Defcon School - Everybody Learns!
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roflamingo
- level3
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- Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:25 am
Part 2 of Defcon 5/4 placement.... 
Defcon 5/4 Land-based unit installation for beginners (radar, airbases, and silos)
1. DON'T PLACE YOUR BASES DIRECTLY ON TOP OF YOUR CITIES. The reason being is that a nuke aimed at one will hit the other at the same time, known as "buy one, get one free". In a standard-sized map, the European player will need to take particular care with this, but otherwise it should be easy to make sure you do not place a silo right on top of your capital or other major attraction.
2. DON'T SCATTER YOUR LAND UNITS, ESPECIALLY YOUR SILOS. The defensive power of silos is greatly increased if they work together to defend your airbases and cities. A single silo is easily overwhelmed by even a small attack.
3. DON'T GROUP MULTIPLE RADAR IN THE SAME LOCATION. Radar is a crucial early-game target, and better players will be seeking to eliminate your radar quickly. There is little value to having multiple radar covering the same airspace. However, some minor overlap of radar coverage is a good idea, especially over the likely paths that nukes will take to approach your position.
4. DO UNDERSTAND THE RANGE OF ENEMY RADAR WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR UNITS. Nearly every player has the ability to conceal all of their land forces from forward enemy radar (Europe possibly excepted). Why give your opponents a head-start when you can hide your forces? They are going to be attacking you sooner or later, so the less free intelligence you provide to them, the better.
5. DO KEEP SHIPS NEAR YOUR RADAR. Ships have their own radar that you can use to augment your land-based radar, or replace it. The greater your radar coverage, the sooner your anti-air fire can engage enemy aircraft and nukes.
6. DO PROTECT YOUR AIRBASES, AND USE THEM IN CONJUNCTION WITH YOUR CARRIERS. Your airbases contain a substantial amount of your offensive power - you start with 5 fighters, 5 loaded bombers, and 5 extra nukes! You need to keep your airbases, and protect their airspace with anti-air fire and fighter patrols. Placing airbases far away from your silos and carriers greatly reduces their possible uses, and makes them irresistable targets.
7. DO PLACE SOME OF YOUR RADAR AT THE EXTREME EDGE OF YOUR TERRITORY. You start the game with 7 radars, and you don't need all of them to defend. Obtain an early advantage over less experienced opponents by placing some radar as close to enemy cities as you can. Seeing as radar can only take one hit, you won't be keeping all of it anyhow, and a small sacrifice of this unit type may reap huge benefits in Defcon 1.
8. DON'T PLACE ALL OF YOUR UNITS AT DEFCON 5. Come Defcon 4, all placed radar begins to function. If you can spot enemy installations (especially airbases) with your forward radar, you will gain insight as to the potential threat your neighbors pose to you, and then place your own units accordingly. Of course, this may make Defcon 4 a little rushed if you are trying to build many small fleets and carefully place your remaining land forces. Practice quick placement against the CPU.
9. DON'T PLACE YOUR UNITS THE SAME WAY EVERY GAME. Don't place predictably. This is going to be hard for Europe, of course, due to the need to cram 17 land installations into the European space, but there's choices to make depending on how you gauge your opponents and the scoring system.
10. DO KNOW WHAT SCORING SYSTEM IS IN PLACE. If it's default, your emphasis should be mostly on scoring due to the 2:1 scoring ratio. The best way to score in this case is to keep your silos away from your major cities, and either protect smaller cities or protect nothing with your silos. If it is Survivor scoring, then your silos should likely cover your largest cities.
11. DO EXPERIMENT WITH PLACING YOUR FORCES. Did you know you can place 3 silos in Iceland and 4 in Madagascar or Japan? Or 6 on Baffin Island? While I am not suggesting that any of these placements are optimal, it's handy to know how much you can place in any limited space.
More advanced tactics later...
Defcon 5/4 Land-based unit installation for beginners (radar, airbases, and silos)
1. DON'T PLACE YOUR BASES DIRECTLY ON TOP OF YOUR CITIES. The reason being is that a nuke aimed at one will hit the other at the same time, known as "buy one, get one free". In a standard-sized map, the European player will need to take particular care with this, but otherwise it should be easy to make sure you do not place a silo right on top of your capital or other major attraction.
