This “short” rapid guide is to help those trying to find a composition that would enable you to do a wide range of roles in a single deck. Focuses and Playstyles are something you as the player can develop over time and once you find the aspects you like, you can tweak or remake your decks as you need. For this will be only going over a US Deck but consider the same of RU just with their vastly variying options.
Contents
Guide to Compose the Deck
Сrеdit gоеs to Yeet Machine!
Specializations
USMC
Flexible and jack-of-all-trades, this spec brings the Marines, CAAT Dragons, Tow Teams, HIMARS and all Helo and Aircraft options you have.
They have some very high-tier units for both aggressive pushing and holding a stable front.
Scout Snipers provided the on the ground Laser Designation capability and Forcon can excel in pushing deep into lines and engaging light targets.
LAV Family with 25s, AD, ATM, M and L for covering various roles on all sides
Some “decent” armor options like the M1A1 FEP bringing a unique HE shell for soft targets
Having access to the Osprey enables for high speed air assault and enough to carry 2 Marine squads
AH-1Z for great rapid response and also the options to run AA (along side the AH-1W) or more local SEAD operations with the AGM-122 Sidearm.
Diverse Air wing with Hornets and F-35s for you most aggressive plays, along with Harriers for frontline work and Prowlers for SEAD.
Armored Brigade
Big boys, heavy hardware. Great at spearhead attacks, pulling off longer lasting fights and keeping the opposition at range for a price.
They everything you bring comes well armored and protected, Bradleys offer your Mech Rifles fire support for the small 6 man teams they bring to the front.
Good recon and flank support with Cav Scouts providing Javelins as a hard hitting AT option where needed and can have their own Bradley CFV to bring them in.
Some very strong options like the M6A4 SHORAD, M270A1 MLRS and the M1A2 SEP v3
Where it lacks in Air it bring with its heavy armor to make up for it. It worth to consider that it move slow but solid, and can make it a very tempting target, supporting your pushed with decent AA coverage and support from the USMC’s Air Force makes for a deadly combo.
Building A Deck
I don’t really intend to advise on all unit options I’ll put my recommendations.
Your deck has 6 Catergories:
- Recon
- Inf
- Vehicles
- Support
- Helo
- Air
I’ll write what you want to be considering for each category, how you should balance and what can be considered when picking a deck and how to manage allocation.
Recon
Recon is the most important aspect of your deck, you can’t shoot what you can’t see so having a strong recon precense is key. While you can always use your team recon for forward intel, you will also want your own to respond and handle areas out of reach from your team and allow you to create you own attacks.
Consider options for providing recon on your frontlines, and others to push past and spot their rear, finding out what they are bringing up and where their key support units are can have a great impact. Your infantry recon will be your main stay while armored recon are great at bringing firepower to otherwise contested areas of the map.
Infantry Recon is going to be your long standing option, Force Recon and Cav Scouts give you great options for Recon that can assault and assist in a larger fight, they are create for putting up in forward position on the front. They can also manage your flanks and protect them.
Force Recon can hold key cross roads behind enemy lines and use their AT4s to get kills on incoming transports and engage units that are not capable in head on combat, coming in LAVs can help bring some great long-term fire support and transport them at 100 km/h (I actually dunno the measurements used)
Snipers are also going to be your key unit, they are the only infantry unit on the US to provide Laser Designation while being extremely stealthy, they are only a 2 man team and cannot fight in direct combat but with their great range can supress and infantry unit caught out in the open at range, they can also bring the Anti-Material Rifle to deal against soft vehicle targets and the occasional heli.
Your vehicle options are solid too, with the M1A2 SEP v2 TUA being great within an armored column for spotting targets ahead of the main group or supporting your front with a flexible Tank, with the ability to Laser Designate can force spot a target while soaking in damage.
Alternative to the TUA is the BFIST, while less armored and not packing a TOW it can run APS making it useful for baiting ATGMs while then being able to detect the attacking unit, a good option for recon by fire. It provided decent firepower to support assault units.
