Overview
I will be making guide for vanilla… I think… maybe… Actually its mostly done now!
Requisitions
Requisitions are various kinds of aid you can buy for next deployment by paying with score from your previous games if you have high enough rank.
Fortifications will give you some kind of fortification in each corner of map. 1-2 sandbags/wall/trench/foxhole/decoy/hot chow/camo net/martson mat/medical crate in US spawn and some kind of trap or barbed wire/martson mat in japanese spawn. When advancing in sector defense there will be new fortifications generated on US spawn.
You can add starting officer for a small price which is always worth it, one would wonder why we do not have requisition loadouts yet or why officer is not reward from some newbie ribbon?
ANZAC commando/Gurkha/Digger/Satans can be unlocked to purchase, but it is not mandatory if you want to fish for infantry by collecting supply crates instead. Satans are pretty bad unit so I would not advise wasting your points there, Gurkhas and ANZACs have their uses and diggers are not something you want to skip.
Lee Enfield requisition will upgrade your riflemen and is very well worth it boosting performance of these units considerably.
Hanyang requisition will uprade 6 conscripts you get from immediate support calls and increase cost by 3 for conscripts you buy with them. If you do not plan on using conscripts except for that call then it is better to avoid it, springfields are much better weapons for 7 points more and will have 20-25% more accuracy as well as extra damage, would it not be better to recruit riflemen instead though?
Top Secret requisition will give you Bob Semple tank which is pretty nice piece of junk to draw away AT from your real armor, armed with many machineguns it will provide fine supressive fire.
Daily Mission will add daily challenge and 6 wounded pilots that will appear during gameplay, healing them will spawn unique officer unit that will run home and reward you with commendations. Teishin Shudan waves will also have chance to spawn Japanese pilots worth 3 commendations when playing any challenge mode. To play challenge without daily mission you need to deploy from challenge page, if you switch back to requisitions you will play without one.
Deployments
There are 7 deployments in vanilla game, 6 of which you will have to pay for and have high enough rank:
Default – Start with 5 riflemen that have their accuracy boosted and 10 command points. Pretty good deployment, probably best for sector defense right now.
Flametrooper – Start with 3 special-trained flamers. Because game favors long-range combat and flamers “get old” it is not really good option.
Random – Start with 3-5 random units. Random and unreliable, if default deployment does not suit you then discard accuracy buff and roll the die! Perhaps you will be able to cut corners, perhaps you will regret it. Sometimes(~1-2%?) will give you squad of unique units.
Digger – Start with 4 diggers and 10 command points. Slightly worse than default deployment but if you want to cut corners on grunts it can be useful.
Custom – Start with 120 command points. Great deployment option that will let you play earlygame how you want. You can embrace signaler squad with 2 officers that will have no trouble killing enemies in early/midgame while paying for themselves by requesting extra resources from HQ and training dummies that do not know which side of rifle should be pointed towards enemy… or whatever else you want, its freedom deployment after all.
Marauder – Start with 3 Veteran versions of Raiders but pay 80 command points in advance. Pretty bad deal, you are buying experience and very small amount of extra stats for command points which could be gained mostly for free. At least you will not suffer from early sniper rush if you give them rifles thanks to their high base detection stat.
Continental – Joke deployment with 10 musketmen and 2 zooks.
Units – Infantry 1/2
Rifleman[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Cheap, simple unit with powerful weapon – springfield. If you use default deployment then your deployment riflemen have their starting accuracy stat boosted.
Engineer[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Poorly trained unit armed with confetti SMG that will lay traps and build stuff for you. Slower than diggers but able to repair friendly fortifications.
Officer[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Poorly trained unit with light peashooter capable of spotting for indirect fire. Boosts morale, greenhorn experience, accuracy(up to 30) and gives extra points to spend over time. 20% of the time observes enemy with binoculars instead of fighting at long range. Enables orders thanks to his officer specialization. Good to have two of them. Special training enables changing their weapons and gives them M2 carbine.
