Charles2222
Posts: 3993
Joined: 3/12/2001 Status: offline
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Velovich: quote:
Anybody that has problems finding minefields during and assault (especially playing the AI) is not thinking his actions through.
The AI will *always* place his minefields right att he start line for his side. Just remember where that was. If you can't, then use recon troops, move them forward on your chosen axis of advance, they'll find the mines and more often than not,t hey won't set one off. They will have to cross not more than ten hexes of ground to get from your start line to the enemy's. That is two, MAYBE three turns of movement for a recon team or scout patrol. Yes, it's fast, yes, it's reckless.
I don't know if that was a response to me or not, but if so you should reread my comments. I've been talking about finding mines that were placed by humans, such as scenarios or MCs, where insufficient time is alloted. The in-game campaigns are just fine in terms of time, and though knowing where the mines might be is bad, why someone would think that a commander would rush through a position he already knows is entrenched to the teeth, easily exposing his forces to easy ambush or mines, is a mystery to me.
Though it may be gamey, and forcing commanders to attack with far less time than the standard game allotted, is gamey, I would like to add something of the reality of the situation. We're talking about a weaker force entrenched. One that can't afford to chase the panzers to the 88s because they think they'll catch the assault force unprepared. The AI will not vacate those entrenched positions, so I don't see how that would sufficiently explain how it's legitimate to give only 15-20 turns for a assault (unless the LTOR portion of the battle is much shorter than usual or the objectives are considerably closer). Definitely, I can see having a shorter battle, where it's either impossible or plausible, but not as frequently as we do, and I doubt anyone who makes those sort of battles bothers to compensate by making the objectives much closer to the front. Somehow, for some reason, a lot of people just got in a rut of assigning only 15-20 turns. I suppose those semi-gamey tricks, like trying to eliminate mines through how many 81mm rounds hit them might speed up the game, so that I'm behind in that aspect, but that's just too gamey for me. I also disallow myself to use the 'end' hexes in the regular campaigns because it's too gamey. My guys, when they find the mines, have to clear at least 2-3 adjacent mine hexes before I'll do much beyond that.
And yeah, I do scout sufficiently. I carry 3 squads of patrols, and 2-4 recon armor just in core, alongside 6-8 engineer squads.
Hank: quote:
Another tactic is to send your troops where you think the mines ain't.
True, but what do you do when the designers have got gamey themselves? What about a mine belt that stifles one part of your start line and not another, and then they might place one lousy mine in a heavily wooded area with it not having any purpose but to sabotage you going away from where mines might be, and then only give you 15-20 turns (I'm not saying all assault designers do this, nor do I intend to name anyone if I remember, because it's a general trend I'm talking about here. Some just don't give you much time, some get gamey with mines too, making matters worse)? It almost seems as though when designers do this sort of thing, despite that they may encourage a combined force, what they're really after is to make practically your entire force as recon and engineers (wow, such fun).
If nothing else, perhaps mines ought to be made a lot more expensive (while maybe dragon's teeth and wire remain the same). You know.... this reminds me of something. It seems I've heard it discussed that ATGs were a lot more expensive now, and though they may be perhaps too effective just how is a defensive force supposed to make up it's lack of punch then? ATGs were always something that to me alaways gave the defensive force a HUGE advantage is he's only buy enough of them, and/or if the assaulter didn't buy very much artillery. It's a shame if they've been very much priced up, because it was always a fun thing about being on the defensive. IMO maybe mines should go up, while ATGs should go back to where they were (better yet that people would design assaults with 30 turns or more).
Thanks for everyone's time.
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