Airborne - Wanna Go

Blow Up HQ?
By Bloodsent
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Contents

Chapter 1: Cracking open Airborne ................................................................................................ 2

Basic Allied Doctrine:................................................................................................................... 2

Airborne Premise: ....................................................................................................................... 3

An Overview of Airborne Abilities: .............................................................................................. 4

Paratroopers: ........................................................................................................................... 4

Supply Drop: ............................................................................................................................ 5

Smoke Drop: ............................................................................................................................ 6

Dummy Paradrop: ................................................................................................................... 6

Strafe: ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Bombing Run: .......................................................................................................................... 8

AT Gun Paradrop: .................................................................................................................... 8

Air Reconnaissance: ................................................................................................................. 9

Chapter 2: Looking at the holes in the Parachute, or Airborne's weaknesses ............................. 10

Allied Philosophy: ...................................................................................................................... 12

Allied Units and their Tactics:.................................................................................................... 14

Barracks: .................................................................................................................................... 14
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About the Author: This is my second attempt at a guide for new players looking for information

about doctrines and faction tactics. My primary is a Terror commander, but Airborne has been

a great deal of fun lately, and has some nice abilities, even if some need some tweaking. My

tactics tend to focus on strong basic units coupled with a mid-game modular fighting unit, and

low-cost abilities. This lends a versatile force capable of wielding every weapon they have

available to them well. While it's not as flashy as an artillery heavy AB commander, it is

economical and resilient; giving the units I use strength throughout a game. It's been interesting

playing AB from Terror, as I took some of the philosophies from that guide and applied them to

Allied doctrine. The result has been some great success, though I am still learning the faction,

and any contributions are, of course, greatly appreciated.

Chapter 1: Cracking open Airborne

Basic Allied Doctrine: The Allies, compared to Wehr, need to have some heavy focus on

map control and recon superiority. More than Wehr, they need to use each and every unit to

their advantage, and know where and how to hit, because each of them has a special place.

Wehr allows some unit tailoring to fit a strategy that you like, but the Allies' units are all

wrapped up into their strategy. Each of them is in some way necessary depending on Wehr's

strategy, and only a few can be truly cut out without suffering some weakness. In this way, I've

actually found the Allied faction to be much more reactionary than Wehr, at least after the

opening moves. You need to prepare for them at least two steps ahead, because your strategy

is often apparent by your unit builds and choices through the game. Veterancy is all the more

important to remaining superior throughout the game, so you need to be more careful with
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units than with Wehr, to make them into walking murder machines by the end game. This will

become clear as you employ higher-cost, higher-upkeep units in the late game, and overall will

be able withstand losses with less resiliency in the late game, when Wehr is stronger. But

having a single Vet 3 BAR rifle can for the most part counter any infantry Wehr can throw at

you.

Neither Wehr nor Allied are more tactically challenging, rather, they each have different tactical

philosophies, and the Allied faction is a little less familiar than most. Wehr needs to have strong

area denial and the right unit for the right job. Allies have all the units there for them, but need

to wield them correctly. One focuses on meta-game superiority, and the other direct game

superiority.

Airborne Premise: At first, I believe Airborne to be very similar to Terror; a strong offensive

doctrine with built-in fragility. I have discovered, however, that Airborne is very much its own

play style. AB typically has a specialized tool for every job, and a few multitools to support that.

It relies heavily on keeping the momentum, second-guessing your opponent, and providing

versatile reinforcement. Your job as Airborne is to harass the enemy, flank him, and keep his

forces from organizing. Use your talents to destroy his defensive emplacements to open his

flanks, and your mobile troops to deny him map control. In short, Airborne is much like a

spear. They're fantastic for poking holes in the enemy's defense, but once they get past the

point, there's not a lot of protection to offer. Specifically, my take on the doctrine has been

modular offense, or getting the tools to where they need to be, to defend against a variety of

situations.
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An Overview of Airborne Abilities:

Paratroopers: The signature ability of Airborne commanders, this is a must have unit. They

are as versatile as riflemen in terms of what they can do, and they are resilient to boot. Paras

make excellent flankers or meat shield for a flank unit. They can cut off an enemy's supply,

circumvent their defenses, hunt down tanks, decimate static defenses, and survive attrition to

the squad itself. They are a self-contained destruction machine. That's not to say they have

weaknesses. They have no elite armor, and they cannot gain vet. They're not very effective at

anti-infantry combat unless you employ grenades, and along those lines, a fully utilized Para

squad is your most muni hungry ability for AB. They're also costly to reinforce, and have a high

upkeep. But combined with other abilities, Paras become the basic unit that will deny an enemy

an area without a concerted push. They are best fully upgraded, as each upgrade in their tree is

useful in some way, and the ability to drop paras in fog of war should not be underestimated.