Slow, poorly trained unit armed with carbine to not lag behind your squad too much that enables support calls. Over time gives better morale and points compared to officer, gets used to radio increasing his experience and gives warnings about possible special waves. If you are in need of bodies they are good pick as they will pay for themselves eventually.
Medic[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Your basic and probably best healing option without spending too much. Because they are unable to shoot they can be useful flag or crate fetchers before you get scout commendations. Their medic specialization can be upgraded with with special training to boost healing of dying soldiers and prevent medic getting pinned down.
Cheap single target supression unit.
Machine Gunner[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Slower and “scarier”(lmgs have stronger supression power actually!) supression gunner, will not suffer bunker penalties and switches targets when firing.
Flametrooper[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Cheap short ranged unit that can easily murder your squad, might also randomly explode when getting hit so keep them away from the rest of your units, preferably some rock with barbed wire where they can cook banzais. Special training will give +100 max health and remove getting instakilled by hit to gas tank and make them less likely to catch fire.
Bazooka Man[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Cheapest long-ranged AT option but not very powerful or reliable(accuracy check for overshooting) but as infantry will respond to fire orders for good or bad, mostly good when enemies hide in smoke, heavy rain or fog. Give them hand grenades if you want to avoid some of friendly fire to your armor.
Sniper[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Soldier with great aim, camo and high damage. Keep them as far from enemy as possible to boost their accuracy to even 90%(max cap) after negative modifiers. They sometimes harass rear enemies or go for high priority targets but take their time when fighting so do not expect them to win battles if you go too heavy on them. Simple springfields will outdo them for most combat. Special training boosts their power considerably with scoped garand that decreases aim time and marks anyone they target for death.
Fast and well trained units armed with grenades and trashy smg which should be upgraded pretty fast. They do not step on mines making them good for assisting with smokes or fetching flags/crates and lategame for satcheling heavy tanks as well. Special training will give them heavy full auto carbine and boost their vision by 100 in monsoon(+25%, +50% in fog?), you can swap carbine to proper long-range rifle without losing this boost.
Marine older brother with better stats and more experience. You get them when using their unique deployment option. Best detection stat but other elites can be better with experience.
Unlike most units you need to call them with signaler, after while they will land like crates, pinned down. You can use officer orders to cancel this state right away. They are well trained and fast armed with random weapons: Winchester shotgun, M1 carbine, M2 carbine(full auto), M1A1 carbine(Extra speed), garand, johnson rifle, tommy gun, grease gun. They have slightly worse stats than raiders in the long run and no grenades but could be used as budget premium infantry if you can let them land safely. Special training will give them recoilless rifles making them similiar to bazooka men.
Poorly trained, cowardly and with lower health(-20). If you are looking for budget riflemen and have officers to train them then they might hit something after all. At start of the game you can request to upgrade their mausers to hanyangs but they are inferior to springfields while increasing conscript cost. Special training will give them crappy SMG and molotows.
Cannot be purchased directly, you must either start with them, get unit crate or roll chineese unit from immediate support call to get 2. Fastest infantry under your command armed with sword and mauser(though only used when ordered to shoot). They are tough(+20hp) elite grenadiers so consider giving them some. Excellent flag and crate fetchers that will mass murder enemies in smoke. They have officer specialization to enable officer orders but do not boost stats over time. Special training will give them long range stick grenades and molotows, enemies will suffer.
Just like WOs, they cannot be purchased directly. Their main job is to provide you with cooked meat thanks to their molotows or to be one use AT mine as instead of melee attacking they explode.
Units – Infantry 2/2
Cheap renewable arty option. Can use other units as spotters. Their aiming and reloading takes some time so keep them in safety as they are very slow to move. Special training will give them white phosphorus rounds to cook enemies alive. With few of them your officers can order AOE instakills on banzais hiding behind smoke.
Digger[www.skirmishlinegame.com]
Requires unlocking before mission start to buy. Slightly slower soldiers that can build but cannot repair armed with enfields instead of springfields. With scout specialization they will be fearsome weapon against enemy armor and infantry if you use them to place deadly traps right under enemy feet. If you need to you also can use rifle granades to detonate explosives right away.
