Defensive Setups - How Long?

[womble]

That's dedication womble!

An ATG that can't see anything (when you thought it would be able to) is wasted, as is one that is too exposed in order to see anything for sure (cos it gets spotted and nuked right quick). The little suckers are so hard to site well I need all the help I can get. Same for finding hull down spots for tanks, if that's what I want to do with them.

I'll sometimes use my own tanks for sighting if the LOS I'm interested in is inside my setup zone.

It can be helpful to punt a tank waypoint at the point your interested in, to see if a tank there will be able to see the ground where your other asset is meant to be.

[Erwin]

There are some great words of wisdom in this thread.

In general I think Broadsword has the overall "set-up strategy" absolutely correct when he said: "The only thing I'd add is that IMHO, deployment is at least half the battle -- maybe more -- when it comes to defense -- not only in CM but IRL."

His xnt observation is also pertinent for offensive ops (certainly in any of the CM games).

[LongLeftFlank]

Yup, I remember discussing that with you and others a while ago; as a scenario designer do your player the courtesy of providing a suggested setup that is appropriate to the situation and to the experience of the troops involved. Assume that most of your players just want to get into the action and only a small minority want to spend an hour scrutinizing LOS and fields of fire. IMHO, it's bad form though to suggest a setup and then screw them over with horrific ambushes that wouldn't have happened if they hadn't taken the suggestion.

If you're dealing with large formations, per NewLife's suggestion above, it's a nice courtesy to have them in their echelons slightly off the access roads under tree cover (those Jabos, you know) to minimize traffic jams.

And if certain troops start the game already under fire, be sure to make that crystal clear in the briefing and/or provide an Prior Intel level >0% (unless you INTEND to have them wiped out in an ambush within the first 30 seconds, which is fair game -- just make sure the scenario is still winnable with the remaining forces). Also you rightly observed during the Ramadi playtest, WeGo players must live with the consequences of whatever movement orders they give at Setup for at least 60 seconds, so be sure to playtest both ways.