[TIPS] How do I disable the intro Valve video to Dota 2 (with step by step instructions)

1.  In Steam, go to your Library.

2.  In the Library, right-click on Dota 2 and select Properties.

3.  In the Properties window, select Set Launch Options.

4.  In the popup, type in -novid and then hit OK.

You're now all set!  This will work regardless of whether you start it directly from the library or whether you use a desktop shortcut.

[GUIDE] Steam Marines: How to Play

Welcome to Steam Marines!  As of today (Dec. 30, 2013) it's still theoretically in Alpha, but don't let that fool you.  It already has enough for a complete game experience and the addictive gameplay shines through from the beginning.

What is Steam Marines?
It's a turn based, 2D, squad-combat roguelike set in a steampunk world on a spaceship.

Now what do those terms mean?

• "Turn based": You take your turn, then the enemy takes theirs.  No simultaneous moves.
• "Squad combat": You control up to 4 Space Marines at any given time who are all trying to stay alive in a very terrifying ship.
• "Roguelike": There's a lot that goes with that term, but the short answer is that there is no persistence between plays.  At any given time you have just one game going.  There are no checkpoints, and you can't intentionally save (though it does start you from where you left off if you quit).  When you lose all your squad members, that's it!  Game over!  Time to start the next game.  The heart of roguelikes is not improving by grinding better gear or stats in game, but improving as a player.  That means thinking smarter, making better decisions, and understanding the world.
• "Steampunk": Click here for a description.  Your marines shoot guns at robots, but there are pipes everywhere with steam coming out of them...
• "Spaceship": Flying through space, wheeeee!

Okay, how do I get it?
Their website lists multiple ways to get it, but most likely you'll end up purchasing it on Steam.


I've bought the game.  Help me get started!
Try the tutorial first!  It's not bad, but it's very short.  It'll get you started with the mechanics and controls at least though.

For your first real game, DO NOT SELECT A GRENADIER.  Grenadiers are a great class, but it's very easy to screw up on your first playthrough and blow up your squad with him.  Save him for your second game at least. I would suggest replacing him with another leader.

Now that your game has started, you should see something that looks like this:

For starters, look at your surroundings to identify what things are.  Those brown rectangles to the west and south are doors, that can be opened by walking into them.  The blue circles are just windows (can't see through them however).  The rectangles directly to the north are lockers, which can be opened for credits or items by bumping into it, like so:

Your primary goal is to find the elevator on every level, get your whole squad to it, and descend to the next level.  Along the way you'll find many bloodthirsty robots, who have to be eliminated before you can proceed.  The most important thing to remember is that 1. you have all the time in the world to think and 2. the robots are usually very, very slow.  This means that you can often even kite one around in a room if you need to.

Sometimes you get really screwed over like this:

When you're in trouble, don't forget to stop to THINK!  Especially make sure to check your inventory.  Weapons like the laser sight can really save you in a pinch.

Note that doors and walls are sometimes booby trapped with a little device on top of them.  You can see two of them in the screenshot below.  Do NOT touch them as they will explode!  You can bait enemies into them of course, or preemptively explode it yourself.

When enemies are weak and alone, think about meleeing them to save ammo.  For example, you can see the Brute in the shot below has lost ten health already from my sniper.  I have a squadmate nearby who can easily finish him off in two melee hits.  Since melees never miss, I know it's nearly a risk-free move.

Another excellent time to melee:

General tips:

• Get used to never using the mouse, except to click through menus or to hover over objects to see what they do.  Using the mouse to move or shoot will just confuse you later and you'll do something you didn't mean to.
• Tab and Ctrl will advance you forwards and backwards through your squad.
• Pressing the "C" key will cycle you through your laser sight (+25% accuracy) or your flashlight (+1 sight range).  By default, the flashlight is active.  It costs 1 AP to use, but this is actually really key to playing the game well.  Basically whenever you're shooting at something besides your ideal range, you want to have the laser sight on.
• If you need to reload, remember it consumes all of your remaining AP.  Thus you might want to move to a safe place first, THEN reload.
• If you're running low on ammo, the Smasher Stat (+1 melee damage, +10% obstacle bash chance) can really help you.
• If an enemy is low on health, consider using melee attacks to finish them off to save ammo.
• You can push enemies into space (for example, with the shotgun) to instantly kill them.  They must be by the black border on the edge of the level.  You'll always need to destroy at least one wall segment to be able to do so.
• You can only heal from random events, finding healing items (like the Canteen) or over time (this will take a while).
• Items can be used by anyone, but they can cost 1 AP to use.
• Guard Mode shots can go diagonally, but you can normally fire only up/down/left/right.  Go figure...

Enemies:

Name	Health	AP	Damage
Bucket	18	3	5
Brute	12	3	6
FlameJack	15	3	6 (range 2)

[TIPS] Spelunky

Improving at Spelunky, like many rogue-likes, is heavily based on learning.

Here's a rough list of things you learn as you go:

• You can throw just about anything (including damsels!) to kill enemies.
• Don't attack the shopkeeper- he'll be very angry and most likely kill you.
• You can step on many enemies (Mario-style) to kill them.
• If there is a stone block on top of a ledge, you can't grab hold of it.
• Snakes can be in pots- always attack it with your whip from a distance, then immediately attack again if there is one.
• Same advice for bones on the ground, which can animate into skeletons.
• Picking up the golden skull idol will trigger a giant rolling boulder that annihilates everything in its path as it goes through the level.  An easy way to avoid it is to fire a rope preemptively, then grab the idol and jump on the rope.  As long as you are higher than 2 squares you will be fine.
• The damsel can only take two "hits" (e.g. getting whipped) before she is knocked out for good, and unrescuable.
• Any object you can pick up can also be whipped to send it flying, which can damage enemies.
• Projectiles that bounce off walls can come back and injure you!
• As an alternative to carefully placing ropes through the level when you need to bring both an idol and a damsel to the exit, you can toss some bombs to make a hole through the level and throw them both down.
• Falling from high enough will damage you!
• If you take too long to complete a level, a giant ghost will appear that can pass through walls.  It will also slow you down while it's active.
• If you hold the arrow keys up or down, it will pan to show you more of the map in that direction after a brief pause.  You can use this to see how far a fall is!
• The stone block traps are triggered by ANY moving object.  Try to toss a pebble or a pot to trigger the trap, or bait an enemy into it.  In the worst case, you can throw a bomb as well.
• Also, those traps have a maximum range that they will trigger at.
• You can only jump two squares high.
• Cobwebs will stop arrows.
• You can walk through spikes (you can just can't land on them).
• Rescuing a damsel will restore one health for the next level.
• Weapons (like the machete and the shotgun) have to be held at all times like other items.  This makes them challenging to keep if you also need to bring damsels or idols around.
• You'd be surprised how much just walking (not running) improves your life expectancy.
• Bombs explode in a two square "cross".  That means two squares left, right, up and down, but only one square diagonally (up right, up left, bottom right, bottom left).
• When you teleport into something with the teleporter, it will injure it.
• Throwing or whipping objects in tight quarters is dangerous as they may ricochet and hit you.
• Thrown bombs can also be used as projectiles to hit and kill enemies.
• Throwing the damsel, regardless of whether she hits anything, will not harm her.
• Even ricochets of a trap arrow can harm you.
• Even if you haven't been hurt in a level, the damsel will still give you one more health.
• You can carry golden keys (that unlock chests) into the next level, and they'll still work!
• There will always be a path to the exit that does not require any items.  This can be useful when you're trying to find the fastest way to it (it will be the path of least resistance/difficulty typically).
• Ropes aren't only useful for going up- you can toss them to help you go down long falls.
• Even your rope being shot upwards can trigger arrow traps.
• The bloody empty altar can have the damsel placed upon it to give you a random item.
• If you don't have the key for a locked chest yet, remember you can pick up the chest and bring it with you!  You can't bring the chest with you to the next level though (unlike keys).
• You can pick and throw an opened chest.
• A giant spider landing on spikes will instantly kill it.