Requires unlocking before mission start to buy. Fast, tough(+25hp) soldiers trained in melee combat rather than ranged armed with kukri and enfield. If you could use flag fetcher but have no WOs then with scout specialization you can have someone similiar that will also slice and dice enemies in smoke. Only unit with worse scan stats making them more melee focused.
Requires unlocking before mission start to buy. Well trained and fast, best grunts in terms of accuracy, elite grenadiers armed with AT grenades and owen guns that are long range focused thompson sidegrages. Special training will give them express double rifle that will easily oneshot most enemies. When close enough(range similiar to satchel) to enemy armor they will throw AT nades instead of shooting it. They forgot frag grenades from the base so you will need to give them some.
Tough(+20hp) veteran armed with tommy gun, ready to babysit your officers(up to 20xp) and keep low morale units from desertion. You can only call one per game, Medal of Honor will decrease his cost a lot. Special training will let him use bazooka. Consider giving him grenades to make use of grenadier trait. Starts with 0 detection which with 5 less level ups makes him pretty blind guy when enemy snipers arrive.
Pilot
Availible only in daily missions, gives 1 commendation when sent home which is their default order once spawned by rescuing wounded pilots. To keep them around you will need them downed before they reach US spawn. Armed with pistol, officer specialization and with stats similiar to officer that can’t change weapons and do not buff your squad.
Japanese Pilot
Spawns sometimes during in Teishin Shudan waves if you play with some kind challenge enabled, it might be needed to have some kind of anti-air to get them land. Worth 3 commendations when sent home.
???
Squad of them rarely replaces random deployment, some of them(2/5?) will have special training without stat buffs – MGs. Others with enfields. All of them have grenades.
Units – Vehilces
Paper vehilce with exposed crew and nasty MG for killing rather than supression. Useful in daily missions for grabbing pilots so you can heal them in safety where they won’t run straight into your traps to die. They can also pick up your KOed/dying troops.
Yet another paper vehilce, this one have MG for supression and mortar. Not very useful because of how timid it is and mortar not being able to benefit from officer fire orders. Benefits from spotters.
Inaccurate cannon and exposed deadly gunner. Not great in anything but not too paper or weak either. Works like scout specialists.
Your first reliable AT unit. Nobody is exposed, target is small, cannon is accurate and deadly against armor. AC however will use machinegun on infantry only which means it will have trouble becoming a proper unit by gaining experience. Better to save for something else unless you are in urgent need of AT weapons or simply want to prepare for heaviest tanks. When advancing in sector defense they are useful for detonating bomb duds in your way with bombard order thanks to their small base scatter.
Cheap armor that can take some beating and hit some infantry and armor from time to time with cannon. Useful if you somehow lost your Whizbang and need some aggro control but poor damage dealer for the cost.
Even cheaper stuart with flamer instead of cannon which is… hot garbage? Turns out flamer tank is not best for defending in game that favors long range and throws enemies capable of one-twoshotting your armor, especially when they are close.
Despite how it looks, crew is safe. Anti-Armor, Anti-Personnel, Anti-Air. Expensive glass cannon that will murder anything it can see as long as it is not heaviest armor, Very well worth saving points for it.
Great armor, great healthpool, and great firepower. Endgame armor that can be called only once per game so do not dare to lose it! Once you enter 3 digit waves you probably should consider getting it. Missile rack mounted on top ignores line of sight just like enemy missile trucks so pallisade and smoke will not stop it, you also get MG and pretty big cannon. When missiles start flying you should consider taunting enemy so they run into them.
Can only be requested before game, a lot of supressive fire and some health to tank enemy AT.
25 pounder Powerful cannon with great penetration and bent on shooting closest infantry, potentially causing massive friendly fire every time you are attacked by paratroopers. Benefits from spotters.
Raider Jeep 2 of these bad boys will ride towards japanese spawn when you call them, they do not trigger traps and offer you 4 MGs worth of firepower before dying or disrupting enemy armor.
Bazooka Jeep You can get 0-2 of them when calling immediate support. Bazooka instead of MG, still paper.
