Privates/Officers

[Walking_Death]

Buff them. As they are now, they're damn near worthless. Expensive, frail, and pretty weak, they don't even fire until late (translation of "late": after they're dead).

Now some of you may be saying that of course they'll be useless, they're the first units, but lets look at the other first units. Sleeping Gas Traps, Gurus, Hooligans, Small Droids... Really the only other "worthless past day 5" unit there is would be the serfs, but even they have a use for the flak wars, they kill yobs before they can sweep, and they even fire before SGTs, and while they don't get good ratios on them, thats still something. And then we have Privates... 17,500 is pretty damn expensive for a unit that does nothing. Officers are slightly less useless, as they fire after paratroopers so they can sweep, but they are still incredibly expensive for so little damage, so late.

Opinions?

 

[TheMouse]

The reason they do less damage and fire late is because they kill. Their use is LET flak and early game kills. I would say that gurus, small droids, etc, are just as worthless after a couple weeks because it's not about blocking a ton of flak last tick, it's about killing your opponent's army.

Just my opinion, but I think that their ability to kill outweighs their weakness.

 

[Dimitar]

They're used for sweeping after late firing units such as Flamethrowers,Apaches,Yobs,etc.
The fact that they fire late is their main strength rather than their weakness. Military route is quite balanced so I'm not expecting any changes anytime soon

 

[tobapopalos]

They're used for sweeping after late firing units such as Flamethrowers,Apaches,Yobs,etc.
The fact that they fire late is their main strength rather than their weakness. Military route is quite balanced so I'm not expecting any changes anytime soon

100% correct.

 

[Walking_Death]

They're used for sweeping after late firing units such as Flamethrowers,Apaches,Yobs,etc.
The fact that they fire late is their main strength rather than their weakness. Military route is quite balanced so I'm not expecting any changes anytime soon

100% correct.

Explain how the game's mechanics work... if I have 1m apaches, and theyre firing into pure flak, they won't be able to kill the geos as well as 900k apachies and 100k privates?

 

[TheMouse]

well 900k apaches and 100k privates cost a lot less than 1m apaches, but yes, that is somewhat correct. If there is too much flak, perhaps only a few of your apaches fire at the geos, and some of them may survive. With a couple extra privates on the end, they will all be firing on geos and will likely take them out.

 

[Souls]

Scene 1:
1m apaches fire at 10m gards and 50k geos.

990k apaches fire at gardeners. Kill x amount (irrelevant at this point).
10k apaches fire at geos. Kill very few, as geos have more armour than apaches do health.

Scene 2:
900k apaches fire at 10m gards and 50k geos.
895k apaches fire at 10m gards and kill 10m.
5k apaches fire at 50k geos and kill 6k. 42k geos left.
100k privates fire at 42k geos. Kill the rest.

 

[Walking_Death]

well 900k apaches and 100k privates cost a lot less than 1m apaches, but yes, that is somewhat correct. If there is too much flak, perhaps only a few of your apaches fire at the geos, and some of them may survive. With a couple extra privates on the end, they will all be firing on geos and will likely take them out.

Basically, if they're useful, why does no one use them though? And really, I'm just asking for a reduction in price maybe. Down to 15k or 12.5k for example, when you consider that only 30% of their total firepower goes to flak, even if used perfectly and you kill off all LETs

 

[timtadams]

Just think of them as fillers. They just slow you down from getting your heavies/shocks/paratroopers too soon

but they are still good for sweeping if a few geos get through. When i go a military route i tend to keep 100k of each just for that purpose.

Actually when i first went this route i thought the exact same thing. Privates were just really expensive attack dogs. But really, the military routes make up for their shitty tier 1/2 units with much better later tiers

 

[tobapopalos]

well 900k apaches and 100k privates cost a lot less than 1m apaches, but yes, that is somewhat correct. If there is too much flak, perhaps only a few of your apaches fire at the geos, and some of them may survive. With a couple extra privates on the end, they will all be firing on geos and will likely take them out.

Basically, if they're useful, why does no one use them though? And really, I'm just asking for a reduction in price maybe. Down to 15k or 12.5k for example, when you consider that only 30% of their total firepower goes to flak, even if used perfectly and you kill off all LETs

They are useful. If people don't use them it's because they don't know they're useful. Plenty of people do use them for what they were intended though. Officers are kinda crappy, but privates are decent early sweepers. When you've got SDs and gurus and HTs to wipe out the flak, the privates work for all of those units as sweepers.

They do not need to be changed.

 

[Dax]

well 900k apaches and 100k privates cost a lot less than 1m apaches, but yes, that is somewhat correct. If there is too much flak, perhaps only a few of your apaches fire at the geos, and some of them may survive. With a couple extra privates on the end, they will all be firing on geos and will likely take them out.

Basically, if they're useful, why does no one use them though? And really, I'm just asking for a reduction in price maybe. Down to 15k or 12.5k for example, when you consider that only 30% of their total firepower goes to flak, even if used perfectly and you kill off all LETs

They are useful. If people don't use them it's because they don't know they're useful. Plenty of people do use them for what they were intended though. Officers are kinda crappy, but privates are decent early sweepers. When you've got SDs and gurus and HTs to wipe out the flak, the privates work for all of those units as sweepers.

They do not need to be changed.

Tob is spot on, as with alot of others expressing similar opinions.
Privates and Officers are good units at the point you can tech them at round start - Take into account Officers are the first ranged LET unit to come out, then maybe they are not so useless. I don't personally ever use Officers, I rush tech to get better units such as Shock Troops or Grenadiers. Though I always buy 1-200k Privates at a minimum for sweeping flak wars.

 

[Davs]

Tob is spot on, as with alot of others expressing similar opinions.
Privates and Officers are good units at the point you can tech them at round start - Take into account Officers are the first ranged LET unit to come out, then maybe they are not so useless. I don't personally ever use Officers, I rush tech to get better units such as Shock Troops or Grenadiers. Though I always buy 1-200k Privates at a minimum for sweeping flak wars.

Pretty much this, except that I was going to add that officers are more useful at lower ranks where the need to rush developments is lower, for the reason you gave (first ranged LET out).