Sure, AW1 had Max in his good years, much like Rocky. AW2 has Kanbei on drugs, Sturm on enhanced drugs, Grit with superhuman vision, Colin the commie kid and motherfucking Hachi.
Not to mention that the neo tank was a stupid addition that made the md tank nigh useless. Why buy a md tank for 16,000 when you can buy a tank with better movement, better offense and better defense for 6,000 more? This is what makes Hachi unbelievably good. He can buy neo tanks for 11,000 that'll fill his COP up with 22,000 when destroyed. It wouldn't be so bad if he could buy md tanks for 8,000, Grit would just laugh on one of his artilleries.
I don't know about that. People complained and probably still are complaining about Tabitha's COP, Penny with weather enabled, how useless Will is and how Isabella trumps him and Gage in almost every conceivable way.
Weather shouldn't be on in Days of Ruin. It goes by turn instead of day, and can totally fuck over one specific player. By doing this, Penny is just Forysthe with a smaller radius and a potentially bitchin' power.
I think Black Hole Rising is the most balanced if we exclude obvious god COs like Sturm and Hachi. Colin was a little bastard, but not super unbalanced.
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PunkBoyThank you! And thank you again!Registered Userregular
edited June 2008
I just picked this up, and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's my first Advance Wars game, but I think I'm getting the hang of things. And while I had a little misgivings about the plot at first, I'm enjoying that as well.
I just finished C10
Hah, take that you dick mayor. What an asshole.
PunkBoy on
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isabella has better CO abilities because her music is so much worse than gage's and will's
*Sacrficiced FUCKING METAL+1 for POWER+1 and RANGE+1!*
Seriously. Both Gage and Will have fucking awesome themes, the two best in the game even, and Isabella's is so retarded that I couldn't even stand to do her bonus missions. I had to mute the game, and that is something I shouldn't be doing for Advance Wars. Always a male over the female, the music makes up for any strategical disadvantage they have.
Is anyone still playing this? I'm getting wifi soon (freaking finally!) and will be looking to play online a bit with some friendly folk who won't hand my ass to me on a platter.
Apologies if it's not kosher to bump a 4-month-old thread, but it seemed better than making a new one.
Anyone notice how some things (mattresses and the copy machines in Highrise) are totally impenetrable? A steel wall, yeah that makes sense, but bullets should obliterate copy machines.
I don't know about you, but I always buy a bullet proof printer. Its a lot more expensive, but I think the advantages are apparent.
The problem with the tournament we ran for this is that we used default maps, a lot of them too large. All pre-approved customs would go over much better, methinks. Shame there wouldn't be enough interest to hold another tourney.
I have been trying to beat this for a while but I can't beat mission C25, "Lab Rats."
Man, it's been ages since I played this mission, but I vaguely recall a mad rush to the centre or near-centre of the map to get those production facilities and make a slow, steady advance from there.
Of course, that probably isn't very helpful advice, but it's how I managed it.
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Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
edited October 2008
This thread reminds me that I still have to grab a copy of this game at one point. Damn, I wish I had picked this up earlier, I'd have really liked to participate in the tourney to see how good I would have fared against other PA'ers.
Well, we could fight against each other in a mini-tourney. I'm not sure when my wireless modem gets here, Primus is out of stock right now (the idiots...)
I'd be willing to organize a small tournament if we can pool together a sizeable amount of usable maps, preferably between 15x15 and 20x20. I have exactly one that fits the requirement...
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Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
edited October 2008
Heh, sign me up for this - I'd be even willing to buy this game just for a tournament :P
No worry though, I've spent plenty of time with the GBA games and Dual Strike. And I don't suspect finding the right maps would be that much of an problem, there should be lots of good ones available to download by now.
Well, I guess this would be as good a time as any to find out if anyone else plays on advance wars by web. It's basically a browser-based advance wars, with all the characters up to duel strike (including the vs. version of sturm from the first game). Not too many people on there, but hopefully that'll change if I post about it here.
