vahauser
Posts: 1644
Joined: 10/1/2002 From: Texas Status: offline
|
Battle #1 Deployment When faced with a larger and stronger opponent, your best chance is to do everything you can to not fight on your opponent's terms. I am reminded of the greatest boxing match I ever saw, Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman. Foreman was younger and bigger and stronger than Ali. Ali was an 8-to-1 underdog, but did not fight on Foreman's terms. Ali won the fight. My Belgians are weaker in just about every way against the Japanese, especially in this first battle. If I spread my forces out and try to meet the Japanese along the entire width of the map, my Belgians will likely get overrun and slaughtered. Instead, I have a few ways to make the Japanese fight on my terms. First, I will create a defense in depth and let the Japanese attack me on ground of my choosing. You can see this for yourself in the attached deployment screenshot (north sector). The large hill by the northern victory clusters is well suited for building a defensive perimeter. I placed the supporting infantry along the outer perimeter so that they (and not my core) will absorb the main Japanese attacks. My core infantry is arrayed in depth behind them. My experience is that the mortars and AA guns on the hill will provide enough suppresive fire along the perimeter to protect my weak infantry. And the Japanese should find it extremely difficult to penetrate very far into my defenses. However, since the 'low-carnage' settings make killing infantry more difficult, then it might prove difficult for me to actually destroy many Japanese infantry units. We'll see. Hopefully, suppressing and routing them will be enough. Second, I'll use my Stuarts and Humbers to wage a battle of maneuver. I don't like to be a passive defender. I play an active defense with as much maneuver and local counterattacking as I can manage. Fighting a battle of maneuver is something that the computer does not excel at. So, I can use this to my advantage. Also, since I've basically left the southern portion of the map mostly undefended by infantry, then my Stuarts and Humbers might have to spend much of the battle down there. But they should have enough mobility to do that. Note on Command Control ON and artillery. Playing with C&C ON provides some interesting challenges, especially regarding artillery. I bought 4 sections of mortars and 4 fwd observers with some of my support points. This gives me as many fwd observers as mortar sections. You don't actually need all those observers if your artillery isn't going to be shifting all over the map every turn. Once your artillery is on target, then any formation leader (as long as they are in contact and have orders remaining) can call in the artillery. You only need all those fwd observers if you need to rapidly shift lots of artillery around. But I like to have them, just in case. Deployment Notes: A) I stripped the LMG teams away from the supporting rifle platoons and gave them to my Stuarts. They provide the Stuarts some extra spotting and they also have some smoke if the situation gets really dangerous. B) The Stuarts are in front of the stream which is not good. But I deployed them close to the bridges to get them out of there without increased risk of vehicle breakdowns. Everybody else, except some scouts, are behind the stream. The Japanese have to cross the stream to get to me. C) I never (I mean never) deploy any of my units in Defend Mode when using C&C ON. I always deploy my units in Advance Mode. This not only conserves orders (which can be critical when calling artillery), but it also allows me immediate freedom to maneuver and be active. Remember, I don't like passive defense. D) I'm a strong believer in covering ground with firepower and maneuver. I don't believe in exposing my units (especially my core units) to enemy attacks if I can accomplish the same thing with firepower and maneuver. This is a German doctrine that they learned having to cover enormous frontages in Russia. They found that local strongpoints with large open spaces in between covered by maneuver and firepower was more efficient and less costly. I use those same principles whenever I can, such as in this battle against the Japanese. And you can see that by looking at this deployment. (North Sector Deployment)
Attachment (1)
_____________________________
|