Second move

[Pastel]

My opponents always can capture neutral cities faster than I do when I'm the second move.
As a result,they own more cities than I do and I have to try to get back some cities to get rid of financial disadvantages.
Of course,they tightly protect their cities with tanks and artillery and it's extremely difficult to achieve my purpose.
I want to know how I can break the opponent's units and successfully capture the cities.

[CO Raven]

there should be an FTA counter or two on the map if you're playing on a decent one. That'll solve that problem and make it more balanced.

[Kamuscha]

poorly designed maps often do not lend themselves to fair gameplay. The fta issue has been debated and discussed extensively over the past several years. At this point, we have addressed the fta by designing better maps and they tend to have a predeployed infantry for the second player. Most of them are available as league maps. So you could create games with them or join the league for more fair, competitive games.

Best of luck to you

- Kam

[airob]

It would be good if you could post a link of any specific map or game you´ve seen that happen to you, so we can be better judges on the situations.

[Pastel]

Thank you for explaining!
I just wanted to know how I can capture cities my opponents tightly defended.
I usually deploy many direct units and charge enemy's position.
But it's extremely difficult to break shields of infantry and tanks.
As a result,my units are counterattacked by opponent's units waiting behind the shields.
I think I don't understand when I should charge.

[Pastel]

I want to ask one more question here.
CO Chart doesn't say Sami's tanks are weak but results of Damage Calculater show me they're weak.
Are they actually weak?

[Snack]

Yes, all of Sami's direct combat vehicles are 10% weaker offensively. Doesn't apply to any Indirect vehicles though, those are still 100% Offense

[CO Raven]

If it makes you feel better, there should be no more surprises. I just checked and the rest of the chart isn't missing anything.

[Pastel]

I understand Sami's directs units are offensively weak.
Thanks!

[SmackCakes]

Thank you for explaining!
I just wanted to know how I can capture cities my opponents tightly defended.

A lot of the time you can't, and you shouldn't try. Charging head first into heavily defended meatwalls is exactly what your opponent wants you to do.

It is better to look for other cities towards the edges of the map that aren't as heavily defended (usually because they are hard to reach). Even if you can't realistically capture them, you can still send units there and force you opponent to defend. This all requires him to spread his units out thinner, and creates weakness in other areas. If you can stay mobile and identify properties that are going to be weak, early in the game (helps if you have played the map before), then you can have units on their way there with tempo, and sometimes win games before your opponent even realises what is happening.

If none of that works and the game stalemates then the usual course of action is to start massing indirect units, and/or build a black bomb.

Some COs are better at attacking than others, like Max/Eagle/Grimm/Nell/Kindle etc... If you do want to crash headfirst into meatwalls then you could also try one of those.