The Operational Art of War IV – Game Hints

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 15 Oct 2018

Using Air Units

The long-term effectiveness of your air units is inversely proportional to their apparent visibility over the battlefield. Sad perhaps, but true. While it may be fun to launch an Air Strike on a particular location, this is the least effective way to use your Air units. Sometimes, however, you need immediate firepower. If so, go for it. Remember that there is a cost, though. Combat Support Missions are moderately efficient, and again, sometimes you can’t do without them. Unfortunately, they also grind your Air units down more quickly than any other Mission.

They are also an awesome way to draw enemy fighters into the fray, which may or may not be a good thing depending on the local Air Superiority equation. If you have Air Supremacy (the enemy can’t effectively contest your Air Superiority Strength), your units will be most effective on Interdiction missions. Few things wear the bad guys down as quickly as empty fuel tanks, magazines, and mess kits, and the inability to move near Roads and Railroads can be a real nuisance. If the enemy air force is stronger than yours, keep your air units on Air Superiority Missions and hope for the best. Consider keeping your best ground attack units out of the action. They may be more effective as a threat, forcing your opponent to maintain a strong Air Superiority effort at the expense of his Interdiction and Combat Support efforts.

Combat Planning Considerations

All units will have their Movement Allowances reduced to reflect the time necessary to resolve all attacks. This means you should move most of your units before resolving any attacks. If you believe all attacks will be resolved quickly, you should hold back a few high Movement Allowance units for use as an exploitation reserve. If you wish to exploit any breakthroughs before your opponent can react, consider holding off on the kinds of attacks that are likely to take a long time to resolve – those involving units that have expended most of their Movement Allowance and fixed Attacks on defensive positions with probable Ignore Losses orders emphasis.

Nuclear Weapons

If you find that you can use Nuclear Weapons, be sure to check the Scenario briefing. In almost all cases, there are significant potential costs associated with these weapons.

Keeping Your Units Supplied

There are a few things you can do to maximize the number of supplies flowing to your units:

– Make sure to keep your Lines of Communication Open. Don’t let the bad guys cut in behind you.

– Don’t move your units unless necessary.

– Keep your units near a cooperative headquarters unit.

– Avoid “boondocks” deployments. Try to keep your units in urban locations, on Roads, Anchorage locations, or Airbases.

– If your opponent has a strong Interdiction capability (lots of Air units capable of performing Interdiction Missions), keep some of your air units on Air Superiority duty.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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