Fridge Brilliance
- The game's title is Act of Aggression. It's not known yet if it refers to anything within story mode, but from the multiplayer beta, it's already obvious that it has a meaning within the mechanics. If you will not play aggressively - won't bother with map control, won't expand your refineries, won't produce new units and send them to the front frequently - you're going to get overwhelmed by those who will and stomped into the ground. Hard.
- Why does the Chimera faction lack heavy bombers, heavy artillery, or proper tanks? All three are imprecise weapons synonymous with massive collateral damage, and it would be pretty bad for PR if the UN taskforce sent to stabilize a region caused more damage to the locals than the Cartel goons ever did; plus, tanks and heavy artillery aren't the easiest thing to transport, an issue a rapid response taskforce like Chimera would definitely not appreciate. Various missions also indicate Chimera could just request assistance from other forces or take control of their resources directly and elaborate from there.
- This also handwaves why the Chimera has a tech tree in game . Their starting arsenal (Spear Protocol) is a quick reaction force built around minimum collateral damage with the more destructive weapons such as the Omega Blitzer locked behind Shield and Sword Protocol and busted out when shit really hits the fan if the situation calls for Chimera to ignore collateral damage in favor of destroying the opposition.
- Why does the Chimera lack proper anti-armor and anti-air infantry units? Remember that the Cartel has the Jackal (sniper equivalent), the Scout CGS (which destroys infantry at close range) and the Superhind which can drop napalm bombs beneath them; however, their only SPAAG fires too slowly to deal with missiles, they lack good anti-aircraft options aside from using MANPADs , and even their heaviest armor is rather squishy, so IFVs, SPAAGs, and helicopter gunships would be much better suited against an Cartel armored column than a squad of infantry that could be taken out without much effort on the Cartel's side. Chimera's ADS is also waiting......
- The Cartel is known to be organized in cells with black sites and other secret locations. From gameplay, the Cartel has the ability to be self sufficient in Rare Earth through their Underground Stock Markets and they can be self-sufficient in Aluminium through taking enough prisoners to convert their Barracks with a prison module into one that produces Aluminium over time gameplay wise (in addition to taking prisoners from wounded soldiers to reduce dependency on oil fields), resulting in quite good turtle capabilities as they have to exchange prisoners only once to be less reliant on Aluminium fields . It would make sense if the Cartel has that capacity to turtle in case if one of their secret locations or cells is compromised from an outside threat, it can hold out for a long time until help arrives.
- Many Cartel infantry have something on their person to cover up their faces such as the scarves the Contractor and Grinch have or just cover up their faces entirely. Given that Cartel Vanguards are recruited from 'disappeared' people who are paid to vanish entirely from records with other Cartel personnel implied to be of a similar background, it would make sense for them to cover up their faces in close up firefights in case they're recognized.
- The factions and their color choices for their units and buildings makes sense in universe in where they operate and how they operate.
- The United States Army have an overall tan color for their units and buildings. Tan is a suitable color for desert environments as it's light enough to blend into sandy environments characteristic of deserts found in the Middle East and the Southwestern United States and Mexico. In the background, they're exhausted from deployments overseas and facing budget cuts together with the Cartel causing problems, so they won't have the time or the budget to repaint their vehicles and buildings back to a more suitable color scheme at their home base . The fact that they have to fight in Mexico would also give them an incentive to keep the desert camouflage as there are areas in Mexico that would require it.
- Chimera uses a light-grey, dark grey and white color for their units and buildings. While they are suitable in urban environments (where Cartel goons might be causing trouble), they're visible in most environments. This fits with them being a peacekeeping force built for quick reaction. Being visible in non-urban environments through their colors of grey and white would be suitable for PR as it reassures the locals that help is arriving from a distance if they spot a Chimera task force while also making it suitable camouflage if they have to fight in cities where the Cartel is causing trouble.
- The Cartel use a black color scheme with their vehicles and structures. Most of the Cartel's operations tend to be done through friendly PMCs with their more heavier equipment such as their bombers and heavy artillery deployed when the Cartel needs to deal with threats that their hired goons could not handle. The Cartel also makes use of stolen prototypes in their arsenal and if they're observed, it will draw a lot of unwanted suspicion. So, it would make sense for the Cartel to make sure that their operations are as hard to observe as possible, which makes it necessary for them to do a lot of night operations and hence wear black to blend in with the night sky.
Fridge Horror
- Even in the basic gameplay of the multiplayer beta, there are more than enough war-is-hell moments that are not immediately apparent. Capturing prisoners of war is an important game mechanic, and they are not likely to be treated very well, especially by the amoral megacorps of the Cartel - unless you just kill wounded and surrendering soldiers because you have no troops to capture them with. You can buy white phosphorous as a run-on-the-mill upgrade to improve the US artillery units, drop superweapons on your opponents, carpet-bombing the enemy within cities with bombers is a frequently-used tactic, Shoot the Medic First doesn't even raise any eyebrows... in short, there are ample opportunities for the player to commit war crimes without even realizing it. The good old days of RTS......
- Unlike most real-time strategy games , craters don't fade away. Enjoy looking at the devastation of cities and pristine lands!
- Oh, and you can use prisoners of war as a income source through a building that stores them....yeah, the Cartel is definitely if not directly implied to be using captured soldiers as slave labor
- For an organization formed by the UN to help stabilize regions wrecked by the Shanghai Crash, the Chimera have a lot of incendiary weaponry in the form of their Grenadiers, Tigre and Buratino. This raises two implications, none of them good.
- One, the Cartel has a mole in the procurement agency of the Chimera that was responsible for them being armed with napalm in a Xanatos Gambit that the Chimera has not discovered. Either the Cartel wrecks a region or the Chimera deploy incendiary weaponry to stop them and they get PR flak for collateral damage.
- Two, the Cartel is so bad that the Chimera finds the usage of incendiary weaponry necessary for dealing with the Cartel.
Fridge Logic
- Cartel's Superweapon fires a group of metal rods. How would any Patriot, Antey-2500 or Skyguard Turret stop them in one shot? It's known these munitions have no visible trajectory in-game, but that's it.
- It would be frustrating if a counter-tactical weapon is unable to shoot down a Thor strike. But for a in-universe reason? An upscale version of the Starstreak for the missile based systems or SPIW like loads for the Skyguard?
