normal Paras as a primary AT
engagement unit. The support paras are only 2-men, and therefore die quickly in battle, but
their ability to build mines and tank traps is very useful for limiting enemy armor movement,
and even though they die quickly, they can give your force the extra oomph it needs to
slaughter some tanks. The upgraded AT gun is actually pretty nice. But the 550 price tag makes
it a difficult choice, especially when you could drop another para squad. Still, a para-supply
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drop-AT drop combination can give a strong fighting force quickly, and help lock down a part of
a map while you fight your main front elsewhere.
The greatest value of the AT gun comes with the ability to get that strong anti-tank support
where you need it quickly. However, it is definitely a secondary drop item. It needs to be
supported to be at all effective, so calling in some Paras beforehand, or calling it behind your
primary line, is the best bet. What you get though is hands down one of the best (Offensively)
AT unit in the game outside of a King Tiger.
Air Reconnaissance: This is a powerful ability to keeping the momentum on your side. By
knowing where you enemy is, where they're moving to, and how strong they are, gives you the
advantage in heading them off and flanking them. It gives you intel superiority, and this cannot
be underestimated in this game. It will reveal snipers and other camo units, and with the
upgrades, provides sight lines for a fair amount of time. Unintentionally, you can also
potentially crash the planes into stuff when they get shot down. Finally, you can piggyback
artillery on the recon, which makes the map your plaything. At least, it would, if bombing run
were a bit more effective.
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Chapter 2: Looking at the holes in the Parachute, or Airborne's
weaknesses
So, we've taken a brief look at Airborne as a doctrine, and what it offers the ambitious
commander looking for blood. Now, we need to take a look at what can hold an AB commander
back. Airborne, like each doctrine, has some glaring weaknesses in its abilities. These need to be
understood, or it will hinder your game.
First and foremost, and this is an issue that many Terror commanders also suffer from, is that
they're too “Top Heavy”. That is, AB has some real spectacular abilities. Strafe, Bombing Run
(Kinda?) and Smoke Drop usually dominate the AB loadout, to the detriment of other powerful,
yet subtle abilities. These high-powered abilities are neat, but they have two major
weaknesses: They're late-game, and they're expensive as hell. By relying on them, you are
forced to alter your strategy in predictable ways, and/or give up usage of a smaller ability that
could save the day over a strafing run. For example, did you know that Paradummies affect
both infantry and vehicles? I haven't tested whether it disables weapons operation, but it does
debuff their accuracy. How awesome is that? And yes, a strafe can take out a blob of enemy
infantry, but so can a grenade and a well-placed mine, at a quarter of the cost.
AB is already a muni-hungry doctrine, as Paras are at their best when able to throw satchels and
grenades, with RR upgrades. Even basic dummy drops will rack up costs, to say nothing of
mines and AP rounds. So when considering your abilities, consider the overall utility of them.
Strafe is fantastic against infantry. But really, how often can you really utilize it? A 4CP ability
with a minimum cost of 165 muni. You can buffer it with a muni-drop from Supply Drops, but
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then that takes up another ability slot and itself has increased costs and CP requirements.
Bombing Run is the red-headed step child of AB, and should not under any circumstances be
taken. There are just too many problems with it right now to justify it.
Another weakness of AB is that it lacks robustness, like Terror. It's somewhat of a glass cannon
that relies solely on the survivability of its basic units to carry it through combat. Paras are a
notable exception, but when compared to Armor and its Self-Repair, or Infantry and its Heroic
Charge, FHQ and Attrition, Airborne is apparently more fragile. So AB needs to focus on
effective tactics to reduce casualties and cause damage. Thus, blobbing is not at all an effective
tactic for AB. While it can be effective to blob Paras to chase down armor, if the enemy has any
second line defenses whatsoever (And a good Axis player will), they will get mowed down by
Mgs, mines, StuHs, what have you. At most, unless you have fantastic map control or are using
a very deliberate team strategy (Such as armor commanders backed up by para-heavy AB), you
should only really have 2 or so Para squads on map at any time. Instead, you need to have an
effective mix of vehicles, support teams and weapon teams, as well as your basic riflemen.
Conservative, intelligent play will lead to this naturally, as opposed to a gimmicky fast-tech or
doctrinal crutch.
To summarize, Airborne has a lot of utility, but not a lot of direct punch. You have a multitool,
which is good for every job, but sometimes you need something great. The result is that you
need to be the one dictating how the game's gonna go. Keep your opponent guessing, keep
them spread out, keep them occupied. If they know where you're gonna go and how, they will
find the Great tool to smash you. That is one of the keys of Allied play though: Axis has a ton of
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units, but it's finding the right unit to get the job done that slows them down. If you play a
defensive game, they tech up and bring out bunker busters. If you play an early offensive game,
they go for the Anti-infantry units. If you play the game close to your chest, they don't know
where you're going. That's AB's primary strategy.
Allied Philosophy:
In addition to examining Airborne as a doctrine itself, we also need to look at the Allied unit
philosophy, which operates in a fashion radically different from its Wehrmacht counterpart. To
do so, we need contrast, and we're going to get it from Wehr itself.
So what is the Wehr strategic philosophy?
The answer is complex, and ties into strategy games as we know them today. Certain strategy
games focus on Tactics, and other games focus on Tools. But what does this mean exactly?