Cannon downgraded to exposed zook. Can get 0-2 of them when calling immediate support.
Sometimes sent as immediate support. Heavy armor, cannon and armor + MG. Obviously very solid unit.
T34 Calliope Very rarely sent as immediate support, 10% chance to replace M4 sherman. Basically copy of Whizbang.
Weapons
Stats[www.skirmishlinegame.com] of weapons are something you should check sooner or later.
Damage is pretty simple with “pierce” being buff or debuff to vehilce/structure armor, they will take less(50%?) damage when shot with most weapons as well. Experienced troops can boost damage up to 25% and most enemies won’t be threat anymore when they take 91 or 71 damage.
Rate of fire will always be same no matter how experienced you are.
Aim time is shorter for veterans and gets doubled in flooded trenches.
Burst Length is minimum and maximum amount of shots during shooting phase, random burst size will be used within this range. “Number” stat higher than 1 is for weapons like shotgun that will shoot once, do accuracy check and then do multiple damage rolls if passed.
Clip size show how many times unit will engage before reloading. Yes, garand rifleman can shoot 3 “bursts” with single bullet then reload, bolt-action masterrace!
Reload times change with veterancy and gets doubled in flooded trenches. Infantry can cut it in half by staying near ammo dump.
Ranges are one of most important stats. Battlefield have size of about 650(spawns) by 365(flanks). This means that maximum range is slightly less than 800, even if units are engaging outside of usual map borders. Depending on range your units will receive different buffs and debuffs to accuracy.
Supression have 2 stats. “Value” which is radius around your target where other enemies will suffer supression checks and morale loss and “modifier” which makes checks harder or easier on enemies compared to other weapons.
Speed modifier is possible buff or debuff added to base unit speed.
Mix of special weapon and small arm as they behave like explosive but with special rule – overshooting check based on accuracy which could lead to missiles landing behind intended target. Keep it in mind when you are placing units behind your vehilces if you do not want japanese zooks to gib you!
Scatter is radius around target where explosive will land, assuming target will not move. Can shrink down to 75% at maximum veterancy.
Projectile speed distance that missile of handheld launcher will travel in one second.
Radius determines damage of explosives depending on distance. Whole vehilces/structures will count as “hit”, not only center of it.
Penetration is “pierce” version of explosives, buff/debuff to vehilce/structure armor.
To change gear of your infantry you need to select them then open quatermaster menu with quatermaster button or rightclick. Most of your units can have their gear expanded or replaced:
Springield is actually best weapon to swap for most units! Its high burst damage, great range and capable of oneshotting enemies.
Enfield from requisition will be better for your units.
Garand is overpriced, shorter range and inferior in combat with its unreliable damage and constant reloads. If you want supression then just buy some machinegunner instead!
Grease gun is just a joke.
Tommy gun s better but still suffers from being smg – outranged by enemy grenades and basically useless when defending except maybe fog.
Carbine is midrange weapon for those that are not supposed to fight but to run fast.
Winchester shotgun is fastest weapon to aim and blasting enemies away within tiny range radius. Reduces scan timer by 25%.
Hand grenades are expensive weapon you can give so your soldiers have one more attack to consider if enemy is close, most useful during fog, extremely big banzais and paratrooper raids. Units with grenadier trait or 50+ xp are the ones you should give them first unless they are your backline and could harm troops closer to front. Get ammo dump constructed before buying for 50% refund chance.
Brass knuckles boost melee skill and damage of trooper, mostly useful for warrant officers and gurkhas or important unit that somehow got engaged in melee and needs any help possible.
Some weapons[www.skirmishlinegame.com] are given with special training, if not then you usually get johnson rifle which is better garand but pretty expensive even if you consider stat boosts.
ANZAC commandos called with immediate support will have silenced stens equipped, likewise half of conscripts will have hanyangs even if you did not request them before mission.
In general you should have bolt-action rifle focused infantry if you want to survive lategame, burst damage and range is way too important.
