Commandos vs. Paratroopers

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    • Commandos vs. Paratroopers

      Commandos vs Paratroopers

      A much asked question in COW, which is better, commandos or paratroopers? Commandos are the kings of infantry, with maybe the possible exception of mechanized infantry. Paratroopers worth has been in question, with low health and mediocre range. In this guide we will explore in which area's each unit has it's particular strengths.

      BUILDING COSTS

      GoodsMetalFoodManpowerRareOilCash
      Commandos100025025087550003000
      Paratroopers17501000500130005005000


      Paratroopers undoubtedly cost more than commandos in almost every way. You can almost build two commandos for the price of one paratrooper unit. They also require oil, which is often more badly needed for tanks and planes. But commandos require 500 rare to build, which is not always in plentiful supply.

      BUILDINGS

      Buildings RequiredBuilding Time
      CommandosCapital, Industrial Complex Lvl 1, Barracks Lvl 224 hours
      ParatroopersCapital, Industrial Complex Lvl 1, Barracks Lvl 1, Airport Lvl 325 1/2 hours


      One can clearly see that paratroopers take much more time and effort to construct the buildings necessary for their construction. It takes approximately 80 hours to build the buildings required for paratroopers, and only 36 hours to complete the barracks for commandos. On one even note, the time to build the two units is about equal.


      STATS

      InfantryArmorPlanesBuildingsnaval
      Commandos1051.22.00
      Paratroopers4.5-9.01.5-3.01.52.00.3


      As you can see from the chart above, commandos trump paratroopers in every aspect except naval. It takes paratroopers working up to level four to even begin to compare to commandos. Plus, all that research makes paratroopers cost four times more than commandos.

      TERRAIN

      PlainsHillsMountainsCitiesOcean
      CommandosRegReg+100%+25%reg
      ParatroopersReg+50%RegRegReg


      Commandos beat Paratroopers in the mountains and in the cities, but paratroopers have increased strength in the hills. Most of the time, commandos particular strengths will do you the most good, as extra hill strength can be gained from militia.

      When to Build...



      Commandos are best built for every game, no strings attached. They are the best infantry unit in the game, they even beat out elite infantry. While they are slightly expensive in rare to build, they are a treasure to have in any game. Commandos strengths lie specially in mountains and cities, attack power finally peaking at 17.5 attack power attacking in the mountains.

      Paratroopers are a specialty unit, with very real weakness, but they can be used to great effect. While they are not as powerful as commandos, and a single infantry unit could knock them out of the sky, they have their use. they are valuable for island hopping, grabbing empty provinces, capitals, and just and causing chaos in the behind enemy lines. That being said, building paratroopers is a real commitment and costs a lot.

      I hope this guide helps, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or feel free to PM me.

      General Nightman, Intelligence Division
      General Nightman

      Retired Hero


      "War is fought in three ways. Helping your enemy to lose, helping your allies to victory or helping yourself to win. Any way you take it, you are always helping someone."

      The post was edited 1 time, last by General Nightman ().

    • Very well written guide. All over I'd say Commando's are a must have compared to Paratroopers that are a too big investment. As I like the KISS principle to play (Keep It Simple Stupid) I'll stick to Commando's. Paratroopers are definetly worth it if you play with the Philippines for example. If you are Germany and you want to drop behind the French Maginot line to march to Paris.

      What i miss in the guide is the cool down explication of paratroopers after landing and their marching speed compared to commando's. Their SBDE is 8.
      BMfox
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    • I find paratroopers to be very useful, especially against larger players. Having the enemy reroute troops from the front, that could be coming to reinforce the front is a great advantage. It’s especially good when players don’t keep any units in their cities behind the lines. Paratroopers can absolutely wreak havoc on production if you stay with them. Get them to take a city and leave while the enemy recaptures and chases you, then hit the city again. Those cities swapping hands a couple times is devastating to production.
      this has worked for me almost every time I’ve tried it.
      just as in real war, it doesn’t matter how large the nation is. If you can out produce them then you’ve won the war.
      Save the goldfish! They need your help! Goldfish are trapped in small bowls all across the globe!
    • KrestelGaming wrote:

