Austrian Strategist

Sounds great!

True, true. But he seems to be playing a vily opponent. And with 2.000pts you can afford a coupla 88 Flaks. I never leave home without them.

My mistake; I assumed you made the scenarios for the previous Newbie Tournament(s) as well. I have downloaded rhe Lorraine Pack, and it looks highly interesting! Can you tell us anything not confidential about the Tourny Scenarios? [ June 11, 2002, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: Austrian Strategist ]

There´s a problem with this: If he buys something like, say, 4xRifle44, 3xM10, 1x105mmArtillery, then, I believe, you are in deep trouble. (Explanation: Rifles will kill your men, relying on numbers, M10s will kill your Hetzer, Artillery will kill your guns.) [ June 11, 2002, 03:27 PM: Message edited by: Austrian Strategist ]

You are too infatuated with vehicles; they aren´t cost-effective. If he uses lots of AT Guns, you are dead. Try Infantry. (If you don´t, I think you will rue it.)

Too complicated, and too risky. Here´s what you buy, if you know what is good for you: 3x Rifle44 Company (Regular) 2x Bazooka (Regular) 7x M18 Hellcat (Veteran) 2x Artillery 105mm (Regular) Advance everything except Hellcats cautiously towards Victory Flags. Spread them somewhat, so his Artillery can´t hit everybody at once. Where you find enemies, overwhelm them with numbers, or drop Artillery on them. When his Hetzers appear, rush out your Cats with 'Hunt', and kill them.

Buy a ton of Infantry, and flood him. Infantry is most cost-effective, and Hetzers are not that great against it. 1500pts Infantry, 1000pts Tank Destroyers -keep in reserve until enemy armour shows up- and 500 pts of whatever you like best should do the job. :cool:

Question for Panzerman: Do you have a link to scenarios your team has made for earlier Newbie Tournaments, so we can get an idea what to expect? No problem with the delay, but any bones to satisfy my curiosity would be appreciated.

Thanks. What does 'Riders of Rohan' mean?

Fionn, you got me totally wrong. I wasn´t arguing for no Recon. I was arguing for no Counter-recon. If I am Defender, I let you do your Recon to your heart´s content and watch the clock. I am arguing about best Defense here, not best Attack. And my Defensive Doctrine is: Do as little as possible, and watch the clock! I do not (very much) disagree with your ideas about Attack. I do (very much) disagree with you about Defence, which should be an entirely different thing. The main advantage of the Defender is: He has the VLs already, so nothing happening is to his advantage. Therefore, his priority should be for nothing to happen. As a Defender, I am not interested in destroying the Attacker (which you seem to assume). I am interested in keeping the VLs, and watching the clock. This is what I would do in real life! Edit: Reading your post once more, I should add 2 more things for clarification: -I 'specialize' in battles of 2.000pts or less. All of my experience is with small-to-medium scale, and I consider 1500pts 'medium'. So the question is: Are you of the same opinion for a 1500pts battle? -Regardless of this, I am convinced your Recon -necessary as it is!- won´t give you very much against what I consider 'Defence-in-depth'. It is very usual for me to put 50% or more of my forces into reserve. So my MLR will be weak everywhere; but that´s the point of Defence-in-Depth! Finally: In a Tactics game, I do usually view 'value' in 3 dimensions: Material, Space, Time. Defence-in-depth, imo, is about trading material and space for time. [ June 10, 2002, 05:13 PM: Message edited by: Austrian Strategist ]

It´s June 10. (In fact, it´s nearly June 11, over here!)