Command, orders
Retreat orders infantry to retreat from A to B or B to C when playing defense in depth. Once there is no infantry left standing your vehilces and infantry will appear in new zone, with some generated defences depending on your preparation score and extra command points. Requires officer.
Surrender ends the game.
Taunt spawns new wave and resets the timer. For fastest spawns you should wait till enemies launch wave at you then taunt them to send second. Very important order if you want to stay alive in lategame. Separate cooldown.
Rolecall shows you health and specializations of your infantry and exposed vehilce crews, useful for finding units hidden under textures.
Situation report refills your overrun counter and boosts morale in defense in depth mode.
Naval interdiction doubles time between enemy waves. Extremely useful during fog or when you are being overwhelmed.
Advance to next zone when playing sector defense by placing all your units close to enemy spawn to claim more land, command points and boost morale and experience of your infantry. If they are not close enough it will highlight the area ALL your units need to be in, this means static units will prevent you from advancing. Enemies can have MG emplacement or machinegunner in trench/foxhole/pillbox on new map.
Concentrate fire of your infantry on specific target, buffind your squad accuracy for short while. Useful for dealing with high priority targets, getting rid of mobile cover or simply buffing accuracy of your units. With some units you could also add some supression or AOE damage power to this order.
Tell your squad to get up buffing their effective morale, movement speed for short while and removing pinned status.
Tell your squad to get down pinning them down and giving them some damage resistance for a while.
Lay supressive fire on randomly chosen enemies, dead or alive. Your squad will suffer accuracy penalty for some time, enemies will have reduced effective morale making them easier to pin down.
Bombard area with cannons of your armor. Reduces scatter for some time, forces first salvo on target area and enables 2nd as follow up right away without reloading.
Smoke grenade is cheap temporary line of sight blockade and 30% directional cover. Useful to stop overwhelming enemy forces from firing or covering your units when fighting very close to enemy.
Satchels are expensive and fast in destruction of enemy armor and structures. Unless you urgently need something destroyed or want someone to gain experience you probably should be using someone with engineer trait to deploy cheaper explosives instead.
Rifle grenades are cheap and fast way to deal some damage over medium range, usually you should call support barrages first instead of using them to have more bang for your buck.
Cease fire for short while and instantly reload weapon. Uses officer cooldown so you should avoid using this order if possible, ideally you should never need to use it!
Apply combat stimulants to instantly increase health by 100, up to 100 over max health. Expensive, but still cheaper than losing good veteran or expensive specialist, especially if they can fetch flag.
Satchels, smoke grenades and rifle grenades are refunded 50% of the time if you have ammo dump built.
Order soldier to fall back and prepare defences in defense in depth mode. 60 seconds cooldown. Boosts morale.
Special training will boost stats of unit and usually gives them special gear, if class does not have one it will get johnson rifle instead. Defense in depth gives 20 command points discount but can only be used on A/B points and gives them fall back order, if they get KOed you can still use them.
Send home useless units if you fear wrath of special japanese waves. Very short cooldown. If you are on fall back cooldown you will be unable to send units home.
Support
Howitzer barrage is powerful support capable of killing armor and slaughtering infantry. Do not be afraid to use it if enemy armor is covered behind smoke, it is cheaper than repair kits, vehilces and your crew.
Mortar barrage is cheap AOE damage, useful for dealing with support units, banzais or simply saving points if you know you would be forced to use rifle grenades.
Naval barrage is expensive and devastating support that excels in slaughtering infantry and armor alike, even heaviest tanks break easily.
Smoke barrage is cheap and safe option to blind enemy armor, especially heaviest one because it is safer and cheaper to blow it up with AT mines than spend your bank on naval arty and bombs.
Cancel barrage will stop support units, call takes some time though. Useful when you need different kind of support right away.
Broken Arrow barrage will lay powerful barrage on whole map 1 second per command point you had and prevent you from gaining command points from enemy waves(Officer/signaler/crates perhaps still can give you points?).
Barrages have 50% chance to be refunded if you have forward observation point built.
Strafing run requires good weather and deals instant damage by flying once over battlefield and shooting its guns at requested location. Might kill a lot of infantry, might miss them all. Useful for dealing with trucks as it is cheaper than bombs.
