The Principles of Attacking an Economy

By Falcon907

The beauty of attacking an opposing economy in a half to full force assault is how it can turn the entire outcome of the match based on how well you can multitask and how original you are with your army and resources at hand, it is only common sense that if your opponent has a bigger army, you must naturally commit yourself to attacking his weak points before he exposes this advantage.

Well lets go first on what NOT to do as you take some troops to carry out the operation of the “eco raid” (economy raiding).

Do not forget that you still have to keep making military units and citizens as your raid progresses, because if it is a long lasting test of micromanagement, lasting even as far as maybe 2-4 min, your going to find that you will have an unhappy opponent as you have a lesser army with resources banked up as he goes for the kill.

Do not forget that if you carry out multiple raids in a game, that they are not all from the same routine spot, eventually, most players adapt to being hit at a certain spot and you will find your squad of units at that same spot dead, you’ve just wasted resources on troops that could have been used to a much greater extent.

Never use your entire army to carry out a economy raid unless you have been forced into your opponents base, if you do such a foolish thing without supreme micromanagement, you will more likely that not, lose your entire army in the course of waltzing in with something too easily noticed and being caught dead, its almost like being a agent in the base, you have to send in small amounts of units at a time to make sure that if they die, it is not a significant reduction on your current forces.

This is perhaps, the most important thing not to do and to remember well, do not use attack move on an eco raid, it will cost you those units and you will most likely be shooting at stray military units or buildings around the citizens and the squad gives themselves away without really damaging villies, just attacking a random building in the opposing base, this is why you always must be controlling your troops that will lead you to having a large advantage in the heat of the game.

Not that we’ve covered what not to do, here are some tips to help you do it successfully.

  • Always have your town center(s) under group hotkey 1 and you main military building as group hotkey 2 so you can maintain production as you’re in their heartland
  • To not have a predictable pattern of raids, attack his economy from two or more angles, or periodically raid different resource locations that he occupies, keep him guessing and when his army is fanned out to warn against this, send your main army in to rip through their forces 1 small group by 1
  • use any useful terrain of the map to your advantage. This means something like if your opponent is on an island or has gold, food, or wood sources near water, make about 3 navy ships and bombard their stockpile, why 3? That concentration of ships will kill those villies before they can escape. If there are trees near a gold source or animals, use France to its advantage and hide you infantry in trees as they show no mercy to exposed citizens. Any spot where resources are near terrain that contains good sized hills, shoot from the hill, do more damage, and your units will have a much better chance of escaping on a hill, since the opposing units will have to walk up that hill first while you’re going down, simple physics.

For my last section on the subject of attacking an opposing economy, a list of units that are suitable for this task, for the age of World War I

(There are no mentions of WWII units in this list).

United Kingdom

Commandoes– The units with the greatest ability to conceal themselves, use these guys at any open spot, hit far away mines, hit hunting, even wood near the enemy base, but use at least 5 for a serious raid, this can also force the opponent into going for other army units that spot stealth units, and you can go and make the counter to what you know they will have to make, since they will never want their economy trashed by stealth units, so get ready to most likely make anti air guns or artillery.

APC– A forgotten unit that can show some great uses for the task of quickly attacking and fleeing on the scene of other units, combine the trucks machine gun to its rather quick speed of about 17, and sturdy as well, you could even load them with commandoes so the fun doesn’t stop after the APC dies!

France

Freedom Fighters– You knew this would come up, make about 5-8 of these for a reasonable amount, add the speed upgrade to them, and drive around everywhere knocking off villies with every group shot, great for almost any situation, the speed makes this unit so viable, the gun is deadly, and hit and run was never so easy, just don’t raid near any air support units floating around, making too many of these to me doesn’t make sense, if your massing these as you have an army, wouldn’t you already have superiority in economy and military?

Flamethrowers– Another very good raiding unit that will defiantly become a asset to any raid, the flames ability to hit multiple units with a 50 attack will give this unit a huge plus to sneaking in and flaming about 4 times, since those villies will burn hard and be ripe for your next raiding party, if you want to kill the villies, make about 6-8 for the job and that would do fine.

United States

Doughboys– Yes it’s their basic Infantry unit, but with a speed upgrade and about 10 of these boys, you will be having fun with a charge right into a field of gold and wood villies, all ripe for a quick and decent shooting, they try to go away? Your slowed down speed while having a speed upgrade is 15, and the normal is 17, so you can catch up pretty easy and retreat almost as easy, but these guys will be more susceptible to being lost on the retreat, don’t fear however, since you are USA, the economy giant.

Russia

Cossacks– Only rivaled by the freedom fighter in terms of economy raiding, this unit has deadly speed and attack and is a spear cavalry unit, get about 5 of these, enter from a side entrance of the enemy base, and absolutely destroy as many villies as possible with charge on, then make a quick dash out and continue this process from other angles, and pretty soon, you have an annoyed opponent who cant seem to get a handle on the situation and will create opening for attacks himself.

Snipers– Another great raiding unit, you only need about 3-5 of these per raid, since that 1 shot kill works like a charm to easily take all those ripe and innocent villies out, yes the reload is long but still, this unit is a great raider and will always have a good place for me a few meters away from a gold mine of 15 villies, so refreshing.

Germany

Mortar infantry– The main German power of raiding, the mortar should be used at any good moment where there is an open lot of villies that are just asking to get 1-3 deadly clouds of gas right into them. You only need 4 at max for a successful raid, speed would be a good upgrade for this unit, since you will want to keep this unit for later raids and battles, just gas, explode, and teach your opponent how dangerous Germany is. Remember to always use these guys in any open moment!

Big Bertha Artillery– A slower, longer ranged, and more powerful mortar infantry unit, this things gas cloud just rips through villies, and with a range upgrade on, you wont even need to worry about running away when they cant even see where the artillery is as it lobs deadly gas clouds and equally deadly shells into the hard working men (or women) of the opposing economy. Use 2 of these for your raids only if you won’t suffer from paying so much for them. And please, never use the speed upgrade on these, its just not meant to be.

While there are more units that can be deadly and effective at raiding villies, those units are available to every civilization in the general area, so don’t be afraid to take 2-3 bombers for a joy ride into a clump of villies, just make sure all of your raids are successful and were worth the game time, and as a final tip,

If your opponent calls you a noob, a lamer, or calls your tactics a noob strategy, simply say, you lost didn’t you?

Thanks for looking at my first guide, have best of luck,

Falcon907