tiggwigg
Posts: 118
Joined: 5/17/2001
From: Australia
Status: offline
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Deployment involves two things…unit selection and unit deployment.
SPWAW is a combined arms game, so the first thing is to have a balanced force comprising armour, infantry, artillery and specialist units (eg recon). Armoured divisions often had one battalion (3 companies) of infantry to one company of armour…so you need more infantry than armour…
The main issue with campaigns is after a few battles the player ends up with an elite force of super vehicles that is unbeatable…all tanks as panthers and all infantry as engineers and special forces…this only serves to increase the player priority of protecting core units during the battle at the expense of those bought with support points.
I usually buy
· one company of mechanised and another of foot infantry per company of armour…the foot infantry advances behind the armoured force to occupy and hold the Vhexes the sharp end of the force captures, allowing the sharp-end to move on…there always has to be enough infantry to hold what you capture, as well as to support the armour…in a campaign this is your core force, but always spend some support points to purchase the armour which will lead your core force (either heavy tanks or cheap halftracks/armoured cars…these will inevitably get blown away in the course of the battle, meaning your preserve your core units, which enabling them to kill the enemy that knocked out your lead vehicles, so they gain maximum experience
· artillery is attacked as being too powerful in the game…enough artillery can suppress any enemy and allow you to stroll in and wipe defenders out with overrun/melee tactics…this may be unrealistic, by very helpful in winning decisive battles…it is even better now that all OB artillery have had their ammo load increased by about 25%…heavy artillery (150mm or better) is particularly effective because it kills infantry in both the hex it hits and surrounding hexes, which is particularly effective in increasing suppression (because of this you can turn off one tube in the unit detail screen, revolving them so a tube is rested each turn, which means your ammo lasts longer with no real reduction in effectiveness)…a couple of ight batteries are good because they come with plenty of ammo I allow about 10% of purchase points for OB artillery plus additional on-board artillery - on-board artillery is great because you can use ammo trucks/dumps to reload…this is particularly effective with rocket launchers which, when placed beside a couple of ammo dumps can fire almost every turn (it doesn't win friends in PBEM games, but it is VERY effective against the AI which doesn't care)…in a campaign, buy all your OB artillery with support points…consider purchasing some on-board artillery within your core-force, particularly mortars, since as its experience increases it will become more accurate and so more effective at suppressing enemy units when your own are adjacent
· specialist units in a campaign are best split between your core force and support points
· have at least one forward observer in your core force, since it will become more effective with experience…purchase additional FO's with support points
· ammo trucks are always bought with support points
· some engineers are useful in the core force as they gain experience since they are useful in both defense and attack, and can lay mines and remove them…however in an attack purchase extra using support points, as well as engineer tanks
· recon…can never have too few in attack…purchase some in the core force that become incredible with high experience…and others with support points that you can risk being eliminated…lead with the support recon and follow them with the elite ones from the core force…spend at least 10% on recon in an attack, both infantry and snipers, as well as vehicles (since they don't use points when command control is on, they are useful since you can use their orders to call in artillery on priority target hexes…they aren't the most accurate, but with OB artillery what does it matter, and you only get a 0.1 turn delay with the priority hex)…recon vehicles are also useful in defending your on-board artillery from enemy armoured cars sent to destroy them
· MG's are best bought in defense with support points
· Flame tanks and 150mm assault guns best bought with support points, since they are usually fragile and can be easily lost, and their weapons are so effective that accuracy doesn't matter.