Bombing run requires good weather and drops a powerful bomb with power of naval round, better blast radius and accuracy reliable enough to kill even heaviest armor with 2 hits as long as armor does not negate damage. Expensive burst damage that should be used only for emergencies.
Gunship support requires good weather and will help you with unreliable cannon and machinegun fire. It is very expensive for what it offers and while the cannon have buffs against armor it fire too few and inaccurate rounds to be reasonable support most of the time. Naval/howitzer barrage or simple bombing runs will be way better usually. If there are many heavy tanks though, you could call it on edge of japanese spawn to have much higher accuracy and score kills even on heaviest assault armor.
Airdropped minefield will drop scattered cans that have power similiar to grenade over big radius. Very overpriced for what it offers, sometimes useful to protect flanks from junglers even a little bit.
All of above have 50% chance to be refunded if you have forward observation point built.
Aerial resupply will send you a supply crate. Not really sure why someone would want to use it aside from very overpriced experience for units that have trouble getting it. Rumored to refill missing crew on vehilces sometimes.
Medical crate will send you crate that slowly heals your units to their max health+20.
Engineering crate will send you crate that refills any missing crew and repairs 200hp of vehilce that collects it.
Paratrooper support will send you 4 paramarines. Not really worth it in my book, especially if they drop in front of enemy or your traps in mid/lategame, earlygame you should be saving on good anti-armor.
Immediate support[www.skirmishlinegame.com] is cheap mid/lategame gamble that can save your game as long as you have very few operational units to boost chances of success. 6 conscrips will have hanyangs even if you did not request them, ANZACs will have silenced sten guns, Calliope have 10% to replace sherman.
Long range patrol unit will spawn 2 raider jeeps that you can’t control. They will drive towards enemy spawn guns blazing. If they succeed they will disrupt armor spawns. They will not trigger traps but still could trap themselves in barbed wire.
Fortifications
To build things you will need someone with engineer trait – Digger or engineer. You can stack protection from small arms with different statuses from fortifications.
Foxhole gives trench status protection that decreases enemy accuracy by 25%, boosts effective morale by 50 and protects from far away explosions radius. Indestructible.
Trench does same but is bigger. If you want to hide whole trench in camo net then rotate it. Indestructible.
Pillbox gives pillbox status protection decreasing enemy accuracy by 50%, boosting effective morale by 50% and protecting from explosions. Units without garrison trait will have their scan time tripled.
Sandbags offer 30% directional cover.
Triage is static unit that spawns up to 3 medical supplies that instantly heal units that collect them.
M45 Quadmount is static(but not lost when retreating, they have wheels) unit that pins down and shreds infantry as well as paratroopers.
Pallisade creates veeeery thin line of sight blockade and triggers suicide trucks.
Decoy draws enemy fire, though more experienced units are less likely to target it. They have 350 health.
Barbed wire maims and slows down anyone that goes through it with 5 points of damage. Infantry will suffer 33.(3)% speed penalty, vehilces 66.(6)%. Rotate it to basically disable any enemy vehilce.
Martson mat prevents new tunneling attempts. if you do not want suicide bombers to spawn in your bunkers or trenches then you better build it!
Mines blow up infantry and light vehilces with ease. Spawns in stacks of 2-4. Great way to secure flanks and wreak havoc on banzais.
Flame fourgasse can’t be disarmed and once triggered have chance to instakill anyone too close. Victims spread flame on other units as well and suffer movement penalty from barbed wire but do not trigger traps themselves.
AT mine is cheap way to get rid of enemy heavy armor. Better to not place it in advance like mines because anything heavy enough that you would want to use them will probably never make it that far before lighter armor triggers it or it gets blown by stray explosives. Best to toss it directly under or in front of enemy armor when its blind from smoke. If you really need something blown up fast but satchels are too expensive and weak you can detonate AT mine with rifle grenade.
Timed democharge is cheap way to blow up tunnels, trees, bushes, rocks, unwanted assets or enemies. Timer is random and not very short though and damage is not as strong as AT mines.
