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A Question of Tactics

 
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A Question of Tactics - 5/14/2002 10:19:30 PM   
Gary Tatro

 

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This question is strictly for PBEM and H2H games. What I want to know is what kind of tactics do you use when implementing your stratgies during game play. For those who might confuse the two, your strategy is the overall plan that you devise to win the battle. Tactics are the menuvers, forces, terran and attacks you use to implement your strategy and see it come to its fruition.

Here are some examples: Say you are playing a PBEM meeting engagement. The first thing I do is try to determine what kind of person I am playing. Have they played the computer a lot. Are they random. Do they like armor or infantry. Do they like night battles or day battles. Do they want a lot of air or artillary. Do they like clear maps or wooded. I then compose a force that I believe would most likely defeat the force or environment that they like to play.

Most players would try to develop a front along the whole map facing there opponet. This is a tried and tested tactic used against the computer. I like to use a different tactic. I tend to compose my forces into three groups. An attack force. A holding force and a reserve. My attack force is composed of 1/2 of my battle points. My reserve force is 3/8 of my battle points (includes artillary ussually). My holding force is composed of 1/8 of my battle points. My tactics is to get supperiority in #'s at points of contact with the enemy or refuse contact with the enemy. With half of my battle points in my attack force I have in most instances created a situation where I will have supperiorty in #'s at my engagements. This gives me tremedous advantages at engagement points. I can ussually clean out a whole area of my opponents forces in 1-2 turns without taking many losses. So in effect I have eliminated 25% of his forces while only loosing 5% a very good trade. This also makes my opponet react to me instead of me reacting to him. I save my reserve forces to deal with supprises and to reinforce positions that I am week at.

Now I know that other people have different tactics and will say I can stomp this guy into the dust. Other people will be thinking to themselves, I can not reply to this post I will give away my secrets. But I point this out to you. Just because someone knows what you like to do does not make it any easier for them to stop you from doing it.

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"Are you going to do something or just stand there and bleed"
Post #: 1
- 5/14/2002 10:31:48 PM   
Goblin


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From: Erie,Pa. USA
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My main thing when setting up is 'what if?' What if he breaks through there? What if I break through there? Enough what if's, and you can average out something to handle most attacks, or attack most things. I also prefer mobility over non-mobility. This allows reactions to the situations listed in your post.

I too, gauge my opponent, trying to determine if he is an actor or a reactor. Does he initiate most firefights? Ah, aggressive! Take this! Does he tend to wait until I initiate? Ooops, shouldn't do that, take this!

Above all, I always try to surprise a bad guy. Not just with hidden units or other on-board surprises, but with tactics and overall strategy. Sometimes this turns out bad when you gamble a little, but it works too.

Goblin- A Goblin talks about Goblin;)

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Re: A Question of Tactics - 5/15/2002 1:06:16 AM   
Capt. Pixel

 

Posts: 1219
Joined: 10/15/2001
From: Tucson, AZ
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gary Tatro
[B]This question is strictly for PBEM and H2H games. What I want to know is what kind of tactics do you use when implementing your stratgies during game play. For those who might confuse the two, your strategy is the overall plan that you devise to win the battle. Tactics are the menuvers, forces, terran and attacks you use to implement your strategy and see it come to its fruition.

Here are some examples: Say you are playing a PBEM meeting engagement. The first thing I do is try to determine what kind of person I am playing. Have they played the computer a lot. Are they random. Do they like armor or infantry. Do they like night battles or day battles. Do they want a lot of air or artillary. Do they like clear maps or wooded. I then compose a force that I believe would most likely defeat the force or environment that they like to play.

Most players would try to develop a front along the whole map facing there opponet. This is a tried and tested tactic used against the computer. I like to use a different tactic. I tend to compose my forces into three groups. An attack force. A holding force and a reserve. My attack force is composed of 1/2 of my battle points. My reserve force is 3/8 of my battle points (includes artillary ussually). My holding force is composed of 1/8 of my battle points. My tactics is to get supperiority in #'s at points of contact with the enemy or refuse contact with the enemy. With half of my battle points in my attack force I have in most instances created a situation where I will have supperiorty in #'s at my engagements. This gives me tremedous advantages at engagement points. I can ussually clean out a whole area of my opponents forces in 1-2 turns without taking many losses. So in effect I have eliminated 25% of his forces while only loosing 5% a very good trade. This also makes my opponet react to me instead of me reacting to him. I save my reserve forces to deal with supprises and to reinforce positions that I am week at.