Consider Total War and Close Combat. These are games almost entirely dedicated to tactical
strategy. And they are great in this sense. Total War is, in my opinion, the contemporary
standard of tactical strategy, since the CC franchise died. But operationally, these are
more...Muted games, compared to some other strategy games, which we'll take a look at in a
minute. The nature of making sure tactics actually function requires having units that are often
quite similar. Compare this to “Tool” strategy games. This operates on a sort of rock-paper-
scissor model, where units can have spectacular abilities, but are often hard-countered by
another unit. Starcraft is a good example of a “Tool” strategy game. I name it thus because the
key to these games is finding the right tool for the job. A tactic game essentially operates on the
idea that you have a leatherman at your disposal; it's all in how you use it.
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Now, each game will have a mix of both Tool and Tactics. In Medieval: Total War, you use
spearman specifically to counter cavalry. In Starcraft, you use a mix of long and short range
units, along with their supports. Company of Heroes tends toward a Tactical kind of game, but
is somewhat unique in that its factions each hearken to a specific type. Allies are the Tactical
faction, and Wehr the Tool faction. This is why Wehr has a lot of powerful units. They are strong
in single fields, and meant to be. The Wehr HMG dominates infantry. The Panther is unmatched
in terms of vanilla armor. But Allies can finesse a lot more out of their units. Riflemen are
fantastic anti-infantry and anti-armor support units. An Allied HMG destroys infantry and light
vehicles with equal fervor. Even their armor, the Sherman, can be dedicated to anti-armor or
anti-infantry. In such a way, they must use tactics to achieve their victory.
Now, I'm not saying that any side is better, cooler, or more difficult. Each of them has
difficulties and complexities. That said, Tool strategy games tend to be the ones we often think
of when it comes to strategy. Starcraft and Command and Conquer are the venerable veterans
of the genre. People have all played them at one time or another, and so they are more
familiar. The meta-game surrounding it is more present than with Tactic strategy games. That
lack of familiarity can make the Americans a challenging faction, simply because they are so
alien. It's easy to think that they're too weak, or too difficult to learn. But it's all in your head.
Like my fencing instructor said to right-handers dueling me: “The first person to beat you isn't
the southpaw in front of you, it's yourself.”
Now that you have an idea of how American Airborne functions, let’s look at their units.
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Allied Units and their Tactics:
Engineers: Great units to have, I like to have two in any one game. This is partially because I'm
not particularly heavy on armor, so two give me the flexibility I need to build things and mine
up. One thing that cannot be underestimated in the AB arsenal are properly placed mines. This
will save your bacon if the enemy tries to fast-tech you with accomplished units or so forth. And
in general, this will help protect your flanks and your combat line. 5 mines across a game can
have your enemy tearing his hair out in frustration. Their other defensive structures are great
as well. Tank traps can funnel vehicles into a kill zone and prevent flanks. Wire is useful in a
variety of situations. So always utilize them. Always have them doing something.
Barracks:
Riflemen: Your bread and butter. Riflemen get the job done, and they do it well. The things that
you can do with well-managed riflemen are nearly endless, and Airborne specifically has a
special synergy with these units. Using riflemen is like driving stick. It can be hard to learn, but
once you do, you never want to drive an automatic again. With BARs, they become anti-infantry
beasts. With grenades, they clear buildings like nothing. With stickies, they are the best
supporting anti-armor unit on the Allied side. And with vet upgrades, they will quickly outmatch
even Knight's Cross if you keep them in the fight. And Airborne supplements them wonderfully.
With a low-tech supply drop, you immediately have powerful weapon teams available, courtesy
of a few riflemen. With a smoke drop, you ensure their flank will win. And with Paras, you have
a complete fighting unit, capable of taking on armor and infantry both. -Weapons Utility
Riflemen: Underestimated as a beginning unit, these guys are great for getting the job done on
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tough flanks. Their grenades will destroy units, as will the satchel if you're dealing with an
FHMG, and their immediate stickies give you some traction against bikes and vehicles. That
said, their combat effectiveness pales against carded rifles, and as such, they're relegated as
early-game units. Economic Impact: Light -Trail Blazer Riflemen: Personally, I'm not really a fan
of these guys. They're neat scouts, but if I wanted a scout, I'd get a skilled jeep. They're
somewhat of a lazy man's anti-MG unit. Their fire-up is useful to blast past defensive lines, but I
think it's critical to be able to flank without the help of crutches like fire-up. In their defense,
they get places fast, so they're great back-cappers with a modicum of micro. Economic Impact:
Moderate -Wilson's Riflemen: I think these guys get a bit of a bad rap. While high-level, carded
riflemen will certainly beat these guys, they embody the Allied combat philosophy: Versatility.
They have strong anti-infantry capabilities, long-range grenades, suppression, and good anti-
armor ability as well. They make an excellent early game choice, even with the extra 30mp cost
tacked on. Economic Impact: Moderate
I'll be back later to edit, improve and add to.
Change log:
11/16/10: First Draft, Overview and Chapter 1 complete.
11/19/10: Revamped Chapter 1
11/22/10: Added Chapter 2
11/27/10: Added onto Chapter 2
[Last Edited On: Nov 27 2010 03:48 AM EST (42 days ago)]i
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