The infantry player in particular should always take advantage of his ability to drop paratroopers. An infantry player can deploy a unit that not only possesses a ruthless attacking edge with its artillery strike, but is able to secure that much underrated commodity, battlefield intelligence!

Moyes says:

Paratroopers can't stand up to a major firefight but they excel when harassing lightly defended area, especially those bordering a victory location.

If an enemy has not had time to develop fortifications, or leave behind a worthy garrison, you can drop your paratroopers to quickly turn the point neutral. If you're lucky, you can seize both locations to hand the advantage to your team. Realistically, such easy openings will be rare. Often there will be some type of fortification, or reasonably strong defending unit stationed nearby. This is why you should generally drop your paratroopers into a nearby forest to gain the concealment advantage straight away. This will buy you time to use the artillery strike and still seize the location afterwards.

You can also sneakily deploy your paratroopers into the battlefield's quieter zones, the objective being to overlook enemy troop movements without being discovered. You can achieve this simply by giving the ceasefire command to your paratroopers, who may remain undisturbed for an entire game… as long as your enemy doesn't register their initial arrival.

If you keep a watchful eye, you can then launch tactical air strikes on enemy units as they head towards the frontline. Your own front-line units will have a much easier time, and they might advance so far that they even link up with your paratroopers!

You should view tactical aid as one of the most effective parts of your army, able to target any map location with a powerful strike. When combining tactical aids, you can achieve devastating results, especially when using the air strike and paratrooper drop.

Moyes says:

Even the most heavily defended location can be reduced to smouldering ashes. If it's heavily defended, it means there are lots of victory points up for grabs. You can still turn the tables in this sector by dropping paratroopers… you just need to invest a few more tactical aid points!

When using different tactical aids at the same time, you need to take account of timings. It takes 35 seconds for paratroopers to hit the ground. So 12 seconds after we deploy them we need to send in an air strike. This takes 20 seconds to reach the target area! If timed correctly, our paratroopers will seize the location just a second or two after the bombs detonate. Synchronisation like this means your opponent is simply unable to respond to your move beforehand. This means you can hold their area for longer.

At the most advanced level, you can coordinate this strike with a team mate, ideally a Tank Player, who can mimic your actions on the other victory location. This way, you can seize both points AND both gain tactical aid for doing so. You can pay back a 1/3 of the cost of taking the location in the first place!

Terrain plays a massive part for any infantry player. We're not just talking weaving in and out of tree cover or barricading the nearest structure. We're talking simple ground elevation. Infantry units can quickly go from being a major menace to passive bystanders. It all depends on where they're positioned.

Moyes says:

When moving your units around, especially when you want to occupy a defensive position, get into the habit of pressing the ALT key. This will show you the firing circle available to your units, which is very seldom an unrestricted 360-degree circle. By making sure your units are not blocked by the crest of a hill, you will ensure your infantry start taking down the enemy as early as possible.

It is particularly important to apply this lesson to forests, where the changes in terrain elevation are more difficult to spot. You can lose a huge advantage if your troops fail to shoot troops moving over open ground.

Hopefully you're familiar with the basics, including hotkeys and using flares. So let's move on to some advanced tactics and the thinking behind them. I like to start my game aggressively. Destroy just one tank, infantry squad or heavy helicopter cheaply and you can hand your team the initiative in the crucial opening period.

Zaccubus says:

Although I do vary my starting units (according to what plan the team is following), I often go with three heavy helicopters and one scout to inflict as much early damage as possible. You have to wait about four seconds to get the scout at the start of the game. But it's well worth the delay since it should help you avoid charging into enemy anti-air units.

Alternatively, launching three sidewinders can take out one enemy helicopter instantly. And you still get to deploy one heavy helicopter. This is a more of a defensive deployment. While your team's tanks push forward and secure the victory locations, you screen them from enemy heavy helicopter.

Enemy paratroopers, especially those scouting the location of your team's forces, aren't the most glamorous targets, but you still need to deal with them. The air player is often ideally placed to take them out.

Zaccubus says:

The key is to have a few heavy helicopters and use the ‘force fire' command. Right clicking on enemy infantry only results in the helicopters using machine gun fire, but forced fire gets them to use their onboard rockets, which make short work of the enemy. This command is also great for targeting tanks hidden inside a smoke screen. Knowing their likely location, you can simply fire into the smoke and get a result.