When employing Paratroopers, you should also consider what sort of synergy works well with

them. Obviously, they have strong abilities on their own, but by combining them with, say, a

Supply Drop, you now have a fighting force capable of repelling both tanks and infantry, while

pushing. All without crossing miles to get there. Paras are excellent backup for basic rifles,

giving them the AT ability that the rifles lack, while providing excellent flank support. Though

they lack elite armor, in reality Paras are quite resilient. Their health regeneration and

reinforcement makes it so that they can survive long term low-to-medium damage. And they

seem to have some in-built suppression resistance, which combined with effective use of fire-

up, will let them effectively engage light vehicles, and tanks. In addition, they are fantastic MG

decoys to use while flanking with other units, because of this survivability. Most volks and
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grenadiers won't be able to quickly dispatch them (If at all), and even pio flamers will have

trouble ousting them. They're weakest against Ostwinds, and you should immediately pull them

back or get them into heavy cover, if possible.

Supply Drop: Another signature ability of Airborne, this has become a fantastic ability since its

redesign a couple of months ago. It can be tailored in a way that it functions in three different

ways, each effective with different play styles. When looking at this ability, resist the

temptation to fully upgrade it. That will lead to a high-cost, late game ability that is so much

better used earlier in the game, when you need critical resources or equipment. Instead,

consider the three play styles it supports: A fast-tech approach, where you upgrade its fuel. This

allows you to get vehicles out early and effectively.

However, this is somewhat of a one-trick pony, as the Allied faction rarely lacks for fuel, but

often lacks for manpower and munitions. But nothing beats the look on the enemy's face when

you field an M8 long before they get their Pak out. The second approach is a munitions support

role. It can provide 135 munitions to you for a very low cost, allowing you the choices you need

for your high-powered abilities and arty. I call this a Trump style, because it grants you wild card

tools such as strafe, to deal with specialized situations. It can help with inferior map control, or

especially in larger games, when the enemy coordinates their attacks in a single vector.

That said, I prefer the third choice: A cheap, early infantry support ability. This ability gets you

heavy weapons early in the game, saving you the need for building a WSC if you so choose,

while giving paras strong support weapons later in the game when they're beyond your front

line. It can be upgraded to instantly heal all surviving troops, with some moderate reductions in
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manpower costs. If you want, it can also give a negligible muni-fuel boost. But having a mortar

and HMG available right there can be the difference in holding the line or losing it to a wave of

volks. This not only frees up many points for other abilities in the meta game, but it makes the

ability available, cheap and useful throughout a match.

Smoke Drop: Another powerful ability for Airborne, this is an economical talent that gives you

extra flanking power, retreat support, and entrenchment nullification. Drop this on an MG, and

it will clear your infantry to move up and flank it. Drop it in front of a blob, and it will slow

them, while the cover debuff will give your MG extra suppression and effectiveness. Drop it in

front of your tanks, and you can save them from certain destruction at the hands of a Pak. And

you can almost always have it at your fingertips. It's cheap and on a fast cooldown, and a well-

used smoke drop will swing a battle to your favor. It has universal effectiveness across the

match. Beware that it does have a fairly short duration, so you need to move quickly when

using it. In addition, it does have a slight delay, so it's best used as a proactive ability, rather

than reactive. Drop it in front of the M10 engaging the Panther so it will survive longer while

another flanks its rear. If you use it when your M10 is already in bad shape, you're in trouble.

Dummy Paradrop: This ability needs to be upgraded, but when it is, it's like a sinister

combination of blackout and propaganda, and is the bane of units that aren't properly microed.

On its own, it drops a squad of fake paratroopers that have an extremely high targeting priority

for anything that's not an AT cannon. Unless the enemy is focus firing his troops, they will stop

what they're doing to fire on the dummies. This can be upgraded so that the dummies take tons

of hits, and that up to four in total will spawn around the drop area. Finally, the most
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importantly, there's a high chance that these dummies will explode, inflicting reduced accuracy

on enemy units while simultaneously slowing them. The final upgrade will temporarily disable

the weapons of all infantry and bunkers affected (May affect secondary weapons on vehicles as

well, not confirmed). All for a low cost. Unfortunately, there is a slight chance of the dummies

not going off, and it's on a somewhat prohibitive cooldown.

