World War Armies – Basic Guide (Game Opening, Micro Control and Deck Analysis)

In this guide, we will discuss some tips about game opening and unit controlling, as well as discuss units in the game.

Guide to Basics

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Game Opening

Opening Tips

Get to Tier II Fast!

That being said, for 1 vs 1 games, DO NOT waste your resources on building towers and bunkers in tier I. If your opponent gets to tier II faster than you, you have a severe disadvantage. Our smart reader would recognize that for the tower to be worth its value, you need to wait for more than 2 minutes; the cheapest tower is worth 140 (US) or 150 (Germany and USSR) resources, but only generates 1 resource per second.

This time gap is enough for your opponent to win the game. You definitely want to reach tier II faster than your opponent when the resource crate refreshes for the second time (worth 400). If your opponent sends tier II anti-infantry vehicles (Burner, PW .22, Hound) when competing for resource crates, you will likely lose. Note that those units are especially effective against infantry, so don’t expect to use anti-tank infantry squads to defend positions when they are rushing along with infantry units. The M1 57 anti-tank gun is an exception, it is especially good in defense positions, but the US should get to tier II the fastest.

Take the Resource Crate

It is important to take the resources crates. Especially when they are refreshed for the second time; it’s worth 400 resources and it’s enough to make a difference.

Micro Control

Circling

Our careful reader probably realized that many artillery units do not have a turret, and sometimes they can be circled. If your units move faster than the artillery’s turret spins, just circle around it; the artillery will never hit you because it takes too long to aim. Also, some armored units have lower back armor than front.

Blocking

We can block enemy armor units, especially the less maneuverable ones (the ones that have less movement speed and turning speed). Some units take too long to turn. When they are bombarded by the US officer’s ultimate skill. Their only way out is to move forward and get out of the bomb zone. We can use some sturdy vehicles to block them, and then use the ultimate to bomb.

Retreating and Chasing

Note that when retreating, units will turn around and retreat to the base with the shortest path. Since the retreat path is highly predictable. Again, you can indeed block the opponent’s units. Note that most infantry units cannot outran. When the enemy withdraws their machine gunners, make sure to chase them with your light vehicles and completely kill the units, instead of let them heal in their base.

Decks and Units

Decks and Units

We often hear players in discord chatting about units in this game. Our smart reader already has some understanding about units and strategies for this game. In a well balanced RTS game, there shouldn’t be stronger or weaker factions. The factions should be roughly equal, in terms of likelihood of winning. However, as of update in March 1.26, Germany is the strongest faction, simply because there’s too many superior German units: FALLS, Engineer, Puma, Blitz, PWAG, Jagdpanzer IV, etc.

Here comes a question: what makes a unit good? The answer is: when this unit outperforms other units in the same category, then it’s good. Say, almost any unit can defeat the rifleman squads, that doesn’t make rifleman squads bad. It is irreplaceable in the majority of the decks.

After the Greyhound has been nerfed, no units really outperform PWAG in tier II.

Jagdpanzer IV has a much higher DPS and longer range than other units in the same role (long range heavy anti-tank artillery).

FALLS are super tanky, they can parachute anywhere on the map, they have a decent armor penetration, and, most importantly, they can be deployed at tier 1. They can take and hold positions independently, without the support of armored vehicles.

The Opel Blitz is just broken, which makes Germany way stronger than it should be. It heals armors IN GROUP, much faster than engineers. Why do we need engineers when we have Blitz?

Ironically, German Engineers are very effective against infantry, it has a very high DPS and it’s relatively cheap. They should be seen as anti-infantry squads rather than healing units.

Legendary Units to AVOID

Maus

Yes! Regardless how much we like the idea of ultra heavy tanks being the one of a kind in the game. It is actually the most useless legendary unit, or even the most useless unit, in the game. However, most anti-tank artillery has enough DPS to blow Maus up before it gets close. Maus takes up 5 housing spaces and it is no superior compared to Panzer IV in terms of taking and holding positions.

Units get buffed or nerfed all the time. Let us discuss the units and decks in general. A good deck should definitely include the following units:

• Rifleman squads (for capturing)
• Effective anti-tank units at tier 1 (in case opponent uses armor at tier 1)
• Rangers, jaegers don’t have enough armor penetration to destroy light vehicles, though they are categorized as anti-tank squads.
• Effective anti-infantry units at tier 1 (so we can hold position in early game)
• Effective anti-infantry vehicle at tier 2 (to quickly clear enemy infantry)
• Sturdy tank units at and after tier 2 (to attack and hold positions)
• Anti-tank artillery (to back up tanks and defend positions)

Rifleman (Key stats: health, cooldown)

Rifleman squads are very important, one should almost always include them in their decks with the exception of 2 vs 2 games. The cheapest infantry will be our starting unit, we may choose not to include rifleman squads in the deck so that we can have a stronger starting unit. However, this is not enough to compensate for the disadvantage of not being able to take position swiftly in the beginning, which is due to the long cooldown of more expensive infantry units. The rifleman squads are roughly equal, in terms of strength. German VOLKS have better stats but its cool down is longer.

Effective anti-tank units at TIER 1 (Key stats: DPS, health)

Simply put, if the opponent has tier 1 armored cars and we don’t have tier 1 anti-tank units, we will be in a very bad position.

Effective anti-infantry units at tier 1 (Key stats: DPS, health)

Most of the time, this role will be taken by machine gunners, but the mortar squad, or even German engineers would also do the trick. We must have one of them to suppress enemy infantry in the early game so we can hold positions and obtain resource crates

Effective anti-infantry vehicle at tier 2 (Key stats: DPS, blast radius)

Note that tanks will miss infantry targets when firing. However some light tanks have a wide blast radius so that this is not a concern; PWAG is an example.

Sturdy tank units at and after tier 2 (Key stats: health, armor penetration, DPS)

They are the main units attacking and holding positions. They usually should be backed up by artillery units. However tanks can rush positions independently.

Anti-tank artillery (Key stats: range, DPS, armor penetration)

It is crucial to have those units, because they deal considerable damage to tanks at long range. Sometimes tanks may not even get close to them before they get destroyed. We may put infantry units inside the house to get a good view range, so that our artillery units can hit.

Our smart reader may compare the units themselves. For example, compare Jagdpanzer IV with ISU-152 Best Slayer. Compare the T25 Smoke Launcher with Sherman. Compare the BA-11 armored truck with the BT-7 light tank. Which one does their job better in its role? When the next update comes up, we can change our deck accordingly.