2. DON'T SCATTER YOUR LAND UNITS, ESPECIALLY YOUR SILOS. The defensive power of silos is greatly increased if they work together to defend your airbases and cities. A single silo is easily overwhelmed by even a small attack.
3. DON'T GROUP MULTIPLE RADAR IN THE SAME LOCATION. Radar is a crucial early-game target, and better players will be seeking to eliminate your radar quickly. There is little value to having multiple radar covering the same airspace. However, some minor overlap of radar coverage is a good idea, especially over the likely paths that nukes will take to approach your position.
4. DO UNDERSTAND THE RANGE OF ENEMY RADAR WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR UNITS. Nearly every player has the ability to conceal all of their land forces from forward enemy radar (Europe possibly excepted). Why give your opponents a head-start when you can hide your forces? They are going to be attacking you sooner or later, so the less free intelligence you provide to them, the better.
5. DO KEEP SHIPS NEAR YOUR RADAR. Ships have their own radar that you can use to augment your land-based radar, or replace it. The greater your radar coverage, the sooner your anti-air fire can engage enemy aircraft and nukes.
6. DO PROTECT YOUR AIRBASES, AND USE THEM IN CONJUNCTION WITH YOUR CARRIERS. Your airbases contain a substantial amount of your offensive power - you start with 5 fighters, 5 loaded bombers, and 5 extra nukes! You need to keep your airbases, and protect their airspace with anti-air fire and fighter patrols. Placing airbases far away from your silos and carriers greatly reduces their possible uses, and makes them irresistable targets.
7. DO PLACE SOME OF YOUR RADAR AT THE EXTREME EDGE OF YOUR TERRITORY. You start the game with 7 radars, and you don't need all of them to defend. Obtain an early advantage over less experienced opponents by placing some radar as close to enemy cities as you can. Seeing as radar can only take one hit, you won't be keeping all of it anyhow, and a small sacrifice of this unit type may reap huge benefits in Defcon 1.
8. DON'T PLACE ALL OF YOUR UNITS AT DEFCON 5. Come Defcon 4, all placed radar begins to function. If you can spot enemy installations (especially airbases) with your forward radar, you will gain insight as to the potential threat your neighbors pose to you, and then place your own units accordingly. Of course, this may make Defcon 4 a little rushed if you are trying to build many small fleets and carefully place your remaining land forces. Practice quick placement against the CPU.
9. DON'T PLACE YOUR UNITS THE SAME WAY EVERY GAME. Don't place predictably. This is going to be hard for Europe, of course, due to the need to cram 17 land installations into the European space, but there's choices to make depending on how you gauge your opponents and the scoring system.
10. DO KNOW WHAT SCORING SYSTEM IS IN PLACE. If it's default, your emphasis should be mostly on scoring due to the 2:1 scoring ratio. The best way to score in this case is to keep your silos away from your major cities, and either protect smaller cities or protect nothing with your silos. If it is Survivor scoring, then your silos should likely cover your largest cities.
11. DO EXPERIMENT WITH PLACING YOUR FORCES. Did you know you can place 3 silos in Iceland and 4 in Madagascar or Japan? Or 6 on Baffin Island? While I am not suggesting that any of these placements are optimal, it's handy to know how much you can place in any limited space.
More advanced tactics later...
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MikeTheWookiee
- level4
- Posts: 657
- Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:58 pm
- Location: Kashyyyk / Cambridge (commuting)
Trident wrote:Weps wrote:another hint:
- dont place anything on top (or really close) to a city. It's asking to get nuked, twice for the price of one.
that actually works? so then which is best to target the building or the city?
If you notice your opponent has done this, it is best to target the city.
You get full points from the city and the added bonus of destroying (or nuking once anyway) the emplacement. The other way around you'd hit the building and get a proportion of the full kills for the city - like if you got a near miss / nuke shot down overhead.
Although it may actually go down as collateral on your opponent.
