Overview
Fort Campbell when playing Raid. Circles are critical buildings, hexagons are uplinks.
Raid is a game mode in EndWar. The attacking force must destroy the majority of key buildings within 15 minutes while the defending force must protect them. This game type is only playable on army/air force bases. On Theater of War, a successful Raid results in that base being unusable for 2 turns, preventing the faction who owns the base from calling in Force Recon/Air Support from that location.
Unlike the other game types in Theater of War, the attacking power in Raid can be launched from up to 2 spaces away. This means that as long as the base can provide support to an enemy territory, that territory can potentially launch a raid against that base.
This game mode is also notable in that it is the only one where DEFCON is never reached at any point, so the WMD cannot be used on a critical building. Artillery also cannot be used in this game mode.
Goal
The game will end when any one of 3 conditions are met:
- The attacking force successfully destroys 3 of the 5 critical buildings
- The 15-minute timer runs out
- Either force has no active units on the battlefield for 10 seconds
Tactics
Uplinks
Each Raid map will contain uplinks that can be used by either side to call in support, and will provide command points when captured. They will often be upgraded for Air Strikes if possible, as these can be used to cause damage to critical buildings. Force Recon is less useful because of the time limit, as regular army units take a long time to get into position.
If the defender has access to mission supports, these can be used to greater effect. Air Strike and Electronic Warfare are both more powerful as the attacking force will often funnel towards a critical building, whereupon these supports can potentially affect multiple units at once, especially if using levels 2 or 3. Force Recon is also effective if used on a rearward critical building, as they generally arrive in time to put up a fight against the attackers.
Gunships
The critical buildings themselves are defended by combat drones, so gunships will be weaker in this game type when attacking. Since artillery is restricted from use, the attacker will often rely heavily on tanks and perhaps air strikes to bring down the objectives. For this reason gunships are actually more effective when defending, especially since combat drones can give transports and engineers some trouble and can work to protect the gunships.
Infantry
For both sides, engineers can be very useful as they can do significant damage to the critical buildings, as well as defend them against a column of armor. Without artillery available to drive the engineers from their positions, and if they have neglected to deploy riflemen, the enemy will have to rely on overwhelming armor to dislodge them. Worst case scenario is that the engineers will buy plenty of time while riflemen move up to defeat them.
For this reason, riflemen can be used very effectively by the attacker as an escort for friendly armor, so long as they are deployed early enough. They can eliminate defending engineers and capture uplinks very quickly. If defending, riflemen can supplement combat drones around critical buildings with the fair damage they do to gunships and engineers. Additionally, they can protect combat drones against enemy riflemen.
Armor
Tanks will likely be the backbone of the attacking force. They do the most damage to critical buildings and infantry, and can quickly dispense with the enemy's combat drones without having to bring riflemen to the forefront. However, they will be exposed to enemy gunships, and will need escort from transports or combat drones from the command vehicle. Attacking commanders should focus on taking out enemy combat drones and clearing the way for close air support in case of the enemy using tanks of their own.
When defending, anticipating the enemy force is crucial. Tanks will be good for defense as well as offense due to the likelihood that attacking transports will appear, in addition to the off-chance of riflemen being used by the attacker. Gunships are a must to deal with enemy tanks. While transports for the defender are not as necessary, they may become so depending on how many infantry and combat drones the enemy can disable. Analyze the situation and deploy forces accordingly.