How do you start your Games?

[Guest PeterNZ]

Thought it might be interesting to see how different people set themselves up at the very beginning.

This is what i do.

1) look at all the armor, hehe, feel the quality.

2) Strip the armor of all the embarked people

3) Place all my assets in 'piles'. All the mgs here, all the zooks here, all the spotters here, hehe, all neatly aligned.

4) Then the squads are clearly seperated, and quality checked.

5) all those spare hq units .. i dunno what to do with them so i pile them in a corner.

then i go to deploy.. and follow whatever plan i've made, and asign support from my piles to groups or whatever as i see fit.

'support squads' of spare hq type units and a mix of mg and spotters or whatever i think fit are organise and deployed where they can get into good positions.

Tanks are laid out and all the left overs moved around and then zappo, start!

PeterNZ

[Strider]

Yep

[Guest KwazyDog]

Peter, those spare HQ units are very useful for.....

* reassigning squads to that you wish to keep as reserves. For instance, a company HQ can command squads from its subordinates. Say you are defending a bridge with a company and wish to place 3 platoons on the opposite side for defence but wish to keep some troops on the friendly side as a last ditch defense you could strip a squad from each platoon and reassign it to the Company HQ commander. This is obviously much more effective than just placing the troops on the friendly side of the river without an HQ.

* Rally Points. Say in the above example you didnt strip the extra squads, but kept the Company HQ near the friendly side of the bridge to rally troops fleeing from combat. I have also found this quite effective in the past The fleeing troops may not be what they once were, but they certainally can save your butt in a pinch, especially if you Company commander is of good quality.

* Support Weapons. Ive also found that the company commander can be very useful for commanding rear line support weapons and AT guns for better response times and rally these support units when they are under fire.

* Spotters. Lastly Ive foudn that they can be used for spotting for on board mortars very effectively. Im not sure if this was in place for the beta demo, but commanders can spot for on map mortars as long as they are in control radius. For instance you can stick the HQ unit on the top floor of a building and have them spot for mortars behind. Very usful as it means the mortars dont go getting spotted..

Phew, hehe, sooooooooo.......still going to be sticking them on the edge of the map ? Trust me, they can really be useful

[This message has been edited by KwazyDog (edited 03-14-2000).]

[Guest PeterNZ]

O I'd never have them sit around.. they'd generally do -something- like lead support groups or hang around like the last to be picked in sports :>

Thanks for the ideas will try to use them more effectively next time!

PeterNZ

[Guest KwazyDog]

Hehe, sounds good I had the impression for you first message that you were sticking them over on the edge of the map and leaving the poor little buggers there

I think the first point I made was one that a lot of people might not yet realise, hehe it took me a while to notice (and I am pretty sure it was in the beta demo). They are great for commanding reserves and platoons whom have lost their commander.

[Guest Bobb]

Sounds like an approach familliar to me. Group 'em, deploy 'em, and start 'em.

Speaking of C&C, In CE I sent C platoon(German) with its leader over to the left to ride up to the woods on the flank for providing procection to the 3 Stuggs to be positioned there. I used 2 squads for that. The third squad I sent to reinforce the fellows at the Church. Later when things go well they can attack with the others and join their platoon in the woods.

I put them in hide in the church to await their que to appear on the attack. Meantime they can help shoot up anyone having the gall to advance up to the church. Since things tend to stay fairly secure at the church, I only give a little attention there for a number of turns. Seemed every time I checked those green C platoon troops were breaking hide and moving up to where they could pot exposed Amis. Put 'em back and rehide them and they do it again. I moved the Co. Commander into the church, and damned if those jerks aren't back at it again. This exposes them to unnecessary causalties and makes them less reliable later. If that is possible. I had to send them back behind the church and behind the woods about 75 to 100 meters back to get them to behave.

While they were annoying, I also was somewhat amused by them. Another element of realism, green eager beavers, who can not resist shooting at targets of opportunity.

The Co. Commander should have been able to slow them down, though.

[Guest Bobb]

By the way, the last time I ran that Stuggs on the Left show, I ended up with 5 Shermans knocked out on that little ridge sticking out beyond the woods along the road. They sort of formed a little circle. What jerks!

Only lost one Stugg.

I could not believe the AI would keep on playing a losing move until all 5 were gone.