Mines, fourgasses, AT mines and democharges have 50% chance to be refunded by ammo dump.
Forward observarion post refunds offensive support 50% of the time and is also unselectable static unit disguised as fortification! Remember this when playing 12 man challenge.
Hot chow boosts morale of your units every wave and decreases morale of spawned enemies by 5. Get it running earlygame or face massive desertions later!
Designated resupply zone have 50% chance to be spawn location of random supply crates, paramarines and… enemy paratrooper waves! Usually used as enemy spawn filled with fourgasses which do not damage it like explosions. Their spawn effect stacks.
Camouflage net offers 10% directional cover and boosts camo stat of units by 0.8, which means they will not be seen 80% of the time when enemies look for targets on top of base camo value of unit. Building more than 2 will have no effect as camo camps at 0.95. Rotate it for best coverage.
Ammo dump Decreases reload times of nearby infantry by 50% and 20% reload and scan times of vehilces. 50% to refund ANY KIND of explosives, smoke grenades and traps! 50% to refund by ammo dump if you already have one, though refund effect does not stack. You do not want to be near it when something explosive hits it for obvious reasons…
Weather
There are 4 kinds of weather[www.skirmishlinegame.com]:
Default – Sunny day with no modifiers. Obviously best weather for player as it lets you clear whole map from safety of your spawn.
Rain – That floods trenches slowing down alpha strike and decreasing dps by doubling reload and aim timers. Because sight range is 1000 in practice nothing changes with visibility. Combat gets harder, morale is worse, fire is weaker, movement slower and worst of all – air support is not availible! Despite lack of US planes, it is still considered good weather, you can still safely kill enemies from safety of your spawn, though its probably time to get some zooks out to not get murdered by vehilces covered with smoke. Lategame it is best weather thanks to movement and accuracy penalties that benefit player armor.
Monsoon – Rain 2.0! Visibility now is really impacted and penalties bigger. It is probably good time to call naval interdictions and for sure to howitzer/naval arty on enemy armor and support units if you can’t keep up with getting rid of them. If visibility improves you might not like what happens when enemy is still alive.
Fog – If you made it to mid/lategame you will be tested! Air support is not availible, your units hardly can see a thing(Except M3 carbine users – trained marauders and raiders) and enemy support units get confused where they should be so they keep advancing. Its time to kite enemies with vehilces, call support, naval interdiction and launch hand grenades! Enemies that have grenades do not need to see you to use them so kill them before they can smoke and frag your infantry!
Enemies – Infantry
Machinegunners excel at supression and morale drain, if you do not have hot chow and trenches or do not quickly deal with them you will be facing desertion crisis very soon! SNLF+ tier gain satchels and grenades. Shidans gain smokes.
Officers spot targets for enemy support units outside of map, give smoke grenade cover and apply 25% damage resistance; morale, melee and speed buffs to everyone as long as at least one of them is still alive during banzai, otherwise they provide passive accuracy buffs to nearby units. Counter their binoculars with enough firepower and/or camo nets.
Bazookamen will try to land a hit on your structures and armor, if you hide your units some distance directly behind armor they target you will be taking unnecessary damage even when they miss and overshoot. Shidans gain smoke grenades and are so infamously dangerous that they are usually highest priority targets among infantry, especially when they spawn on flanks where smoke covering spawn will not blind them.
Flametroopers will try to roast your men alive and cause desertions. SNLF+ tier gains smoke grenades and satchels.
Suicide bombers do what suicide bombers do. They will take any armor with them unless its lucky Sherman/Calliope/Whizbang.
Elite riflemen trade away japanese advantage of range for more burst damage to punish units bold enough to stay away from safety of their spawn, armed with satchels and hand grenades. Shidans gain smokes.
Snipers are very dangerous support version of riflemen, especially earlygame when its easiest for them to blend into obstacles and stay semi-invisible. Unlike your snipers they do not lose accuracy when shooting at targets close to them, they actually gain it!
Sappers main job is defusing your explosives and blowing up your structures and armor with satchels.