Infantry
Infantry alongside armored vehicles form the core of any frontline, infantry is good at creating a strong precense but suffers from the wide arsenal out there to wipe them out.
Mobile units such as Marines and Mech Riflemen form you basic attacking force, use of units such as Raiders, Mech Engineers, Mech MMG and SMAW / SRAW excel at supporting these basic units with much needed firepower, they all serve different functions to supporting an attack, some have different trade offs but are all functional in attacking.
Static infantry units being the TOW team or SABER team (when upgraded) and CAAT Dragon provide the wider range support and excellent holding power. Great at denying ground without having to commit something to the table, allow you to counter with a strike or flank.
Of course not to forget that infantry have their local transport options. The Marines bring the MTVR and AAVP. The Armored give you the M2A4 Bradleys (wouldn’t suggest A2 or A3) while being able to bring APS to allow for better survibility in more aggresive situations.
Chosing what you want is down the style here.
Primarily you want to proritize stronger transport options for your units dealing with frontline work, your support elements and backline teams can save you points by opting for cheaper or higher capacity transport options.
Always note the carry capacity of your chosen transport and consider that you might not need enough capacity for every single unit if you’re planning to use heli transport options (or paradrop) e.g. the M113A3 can carry 2 Mech squads (12 seats, 2x 6 man squads).
Vehicles
Your heavy will be your primary pushing force alongside your infantry. The core being the M1A2 SEP v3 from the Armored Brigade and M1A1 FEP from the Marines. You can bring up the M1A2 SEP v2 for those times where you don’t need as armored and as limited SEP v3 to fill the main of your lines until the time comes to fight a T-14 or push at full force.
However don’t sleep on the LAV-AT(M) for bolstering areas rapidly (100 km/h speed), ATM upgrade brings the TOW-2B Top Attack and can be rushed in with a CH-53K King Stallion for those urgent moments.
You can also consider cheaper tank options such as the M1A2 SEP or M60A1 for cheaper and disposble armor options to help pull fire and create other directions of attack, but compared to the SEP v2 and SEP v3 they won’t provide the holding power of these.
Support
Support covered 3 core areas:
- Anti-Air
- Artillery
- Logistics
You will want to work on covering all these catergories in this tab to be able to deal with your range of situations.
Anti-Air
You’ll have 2 areas to consider in providing AA coverage, your short-range frontline AA and long-range air intercept (Patriot)
Your 2 short-range options are the LAV-AD and M6A2/3 Linbacker and M6A4 SHORAD primarily and both are great to bring, the LAV-AD is good for a fast moving frontline and rapid response while the SHORAD has excellent range when having it radar on for the extended range against heli targets.
You also will have the PIVADs as a cheap point filler option, while only packing the M61 20mm gun it can still be an decent solution to anti heli and also intercept cruise missiles and SEAD when its radar is active, also making it a good bait for said SEAD missiles.
Your long range is the Patriot PAC-2, its recommended to always run the 4 missiles rather than the 2, this is your solution to aircraft, having atleast one active is a big deal for creating risk for any air-strike attempt from your opponent.
Artillery
I won’t go too much into this but consider two types of options with you in a balanced deck, ideally one for HE (Anti Infantry, Building and Soft Targets) and one for Cluster (Anti Vehicle and Armor)
The M109A6 Paladin is great for start being able to provide sustainted fire and slowly force your opponent into attrition while the M142 HIMARS and M270A1 MLRS provide great strike potential with either their MLRS munitions or precision guided PRsMs or ATACMs. Its worth to note that the M142 HIMARs rocket options are all laser guideable to allow it to focus all 6 rockets on a precision target.
