EndWar tips

[InfiniteStates]

I'm by no means an expert at this game. In fact, I'm still struggling to complete it offline on hardcore, and have about a 1:1 win/loss ratio online (although it might be slightly better). But for you guys that have recently picked it up, I thought I'd share some little tips that I don't think the game (or manual) tells you that can really make the game easier...

Abilities:
There are three barrack upgrades that are pretty much essential:

1) Stealth (riflemen) - this means an enemy unit has to be pretty much on top of your riflemen unit before they can target them. Very useful in and of itself, but it is also necessary to buy on the way to probably the best ability in the game...

2) Deepstrike (riflemen) - this let's you deploy riflemen anywhere on the map. Really handy for stealing the enemy's backline uplinks. It costs 4CP to deploy as normal (or 2CP in DefCon) and then a further 6CP to DeepStrike. But as your riflemen are stealthed, the enemy won't know they're there until you start to take an uplink (unless you deploy on an enemy unit). DeepStrike riflemen are also useful to hide near the enemy DZ to give you eyes on enemy deployments. If you have airstrikes or artillery in range, this means you can start hitting enemy units as soon as they deploy.

3) Electronic Warfare (support) - this is probably the best off-map support to build into your game plan, because you can use it on any map, unlike airstrikes and force recon. It's most effective against gunships that like to hit and run, but it's also useful for removing the shields from any enemy unit. Especially useful to EMP a target just before artillery shells start landing on it.

After you have these three, spend money on all the 100K upgrades, as these can nearly always be used by recruits. Then move onto the 300K upgrades for units you find yourself using most.

Oh yeah, another really useful ability is the engineer's drone guard. If an engineer is vaguely near an uplink you've captured, have them selected and point at the uplink. Then press triangle to have four drones airlifted to the uplink for 1CP cost. These drones are really good anti-air units, but they won't do much damage to anything else. They do act as recon units as well though, and will slow down infantry trying to take the uplink. If you have 2 uplinks with drones on, parking your artillery between them can be good protection from gunships.

Controls:
I use the controller for maybe 70% of the game. The voice stuff works well, but the controller is actually quicker in a lot of cases. Voice stuff is best for sending units to a place you can't see or moving units that are off elsewhere on the map, away from your main force. Also I recommend you do NOT use the voice to trigger WMDs and off-map supports.

Groups: I nearly always have at least one, if not two, groups made up of an infantry unit and a transport unit. Either hold L2, press up on the d-pad on every unit you want in the group, press triangle to create the group, then release L2, or say "unit X plus unit Y, create group". You can select a group by moving the unit card highlight to any unit in the group, holding L2, and pressing X. Or you can say "control group N".
The benefit of a transport/infantry group is that they are hands free and high speed at grabbing uplinks. If you say "control group 1, secure alpha", the infantry will load into the transports, they all go to alpha, the infantry will then unload and secure without further intervention from you.

DeepStrike: To use this ability, you deploy a riflemen as normal, but before they fastrope into the DZ, tell them to move somewhere else. You can tell it's worked because 6CP will be knocked off your bar. Using voice you can only send them to another uplink, but using the controller you can send them anywhere on map you can see. Make sure their unit card is highlighted, then press X once to initiate DeepStrike, then X again to confirm the CP cost. I tend to just use voice to send them to uplinks though.

I've attached a doc (zipped) that has the developers strategies for all the maps in all modes. That's all I can think of right now... Guess I better do some work :wink

[Symonator]

nice 1 chap.

U seem to know alot i bet u hammer people online lol! :help

[InfiniteStates]

LOL nah I start out well, then get over confident and forget the basic rules and just send units everywhere willy nilly. Then I get picked off and owned...

[Symonator]

av had a good read of this today i am guna go n play now to see whats what