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Short Micro Tips

By DanielD - 25th February 2012 - 16:59 PM

Short Tips with Explanation



By Arne

Complex micromanagement



Exiting buildings


In order to use buildings efficiently, it is important to manually select doors for exiting. As most players know you can do that this way:
  1. Select the house.
  2. Select the squad you want to exit the building.
  3. Click exit (or press D).
  4. Left click outside the building near the door you want to use.
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You can also press tab for selecting a squad. This is especially useful if you need to exit a building with multiple squads through a specific door.
  1. Select the house.
  2. Press Tab.
  3. Press D.
  4. Left click outside the building near the door you want to use.
  5. Repeat for all squads.
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Finding paks in the FoW:


PaKs and 57mm AT Guns provide green cover. While this allows their crews to live longer, it can also backfire: hovering with your mouse over PaKs or AT Guns will always cause a green cover symbol to appear, even when they are cloaked or in the Fog of War. This way you can use your cursor to spot for PaKs and AT Guns in the most common places and deal with them accordingly.
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Pay attention to the cover symbol next to the cursor



Capwalking


Capwalking is a technique that allows you to cap multiple sectors significantly faster.
  1. Start capping a point.
  2. Order the squad to move close to the point you want to cap next.
  3. Quickly order the squad to cap the first point.
  4. One of your squad members will now start to move to the second point, while the rest of the squad will stay back and cap the first.
  5. You can now cue up a capping order for the second point and your squad will start capping it just when it finishes capping the first
Mastering capwalking requires some training as the delay between the second and the third step has to be very short. Once you can pull it off reliably, you can really screw up your opponents early game timing.
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Kettenpushing to decap a point


The combination of the Ketten's ability to cap with its ability of pushing infantry around easily makes it one of the most annoying units early game. While jeeps and bikes are simply able to delay capping by some time, kettens are actually able to reset all capping progress made so far:
  1. Just when an enemy squad is about to capture a point, move in with your ketten.
  2. Push away the capping squad by spamming "face direction" commands close to it.
  3. As soon as the squad stops capping for a short period of time right click on the point; all his capping progress will be nullified.
  4. Back out with your Ketten.
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Moving away from MG fire


Sometimes you will have one of your squads stalling in heavy cover, but want to use that squad somewhere else. If a MG is firing at it, you need perfect timing to avoid being supressed. Contrary to popular believe the best time to order a move command is not between the bursts, but just before a burst finishes. That is because squads need a noticeable amount of time before they turn around and leave their cover.
Sometimes it is a good idea to stay in cover a few more bursts and wait for the MG to reload, which will give you significantly more time to move away.
Videos:
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Moving away while the burst

Moving away between the burst

Moving away just before the burst ends



Recon sniping with multiple squads


If you are using multiple recon squads, you might want to use the snipe ability of several squads at once.
  1. Select all Recon Squads.
  2. Press Tab.
  3. Press D.
  4. Click on an enemy unit.
  5. Repeat the steps for each additional recon squad (make sure you click on a different model each time).
This trick is best used against squads with few members left and will force your opponent to retreat his squads a lot sooner than he would like to.
Video:
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Other concepts



Attack-move


While a fair amount of players seems to shun the attack-move option and think of it as redundant, it can be a great tool for micromanagement if used correctly. Effectively any unit that benefits from engaging at longe range also benefits from attack-move commands.
The only difference between an attack-move command and a standard move command is that units under an attack-move command will stop moving as soon as they are in range of the enemy and that they will start fighting. Especially in micro intensive situation it can be a great tool for microing Snipers, Volks, PaKs, Armored Cars, Bikes or even MGs with little effort. Furthermore, you can also use it to ensure to units do not blunder into their deaths as quickly (although you also ought to be paying attention yourself, of course!).
Nota bene: due to a bug, if you give an attack-move order to an MG squad that has never shot the MG42 before, the squad will not set up the MG until the support crew can shoot the enemy with their MP40s.
Some examples for situations where attack-move can be of help, videos:
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Using a sniper


As long as you are certain that your opponent has no countersniper in range of your sniper, the easiest way to use yours is by attack-moving into enemy territory. This will cause your sniper to stay at maximum range, but maximizes the damage output.
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However, when you suspect the presence of a countersniper, it is important to leave some delay between the shots: this will keep the recloaking time between shots short. Also move instantly after each shot as this will give a 50% chance to evade countersnipes.
The best way to do that is by manually right clicking on the unit you want to be sniped and then ordering a move command while holding Shift.
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Pulling back squads that are being focus fired


In drawn out engagements focus firing is the key to success. You can exploit the fact that your opponent is focus firing by simply pulling back the unit he is focusing on. If he does not react in time his units will pursue the squad that is backing away. If he does react in time and stops focus firing the squad, you can just send it back fighting or use it for capping/laying mines/etc. Do not attempt to do this in close range battles, as your opponent will have all the time in the world to react and your squad will take immense damage without cover bonuses. The greater the distance, the better it works.
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Cueing up move commands after mine placement


After placing mines, always make sure to cue up a move command. Otherwise your opponent might see the clumped up squad and is alerted of the mine.
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However, in some situations it can also be helpful to actually clump your units up on purpose in order to fake the placement of a mine.
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Clearing mines without minesweepers


We have all been there: Just before the PaK pops out an M8 Greyhound drives up to the Kriegs Barracks and plants a mine in front of it. If there is no minesweeper, flamer or grenadier nearby the only apparent way to clear the mine is by suiciding a pioneer squad into it. However, do not simply move into the mine, but retreat over it instead. The retreat bonuses can improve survival rates drastically.
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Just that last body


Sometimes throwing grenades on your own units can be very helpful to fill up your med bunker. Mortars will work too. Video:
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Vetting the right unit


Always try to get the final blow on tanks and vehicles with the unit that benefits from veterancy the most. While this sounds very obvious, you might not consider it in the heat of a the moment. Killing an immobilized low health KT in your half of the map with an AT Gun is wasted experience: the crew is rather vulnerable and with the demise of the crew, the veterancy and its bonuses are lost. Instead, award veterancy to sturdy units that receive good bonuses. Riflemen for example are a prime contender. See CoH-Stats for veterancy bonuses.
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