Wasteland 3’s brutal combat means you will have to think two steps ahead of the AI to win battles. Most of the time, your squad will be outgunned and outnumbered, so you will need to use every advantage available to you during these RTS scenarios.
One of the best strategies you can employ is flanking the opposition. This allows you to get the drop on them, attack enemies in their weak spots, and force the AI to change its own movement phase plans. Flanking is vital on Wasteland 3’s higher difficulties, and can be the difference between victory and defeat in some instances.
Flanking in Wasteland 3 becomes available during your combat turn. Throughout these phases, you have a set number of Action Points for each character, and these allow you to move, attack, or use an item or ability before ending your turn. You can learn more about Action Points in this guide.
You can flank an enemy soldier, robot, or another foe by moving your squad members into advantageous positions on the battlefield. To do this, use the left thumbstick on your controller, or mouse if you’re a mouse and keyboard PC gamer. This enables you to position a character in a new area of the map and costs a different amount of Action Points depending on how far you move them.
Place the movement cursor on a tile that’s behind or to the side of an enemy. Once you’re happy with the placement, tap A on Xbox One, X on PS4, or left-click your mouse to confirm the action. Your squad member will move to this new position.
If you have Action Points left to use, you can attack enemy forces from this new area. If a foe isn’t protected by cover on their side or behind them, your flanking squad members have a better chance of scoring a hit and doing more damage.
