Strategy
From Battle Dex
Contents |
Select Appropriate Cards For the Map
The first thing you will want to do once you get into a game is take a look at the board. This will help you determine which cards are going to give you the best chance to win. Some boards are larger, so you will want to select movement cards like Airlift or Troop Transport since everything is further away. Some boards have few resources so you may want to select cards that will give you units at a discounted cost.
Make sure you take time to study the maps and it will help make card selection easier and more effective. For constructed games, you will want to create a few decks ahead of time using the deck editor.
Work With Your Game Play Style
Generally speaking, everyone will develop a certain play style and have certain tendencies. Some players like to get a position set up and dig in. Some like to go straight for the opponent's headquarters to try and destroy it. Still others like to be always on the offensive, looking for units to engage. Whatever your play style is, be sure to select cards that will compliment it and not work against it.
Special Units (Cards)
There are a number of cards that can be used to buff units. These cards can do anything from doubling a unit's speed to making a unit invisible. They can be used to increase a unit's armor, vision, damage, or range. These can be extremely useful when used properly. For instance, if you can get an artillery unit into a good safe position, you may want to use a card to increase its firepower. If you find yourself outmatched by enemy air units, you can use a card to increase the armor and firepower of an AA unit and take them out.
Special Units (Heroes)
Heroes are heavily buffed versions of the standard units. They are more expensive but are able to dish out and take significantly more damage. You can only have one hero on the battlefield at a time so make sure you pick the right one.
There are two types of hero cards, temporary and permanent. Temporary heroes have a duration of 4 turns before they self-destruct. These heroes can be placed anywhere on the board as long as they are placed next to a friendly unit. These can be helpful if you find yourself outmatched in a certain battle and can't get regular units there in time. If you find that an enemy has several AA's shooting at your air units you can drop in a Light Tank Hero and quickly take out the AA's. Temporary heroes include Infantry Hero, Light Tank Hero, and Fighter Hero.
The other type of hero is permanent, but must be placed in a starting hex. These units are much stronger than the standard versions and are more expensive. Permanent heroes include Heavy Tank Hero, Heli Hero, Artillery Hero, Anti-Air Hero, and Recon Hero.
Veteran and Legendary Units
Any unit that makes multiple kills will gain Veteran or Legendary status depending on the number or kills. This will give the unit a 15% heal as well as buffs to armor and damage as follows: Veteran status (2 Kills) gives +25% to Firepower and +15% to Armor. Legendary Status (5 Kills) gives +50% to Firepower and +25% to Armor.
Effective Card Combos/Usage
Card combinations can be used in certain situations to make "Super" units. For instance, take a standard infantry and apply a Guerrilla Fighter card and a Kevlar Armor card to it. This will result in an extremely tough infantry unit that is stealth, inflicts a lot of damage, and is difficult to kill.
You could also take a Heavy Tank and give it armor, firepower and speed buffs. You could even use a training card to give it credit for one kill so it reaches veteran status more quickly. This also works great on Helis and Fighters. Be careful when using this strategy, however, as the investment in gold and card slots can put you in a hole if the "super" unit gets destroyed quickly.
There are a few cards that you will find very handy to have in your deck. Some of these include:
Heals/Heal Over Time - These cards can be used to repair a certain amount of damage to mechanical and infantry units. They are a good value and are often much more useful than replacing a unit that gets destroyed. The heal over time cards will heal a small amount of damage each turn for a set amount of turns.
Airlift - These cards can take a certain number of ground units from anywhere on the board and, and in one turn, move them to any other location on the board that is next to a friendly unit. This can be great if you need to get a certain kind of units into a battle in a hurry. They can also be useful if you find yourself in a battle that you can't win. You can get those units to a safe place and they'll live to fight another day.
Evac - The Evac card is used to move a set number of units from wherever they are on the battlefield back to your base (or a teammate's base). The Evac card is the only way to transport both infantry and mechanical ground units with the same card. It is also the only card type that can transport air units. Like the Airlift card, this card can be useful for getting units out of an unwinnable battle. It is also useful if you're someone tries to blow up your base.
Starting Turn
Once you've got your cards selected, you're ready to get your fist turn set up. Generally speaking, the first thing you will want to do is get some infantry units placed and headed to the nearest resource. The sooner you can get those resources captured and producing gold for you the sooner you'll be able to build your forces. You can send some infantry out to control points at this stage as well, but just be sure to get your resources covered. Since infantry units won't need to stay on a resource once it's captured they can then move on to the next resource or control point.
Once you have the infantry units on their way, you can take your leftover gold and start making your ground or air units and moving out into the field. Remember that your infantry units can't take much damage, so it may be a good idea to provide them some cover until they capture their objective -- even if the cover is only a Recon unit. Often you and your enemy will be going for the same resources at the start of a game so whoever brings the most hardware will usually prevail. On some maps, you will be able to cover a couple of infantry units with a single fighter or artillery while on other maps, things will be far too spread out and you'll have to decide which resources are the most important to protect.
Game Play
Complimentary Units
When putting your units in play, you will want to consider which units work best together and make sure to get units that will compliment each other. An Artillery unit is practically useless without a unit to give it vision, consider a Recon or AA Halftrack to assist it.
If you make nothing but tanks and artillery, you will be an easy target for any enemy air units. Try to keep a good mix of AA's and air units near your tanks and artillery so they can defend against attacks from any type of unit.
Terrain
You can use the terrain to your advantage. An artillery unit can fire directly over a mountain, while other units cannot. If you can find a spot near the battle that will keep your artillery protected while your other units are ahead to give it vision, you can do massive damage with low risk. You can also use terrain to your advantage in other ways. Enemy units can only fire when they have line of sight, so you can duck behind mountains or around corners to get out of sight or to prepare a surprise attack.
Priority Targeting
An important thing to keep in mind while playing is how the AI decides which units to target when no unit is selected as priority target or pursuit. The AI will always shoot at the unit in its range that has the lowest hit points. The one exception to this rule is AA Halftracks, which will always shoot at an air unit before any ground unit. If you need to be sure to kill that enemy artillery unit that's pounding your forces, make sure to set it as a priority target. If you need to kill the enemy infantry that's trying to take your resource or control point, you need to be sure to set him as a priority target or set your units to pursue him.
Control Points and Resources
Control points are captured by having an infantry unit on a control point hex at the end of two consecutive turns. Each turn thereafter you will receive one Victory Point for each control point held. Control points can be very hard to capture as everyone needs them to win and will be directing resources towards them. If an enemy gets an infantry unit on your control point, you will not receive any points from that control point for the first turn. After the second turn, the control point will become theirs.
While victory in Battle Dex is achieved by capturing and holding Control Points, you'll never last long enough if you don't have a good supply of gold. For this reason, you may want to put more effort into taking and holding resources than Control Points. Each resource you control not only gives you that much more gold each turn, it is also giving your opponent that much less.
Once you've captured a resource or control point, you may want to assign some kind of unit to protect it. If you leave a recon or infantry unit directly on the resources you own, then any opponent will have to destroy that unit before they can capture it from you. This may give you just enough time to get some additional units in place to defend it.
In Battle Dex, you never know who is going to try and take your resources or control points and from where. It could be a lone camouflaged infantry unit or a full on ground attack. You will always need to be on guard and you will need to continuously be producing units to help protect your existing resources, counter enemy advances, and to move ahead and take more resources and control points for yourself.