You know, I've had this game shelved for awhile, but I might be willing to play sometime next week (I'm at home now, and the game isn't).
I recall hearing that PVP battles tended to stalemate easily, though.
This has always been true in all advanced wars actually. Walls of infantry supported by massed artillery have long been the dominant strategy in most of the games. It actually got a bit worse in days of ruin because the artillery could easily rack up kills and get to vet status, while the anti-airs (a main foil of infantry) have a much worse match-up vs. tanks now, making them far more costly to use (even though they technically cost less to make.)
Well, I guess this would be as good a time as any to find out if anyone else plays on advance wars by web. It's basically a browser-based advance wars, with all the characters up to duel strike (including the vs. version of sturm from the first game). Not too many people on there, but hopefully that'll change if I post about it here.
You know, I've had this game shelved for awhile, but I might be willing to play sometime next week (I'm at home now, and the game isn't).
I recall hearing that PVP battles tended to stalemate easily, though.
This has always been true in all advanced wars actually. Walls of infantry supported by massed artillery have long been the dominant strategy in most of the games. It actually got a bit worse in days of ruin because the artillery could easily rack up kills and get to vet status, while the anti-airs (a main foil of infantry) have a much worse match-up vs. tanks now, making them far more costly to use (even though they technically cost less to make.)
Should we go through with this, we need to make our custom maps with this in mind - design them with an eye for unpredictability and make the chokepoints as non-essential as possible. I actually have ~three maps I made a while ago which were designed with fair, quick player vs. player matches in mind. One is pretty well balanced, I think, another has gone through a dozen revisions and promises to be the best one if I can perfect it, and a third which, while somewhat larger than the first two, should still make for fluid games. PM me sometime if anyone wants to help test them.
Well, I guess this would be as good a time as any to find out if anyone else plays on advance wars by web. It's basically a browser-based advance wars, with all the characters up to duel strike (including the vs. version of sturm from the first game). Not too many people on there, but hopefully that'll change if I post about it here.
You know, I've had this game shelved for awhile, but I might be willing to play sometime next week (I'm at home now, and the game isn't).
I recall hearing that PVP battles tended to stalemate easily, though.
This has always been true in all advanced wars actually. Walls of infantry supported by massed artillery have long been the dominant strategy in most of the games. It actually got a bit worse in days of ruin because the artillery could easily rack up kills and get to vet status, while the anti-airs (a main foil of infantry) have a much worse match-up vs. tanks now, making them far more costly to use (even though they technically cost less to make.)
Should we go through with this, we need to make our custom maps with this in mind - design them with an eye for unpredictability and make the chokepoints as non-essential as possible. I actually have ~three maps I made a while ago which were designed with fair, quick player vs. player matches in mind. One is pretty well balanced, I think, another has gone through a dozen revisions and promises to be the best one if I can perfect it, and a third which, while somewhat larger than the first two, should still make for fluid games. PM me sometime if anyone wants to help test them.
That, or make maps with a heavier focus on water and air.
Well, I guess this would be as good a time as any to find out if anyone else plays on advance wars by web. It's basically a browser-based advance wars, with all the characters up to duel strike (including the vs. version of sturm from the first game). Not too many people on there, but hopefully that'll change if I post about it here.
You know, I've had this game shelved for awhile, but I might be willing to play sometime next week (I'm at home now, and the game isn't).
I recall hearing that PVP battles tended to stalemate easily, though.
This has always been true in all advanced wars actually. Walls of infantry supported by massed artillery have long been the dominant strategy in most of the games. It actually got a bit worse in days of ruin because the artillery could easily rack up kills and get to vet status, while the anti-airs (a main foil of infantry) have a much worse match-up vs. tanks now, making them far more costly to use (even though they technically cost less to make.)
