Creating your own deck | Campaign Wargame: AB Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Before you start creating your own deck, I recommend to play campaign a bit. You find there all nations with their defined units so you can test their advantages and disadvantages personally. You can also test authors' decks. You should also notice that there can't be a deck with everything you want as each choice creates some powerful things and weaknesses. Many hours of experiments let you create your own style.

Click "Deck" button to open deck creator. Here you have five more options to choose:

"Create" - create new deck

"Edit" - edit a deck which already exists

"Change" - change the name

"Delete" - the name speaks for itself

"Copy" - copy the deck for editing

Grey decks are prepared by authors as examples and you can modify them after copying them.

After clicking Create, you enter a menu of deck creation. Here you have several options from which obligatory are:

"Faction" (NATO or Warsaw Pact)

"Deck name"- random name, whatever you like

Option Choose bonus isn't obligatory, but it allows you to get additional bonuses for some limits in your deck.

National deck narrows choice of units only to those which this particular nation had in real world, but also unlocks prototypes and let them get an additional bonus. If you don't make any choice, you can mix units from all factions of conflict, but you will be derived of bonus and access to prototypes.

Type defines an army profile by increasing XP and activating points for particular units categories but you don't have slots for other types

Aeromobile - Advantages: additional experience point for recon units. Each plane costs one activation point less. Disadvantages: selection limited only to particular units and only 6 slots for tanks

Mechanized - Advantages: additional experience point for all vehicles, additional experience point for all support. Disadvantages: selection limited only to particular units and only 6 slots for helicopters

Parachute - Advantages: additional experience point for all infantry, each infantry costs one activation point less. Disadvantages: selection limited only to particular units and only 6 slots for support

Paratroop drop - Advantages: Additional experience point for all helicopters, each helicopter costs one activation point. Disadvantages: selection limited only to particular units and only 6 slots for support

Maritime - Advantages: Additional experience point for all infantry, additional experience point for all planes. Disadvantages: selection limited only to particular units and only 6 slots for recon

Armored - Advantages: Additional experience point for all tanks, each tank costs one activation point less. Disadvantages: selection limited only to particular units and only 6 slots infantry.

All - you have access to all types of units..

Era limits an access to units due to the date of their real appearance. You have three choices in here.

No choice let you choose all units and grants an access to prototypes.

Category B includes units which appeared before 1980. Bonus is + 40% to availability of units.

Category C contains units which appeared before 1975. Bonus is + 80% to availability of units.

Availability was mentioned above, in the chapter about experience. In short: the higher availability, the less the troop loses when it levels up.

When you click Create you return to the deck menu, where you can see your own deck, next to the decks of authors. Click it twice.

You see a general panel with empty slots and number of activation points (right upper corner). Number of points is calculated including various bonuses. In the central place you can see a table divided by unit's categories and cost which you have to suffer to full the slot with a particular unit. This cost grows for each category while filling slots from left to right. Click on the slot in the chosen category.

You see a screen where you add particular troops to slots. Clicking on the flags in the upper part of the screen, you wider or limit the choice of units due to the particular country. While creating National Deck you have only one flag there. You can also switch between categories.

On the left side you can see troops you can choose. On their icons you see a cost of summoning them in the battle in the right upper corner. In the left one a number of slots the troop takes slash number of slots which it can fulfill. You can't create a deck with category full of identical units. Troops are added to the slots above. You can observe how the costs are growing and how many activation points you have spent.

A little below you have a bar with ranks for the added troop. Below the name of rank, you can see a number of people in this troop. Higher ranks decreases number of people in the troop. This can be neutralized by bonuses in Era category.

A big panel below those icons contains information about unit.

When you spend all activation points and when you're good with the squad of your deck, return to the general panel of deck by clicking on Return. To save a deck click Exit and remember that every deck has to have some command vehicles.

Several hints for a beginner deck:

- recon should be recon, it has to have at least very good optics and be quick. Invest also in recon helicopter

- have various tanks but resign from tanks with destroying ammo and weak tanks at all, because it's waste of slots

- buy experienced anti-air and anti-tank sections which should fire quickly and accurately

- don't forget about artillery/mortars, anti-air artillery and anti-air missiles of both types.

- buy anti-tank helicopter with experienced crew

- choose whatever infantry you like (but not totally inexperienced) and prefer armored transporters over advanced land attack vehicles

- if you can, buy a plane against anti-air defense

- don't forget about supply trucks (one slot at least)

- don't buy command helicopter

- among tank destroyers, choose those which have anti-tank weapons.