What 5 tips would you give new players to the game?

[DougHole]

What 5 tips would you give new players to the game?

Here's mine.

1. Don't rush off and leave your first deployment zone completely undefended. All too often you see a Command Vehicle, a bunch of artillery and nothing else except a passing reinforcement on the way to the front. Defend what you have and build from there.

2. Use AA effectively and get to know the different AA unit types, long range AM, short range cannon, or super long range rockets. A few infantry with SAM are ideal for defense. For attack try mixing in some cheap AA to follow just behind the breakthrough tanks. Many players often succeed in breaking through but forget to bring any AA and so are at the mercy of any helicopter. And finally also note, players are generally scared of deploying their helicopters near any of your AA, even if its really cheap AA and short range, so even a cheap AA unit here and there can help dissuade airborne units from probing into your lines.

3. Long range artillery in high numbers is a waste of money. Think about alternatives, such as short range mortars, or bringing your artillery up to minimum range to get the best accuracy.

4. Don't simply copy the units everyone else takes. Look at the weapons a unit has, and play to its strengths with their deployment. Legion with SMG and Paratroopers are better at infantry fighting in forests than any Chassuers FAMAS for example.

5. Make assaults in a coherent manner. Recon the enemy, suppress the enemy, then send in the first attack wave while preparing the follow up. You may also want to consider diversionary attacks to get your opponents gaze somewhere else at the critical moment.

Good luck with your gaming.

* Edited to reflect expanding knowledge

[varis]

1. Appreciate the challenge. You are expected to do quite a bit of studying and thinking before you can hold your own on the battlefield, but the depth and tension of the game can be very rewarding. If it all feels just too hard, get some friends and play co-op against easy AI.
2. Appreciate the players. Both helpless newbs and bitter old vets are just trying what they think is their best. Understand where they are coming from and think that in 1 month you could have 100 friends inviting you to play fun games or 100 enemies who are telling their friends (=host of the game) to kick you from the lobby. Also, if somebody doesn't reply to you in the text chat, it doesn't mean they are sociopaths, they just might not talk much english because it's not their native language.
3. Learn to love cover! When you see a bush, put your tank in there. A hedgerow, hide your infantry. A forest? Populate it with infantry and ATGM units. In the open, your units will be seen and die quickly. Even if your elite tank cost 320 points to deploy and the stats look ueber, it will pop instantly if the enemy has deployed a good counter.
4. Supplies are important too. Always bring a supply truck with your tanks and ATGM units. Nothing more embarrassing than losing your force of "invincible" T-72s because they ran out of fuel and ammo, and couldn't run from the approaching enemy or shoot back.
5. Even the strongest players have many weaknesses. Find and exploit them. In public games, most players are just good enough to win against the average player and their tactics - even if they are level 80. If somebody is pushing your lines with 16 tanks and 8 pieces of arty, it probably means they have a CV with very little defenses somewhere. Send some units there and pop it - you may still lose the game, but it might make your day

Have fun!

[ChrisJ]

What 5 tips would you give new players to the game?
1. Don't rush off and leave your first deployment zone completely undefended.

I would rather say don't be afraid to rush off and leave your first deployment zone. Most new players don't push up enough to gain any type of map control as they leave too many units at base.

Either defend or recon. Recon is cheaper than a defense, and lets you know exactly what your opponent is doing. Recon, recon and recon.

[OpusTheFowl]

What 5 tips would you give new players to the game?
1. Don't rush off and leave your first deployment zone completely undefended.

I would rather say don't be afraid to rush off and leave your first deployment zone. Most new players don't push up enough to gain any type of map control as they leave too many units at base.

Good point. A lot of times you can abandon your initial stating zone for another very close-by with a feed. Even on Highway, you can get to Bravo/Foxtrot and double your income rather than spend the 200pts on another HQ to take the mentioned zones.

Math wise, buying that new 200pt HQ to take that 2pt zone, it will take you about 6 and a half minutes to break even...(generally speaking)

[PrinceDeTolly]

1. If you are going to bring expensive units, you should probably get the skills needed to micro those units so that they don't die instantly (suck as heavy tanks/apaches or havocs).