Should we go through with this, we need to make our custom maps with this in mind - design them with an eye for unpredictability and make the chokepoints as non-essential as possible. I actually have ~three maps I made a while ago which were designed with fair, quick player vs. player matches in mind. One is pretty well balanced, I think, another has gone through a dozen revisions and promises to be the best one if I can perfect it, and a third which, while somewhat larger than the first two, should still make for fluid games. PM me sometime if anyone wants to help test them.
That, or make maps with a heavier focus on water and air.
Water and air help, but you have to be careful to keep the map small or it hurts more than it helps. For smaller maps, I generally go with only small amounts of airports/seaports, and never both air and sea in the same (small) map.
I never got a chance to get this, but I would just like to say this game has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years. The fact that it's coming from the DS is a testament to it's awesomeness.
I never got a chance to get this, but I would just like to say this game has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years. The fact that it's coming from the DS is a testament to it's awesomeness.
I never got a chance to get this, but I would just like to say this game has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years. The fact that it's coming from the DS is a testament to it's awesomeness.
Wil and Gage woooooop
Lin and Brenner's are awesome too.
Isabella's makes me want to stab out my ears. But that's nothing new.
I never got a chance to get this, but I would just like to say this game has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in years. The fact that it's coming from the DS is a testament to it's awesomeness.
Wil and Gage woooooop
Lin and Brenner's are awesome too.
Isabella's makes me want to stab out my ears. But that's nothing new.
I prefer Lili's Cold-Hearted Doll and Larissa's Cruel Rose and about the first 50 seconds of Beam of Light.
Prefer them so much, in fact, that I actually managed to remember the names of those songs. That's probably not a good thing, come to think of it. :P
Started work on a new map, inspired by Dustbowl. Not very balanced yet, but at least, it'll be nigh impossible to stalemate whichever way it goes. I'd appreciate any help testing it with live players; the AI doesn't really 'get' the map.
Inspired by your achievement (fuck that map), I just finished S-ranking everything. Finally, a complete file of my very own!
What did you do for Web River? My winning strategy involved assembling a ~6x5 block of mechs, using rockets to clear out as many of their squatters as possible, and using Will's CO power in a charge for glory. Then, when I (barely) got that HQ, I just set all my factories to mechs every turn and sent wave after wave of my own men at the last dudes. Got me the S rank in spite of the horrific loss of life.
By the way, I do have to mention that I absolutely love dusters. I feel that they totally speed up air combat and make fighter units (which is what most people tend to call them now; the old fighter units tends to get called an "interceptor") able to do more in combat (to ground forces) other than block chokepoints and hog production property tiles.
Now if only something could be done about b-copters to justify the cost of a extremely vulnerable and expensive air-to-ground unit when it doesn't even do a thorough job and it tends to barely stand toe-to-toe with the superheavy tanks. I think the basic problem is they don't have a well developed role in advance wars: Anti-airs are cheaper than them and will slaughter them even on 1st strike disadvantage, so you can't expect them to really last in a fight. 9000$ is a it expensive for a unit to mass, if that's your solution to the problem and dusters will quickly end that plan even if you have the cash. using them as recons in FOW is ok, but come on, 3 vison? That's mediocre and counter-intuitive; it's a fucking helicopter, you mean it really, really can't see any farther? and as for using them as suicidal one-time-use units in assaults, well... they don't OHKO infantry, (even though that would breath some life into the unit and make airports a solution to meatshield stalemates) and I think against a war tank, they barely break even. The match up goes like 9-8 HP wise if copters get first strike. So what am to use them for? "Raids?" when the enemy can plant anti-airs all over the map and negate their usefulness? The best idea I've come up with is flanking enemy artillery lines, but it's still sending a 9000 unit to kill a 6000 unit and then promptly die against a 7000 unit.