The applications for this ability are strong indeed, especially in the early-mid game. However,

before it's upgraded, it's more or less a minor support ability. It also has good synergy with a

real paradrop, as all units will prioritize the dummies before attacking any paras, meaning you

can do a hot drop without fear of casualties. This is ideal for taking down well-defended 88s, or

support in an intense fight.

Strafe: This is the final answer in anti-infantry firepower. A near instant attack, with no smoke,

means that anything not in a vehicle is going to be absolutely destroyed. It's a somewhat

overpowered ability, in my book, as it deals damage despite cover, and without inflicting

friendly casualties, but its cost is prohibitive, and it only affects infantry. That said, this is the

primary reason Wehr will go armor against you instead of infantry. In addition to destroying

most enemies within its field of affect, it will also pin all enemies there. Usually, the enemy will

retreat all the survivors, but in the event that they don't, you can walk all over him with your

engineers, to say nothing of rifles or paras.

This ability, along with bombing run, is best paired with a high munition supply drop to support

you, unless you have strong map control. It also comes later in the game, which can limit its

effectiveness against Wehr opponents, as they'll start rolling out armor at this point. Honestly,
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unless you're dealing with a huge piospam blob (Or even if), or a line of weapon teams, you

may be better served laying down 6 mines or so with the extra muni, and flanking the enemy

with Paras or Rifles.

Bombing Run: Unfortunately, Bombing Run suffers from several issues that make it a less

desirable artillery choice compared to other doctrinal choices and other doctrines. Fully

upgraded, it deals a fair amount of damage, but is best used against static defenses. It deals

okay damage, but only in a narrow vector, and units can usually move out of its path by the

time the second plane makes it onto the map. And addition, it's fairly easily nullified in larger

games by ostwinds later on. Personally, I think there are better choices out there for the AB

commander, though in a pinch, it can do. Its cost requires that it be supported by munition

supply drops to be practical, but if you're doing so, you can alternatively give that supply drop

to an infantry commander ally and let him off-map barrage your target.

AT Gun Paradrop: Honestly, despite the prohibitive cost of this unit, I have found some good

use for it. When it's fully upgraded, it gives a strong AT defense in a location, while providing

that support without having to drag an AT gun across the map. It's not good to bring out on a

hot zone, but rather to set up behind your line, while using normal Paras as a primary AT

engagement unit. The support paras are only 2-men, and therefore die quickly in battle, but

their ability to build mines and tank traps is very useful for limiting enemy armor movement,

and even though they die quickly, they can give your force the extra oomph it needs to

slaughter some tanks. The upgraded AT gun is actually pretty nice. But the 550 price tag makes

it a difficult choice, especially when you could drop another para squad. Still, a para-supply
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drop-AT drop combination can give a strong fighting force quickly, and help lock down a part of

a map while you fight your main front elsewhere.

The greatest value of the AT gun comes with the ability to get that strong anti-tank support

where you need it quickly. However, it is definitely a secondary drop item. It needs to be

supported to be at all effective, so calling in some Paras beforehand, or calling it behind your

primary line, is the best bet. What you get though is hands down one of the best (Offensively)

AT unit in the game outside of a King Tiger.

Air Reconnaissance: This is a powerful ability to keeping the momentum on your side. By

knowing where you enemy is, where they're moving to, and how strong they are, gives you the

advantage in heading them off and flanking them. It gives you intel superiority, and this cannot

be underestimated in this game. It will reveal snipers and other camo units, and with the

upgrades, provides sight lines for a fair amount of time. Unintentionally, you can also

potentially crash the planes into stuff when they get shot down. Finally, you can piggyback

artillery on the recon, which makes the map your plaything. At least, it would, if bombing run

were a bit more effective.

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Chapter 2: Looking at the holes in the Parachute, or Airborne's

weaknesses

So, we've taken a brief look at Airborne as a doctrine, and what it offers the ambitious

commander looking for blood. Now, we need to take a look at what can hold an AB commander

back. Airborne, like each doctrine, has some glaring weaknesses in its abilities. These need to be

understood, or it will hinder your game.