Deployment then depends on the battle, and knowing how the AI works to circumvent it. It is common in campaigns that you have so many units they can be lined up across the map, so in defense you can have a Hindenberg Line…if you don't have unlimited units, never over-extend your forces…it is better to defend two clusters of VH's properly (as this will ensure a draw while preserving your core force) and crush the attacking forces piecemeal…than to try to defend 5 VH clusters where the AI will have local superiority attacking each….ultimately, deployment depends on how you fight your battles, so it is a question of personal style and preference
· In defense, you want to break up the enemy attack, so you only have to deal with his units piecemeal...set your priority artillery target hexes forward, with snipers and recon forward where they can spot advancing formations…use artillery to slow-down some of the units and force infantry/guns to unload…always try to place AT weapons in defensive positions (rough/rocks/woods/gullies) where they have crossing fields of fire, so one weapon always has a side shot, combine guns with armour so the guns can attract op-fire, thus minimising the op-fire likely for you armour…place mg's where they can catch advancing infantry in the open and hurt them bad…keep a mobile reserve (armour and infantry) that can be moved to plug a break-through, block an attack from an undefended direction, wipe out remnant attackers after they have been broken (great for gaining campaign experience), or for recovering a lost VH cluster after the attacker has captured it then moved on to smash themselves on the defensive zones you are still holding…and, of course, never deploy close to VH clusters on in nearby defensive ground as the AI targets these in its opening bombardments…in addition hold your fire…the AI will bombard your positions once they expose themselves, so wait until you are certain of your kills before firing, and never be afraid to withdraw to a second line of defense, so the AI artillery falls on unoccupied forticfications.
· In attack, you need to consider how many turns you have at your disposal, the terrain, the best routes of attack, the weathe, the forces at hand…and the objectives you have to capture. If it is an AI generated campaign the VH's will be in clusters and there won't be any surprise defenders appearing out of nowhere, if it is a designer campaign/scenario the VH's will likely be all over the place and a counterattack could come from anywhere…essentially, plan your attack in advance, considering principal and alternate lines of attack, and deploy accordingly…the key thing to victory is gaining local superiority through a combination of armour and artillery…if you line-up your units evenly across the board, each firefight is likely to be fairly evenly matched and only involve a fraction of your units, while you will suffer excessive casualties in a fight that will last several turns…if you have local superiority you can bring many units to fire in the one turn and eliminate a defensive pocket in a turn or two, then move onto the next objective/defensive emplacement…and with a limited number of lines of attack that are well defined, you can place expendable support units at the front of each and sacrifice them first…using your columns to capture selected objectives, before moving on to the next…capture per turn hexes first, then end of game hexes…remember that end of game hexes are worth no-more if captured early…that said, concentration of your forces exposes them to artillery fire…always keep your units spread-out enough so that artillery will only ever suppress some of them, and try to move them before or after firing, so that any assigned barrage falls on empty ground…in consideration of these issues, divide your forces fairly evenly into two or three battlegroups (one fighting in a city has more infantry/engineers, one in open terrain has more armour) have a lead screen of recon, then sacrifical support armour, then mechanised infantry and core force armour, then soft vehicles…lead your forces with your recon and your artillery (targetting suspected enemy concentrations or defenses)…as much as possible advance no faster than advancing recon, but if time limitations mean you have to rush forward, then have mounted recon units and only move hex by hex, dismounting the recon each hex and having them look around…never move your forward units so far that they either can't retreat into protection or lay smoke, but best of all never have them so far ahead that you can't bring up the bulk of your force so you can concentrate fire on the enemy…in deploying you usually have to make a judgement on where the first enemy units will be…usually, first move, you can advance all tanks to the limit of their movement points without risking fire (this is equivalent to, and so saves you, two or three turns of cautious creep that can be critical at the end of the battle), so place your formation on a road or in clear terrain where they can move quickly (distribute your units BEHIND the start line only when playing against a human, as he will be likely to place a bombard order on roads close to the start line)…how you deploy them isn't that important, except to remember that if a unit is on a road, the next vehicle has to go off-road to pass it, so losing a lot of movement points, that means placing recon units and armoured cars, even half-tracks close to the front, with slow vehicles and trucks farther back…advance your force at speed until one of you forward recon units attracts op- fire, you can safely assume that you can move all units up to that line without exposing them to more fire…watch the unit pane at the bottom right of the screen, since if an asterisk appears it means you unit has been spotted, even if you can't see the spotting unit (this means bringing up reinforcements, plotting artillery, and planning for battle next turn, as well as carrying out recon to locate the spotting unit), in the meantime use smoke to hide your spotted units…a unit can only be spotted by a unit within the area it can view, so turn the unit and observe the terrain it can see (most likely you will have been spotted by a unit in that clump of trees or that building), by dropping smoke grenades in surrounding hexes and moving up extra units to the same hex, you can determine the direction the spotting unit is in..
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Need a few pointers on Deployment - 
Deployment points - 
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