If your force consists mainly of medium helicopters, use the fact that you get aerial recon for the lowest price – five tactical points. Work with your support player, scan a location and give the co-ordinates to your side's artillery so they can pulverise enemy troops. Make sure you communicate well, however, as the scans only lasts 15 seconds.

Enemy paratroopers can do your team a lot of harm. There are a variety of methods to counter them, but here's a valuable pre-emptive tip.

Low-Life says:

The medium artillery can burn down small parts of forest with the phosphorus shell. If you use this in the beginning of the game on small patches of forest where you think a paratrooper squad is likely to land, you effectively deny them cover. This means the paratroopers are unlikely to last long on the battlefield. When you don't have anything better to shoot at, aiming at strategic bits of forest is an ideal use of the medium artillery.

Heavy helicopters eat tanks for breakfast, but heavy anti-aircraft units eat heavy helicopters! But helicopters are not easy to catch, so the support player has to be cunning.

Low-Life says:

The favourite target of air players on the battlefield is a group of undefended tanks fighting their own side's tanks. It's the support player's job to stop their team's tanks getting chewed up by heavy helicopters.

Good support players stay close to the tanks and make sure no air player dare approach. The best support players stay there cunningly hidden. If you're in the open, the best your anti-aircraft vehicle can achieve is to scare away the helicopters for a while or make the helicopters waste ammo on it. But, sooner or later, your anti-aircraft will be destroyed by enemy tanks, and then the helicopters will just swoop in and do their job.

If your anti-aircraft vehicle hides and waits for helicopters to attack the tanks, and then moves out to clear the skies, your team's armour player can take the offensive thanks to a lack of enemy helicopters.

This strategy requires a better then average tank player who knows when to smoke. If your anti-aircraft doesn't take care of the helicopters in time, the helicopters will take care of your team's tanks and then your anti-aircraft will be next. To give your armour player a better chance to survive, use the heavy artillery's special ability to create a smoke screen shell, which covers a larger area and lingers longer.

Learning how to use the smoke screen effectively is essential as it definitely prolongs the life of your units if they enter a fire-fight in which they're outmatched. If you have a group of tanks, try to smoke only one tank at a time. This will prolong your ability to survive until your team-mates to come to your rescue.

PuReBall says:

Smoke is especially valuable when dropping light tanks on distant enemy victory locations. Enemy heavy helicopters and other substantial threats are often too far away to deal with your air-drop initially, but infantry are a viable counter and may lurk in nearby forests. By smoking your tanks, you force enemy units to either wait until it clears, or walk up to the smoke screen to see through it. Both of these buy more time for the tank to hold the location.

Smoke conceals your tanks from the enemy but it also conceals the enemy from your tanks, unless you have another unit nearby. If you do, and that unit has line of sight to the enemy unit, it can relay that information to your tanks while they retain the advantage of concealment. However, remember that smoke launchers need time to recharge. If you allow the enemy to survive for too long, your tanks' smoke cover will dissipate, leaving your unit exposed.

As a tank player, you will usually go with heavy tanks. Unfortunately, however, helicopters will make mincemeat of your tanks unless you support them with anti-aircraft units.

PuReBall says:

You should seldom venture away from ground- or air-based anti-aircraft units unless you're certain you can get away with it. Even then, you need to continually inform your team which way you're heading, as it's only a matter of time until the enemy helicopters decide to blunt your thrust. If your tanks aren't protected, you're making it very easy for your opponent to get a grip on the battlefield.

You should always try and destroy the enemy's ground-based anti-aircraft units before their tanks. The secondary attack on the heavy tanks is perfect for wreaking havoc on lightly armoured targets. And saving it for the enemy's ground-based anti-air is an ideal way to take these units out from a distance. You just need a unit to spot them first. Once you have destroyed them, you can shout to your own air player who will have an easy job mopping up the enemy armour.

Moyes: Players' style of play in World in Conflict is continually changing and I would advise you not to get fixated on any one tactic or concept. Each situation is a unique problem, and the answer to each is subtly changing. I hope this guide gives you deeper insight into a World in Conflict battlefield and helps you develop fresh ideas, which I look forward to encountering on the battlefield some day. Good luck!

Zaccubus: The air player has to play instinctively, and encounters are often short and sharp. Your team-mates will often want your support everywhere on the map. Try and figure out the most vital sectors and concentrate on those. By following my tips, you should have an even greater impact.

Low-Life: There are many techniques and strategies to learn before mastering the support role. These are just a few basic ones, but as every journey begins with a first step, consider this the start of yours. Now get practising, soldier. Good luck!