Squad Formations

[NiNJA-LOKi]

Hi, I'd like to know more about the units and the squad formations. Like what's the best formation to take down a Behemoth or a Stormray. So please post the formations you guys use.

My basic formation is Tank/Shield/Crawler.

[TrueBlade]

My standard formation is Tank/Shield/Crawler/Crawler/Shield/Choice*

The * option varies on the mission. Sometimes I will put a tank/APC (depending on funds) back there so my rear doesn't get pummelled as I am leaving an area but most of the time I will put a crawler there.

I go hard and heavy and try to kill everything in my path but some missions it's just not feasible to do so.

Since Behemoths are slow if possible I try to get it to aim at me in the complete opposite direction my squad is coming in so by the time it turns around it's dead.

As long as you hit Storm's on the side with tanks/crawlers you'll get em no problem.

[Hellheart]

I'm taking from Hardcore difficulty here. My default formation early on when I'm going to engage almost anything (as I'll decoy any of the more advanced towers) is either Crawler-Crawler-APC-APC, Crawler-APC-Crawler-APC. In the first case, the Crawler in front will be switched with the APC in the 3rd position after the first tower dies (the Crawler will take maybe 2 laser shots in the process). In the second case, the Crawler is swapped with the either the first or last APC immediately after it fires its first shot depending on the situation. The intention there is to either juggle the two APC's to keep them alive while the Crawlers do all the damage, or to APC-swap to spread out the number of laser turrets targeting each APC.

When I get a Shield, I will sometimes just have it between my Crawlers so they don't instantly die to a stray Leviathan shot, but obviously it's better to have it between APC's in the frontline so you can juggle them and/or the Shield unit to reduce or eliminate Repair ability usage. If I've just got the Shield and Crawlers, I'll switch the Crawlers every time they shoot if they'll survive that, or I'll have the Shield in front and just drop a Repair if I'd switch so often that the DPS loss isn't worth it.

There are missions where I've done better massing APC's until I have 4. Other missions I go with nothing but Crawlers and get a higher score, but those are nail-biting because I can't afford to juggle them since they have to regain their lock-ons. There's a lot of stuff to think about.

[Timusius]

I played through all missions except 2 on hard core and I never bought a single APC.

The way I see it the game is about killing the towers quickly, before they can kill your vehicles. With too many vehicles you'll just end up with some in the back that never do any damage, they just drive along.

With a 3 star crawler you don't even have to look at the screen if it's only driving towards normal laser towers. The towers will be shot to pieces even before they start targeting your units.

I found that the dragon was way too shortranged, and the tank did way too little damage.

Also upgrades are better than more vehicles, so pretty much trough the entire game I ended up with Crawler-Shield-Crawler.

Only on the later levels I added more vehicles. When towers start respawning etc. you'll need a lot of firepower to keep them down.

[ajburges]

I find the Early missions I'm best suited by APC , Crawler, Crawler, Crawler. Build order is Crawler, APC, Crawler (bump up if damage needed quicker), upgrade Crawler 1, upgrade Crawler 2, Crawler, upgrade Crawler 3

[Azhrei]

I got a lot of success out of tank/crawler/shield/crawler though sometimes I'd leave out the shield if there's not a lot of aoe attack towers such as the behemoth or scorcher or that electric beam thing. Leaving the tank vulnerable to direct fire isn't a big issue since it's pretty beefy, especially after an upgrade or two.

As much as I like the plasma tank, I rarely used it in story missions as there weren't as many opportunities for both plasma throwers to be used and that puts a massive dent in it's damage output per cost ratio.

[ajburges]

Tank, Shield, Crawler, Crawler, Shield, Supply (upgrade 2/3)

Shielding everyone saves some repair powers and allows lone Behemoths to be killed without powers. The Supply either gives me decoys (which I commonly run out of) or allows me to abuse air-strike (ever play the last level of Tokyo raid with 40 air-strikes?)

[ajburges]

Hi, I'd like to know more about the units and the squad formations. Like what's the best formation to take down a Behemoth or a Stormray.

(Re)read OP :o

vs Behemoth: Shield lvl 2+ with Crawlers allows a no casualty kill if it needs to turn 180 to engage.

vs Stormray: Tanks are generally the best to deal with these if they can't be bombed/decoyed. They handle the damage best.

The problem is shields reduce the damage you take by a lot over a scenario, but are a liability against Stormrays. They also reduce your front end power if they cover the first unit (which is where their most effective). At some point I plan to try a Tank, Tank, Tank, Crawler/Dragon/Support, Shield, Support squad.

[imaghoststeak]

My formation (so far) is apc sheild crawler repeat:)