At some maps the enemy has artillery. The circles on the map are safe areas. Place you characters inside of them.

Game is super easy if you use mostly shocktroopers and scouts. Always have your I usually didnt have more than 1 sniper(I found snipers to be mostly useless) or 1 extra anti tank(+Largo). You dont really need more than 1 engineer per tank. Dont be afraid to use scouts/shocktroopers more than once per combat round, you can run up on enemies and take them out.

I say you need to have a sort of balance, in that at least one of each class is good.

Note post contain some spoiler for mission content:

Lancer accuracy is very bad, but unlike Sniper, you need them for boss fight. The 2 CP spend on a tank is just too much when facing enemy tank / boss with an intend on getting an 'A' score. (Eg, the Jaiger fight, the fight against the Super tank taking out those mini turrent, the radiator etc.)

Tanks have their role, but to score an 'A' the only time you generally even consider using a tank is to take damage (ie specific tactical purpose :P) because CP management can be essential for a 1-3 turn wins. (Ie using grenade instead of mortor to save CP etc.).

Defense for tank doesn't require using CP, the only time you use the CP is to move the tank in position (once against tactical purpose!).

So yea, your edit is correct, tactical use of the tank is great. But its is too much of a utility unit for you to maximise the CP usage (this is the same with engineer).

As for your edit 2, Sniper is great once you level them up to elite, especially Marina Wulfstan who is a beast once she gets her late game accuracy upgrade.

Engineer however are less appealing in late game because to score an A, you essentialy need you to maximise the usage of each CP which means specialisation: the speed and mobility of the Scouts and the fire power of Lancers / Assault for unit and vehicle take down respectively.

There are 1-2 scenario where a sniper is also preferred, such shooting Selvaria in the back on the last encounter (bait her with an awaken Rosie or Vyse). Utility unit simply don't make much sense when you're trying to squeeze every CP for all its worth in these scenario.

The only unit with issue for ammo is probably the Lancer and this is where you're meant to use Awaken and a lancer that can restock ammo such as Hector. Landmine can almost always be avoided, so the only thing they're generally used for is repairing tank and I rarely if ever get into a situation where my tank needs repairing in a mission unless some lucky shot blows my tread.

Perhaps its also a playstyle, I'm too much of a rush nut in this game, and most of my time is spent thinking on how to get the most firepower out of the least amount of CP, I rarely consider defense or fighting defensively so Engineer and Sniper simply do not have much use and I cringe each time I must use a tank because I think thats 2 CP I can use to awaken Alicia and walk her to the enemy spawn point and THEN capture it.

Come to think of it, its probably IS me. I'm an obssessive CP control freak!

Well all I know is that I got all As and usually had an engineer. If I wanted to use lots of grenades with my scouts they could resupply -- I think I did that -- and yes, mines can be avoided but it's a real hassle and wastes movement. And I used the repairing sandbags trick several times to hunker down for the counterattack.

Basically I used the engineer as a backup scout with special abilities.

On the other hand, I very rarely if ever used commands.

Ah there is the difference then. I live on command, more specifically awaken. I don't think I've gone any mission without Awaken / Awaken All once I've gained it. Its simply too useful especially on Alicia, this is also the reason I attempt to save every CP possible.

Final-Fan said: For the people who said it is sometimes better to not have a full team: only under the following scenario IMO. If you find yourself with people who don't really move from starting position because it would just take so long to get them up into position and you're using others, try leaving them out initially, and then you can spawn them in at any base whose flag you capture for 1 CP (they show up the following turn). Oh and on that subject, make sure you take out enemy bases that are getting reinforcements if possible, because you deny them all those people that were going to come in. Even if your guy gets wasted on the counterattack it's worth it (unless they touch him and kill him for good ).

Actually there are also some fights (like the one against Maximilian tank, Selvaria or Jaeger, and especially the skirmishes on hard mode) where the starting positions of your team members are directly in the ennemy line of fire and if you fill these positions you'll then have to spend precious CPs sheltering your units instead of using them more efficiently.

I'm pretty sure I applied Napoleon's preferred method of defense on the Maximilian tank (desert one); obviously on the one that's just a big race it's useless to have lots of units, although my engineer came in very handy to clear about a million mines. Other than that, I don't recall not maxing out the troops at some point on any stage, although I could easily be forgetting another 'novelty' one.

I'll have to consider that for the hard mode skirmishes, though.

You can actualy save in a battle? I didn't know that o.O

And I didn't everything but unless no one said this: Don't deploy everything (as in full groups) and always put the main characters for CP.

Man, let me tell ya!  I came so close to smashing my PS3 and blowing up Sony headquarters until I figured that out!  I would play a battle for over an hour and the get killed because I healed a character instead of using a grenade or my tank got shot in the ass.  That discovery is what stopped me from hating VC!