McCullough

With the same caveats as Razorfish states concerning how much I've enjoyed TacOps and meaning no disrespect, I have been asking myself the same question over the past few weeks since receiving 3.0, and with the resounding clank of a John Cage fantasy interrupted, finding that there was nothing new for me. I see improvements in the non-solitaire capabilities - and that's great for those with the time to devote to CPX/MBX/PBM games. However for those of us in the Solitaire mode, the "New and Improved" part of the game just isn't there. (Since I was upgrading from 0.1.5 I was expecting a few more changes than Razorfish may have been...) Don't get me wrong - TacOps is my favorite game. Hands down. I believe it is the best game available. Period. I look forward to years and years of blowing up those little red icons! However, being the best isn't always enough. Just ask Apple's Mac team or Sony's Betamax team about the dangers of relying on current superiority... If buying full price "new" versions now helps bring improvements and additional scenarios down the road, well that's the price of good gaming. If not, then there really is little reason for us to buy the latest and greatest versions.

In many ways this is my favorite scenario - the sniper and recon teams are a very interesting variation! Since you get to choose where those teams begin, position them so they can take out as many of the perimeter teams as possible. Within the first minute or two you can have four enemy positions empty - and that means four SA-16's out of the picture I also have my HMMWV ATGMs and 81-mm Mortar moving into position from the start, rather than landing them later. Putting a few infantry teams out as "LRRP"s gives you very useful intelligence regarding any approaching counterattack, but go lightly here - they are out of the battle if you do a good job choosing their hide positions. I personally like to use my initial air strikes simultaneously to target the remaining SA-16 units as well as the two BTR units inside the perimeter. Since 4 of the 6 SA-16's are already gone, if you target those last two positions with the two earliest arriving airplanes you will either eliminate the remaining SA-16's or at least draw their fire so that the BTR's can be attacked and hopefully after this is all done you will be ADA and armor free inside the perimeter. All this within the first three or four game minutes! After this allow your sniper & recon teams to do their work. Put a sniper team on the north side of the perimeter fence covering the three westernmost enemy positions and that team can deal with the two that are in range. A recon team can handle the southernmost of the three, and then slip inside the perimeter to begin clearing things out from the inside. Your other two teams can be moved around the perimeter to continue the surgical removal of those stuck inside. Use your helicopters and ATGMs to protect the outside area described by the sniper and recon team locations. Essentially for the first 15 minutes you want to allow these teams to do their thing undisturbed by the village security platoon. This limited role also keeps the choppers away from those nasty SA-16s... By the time you have cleared away the westernmost bad guys you have created your very own safe LZ inside the perimeter. Land all your heliborne troops except for one infantry platoon w/MG teams (I use this heliborne platoon to air assault directly beside Objective E once it has been cleared so that I can gain quick access to the building.)in this LZ. I suggest putting in 60-mm mortars in the middle entrenchment and then an ATGM team or two with a MG team or two in the southern entrenchment to guard that flank/approach. Have the remaining forces move through the woods for a shoot out with any remaining bad guys. It helps a lot to have your sniper/recon teams in position to support this from both inside and outside the wire. Typically by the time the recon elements for the counterattack force arrive on screen, the only remaining bad guys (if any) are in the easternmost buildings. These are easy enough to keep out of the picture with a little mortar smoke. Then it is just a matter of being prepared to take up positions in the buildings and around the perimeter to fight off the counterattack. As the other posters have mentioned, use of smoke is very important here. I like fighting this battle from positions around the objectives because you have such good fields of fire and positions that best allow interlocked and massed fires. Done correctly, your default force can do this all quite successfully even if you change the OPFOR forces to include all the Optional Forces. [This message has been edited by McCullough (edited 01-12-2000).]