First and foremost, and this is an issue that many Terror commanders also suffer from, is that

they're too “Top Heavy”. That is, AB has some real spectacular abilities. Strafe, Bombing Run

(Kinda?) and Smoke Drop usually dominate the AB loadout, to the detriment of other powerful,

yet subtle abilities. These high-powered abilities are neat, but they have two major

weaknesses: They're late-game, and they're expensive as hell. By relying on them, you are

forced to alter your strategy in predictable ways, and/or give up usage of a smaller ability that

could save the day over a strafing run. For example, did you know that Paradummies affect

both infantry and vehicles? I haven't tested whether it disables weapons operation, but it does

debuff their accuracy. How awesome is that? And yes, a strafe can take out a blob of enemy

infantry, but so can a grenade and a well-placed mine, at a quarter of the cost.

AB is already a muni-hungry doctrine, as Paras are at their best when able to throw satchels and

grenades, with RR upgrades. Even basic dummy drops will rack up costs, to say nothing of

mines and AP rounds. So when considering your abilities, consider the overall utility of them.

Strafe is fantastic against infantry. But really, how often can you really utilize it? A 4CP ability

with a minimum cost of 165 muni. You can buffer it with a muni-drop from Supply Drops, but
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then that takes up another ability slot and itself has increased costs and CP requirements.

Bombing Run is the red-headed step child of AB, and should not under any circumstances be

taken. There are just too many problems with it right now to justify it.

Another weakness of AB is that it lacks robustness, like Terror. It's somewhat of a glass cannon

that relies solely on the survivability of its basic units to carry it through combat. Paras are a

notable exception, but when compared to Armor and its Self-Repair, or Infantry and its Heroic

Charge, FHQ and Attrition, Airborne is apparently more fragile. So AB needs to focus on

effective tactics to reduce casualties and cause damage. Thus, blobbing is not at all an effective

tactic for AB. While it can be effective to blob Paras to chase down armor, if the enemy has any

second line defenses whatsoever (And a good Axis player will), they will get mowed down by

Mgs, mines, StuHs, what have you. At most, unless you have fantastic map control or are using

a very deliberate team strategy (Such as armor commanders backed up by para-heavy AB), you

should only really have 2 or so Para squads on map at any time. Instead, you need to have an

effective mix of vehicles, support teams and weapon teams, as well as your basic riflemen.

Conservative, intelligent play will lead to this naturally, as opposed to a gimmicky fast-tech or

doctrinal crutch.

To summarize, Airborne has a lot of utility, but not a lot of direct punch. You have a multitool,

which is good for every job, but sometimes you need something great. The result is that you

need to be the one dictating how the game's gonna go. Keep your opponent guessing, keep

them spread out, keep them occupied. If they know where you're gonna go and how, they will

find the Great tool to smash you. That is one of the keys of Allied play though: Axis has a ton of
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units, but it's finding the right unit to get the job done that slows them down. If you play a

defensive game, they tech up and bring out bunker busters. If you play an early offensive game,

they go for the Anti-infantry units. If you play the game close to your chest, they don't know

where you're going. That's AB's primary strategy.

Allied Philosophy:

In addition to examining Airborne as a doctrine itself, we also need to look at the Allied unit

philosophy, which operates in a fashion radically different from its Wehrmacht counterpart. To

do so, we need contrast, and we're going to get it from Wehr itself.

So what is the Wehr strategic philosophy?

The answer is complex, and ties into strategy games as we know them today. Certain strategy

games focus on Tactics, and other games focus on Tools. But what does this mean exactly?

Consider Total War and Close Combat. These are games almost entirely dedicated to tactical

strategy. And they are great in this sense. Total War is, in my opinion, the contemporary

standard of tactical strategy, since the CC franchise died. But operationally, these are

more...Muted games, compared to some other strategy games, which we'll take a look at in a

minute. The nature of making sure tactics actually function requires having units that are often

quite similar. Compare this to “Tool” strategy games. This operates on a sort of rock-paper-

scissor model, where units can have spectacular abilities, but are often hard-countered by

another unit. Starcraft is a good example of a “Tool” strategy game. I name it thus because the

key to these games is finding the right tool for the job. A tactic game essentially operates on the

idea that you have a leatherman at your disposal; it's all in how you use it.
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Now, each game will have a mix of both Tool and Tactics. In Medieval: Total War, you use

spearman specifically to counter cavalry. In Starcraft, you use a mix of long and short range

units, along with their supports. Company of Heroes tends toward a Tactical kind of game, but

is somewhat unique in that its factions each hearken to a specific type. Allies are the Tactical

faction, and Wehr the Tool faction. This is why Wehr has a lot of powerful units. They are strong

in single fields, and meant to be. The Wehr HMG dominates infantry. The Panther is unmatched

in terms of vanilla armor. But Allies can finesse a lot more out of their units. Riflemen are

fantastic anti-infantry and anti-armor support units. An Allied HMG destroys infantry and light

vehicles with equal fervor. Even their armor, the Sherman, can be dedicated to anti-armor or

anti-infantry. In such a way, they must use tactics to achieve their victory.

