Iron Harvest – How to Win Against Medium AI Onwards

This works for any faction (although some may do better).

Guide to Beat Medium AI Onwards

General Guide to Start-Off (Annihilation Mode)

• For reserves, get your basic hero / medic and a suitable weapon system (like a Heavy MG).
• To start, use your 3 units (2 basic soldier squads and 1 engineer squad) to capture resource nodes.
• Use your 1 engineer squad to open a weapons pack. More likely than that, that pack may turn the tide of battle. Regardless, you’ll have another fighting squad on the battlefield.
• Train another engineer squad at your base and leave it there.
• Use the engineer to build a barracks.
• Use it to train your basic infantry or appropriate units.
• Then use that engineer to capture resource nodes, weapon packs etc.
• Try to get your 1st reserve out as soon as possible, so your weapon systems can be ready for your defensive line.
• Prevent the enemy from capturing your resource points.
• Focus on identifying bottlenecks / chokepoints that is defensive for you, but not in the direction the enemy is approaching.
• Then build your defensive line.
• Push your defensive lines forward. Remember, effective defensive units.
• When you’re confident or see an opportunity, capture the enemy resource points
• Accumulate resources and upgrade your safe resource nodes.
• Upgrade your barracks when possible. Advance barracks / workshop has a cost reduction on units.

Here are my solid tips to win against Medium AI onwards:

• The essence of the strategy is to always build / find your advantage against your opponent and overwhelm them with it. At the same time, nullify / deny your opponent their advantage.
• If they have the advantage against you, move away and do not get caught in their advantage.
• Line of sight is very important here to determine what to do next as you’re playing chess, to be a few moves ahead.
• Do not retreat unless you have to, as denying enemies positions for as long as possible makes them spend valuable time.
• Retreat rather than losing your units. Its never worth it to lose them, and its cheaper to reinforce them.
• Always, always identify bottlenecks / chokepoints and use them. Oppositely, do not get caught in a bottleneck or intersection.
• Always fight from one direction.
• Mobility is king here.
• You need cost effective units against the right units (Example: Machine gunners against infantry).
• Weapon systems like heavy MG, field cannons and mortars are very VERY useful. Do not discount them for their slow speed. They excel at holding positions and they are mobile vs bunkers (which are too expensive and not mobile).
• Elevation is actual important here. Higher elevation offers great protection, while lower elevation makes your units more vulnerable. This means that it is worthwhile to fight from hills facing downslope against your enemies.
• Slowly choke your opponents by attrition via stealing away / denying their resource nodes.
• Oppositely, if you have a lot of resources, you should spend them to get more troops.
• When you’re ready, attack the enemy base using some effective infantry like flamethrowers, cannoners, machine gunners etc.
• Lastly, get some mechs but by then.. the battle should be won against the AI.

Notes

I’m pretty sure this advice is not so useful against players, but should work against the AI in skirmish. Not very relevant against campaign AI.

This guide is for players who want to improve. This guide is not exhaustive. Veteran experienced players will find this guide lacklustre.