GlassHoppa
Posts: 8
Joined: 12/16/2014 Status: offline
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"Time to Dance" is definitely a great scenario for truly understanding and ENJOYING the game. That is if you are an obsessive-compulsive nut job who enjoys beating head against wall, but aren't we all? After numerous tries at all of the above strategies, I finally got an 80% score with 60-ish percent forces remaining. This was playing v2.08 with unlimited commands and staff-directed "auto-artillery". Forget blowing the bridges or defending anything east of Bad Neustadt. Defend in depth West of the town from 0415 and Lebenhan, I sent all my M1A1's up onto those two hills to hold. The plains northwest of BN and the valley at 0616 were my killzone. Any spare units were deployed along the route NES40 line and the treeline at 1114/1214, sending in flanking fire. A few lucky rainstorms came in making for a real field day as NATO IR sights dominated the battlefield. 5 hours in, I had the Soviet forces below 30% strength and a 30% score. It was only a matter of time to whittle down the remainder enough to be able to sweep back in and pick up the remaining VP hexes. Three notes: 1) I kept the last batch of cav (3 recon units) in reserve up north at Unsleben, I needed them to get the VP hexes in Heustreu and the 1500 VP hexes across the river. The Soviets counterattacked towards Heustreu with all they had left (leaving 3000VP hex 1615 uncovered) and I barely held on, sending remaining HQ units in to reinforce. I did not recover 1615 (see note 2) 2) My initial setup was a HumVee in hex 1119 to blow the one bridge in BN, and the rest of the recon force on the westernmost setup hex (08197, I think). I sent them all across the westernmost bridge and deep into the rear (east) towards the 1500pt VP hexes. The Bradleys managed to harass and divert the Mech Rifle Companies, even destroy a few runners before dying. This was worth it, delaying the onslaught towards Bad Neustadt. But the remaining Hummers got wiped out for nothing. Next time, I'll send them north of Wollbach to help out in the last-minute scramble for the VP hexes. When time ran out, I had a tank HQ doing hasty movement towards the last VP hex 1615. Otherwise, I would have had over 83% for a decisive victory. So don't waste the HumVees! 3) Reorg the forces (attaching to nearby HQ's) as soon as possible. I did one big reorg about 3 hours in and wound up with a 53 minute turn... agonizing. But I also wound up with a "spare" tank HQ (nothing attached) with a M1A1 that I used to send flanking fire down on my KZ, so it worked out. I let the NATO AI handle the (sparse) artillery, not enough command cycles to do it myself. I would have liked to lay some smoke, but every time I was ready to give a smoke mission the mortar unit was scooting. Oh well, the AI did a fine job laying down harassing fire. Overall, a great scenario - you have to use NATO's strength in standoff fighting against the WP's doctrinal weakness of trying to force all their units all their units down one path - N275. And it truly illustrates the point of "Don't fight for ground, fight to kill the enemy". As an eye-opener, try playing the WP version of this scenario! It was not as easy as I thought it would be (you start with all bridges already blown) and the tactical problem of how to overwatch the units assigned to throwing up new bridges against NATO's longer range capabilities... I beat NATO by bridging in 3 different places (Heustreu, 1615, and inside BN), taking heavy losses but eventually just overwhelming the defenses with sheer numbers. A fun and eye-opening scenario for either side!
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