General strategy:

• The #1 goal is survival and progression.  You will get plenty of treasure as you go, no need to take crazy risks or consume a lot of resources to just get more gold or gems.
• The damsel should take precedence over any other side objectives you may have.  However, if it's too expensive or dangerous to save her, then you should ignore her and move on.
• Use bombs to skip areas that look scary (i.e. you will likely take damage moving through it).

Items:

Name	Description	Cost
Spike Shoes	Can kill enemies by jumping on them	4000
Spectacles	Allows you to see items in walls	3000
Spring Shoes	Allow you to jump one square higher (for a total of 3)
Pitcher's Mitt	Improves your catching and throwing skills.	4000
Climbing Gloves	Allows you to grab onto and climb any wall.  Extremely useful.	8000
Cape	Allows you to float in the air.	12000
Parachute	Deploys automatically if you would take falling damage.  One time use.	1000

Also, in case this game wasn't difficult enough, check out these videos:

• Pick up no treasure (Low Scorer) achievement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXJB3y8JoUs

[TIPS] Endless Space Miscellaneous Tips

Some random tips:

• Note that in the ship design screen, under "Support Modules" you can scroll down to see additional types of modules.  This is how you add engines, repair modules, colonization modules, etc.  This is most likely to be relevant when you have access to Advanced Containers which gives you an additional 25 tons of space but you need to actually select it as a module (it adds a 40 industry cost to the ship).
• Trade Routes will form automatically, but you must be at peace with the faction.
• Once you have researched Atmospheric Filtration it will give you access to the Empire-wide improvement "Warp Drives".  Your ships can now travel off of the cosmic strings (roads) between systems.  To do so, ctrl-right click the destination.  Note that you can't interrupt the travel, just like normal movement.  Also realize that travel along cosmic strings is still a LOT faster, so only save this for scenarios where you are avoiding a blockade or going along strings would require a much longer path.  Even then, make sure you move as close as possible to the target system using strings before engaging the warp drive.
• You can move around your admirals (heroes in fleets) instantly (though they need to wait eight turns until they can move again).  They can even participate in two battles in a single turn.  Start a battle with the admiral's current fleet, then swap him to another fleet and fight the second battle.
• Split your fleet apart in multiple fleets if there are several annoying little fleets in a system.  This bypasses the "one battle per turn" limit for your fleet.
• Wormholes use all of the remaining fleet's movement, no matter how much is left.
• Creating a new colony ship (missionary, seed ship, whatever) removes one population from your system.  Try to do it on systems that have a maxed out population already.
• Any food that you see in a colony is a surplus.  If your population is maxed out, you might want to consider changing your exploitations.
• Upgrading your colony ships with the first engine you discover adds an incredibly small cost (about +3.5%) in exchange for increasing their movement substantially.
• Pirates can spawn in any non-colonized star system.  You generally don't want uncolonized systems behind your front lines after the early game if you can help it, because the pirates are surprisingly strong and can wreck havoc on your supply lines, unassembled fleets, or even capture colonies.
• For engines, blue arrows indicate movement along cosmic strings ("roads" between star systems) while green movement indicates warp travel (movement off of the strings).  Thus an engine that gave you +6 green and +3 blue movement means that it allows you to move six parsecs further while warping and three further on strings.
• Note that engines in this game often speed up the entire fleet, which can help considerably for a large empire.  It's useful to have a single support ship with an engine upgrade that speeds up your larger combat ships.
• Also, it's useful in general to have a support ship with sensors, engines and a repair module.
• Have open trade routes on planets that aren't used?  Make sure you've explored as many peaceful planets as you can.  There's a cap of one trade route to one planet, so if you have ten open trade routes you need to have explored ten opposing faction planets that you can trade with.

[TIPS] Endless Space Weapons and Defense Explanation

Combat in Endless Space doesn't give you a whole lot of information.  Stuff that you find online is sometimes outdated or wrong.  I'll try to provide general advice that will help you to build ships and win more battles against a surprisingly tough AI (and human opponents too!).

I'm sure everyone who has come here has already seen the wiki link here, but you should probably skim it first to understand some of my advice.

All advice is current as of December 28, 2013 for vanilla only.

Quick overview of concepts:

• Battle is composed of five "phases": Arrival, Long Range, Medium Range, Melee (Close Range), and Report.  Weapons are only fired in phases #2-4, so that's all I'll be discussing.
• Each phase has four "rounds" of combat.  In each round, kinetics and beam weapons fire once.  Missile weapons are fired on the second round of each phase and impact on the fourth round of the phase.  Thus, the missiles fired in LR#2 will actually hit on LR#4.
• Weapons fire simultaneously each round.

What weapons should I be building?

• At the very beginning, you only have access to kinetics, so obviously go with those.  However very soon you can branch out into missile or beam paths.
• Remember that missiles are most accurate at long range, beams at medium range, and kinetics at short range.  However, beam weapons are the clear winner when averaged across all ranges (e.g. they are the best "overall" weapon), followed by missiles.  Kinetics are ineffective until you reach close range, at which point they become devastating.
• Missiles are devastating long range weapons, but dramatically lose effectiveness as you get closer.  Against opponents without missile defenses and only kinetics (most of the early game), missiles are clearly the best weapons.  You can destroy entire fleets with first strikes and take barely any damage.
• Note that missiles have a "flight" time.  They fire on the second cycle of the phase and arrive on the fourth.  That means that a critically wounded ship that requires only one shot to kill it will get to fire for two extra cycles before your missiles destroy it, which wouldn't happen if you were using beam or kinetics.  However, this also guarantees that your missiles will be fired off even if your ships are destroyed immediately after, since they fire their whole payload at the start of the phase.
• Final note on missiles: since they all hit the same target in a phase, they're not very good against many smaller ships (a lot of damage is lost as "overkill").
• Beam weapons are best at medium range, but are good overall as well.  They're great for reliable damage output, and they should be your "default" weapon choice if you don't have a more specific plan.
• Kinetics are the riskiest of the weapon choices.  It is not uncommon to run into a battle and lose a kinetics fleet with barely any damage dealt (e.g. kinetics efficiency < 10%).  The most likely reason is that your ships are getting destroyed before they can get close enough to be accurate (kinetics have a mere 20% accuracy at long range).  However, at close range they can be devastating against an opponent who has insufficient protection, combined with the lower accuracy of other weapon types up close.  The trick is surviving until you can get close enough.

What's the general theory of defense?

• Note that fleet defenses are summed together when used for calculations.  For example, you can have one ship devoted just to deflection (vs. kinetics), one to shields (vs. beams) and one to flak (vs. missiles) and it'd be just as strong as the three ships with the defenses split among them.  However, note that if one of the ships dies earlier in the combat it opens a huge hole in your defenses, so I wouldn't suggest that plan.
• Generally, lean towards building weapon modules over defense modules.  Defense modules are useless if you "guess" wrong (e.g. you build ships with flak defense, but the enemy shows up with missiles), while weapons will always work at full effectiveness.
• The flip side is that if your enemy is heavily specialized (this can happen if one of their weapon techs jumps ahead of the others) you can build a counter fleet very quickly that can almost completely negate their damage.
• More simply:
• Balanced offense > Specialized defense > specialized weapons > balanced defense = balanced offense
• There's a lot more to combat than that (particularly the ranges of the weapons) but it's a good general rule of thumb.

What defense modules should I be building?

