Call of War: Field Manual - General Strategy and Tactics - Operational Manual

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  • IISpikeII wrote:

    @CzarHellios:

    What is better? Manual attack or patrol? How can you tell when a "combat hour" has passed?
    depends..

    with the new tic toc measurement, it will tell you when the next attack is..


    my view, I know you asked Czar, but just thought I might be some help :)



    If Socialists understood Economics, they wouldn't be socialists
    -Friedrich von Haye


  • oceanhawk wrote:

    IISpikeII wrote:

    @CzarHellios:

    What is better? Manual attack or patrol? How can you tell when a "combat hour" has passed?
    depends..
    with the new tic toc measurement, it will tell you when the next attack is..


    my view, I know you asked Czar, but just thought I might be some help :)
    tl;dr? Skip to the very last sentence.


    The answer to this question depends on seveal variables.


    First, we have to look at what patolling actually does, vesus manually attacking. Second, we will discuss the theoretical applications of both. Then the actual realities of practicality, and the fourth possible hidden variable.

    *l: "Stay in a area for a hour. Attack everything in patrol range. 4 times a hour(Every 15 minutes), at 25% strength."
    *We understand that combat is: Strength of a unit, attacks enemy hitpoints. Defense/Attack values come into place(And or who attacked first), as well as terrain properties, morale of the units in question, and state based damage efficiency. As of right now, we do not know any of the specifics - We can simply go off of intuition and that we know X affects this to X degree it seems. So I will do Y.

    This is what patrol does. While in contrast, units manually attacking will attack at full strength per attack run. While units in patrol will attack at REDUCED strength at a set duration of fifteen minutes, four times a hour - before returning to base and going back.

    Theoretical applications:

    The closest theoretical application of patol is to set a wave of units at a certain location, as in a wave - of Bombers to cover a vast amonut of enemy territory, or a wall of Interceptos. Then go offline. Which is itself of course a bit dangeous, if:

    *Opponent sends air units to attack your patolling units while in patrol, or times then to intercept while they are returning to base/going to patrol(Interesting results here!)
    *Opponent sneaks A.A/Big stacks into the patrol range, and causes the patrolling units to attack and die. And they do die fast.

    Essentially, you are telling your units to attack at reduced strength - while engaging enemy units at full strength, so they can sit around vunerable on a certain place on the map.


    In contrast, theoretically, units manually attacking will engage at full strength. This means you will be able to kill enemy units faster, suffer less causalties. Break through enemy lines faster.

    Just to insert a practical usage, you have a limited amount of TBs. Enemies are approaching on all fronts, infantry stacks/Tank stacks. Send them to stack one, kill them. Shove them to another direction, kill the stack coming from the other direction.

    Patrol simply not only costs you time, but decreases the likelyhood that your units will survival, and limits you options.

    Now, we will go to the fouth variable:

    A lot of players have been using patrol, as a couple older players were telling them to. It was better. Stronger. Etc. This line of thought has persisted in this game for serveral months. Specifically, some people are saying to just place 3-4 units in a patrol, no more, no less. Why are they saying this, where does this come from?


    From when the game first came out, to a little while after the First Players League game, their was a exploit in the game. Any units in Patol would not suffer any damage from any air units sent to manually attack them. Furthermore, any units in patrol would not suffer any damage from any units on land.

    To give you a more explicit example, in one competitive game I was in, one player sent four Interceptos to patrol over a base with lvl 3 forts. The 4 Interrceptors proceeded to:

    *Kill all 10+ A.A, 20+ some Light Tanks, numerous infantry, and reduce the fort to zero. Furthermore, putting anything near them would result in death. And if you got your patrol their first, the other person was screwed. Essentially, it was a game breaking exploit that caused a brief surge in popularity of the patrol feature, and people are still recommending people patrol, even though they have no idea what it is they are doing....Or the fact, that as far as I am aware, it has been patched/Fixed.


    Naturally, what really decides most games is both a understanding of the basics, and how active you are. If you are active, I see no reason whatsoever why you would use Patrol mode. If you were AFK, I see no reason why you would just keep your units in reserve just to be safe, considering the factors I listed, or give them to your allies to use on your behalf(Which is what I myself usually did when I had to go work on the weekends).


    ---
    Manually attacking is better than patrol.
  • Hello Czar,

    Regarding patrolling - there are 2 reasons I keep on using it

    1: You are talking about damage dealt, but you are forgetting damage recieved - in my experience tacs die faster in attack mode, even with the 25% in mind (I wonder if its actually 25%, as opposed to say 35 or even 50%)
    2: In RPGs there is the concept DPS (damage per second), drawing this concept towards COW, you can say DPH (damage per hour). In patrol mode, you always get 4 attacks per hour. In attack mode, the amount of damage dealt is also relative to the airfield level and actual distance to target. Targets closeby at a higher level airfield are usually better suited to attack in attack mode, targets faraway in a lvl 1 (or even lvl 0,5) are better suited for the patrol treatment.

    Lastly, you can actually have a 2 for 1. Patrol, and after 15 minutes do attack. You do get 2 attacks in fact, but obviously the bomber will return to base after that. Great for that killing blow:)
  • miech wrote:

    Hello Czar,

    Regarding patrolling - there are 2 reasons I keep on using it

    1: You are talking about damage dealt, but you are forgetting damage recieved - in my experience tacs die faster in attack mode, even with the 25% in mind (I wonder if its actually 25%, as opposed to say 35 or even 50%)
    2: In RPGs there is the concept DPS (damage per second), drawing this concept towards COW, you can say DPH (damage per hour). In patrol mode, you always get 4 attacks per hour. In attack mode, the amount of damage dealt is also relative to the airfield level and actual distance to target. Targets closeby at a higher level airfield are usually better suited to attack in attack mode, targets faraway in a lvl 1 (or even lvl 0,5) are better suited for the patrol treatment.

    Lastly, you can actually have a 2 for 1. Patrol, and after 15 minutes do attack. You do get 2 attacks in fact, but obviously the bomber will return to base after that. Great for that killing blow:)

    I am quite familar with DPS, and said other concepts.
    If the explots in question, as well as bugs have been fixed, then excellent.

    I personally have preferred directly attacking, as in my experience, and general method of using tactical bombers, it has always been faster.(Though I will admit this was before several updates and patches.) Though, your stated approach sounds quite interesting, and great for figuring that out. Quite nifty, and effective at that!



    Don't you find it a bit funny though? Arty = Tacs. ACs = AC/LTs. Infantry = Infantry. BBs = Subs/Dessies(Whichever hasn't been nerfed to oblivion). Everything else, Meh. Fun things to play around with now and then.).

    You should get on Skype sometime. I do miss having realtime, fun conversations!
  • Yeah, I see the similarities. Personally I always try to be 'contrare' in my army builds. Facing huge stacks of LTs? Tuck away in a city with AT and a few arties behind them and 'herd' them towards where you want them. Opponent thinks he is von Richthoven with a Ju87? Go intercepters, use big stacks with AA and a few scouts for decoy and guerilla purposes. Opponent has a well balanced army? Damn, this is going to be a long fight....

    Oh, and I dont find MTs and Heavies useless, speed isnt always important if you plan ahead properly. Vote is still out regarding the TD - even though it has a huge life bar, it seems to be the 'first target' in fights.

    In fact, nearly all units have their use, and its ok some are used less, as they are more specialised in their job.