grouping tactics

[JB]

Slowly I am becoming more proficient in managing my army against human players, and now I was wondering what grouping tactics experienced people use to organise their troops? (divide them into teams)

Do you, for example, group units of the same type together (so that a team has one speed and purpose), or do you make mixed groups which can support each other, but then have to be managed more precisely, in order to keep them together (especially when in guard mode, when units with long range charge an enemy unit while the rest of the group doesn't react)

Against AI its simple to micromanage most actions, but in a normal game you only have a limited amount of time for each situation (defending, but also managing one or two attacks of your own) to micromanage/pay attention to, so intelligent grouping of your units can help enormously.

Me, I mostly group units of one type, but then I have difficulty organising good defensive support for such a group. (but still learning)

What are your thoughts about this?

[ken124578]

I number them in groups, what units are in which groups depend on what tactic i'm going to use, if i want to distract some minotaurs and attack them with lasertanks i would number a sard elite and number a group of lasertanks.

[Navaros]

it depends on the task you are going to use your units for as to whether it's gonna make sense to group units together per type as well as your playing style.

generally speaking, units of a similar speed can be grouped together with relatively few problems. it's when you group units of greatly different speeds together in the same group that you're gonna start having big-time problems

from the perspective of an elite Atreides i can tell you; what I usually do is set up my main wall which serves as the defense while "pockets of resistance" (to borrow an official military phrase ;D ) of the same-type units do damage in individual groups based on unit-type.

I group my main wall consisting of several different types of units - think of it as "The Great Wall of Dune" - into one group. That way I can look at it all quickly if the need arises while I am preoccupied looking at other parts of the map. If my wall becomes engaged, I will manually take control of individual portions of the wall depending on which section can do the most damage to the enemy and minimize damage to my wall. To do this, it is not necessary to set these units all into seperate groups based on type because many times I'll only want a portion of a unit type to attack at a time. ie: say I have 50 Fedaykin in my wall and my wall is engaged. it's better to manually box-over the Fedaykin in groups of 3 based on whichever is closest to the units which must die rather than setting them all into a group and killing one or two units at the price of losing 50 Fedaykin at once instead of 3 at once.

if however, i was using a few high-damage, well armored, fast-moving units in my wall then it's likely i'd put those units in one group of all the same type because chances are i'd be controlling those very often while my wall automatcially delivers mass ownage without as much direct control.

[ken124578]

In other words, you should group them so that they give the best result, and i agree to that.

[JB]

In other words, you should group them so that they give the best result, and i agree to that.

yeah, and the best way to win is to use the strategy which gives the best result :P

I hope I can put several different grouping techniques to the test, see which one works for me (and against you ... or more realistically, against an average opponent)

[Harkdawg]

Number 1 - Main army ( Minos sometimes included few mongoose )

Number 2 - Favourite Army ( To me they are sards. Keeping my sard hordes in second slot )

Number 3 - Little stuff from the start ( usually i get $hitlaods of sandbikes left in the midgame thats where they go when i dont really need em anymore

Number 5 - Always had airunits in that place ( Drones, Gunships... etc.)

didnt use much else, besides sometimes i numberd each adv. carry for a number.

[Navaros]

harkdawg --- i'd be much more interested in knowing how you manipulate your units into formal military-style formations so fast and how you determine the ideal formation ahead of time (other than for common sense things like not letting Feds get run over etc.)

you are one of the only guys i've seen who is really big on formations in Emperor

[Scy]

i always group an usefull unit's such as airdrons(because hard to select all the air units at once) and lasertanks(guildniabs,deviators in other words Hit&Run units)

grouping ur harvesters is a smart idea, at least for me!

[ffrenchy]

hi, any one wana talk?

[ken124578]

Umm... aren't we talking to eachother right now? ::)