Now I know that other people have different tactics and will say I can stomp this guy into the dust. Other people will be thinking to themselves, I can not reply to this post I will give away my secrets. But I point this out to you. Just because someone knows what you like to do does not make it any easier for them to stop you from doing it. [/B][/QUOTE]

This is a variation on a strategy devised by Sun Tzu -

Divide your force into three parts - your best, your mediocre and your worst. Send your worst against his best, you mediocre against his worst and your best against his mediocre forces. In this way you will prevail in two out of three battles.

I tend to 'feel' around the battlefield with scouts and AC. When I meet resistance, I reinforce. when I find openings in his line, I reinforce. When I find a unresisted lane of advance, I reinforce.

So I guess I have two forces - scouts and reinforcements. :D

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"Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible. "
- Stonewall Jackson

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Post #: 3
- 5/15/2002 2:02:20 AM   
Belisarius


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Joined: 5/26/2001
From: Gothenburg, Sweden
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I'm new in PBEM, wich I notice time and time again when playing the more experienced players. I'm still sort of stuck in the 'cover the front' deployment.

I rarely put my strongest units right in front, though. I keep them a bit back, to be quickly able to exploint weaknesses in the enemy line, or to back up where we run into too much of the foe. This tends to be an attempt to be everywhere at once. Those Russians... :D

But I pick up! A few more sound beatings, and I might be able to put up a fight. ;)

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Post #: 4
- 5/15/2002 4:13:08 AM   
hellcat

 

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It's always good to have a long hard look at the map, some units just don't work with some terrain. Night fighting is a world of difference too (as I just learned, thanks Goblin!) and requires a different force to what normally works. It's always worth trying to create a force that will surprise an opponent, lookout for unusual unit types which can often be killer units but are often overlooked. It can be worth driving wedges into the enemy rather than trying to fight along a long front, these can be expanded like a bridgehead. Of course encirclement is always worth attempting if the terrain allows for it. Human opponents (and Goblins too) are a real difference to the AI (which still kicks my *** sometimes anyway) but pbem is a real joy with this game...

hellcat

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- 5/15/2002 9:17:43 AM   
AmmoSgt

 

