Urban Battle - by Casojin & Creator

> For all generals.
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Various ZH maps have cities or towns. Any city can be turned into good defense line if used skilfully. Holding a large city is a tricky job. Since buildings would block tank/vehicle passage through the city and make them vulnerable to ambush. Small urban area can be easily occupied but large one (like in Homeland Alliance) is not easy because your enemy will do the same. The number of different fight variants is very high. So, we will not describe all of them and just draw your attention to common principles.

## Building defenses in an urban area.

In the very beginning you have to analyze the situation and conclude whether or not to hold a city. If a city is located far and does not block your base entrance then it's not worth the time and money. If it can be helpful for defense then you must turn it into defense line.

If some empty buildings stand near enemy base then there is opportunity to enter them and organize defense around enemy instead of around yourself.

And so, you decide to occupy a city...

First of all, you need to do it fast. Moreover, enemy will kill your garrisons and you will need to bring new soldiers as quickly as possible. GLA can garrison towns faster using Tunnel Network. USA can use Chinooks for this purpose. China can build Barracks right in town. But honestly, any side can build Barracks in urban area provided that there's sufficient space.

Preparations have been made. One needs to garrison buildings now. There are some variants of doing this.

1. The ***Garrison Illusion*** tactic: Garrison as many buildings as possible by sending 1 soldier into each building. Psychological effect can work in this case. Enemy will see occupied town and choose another path. By the way, this variant is good reconnaissance too because soldiers see everything in town and around it. However, this defense will not sustain good assault.
2. The ***Chock Point*** tactic: Put maximum soldiers in 2-3 buildings and enforce them with combat units, defense structures and radars. You will get strong point capable of defeating powerful attacks.
3. The ***Hybrid*** ***Task Force*** tactic: Garrison a number of buildings with small multifunctional team of 2-4 soldiers. There must be some soldiers effective vs infantry, some antitank and some antiaircraft troopers. This is a middle point between 1st and 2nd variants. It gives good defense and the loss of one garrison is not critical.

## Structural Choice

Choosing the structure to garrison wisely would help you defend the city much easier. Each building can block incoming fire as well as outgoing fire from your troops. Tall buildings block artillery shells, missiles and bombs. Thus, you may hide a unit or defensive structure behind city buildings to ambush your enemy or create a choke point using unoccupied buildings. The GLA can add defensive measure to the city with demo traps and camouflaged defensive structures (place them wisely or they'll get blocked by buildings too). And also, it is better to occupy small buildings located near tall ones, but in this case the enemy must come from the direction of tall building. Sometimes, it's necessary to destroy the blocking buildings to make your troops fire more effectively.

## Artillery

Artillery is one of the best ways to deal with garrisoned buildings. It's even better in *Contra* due to the fact that some artilleries, such as Mortar Buggies with Gas Warheads or Earth Shakers, can clear buildings. But use them with caution. Your enemy can ambush the lightly-armored artillery easily in the city. Your artillery is also an effective way to deal with them. Air support is very good too if the enemy doesn't bring AA with the attacking group.

## Air Support

Air support in urban area was limited. Jet missiles and bombs tend to be blocked by buildings. Helicopters such as Comanches, Helixes, Ravens or Thors are a good choice to support fighting in urban zone. BEWARE, they're weakly armored and can be shot down easily with hidden AA vehicles or infantries. Please note that, unlike in vanilla *Zero Hour*, a bunker buster bomb doesn't kill garrisoning troops instantly. So, they would be best used when you have infantry-killers nearby. It also more effective against human player than AI (since humans cannot multitask as well as AI and tends to forget to bring those men back into the building).

## Forward Recon

To properly hold the city, scout units are one of the most important things (especially when *Contra* defense structures can't detect stealth in all-in-one style).

One needs to take care of reconnaissance of course and put scouts or radars between buildings. Enemy will use anti-garrison measures such as Dragon Tanks, Toxin Tractors and Microwave Tanks. Therefore, it is also needed to enforce urban defense with tanks, defense structures, mines and demo traps.

If you play as Stealth general, put your stealth buildings between city houses to block paths. Destroy enemy radars with buggies or "Destroy Radars" general's power and he will not be able to pass through blocked town.

## Reinforcements

Ok, defense line has been built and enemy approaches. What should you do during urban battle? One has to take care about 2 following things.

1. To build infantry as quickly as possible. Enemy will kill garrisons, so, new soldiers will be needed to take back lost city buildings. No matter if infantry can get to frontline in time. Infantry is not weak by itself and can stop enemy forces broken through. When battle is over, remaining soldiers must garrison city houses.
2. To repair damaged buildings during battle. Dozers and workers must be prepared for it beforehand.

## Assault in urban area

Quality of each defense is defined by the quality of its weakest part. Thus, perform reconnaissance and choose proper attack path. If enemy has strong urban defense, but keeps his base open from the flank, do not go to the city. Use this gap.

Lets imagine that a gap has not been found and you go through the city. The first thought which crosses one's mind is to take anti-garrison units. Yes, it is correct decision, but well made urban defense is always enforced with tanks. Such attack will clear some first line houses and will be defeated quickly.

The most effective, but the most slow way it to use artillery. Take artillery and level one building after another no matter if they are garrisoned or not. This method clears your path, destroys garrisons and prevents enemy from occupying new houses. But enemy will perform counterstrike trying to destroy your artillery. So, you need to retreat, defeat counterstrike and attack again. It can last for a very long time.

Therefore, it is needed to alternate attack with defense. Take care about enemy counterattack beforehand. Take tanks, infantry and a builder with you. Attack, capture a quarter, build defense there and go forward. Occupy building located near enemy ones. You troops will fire from one building at another. It can help a lot. Don't forget that some soldiers can kill garrisons. Put a group of rangers or flamethrowers into a house and they will clear all surrounding buildings from enemy garrisons.

- Casojin
-Creator