Noobs in Combat Perks: Complete Passive Ability and Unit Rules Guide

Noobs in Combat perks provide passive combat traits and operational rules for units, determining whether they can ambush targets, call artillery strikes, capture outposts, or consume fuel. Understanding each perk helps you select matching units and build effective army squads.

Tactical Reaction and Combat Offensive Perks

Combat perks dictate how units trade fire during active turns and how they punish opponent movements between rounds.

Ambush

Units with Ambush automatically attack enemy targets that enter their weapon range, even during the opponent's turn. Ambush expends the previous turn's action. A unit that fired during its own turn cannot trigger Ambush on the subsequent enemy turn.

Ambush triggers selectively depending on the unit's weapon classification:

• Medium Gunners and Light Gunners trigger Ambush exclusively on incoming infantry and towed units.
• Anti-tank units like the RPG and tank destroyer trigger Ambush exclusively on vehicles. When a unit carries multiple weapons, such as the Tank Destroyer, only the primary weapon with a red bar above its icon triggers the reaction.
• Anti-Air Guns and warship anti-air batteries trigger Ambush exclusively on aircraft.
• Ambush fails to activate if the weapon is on cooldown, lacks ammunition, loses line of sight, or if the unit is pinned down. When an Ambush hit succeeds, the enemy unit halts immediately on its current tile.

Headshot and Sniper

The Headshot perk calculates damage against infantry formations based on personnel count. The baseline damage value is 100%, but the actual damage inflicted divides evenly across the number of individual models in the defending unit. Against a Grunts squad containing three soldiers, a single shot deals 33% damage. Against a two-man Light Gunner squad, the shot deals 50% damage.

The Sniper perk works alongside scoped rifles to keep the attacker hidden. Firing a weapon with the Sniper perk does not reveal the shooter's position on the map unless an enemy unit already maintains direct line of sight. Weapons carrying this perk also bypass the protective cover modifiers granted by bunker terrain.

Napalm and Destruction

The Napalm perk appears on specialized incendiary units such as the Flamethrower, Flame Launcher, and Flame Tank. Attacks with Napalm inflict double damage against units occupying defensive terrain, reduce enemy morale, and force defending infantry squads to retreat from their current tile. A unit cannot be forced to retreat more than once in a single turn.

Units equipped with the Destruction perk deal double damage to structural building targets and carry an increased probability of leveling urban cover tiles. The assault gun vehicle tree relies on this property to clear fortified strongpoints and strip defensive terrain away from entrenched enemy infantry.

Reconnaissance and Artillery Coordination Perks

Artillery pieces and indirect batteries cannot fire across the map independently. They require designated recon spotters to direct strikes over obstacles.

Radio

The Radio perk enables a spotter to call in off-map artillery strikes or direct fire from field pieces within a set tile radius. Calling in an artillery strike does not reveal the radio operator's hidden location, but firing the strike reveals the position of the artillery unit itself.

Radio range varies sharply across the unit roster in the tech tree:

• Riflemen possess a 1-tile radio range. Because large-caliber ordnance features splash damage, calling strikes with Riflemen exposes them to friendly fire from batteries like the rocket battery or heavy Howitzers.
• Grunts and units along the biker evolution tree feature a 2-tile radio range, allowing safe coordination with standard guns like the field gun.
• Sniper teams operate with a 3-tile radio range, making them suitable partners for wide-spread barrages and heavy Howitzer batteries.

Scouting, Improved Scouting, and Sonar

Units with standard Scouting receive additional visual range after remaining stationary and taking no combat damage for two consecutive turns. Defensive armor like the Heavy Tank CW upgrades this mechanic with an extra three tiles of sight if it remains undamaged.

Naval encounters introduce hidden targets via the Cloaked perk, which conceals submerged submarines and naval mines across all terrain tiles. Destroyers and submersibles utilize the Sonar perk to survey these threats. Sonar displays an approximate distance reading: an exclamation point appears across all tiles at an equal radius to any detected cloaked unit, while an confirmation mark indicates safe zones within clear ranges.

Movement Limitations and Transport Properties

Mobility perks establish resource requirements and movement allowances across ground and naval maps.

Fuel and No Turret Constraints

Fuel serves as an operational limitation on motorized units. Every individual movement action depletes one unit of fuel, regardless of whether the unit travels two tiles or five tiles. Ground units that deplete their fuel pool become completely immobilized until a supply truck or wagon resupplies them. Aerial units crash and are permanently destroyed if their fuel reaches zero before landing. AI-controlled units in campaign missions do not consume fuel.

The No Turret perk prevents a vehicle or towed weapon from moving and firing its primary weapon during the same turn. Units carrying this restriction must choose between repositioning or engaging targets with their main armament.

Transport, Runway, and Multi-Action Perks

Units with the Transport perk ferry infantry or towed batteries across the battlefield:

• Supply wagons and standard supply trucks carry a single infantry or towed battery.
• Dedicated transport trucks provide higher capacity and road transit speeds for infantry squads.
• Cargo ships transport land forces across open water tiles, allocating slots by vehicle size. A basic infantry squad consumes one transport slot, whereas a heavy battle tank occupies all four available cargo slots. Transported units cannot fire or provide vision, but passive healing perks remain active while aboard.

The Runway perk allows aircraft carriers and tender vessels to hold and automatically resupply planes every turn. Vessels with this perk are limited to launching one aircraft per turn.

Multi Move allows specific recon units, such as the Recon Car, to move twice within a single turn, expending one fuel point per action while accepting a reduced tile travel distance per movement phase. Multi Attack allows combat units with several mounted weapon systems to fire different guns against targets in a single combat round.

Perk Combat Roles and Selection

Matching unit perks to mission objectives avoids wasted deployment resources and prevents frontline failures.

Field Support and Territory Control Perks

Territory control and unit sustainment rely on non-offensive abilities that secure objectives and maintain frontline strength.

Capture and Strict Orders

The Capture perk allows units to claim neutral structures, enemy production outposts, and abandoned assets. A unit can only initiate a capture if it occupies a tile directly adjacent to the objective and retains an unused movement action. Infantry units and motorbikes carry this ability. Pinned down status fully disables the Capture perk until the suppression clears.

Strict Orders functions as an aura ability found on command units such as the Allied Command Tank. This perk prevents friendly infantry units within a two-tile radius from becoming pinned down or retreating under fire. However, weapons utilizing the Napalm perk bypass Strict Orders and force target squads to retreat regardless of commander presence.

Healing and Survivability Perks

The Healing perk restores a fixed percentage of maximum health at the beginning of the player's turn. Grunts M represents the primary player-accessible infantry unit featuring this passive trait, regenerating hit points every combat round. Sustaining health directly preserves combat effectiveness, as damaged units suffer proportional penalties to their damage output potential. Combining passive healing with forward transport support ensures frontline squads continue holding tactical points across extended engagements.