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From: Redstone Arsenal Al
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Alot depends on if you move first or second , of course..
I find it very useful to use the whole map ..or at least make it clear in the opponents mind that you can and might use the whole map ... I like to drop recon and light anti tank ( bazookas ATR. Panzer fausts, whatever)( buy just one ot two transport aircraft as your last unit purchased , you don't need 4 transports for this) or inflitrate commandos in the rear( never any of these full company airborne drops ( ok well maybe sometimes) , not alot of points usually, but occasionally I use them as my main attack .. they make arty much more flexible, at any rate by spotting rear area and reserve units . And I like to use my mobile AA , or MG armed AC's as rear area security on the first turn, so it is harder to do this to me . A good kill zone is a good kill zone , if you find one on the map use it .. I know a human player will try an use the smoke signature of onboard arty to shoot at them so I tend to fire smoke from mortars and light arty randomly( well not exactly randomly , try and smoke unselected good positions) , around my rear on turn 0 to make this harder for this to happen, also notice how smoke rounds "pattern " when fired , I arrange mortars and light arty so they mimic this pattern to make them harder to identify . I co-ordinate infantry and AT assets by using the engagement range settings so that they will engage at the same spot on the map ..
The Biggest thing is don't try and take more than one group of victory hexes at a time .. it is a heck of a lot easier to take VHexes north to south or south to north than it is to try and take a whole frontage .. Take a flank Vhex first, let the other guy defend everything, and then take them one at a time with overwhelming force .. once you have a flank Vhex send recon deep to protect your flank( reinforce or exploit what your droped or inflitrated troops have spotted ) and dig in on that Vhex with a follow on force of at guns and infantry .. any arty even the lightest arty causes suppresion use it just before any assault or on any suspected ambush postions before you move into their kill zone, suppressed troops are easier to spot and shoot less accurately . I move two man recon ahead of my adavance and leap frog my advancing units onto them , not past them .. they may spot enemy units before I move into a trap, but they surely give me an advantage when they are staionary and in the same hex when my Armor moves up in spoting opfiring AT guns .
Smoke Smoke Smoke isolate advancing units from any supporting or overwatching units ..use arty to seperate infantry from armor ..but use smoke to create the battlefield you want to fight on .. some maps don't need much , some need alot buy accordingly.
Thus my strategy is to buy a unified force , and I buy units than can quickly eliminate INFANTRY,more so than armor, that operates as a single battlefield unit with about 80% of my points with 20% going into recon, arty, and rear( the enemy's rear) area units .. I practice deception and informaton denial and force protection to the maximum extent possible while attempting to gain as much info as possible . Of my 80% 2/3's is assualt and 1/3 is hold what I have gained ..if I have a north south road I can feint at the top or bottom of the map smoke and rapidly shift to hit the other flank... You do NOT have feint with your whole force, you can preposition most of your force along the actual avenue of attack , and feint with a convincing but mobile segment.. Maybe even feint with your holding force and withdraw them , and shift them once the other player commits
In pre game negotiation I will often insist on aircraft, or if playing a side that would typically have aircraft , and then having created in my opponents mind a need for AAA not buy any aircraft.. or negotiate for a higher than normal off board arty percentage and only buy a battery or 2 and leave them silent for counter battery .. but then sometimes I buy what I negotiate for .. you never know. But when buying remember , Blind Armor unsupported by Infantry is an easy kill for specialist units and smoke and terrain can make visiability whatever you want it to be if you want to reduce visibility, and elite recon and arty can make visibility anything you want it to be if you need lomger visibility..
Use the whole map , or make the whole map a threat in the opponents mind , deny the opponent as much info about as much of the map , and your deployment , as you can.. Plan to attack with overwhleming force , Plan to defend with an economy of force.
Never leave valuable units exposed to direct fire during the enemys turn .. forego that last shot or two and drop back behind cover.. let the computer do the other guys firing during opfire , and you do your shooting during your turn with mobile units , have overwatching mortars with smoke , or mobile mortars close by to screen units in trouble. If a unit draws opfire , don't use it to shoot back , and don't move it farther into the trap , bring up another unit .if it recieves op fire from the same place maybe the first unit can spot it and engage , if you move advancing armor onto 2 man recon units you usually spot the firing unit.. the more you remove control of firing from your opponent and the more you retain control of your firing , the better off you are.
Uh ..hmm sometimes I forget to load anything in those transports .. that drives the other guy crazy in low visibilty situations especially if they fly back corner to back corner on the opening turn.

_____________________________

"For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill is a luxury like Mah-jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary periods, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which

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Post #: 6
- 5/17/2002 4:19:53 AM   
hellcat

 

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here's another one... ALWAYS secure your reinforcement areas BEFORE bringing on reinforcements... my thanks to Goblin for teaching me this painful lesson. :mad:

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Post #: 7
- 5/17/2002 4:44:48 AM   
Goblin


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Shucks, hellcat, it was my pleasure, trust me!:D

Goblin- A Goblin helps you graduate;)

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Post #: 8
- 5/17/2002 5:02:34 AM   
Tiger

 

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From: Memphis, TN USA
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I also like to break my force up into smaller, mobile groups. I usually keep the strength of these smaller groups fairly equal. My favorite tactic is to probe with one of these groups, and with any luck running headlong into the enemy. Depending on the objectives, and type of engagement, I might try to simply delay the enemy until I can bring any free groups into the action. Or, if I get REAL lucky, and have run into the main opfor, I'll try a classic pincer move, swinging groups in, smashing into what I hope is the enemy's flanks. Speed & mobility are most important to me. I only expect my strategy to pay off half of the time, so I have to be prepared to cover ground and cover my butt!!

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Post #: 9
Re: Tactics - 5/17/2002 7:21:54 AM   
Stahlhelm

 

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Joined: 1/22/2002
From: Australia
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I usually organise my force into three task groups.
Each containing recon, armor, mech inf, spaa and artillery. Each of these task groups go after a set of victory hexes.
Strong recon forces with at weapons and perhaps engineers can be good for seizing objectives early and setting up ambushes.
It's never pleasant to run into mines backed up by flamethrowers ans satchel charges.
Anything that's light and fast with a good gun has a place in my army. Just ask The Eel about my wolverines.

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-God

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