My Trusty Rifle Company and I: through the mud and virtual blood to the green fields beyond

[apoll]

As a new convert to the WEGO system, I must say I am enjoying this sim much more. I am actually doing ok in some respects, bad in others of course. But better; not so overwhelmed when the action starts. I tend to use a US rifle company with as much artillery as I can...and an FO team. In meeting engagements, I have been attacking, and I seem to find myself up against a motorised rifle company, in some cases with a platoon of tanks. That is some steep task, and thus I cannot really stick to the planning rule of 3 to 1 attack ratio. I try to isolate and attack no more than one platoon at a time, but by the time I've done that, I am usually low on Javelins and ammo. In no real position to take on two platoons + of infantry and BTRs et al. In one case, I formed up two platoons in dead ground to attack a platoon position, when I suddenly discovered a troop of BTRs at the back of the position. My pixel truppen crossed the LD, crested the rise, straight into a withering fire. Needless to say, they retreated quickly and I was sent from the battlefield with my tail between my legs. Failed to do proper recon in a big way.

I have a few questions:

1) how do I resupply my rifle company? In particular, what vehicle do I need to purchase that I can use to resup my Javelin truppen?

2) I'm using the 'bino' observation section to do my scouting; is this correct? Or are there specialised recon troops to purchase?

3) when in meeting engagements, can I always bank on equal numbers in opposition? And mounted in AFVs? I real life, you'd be nuts, or very desperate, to push a rifle company in against an equal formation, better armed with AFVs, while you had none... That would be pretty close to suicide; one would expect to push a Battalion group against a motor rifle company in defence. I did a defensive battle with a two armoured troops and a mounted rifle platoon in Bradley's, and slaughtered the attacking Russian forces. It occurred to me why it was so easy: the attackers were no where near the standard 3:1 ratio. They attacked me with equal numbers, and I just stayed put and blasted them as they crested the rises, walking artillery all along the attack avenues. This doesn't seem right; have others had this experience?

Thanks in advance.

Apoll

[vincere]

Re 1. I guess you mean for Quick Battles. IFVs can have supplies, and there is a 4 vehicle supply section that has a truck. Need to check myself whether it has Javs.

 

2. Yes. But there are other factors. Recon troops are there. Also Forward and air observes. And the Jav teams seem to have extended vision with their jav sights. Also, check the other equipment panel, some squads have extras, and some have good sights on weapons.

Also, some vehicles are good, plus the drones.

[womble]

1) how do I resupply my rifle company? In particular, what vehicle do I need to purchase that I can use to resup my Javelin truppen?

Have a look at the "let's play" that's being serialised on the screenshots and videos thread. He has trucks there which have Javelins on.

2) I'm using the 'bino' observation section to do my scouting; is this correct? Or are there specialised recon troops to purchase?

Binoculars in the equipment list do give you a better chance of spotting enemy elements. Troops from speciased recon formations are not inherently better at spotting than regular line infantry. Specific equipment (like binos) and "soft factors" (specifically Experience, and to a lesser extent Leadership) are very important in determining the ability of a team to stay hidden and to see the enemy quickly. The tactics for achieving this without your scouts getting greased have been discussed on the various forums, including this one, about eleventy zillion times, so I'm not going to reiterate them here. You have free choice of what you assign in your QB, so it might pay to put a few extra points into some Elite Experience, +2 Leadership, High Motivation scout teams, or to designate a proportion of any "idle" teams (XO, "HQ support team", that kind of thing) as scouts and give them higher soft factors than the rest of the formation.

3) when in meeting engagements, can I always bank on equal numbers in opposition? And mounted in AFVs?