• First, an intro on defense mechanics:
• Flak defenses have a chance to shoot down up to three missiles per phase.  If interception is  > evasion, a missile is destroyed.  At all tiers, flak interception > missile evasion.
• Shields absorb a flat amount of beam damage per round. If you deal 100 beam damage and they have 50 shields, you deal 50 damage (excluding accuracy or critical hit factors). For perspective, the first beam weapon does 15 damage and the first shields absorb 15.  The final beam weapon does 200 and the final shields absorb 200.
• Deflectors absorb a certain number of projectiles per round.  Kinetic weapons are interesting- their per projectile damage increase is minimal (2.5 damage/shot at the earliest tech up to 7 at the end) but they dramatically increase the number of projectiles.  Tier 1 weapons fire only 4 shots per salvo, but the final tier fires 42.  For perspective T1 defense stops 2 projectiles and T10 stops 39.
• As a general rule for effectiveness: flak defense > shields > deflectors
• Or put another way: ratio of defense modules needed to absorb ~100% of enemy weapons of the same tier:
• Flak defense to missiles- 3:1
• Shields to beams- 1:1
• Deflectors to kinetics- 1.25:1
• Flak defense is the strongest in the game for its corresponding weapon type.  A relatively small number of flak defenses can destroy a significantly larger (up to 3x) missile amount. However, the defense is an all-or-nothing deal.  Either your flak will shoot down the missiles or they won't (potentially modified by battle cards).  If the enemy fires 50 missiles (evasion 10) at you and you have 10 flak defenses (interception 13), you will shoot down 30 missiles.  However, if they shoot 50 missiles (evasion 20) at you, you will intercept zero missiles.
• What this means is that as long as your flak defense tier is >= enemy missile tier, you should expect to shoot down 3x as many missiles as you have defenses.
• Flak that is higher than their missile tier is somewhat "wasted" since it won't be more effective, but it gives you more buffer in case of modifiers or if they upgrade when you aren't ready.
• It also means that if you are using missiles yourself, you should either aim to use MANY lower tier missiles, or get a higher tier of missiles than your opponent.
• Shield defense is straightforward.  It's a flat damage reduction per round, Of note is that if the enemy lacks the ability to exceed your shields in a given round, you will take no damage.  It also works well against lower tier weapons, but not disproportionately so.
• Deflectors are the toughest shields.  Superficially, they seem similar to shield defense.  They negate a certain number of projectiles per round.  However, the two key differences are: 
• At the same tier, deflectors are worse than kinetic weapons
• # of projectiles fired scale up very quickly with tiers
• This means that deflectors are decent against the same kinetic weapon tier, but terrible against higher tiers (but not as bad as missiles) because there are so many more projectiles that are totally ignored.
• Note that the converse is also true.  Higher tier deflectors are very effective against multiple lower tier kinetics.

Here's a chart to help summarize the defense concepts:

Defense Type	vs. Higher weapon tier	vs. Same weapon tier	vs. Lower weapon tier
Flak	Terrible	Outstanding	Great
Shields	Good	Good	Good
Deflectors	Poor	Okay	Good

[TIPS] Max Payne 3 Tips

MP3 is actually pretty difficult on hard (though sometimes it feels like you die when you had no way out of it).

Some random advice:

• Always aim for the head.  This is like the single most important advice.  Almost all enemies die in a single shot to the (exposed) head.  Helmeted enemies require the helmet to be shot off, which typically takes one shot except for certain mini-bosses.
• Firing calmly gets you a lot further than spraying and praying.  Why fire 20 SMG bullets to kill someone when one to the head would do?  It also allows you to kill more guys before reloading.
• SMGs, especially dual Uzis, are excellent in the early game, but totally useless later on due to the armor and helmets that most enemies wear.
• Laser sight arguably makes it harder to aim with the weapon in some situations, like at long range.
• Note that there is recoil in the game even though it doesn't show your white dot crosshair moving (unless you are using a laser sight).
• Bullets, even outside of Bullet Time, have travel time.  That means if an enemy is running across your field of view and a good distance away, you might actually need to lead them a little bit.  Typically the front "half" of their head will still be a headshot no matter what.
• Use Bullet Time liberally.  Don't use it when you're going to die- use it to prevent damage.  That tip will significantly reduce the number of restarts you need to do as you'll get further on each life.
• You can preemptively stop Bullet Time by hitting the "shift" key (or whatever you have it bound to).  This will help save some of your charge.
• Speaking of Bullet Time, note that you only dodge bullets if you are moving.  That means activating Bullet Time and staying still might help your aim but still exposes you to same amount of damage.  Try to stay moving if they're shooting at you.
• Many fights, especially at the start, have a "puzzle solving" element to them as you figure out what is the "best" order to kill the enemies in.  There's some randomization there (enemies might stay in cover, for example) but you'll find the best way to pass a fight you're stuck on is to kill the enemies who are most able to do damage to you, in order.
• When you're low on health and worried about dying, stay in "aim mode" (hold down right click) and inch your way slowly around corners, pausing to listen for any audio clues that enemies are alive and coming.  If they are, just wait for them to pass into your view and shoot them.

[TIPS] Max Payne 3 defeating the armored machine gunner guy in the crane scene (on top of the collapsing hotel)

This one is tricky.  If you're on hard difficulty or higher, you'll probably find it nearly impossible to beat without at least one painkiller.  Note that if you keep dying, the game will give you one, and then two painkillers on restart.

The key thing is to just aim for his head.  However, you want something with serious power.  Generally the rifles you have on the level aren't strong enough.  If you have a revolver and a pistol, dual wield them and just fire at his head calmly.  Once his helmet pops off one more headshot will kill him.

In fact, a general tip for defeating the armored machine gunners is to dual wield pistols.  I have no idea if they actually have higher damage per second than automatic weapons or if there's some kind of penetration stat, but dual wielding pistols will usually take off their helmets in very few shots.

Does the Dungeon of the Endless Founder pack coupon stack with other sales for Endless Space?

If you buy Dungeon of the Endless on Steam, it gives you a coupon of 50% off on the developer's already released game, Endless Space.

The coupon will automatically be used when you add Endless Space to your shopping cart.

It ALSO stacks with any other sales that might be going on for Endless Space (for example, the 2013 Winter Sale).

Proof below:

Plants vs. Zombies 2 United States version

The extremely popular and fun Plants vs. Zombies released a free sequel today for Android (Plants vs. Zombies 2).

However, you might have some trouble finding it.  The first link on the Google Play store is for the "Swiss" version of EA, which "isn't available in your country".

The United States link is here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ea.game.pvz2_na&hl=en

Nostalgic for TF2...

A few years ago, I played on an excellent competitive TF2 team that won ESEA-Open and lost ESEA-Intermediate in the playoff finals.  Some of the players that played on my team actually went on to play in invite as well.  For those who don't know, ESEA was the only (maybe still is) paid league for TF2 and had the highest caliber of players.

