General Multiplayer
These articles cover the basics and are applicable to any version of the game.
Getting Started
- Introduction
- Glossary of Short Terms
- Naming Philosophy
AW4 mechanics
- Interface
- Anatomy of a day
- Mechanics (vitals, damage, leveling)
- COs, COUs, COPs, and the zone system
- Terrain and weather
- Gas trick
- Other things
AW3 to AW4 differences
- Mechanics and unit changes
- DEF shift
- Base damage changes
Competitive Multiplayer
These articles are more in-depth, but more importantly, they assume that players are using the AW4 Balance Patch. This changes the statistics of the commanding officers (COs) and assumes various game settings. As of May 2020, all online competitive play uses the AW4 Balance Patch.
The World of Intelligent Defense
- Introduction & How to find games
- Standard game settings
- Why are sea units not played?
- It’s not just about winning
- Myths and assumptions debunked
COs
| CO | Zone | Effect | Power |
| Brenner | 3 | 110/130 all | +3 HP all |
| Caulder | 1 | 130/130 all, +1 HP/day (costs funds) | None |
| Gage | 2 | 140/130 indirect, 110/110 other | +2 indirect range |
| Greyfield | 3 | 140/120 tech, 110/110 other | Supply all units (incl. materials) |
| Forsythe | 5 | 120/130 all | None |
| Isabella | 2 | 120/110 all | +2 MP all, +2 indirect range |
| Lin | 1 | 130/130 land, 110/110 air | +2 vision land, hidden tiles revealed |
| Penny | 3 | 120/120 all | Weather change for 3 days |
| Tabitha | 0 | 170/160 all (190/180 COU) | 8 HP 2-radius nuke (cost bias) |
| Tasha | 1 | 160/140 air, 110/110 land | +2 MP air |
| Waylon | 2 | 130/160 air, 110/110 land | +270D air |
| Will | 2 | 130/110 direct land, 110/110 other | +2 MP direct land |
Units
- Soldiers (infantry, bike, mech)
- Core (antiair, tank, copter, artillery)
- Tech (mdtank, wartank, rockets, bomber, duster)
- Niche (recon, flare, antitank, missiles, fighter)
- Transport (t-copter, rig)
Theory
- Cost efficiency
- Direct-fire folly
- First turn advantage
- Hard and soft counters
- Indirect clusters and lines
- Material advantage
- Tech units
- The 1HKO
- Unit count
Strategy
- Banking
- Capturing
- Chip damage
- City support
- CO units
- Double teaming
- Forced leveling
- Joining
- Mopping up
- Offensive COU push
- Parallel formation
- Shielding
- Turtling
- Wall busting
- Zone advantage
- Zone management