Scouting -
It may sound strait forward but theres a bit more to scouting than just a look at what your about to attack. Know the defences of the depo your about to attack. Should chosen sized depo have a mine factory? it may be hidden off to the side where its not obvious unitll you trip a mine during your attack. How many guns should it have? how many turrets should it have? Count them to be sure, you dont want to discover a hidden tower behind the depo mid attack. If you immediatly see the correct number of towers/buildings you will have to account for them during your planning. look closely around the shape of the depo for any bits of guns/mortars sticking out.
Top tip - move your mouse over the depo, if it changes from a pointer to a hand then there is something hidden there. To be on the cautous side you should check behind every tree, ruined building & old sign on the map for hidden units. Its very common to find suicide bombers behind trees & tanks/gatlin trucks in ruins.
Once you have located all the enemy defenses as best you can you know what to expect during the battle.
Initial attack -
The attack on the depos defences should be familiar to you as you should have picked this skills up attacking bases. Dont worry if your still unsure it just takes time to learn. The standar attack pattern is cobras/copter drones vs mortar towers as they cant hit air power & long range units vs gun turrets, simply out range them.
Top tip Lv 3 Razorbacks outrange all gun turrets & lv6 Paladins, Challengers & Mega Tanks all out range the gun turrets. Be aware that mortar towers have considerable more range than a gun turret and NO ground unit can out range them so its advisable to dispose of the mortar towers first. In some set ups this may not be possible so you may need to bait their fire. This can be done by having fast cheap units dart around infront of your main attack force. The towers will try to target the closest unit (your bait units(the rifleman in this example)) allowing more powerful units to move closer & take down the tower. The rifleman is very good at this and serves as an excellent minesweeper for the weaker units such as the razorback. It may be wise to destroy some walls during the attack to create a direct firing path to your target allowing you to maintain your range advantage. Sometimes due to cunning wall placement long range units will move into their targets firing range to get a direct shot at it.
Cleaning up -
In order to capture the depos you must destroy ALL units & buildings, Walls do not count as buildings but it may make you feel better to destroy some of them. Its now time to seek out the hidden units you found during your scout. You may be able to make an educated guess at what they are (tanks cant hide behind a tree but many can hide in a ruin). Its pretty safe to send a gang of cobras/copter drones to kill a unit hiding behind a tree as the worst it can be is a heavy gunner. If you send in ground units be sure they have the firepower to kill a suicide bomber before he reaches you.
Top tip I do not recommend ground units for units behind trees as it means more travelling and further exposes them to tripping a mine.
However for units hidden in ruins you may have no choice. Send in a more dispose able unit to the hidden units position, observe what kind of fire it comes under. Tanks? Infantry? AA? Once you know what it is you can take it out with the correct tool, aircraft do very well against tanks & infantry, tanks do very well against AA.
Those pesky units hidden off the map/behind icons -
As of Operation Warhawk, you no longer need to kill these hidden units to capture the depos. Once you have destroyed all the buildings & all units within range of your own attacking forces, you take control of the depo. Any hidden survivors will retreat with the defeated platoon.
I'll leave this part in for historical reference so we can brag how the noobs have it easy lol
This is the part we see most problems with. Players will hide units in very hard to spot places. So if you have killed all visible units & buildings & the units you found during your scout then you are more than likely dealing with a unit off the map. By far the best way to find these units is fixed wing air power. That means Winged drones, Thunderbolts & Raptors. Because they must always move they have no maximum detection range like other units do. So even with RUBI off they will seek out and attack those off the map units. Be aware that using Cobras/Copter drones against off the map tanks will not work, as soon as the tank takes the first shot it will run. Your helicopters will follow it trying to attack from max range so the tank will keep running. This will continue untill your attack time expires. Attacking with fixed wing has 2 main advantages here
1) they can fly & attack off the map
2) ground units do not run from them
Winged Drone, light and cheap but highly effective at locating hidden units. It has low health & attack so is often unable to kill the unit. Sometimes a single rifleman can kill a winged drone. If you are looking to use winged drones, keep an eye on them, watch where they fly and attack then once you have located your target, Turn RUBI on & send a ground team to finish them. You may need to repeat this several times to protect your drone & flush out all the hidden units.
Thunderbolt This unit is the ideal candidate for hunting & killing hidden units. It can take a few shots, kill infantry with ease and can kill most tanks in a few passes. Recommended
Raptor Again this will destroy anything it finds with great ease and can take a good beating in the process. However i find it hard to justify keeping a Raptor due to the cost and space.
Wed 27 Feb - 4:09