[dumbo]

This is going to sound weird but the first thing I do is "get in the role". I try to picture myself as the commander when I play a new scenario. The breifings for the demo helped set the tone rather well so I played accordingly. If the breifing says I will encounter scratch forces I beleive it and deploy accordingly. I find this gives a good game first go at a scenario. First time through any scenario really is the best fun IMHO.

Of course I dont get many surprises anymore as I have played the demo to death.

DAMN YOU BETA TESTERS TO HELL! {----best read aloud screaming at the top of your lungs.

Phew had to get that off my chest

_dumbo

[Doug Beman]

Kwazy, in your first example of "uses for command units" wouldn't it make more sense to put 2 complete platoons on the far side of the river and keep one full platoon in reserve, rather than cutting one squad from each platoon? I'd rather have 2 full platoons, with their tighter C&C, vs 3 cut-down platoons.

Or is my reasoning tragically flawed?

DjB

[Fionn]

2 platoons on one side of the river plus a third on the other side = 3 tactical maneuvre units.

3 platoons (- one squad each) on one side of the river plus 3 squads under the command of the HQ on the other side of the river = 4 tactical maneuvre units.

In effect you could have two first line combat platoons on the other side of the river plus 1 platoon (2 squads) in immediate reserve. The Company HQ can form your final reserve and can be committed either once the opposite side of the river reserve is fully committed OR to cover the withdrawal of the troops from that side of the river.

Furthermore since the squads on the Company HQ side of the river come from the 3 platoons on the other side of the river one can commit one's Company HQ reserve one platoon at a time AND be sure that they will be in C&C when they cross. (If the reserve on the Company HQ side of the river all came from one platoon then the ONLY way to commit this Company HQ reserve would be via an all or nothing system).

The option Kwazy outlined actually yields a massive increase in tactical flexibility and the ability to maximise flexibility from a given force will set the very best players apart from the rest.

Tactical flexibility is a force multiplier.

[Lorak]

I hate being referred to as "the rest".

------------------

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. Without my rifle I am useless. Without me, my rifle is useless...

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/combatmissionclub

[Guest KwazyDog]

Hehe, err, pretty much what Fionn said Doug Its a choice that really comes down to tactical situation, your knowledge of the enemy, terrain, time of day, quality of your troops, etc, etc. In the example I suggested above, I was mainly thinking of a very simplifed version of the Pegasus Bridge battle of WW2.

Say you were the German commander and you knew out there somewhere in the darkness were lots of British Paratroopers. You dont know how many, how well equipped or what their objectives are, though you guess the bridge. You know you have a company under your command, made up mostly of recruits. You have a few options in placement of your company, most have been described above.

The problem for you is this. You dont know how powerful your enemy is, thanks to the darkness. Will they over run you in a matter of seconds? You could just defend the friendly side of the bridge, but then you give away the other side, possibly only to a platoon.

This is the sort of situation where Id probably go with the suggestion I made earlier. Keeping the reserves with the HQ allows you a few options. First, with still 3 seperate units over the other side of the bridge, you can cover quite a bit of ground. You could place one of the understrength platoons at the end of the bridge, with the other two further forward on either side in defensable terrain.

Also, say your troops look like they can hold, you can as Fionn suggested send over the reinforcements whilst Still keeping them in C&C, especially for that vital bridge crossing where they will most likely come under fire. Also, if the Paratroops are far to numerous for you to consider holding you have the option for pulling back whilst providing cover fire from the reserves on the friendly side.

Anyways, thats just come thoughts Doug Im not saying they are correct hehe, just a take from my angle. It really is based on so many things, but after having play a scenerio similar to the above and using the tactic to quite good sucess, I think its worth a try

Dont you just love talking tactics

[This message has been edited by KwazyDog (edited 03-15-2000).]

[Guest KwazyDog]

Actually it just occured to me that I never answered your origional question Peter

I do pretty much the same on the set up as you, but the very first thing I do is get down to ground level and 'walk' around the battlefield. Know the lie of the terrain in CM is the first game Ive come across where this has become so important as it is real life situations, even more so for the defender.

On many an occasion when I first started playing I got caught out by placing an MG in what I thought was an excellent position only to find its field of fire was cut by a small hill I had not noticed. Also, by getting down on the ground Ive found some excellent firing positions with views for hunderds of metres that I previously had not known existed