Logistics
You will want to consider logistics for the frontline and your support elements, artillery and long-range AA need to be supplied constantly to be effective at all times while you don’t want to neglect your frontline, AT, ATGM and AA Teams will eventually run out of munitions to be effective in what they do. You want to consider running at-least 1 LVSR and 1 LAV-L (I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use the M548A3). The LVSR run heavy supply and allows for staging in your rear for Patriots and Artillery while the LAV-L can move fast and be up-armored to bring small supplies to your front line teams.
Heli
Heli brings wide roles, rapid transport and attack options.
The MV-22B Osprey is the fastest transport option in the game and can beat everything else to the frontline, with 26 seats it can pack 2 Marine squads or a decent support team such as TOW and AA teams.
Your next best is the CH-53K King Stallion, having the highest carrying capacity which enables it to transport the all LAVs, HIMARs and / or 30 seats of Infantry. Your heavy hauler for creating fast staging and bringing in large forces when needed.
A great flexible option is the UH-1Y Venom, being able to carry a small team of upto 8 and upto 2500 supplies, while also being able to pack door M134 Miniguns and Rockets, it can make a great aggresive insertion tool for opening up flanks and pushing in, while following up with a short attack once unloaded before pulling away, don’t ignore this choice since 8 seats mean it can tactically place 2 TOW Units or bring snipers in to farther reaches while being small and discrete about it.
The attack options are supported by the AH-1Z Viper and AH-1W Super Cobra, being the difference is the 1Z Viper has dedicated AA pylons (or SEAD with the AGM-122 Sidearm), both can carry rockets and ATGMS (up to 16) for strong stopping power on heavy pushes. Though its important to keep in mind, they are weak to AA and mid cailber such as 20mm.
When considering your choices make sure to bring transport to fill in gaps in your infantry lineup if your are not covering all your transport from the Infantry tab and a solid attack option (at least 1).
Aircraft
Going to completly ignore the KC-130 Harvest Hawk, this is down to choice but if you want to airdrop then by all means. You can airdrop Marine Raiders, Force Recon, Scout Snipers, LAVs and the IFAVs.
Now Airdrop aside, you’re fastest response to any situation is from the AIR tab, you’ve got the F/A-18C as your strongest Air Superiority option while the rest have compliments for both Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground.
The most effective goto strike craft is the F/A-18D packing Mk.83 1000lb and Mk.84 2000lb bombs or AGM-65 Mavericks for solid anti-tank missions. You can also consider the high-drag options like the Mk.82 SnakeEye, CBU Rockeye and Mk.77 Firebomb for doing “safer” low altitude bombing runs.
Similar options can be found on the AV-8B Night Attack but consideration for that it is not as fast and lacks Afterburners means while it can reach its mark, may have a hard time getting out if its found going too deep past your frontline.
The flagship of the AIR tab is the F-35B providing solid options for precision strikes and its stealth allowing it to get closer to the target before detection. Using the GBU-53 Stormbreaker as a cheap and effective bombing option, packing 3 per pylon allow to address individual targets spread out from each other while getting out unscathed. Its other choices for the GBU-55 LJDAM is another choice for a singular but larger bomb than the StormBreakers.
The AV-8B Harrier II Plus can also bring great options for the AGM-65 Maverick, be a back up AA unit (but highly unrecommended) or carry the AGM-122 Sidearms as another choice to the EA-6B Prowler for SEAD duty. It can run strafe runs while simultaneously catch targets for the AGM-122s to effectively breach enemy lines and hurt the opposition.
Consider having something that can be your dedicated Air Superiority option (Mainly the F/A-18C) while having your remainder as various strike options, having bombing and precision options available will be your main for handling all situations you face. Consider carrying less on one platform to bring more on another.
Finals Notes
When considering a deck for starting with, don’t fixate too much on one unit, try and diversify your deck to allow yourself to find what works and what doesn’t for you, once you understand this you can replace what you feel was lacking for those that you didn’t find effective, consider making multiple decks over time and reiterate each game to find your core focuses and abilities but having decks to work will with your other teammates will be a big one when having focuses across all areas.
Good luck out there!
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