Bombruns (lesson 1):
Position your carriers such that launching bombers synchronized will be easily done. Mostly, I will try to get them
stacked like seen in picture 1. You can go for north/south orientation or east/west, or even diagonal, whatever
your prime targets are. Here, I'm going for Russia, and then Europe. As you can see, I already switched them
to Bomber-Launch-Mode. Before you launch, make sure all are ready. (see picture 1)
Now, once the time is right, launch them. Start with the carriers furthest away from your target. Launch both
bombers. Then launch the next row, and so on. (see picture 2 and 3)
Send all bombers to ONE and the same spot on the map. Preferably a target, which you do NOT want
to nuke. Look at picture 3, all bombers are send to the small city above Leningrad. Of course, I don't
want to obliterate just that target, what I want is for my bombers to get enough time to get close
to ALL my targets before I let them drop a nuke.
As you can see, the bombers are nicely grouped (in 4's). Different carrier layouts produce of course
different results. (More on that later).
Of course, your bombers are vulnerably to fighters: the Russian radar will reveal
this 'suprise' attack, not to mention, any player will always try to get info from his opponents from
his enemies and hence scramble fighters even if he doesn't see bombers approaching.
So, I mostly send some fighters along.
So this gets rid of the fighters, what about the silos? The subs you've seen in the previous
pictures, are launching some nukes to distract them. (Someone called this the Nuke Umbrella)
Once your bombers get into reach, change their targets. The more nukes in
the air at the same time, the better. Now you also know why you have to set a non-important
target as waypoint. Any line pointing there represents a bomber that hasn't been assigned a
correct target. It helps.
While your bombers are heading back don't let them choose where to land. Set a carrier target
for them. You can start doing this right after they are dropping their nukes. Don't wait with this
too long. It's a real chore moving ten bombers from two airbases just to reload the last five.
Also, you can really fast launch another attack.
And here we go for europe. Again, send all bombers to one waypoint, in this case some camel in
Sierra Leone. Switch the bombers to Bomber-Launch-Mode after you have launched all. Switching
them right away might cost you too much time, there'll be plenty of time to do that after you have
launched all bombers.
Switch the bombers to BLM. Notice the BLUE line. It means that at least one bomber hasnt been
switched yet. Also, remember that if you change a bomber's direction after switched to BLM, to
use the RIGHT mouse button (using the LEFT mouse button will have it drop it's nuke!).
Once the bombers have switched, select the waypoint that gets them close to their targets. Notice,
that here, I launch my silos to get my Nuke Umbrella. Since I only have intel
about one silo, obviously, that's gonna be my nr 1 target.
All other silo nukes are aimed at cities, I'll let my bombers have a go silos if and when they
get visible. Do not just focus on the major cities, hitting enough small cities will give you
just as much points (more even).
While the bombers are nearing their targets, they will draw enemy fire.
The bomber is about to get shot down, so release the nuke. One reason is to draw enemy
silo fire, the other being, well, use'm or lose'm.
Again, once the bombers are in reach of their targets, switch the targets and let them rip:
boom
Be aware that doing bombruns like this are no guarantee to win, neither are they guaranteed to succeed.
(I launched the bombrun in Russia a bit too soon..) However, you can do some very serious
damage, especially when you have all intel on your enemy. Hitting silo's, airbases and radar on the
first wave will make it A LOT more easier to scrap those small 'not so important' cities.
Also note that you can only do a bombrun when you got control over the flight paths.
I've too often launched a bombrun from east of New York just to encounter a few fighters from
two lingering carriers. Not a good thing. I've also 'forgotten' bombers, they ended up ditching
in the sea, I've also forgotten to change targets in time, meaning a 1.2 million city got blasted
to kingdom come with well over 20 nukes (at least I got 2 points for it..)
Most suited, imho, are ASIA on Russia (moskou). Russia on Asia (tokio area). Africa on Europe
and Africa on Russia. Why? Because they own the ground below the flight paths. Russia on Europe
will work too once you get naval dominance above the Narvik region, but then, naval dominance let's you fly anywhere (SA on NA).
For those that have questions, post them and I will try to answer them.