Our old ESEA team page:
http://play.esea.net/teams/42600

Frag video from ESEA-Open:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIzQLlA9zQ0

Frag video from ESEA-IM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6jROGEuZXw&hd=1

[TIPS] FTL: Faster Than Light

Some tips for playing FTL:

• Opening doors that lead to the outside is an effective way of putting out fires.  Note that not all ships have airlock doors (e.g. the Rock ship does not).
• When trying to do repairs in a room with no oxygen, open all the doors around it to improve oxygen levels in that room.
• Get used to not using the autofire.  Many weapons work better when fired in sync, even if they have differing cooldown times (e.g. using an Ion weapon to disable the shields as you fire your beam weapon to cut up their hull).
• The Crew Teleporter is not worth it unless you're planning on really committing to boarding actions.  It helps a lot if you have:
• a large crew
• Mantis crew members
• crew with upgraded combat skills
• Note that the final boss cannot be teleported onto while their shields are up.
• Power down systems you aren't using.  If your pilot ran off to put out some fires and you don't have autopilot, you can cut all power to your engines.
• Your fourth crew member helps a lot, but the marginal value of crew after that isn't much (unless you plan on aggressively boarding).
• If you plan on using missiles in the final boss fight, make sure to buy EVERY MISSILE YOU CAN during the game.  The worst feeling is to have a whole array of missile launchers and no ammo.
• At the start of the game, remove a power from your medbay and put it towards engines.  Your medbay doesn't need power unless it's actively healing someone, and the extra engine power will give you more dodges.
• If you're already comfortably killing enemies without taking damage, consider saving your scrap instead of immediately putting it towards upgrades.  You might see something in a store that you want more than an upgrade, and you can always do upgrades at any time but coming back to a store is very difficult.
• If an enemy is crippled and can't fight back, consider using weapons other than missiles to finish them off, to conserve ammo.  Alternatively, if they don't have shields, an asteroid field may kill them for you.
• Consider shooting their weapons first instead of their shields to minimize damage you receive, even if it extends the fight.  This is especially true if they have missiles.
• If you have slow-firing weapons with long charge times, cloak will be very beneficial.  Cloak is much less useful for fast-firing weapons.
• Beam I drone will not do any damage to shields and can't penetrate them either.

Weapons:

• Ion weapons do "ion damage", which temporarily reduces maximum power available to a system.  For example, if you have a shield system with two power (provides 1 point of shielding) and are hit by an ion weapon for 1 ion damage, your shield will power down (since two power is required for each point).
• Ion weapons that hit shields will also inflict their ion damage on the shield system first.  Only after the shields are down can ion weapons damage other systems.

Sectors:

• Nebula sectors will increase the total # of systems you can visit before you need to run from the Rebel fleet.  While individual stars will not slow the Rebels down as much as nebulas in "normal" sectors, it still helps.
• "Homeworld" systems can have a quest that allows you to pick up a race-specific ship for your next playthrough.  Note that this applies to "[Race] Homeworlds" systems, not "[Race]-controlled" systems.

Final Boss (Rebel Flagship):

• The first stage of the boss has lasers, ion cannons, missiles, a beam weapon, and cloaking.
• The second stage the boss has missiles, lasers, a beam weapon, and both offensive and defensive drones.
• When its "power surges" it will spawn a large number of drones to shoot at you for a short period of time.  Have your repair crews ready, or cloak to avoid all the damage.  You can also damage the drone subsystem ahead of time.
• The last stage the boss has lasers and missiles.
• Your priority in every fight should be to kill the triple missile launcher (middle-right gun).  Otherwise it'll keep doing consistent damage against you by bypassing your shields, and it's unlikely you have enough defense drones to shoot them all down.
• Damage isn't carried over from battle to battle, but the crew size is.  If you can, try to whittle the crew down in the earlier battles to make later battles easier.

[TIPS] Papers, Please

Some tips for playing "Papers, Please":

• Your first two citations per day will only result in warnings.  After that, you will be fined 5 credits per citation.
• You get five credits for each immigrant you see, regardless of whether they are admitted or denied.  However, if you receive a citation, you will not receive money for them.  Denying or detaining someone will both give you the cash, but you should generally attempt to detain them if you can as there are other incentives.
• Note that receiving a citation past the second is a "double whammy".  You don't get five credits for processing the applicant correctly, and you lose five more for the fine.
• Work day begins at 6am and ends at 5pm.  As long as you start the applicant process before the end of the day you can keep going, however.
• You start in a "Class 8 Apartment" which costs (25 Rent / 10 Heat) per day.  Moving to a "Class 7 Apartment" costs $100 upfront, and costs (30 Rent / 10 Heat) per day.  If you have to move back down to Class 8, you get $70 back.
• Juggle your family's requirements when cash is tight.  If they're "Hungry" but not cold, make sure to get them food but don't worry about the heat.

[TIPS] Dwemer/Dwarven Artifacts

Quick list so you can keep track of Dwemer artifacts.

Smeltable (bars by weight of item):

• Small Dwemer Plate Metal (.6)
• Large Dwemer Plate Metal (.6)
• Bent Dwemer Plate Metal (.6)
• Solid Dwemer Plate Metal (5)
• Large Dwemer Strut (6.6)
• Large Decorate Dwemer Strut (7.5)

Used for a quest:

• Dwarven Cog (need 10)

Anything else can be sold (or more likely, not picked up at all).

In Summary:

Only pick up (Small/Large/Bent) Dwemer Plate Metal.

Pick up Dwemer Cogs until you have 10.

[TIPS]: Shadowrun Returns: The Redmond Barrens

• You get the same amount of karma whether you kill the Ork Halloweener leader or not.  I suggest letting him go since it reduces the risk of you taking further damage.
• Having Etiquette (Security) will help you avoid either a $100 bribe or doing a bit of running around when you talk to the cop at the crime scene.
• Make sure to complete the "protect the market" secondary objective BEFORE you investigate the crime scene, or you'll end up having to do it alone vs. with Jake.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Down And Out

• Your character will always have a pistol in this scene, no matter what your character creation options.
• Your character also starts with
• Doc Wagon Basic Trauma Kit
• Basic Medkit
• (2) Fichetti Concussion Grenades
• (2) Fichetti Frag Grenades
• The grenades in particular will be useful if your character is bad at ranged combat.
• Sam Watts also has two Frag Grenades in his inventory.  His Strength isn't bad so he can chuck it a good distance.
• You will not have any spells, but you will have totem abilities (assuming you have a totem).
• The oil puddle directly south of your start can summon a friendly water spirit.
• The boxes north/northwest of your start contain a Basic Medkit.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Character Creation and General Tips

All of these tips apply to the campaign that ships with the game, "Dead Man's Switch".  To see my review for the game, click here.

Character Creation

• Your character will be going through a lot of combat scenes early on.  It'll make your life easier if you have good combat skills early.  You'll be running into a lot of Karma very quickly, so you can always go your specified route later if it's not combat focused.  For example, if you're planning on being a decker with some rifle proficiency, upgrade your rifle/ranged combat/body stats before you start the game, then level your decking skill later.
• It's at least a few hours until you do any decking, and even then the first time you use it it's nearly impossible to fail even with poor statistics.  Later on good decking can pay off, but you'll often have a competent decker available to you anyway.  In general, I'd advise against making decking a priority for your main character.
• Focus on combat and dialogue upgrades on character creation.
• Specialize in one or two weapons.  Since you can only carry at most three with the right upgrades, you really don't need to  be good at more than two.
• Your very first mission will be using a pistol no matter what and you won't have access to any spells, so it might not be a bad idea to be at least somewhat competent at ranged combat.

General Tips

• Get Charisma 4 as soon as possible.  It unlocks many dialogue options through the game.  A score of more than 4 isn't necessary for the purposes of dialog. 
• For Etiquette, Street and Security are most useful at the beginning of the game.  After that, Shadowrunner and Corporate can net you some more cash in the mid game.  Academia and Gang are basically worthless.
• Better cyberdecks make a big difference.
• Pretty much all weapons are viable at all ranges.  It's very rare that combat takes place at the super long ranges where weapons like the shotgun would be handicapped.
• Speaking of which, shotguns feel like the best weapons in the game.  The only weapons that beat out their damage output are rifles on full auto, which is very inaccurate.
• Shaman spirits can make combats a lot easier for you, but certainly are not required to do well.
• Overwatch is done with the ability you currently have selected when you activate Overwatch.  Thus, activate Overwatch with your best ability (e.g. burst fire over single shot) available.
• No matter what your build, you will likely want to get a Body score of at least 6.  Your main character is the only one who cannot be revived by teammates if they get downed (it's an instant mission failure if you are knocked out) and you don't want a lucky 2% long-range shotgun burst fire taking you out and forcing you to restart.
• If you end a combat and the scene isn't immediately about to end, heal up!  You can use health even when not in combat by going to your inventory, selecting the medkit and selecting the person to heal.
• Don't be afraid to use the consumables on the shadowrunners that you hire.  The next mission they will have all new gear anyway.
• Look at your potential runners' gear carefully.  It changes mission to mission.  The street samurai who was packing a shotgun and an AK last mission might have a pistol and an SMG this one.
• Don't underestimate the buffs, especially Haste and Aim.  Aim is especially good when combined with a high damage, low accuracy ability like the rifle's "Full Auto".
• Magical accuracy is often different than hitting with a gun.  A troll hiding behind cover might be a 50% hit with a pistol but a 95% hit with a willpower spell like Mana Bolt.
• You CANNOT heal "Drain" damage from casting a spell before the cooldown is complete.

