Useful Tips

[22sec]

As someone who has been playing AB for a decade I thought maybe I could share some tips and help to shed some light on the mechanics of AB. It truly is a wonderful game, but like my simulation one needs to understand some of the nuisances.

-If moving units along road network use March formation and Quickest path.
-If you want your scouts to avoid detection use the Scout waypoint and Covered path. I would also set their formation to Free. Free formation often helps units stilck to their orders and path more efficiently.
-When you want formations to advance off road make sure you set path selection to Shortest path.
-If moving through restricted terrain I would recommend using the Free formation.
-If moving through restricted terrain I will often use tighter Spacing to help with unit cohesion
-Don’t purchase company sized formations unless you are playing a desert map. In closed terrain such as Europe, units should be advancing in platoon or smaller sections.
-Use the Ctrl+Left Click To Disable and activate waypoints. Use this to preplan movements, such as a deactivated reverse order for a unit defending on along a crest.

As I think of more I will add to this list.

[pensfanvw]

Good information. Thanks!

[exsonic01]

+1
I agree with free formation. Free formation is useful when your armored platoon or company should pass the forest or a city block. Free formation + quick path is one of the dev's recommendation to pass forest fast, but I more prefer to use free formation + short path.

I still use company sized mech infantry or tanks for European battlefield, but only for myself. As a human player, I can minimize the negative effect from company formation in this game. (But of course play with platoon is easier than company) But AI cannot do that. So, purchase platoon based units for AI if you want to see better AI.

[nikolas93TS]

When going in forests, I personally prefer Quick path SOP and FREE formation. That keep vehicle units in particular on roads. I don't recommend tight spacing, wider is better for pathfinding at the moment but can be detrimental in case of ambush.

[exsonic01]

For better shadow intensity:

Matrix Games\Armored Brigade\data\graphics\

There is a file 'mapcolors1.xml' Open it, and find the "hillShadeISO". Default is 1.0. Change it to 1.5~1.7. You can set 2.0 but sometimes 2.0 intensifies shadow too much for steep terrain.

[zacklaws]

1. When positioning your units during setup. Select the unit you want to position, open the LOS tool, search around the map using the LOS tool to find a position that overlooks the killing area etc or dead ground to keep them safe. Once you have found a suitable location for the task in hand, do not move the mouse, press the space bar and left click with the mouse and that unit will position itself on the location. And then recheck you got it right.

2. To keep your scout units safe and concealed as the "Scout" command will not prevent them opening fire, either give them a "Hold" fire command or better still, set the maximum range for both hard and soft tgts to only about 100 yds or whatever you want. Otherwise, they will open fire on anything at any range as soon as they see them and give there positions away. If you give them a "Hold" fire command, be aware that they can be easily destroyed if an enemy unit comes upon them whereas with the ranges set, they will open fire just before they are discovered. Also do the same with HQ units which you want to keep safe or any HQ units you are using as FOO or MFC parties etc which you have hidden away observing the battlefield.

3. To avoid the time delay, when opening fire with a unit that has had a "Hold" fire SOP, select "MAX" range in the SOP's and units will open fire immediatly, otherwise their will be a time delay if you select "short" or "Eff" sadly it does not work the other way round if you want a unit to hold fire and they will keep firing until the time delay is up wasting ammunition and giving positions away etc.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: 22sec

-If moving units along road network use March formation and Quickest path.

The 'march' formation doesn't use the SOP pathfind option.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: zacklaws

3. To avoid the time delay, when opening fire with a unit that has had a "Hold" fire SOP, select "MAX" range in the SOP's and units will open fire immediatly, otherwise their will be a time delay if you select "short" or "Eff"

An alternate way is to select 'set range' in the right-click command menu and then right-click to reset the range.

[22sec]

ORIGINAL: Veitikka

ORIGINAL: 22sec

-If moving units along road network use March formation and Quickest path.

The 'march' formation doesn't use the SOP pathfind option.

Makes sense.