Attacking with military ambulances

[Acheron]

Lets say I have 100 slots for units, and:

100 rangers (attack 2 defence 1, $2000, infantry unit)
100 military ambulances (attack 2, defence 18, $84,000, ground unit)

a level 1 genetics lab (2% boost to infantry)
no electronics factory
country is UK

1 ranger is worth 2.04 attack, and 1 ambulance is worth 2.00 attack.

When I attack, it takes the ambulances into battle. :mad:

So why does the game prefer to take the ambulances into battle when the rangers have more attack, and are so obviously the better choice for attacking with?

If I upgrade my genetics lab to level 2 will it start using the rangers instead of the ambulances?

[Desas]

yep - I am having the same problem
No clarification for my side

For you the only explanation yet to be considered is that you are playing as germany, which gives you 10% boost to your ambulances.

If not then you are in the same situation as me (I am UK - but my APC's get into the battle instead of snipers). Funny thing - this is not happening always... no no clue :(

EDIT: You are UK also... so no explanation for you neither :)

[Acheron]

I have a feeling the level 2 genetics labs won't make a difference. I somehow doubt changing country to china will work either.

Maybe it uses the ambulances because M is before R, like if there is a tie in attack (before boosts) it goes alphabetical.

Might explain why APC is higher priority than sniper too.

[JohnnyR]

The boosts from buildings don't show up when others view our stats. I'm wondering if the boosts don't register on unit's stats till after they are picked for battle.

[Mudphud]

Changing to China would help. It is the only boost that is used when bringing units into battle. Otherwise, the boost buildings don't help and there is no systematic way which is used to decide which units of the same attack strength are brought into battle. If you don't want you ambulances to attack, then you either need some patrol boats or units of attack strength 3.

[youj]

Boost buildings does work. I think the problem is the increase for rangers is so small ~ 0.04. The server might still consider them to be 2.0 attack. If you want to use rangers instead of military ambulances, you probably need to lvl up genetics lab more for it to have an effect on the system.

[JohnnyR]

Changing to China would help. It is the only boost that is used when bringing units into battle. Otherwise, the boost buildings don't help and there is no systematic way which is used to decide which units of the same attack strength are brought into battle. If you don't want you ambulances to attack, then you either need some patrol boats or units of attack strength 3.

Great idea, why didn't I think of that, lol. Patrol boats! Only problem with those though is they're nearly twice as costly as rangers and have low casualty rates-which is a problem when you don't want other better units dying.

[Mudphud]

I used to believe in meat shields, however, as the composition of my army changes, I get the feeling that each unit has an independent chance of dying. Ie having high causality units just means that you lose more units over time. my army used to be mostly fighrpter jets and warthogs and I would lose 3-4 units per attack. Now that it is mostly super hornets I am losing a lot fewer units. But until Funzio clarifies this, then we will never really know, will we?

[What?]

You might want to throw your support behind this thread. I too had the issue with the military ambulances. The ability to create an attack force would be a great addition to account management. Ambulances cost 84,000 and rangers 2000. If you have 100 ambulances and 100 rangers and for no rhyme or reason the 100 ambulances go into attack you are risking 8,400,000 cash to losses rather than 200,000. I really don't know why the system is set up like this. The only way around it is to purchase units higher than an attack of 2 so you cannot have this happen.

http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthread.php?19978-Ability-to-hold-back-specific-units-when-attacking

[JohnnyR]

Fighter jets, cheap as heck and good fodder. This is a problem you won't be worrying too long about anyway though, soon your fodder should be ATs (amphibious troopers) and MSs (minisubs) farmed on Docks and Emir Island maps.

[JMC]

boost buildings don't show up in you're overall stat when someone checks your profile. Im guessing they don't show up when the game selects a unit either, but they do help when you're actually attacking. For that reason, im thinking that since military ambulance has the same attack value and a higher defence value it's valued as a stronger unit and brought into battle instead of the ranger.

Country boost actually does show up in your stats, and it does rearrange your units' powers when bringing them into battle. If it's really that big of a deal, switching nations should fix it.