2. Don't under estimate the value of an armed unit behind enemy lines. With enough effort, you can use it to kill commands, harass the enemy supply lines, or provide recon of the enemy positions. If you get good at using armed recon for this, you can even accomplish all three with one unit! For these types of missions, only NATO has any really decent units for it, so I suggest using the ERC-90 Saige or the Luchs A1. Deltas also work well for attacking CVs in forests.

3. A longer battle line makes for more chances to flank. I constantly see people bunch up their units in a 500M wide blob, and they try to use sheer force to rip a gaping hole in the enemy defenses. Don't do this. A longer battle line (I usually aim for 4000M or so) allows you to cover much more area form enemy attacks, and if an enemy assault comes into view, just wheel the edges of your line around and envelop them.

4. RECON EVERYTHING. By the middle of the game, I usually have 5-7 recons milling about in my front lines and the enemy's back lines and locating as many units as possible. If you can see everything up against you, you can arrange your forces accordingly and be able to respond to an enemy attack the second they start rolling forward.

And finally, 5. COMMUNICATE. Tell your teammates what you are doing, and usually they will tell you what they are doing back. I always tell me teammates if I'm going to make a push on an enemy position, and usually they will help me, whether by putting a MLRS barrage on the area that I'm heading to, or sending their forces with me to attack the enemy lines. Then, when they tell me they are attacking, I'll do what I can to provide gunship support or mortar strikes wherever they are pushing forward to. Good teamwork and communication is the difference between your units lying dead in a flaming field and the enemy being crushed.

BONUS- If you think an enemy saw your command, move it. NOW. Not later, as soon as possible. If you don't, you better hope your command is lucky enough to dodge high explosive arty shells.

[varis]

3. A longer battle line makes for more chances to flank. I constantly see people bunch up their units in a 500M wide blob, and they try to use sheer force to rip a gaping hole in the enemy defenses. Don't do this. A longer battle line (I usually aim for 4000M or so) allows you to cover much more area form enemy attacks, and if an enemy assault comes into view, just wheel the edges of your line around and envelop them.

In my experience it doesn't quite work that way. A concentrated force of units (a blob of tanks, most probably) can be very devastating. And a properly deployed battle line may be hard to reel in in time.

A new player still probably shouldn't do that, most of the time because:
a) It can easily lead to a misunderstanding of the game, there's much more to it than concentrating your firepower, and you need to be aware of all that stuff even if you are doing it.
b) Might not work with a new guy who doesn't know why this tactic would or wouldn't work. Which units to put in the blob and which not, etc. The enemy would just counter the strategy.

[EricTerminator]

3. A longer battle line makes for more chances to flank. I constantly see people bunch up their units in a 500M wide blob, and they try to use sheer force to rip a gaping hole in the enemy defenses. Don't do this. A longer battle line (I usually aim for 4000M or so) allows you to cover much more area form enemy attacks, and if an enemy assault comes into view, just wheel the edges of your line around and envelop them.

In my experience it doesn't quite work that way. A concentrated force of units (a blob of tanks, most probably) can be very devastating. And a properly deployed battle line may be hard to reel in in time.

A new player still probably shouldn't do that, most of the time because:
a) It can easily lead to a misunderstanding of the game, there's much more to it than concentrating your firepower, and you need to be aware of all that stuff even if you are doing it.
b) Might not work with a new guy who doesn't know why this tactic would or wouldn't work. Which units to put in the blob and which not, etc. The enemy would just counter the strategy.

A 500m wide blob is more or less the size of a corrected Buratino/MLRS barrage, just saying...

[IR0NMIKE 6]

1. Use ground recon units for your front

2. Use air recon for your flanks and rear

3. Don't use a command chopper to take a zone 1km away

4. Hit the enter key to send chat messages

5. Save and study replays

[DeuZerre]

1) Use recon.
2) Don't think infantry is bad jsut because it dies in the open.
3) If you have the opportunity, kill the command vehicles.
4) Sides, hit the sides!
5) Don't forget the move fast command.

[Misfit]

Ive got only 2 tips to add:

1) Make friends in game (or better yet get your friends to play the game)

2) Use armored command vehicles