      It's a huge shame that you can only build Commandos in your capital city. Otherwise, I would be spamming Commandos into enemy territory
      Nice thought. But commandoes are supposed to be well trained and highly skilled military units- a notch or two above your average infantry. I believe that the game developers meant the restriction (to only build in capital) to avoid players having an infantry force unrealistically made up of 90%+ commandoes ... 8)
    • gusv wrote:

      KrestelGaming wrote:

      It's a huge shame that you can only build Commandos in your capital city. Otherwise, I would be spamming Commandos into enemy territory
      Nice thought. But commandoes are supposed to be well trained and highly skilled military units- a notch or two above your average infantry. I believe that the game developers meant the restriction (to only build in capital) to avoid players having an infantry force unrealistically made up of 90%+ commandoes ... 8)
      That would be scary. But yes, they are tremendously useful. I cannot play a game without it.
      BeaveRyan
      Moderator
      EN Community Support | Bytro Labs Gmbh


      Training Alliance United Leader
    • I officially hate paratroopers. I costed me an arm and a leg to build, and THEN THEY WERE KILLED!!! MY ENTIRE AIRBORNE TROOPS WERE KILLED MY SOME FIGHTERS AND AA UNITS BEFORE THEY EVEN GOT TO BATTLE!!!!!
      Men you have fought like lions, and have been led by donkeys.
      General Erwin Rommel
      A good plan violently executed now is a better that a perfect plan executed next week.
      General George Patton, Jr.
    • Jacques Thomas wrote:

      Honestly, I don't see how anyone gets along without commandos.
      The price in rare materials can make it very inappropriate for some countries. But yes they hit very hard and are otherwise (not taking into account RM) not very expensive
    • You only have to research it once for max level. And they're monsters anywhere at the level they become available and remain situationally relevant in the late game. I don't think cost is the concern, but some areas of the map just have effectively zero mountainous terrain, and I wouldn't worry about them there.

      Paratroopers, eh, they're okay. Their stats are..okay. Landing behind the front lines is situationally useful, but the range on them is just so, so low. What is it, like 400km? That's a bit absurd with strategics reaching over 1000km. That 400km range doesn't require you keep units behind the front line; it requires you to keep fast units on the front line, which you undoubtedly have already.

      They're slightly more mobile, slightly weaker, vastly more expensive commandos.

      Just a humble opinion.
      Jacques Thomas
      Game Operator
      EN Community Support
      Bytro Labs | Call of War
    • I think paratroopers would be more viable if you could patrol with them, instead of having to select an attack target to make them leave the airfield.

      And be able to stack them with other planes. Why can't fighters escort them?

      All that being said, my favorite infantry unit is mech infantry. Sure, they take a lot more research than commandos, but they are much stronger in any terrain except mountains. With better AA and speed, I might add.
    • Cuursed1 wrote:

      All that being said, my favorite infantry unit is mech infantry.
      Did you look at their upkeep and think about what you could afford to upkeep with those resources instead ?
      I'll take a small tank + 2AA over a mech infantry.
      Basically, i build infantry (those 3 with long barrels on wheels) because they cost food instead of oil and i can't build only units that take oil upkeep. Not wanting to build infantry that consumes oil.

      The difference between commandos and paratroopers is also in its resources.
      Paratroopers undoubtedly cost more than commandos in almost every way. You can almost build two commandos for the price of one paratrooper unit. They also require oil, which is often more badly needed for tanks and planes. But commandos require 500 rare to build, which is not always in plentiful supply.
      That last line is there acting as if its insignificant....

      Using Rare materials on units means you are slowing down your technological progress. That is not nothing. Thats is why most units made with that resource are OP. Commandos are OP, rocket fighters are OP, rockets can be OP, even railroad cannons have some OP potential. Paratroopers dont use that, so they have no right to be OP like that.

      Of course their extensive research also costs a lot of this stuff. So much that if you decide to make that investment, you would have to build a lot of them to make the ivestment sensbible and thus model your whole playstyle around them.

      I think it all makes sense. Espescially because it would be a unit that is very dependend on the players skill and amount of time he is online. That gap is already so humongous. They have to be careful balancing a unit like this. Having an unit that walks slow as shit but is hard to kill is nice, having all skillful players own the weaker ones even harder by dropping cheap stuff far behind enemy lines would not be nice.

      The post was edited 2 times, last by ArjenSmit79 ().