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Bing -> (3/14/2002 2:35:28 AM)
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After 15 battles in U2R, here are the choices I carried over into the first battle of Victors:
CORE:
1 x US HQ
5 x Pershing
5 x M4a3e8 HVSS Sherman
9 x Airborne Squad
6 x 30 cal MMG
3 x M2 60mm Mortar
8 x 4.5" Rocket section
SUPPORT:
4 x 4.5" Rocket Section
4 x M19 Duster
2 x Dodge "Mediium" truck WC 62/63
Aux - I got enough Recon - Greyhound, 50 cal Jeep, 3 x Recon Patrol, so on to be able to drop motorized recon from the Core/Support groups as I usually carried them on the roster in U2R.
Aux in first Victors battle also assigns 6 x Armored Inf Sqd - 2 x 30 cal MMG - 2 x M9 bazooks - mortars, halftracks for the airborne, some Rangers and 75mm + 105mm offboard arty. Since the FO Jeep came with the Aux, I had dropped it from Core, which I didn't like doing but I was running out of points and wanted Pershings to face the Soviet heavies.
A couple of items here:
1) I had fought all the way from St. Mere Eglise to Berlin with my airborne. I wasn't about to restart their ratings no matter what kind of game balance was involved. I edited them and the core tank crews up to what they had earned through the last U2R battle.
2) Armored infantry and other US units are given the M9 bazooka by the OOB. For reasons known only to whoever made the OOB, airborne has always gotten the older M1. I fixed that, my boys carried the M9 all the way and continued to do so in Victors.
If I were going to restart Victors - my current replay of U2R is on hold at the fifth battle - I would not use 4.5" rocket sections - they simply devastate the enemy. On restart of U2R I chose instead 10 x 105mm howitzers. Here again, I could have started with SP 155's - but they are almost as devastating. The 105's seem about right, doing the job artillery is supposed to do but not wiping the enemy off the map - face it, without an enemy you don't have much of a battle to fight. And I had times especialy during Victors where the impact area looked like a moonscape - nothing living was in there.
I was getting BM-8 Katyusha fire - but get this: On Turn One of Victors first battle, my offboard 105's conducted counterbattery and scored 8 hits on the Kaytusha's! I find counter fire to be more prevalent under later versions of the mech.exe, perhaps others do not - including counterbatt between German field arty and US B-17's (I am not making htis up, it actualy happened - more than once).
The biggest factor in fighting in Western Europe for me became mobility: Some of the maps are huge and if you can't get the best troops where they are going to do the most damage, you are in trouble. "He who gets there first-est with the most-est is the best-est." - Pancho Villa?
Though the core shown above doesn't reflect it on first inspection I always, always made sure there were wheels for the 9 x airborne squads. Usually M3 HT's but if points were precious (they will be, you will discover) then I bought the cheapest "medium" trucks I could get (I used to drive duece and a half's, I don't know what a "medium" truck is but that's OK).
The Dusters are great for both AA and pounding infamtry in the underbrush. Make sure the Sherman has at minimum the 76mm gun, the other main armaments are not worth a pitcher of warm spit. I stopped using Jackson TD's - there was a problem with the AP coding to begin with, they are fragile for another and I found I got best resuts in close with my beloved airborne and their M9 'zooks which BTW are great for bunker busting.
You will note lack of engineers in the core and support groups, that is by design. I don't get that much out of them and take them only when the game assigns them to Aux - they're OK and I know there will be strong disagreement here, but I'll bust a bunker tout suit with a Jumbo Sherman and a few M9 zook rounds, just like that. Run a Jeep with a recon guy and a M9 zook up behind a bunker - covered with smoke natch - he is doggie dinner, mah friend.
Hope this helps,
Bing
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