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How to use reconnaissance vehicles?


mvp7

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Womble, you are right, as usual; I failed to mention that I am letting the game choose my forces for me in a couple of quick QBs that I am playing just to shake off the rust. So it's my fault I got a battalion-level, long-range recon vehicle in a little mech infantry skirmish.

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I encountered it, I think, in one of the German campaigns in BN... Might even be the first, or second scenario, where you have to scout the Ami positions in the dark, ready for an attack come dawn, and you get more at-start-intel for the Assault if you "win" the first scenario than if you "lose" it (at whatever margin the designer set for the branch).

There's branching in CM campaigns now? Outstanding!

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With recon vehicles you really need to ask what it's capable of/where you're about to stick the recon vehicle.  Outside of a few specialist systems (Ground Search Radar mostly) the optics on the various scout vehicles are not especially better than the ones mounted on tanks.

 

So to that end, if you're worried about MBTs on the other end of a ridgeline, use a tank to scout.  If it sees something, it'll kill it for you, if it gets hit, well, better chance it can reverse out of it instead of the greasy fireball of boom.  In CMSF I'd usually use a hunt command to go up, followed right away with a reverse (so the tank would unmask until it saw something, then back right up to safety).  The reverse command is less important now because of the laser warning systems/AI tendency to backup when locked up.  

 

Same tactic works with the better recon vehicles (mostly the IFV based ones), but they're more at risk to catching lucky rounds.  Also the ATGM systems are less useful in this role (again, the AFV is now hanging out turret up instead of backing down).  

 

Lighter scouts are good for watching flanks.  You put your most lethal (tanks, IFVs) weapons on the most likely approaches/points of contact, but the trucks with optics type scouts do a good job at putting MBT/IFV optics in places where you suspect the enemy may commit forces, but it is not as likely for some reason (bad terrain, chokepointed, etc).  The light scout will acquire the enemy on the flank, and then you can either put maneuver or fires onto him, or if it's just a small flanking effort say a squad or two, the MK-19/HMGs most scouts carry will make a mess of it.

 

The only scout vehicles I positively do not like are the Cav Stryker (too big to hide, too weak to fight, okay for transporting teams), and the BRDM series (doesn't have the optics the scout HMMWVs do, if it was beefier could fight for recon, better optics could stand off better, but as case is sits right into the establishing someone's engagement area by exploding realm).

 

Re: Scenerios

 

It'd be awesome to see a good screen line scenario, like you'd score based on killing enemy scouts ahead of the main force, then identifying the enemy main body/bonus points for killing high value assets like ADA pieces, and successfully getting to the battle handover line (basically where the scouts stop fighting and pass the battle onto the friendly main line of resistance).  

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There's branching in CM campaigns now? Outstanding!

Has been since at least BN 1.0 :)Courage and Fortitude even has "decision" scenarios where your choice of, for example, left or right fork in the road (expressed as a different level of victory, with one fork having a VL, the other without) takes you to different branches, which each eventually come back to the same finale, but with your setup zones in different places. The branches are solely binary, and depend on the victory level you achieve in the preceding scenario. Losing School of Hard Knocks puts you back to fighting over the same piece of ground, but with extra arty and a different section of your core force, IIRC, in University of Hard Knocks; winning takes you to the same place you'd end up after University, but without having to fight through it, and thus with a more intact battalion, as a whole.

It is a tool with its limitations, but some creativity can produce satisfying outcomes. Some campaigns have even more branching. Many have little or none: A Moment in Time is a series of "vignette" scenarios, all notionally occurring in the same time frame, and you play the same scenarios whatever the outcome of your prior engagements. An entirely valid, and fresh approach, but not needing to avail itself of the branching function.

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In CMSF I built several scenarios that were all about a recon force trying to penetrate a screen.  I had a battalion HQ far back that the recon unit had to get a bead on.  I used the ID unit objective with casualty points to set the win/lose.  I also built a couple flank screen battles where the recon units have to ID specific units and hold objectives.  I use reinforcements set to come in after a specific time to represent a main force redirected to this axis.  The whole point of the recon elements is to withdraw in good order while maintaining contact.  Scoring really didn't work well because at the time CMSF didn't have the capability. 

 

I never released them because I couldn't get AI plans to function properly.  Let's fact it; scenario building in CMSF was VERY hamstrung by limitations in plans and orders.  So I just used them to play hotseat with myself.  I plan to some day build similar scenarios in CMBS.

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I am wondering how to use my Armored Knight.  According to the manual it has all sorts of goodies such as laser equipment, special targeting software and a Fire Support Sensor System (FS3) but would I be wrong in saying that this kit is used to guide munitions like LGBs that are not yet modeled in the game?  Does it have something as simple as a periscope, so that I can get a bit of an edge in scouting over the brow of a hill or in a wheat field?  How exactly can I leverage this recon vehicle in CMBS combat as presently configured?

I use them to run a drone.  They usually have good capability for on call assets so it makes for a good combination...and I tuck the vehicle way out of harms range.

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