Now, I'm not saying that any side is better, cooler, or more difficult. Each of them has

difficulties and complexities. That said, Tool strategy games tend to be the ones we often think

of when it comes to strategy. Starcraft and Command and Conquer are the venerable veterans

of the genre. People have all played them at one time or another, and so they are more

familiar. The meta-game surrounding it is more present than with Tactic strategy games. That

lack of familiarity can make the Americans a challenging faction, simply because they are so

alien. It's easy to think that they're too weak, or too difficult to learn. But it's all in your head.

Like my fencing instructor said to right-handers dueling me: “The first person to beat you isn't

the southpaw in front of you, it's yourself.”

Now that you have an idea of how American Airborne functions, let’s look at their units.
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Allied Units and their Tactics:

Engineers: Great units to have, I like to have two in any one game. This is partially because I'm

not particularly heavy on armor, so two give me the flexibility I need to build things and mine

up. One thing that cannot be underestimated in the AB arsenal are properly placed mines. This

will save your bacon if the enemy tries to fast-tech you with accomplished units or so forth. And

in general, this will help protect your flanks and your combat line. 5 mines across a game can

have your enemy tearing his hair out in frustration. Their other defensive structures are great

as well. Tank traps can funnel vehicles into a kill zone and prevent flanks. Wire is useful in a

variety of situations. So always utilize them. Always have them doing something.

Barracks:

Riflemen: Your bread and butter. Riflemen get the job done, and they do it well. The things that

you can do with well-managed riflemen are nearly endless, and Airborne specifically has a

special synergy with these units. Using riflemen is like driving stick. It can be hard to learn, but

once you do, you never want to drive an automatic again. With BARs, they become anti-infantry

beasts. With grenades, they clear buildings like nothing. With stickies, they are the best

supporting anti-armor unit on the Allied side. And with vet upgrades, they will quickly outmatch

even Knight's Cross if you keep them in the fight. And Airborne supplements them wonderfully.

With a low-tech supply drop, you immediately have powerful weapon teams available, courtesy

of a few riflemen. With a smoke drop, you ensure their flank will win. And with Paras, you have

a complete fighting unit, capable of taking on armor and infantry both. -Weapons Utility

Riflemen: Underestimated as a beginning unit, these guys are great for getting the job done on
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tough flanks. Their grenades will destroy units, as will the satchel if you're dealing with an

FHMG, and their immediate stickies give you some traction against bikes and vehicles. That

said, their combat effectiveness pales against carded rifles, and as such, they're relegated as

early-game units. Economic Impact: Light -Trail Blazer Riflemen: Personally, I'm not really a fan

of these guys. They're neat scouts, but if I wanted a scout, I'd get a skilled jeep. They're

somewhat of a lazy man's anti-MG unit. Their fire-up is useful to blast past defensive lines, but I

think it's critical to be able to flank without the help of crutches like fire-up. In their defense,

they get places fast, so they're great back-cappers with a modicum of micro. Economic Impact:

Moderate -Wilson's Riflemen: I think these guys get a bit of a bad rap. While high-level, carded

riflemen will certainly beat these guys, they embody the Allied combat philosophy: Versatility.

They have strong anti-infantry capabilities, long-range grenades, suppression, and good anti-

armor ability as well. They make an excellent early game choice, even with the extra 30mp cost

tacked on. Economic Impact: Moderate

I'll be back later to edit, improve and add to.

Change log:

11/16/10: First Draft, Overview and Chapter 1 complete.

11/19/10: Revamped Chapter 1

11/22/10: Added Chapter 2

11/27/10: Added onto Chapter 2

[Last Edited On: Nov 27 2010 03:48 AM EST (42 days ago)]i

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Source: Airborne - Wanna Go Blow Up HQ by Bloodsent <http://www.companyofheroes.com/forums/strategy-
discussion-37/topics/Airborne-Wanna-Go-Blow-Up-HQ>