Ulitmate goal, get as many white letters on the screen:
The sound is awesome (esp on 5.1), that alone should be reason enough to use bombruns =]
Position your carriers such that launching bombers synchronized will be easily done. Mostly, I will try to get them
stacked like seen in picture 1. You can go for north/south orientation or east/west, or even diagonal, whatever
your prime targets are. Here, I'm going for Russia, and then Europe. As you can see, I already switched them
to Bomber-Launch-Mode. Before you launch, make sure all are ready. (see picture 1)
Now, once the time is right, launch them. Start with the carriers furthest away from your target. Launch both
bombers. Then launch the next row, and so on. (see picture 2 and 3)
Send all bombers to ONE and the same spot on the map. Preferably a target, which you do NOT want
to nuke. Look at picture 3, all bombers are send to the small city above Leningrad. Of course, I don't
want to obliterate just that target, what I want is for my bombers to get enough time to get close
to ALL my targets before I let them drop a nuke.
As you can see, the bombers are nicely grouped (in 4's). Different carrier layouts produce of course
different results. (More on that later).
Of course, your bombers are vulnerably to fighters: the Russian radar will reveal
this 'suprise' attack, not to mention, any player will always try to get info from his opponents from
his enemies and hence scramble fighters even if he doesn't see bombers approaching.
So, I mostly send some fighters along.
So this gets rid of the fighters, what about the silos? The subs you've seen in the previous
pictures, are launching some nukes to distract them. (Someone called this the Nuke Umbrella)
Once your bombers get into reach, change their targets. The more nukes in
the air at the same time, the better. Now you also know why you have to set a non-important
target as waypoint. Any line pointing there represents a bomber that hasn't been assigned a
correct target. It helps.
While your bombers are heading back don't let them choose where to land. Set a carrier target
for them. You can start doing this right after they are dropping their nukes. Don't wait with this
too long. It's a real chore moving ten bombers from two airbases just to reload the last five.
Also, you can really fast launch another attack.
And here we go for europe. Again, send all bombers to one waypoint, in this case some camel in
Sierra Leone. Switch the bombers to Bomber-Launch-Mode after you have launched all. Switching
them right away might cost you too much time, there'll be plenty of time to do that after you have
launched all bombers.
Switch the bombers to BLM. Notice the BLUE line. It means that at least one bomber hasnt been
switched yet. Also, remember that if you change a bomber's direction after switched to BLM, to
use the RIGHT mouse button (using the LEFT mouse button will have it drop it's nuke!).
Once the bombers have switched, select the waypoint that gets them close to their targets. Notice,
that here, I launch my silos to get my Nuke Umbrella. Since I only have intel
about one silo, obviously, that's gonna be my nr 1 target.
All other silo nukes are aimed at cities, I'll let my bombers have a go silos if and when they
get visible. Do not just focus on the major cities, hitting enough small cities will give you
just as much points (more even).
While the bombers are nearing their targets, they will draw enemy fire.
The bomber is about to get shot down, so release the nuke. One reason is to draw enemy
silo fire, the other being, well, use'm or lose'm.
Again, once the bombers are in reach of their targets, switch the targets and let them rip:
boom
Be aware that doing bombruns like this are no guarantee to win, neither are they guaranteed to succeed.
(I launched the bombrun in Russia a bit too soon..) However, you can do some very serious
damage, especially when you have all intel on your enemy. Hitting silo's, airbases and radar on the
first wave will make it A LOT more easier to scrap those small 'not so important' cities.
Also note that you can only do a bombrun when you got control over the flight paths.
I've too often launched a bombrun from east of New York just to encounter a few fighters from
two lingering carriers. Not a good thing. I've also 'forgotten' bombers, they ended up ditching
in the sea, I've also forgotten to change targets in time, meaning a 1.2 million city got blasted
to kingdom come with well over 20 nukes (at least I got 2 points for it..)
Most suited, imho, are ASIA on Russia (moskou). Russia on Asia (tokio area). Africa on Europe
and Africa on Russia. Why? Because they own the ground below the flight paths. Russia on Europe
will work too once you get naval dominance above the Narvik region, but then, naval dominance let's you fly anywhere (SA on NA).
For those that have questions, post them and I will try to answer them.
