How do you put units into cover mode?

Great Britain EHL
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How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by EHL »

I have been working hard recently to take my game to the next level and have heard how useful cover mode can be for pikes/xplorers to tank damage in ranged fights. I just dont know how to put units in it! None of the modes are actually called cover mode, can anyone help me out?
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Mali SenorCallen
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by SenorCallen »

u need to have advanced unit formations on in options
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by lemmings121 »

EHL wrote:I have been working hard recently to take my game to the next level and have heard how useful cover mode can be for pikes/xplorers to tank damage in ranged fights. I just dont know how to put units in it! None of the modes are actually called cover mode, can anyone help me out?


not every unit has a cover mode, try with pikes, chinese explorer, changdaos, etc.
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Mali SenorCallen
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by SenorCallen »

lemmings121 wrote:
EHL wrote:I have been working hard recently to take my game to the next level and have heard how useful cover mode can be for pikes/xplorers to tank damage in ranged fights. I just dont know how to put units in it! None of the modes are actually called cover mode, can anyone help me out?


not every unit has a cover mode, try with pikes, chinese explorer, changdaos, etc.


that what he said pike/explorers
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by macacoalbino »

Every melee infantry unit has cover mode even light infantry if I'm not mistaken.
Btw its usefull to make hotkeys to your main stances like volley, cover and melee mode since you need to change it fast in the middle of a fight
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by lemmings121 »

SenorCallen wrote:
lemmings121 wrote:
EHL wrote:I have been working hard recently to take my game to the next level and have heard how useful cover mode can be for pikes/xplorers to tank damage in ranged fights. I just dont know how to put units in it! None of the modes are actually called cover mode, can anyone help me out?


not every unit has a cover mode, try with pikes, chinese explorer, changdaos, etc.


that what he said pike/explorers


buy maybe the guy is trying with european explorer, idk.
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Great Britain EHL
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

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Post by EHL »

Thanks guys, i have successfully conquered it
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Aztec »

You should hotkey it.
I've put it on "d", and this and the cover mode are very useful and will help you to improve your micro ;)
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Poland pecelot
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by pecelot »

macacoalbino wrote:Every melee infantry unit has cover mode even light infantry if I'm not mistaken.

You're not mistaken :flowers:
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by deleted_user0 »

EP aztec warchieeef
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Hazza54321 »

umeu wrote:EP aztec warchieeef

EleGiggle
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Sweden Gendarme
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Gendarme »

Not sure whom you are referring to with "you", but in case you are referring to me, I put units in cover mode with Shift+E.
Pay more attention to detail.
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by pecelot »

Map unit formations under QWER, worksh wondersh.
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European Union Asateo
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Asateo »

Just checking:
On heaven (old post) MNBob said about cover mode : http://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=1,29942,8610,all

"Cover Mode:
- attack twice as fast
- do half damage
- move half as fast
- receive half damage"

On ESOC:britishmusketeer: http://eso-community.net/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3812&p=81307&hilit=cover+mode#p81307
"It halfs the amount of damage you take to ranged shots but decreases your attack and speed."

Anyone know what is right? On heaven attacking 2times as fast with half damage is actually same damage, right? So just the speed you would lose.
When do you guys use it? If at all. Taking down attacking buildings? (suggestion on heaven)
To see a world in a grain of saind, A heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of you hand, And eternity in an hour
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
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Hungary Dsy
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Dsy »

It gives you 50% ranged resistance for the cost of reduce your attack damage and movement speed by 50%.
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Turkey Mameluke
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Mameluke »

Dsy wrote:It gives you 50% ranged resistance for the cost of reduce your attack damage and movement speed by 50%.

thanks I asked that myself today
If you see any mistakes in my grammar/vocabulary or whatever, please correct me. I really appreciate it :!: :flowers:
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

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Post by Kaiserklein »

To be accurate, it halves the damage input taken at range by your units. This includes siege damage (for example from cannons or warships) as well as range damage. It is calculated after the resistance of your unit.
For example, let's say you have a rattan shield. This guy has 20% range resist and 0% siege resist. If you put him in cover mode, he will take 50% of siege attacks, since he has no basis siege resist. However, he will take 60% of range attacks, not 50% or 70%. This is because aoe first calculates the damage taken with the range resist only : 80% of the damage will get through the range resist. Then, cover mode halves this damage, so your rattan shield will take 40% of the damage only. So in the end, his range resist is 60%. Basically the formula is (50% + range resist/2).