Not even remotely. The points that you and the AI have to spend will be the same, but that's no guarantee you'll face even numbers. That's kinda the point of points. Black Sea could maybe have the best AI force picker yet, but it could still pick a very armour-heavy or very infantry-heavy mix (I'm assuming from what you've said that you're setting both sides' force types to "Mix"). It will tend to pick "Typical" troop soft factors, whereas humans often boost the soft factors of their troops to Veteran, High, at least, or beyond. Add that every American infantry squad is apparently about twice the cost of a Russian one, due to superior levels of equipment, and you might find yourself facing 2 or three to one odds, in pure warm body counts, even if the AI has spent the same number of points on its infantry as you have. Have you given any thought to maybe spending some of your own points on armour? I hear those Abrams are absolute murder on BTRs. Cost you more than the opposition MBTs though, even T-90s, and the same goes here as for infantry: you want a veteran Abrams with all the bells and whistles and you'll maybe see 2 Green Vanilla T-72s (I don't have RT, so I can't look at the exact points values). BFC are mostly pretty good at assigning plausible points values, since they know what the actual mathematical capabilities of their engine elements are. Apart from rockets. They're widely considered rubbish at assigning points values to those So, theoretically, if you fight to the strengths that you have bought, you'll get a fair return from your points spend.

I real life, you'd be nuts, or very desperate, to push a rifle company in against an equal formation, better armed with AFVs, while you had none...

So why are you? The QB gives you the opportunity to set the enemy force type to Infantry or Mech, which should preclude the appearance of any tanks on their side. You can also set yourself as the attacker and therefore have more points to spend than the defender. Meeting engagements are supposed to be even-sided, and both sides are supposed to have a "responsibility" to attack. Of course, one of the problems often cited with MEs is that the advantageous thing to do is set yourself up in and rush to positions from which you can interdict the dusputable VLs, effectively becoming the defender, in an even-points match. If you're letting the AI Plan do that to you, then you probably need to reassess your battle planning and conduct.

I did a defensive battle with a two armoured troops and a mounted rifle platoon in Bradley's, and slaughtered the attacking Russian forces.

That's no surprise at all. The AI can be a competent defender, even in QBs, but expecting it to attack competently in a QB is optimistic. Even with the improved number of order groups these days, a human defender has all the advantages and the AI cannot have the initiative to take them away.

It occurred to me why it was so easy: the attackers were no where near the standard 3:1 ratio.

You might do well to actually look at the force sizes for attackers and defenders; just start a QB, and set both sides to Human selection. You'll see that even on Assault (where there is the greatest disparity in forces) the ratio of attacker to defender points is probably only 2.5:1 Which should be plenty, and then some, especially against the AI in a QB. You achieve "standard" 3:1 odds by maneuvering to attain local superiority. The point of generals seeking 3:1 odds concentrations before kicking off an attack is to make the result a foregone conclusion in favour of the attacker (warfare isn't about taking risks, it's about making the other guy take risks that get them killed). Which would make for some pretty boring turkey-shoots of games.

They attacked me with equal numbers, and I just stayed put and blasted them as they crested the rises, walking artillery all along the attack avenues. This doesn't seem right; have others had this experience?

Against the AI on the attack, all the time. Even in scenarios, where the AI designer knows exactly what forces he has available to use, and can tailor the composition of Order Groups to take advantages of the strengths of various arms combined, still the executive level AI has no initiative, and if you get inside its decision cycle, you just stay there. Even with triggers, if you do something the scenario designer didn't reckon on, like a forward defense, in a nook at the edge of the map that he didn't consider you'd get to, you can throw the AI completely off, and any subsequent AI orders become entirely dislocated, and the net effect is to have the AI's PBpTruppen funnelling through any chokepoints without the support element you've stymied, which you've hopefully covered with your guns anyway. Last time I took the defensive against the AI to test something out, I had infantry-only against a Mixed force that I picked to play to what I thought the AI's strengths are, and gave it 150% points. Turkey shoot. My outer belt of ATGs ran out of ammo on both approaches. It just can't adapt and change its approach. It can't scout, either, though that wouldn't help much since it can't adapt to what it finds.

[apoll]

Ok. Thanks Womble and Vincere. Very much appreciated. Hmmm. Need to continue practising. Also, I think I need soon to have a go against a human apponent. To see how I go and to learn more. How does one organise that? Just post a request and assume someone will answer? Grateful advice.

Apoll