Wargame: AirLand Battle

**Graphic** · 03-21-2013, 00:22

Closed beta begins in a couple days and there is no NDA. I'll definitely be taking pics and making videos, but if there's anything specific WEE vets want to know, just say it.

**Monk** · 03-21-2013, 00:34

That looks delightful

**Hooahguy** · 01-06-2014, 04:40

So with the help of @Graphic, I have been getting really engrossed in this game. It is done just so well, its hard to put down and I cant wait to get more into it.

**Husar** · 01-06-2014, 12:57

It's a horrible game, the mechanics are way too simplified and the AI is really bad.
The MP is full of elitists or noobs and people who ragequit at the sight of the smallest inconvenience.

The only reason I play it almost daily is because I love the sound of autocannons in the evening*.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Hooahguy** · 01-06-2014, 23:00

Im interested why you think that the AI is bad. I happen to think its quite good, considering that even when I have an ally, they get close to wiping the floor with me. But thats probably because Im pretty bad myself.

**Husar** · 01-08-2014, 10:05

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

Im interested why you think that the AI is bad. I happen to think its quite good, considering that even when I have an ally, they get close to wiping the floor with me. But thats probably because Im pretty bad myself.

No, it's because your allied AIs are acting really, really bad, as though they were actually a setting or two worse than the enemy AI when you set both to the same level. The enemy AIs are challenging only because they use rush tactics and cheat like crazy. You may have noticed that supply trucks for example are very limitedsince the last big patch and yet my AI enemies seem to have endless streams of new supply trucks, no point in trying to shoot them. They don't even bother hiding them and drive right up to frontline units with them.

Then they know where your units are, something that will only get changed with Red Dragon, so you can forget about spec ops and so on because they will fire smoke grenades at your hidden spec ops and drive straight up to them with tanks and APCs. The only thing the AI really does is weasel all over the map with endless streams of units. In MP you can count on your enemy having limited amounts of unit at their disposal so if you kill enough, no more will come. The AI however will just send e.g. endless amounts of TOW-2 humvees that do nothing but drive along a road and engage your tanks until they get killed. Often by the time my tanks reach the first ATGM jeep, there is another coming down the road already and so on. They basically just kill with attrition and hardly give you a pause in some cases.

Compare this to e.g. Cossacks where the AI would (depending on settings and patch version) sometimes gather an army, walk it up to your waiting defending army and only attack when it felt strong enough to win, using combined arms and formations etc. Not that this was the absolute pinnacle of AI development but it was better than sending endless streams of units via attack move all over the map.

I kinda like the devs and the game as well actually but I find some of their decisions quite...frustrating. This also applies for the lack of customizable aircraft loadouts and other simplified game mechanics such as ECM, accuracy in general (moving targets do not seem to affect it) and the limit to 3 weapons per unit. As in many other cases the "problem" with the game is all the potential I see that is not being utilized, so you could say the problem am I. What really made ma angry were players defending unit babysitting/micromanagement by saying APM (Actions per Minute in case it's not clear) actually equal skill in RTS games, people who are good at the game and micromanage a lot also say the AI is not challenging at all.

It's not what I connect with the word "strategy", but apparently it's either APM or Europa Universalis.

**I of the Storm** · 01-09-2014, 13:41

I picked it up on Steam, and while I like the graphics and the zoom-ability, I'm not too enthusiastic about the gameplay.
So far I only played against the AI, and it was more about clicking and less about thinking than I would have liked. The comp throws buckets of units at you, doesn't really do combined arms etc.

I really want to like this game, as I'm interested in this WW3-setting and the many beautiful toys you get since Steel Panthers 2, but so far I haven't been successful.

**Hooahguy** · 01-10-2014, 14:39

The glory of the game seems to come from MP, not SP. At least for me. While Im not regularly playing against real people yet (still perfecting my deck/learning more tactics) I have found this incredibly challenging (in a good way) to play and makes me think about what I am doing before I do it. Of course playing against the AI isnt a good representation of the game as the AI pretty much knows exactly where you are even if your units are recon units that are hidden, it can micro dozens of units which just isnt possible with a human player, and just cheats in general. But it is a decent opponent to learn the ropes on, such as the importance of recon.

**Graphic** · 01-11-2014, 14:35

Husar just hates the game because West Germany sucks.

**Husar** · 01-11-2014, 16:00

Originally Posted by Graphic

Husar just hates the game because West Germany sucks.

West Germany is actually the best nation in the entire game. If you choose the right units that is.
They're certainly better than the USA in many areas.

**Hooahguy** · 01-11-2014, 18:15

Originally Posted by Husar

West Germany is actually the best nation in the entire game. If you choose the right units that is.
They're certainly better than the USA in many areas.

In armor and support, yes, possibly, maybe, but I find that a solely W. German deck is lacking in many areas that one can hit more than sufficiently with a US deck. Right now Im tinkering with my US deck, trying to perfect a playing style.

Im finding that rushing in airborne troops to the center of map is hugely helpful in stalling the enemy advance early on. 6 units of Marines in buildings by the main roads can stall an entire PACT advance for a while until I can bring up more units.

**Husar** · 01-11-2014, 19:20

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

In armor and support, yes, possibly, maybe, but I find that a solely W. German deck is lacking in many areas that one can hit more than sufficiently with a US deck. Right now Im tinkering with my US deck, trying to perfect a playing style.

That's part of the problem with the US deck. You may have more and better options here and there, but lack the activation points to actually use all of them...

West Germany has great armor, decent infantry in okayish IFVs or fast APCs and in support it's clearly superior.

I'd take the Gepard over the Chaparral any day because of accuracy and ammunition count, especially in combination. The Roland 2 is perfectly sufficient, more accurate and also has more ammunition than the I-HAWK. I like the avenger but it's not very well suited to defend against helicopters with long range ATGMs. The PIVADS is a little better but you always have to decide between all of them which already makes the US deck worse, W. Germany gets two systems which cover all cases of air defense. In fact the Gepard can sometimes work quite well just by itself. In a motorized or mechanized deck they also get more veterancy while you do not lose any important units

In the support and helicopter categories the US gets a better choice but the use of these units is relatively situational and not always mandatory.

In the air the US gets a lot more choice but again, you cannot have it all. Since I dislike cluster bombers mostly, I get a good ATGM plane, a good air defense fighter and an iron bomber with West Germany and that's about all I need anyway since using aircraft is most of the time something I just get do once with the exception of air superiority fighters. I love(d) the A-10 but at some point they apparently nerfed it so now it often misses with three Mavericks in a row...