Jump to content

How do you "balance" your quick battles?


Recommended Posts

so how do you do it to have a decent yet realistic fight in QB? for example a defending company vs an attacking battalion etc..sometimes i find is difficult to make an ejoyable fight,specially on ww2 titles where if your armor gets wiped by the enemy (when both teams have armor)the battle is pretty much over specially when i attack since infantry  is pretty much helpless against armor at mid-long range,so i was curious about what other people do

Edited by Deriuse
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This may be a bit unconventional and unrealistic, but when I can't be bothered to do all of the movement necessary to be the attacker (which is most of the time) I select a medium-sized assault and I give the attacker a 70 percent boost to its forces. Then I choose the attacker's forces manually, doing it as fast as possible and without looking at the display of what they have, in the hope I'll forget exactly how many tanks they have, and then I choose my own defending forces. My thinking is that scouts might have observed the ememy's approach and have a decent idea of their configuration. This is not ideal, but better then having the computer select its own forces. Even in its latest iteration, I find time and again the game chooses an attacking force consisting of nothing but tanks, or no tanks, lots of troops, and about 50 useless half tracks, despite my clicking 'mix' for the make-up of the forces. (Btw, couldn't battlefront get somebody to make up, say, 20 different configurations of attacking and defending forces for each side and then have random selection operate between those configurations, so each time you let the computer choose either your or the emeny's forces you got some sort of workable combination?). Basically, when I choose to be the defender in a quick battle I make the attacking forces massive, to try to make up for their tactical stupidity. This might even be fairly realistic if you're defending against the Russians on the Easter Front, or against the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge (I've read accounts of extremely dumb tactics by German local area commanders in that battle, probably due to their lack of experience)...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Deriuse said:

so how do you do it to have a decent yet realistic fight in QB? 

I mostly do PBEMs and scenarios now however when I did play QBs the below advice from @womble was useful. 

You can, if you're picking AI forces yourself, mitigate the "putting units in inappropriate groups" problem by making sure there are enough formations in the force to have "some of everything" in each group. Rather than picking one Battalion "head", then chopping out everything but the AT platoon (4 guns) and a company (3 rifle platoons and a heavy platoon) of infantry, pick four Battalion headers and chop out everything but one AT gun, some Rifle squads and an MG or two from the Heavy Platoon for each Battalion. AFAICT, the AI assigns alternating Formations to the default 2 groups, and will leave one group empty if you just pick the one Formation. Or if you pick a Formation for infantry and another for Armour, you'll have all the Infantry in one setup zone, following one set of orders, and all the Armour elsewhere, operating according to a different timetable which probably won't support your infantry's route.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I play against the AI, I cheat.

I usually choose the opposing forces, based on the random selection which (like Anson Pelmet above ) I don't check too carefully but which I usually toughen up with some decent armour. And I remove some of their infantry, because too much AI infantry is less interesting than tanks, flak, AT guns etc.

And I give myself some solid reserves (at least +100%), so if the game starts to drag on or I get 'unlucky', I can bring it to a conclusion without losing.... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Playing against AI I just set up QB with whatever I want to fight with versus whatever I want to fight against - within reason of course - and have fun.

It's easy to have a good setup even by using just common sense. Like it will take another tank company to get rid of that tank company. You won't send armor to take out defending infantry inside a dense urban area. But you can send an infantry to get rid of a mechanized battalion inside an urban area. Likewise you won't have infantry meet said mechanized battalion in the open field. And of course an attacker or assaulter has to have an adequate advantage in numbers over the defender. In a meeting engagement have more liberty with the numbers.

Like when I started handpicking OOB for AI instead of having it done automatically I was surprised at how much more fun fighting a QB was

Edited by kraze
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Battalion against company" is unfair, battalion usually wins. Reinforced company? But how much HMGs, mortars to take?  4 - ok, 6 - unfair? But 4 "Maxims" are too weak, unlike heavy MG-42. QB points are the best for ballance. (Against human opponent)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...