Ulitmate goal, get as many white letters on the screen:
The sound is awesome (esp on 5.1), that alone should be reason enough to use bombruns =]
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roflamingo
- level3
- Posts: 404
- Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:25 am
Nice pics Weps. And about that tactic, if someone is Russia, with Africa and Asia allied, he better have his silos elsewhere, or those will be annihilated by first wave of up to 44 air- and possibly additional sub-launched nukes... And that will be just Asia... Groupping like 10-15 nukes on Moscow has that collateral effect sometimes:)
I think I was among the first to abandon Hongkong and all Pacific coast cities to put all carriers in Indian, and it is still in good use
PS. Unfortunately, I have little time to play now, but I will return to nuke you some other day
I think I was among the first to abandon Hongkong and all Pacific coast cities to put all carriers in Indian, and it is still in good use
PS. Unfortunately, I have little time to play now, but I will return to nuke you some other day
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Ace Rimmer
- level5
- Posts: 10803
- Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:46 pm
- Location: The Multiverse
roflamingo wrote:^ Defcon Shock and AweThat strat really needs a video to appreciate it's full awesomeness. Preferably with speech narration and a little slo-mo during the arrangement phases.
Nice pictures Weps.
Perhaps that can be in one of the later "advanced tactic's" series I do. I don't use that exact method, but something similar.
Just a tip on the bomber-run over Africa that's Europe bound, you can use a target in S. America or N. America in the same way you used the small city over Leningrad. (to get the bombers to switch to launch mode automatically) Bombers have an extremely long fuel range.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast...
Ace Rimmer wrote:Just a tip on the bomber-run over Africa that's Europe bound, you can use a target in S. America or N. America in the same way you used the small city over Leningrad. (to get the bombers to switch to launch mode automatically) Bombers have an extremely long fuel range.
Yes, I know. And that's what I usually do, however, in this example I had neither SA nor NA.
Mostly, I'll take a city first, then change it to the ocean way beyond the targets, maybe even change course radically. Point is, to take a point (far) beyond the targets you're after.
Anyhow, now it also shows how to do it without a city.
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Ace Rimmer
- level5
- Posts: 10803
- Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 9:46 pm
- Location: The Multiverse
Weps wrote:Ace Rimmer wrote:Just a tip on the bomber-run over Africa that's Europe bound, you can use a target in S. America or N. America in the same way you used the small city over Leningrad. (to get the bombers to switch to launch mode automatically) Bombers have an extremely long fuel range.
Yes, I know. And that's what I usually do, however, in this example I had neither SA nor NA.
Mostly, I'll take a city first, then change it to the ocean way beyond the targets, maybe even change course radically. Point is, to take a point (far) beyond the targets you're after.
Anyhow, now it also shows how to do it without a city.
I didn't even think about it being a two player (territory) game. Oops.
Weps already had a Ph.D., which is why he's so dang hard to beat.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast...
Ace Rimmer wrote:I didn't even think about it being a two player (territory) game. Oops.
Even worse, 2 un allied cpu's =]
Ace Rimmer wrote:Weps already had a Ph.D., which is why he's so dang hard to beat.
I wish I had one if it would help in games versus you, Feud, RC (which it doesn't)
To be honest, I don't think I will last through the first rounds of the tournament. And maybe, neither of you. Can I play under an alias ?
Radiant Caligula wrote:Another tip about launching subs: give each sub one ping before you surface. that way you can escape with subs that would have been doomed if you didnt...
thats a good idea. I usually try to have my subs accompanied by a battleship or two, if thats not possible i send a couple fighters over there location, if thats not possible.. well then sufacing subs is always sort of a gamble. expecially if your opponent is like me and likes to keep some bombers in the air around possible nuke launching spots.
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roflamingo
- level3
- Posts: 404
- Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:25 am
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Radiant Caligula
- level5
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- Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:47 am
- Location: Somewhere sodomized
@ROFLamingo. Do it anyway. More lists are never redundant. Im gonna do some lists too, random topic.
Trident wrote: I usually try to have my subs accompanied by a battleship or two, if thats not possible i send a couple fighters over there location, if thats not possible.. well then sufacing subs is always sort of a gamble
Have you tried this?: if you have a carrier nearby, send a lone bomber in nuke mode to inspect your line of subs. Fly it on the inside, approximately the same as the combat range of a battelship. You can secure the entire pacific rim f.ex. Fighters are pretty useless unless u have a million of them and if close to shore. Once completely successful with your bomber inspection launch all subs and discard the bomber nuke too. (if your lucky, you can use the same bomber's last fuel to scout inland in cover of the sub nukes.)
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