Overview
The “Bloody Obvious Guide on Frozen Synapse” covers tactical combat, and covers such issues as when to move where and so on, as well as stance, most fast vs. slow, and so on.
Introduction
Why another guide? Think of this as a supplement to the other excellent guides. In fact, you should go read them first, then come back and check this one out. It’s okay, I can wait.
Got that? Good. This is Frozen Synapse Tactical Combat 201: Intermediate Course.
The objectives are often obvious… even “bloody obvious”… Kill the enemies before they kill your special objective unit, or any other units.
But how do you accomplish that, given what you know of how the universe works?
Through maneuvering, of course. The idea is to put your units BEHIND the enemy units, and prevent enemy units getting behind your units, or pop into enemy’s view.
Let’s start though with some basic tenets of FS combat. There are always exceptions, which is why each of these will be discussed, as well as how they apply to your tactics.
- Stillness beats movement (generally)
- Cover beats open (generally)
- Closer beats farther (generally)
- Line of SIght (LOS) beats no LOS (generally)
- Explosives beats no explosives (generaly)
- Shotgun beats assault rifle (AR) (generally)
- AR beats sniper (generally)
Stillness Beats Movement
From Principles of Combat: “the more qucikly a unit was moving before they started firing, the longer it takes for them to get a kill shot”.
Let’s postulate two units, both have sighted each other, and both are in range. If one was standing still, and the other was moving, then the moving unit will die because the unit standing still will be able to fire first. The faster the unit was moving the longer the time it will take to take a shot upon it sighted the other unit.
If both units were moving, then the one making the shorter movement, or closer to its destination (and thus slowing to stop) will shoot first.
NOTE: You can play with range and line-of-sight to make this rule non-applicable.
Cover Beats Open
If two units have sighted each other simultaneously, but one is in cover (in a window where he is half-covered) and the other is not, assuming both have each other in line of sight and both weapons are ready and in range, then the unit that is not in cover will die.
This is often arranged with explosives, such as when RPG guy takes down a wall or two so one of your MG guy behind cover suddenly see a new enemy, who was NOT behind cover. Both of you were standing still, and thus no stillness bonus. But your guy is in cover, that guy was not.
NOTE: So stay in cover, if you can.
Closer beats Farther
Let’s setup a scenario. Say enemy unit has locked on to your VIP, and is about to shoot. You managed to slip a unit behind that enemy unit. Will your unit shoot in time to save the VIP… or not?
For this purpose, let’s assume that the VIP came into view of the enemy unit at the SAME MOMENT your unit sighted the enemy unit. Assuming the usual, line of sight, no cover, weapon ready to fire, weapon in range, and equal movement penalty (or stillness bonus, depending on the way you count), the determining factor is range. Range determines how long the unit will take before it opens fire. Call it “target acquisition time”.
If your unit is closer to the enemy unit than the enemy unit is to the VIP, then your unit have less firing delay and will kill the enemy unit before he can fire upon your VIP. If your unit is further from enemy unit than it is from your VIP, then your VIP will die.
Line of Sight Beats No Line of Sight
Weapons in Frozen Synapse, with exception of RPG or grenade, has no “area of effect”. You have to make a direct hit to kill someone, that means you have to have line of sight to kill something (except RPG and grenade).
So how can you get line of sight when the enemy don’t have you in line of sight? By coming up on them from the side or from behind, of course.
Shotgun beats MG (or Sniper)
Give equal sighting time, line of sight, and so on, shotgun will shoot first.
Shotgun is a short-range ambush weapon… Rush in, shoot, or sneak up on people, shoot.
NOTE: Shotgun, however, has limited range. So stay out of range and/or his LOS.
MG Beats Sniper
Sniper has very long range, and can track targets through obstacles (in limited circumstances). But it has a VERY LONG target acquisition time. Thus, encounter between sniper and anybody else, sniper will probably lose.
Obviously, you need to put sniper behind cover, with a nice wide field of view, and put other units to cover the other approaches and protect it.
NOTE: The only way to kill a sniper is to surprise him… Stay out of view until he loses track (figure one whole turn), then rush in and kill him before he can acquire you.
Explosives Beats Everybody
If you get get the RPG or greande to hit, the area of effect damage is enough to take out multiple units (if they are dumb enough to bunch up like that). RPG is always fired manually, as not to commit fratricide (unless that is your intention). And if you shoot it close enough to hit a wall next to you, you deserve to die.
Counter tactics: As the explosion destroys cover, if you get hit by one, you are doomed. You pretty much have to go high speed, flank the shooter from multiple directions, and hope at least one of you makes it before he kill all of you.
It’d help if you have a sniper or other long-range shooters ready to take out the RPG guy once he pokes his head out.
Move to Shoot, or Move to Move?
Those who play FPS knows that sometimes you move but also ready to fire, while at other times you just want to run from cover to cover, never mind aiming at the enemy. Once you arrive at the cover, you can then resume aiming.
You do this by giving “no aim” order at the starting waypoint, and then set the aim direction at another waypoint down the line.
Your unit will move faster if it’s not looking for enemies while it moves. If you know you’re nowhere near enemy vatforms, then just move to move.
After all, unless you expect to find enemies, why not move at maximum speed?
Bounding Overwatch
You have multiple units, so you should set them to watch each other. Generally you only move half of your units each turn, and set the other half to watch over the units that’s moving as well as toward the enemy vatforms.
This is especially important when playing one of the “dark” maps, where you don’t know where enemy units are except direct Light of Sight, and if they can see you, they can shoot you. Thus, run past windows, then have a different unit flank it.
Never Duck For Cover
Frozen Synapse does NOT reward ducking behind a half-wall for cover. You may think you’re being clever in popping up behind cover, hoping to surprise someone. However, there is actually a kill shot penalty for “stance change”, i.e. from ducking to standing, in that your vatform will not be able to fire off a kill shot for about 0.35 seconds. So assuming same weapon, same viewing distance, one standing and the other standing up from ducking, equal cover, the one already standing will kill the one that’s trying to stand up.
Ducking may be useful in a “blind game” where you cannot see the whole map, but instead only see what your vatforms can see. Thus, ducking behind cover and pop up later may be able to surprise someone, but in general, it is rather useless.