Iron_Mike Posted October 9, 2000 Share Posted October 9, 2000 If you could condense your experience into 100 words, what is the most valuable piece of advice you could give to a player who wants to learn how to play this wonderful game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterNZer Posted October 9, 2000 Share Posted October 9, 2000 Before you setup, come up with a plan. Look at the map overall, get in close, look at it from a distance then plan. Where will you be in 5 turns? 10 turns? 15 turns? How will you do something that won't be directly obvious to the enemy? Will you use smoke? What do you think the enemy will be doing? PeterNZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Five Posted October 9, 2000 Share Posted October 9, 2000 Before you look at the map from your side turn it around and come up with what you think the enemy will do Keep your plan simple and flexible. Remember that a plan is just that, a plan. Always remember to fight the fight. Don't waste time trying to fight the plan, fight the enemy instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Dog Posted October 9, 2000 Share Posted October 9, 2000 Some basics: 1. Know your equipment and men. Spend a little time looking at the armor and armament of your tanks and AFV's, and the firepower and quality of your men. Don't take a knife to a gunfight. 2. Make a plan, and expect it to go to awry. 3. Pick a likely spot and concentrate most of your assets on it. Don't attack along a broad front or piecemeal. On defense, keep a solid reserve back to move where they are needed, and locate long lines of sight/fire for your front line assets. 4. Support your AFV's with your infantry and your infantry with your tanks. Don't fight a separate tank and infantry battle or you will likely lose both. 5. Make sure that you keep your infantry in command range of their leader. Use the platoon, not the squads, as a unit. That about 100 words? - Old Dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted October 9, 2000 Share Posted October 9, 2000 Try to find a superior opponent and develop a tactical disscussion with him during your game. If your lucky he might explain the finer points of why he did such and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lugnut Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Don't lead with your tanks. Use infantry & scout vehicles to flush out enemy AT assets first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest *Captain Foobar* Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Battlefield Recon is the MOST crucial aspect of playing. You need to gain as much information about enemy positions, and deny your enemy as much information as you can. This means don't expose your units to fire at things that are not crucial to the plan. You want to force your opponent to make decisions without having a full grasp of the battlefield situation. Much of what players decide to do in a game is based on their perceptions of the threat. I have often been undone by a player who kept a Hellcat or like unit hidden until the last 5 turns of the game. In my head, I KNEW for sure that it was safe to continue, because he surely would have brought up his armor by now.... Well, he denied me the information by being patient, and took advantage of my ill-informed decisions. This concept works with all sorts of units and formations. Be patient and tricky. EVERY firefight you are in should directly impact your plan. If you are trading in fire in a place or time that you cant justify; ie it doesnt effect your winning or losing, GET THOSE GUYS THE HELL OUT OF THERE, and have them do something useful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutPL Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Go down to your local library and READ. Or get to know your local recruiter. But I think you'd probably just like to be self-educated. Start reading. No one can explain how to properly take a town or a hill and minimize casualties in 100 words or less. Its just too damn complicated. A platoon is a rather small part in the combined arms machine required to do those two simple tasks yet it takes the US Army over 14 weeks just to give its LT's the most basic, rudimentary skills to lead a rifle platoon. I have a tutorial thats about to get published on the web. I'll send it to you if you like. BUt in a hundred words you cant explain why you need to do certain things. And without the why you'll never really understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aka_tom_w Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 This is all very good advice. I agree. Don't lead with your tanks. If you have FO's or Forward Observers, they are VERY valuable and will call in arty, if you have arty, patiently use some of your units to do recon to locate your opponents units and then call in arty and WAIT for it to do its job. Being patient and waiting is VERY important, but also knowing when to strike decisively and exploit any advantage you think might be being presented to you is also a skill that takes a while to acquire. its hurry up and wait, but mostly wait then strike fast with strong heavy units when you see a weakeness in your enemy you can exploit. KNOW your units, if they are big slow heavy german tanks do everything you can to protect your flanks, if you are the allies, the only way to take down some heavy German tanks is to get those juicy flank and rear shots. Play to your units strengths and try to learn and determine your oppenents unit's weaknesses and develop a battle plan to exploit those weaknesses with your unit's strengths. All units, both Axis and Allies, have some clear strengths and exploitable weakneses. Comments? -tom w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest *Captain Foobar* Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Oh, and to expand on that, you will learn alot from getting your butt kicked in PBEM games. Ask your opponent afterwards what his overall plan was, and compare notes on what happened in the battle. There seem to be a thousand little "situation specific" tips you will learn only by encountering them and saying to yourself "DAMN, I am not going to let THAT happen to me again..." Many of those little tidbits involve understanding the game interface, and what commands will achieve the specific results the most effectively. An example is having units hide if you dont want them shooting at any old thing that comes by. It is a matter of negotiating through the game interface with your men, to achieve the desired fine-tuned actions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorak Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Patience, patience, patience. A lot of times the best course of action is no action. Also as Fionn has said plenty of times. A good defense can also be an attack. If the enemy leaves himself open to a counter or thin on the flanks, Don't hesitate to take advantage of it. Always keep your options open. Protect your flanks! Lorak ------------------ "Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking."--William Butler Yeats Cesspool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Olesen Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Well, I'm pretty new to this game myself, but I have already learned one very important lesson: LOS is all-important. There's no point in planning an avenue of advance if it is in plain LOS of the enemy positions (unless you plan to use smoke). There's also no point in placing your (machine)gun in a position that does not have LOS to the enemy positions. And there's no point in advancing a support tank to a position where it can't see anything useful. LOS is tricky in this game. It is not always easy to see how good LOS is from one position to another. And there is no way you can check LOS from any position on the map to any other, other than by using Ctrl-Click to select the position and then the "1" view position to see what it would look like from there. This is helpful, but not easy and it can take a lot of time to scout out the map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daveman Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Four important points I've picked up on: 1. Concentrate artillery fire! A single battery of off-board artillery or mortars can do a good job of suppressing an area, and inflicting some casualties... but throw in some on-board mortar fire, HE from tanks, etc. at the same time and you'll get much better results. 2. Sort of tied to #1... don't count on artillery inflicting casualties on its own. It does a much better job of suppressing or softening up the enemy than actually killing them. 3. Make sure you have a way to get out of any position you plan on taking... no matter how good a position it is you've got to consider possibly having to retreat. 4. Buildings (especially heavy ones) provide excellent cover from small-arms fire, but if there's any direct-fire HE in the game, you're not safe in any building! ------------------ “Fortune favors the brave" - Terence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfgardner Posted October 10, 2000 Share Posted October 10, 2000 Think of these basic concepts: Mission: understand what you've been tasked to do. Enemy: recon, recon, recon. Terrain: the mapboard will dictate the likely avenues of approach. If you think you'd hide a weapon in this or that clump of trees, then hit it with fire (your opponent probably came to the same conclusion). Troops: understand the force you have on your side. You can't fight a pitched armor battle with 2 tanks. Time: how many turns to accomplish your mission. Above all get in there an have fun. The first victory you achieve will make you feel like you've accomplished something. Above all else, prepare to be assimilated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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