My first PBEM AAR:

[annihilate_this_week]

Well I just got done paying my first ever PBEM game, I have been quietly practicing against the AI for about 6 months prior.

I played a Russian guy I met through a Russian CMBB forum (http://cmbb.fastbb.ru) named Akhar.

The set-up was: 2000 point ME armor QB, September '44, clear, mid-day, moderate hills, moderate trees.

As a twist I played as Romanians, and my opponet played as the Germans.

I had a mix of 12 reg and green T-4H's, a squad of 4 PSW-222's, a squad of green infantry along with two green maxims, a sharpshooter and a tank hunter team. I also tacked on a 75MM spotter and a Messershmidt for fun.

He had a squad of regular Jagpanzers, a green Tiger and a load of regular infantry complete with panzerschreck teams and MG's.

His Jagpanzers pefromed very well, knocking out 8 of my 12 T-4H's and two PSW's. Luckily I managed to disable the Tiger's gun during the first encounter. I set up an overwatch of 6 T-4H's on a hill overlooking most of the battlefield, the Tiger was engaged by 3 of them and they managed to damage his gun, after which he rolled back and stayed chill the rest of the battle. The same tanks in the overwatch position managed to knock out two of his Jagpanzers, and disable the gun of another.

Obviously my lone squad of green infantry was not able to hold back my opponents numerically and otherwise superior squads and came undone at the seams after an unsucessfull attempt at storming my opponents positions in a forest. I held 2 big flags and one little flag through most of the game, however I lost the little flag after my infatnry was routed but managed to hold on to the two big ones with a T-4H, which my opponent tried very hard to kill with a panzershreck but kept missing the mark.

My PSW's 222 performed very well against his infantry, initially routing one of his squads, after which I attacked with my infantry but failed due to him having a lot more troops in the forest then I imagined. One PSW fell victim to a sneaky panzershreck, two got knocked out by his champion Jagpanzer and the last one got its gun damaged and i retreated it away from fire.

Anyway, it was pretty close, although his infantry would have probably won the day had was the game able to continue longer. It was a 35 turn QB, but we played until turn 37. The official result was a 54% to 46% Draw in my opponent's favor. For my first ever game against a person I don't think I did too bad.

[ June 22, 2005, 01:45 AM: Message edited by: Talk'scheap ]

[Other Means]

Against cherry picking like that you did very well.

If you've got support weapons the trick with weak infantry is not to push them. Let them identify shooters and have the support kill them. Only advance into areas you think are clear. Keep them alive and let them shoot all their ammo.

[annihilate_this_week]

Thanks. Yeah that was my plan for the infantry initally but I severely underestimated the number of infy he had, and I got too courageous. I also wasted one of my maxim teams by moving it needlessly, during which it got ambused by an enemy squad, routed, and annihilated. Patience, patience. But at the same time I was afraid of missing a good moment to strike unexpectedly.

[ June 22, 2005, 06:54 PM: Message edited by: Talk'scheap ]

[Nemesis Lead]

Very good work for your first game, Talk. I seem to recall that in my first game I brought 2 Elephants and 1 platoon of infantry (and also managed to win). This brings me to my point...

In the future, you may want to take a lot more infantry than you did. Infantry do a few things for you:

1) Kill other infantry.

2) Provide good, cheap recon (they are harder for the enemy to see and they see much better than tanks).

3) Kill tanks/bunkers in close combat (depending on their secondary weapons)

4) It sounds funny, but infantry are much more survivable than tanks. Tanks are easily killed by AT guns and other tanks. Further, when you lose a tank, it is gone. An infantry squad can absorb hits and remain effective.

5) Protect your armor from both close-in AT weapons (and longer ranged AT weapons).

6) Soak up your opponent's HE rounds (it is possible to bring so much infantry that your opponent will have difficulty killing them all).

7) Infantry can make maximum use of cover and concealment. Heavy buildings, trenches, trees, can maginfy the effectiveness of infantry. Infantry can ambush the enemy in ways that armor can't.

8) Infantry is cheap and you can take risks with it. Taking risks with 200+ point tanks will lose you games. Taking risks with 25 point infantry squads is a better bet.

9) Infantry magnify the effectivness of other units, e.g., commanders can spot for mortars, infantry can escourt FOs, etc..

Sorry is this sounds like it is stating the obvious. It is just that most new players (including myself when I was new) get enamored with armor/artillery/heavy weapons and forget about infantry. Ultimately, a combined arms approach with a solid infantry backbone is what wins battles (in most cases).

Best of luck!

[ June 23, 2005, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: Nemesis Lead ]

[annihilate_this_week]

Thanks, yeah, well since this was an "armor" qb, I stressed the armor, but I do wish still would have taken more infy then I did.