Flagbearers bring your gifts! When killed or routed they will leave behind 20/60 command points you gain from collecting their flags. Flags can’t be collected by vehilces unlike crates and despawn over time.
Skirmishers like to run around from cover to cover, throw smoke grenades and abuse their range advantage over your rifles.
Grenadiers are dangerous medium-short range enemies armed with molotows, long range stick grenades and smokes. They like to brawl so will charge into melee even when you are not under attack by banzai.
Biketroopers are weak, fast units that will perform minesweeper duties and try to beat you by overruning your position instead of fighting.
Workers were in wrong place at wrong time, now they are running towards you or from you. While cowardly and weak, they can still be deadly in melee brawls. There are rumors about japanese scientists running nasty experiments on these poor folks, some are supposedly enhanced with experimental combat drugs.
Mortarmen are nasty units that will keep bombing you out of existence. Very dangerous earlygame.
Tasago volunteers often called junglers are nasty flankers that excel in nading, smoking and slashing anything too close to japanese spawn. They have their very own breakthrough wave full of them.
Enemies – Vehilces/other
Tunnels are “units” spawned as part of waves and will appear anywhere on map some distance from edges of battlefield. If left alone they will turn into infantry tunnel or artilerry tunnel. Infantry one is pretty harmless unless spawned near your minefields or in your defenses and when it opens spawns few enemy units including suicide troopers so remember to build martson mats else you will lose whizbang one day in very nasty way. Artillery tunnels can only spawn near japanese spawn and take very long time to do anything but eventually will start telling enemy support units where to shoot and you will suffer wrath of enemy barrages. Early-/Midgame you should get rid of them as soon as possible by blowing them up with timed charges/barrage orders. Lategame they usually die too fast to stray fire, still you should bombard them when you can.
Special waves(todo)
Specializations
For 3 commendations you can buy one of these promotions, specializations cost specialization slot and 5 command points with exception of officer promotion which cost 20. Some units start with medic or officer specialization and will not be able to get any.
When you buy specialization you will be able to use it X amount of times every mission, this means you do not have to worry about losing them, they will still be there when you play again.
Demolitionist reduces cost of satchels by 5 points, can be useful on special trained elite troopers like Gurkhas and raiders but simply having ammo dump already does that and way more, with both you will have 2.5 point average cost of satchel, it is not best use of points when dealing with most enemies but raider trap evasion and their speed will shine when combined with demo to get rid of special heavy tank breakthrough waves.
Grenadier will cause your troops to throw more grenades, I saw as many as 4 from single units with elite grenadier trait. It also does feel like they will think about throwing grenades more often.
Promotion will cause you to lose 20 command points, specialization slot add 250 priority making them sniper magnets and enable officer orders. Considering officer costs 30 points and does same + buffs your units without commendation cost you can probably guess yourself that promotion is hot garbage. Only real use for it is not getting normal officer units when playing 12 man challenge as it is obviously better to have signaler officer instead or extra vehilce/elite trooper.
Pointman decreases accuracy by 20 but not less than 3 and boosts max HP by 50. No-brainer pick for any unit that does not use firearms like mortars or flamers(zooks use accuracy for overshooting check). Not too bad for those with less than 30 accuracy too as your officer will train them so they remember which side of rifle should be pointed at enemy.
Scout lets you units continue moving and shooting small arms, it will not let them move after getting target first or use special weapons like grenades(sometimes), bazookas or mortars, in that case they will stop to shoot. Scout will also spot targets for nearby indirect fire infantry and vehilce units.
Rearguard lets your units switch targets when firing and decreases scan time by 25% but at price of 80% of their vision! For rearguards its always foggy.
Vanguard increases short and medium weapon ranges by 40 and 20. It mostly benefits CQC small arms users but honestly I do not find it that useful now. Game favors playing long range so smgs or shotguns are gamble you probably should not be taking. It still can have some use for 2nd line of your defences if you are afraid of friendly fire and 20 pixels extra might give you that 10/20% bonus accuracy you needed to hit. Machine gunners will like it, snipers will hate it as they get penalties to accuracy instead.