Seriously, in both the new and old games they have the life span of terran dominion marine (which as the more astute readers here may know, is approximately 9 seconds.) It's absurd. At least let them have an option to land in plains or have vision 4 at least, so they aren't completely impotent. Or hell, do what the AW2 mod team did imitate the rhino/razerback dichotomy in warhammer 40k; That is, let them carry infantry and give t-copters a higher carrying cap at the expense of weapons. I don't really care if it does turn out obsolete t-copters or Apcs or whatever. It isn't like this is some disposable recon, it's a 9000$ unit. At least make it worth the extra 2000 I could have devoted towards a tank and two infantry (which can get a lot more done, let me tell you.)
Dusters always seemed somewhat mediocre to me. Sure they can attack ground units, but they can't do it particuarly well since they only have the machinegun. You can use them to harass infantry, but do you really want to spend that much on a unit that just harasses infantry? They do hard counter b-copters, but depending on who controls the area you could probably either have hit the copter with another one of your units or you're probably going to lose the duster when your opponent's turn hits.
B-copters are more vulnerable, but they're cheaper and seem far more optimized at doing what they're supposed to do.
By the way, I do have to mention that I absolutely love dusters. I feel that they totally speed up air combat and make fighter units (which is what most people tend to call them now; the old fighter units tends to get called an "interceptor") able to do more in combat (to ground forces) other than block chokepoints and hog production property tiles.
Now if only something could be done about b-copters to justify the cost of a extremely vulnerable and expensive air-to-ground unit when it doesn't even do a thorough job and it tends to barely stand toe-to-toe with the superheavy tanks. I think the basic problem is they don't have a well developed role in advance wars: Anti-airs are cheaper than them and will slaughter them even on 1st strike disadvantage, so you can't expect them to really last in a fight. 9000$ is a it expensive for a unit to mass, if that's your solution to the problem and dusters will quickly end that plan even if you have the cash. using them as recons in FOW is ok, but come on, 3 vison? That's mediocre and counter-intuitive; it's a fucking helicopter, you mean it really, really can't see any farther? and as for using them as suicidal one-time-use units in assaults, well... they don't OHKO infantry, (even though that would breath some life into the unit and make airports a solution to meatshield stalemates) and I think against a war tank, they barely break even. The match up goes like 9-8 HP wise if copters get first strike. So what am to use them for? "Raids?" when the enemy can plant anti-airs all over the map and negate their usefulness? The best idea I've come up with is flanking enemy artillery lines, but it's still sending a 9000 unit to kill a 6000 unit and then promptly die against a 7000 unit.
Seriously, in both the new and old games they have the life span of terran dominion marine (which as the more astute readers here may know, is approximately 9 seconds.) It's absurd. At least let them have an option to land in plains or have vision 4 at least, so they aren't completely impotent. It isn't like this is some disposable recon, it's a 9000$ unit. At least make it worth the extra 2000 I could have devoted towards a tank and two infantry (which can get a lot more done, let me tell you.)
I have something of a battlecopter... predilection. They won't last long in an AA-heavy environment or breaking a coastal defense, but then, who says you gotta use 'em in that case? I like to throw a couple out if the enemy has few or no AA units. They take hits better than tanks, due to main tank cannons being unusable on them, and being able to dart all over the terrain is well worth the extra risks. It is really frustrating to build an AA or two to take out enemy B copters, only to have them constantly stay just out of range while still dealing out tank damage. Focus-firing a B copter with your own tanks is a costly proposition, and if the opponent has to resort to that, your other unit types that would have been under fire from the much more dangerous tank cannons are free to act as they please. Keeping your copters healthy is harder than it is tanks, but that's what temp airports are for.
What I'd really like is for copters to not be targettable by anti-tanks, but oh well
I also don't use dusters much, since their air to ground damage is only really noticeable when used against infantry and rockets. Rather two interceptors than three dusters.
By the way, I do have to mention that I absolutely love dusters. I feel that they totally speed up air combat and make fighter units (which is what most people tend to call them now; the old fighter units tends to get called an "interceptor") able to do more in combat (to ground forces) other than block chokepoints and hog production property tiles.