Yeah I know, we don't care because like 95% of melee infantry units have only melee resist anyway, so they will indeed have 50% range resist after cover mode.
But I enjoy being picky. It's almost sexual actually.
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by HUMMAN »

When is it worth to put units in cover?
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Hungary Dsy
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Dsy »

There is no huge win to use this feature except using it with explorers. They tank a lot with cover mod (azzy and china explorers).
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by macacoalbino »

You can tank shots with pike type units in order to let the ranged units deal damage freely.
One other neat thing is to put the pike taking tc/tower/Atp fire in cover mode to let it tank a few extra shots while the others do full damage.
I usually also like to put a few melee infantry in cover mode in big fights whenever theyre getting shot by enemy lines but idk how effective that is. I imagine it's the best you can do if they are in stuck in a bad position
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

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Post by Kaiserklein »

HUMMAN wrote:When is it worth to put units in cover?

Whenever you have melee infantry that get targeted at range but aren't attacking cav. For example, if your opponent tries to attack your crossbows with his huss, and then goes back when you bring your pikes, and tries to shoot at your pikes with his musks (so he's baiting your pikes), you should put your pikes in cover mode. This is really hard to do, you need to be really reactive.
There are other cases like this, mostly just go cover mode when you feel like your melee infantry will anyway not really deal damage, but they might get shot. Don't overdo it though, keep in mind that then your infantry is twice as slow, and as it needs to always be ready to cover your ranged infantry, it shouldn't stay all the time in cover mode. Also never fight cav with cover mode infantry, because cav will kill it since they now have their attack halved.

Another classic case is when you siege a building that shoots at you. Mostly against towers or ATPs, or when an explorer is shooting at you while you siege.
You should then put the one infantry unit that is being shot in cover mode. Let's say you have 5 pikes, only 1 pike will have half siege, so in the end you will have 4.5 pikes sieging, which is 90% of the damage you would deal if you didn't go cover mode at all. But on the other hand, you take only 50% of the damage from the building/explo. Viri good trade. You can save 1 pike or so against a tower, for basically no effort.
Actually if you think about it, your pike will die twice slower, so even if he has half the siege, in the end he will deal as much damage. So you still deal 100% damage while your opponent deals 50% only.
Of course if your opponent is smart he will change the fire on the next pike, but then you can switch the cover modes. In the end it's about who will pay the most attention. Worth trying anyway, if you have the apm for it.
With tc it doesn't work with most infantry units because they die in 1.5 shots, so if you put them in cover mode after 1 tc shot they will anyway die with next shot, and you wasted some siege power. Only with high HP infantry, like dops, or aztec/chinese explorer, you can try it.

Apart from those 2 cases you mostly don't use cover mode, unless I forgot something. But I'm so picky that I doubt I did.
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Gendarme »

I'd suggest setting hotkeys for unit tactics so you don't have to awkwardly and inefficiently click on the icons as Kaiserklein does. I use Shift+Q for volley mode, Shift+W for melee mode, and Shift+E for cover mode.
Pay more attention to detail.
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by Kaiserklein »

There's anyway an animation when you change the stance so a hotkey doesn't change that much, it will be slow anyway
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Re: How do you put units into cover mode?

Post by macacoalbino »

Hotkeys diminishes the chance of a misclick, and costs you nothing. You should always use it if you're trying to be the most efficient.

With tc it doesn't work with most infantry units because they die in 1.5 shots, so if you put them in cover mode after 1 tc shot they will anyway die with next shot, and you wasted some siege power. Only with high HP infantry, like dops, or aztec/chinese explorer, you can try it.


If you see that the first shot is taking close to half your hp down, you can do it, because they're trying to be super efficient with tc fire keeping just enough vills to 2 shoot your units. For example keeping 7 to kill pikes or 8 to kill pumas etc... :chinese:
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