[REVIEW] Shadowrun Returns: Review

Shadowrun Returns released yesterday after over a year in development.  The Kickstarter launched on April 4, 2012 and ended up receiving over $1.8 million.

Background

The world of Shadowrun is actually based on a role-playing game that's been around 1989.  Set in a dystopian cyber-punk future mixed with Tolkien races and magic, it's one of my favorite settings.

There have been three previous game releases:

• Shadowrun, released on the SNES in 1993 that was a mixture of action and role-playing, with a stronger emphasis on role-playing
• Shadowrun, released on the Sega Genesis in 1994 that was also an action/RP mix but with more of an emphasis on action.  My personal favorite and it also has fantastic music
• Shadowrun, released on the PC/Xbox in 2007 and was very loosely based on the RPG universe

Let's talk about the game

The new game, Shadowrun Returns, is a top-down, isometric, turn-based RPG/action game.  It plays and feels very similarly to Fallout 1 and 2, or for a more modern example, XCOM.

You spend your time in the game transitioning between "role-playing" and "action" segments.  In the RP mode, you wander already, talking to people, collecting clues, purchasing equipment, etc.  In the action segments you face off against street punks, corporate security, and even hostile life forms from another dimension (no spoilers here!).

Everything is done on the top-down/isometric map, so there's no cutscenes or anything else that will take you away from your characters.  Conversations are done through dialog trees.

The action is definitely worth nothing.  Every character has a certain number of "action points".  AP can be used to move or use abilities.  Certain powerful abilities (firing a gun on full auto, casting a massive fireball, etc.) require more than one action point.  Everyone on one side goes before the other.  Who goes first is mostly

You start the game off receiving a call about an old runner friend who's been murdered.  He's recorded a video to be played on his death, asking you to find out who killed him and avenge him in exchange for a cash payout.  You head to Seattle and begin your investigation, which takes you from the slums of Redmond to high-security corporate facilities and everything in between.  Along the way, you make some friends, help some people in need, and occasionally have to make morally ambiguous decisions.

The skill system in the game is very important to explain.  There are no "classes" in the game- you can choose to be a mage, shaman, adept, decker, whatever you'd like.  It just takes points invested in the appropriate skill (e.g. summoning, decking, shotguns).  Of course, being a jack-of-all-trades makes you weaker in any single category.  You gain skill points (called Karma in the Shadowrun universe) through the completion of objectives, like helping a stranger out, finding a critical clue or completing a mission.

Before you embark on a "Shadowrun" (a mission) you can recruit up to three other runners.  Some will work with you for free for plot reasons, but most expect cash.  In combat, you control all four members of your team, and have to learn how to put their strengths together into an effective team.

Overall:
7.5/10 with just the main campaign
8.5/10 with additional content (assuming fans put out more campaigns)

Summary

Pros

• Extremely flexible skill system- build any character that you want
• Strong writing and dialogue
• Interesting combat options and abilities
• Gritty, engrossing universe
• Fleshed out content- even the side missions feel very complete and are not just tacked for filler

Cons

• The campaign that ships with the game, "Dead Man's Switch", is short.  I completed it in 11 hours.
• Ultimately, both combat and RP scenes are very linear.  There's always just one possible ending, and your decisions often feel like they don't matter all that much
• Unlocking new dialogue options through having the appropriate skill or attribute level often has minimal effect
• Inability to save during a scene can make bad luck with the dice frustrating, or if you run into a bug and are forced to restart
• Minimal explanation of core game mechanics (cover, karma costs, critical chance)
• Weapons feel incompletely balanced
• Moving around between fights in a scene can be tedious since you're stuck in turn-based mode

[TIPS] Skyrim: Volskygge animal puzzle

At a certain point you can't pass a gate without triggering four animal totems in order using levers.

The order is:
Snake
Bear
Fox
Wolf

[TIPS] Skyrim: Dwarven vs. Orcish armors and weapons

Dwarven weapons are better than Orcish weapons.
Orcish armor is better than Dwarvish armor.

Why this is the case I have no idea- in most fiction, it would be reversed (Orcs being more focused on attack than defense).

[TIPS] Skyrim: Getting past the final door/gate in Serpent's Bluff Redoubt

The last door in the Redoubt (where you kill the Hargraven) is only opened by a pressure plate.

The plate is in the same room, on the table below the gate.  Grab an object (hold the "search" button, which is the E key on the PC) and drag it onto the plate.  A corpse will do nicely.  That will hold the door open.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Overwatch

Overwatch allows your characters to monitor a certain area.  If an enemy walks into or performs an action in that space, you will automatically fire.  It's useful for holding a doorway and getting a vicious first strike on your enemies.

You can activate overwatch by pushing the butto to the right of your "action selector".  It looks like a ball with a semi-circle above it.  Make sure to set your facing correctly!

Note that overwatch is activated with your currently selected ability.  This means you should generally overwatch with your strongest remaining ability (e.g. burst fire, aimed short).

You can also overwatch with melee weapons.


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: The Hunt Begins

There appears to be a quasi-quest bug in this mission.  When you reach the room with the red stuff over the walls on the north side of the room, there are two soldiers in there.  As you kill them, a bug breaks through on the west and east sides of the room.  Then, after you kill them, sometimes nothing happens. No matter how many turns you wait, you can't find a way out of the room.

To solve this:  Have all your party members leave the room.  A bug will break out of the wall to the east as you leave the room.  Kill it, then go through the tunnel that it came from.


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Preparing for the final assault on the Universal Brotherhood

While you are in the Telestrian manor, you can speak to Quoth for weapons, armor and cyberware and Algernon for magical supplies.

Note that when you talk to Harlequin and say "I'm ready", it will immediately send you into the mission without the chance to turn back.

You will need at most 6,000 nuyen to hire the last two runners  (it will be you, Harlequin and two of your choice) so feel free to use all of your extra cash above that.


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS]Shadowrun Returns: Collecting the Sample

There is a little bit of a picture puzzle going on in the VP's room after he leaves.  There are five paintings and you need to open three of them to get the secret door open.

The paintings are:
Duty
Efficiency
Vigilance


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Telestrian Industries

To unlock the elevator, you need to deck into the computer console in the room to the east of it.  You must battle through several rooms to finally reach the "elevator" control node.



For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: "Wounded" status effect

One of the more confusing aspects of the Shadowrun mechanics is the "Wounded" status effect.  Whenever a character is injured, you can see "Wounded: #" as one of their status effects if you hover over them.  The number is the amount of damage they took from the LAST effect.

This is important, because healing only cures the last amount of damage.  So if you took a 20 damage shotgun blast but then a two damage weak pistol hit, it would show as "Wounded: 2" and healing would only heal two HP.

You cannot heal someone who has not been injured since their last healing (e.g. you could not heal the above character again for 20 HP).