Now if only something could be done about b-copters to justify the cost of a extremely vulnerable and expensive air-to-ground unit when it doesn't even do a thorough job and it tends to barely stand toe-to-toe with the superheavy tanks. I think the basic problem is they don't have a well developed role in advance wars: Anti-airs are cheaper than them and will slaughter them even on 1st strike disadvantage, so you can't expect them to really last in a fight. 9000$ is a it expensive for a unit to mass, if that's your solution to the problem and dusters will quickly end that plan even if you have the cash. using them as recons in FOW is ok, but come on, 3 vison? That's mediocre and counter-intuitive; it's a fucking helicopter, you mean it really, really can't see any farther? and as for using them as suicidal one-time-use units in assaults, well... they don't OHKO infantry, (even though that would breath some life into the unit and make airports a solution to meatshield stalemates) and I think against a war tank, they barely break even. The match up goes like 9-8 HP wise if copters get first strike. So what am to use them for? "Raids?" when the enemy can plant anti-airs all over the map and negate their usefulness? The best idea I've come up with is flanking enemy artillery lines, but it's still sending a 9000 unit to kill a 6000 unit and then promptly die against a 7000 unit.
Seriously, in both the new and old games they have the life span of terran dominion marine (which as the more astute readers here may know, is approximately 9 seconds.) It's absurd. At least let them have an option to land in plains or have vision 4 at least, so they aren't completely impotent. It isn't like this is some disposable recon, it's a 9000$ unit. At least make it worth the extra 2000 I could have devoted towards a tank and two infantry (which can get a lot more done, let me tell you.)
I have something of a battlecopter... predilection. They won't last long in an AA-heavy environment or breaking a coastal defense, but then, who says you gotta use 'em in that case? I like to throw a couple out if the enemy has few or no AA units. They take hits better than tanks, due to main tank cannons being unusable on them, and being able to dart all over the terrain is well worth the extra risks. It is really frustrating to build an AA or two to take out enemy B copters, only to have them constantly stay just out of range while still dealing out tank damage. Focus-firing a B copter with your own tanks is a costly proposition, and if the opponent has to resort to that, your other unit types that would have been under fire from the much more dangerous tank cannons are free to act as they please. Keeping your copters healthy is harder than it is tanks, but that's what temp airports are for.
What I'd really like is for copters to not be targettable by anti-tanks, but oh well
I also don't use dusters much, since their air to ground damage is only really noticeable when used against infantry and rockets. Rather two interceptors than three dusters.
Well, different strokes and all.
Well, yeah, copter have higher mobility, but against a clumped wall of infantry and artillery, where, exactly, are these exposed elements that you propose that copters can take advantage of? You talk like a guy is going to have an exposed, spread-out line of tanks, and I know nobody that does that except the AI. The only thing that comes to mind is perhaps killing opposing scout units in FOW, where forests may slow down a AA long enough to stop them from getting into range, but this is double edged sword, since the AA would be out of your sight range anyways. It's just that whenever I use them, it seems very difficult to use them in a way that looks like it won't get them killed.
And it isn't like I don't like the unit; I love building them, but damn, using them a lot really drives home the weaknesses of the unit. I have been experimenting with them in AWBW; my current tactic (being tested on one map) is to build 3-4 in "secret" (in FOW of course) and then launch them as a single sortie they can focus fire, have scout-attack maneuvers (one guy spots, the other fires), and of course, so that AA's can't totally waste everything. Trouble is that my foe decided to do the exact same thing... on the other side of the map. Damn.
Oh, and I also wanted to note that I like the ability of dusters to strafe, not only because of my firm belief in the doctrine of "more dakka", but because it allows them to do stuff when there aren't enemy air units to waste.
Posts
So retarded. Still, that Tag Theme is probably one of my favorite video game songs of all time. No lie!
Days of Ruin has much better game play though, in terms of balance and strategy, in my opinion.
