I built thirty nine combat units and that was all except for AA units and except for a couple scenarios where I needed cannon fodder since there was no way to prevent losses (plus Gamma2 where you temporarily lose the units present at end of scenario) I didn't build additional combat units and I managed to end most scenarios with zero losses. Even the "Destroy primary SAM sites" one.BTW Gamma1 was a nasty shock when I discovered that I had zero energy so I couldn't repair and that before anything I had to conquer a base and seize the four barrels in it so I could build a power station.
Now I don't pretend my strategy would be good against a human opponent and I think I would be a lousy player against a human. Also my tacics are not the only possible ones. They are optimized for ascending units and for not losing any of them but there a other possible ones: like cyborg waves (you don't acre about getting experienced units in this case) or using inexperinced units under a good commander for the shield. In this case you get experienced units and care about their loss but they are in the hammer: see below for what is the shield and what is the hammer.
My tactics were:
1) Retreat at medium damage
2) Slow the game before entering combat, reset speed once the enemy is dispatched
2) A shield group and a killer group.
3) The shield group was composed of six tanks and my highest ranked commander. No more than six tanks since more than that tends to create choke points where retreating units are blocked by advancing ones and get killed. if necessary micromanage damaged units. Also the shield group is composed of tanks (ie heavy cannon) because its main mission is not destroying anything
but taking hits and for most of the game the heavy cannon is the turret with the highest hit points you have.
4) A hammer group composed of what is better to destroy the opposition: bunkerbusters (rarely), anti-tank missiles or artillery. Once I got howitzers and ripple rockets I tended to rely more and more on artillery and less on other types of units for the hammer: the reason is that it is easy to create a fire group of twenty units or so and do it without creating choke points. Against Nexus I relied nearly exclusively on artillery since Nexus doesn't use tracked units. Anothe advantage of artillery is that you can transfer firepower very quickly between two points far awy from one another: have two commanders and atttach the guns to one or the other.
5) Remember Red Army's artillery preparations in front of Berlin? That is me.
I massively use artillery. Twenty units at least.also I don't rely exclusively on high damage but slow reloading units like ripple rockets: too often they deliver two or three times more firepower than needed to destroy and then for a whole minute you are left with another enemy unit firing at you with impunity. That is why I ever have rapid firing units (pepperpots first, later hellstorms) in my artillery groups. In fact weren't it for the relatively short range I would tend to recommend using heelstorms over anything else: a single salvo of twenty hellstorms wil destroy anything with a second one (for another target) quickly on its way. But in practice I recommend balanced groups.
6) When enemy has artillery who is really able to do harm then take care of it _first_: mos of the time I rely on my own artillery units (so they get the experience points) and I attach them to a counterbattery radar (more exactly: to cmmander with plenty XP I have temporarily converted to counterbattery radar). When enemy counterbattery fire is so strong it could destroy any of my units (eg Gamma9) then I build ripplerocket positions and rebuild them as they get destroyed until the enemy is weakened enough he can no longer destroy an artillery unit in a single salvo. A this point my mobile units take charge of finishing off enemy artillery.
7) Prefer heavy chassisses. Hit and run is nice and dandy but unless you outrange the enemy (mots of the time it is him who outranges you) you are going to take hits and Bugs or Viper chassis can be destroyed in a single salvo. For units in the "Hammer group" I found that the Mantis chassi is a good compromise between mobility, protection and ability to carry a heay turret. For the "Shield group" I recycle Pythons to Tigers as soon they are available, later Tigers to Retribution (nearly as much HP and more armor) and Retribution to Vengeance.
I built zero cyborgs. Far too vulnerable to my tastes.9) I used VTOLS (only Phosphor bomb VTOLs) until the enemy got SAMs then I recycled them. I recycled other units into VTOLs for Beta11 (Evacuate) where VTOLs bombing Collective columns with Phosphor played a vital part in my defence) then I recycled them again and didn't make a single VTOL sortie in all of Gamma.
10) In Beta11 (Evacuate) and Gamma 8 (Missile Codes) I found that the best defence is a well placed wall with a radar turret behind it and my twenty or more artillery units ready to attach to the turret ho is detecting enemy units.
11) Since at Gamma 6 you will be getting ten units with more than 2048 XP (the requirement for a hero leader) it doesn't make sense to push a a commander or radar unit beyond 512 XP: Recycle it into a hero ordinary unit then recycle a unit who is close to ascending into a commander (commanders get XP faster than ordinary units so you can use your commanders as "lifters"'). Once you get the Gamma 6 heroes recycle them into leaders.
12) Against scourge towers since they outrange cmmanders I sent tanks forward but _didn't_ ordered to attack the towers: that means getting deep into the tower killing range and possibly enterinng the range of another tower. Instead I ordered them to proceed to a point where they would be between the tower and a commander (commanders are tougher than radar units) with my usual twenty artillery units attached to it. At the end I had a damaged tank retreating to the repair station and a smouldering hole where the scourge tower used to be. I didn't resort to the "craven strategy": build a radar tower out of range of the scourge tower.
13) Build repair stations as I advance so my "supply lines" remain short.