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: The Universal Brotherhood

You need to damage your ID card before getting access to the offices.  Convince the receptionist to leave by telling her about Maria Mercurial signing autographs.  Get the keycard from the front desk, go to the cafeteria to the west and melt the card at the stove.  Then go to the man in the northeast room and hand him the keycard.  If you go to him before you melt it, he'll confiscate the keycard, but you can grab another from the desk again.


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: Family Debts

After you complete the battle, make sure to head to the north to pick up a Cavalier Frag grenade in a few pots, and a Force 4 Abomination Elemental Fetish in a grave to the east.

Note that you don't need to go immediately to the UB from the cemetery by talking to Jake.  You can head back to the Union first through the north gate.


For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: The South Seattle Docks

Stuck at the docks?

First, try to get by the guard using some form of dialogue options (Etiquette: Security will work here).

Didn't work?  Try this:

1. East of the gate is a homeless man with a ladder next to him.  Take the ladder.
2. Talk to the streetwalker on the street corner south of the gate.  Get her to distract the guard.
3. After she approaches the guard, slightly to the east of him you will be able to use the ladder to cross the fence.

For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Shadowrun Returns: The Penthouse Suite

A couple things to note here:

• The room with the hellhounds can't be opened until after you get the passcodes off of Stevie J's body.  After you kill the hellhounds, there's still one more enemy in the final room, so make sure you have health or kill the last guy instantly.
• The gems that you can optionally find are in the southeast room (by the elevator) which becomes unlocked after you rescue Coyote.  There's a hellhound in there that will get to attack first no matter what.  However, you are healed after you find Coyote, so it shouldn't be a problem.  The gems are on the east side of the room, next to the washer/dryer.

For character creation and general tips for Shadowrun, click here.

[TIPS] Kvenel the Tongue combat suggestions

Kvenel the Tongue in the Volunruud dungeon is one of the hardest encounters in the game.  He dual-wields two frost damage weapons and is joined by a Draugr Scourge who summons a very powerful Frost Atronach.

Kvenel will pound on you with his standing dual-wield combo attack as well as a short-range dash attack.  All of his hits cause frost damage and slowing, making kiting difficult.

The Scourge, while dealing low damage on his own, controls the Frost Atronach which has an aura damage/slow effect as well as a very strong ice breath attack.

Tips:

• Kill the Scourge first.  It has relatively low health being a caster-type class (less than 1/4 of Kvenel's) and will also dispel the Frost Atronach.
• Bring Frost Resistance into this fight, for sure.
• Kvenel's melee attacks are very strong.  You can use a sword and shield to mitigate a lot of the damage, or just stay out of range.
• Remember that Kvenel slows on hit.
• Kvenel has a preference for staying in his cavern.  You can get him to retreat back in if you have a downed follower in the chamber, then shoot him with arrows or spells and leave the chamber.  Repeating this a lot can result in victory.  Note that if he is very close to you when you leave the chamber he WILL follow you.

[TIPS] Skyrim: Fort Neugrad Treasure Map

The map is not North/South, but in fact East/West.  The "top" part of the maps is actually to the east.

Put more simply- to reach the treasure chest, walk east of the fort until you hit the cliffs, and the chest will be at the base of the cliff.

[TIPS] Skyrim: Saadia won't follow you outside of the castle (Whiterun) walls

Just wait by the gate.  You don't need to talk to her, she'll pause for a few seconds before finally leaving Whiterun.  Then you can go out after she does.

[TIPS] Skyrim: Bleak Falls Sanctum door combination/code

From top to bottom:
Bear
Dragonfly
Owl

You can look at the Golden Claw in your inventory and you'll notice that it has the combination on it.

[GUIDE] COH2: List of infantry weapons by damage per second (DPS)

List of infantry weapons (excluding anti-tank) and their damage per second.

Calculated from ace4sure's formula here.

Stats pulled from here on 7/1/2013.

Notes:

• Some mechanic/stats are not included (e.g. accuracy increment, moving burst)
• Aim time is not included at all.

You may also be interested in Which infantry is the toughest (armor chart)?.

[COH2] Tip of the Day #3: Bring your machine guns along!

A very common beginner mistake is leaving their machine guns in buildings or just setup somewhere, pinning off that entrance but leaving it, and their main army, unsupported.

Machine guns are best used with the army, providing valuable suppression of charging enemy infantry and also being protected by your front line troops.  Leaving them on their own risks them being flanked and killed, taken out by vehicles OR losing a fight on the front lines because you have a machine gun defending the flank.

Let's take a look at an example.

Here, you can see that the German team (in gray) is defending two points on the map.  Their MG is setup to the east in a building, preventing approach from that direction.  Their two grenadier squads are defending the point to the left.  A hedge blocks line of sight and movement between them.  This is based on the northern area in Kholodny, by the way.

The Russians are attacking the west point using a large group of infantry.  They will easily overwhelm the two squads there (forcing a retreat) and end up taking the point.  Then, they will likely follow up on the supported MG42 and toss grenades or Molotovs in, also forcing a retreat or possibly even a kill on the machine gun.

Here, you'll note that the German player kept his entire army together to the west.  The Russians attack, and it's an easy German win with the support of the machine gun.

Potentially the Russians could have attacked to the east and the Germans wouldn't have been in position, but at least they could turn and fight together as a group instead of being defeated piecemeal.



Key points of this tip:

• Keep your machine guns with your army (but in the back)
• Don't leave machine guns deployed in a building or to cover a route if your main army isn't strong enough to beat theirs head on
• It's better to fight a battle with your whole army on even ground than it is to fight with part of your army on favorable ground

If you're interested in seeing more "Tips of the Day", click here.

Sepharim's Aggressive German Build

Build Order

Pioneer

Pioneer (for a total of 3 pioneers)

Grenadier

Grenadier

Tier 2

(Optional) Panzergrenadier or Flammenwerfer halftrack

Fuel Depot

Tier 3

Ostwind and P4, often building both but it depends on the situation.

General Strategy

Stay aggressive and constantly fight the opponent, cutting off his supplies whenever you can through your sheer number of squads.

Keep your pioneers away from fights unless they're going to win.  It's better off hiding them/sticking them in buildings as a delaying tactic.

He generally avoids Stugs since he believes they lose to both SU-85 and T-34s, which are the most common vehicles the Russians tech towards.

His goal after the initial build order is to crank out as many P4s as he can.


You can view Sepharim's Twitch stream here.

[GUIDE] COH2: What is suppression?

Suppression plays a key role in Company of Heroes 2.  It allows you to face off against a larger army and win as long as you have the right positioning and units available.

What is suppression?

Suppression is a state that infantry go into when faced with overwhelming firepower.  When a squad of Conscripts hears the roar of an MG42, they dive to the ground for cover instead of doing whatever they were ordered to.  They move at a crawl and take much longer to use unit abilities, if at all.  The suppressed squad will fire at enemies at a very slow rate.

If an infantry is continually suppressed, they will eventually go into a state of being "pinned".  This prevents them from shooting, moving or using any abilities.

Only the MG42, Maxim and bunker MG reliably suppress infantry, usually within the first two bursts.  Vehicle mounted machine guns and the Grenadier LMG do not, though they can "add" to suppression to help pin a unit.

How to get rid of suppression?

Time is the only factor that reduces suppression (excluding retreat).  If a suppressed squad is not being fired at by a machine gun, they will be back to normal in a few seconds.  Pinned squads take longer to revert out of the pinned state.

What's the downside to suppression?

Infantry take significantly less damage from small arms fire (SMGs, rifles, machine guns, etc.) when suppressed or pinned.  That's why they dive to the ground, after all!

This means that a suppressed squad can actually have a machine gun shooting at it for a very long time until the squad is completely killed.

Suppression damage resistance does not apply to explosives and flames, so grenades, mortars and flamethrowers are all excellent weapons to use against suppressed squads.  Their inability to move prevents them from dodging grenades unless they retreat.