Sure, AW1 had Max in his good years, much like Rocky. AW2 has Kanbei on drugs, Sturm on enhanced drugs, Grit with superhuman vision, Colin the commie kid and motherfucking Hachi.
Not to mention that the neo tank was a stupid addition that made the md tank nigh useless. Why buy a md tank for 16,000 when you can buy a tank with better movement, better offense and better defense for 6,000 more? This is what makes Hachi unbelievably good. He can buy neo tanks for 11,000 that'll fill his COP up with 22,000 when destroyed. It wouldn't be so bad if he could buy md tanks for 8,000, Grit would just laugh on one of his artilleries.
I don't know about that. People complained and probably still are complaining about Tabitha's COP, Penny with weather enabled, how useless Will is and how Isabella trumps him and Gage in almost every conceivable way.
I think Black Hole Rising is the most balanced if we exclude obvious god COs like Sturm and Hachi. Colin was a little bastard, but not super unbalanced.
I just finished C10
*Sacrficiced FUCKING METAL+1 for POWER+1 and RANGE+1!*
Seriously. Both Gage and Will have fucking awesome themes, the two best in the game even, and Isabella's is so retarded that I couldn't even stand to do her bonus missions. I had to mute the game, and that is something I shouldn't be doing for Advance Wars. Always a male over the female, the music makes up for any strategical disadvantage they have.
Apologies if it's not kosher to bump a 4-month-old thread, but it seemed better than making a new one.
You know, I've had this game shelved for awhile, but I might be willing to play sometime next week (I'm at home now, and the game isn't).
I recall hearing that PVP battles tended to stalemate easily, though.
XBL: LiquidSnake2061
Of course, that probably isn't very helpful advice, but it's how I managed it.
No worry though, I've spent plenty of time with the GBA games and Dual Strike. And I don't suspect finding the right maps would be that much of an problem, there should be lots of good ones available to download by now.
This has always been true in all advanced wars actually. Walls of infantry supported by massed artillery have long been the dominant strategy in most of the games. It actually got a bit worse in days of ruin because the artillery could easily rack up kills and get to vet status, while the anti-airs (a main foil of infantry) have a much worse match-up vs. tanks now, making them far more costly to use (even though they technically cost less to make.)
Should we go through with this, we need to make our custom maps with this in mind - design them with an eye for unpredictability and make the chokepoints as non-essential as possible. I actually have ~three maps I made a while ago which were designed with fair, quick player vs. player matches in mind. One is pretty well balanced, I think, another has gone through a dozen revisions and promises to be the best one if I can perfect it, and a third which, while somewhat larger than the first two, should still make for fluid games. PM me sometime if anyone wants to help test them.
That, or make maps with a heavier focus on water and air.
One of the CO powers does it, I think that's it.
Water and air help, but you have to be careful to keep the map small or it hurts more than it helps. For smaller maps, I generally go with only small amounts of airports/seaports, and never both air and sea in the same (small) map.
NNID: Glenn565
Wil and Gage woooooop
Lin and Brenner's are awesome too.
Isabella's makes me want to stab out my ears. But that's nothing new.
NNID: Glenn565
Prefer them so much, in fact, that I actually managed to remember the names of those songs. That's probably not a good thing, come to think of it. :P
Damn you, I lost so much time to this game when it came out.
What did you do for Web River? My winning strategy involved assembling a ~6x5 block of mechs, using rockets to clear out as many of their squatters as possible, and using Will's CO power in a charge for glory. Then, when I (barely) got that HQ, I just set all my factories to mechs every turn and sent wave after wave of my own men at the last dudes. Got me the S rank in spite of the horrific loss of life.