What if he doesn´t (actively) commit to the Recon battle at all? Then you will have a large reserve, but so will he. You will have used some time (and lost a few men) just to identify the forward-most part of his defence-in-depth, so what now? (This is assuming you are the Attacker, turn limit is short enough to be a serious consideration, and the Defender´s strategy is 'Delay-Delay-Delay'.) :cool: [ June 10, 2002, 02:02 PM: Message edited by: Austrian Strategist ]

Tools: Your 75+50 AT approach I find well worth trying out. Note you have some points left-over in your first example, so you could afford another HMG. I don´t like the Rifles44 so much, and I prefer 2 Cracks with Crack Support to a Company of Vets anyway, that´s the reason behind my choice of infantry, but it´s sure debatable. Your 2nd example would seem a tad risky to me; what if your opponent buys 5+ Platoons of Regulars? He might overrun you, or attrit you to death, I think.

I know most general advice already. That´s why I made the problem very specific. Note that 'Americans' disallows Churchills, 'July44' disallows Super-Heavys, 'Combined Arms' makes all-out Infantry, all-out Armour, all-out Greyhounds impossible. I was really more interested in discussing precise (point-wise) solutions to a specific situation, because I believe there are no general rules that apply to every set-up.

Simply to get another discussion rolling: You defend with the German Army in a 700pts QB against an American Attack. Both sides use Combined Arms limits. Americans have Regulars and/or Veterans, you may choose Veterans and/or Cracks. Small map, July44, 20 turns, clear day, agricultural terrain, moderate amount of trees, small hills. ---------------- This is what I would buy: 1x Security Pl (Crack) 1x Mot Inf Pl (Crack) 1x Mg42 light (Veteran) 2x Mg42 heavy (Crack) 1x Panzerschreck (Crack) 1x Flak 88mm (Crack) 1x Artillery 75mm (Veteran) 5x AP Mines Mines channel enemy soldiers into kill zones; Infantry, MGs and Artillery kill them. Flak stays hidden until I am confident it will kill all enemy tanks in the same turn. Panzerschreck is insurance in case a tank escapes Flak. What would you use? Why?

The Germans`, too. This was called an Igelstellung, (Hedgehog Position); MLR was called HKL (Hauptkampflinie). [ June 08, 2002, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: Austrian Strategist ]

I understand; but then it won´t apply to most real-world situations -which are not full-scale wars between super powers. Armed struggles in the past -and probably future- few decades were/are more likely between 3rd world countries, between a 3rd world country and a primary power, between a 3rd world country and a secondary power, between two secondary powers, between paramilitary groups in a civil war... In all those cases, mediocre and/or poor morale, training, equipment and experience are to be expected on one or both sides. So I still think not modeling bad morale/insufficient training etc is limiting realism most drastically.

Agreed; in one of my current pbems I killed 3 Shermans and an M10 with a single Nashorn.

In this case at least, it was. Imo, what you should have done: Keep your Tank Destroyer hidden (best behind hill), until enemy PzIV is spotted and within a few 100 metres. Then jump out of your cover with 'Hunt', and you should get the first shot and (probably) kill the enemy tank.

Hmmmm. I´m not really sold on this feature. I´d find it really fun -and realistic- to simulate combat between two third-rate forces, where the major problem is that absolutely no one wants to put up a fight.

No experience/morale? Then it will be hard to simulate a fight between factions of vastly different motivation level. How do you simulate Elites vs. Militias? :confused:

Thanks; great! Can you 'mix' to simulate some neutrals or 3rd world countries who have both Blue and Red equipment? My concern here was not so much about technology but hard-coded 'doctrinal' disadvantages for Opfor. [such as less flexibility/slower reaction time/fewer orders options] So there are none of those? Looking forward to it!

Major H, Thanks! It´s a kind of 'Random Scenario' mode in CM. (Computer creates random map, both players 'buy' their forces with points.)

Stoffel, Thanks! Any examples? I´m curious. Sounds like yet another 'must-have' game from Battlefront!

Is Tacops Pbem fun, too? Can you Pbem at all? Is the game real-time or turn-based? What about playing Opfor? Interesting, or are their options more limited, which would make them stereotypical and boring to play? Is there something like a QB in Tacops? Can you make your own scenarios/maps? (I had never heard about this series -is it possible to shortly explain where it differs from CM? -Thanks.) [ June 05, 2002, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: Austrian Strategist ]