[COH2] Tip of the Day #2: Never have two machine guns teams firing at the same target

Today's tip of the day applies to both the MG42 and the Maxim weapon teams.

In general, don't have both of your machine guns firing at the same infantry squad.  Always assume that if your machine guns are being attacked that there is a flanking attack coming.

Why?

One of the following is true:

1. Your enemy is sending one squad to bait machine gun fire, and using the rest of his army to flank you.  In this case, you'll be glad you have your second MG free to deal with the flanking force.
2. Your enemy is attacking you head on with his entire army, which will be pinned by your first MG without any help from your second.

Either way, as long as your second machine gun is free, your are likely to win the battle.

I generally prefer to keep my second MG team "back" a bit, in order to make it easier to reposition against flanking attacks.  See diagram below.

Also remember that infantry take reduced damage from bullets when suppressed or pinned, so your second squad isn't adding a whole lot of damage anyway (What is suppression?).

There are of course situations when you should break this rule (e.g. using them to quickly focus fire down a flamer, or when your flank is already covered), but it's definitely true in most cases.

If you're interested in seeing more "Tips of the Day", click here.

[GUIDE] COH2: List of infantry by armor values

The "armor" statistic in COH2 reduces the damage your infantry take from small arms fire (SMGs, rifles, machine guns, etc.).  It does not prevent damage from flames or explosives (mortars, tank shells, grenades, artillery).

List of infantry by armor value:

German Infantry	Soviet Infantry	Armor Value (higher is better)
MG42 Weapon Crew, Mortar Team, Pioneers, Ostruppen, Pak40 75mm Weapon Crew	Conscripts, Combat Engineer, Soviet Sniper Team, ZiS 76mm Crew, Maxim Crew, Mortar Team, Penal Battalion	1.0
	[Conscripts+Penal Battalion+Combat Engineer+Maxim Crew] (Vet 2)	1.25
Grenadiers, Panzergrenadiers	Guards	1.5
	[Conscripts+Penal Battalion+Combat Engineer+Maxim Crew](Vet 3), Guards (Vet 2)	1.8
Sniper, [Pak40 75mm Weapon Crew+Mortar Team] (Vet 3)	[ZiS 76mm Crew+Mortar Team] (Vet 3)	2.0
[MG42 Weapon Crew+Pioneers+Ostruppen] (Vet 2)	Soviet Sniper Team(Vet 3), Shock Troops	2.25
	Guards (Vet 3)	2.7
	Shock Troops(Vet 2)	2.8125
[Grenadiers+Panzergrenadiers] (Vet 2)		3.375
Sniper (Vet 3)		4.0
	Shock Troops (Vet 3)	4.05

The Soviet 82mm and 120mm mortar teams have identical armor values.

Armor is calculated for veteran troops using this: (veteran armor modifier * base infantry armor)

I intentionally left out infantry that are either not in multiplayer or where armor is unlikely to play a role (e.g. artillery crews).

Current as of 6/27/13.

All data is pulled from COH2Stats here.
coh2.org discussion thread is here.

[COH2] Tip of the Day #1: Keep your units together!

One of the fundamentals to being a successful COH player is to keep your army together.

By this I don't mean clump all of your units right on top of each other, but to keep them close enough that they can quickly support each other.

It is very common after winning a battle to spread your army out to capture points.  If the enemy counterattacks while you're spread out, he will defeat you in detail, allowing himself back in the game.

Imagine a world where you and your opponent have identical squads of infantry.  Let's say you have eight squads, and he has six.  However, your eight squads are split into two groups of four squads.

If he attacks a group of four with his group of six, he can quickly force a retreat due to local numerical superiority.  After that, he can attack your other group, winning two battles despite having a smaller overall army.


Three key takeaways:

• Keep your army together when attacking, but keep them spread out enough that a single machine gun or grenade can't get them all
• After winning a battle you should capture territory, but you want to reform your battle lines before battle begins again
• Don't try to defend the whole map at once- focus on at most two places where you want to hold, and move the bulk of your army between them.

If you're interested in seeing more "Tips of the Day", click here.

[TIPS] COH2: Using Rifle and Bundled Grenades

Someone on COH2.org posted a question about using German grenades:

"Hey guys, 
Already quite annoyed that bundled/rifled grenades can't effectively kill any weapon crews since Soviets have 6 man teams. With garrisoned units this is worse. I've had times when bundled PG grenade doesn't even kill anyone... even in a small house. More commonly, they will kill 2/6 people. Rifle grenades are even worse. I don't think they even scratch anything in a building, more or less weapon crews/infantry out in the open. This doesn't really make sense since a molotov will force Germans to pack up their MG, leave the house and most likely kill 1 man (33% of the squad already)only to be murdered by the conscript squad with oorah as they try to reorient and set up again. A maxim in a house supported is a pretty tough nut to crack. It requires a force retreat of the defending forces and a solid long burning of the house in order to kill enough members to force a retreat. Alternatively, a flame half track = death but I'm hoping there are more viable counters before it comes to that... 

Also, killing AT guns with these two are horrible. Usually results in vanilla grenadiers chasing it a quarter of the way on the map before decrewing it... and even losing a man in the process. 

Any tips on using grenades effectively as Germans? I pretty much just use them now when there's HTD or I'm floating on munis."

Here's my response:

"The short version on using grenades: avoid using them early, or in any situation where you're munitions-starved, unless absolutely necessary.

Rifle grenades are not as strong as other grenades, for sure. They do have a larger area of effect and can be fired further. I find that they do roughly half the health of a conscript soldier on average. Thus, firing it at a full, six-man conscript squad will usually lead to zero kills but a lot of injuries. This makes it typically more useful as the game goes on since few squads are at full health, at least until they upgrade their HQ to heal infantry.

Bundled grenades are much stronger and typically kill most of the infantry in their radius. Unfortunately, weapon teams tend to be large enough that a single grenade won't kill all the members. You shouldn't rely on a grenade to displace a weapon team unlike in vCoH or Molotovs. It's really just meant to do good damage, but not necessarily as an anti-weapon team ability.

As Germans I prefer to use my first 60 munitions to upgrade a pioneer with a flamethrower almost every game. It deals with units that get into buildings, allows you to beat enemy engineer squads easily and does great damage against conscripts and HMG teams as well. It's more reliable than grenades and will end up being more efficient over the long run, though be careful to keep it alive.

That being said, don't underestimate rifle grenades later in the game. In a close fight, near the end of a battle, I've managed to wipe out four and five man infantry squads with a rifle grenade when they all had low health. It's just not very cost-effective early."

[GUIDE] COH2: Support Weapon Kampaneya build (heavy MG start)

For a list of the units described in this, check out my Soviet Unit Guide here.

1. Send first engineer to cap.
2. Build engineer.
3. Use second engineer to build SWC.
4. Send second engineer to cap the other direction.
5. Build three Maxim MG teams.
6. Upgrade your engineers with flamethrowers.  You'll need this to force infantry out of buildings.
7. Get a Conscript squad.  You can use this to capture, and also to merge your Conscripts into understrength Maxim squads in the field.
8. Select "Guards Motor Coordination Tactics" as your doctrine.
9. Get a Guards squad (to protect against early scout car or flammenwerfers).
1. Upgrade it with the DPS light machine guns ASAP for vehicle buttoning and anti-infantry firepower.
10. Build a fuel depot.
11. Build mines EVERYWHERE with your engineers, you'll be floating a lot of munitions.  I can not understate how important this is.
12. When you have about 50 fuel, build the Tankoviy Battalion Command.
13. Build an SU-85.  Keep it at the back of the army to deal with tanks when they roll up.  Make sure focused sight is on.
14. If you have enough fuel, build another SU-85.  Otherwise, build a ZiS-3 anti-tank gun (used to support the SU-85 in case it gets flanked, plus you can barrage infantry).
15. If you don't have a second SU-85, get one now.