Now if only something could be done about b-copters to justify the cost of a extremely vulnerable and expensive air-to-ground unit when it doesn't even do a thorough job and it tends to barely stand toe-to-toe with the superheavy tanks. I think the basic problem is they don't have a well developed role in advance wars: Anti-airs are cheaper than them and will slaughter them even on 1st strike disadvantage, so you can't expect them to really last in a fight. 9000$ is a it expensive for a unit to mass, if that's your solution to the problem and dusters will quickly end that plan even if you have the cash. using them as recons in FOW is ok, but come on, 3 vison? That's mediocre and counter-intuitive; it's a fucking helicopter, you mean it really, really can't see any farther? and as for using them as suicidal one-time-use units in assaults, well... they don't OHKO infantry, (even though that would breath some life into the unit and make airports a solution to meatshield stalemates) and I think against a war tank, they barely break even. The match up goes like 9-8 HP wise if copters get first strike. So what am to use them for? "Raids?" when the enemy can plant anti-airs all over the map and negate their usefulness? The best idea I've come up with is flanking enemy artillery lines, but it's still sending a 9000 unit to kill a 6000 unit and then promptly die against a 7000 unit.
Seriously, in both the new and old games they have the life span of terran dominion marine (which as the more astute readers here may know, is approximately 9 seconds.) It's absurd. At least let them have an option to land in plains or have vision 4 at least, so they aren't completely impotent. Or hell, do what the AW2 mod team did imitate the rhino/razerback dichotomy in warhammer 40k; That is, let them carry infantry and give t-copters a higher carrying cap at the expense of weapons. I don't really care if it does turn out obsolete t-copters or Apcs or whatever. It isn't like this is some disposable recon, it's a 9000$ unit. At least make it worth the extra 2000 I could have devoted towards a tank and two infantry (which can get a lot more done, let me tell you.)
B-copters are more vulnerable, but they're cheaper and seem far more optimized at doing what they're supposed to do.
B-copter's missiles shouldn't be underestimated. Goddamn antitanks, though.
I have something of a battlecopter... predilection. They won't last long in an AA-heavy environment or breaking a coastal defense, but then, who says you gotta use 'em in that case? I like to throw a couple out if the enemy has few or no AA units. They take hits better than tanks, due to main tank cannons being unusable on them, and being able to dart all over the terrain is well worth the extra risks. It is really frustrating to build an AA or two to take out enemy B copters, only to have them constantly stay just out of range while still dealing out tank damage. Focus-firing a B copter with your own tanks is a costly proposition, and if the opponent has to resort to that, your other unit types that would have been under fire from the much more dangerous tank cannons are free to act as they please. Keeping your copters healthy is harder than it is tanks, but that's what temp airports are for.
What I'd really like is for copters to not be targettable by anti-tanks, but oh well
I also don't use dusters much, since their air to ground damage is only really noticeable when used against infantry and rockets. Rather two interceptors than three dusters.
Well, different strokes and all.
Well, yeah, copter have higher mobility, but against a clumped wall of infantry and artillery, where, exactly, are these exposed elements that you propose that copters can take advantage of? You talk like a guy is going to have an exposed, spread-out line of tanks, and I know nobody that does that except the AI. The only thing that comes to mind is perhaps killing opposing scout units in FOW, where forests may slow down a AA long enough to stop them from getting into range, but this is double edged sword, since the AA would be out of your sight range anyways. It's just that whenever I use them, it seems very difficult to use them in a way that looks like it won't get them killed.
And it isn't like I don't like the unit; I love building them, but damn, using them a lot really drives home the weaknesses of the unit. I have been experimenting with them in AWBW; my current tactic (being tested on one map) is to build 3-4 in "secret" (in FOW of course) and then launch them as a single sortie they can focus fire, have scout-attack maneuvers (one guy spots, the other fires), and of course, so that AA's can't totally waste everything. Trouble is that my foe decided to do the exact same thing... on the other side of the map. Damn.
Oh, and I also wanted to note that I like the ability of dusters to strafe, not only because of my firm belief in the doctrine of "more dakka", but because it allows them to do stuff when there aren't enemy air units to waste.