Lets discuss such an important aspect of the game, as LAVs (i mean - the weakest unit of the game).
I don't know... Of course you need them to cover the artillery and so on, but still, they are pretty useless in combat, and its just a matter of time when they will be destroyed...
What do you think? Maybe, you have a cool strategy, where LAVs are the main part? I'll be really glad to read some...
Lars

They are the main unit of your army when you are outnumberred.

You may see it yourself - there are some replays in this Tips and Tricks section.

one thing you may quickly learn is that lav's can save your countries from being taken over. 2 lavs are harder to kill then one tank.

The formidable LAVs are the most cost-efficient units in the game.

What else gives you (1 Firepower + 4 Hitpoints)/Credit?

Yes, it's true. LAVs are most cost-effective. But LAVs+Mortar are better and so on

LAVs are also awesome when defending your country. Position them all along the border, and the enemy will need at least two turns to get through. As a consequence, you can hold him off for quite a while, always replacing the dead units.

The only disadvantage I've seen with the LAVs was their one-hex movement. Because of this, when attacking tanks are a better choice.

tanks are my breaching vehicle of choice.

1) the 2 movement
2) they have enough life so even if they're surrounded by lav's they wil not die (or can 5 lavs surrdound something, either wat it's never happend since i send them in waves.

Yes, LAV's are in many cases the most useful units.
However, I can also think of many situations, when you regret you have so many of them:

Fore example, when you need to make a Naval Landing operation - the Transprots can transport only a limited number of units, and economically it's much more "favourable" to carry 4 Tanks or Heavy Bots than 4 LAV's.

When you have a lot of Lav's and need to make a long march through a narrow pass or via mountains, they usually tend to get stuck (Traffic Jam) and even Land Transports won't help.

And there certain combat configurations where LAV's are absolutely useless against a couple of Rocket Launchers or Heavy Bots or Bombers - they just keep getting slaughetered in big numbers not even reaching
those long-range guys...

And... I can think of dozens and dozens of examples when LAV's are of little use.
And don't forget about the Tanks - two Tanks immediately destroy one LAV and if a line of Tanks run into a line of LAV's (especially in the open terrain), LAV's get killed really fast withought inflicting any noticeable damage to the Tanks

Lavs are the most useful units in the game simply because of their cost effectiveness. Of course they should be supported by long-range units, and tanks are necessary for fast movement.

Most battles eventually settle down into a battle of attrition. It you attrrit tanks against Lavs, you will lose the game every time. (See my AAR of the WW on Paradise for an example where the AI used too many tanks in the main battle after his first lines of Lavs ran out).

Also note that except when long-range enemy artillery is nearby, it is more efficient to use Lavs and transports than tanks. The AI knows this, and note that if you invade with both Lavs and tanks, the AI will take out your tanks first, which requires only 5 hits. Taking out the same firepower of Lavs (8) requires 8 shots, almost twice as many. Transports are reusable and not very expensive.

As a general rule (everything has exceptions), a good mix is about four Lavs to every tank, plus one or two artillery units. Ideally extra Lavs should arrive to fill in the front line. The best unit to fill a font-line hole is the Bot, with 7 hit points, but it is better behind a wall of Lavs. Tanks can be used to fill a hole in a pinch, or to rush through a hole to take out artillery, or even better, to race behind the front to take out a city holding planes or just to distract the enemy.

One major exception is an invasion of a long country where the city is far away at the opposite end and time is important. In such a case, if transports are not available or too risky because of enemy artillery, tanks should be used instead of Lavs. As mentioned above, another case is where it is important to carry as much hitting power as possible in transports. But note that losing a transport carrying four tanks in a tight game can tip the scale of victory, whereas losing 4 Lavs is only a small disaster.

Henri

IMHO LAVs are useful in defensive war only.I never use them when i attack.

Well... sometimes there happen to be such HUGE massive LAV's assaults....

Under certain circumstances themy make sense...

In the Mobile battles that you'll see with online players, I find that LAVs are a highly important front line. The fact that they take up a space can be used to regulate the flow of the enemy. Use your LAVs to plug up holes so your enemy can't sneak by with transports to hit your artillery, etc. Even if they are dying by the droves, the fact that the enemy can't move over them until the next round keeps them vital.

And when you're fighting a holding action, nothing bogs the enemy down more than having to try to smash a hoard of those annoying units. A couple extra turns that you can hold off an enemy can make the game, as you try to get reinforcements in time.

Of course, these same traits make LAV's tough to use in a running battle. They get in the way of your faster units, and like Vic said, can cause a major traffic jam.

Speed is essential in this game. You have to be ready to use any slack you can get to move the battle line farther. I learned this when I got badly beat by Tiger . LAVs can prevent an enemy from doing this better than any other unit. Sure, a line of Heavy Bots is impressive, but they are a very expensive unit that takes only one hex. The enemy will get around, isolate, and destroy your bots, while taking out your not-very-well protected artillery.

posting a very interesting replay of my marvellous victory over colonel Drungary on Noble Rust (btw after that i just got colonel rank myself)
it is a good example of how LAVs are being used in both defence and offence

LAVs are really good for defense because of their low cost and good armor. They really agitate me when the AI guy mammoths my attackers with these

ummm...where you seen "enemy fleets" in singleplayer?

Oh, yeah... SURE!

4HP per $ is good when you need to delay losing invaded neutral country with only guerilla available.

They cause traffic jams and it's their main disadvantage, IMHO. Their speed of 1/2onroad would be satisfactory if there were no thin passages.

Causing traffic jams is their main advantage! They can create a border-wide traffic jam for less money than any other unit, which is what you need to do to hold a border's integrity and prevent an invasion.

Advantage if defending, disadvantage if attacking.

OT: Don't forget to send your turn in our mentoring game : )

Lavs are good for defending and blocking and gurillas.

You should have plenty of transports in your army anyway; always keep transports busy.

Once your lavs have done thier job then stick em in a transport and then for the turn that you unload them from the transport they are like cheap tanks. In Any stage of the game they have the great flexibility of tanks when unloaded from transports but still very cheap.

In a country that has no geurillas its great to have naval transports off the (rear) shore with your old lavs so either the enemy has to invest in naval units to get rid of the threat or keep a more valuable team away from the main fight. It will annoy them greatly and split thier forces.


Lavs are wonderfull things. In my opinion the real advantage of tanks is thier ability to hop on and off a transport in the same turn, and also thier ability to already be on a naval transport and then hop on the apc and end up where you want em... but this is a post about lavs.