At this point you should be in phenomenal shape.  Your machine guns will easily deal with mass grenadiers or panzergrenadiers.  You can even attack move deployed MG42 teams and win with your maxims due to your larger crew size.  Your mortar will help you deal damage to pinned troops, and can be used to kill snipers as well.

After your two SU-85s are out it'll be very difficult to break you anywhere.  You can now build the Mechanized Armor Kampaneya and crank out T-34/85s if you'd like, for extra flexibility.   Don't forget about Mark Vehicle to make vehicle kills even easier.


Optional things to build:

• Get the 120mm Mortar squad (unlocked through your doctrine).  Useful for dealing even more damage against enemy infantry, and can occasionally kill snipers too.
• Get another Guards squad if you need help capping, or quickly forcing cappers away from victory points using their grenades.
• Upgrade your headquarters to heal infantry.
• RPG-43 Anti-tank grenades for your Conscript(s), to allow them to damage German tank engines to make kills easier.
• M5 Halftrack to reinforce your troops in the field.

Pain points:

• Before your second MG reaches the front lines, you are quite vulnerable and most likely outnumbered in the field.  Be very careful not to lose your engineers (you need them for capping and mines later) or let your first MG take too much damage.  Play conservatively and let them take your fuel if need be so that you can counter-attack in force.
• Note that your Maxim teams can deploy and kill an MG42 team, even if they're deployed first and shooting you.
• Snipers are a little tricky, but if you can suppress the infantry in front of it you can literally rush an MG team right into him.  A combination of your fast deploy times + one burst from the Maxim can kill him.
• A late mortar is easily countered by your 120mm, which can kill their crew in a single barrage (and you have more range).
• An early mortar is harder to deal with- get used to moving your MGs constantly, even during fights after suppressing the enemy.  Look for opportunities to rush it with flamers or your guard troops.
• Units in buildings can be taken care of by your flamer engineers.  If it's an MG, use your own MG squad to bait its fire.
• The flammenwerfer halftrack is your primary concern.  You have to fight battles aggressively to make sure you can get Guards onto the field at the same time as it.  After you have Guards squads it can only really harass your cappers on the flanks, so use mines and your second Guards squad liberally to kill or drive it off.
• In the event the enemy has enough fuel to build a Panther, you may need to go build T-34/85s to Ram it.  SU-85s don't do good damage against Panther frontal armor, though Mark Vehicle will help.

NS2 Stats: "Versed" award/title

Give to the person with the most number of kills with different weapons.

Getting a kill with parasite and bite would count as two, for example.  Someone who got a kill with a rifle, welder and shotgun would have 3.

Flammenwerfer Vs SU85

This is pretty funny.  I won't spoil it by saying any more...

Countering Early Panzer Grenadiers

Someone on COH2.org talked about facing early Panzer Grenadiers.  The essence of the strategy is that the Germans rush straight for Tier 2, saving manpower to crank out the superior PG squads to combat Conscripts (or even Soviet elite infantry).  They tend take back the map and force the Russians back into their base using most cost-effective, stronger infantry.

Here's the original post:
My early game on the Soviet side is pretty much Conscript spam. I try to follow that up in the mid-game with a quick T-34. I'm admittedly not a great play, but I'm able to win about 60% of my games with this strategy and manage to be competitive in most of the ones I lose...until lately.

I've been running into a German strategy that sacrifices early map control for a quick Tier 2. They only build two grens from Tier 1 and maybe one additional engineer. No support units (MGs, snipers, or mortars). In the very early game, I'm able to dominate the map, but at around the 6-7 minute mark (don't quote me on the exact timing), a couple PGren squads hit the field and manage to push me off the map. Maybe 6-7 minutes isn't that early for a PGren, but they seem to churn out 2 or 3 in no time, like they were saving up the manpower until T2 was built. By the time I get my T-34 out at around the 8-minute mark, one of the PGren squads is about to get shreks and there's a good chance they have a Pak on the way.

I think the obvious counter to this is Shock Troops, which I've tried. And maybe that is the right answer and I've just been outplayed (which is entirely possible). In one of the games, I think I was trying too hard to hold off the PGrens with my Conscripts and was draining manpower to reinforce them. As a result, I was only able to afford one squad of Shock Troops before the game was already pretty much over.

Any ideas on how to adapt my strategy once I see that early PGren squad? Or maybe I need a more versatile/flexible early build that will stand a better chance when this happens.




Here are my thoughts:

1. Exploit the early game. Recognize their lack of MGs and start capturing, hard. Especially make sure to deny them both fuels, which should be easy since you'll have more units.
2. Build just enough units to do the job, and no more. If he has two grens and a pioneer, you need no more than four Conscripts squads and could possibly get away with three.
3. Put up a Fuel Depot with your excess manpower, to even further the fuel gap. (see #1, denying his fuel)
4. Figure out what you'll do with all that fuel. You could start with a T-34 and see how long it takes him to get an AT gun. If he busts out the infantry AT, follow up with rocket trucks and Doctrine artillery. Alternatively, skip the T-34 altogether (you can do this if you've denied both fuels, as he then literally has no chance at getting a Stug or stronger onto the field) and just get SU-76s and rocket trucks. The free barrages are insanely good against slow infantry.

Don't be afraid to get MG teams, either. PGs are really slow and expensive, and they're totally useless when suppressed. The fast setup and pickup times of the Maxim (vs. the MG42) makes it much easier to use against PGs.

Hope that helps!

edit: Shock Troops can go toe to toe with PGs, but the point here is not to fight to a draw. Spamming them will only give him more time to bring his tech to bear. Tech "ahead" of him, not to the same level.

[GUIDE] COH2: M3A1 Light Scout Car with Flamers, aka "The Clown Car"

The M3A1 Light Scout Car is built out of the Special Rifle Command and is a powerful early game vehicle.

In addition to a decently damaging mounted machine gun, it can carry a single infantry squad in the back that can fire out of the vehicle.

Stick any old Conscript squad in there and it'll be useful for flanking and moving infantry quickly, but stick an engineer with a ROKS-3 Flamethrower in the car and you'll discover the true power.

In the early game, nothing beats the anti-infantry power of the flamethrower.  It has a good area of effect, great damage, and ignores or gets bonuses against infantry in cover or in buildings.  There's literally no way to hide or negate flamethrower damage.

The common way of dealing with engineers and pioneers with flamethrowers is to either focus them down quick due to their low health, or to suppress them using machine gun fire.

Coincidentally, the M3A1 prevents both!  Engineers will take no damage while inside the car, and cannot be suppressed.  This allows them to keep firing the flamethrower to their heart's content, quickly roasting enemy troops.

This is especially effective against HMG teams, who have no defense against the scout car.

You should generally keep the car away from grenadiers who can kill it in two panzerfausts (which cost 25 munitions each) but with good kiting you can still see the car be effective.


An alternate strategy is to put a sniper team in the car, which keeps them safe from harm while allowing them to snipe with impunity.  Their long range means you can easily keep the car away from grenadiers' panzerfausts while still allowing the snipers to fire.

A third strategy is to put Guards into the car, as they will fire their anti-tank PTRS rifles even while moving.  This can be useful for killing flammenwerfer half-tracks or unupgraded scout cars.

Note that as the game progresses, the abundance of anti-tank weaponry severely weakens this strategy.  However, don't discount how much territory you can swallow up by intelligent use of the "Clown Car" early on.


In summary:

• The M3A1 Scout Car gives your infantry extra speed, mobility, and the ability to ignore suppression.
• You can capture while in the car.
• Put in:
• flamethrower engineers in to kill infantry, especially weapon teams
• Snipers to chip away at your opponent's squad at long range, draining manpower
• Guards to kill light vehicles.