Matias Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Quick battles I'm still not sure how to guarantee a fun balanced game. I ran up a medium sized map, that ended up with LOS practically across half of it and all the way across the width. I had a platoon of IS-2s and some assualt guns, I was attacking against six PzIVHs... Well I did my best to try and shoot and scoot over the slight crest in the middle of the map simultaneously with all my forces. Total failure. They weren't quite closely coordinated enough and 2-4 tanks ended up firing on each of mine in turn. Closer coordination would have been hard cause I had no infantry to recon for me and figure out where the enemy was... My question here is what should I have done differently to get better results? Did I even stand a chance? Thanks! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poor Old Spike Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Hey Matias-I'm currently playing 25 pbems in the Rugged Defence cmbb ladder because most people LOVE my QB Meeting parameters which give a beautifully fair,balanced game for both sides. Anybody,e-mail me for a copy anytime. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Um, that was a balanced game. If you didn't have fun, it is just because you lost. His tanks can kill yours, yours can kill his. If yours died and his didn't, it is because he got better shots. You got killed trying to cross a crest, sure. Why did you try to cross the crest, instead of him trying to cross the crest? Sometimes waiting for the other guy to make a mistake is a better idea than charging forward. You had as much chance to get many on fews and kill his Pz IVs and he had to get many on fews and kill you. His only real advantage in the situation described is better rate of fire from his smaller caliber guns. Your IS-2s can bounce his 75mm AP if the range is long enough - over 1 km. That may not have been relevant on your map, though. Cat and mouse across a crest tends to result in something of a knife fight, as either side hugs their side of the hill. At close ranges, most tanks are lethal to each other. In an armor only QB, which is a somewhat artificial situation incidentally, it can sometimes make sense to take a light tank or three to scout for the more valuable full power ones. For your leftover points or the cost of 1 additional "real" AFV, you can see what is coming without losing whole platoons. The life expectancy of these light tanks is not high, but with fast moving and reversing they can survive long enough to learn things anyway. To avoid losing your tanks piecemeal to concentrated enemy fire, avoid deploying your tanks piecemeal instead of in supporting platoons. Obviously, any movement that changes the "LOS picture" dramatically for a small movement (crossing a crest, rounding a body of woods) is risky. If your opponent is waiting for you with a whole platoon of shooters that is just good play on his part. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Tank battles on nearly flat maps is similar to a chess game where most pawns have been eaten and there's just some of those rooks, queens and bishops storming around. You try to force your enemy into positions where, to protect his king, he has to move his rook where it can be eaten by your bishop, or where it leaves his queen vulnerable to your queen. IS-2 is better used in the longrange role because, as Jason said, closer it is more vulnerable to Pz-IV. Study the map carefully, because even with the protection of small bumps at your flanks it can be possible to target his tanks individually if he's not careful. In a ME you and your enemy have similar sized forces, so sometimes it can be necessary to "snipe" at him and sap his forces, before you step onto the offensive and crush him. If you want to attack him close up, you could try the "sacrificial lamb" tactic, sending some unit across the flank to make the enemy to turn that way, this maneuver being followed by your frontal attack. This gives you some extra time, but an experienced human player uses cover arcs, of course, so it doesn't work there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matias Posted March 27, 2003 Author Share Posted March 27, 2003 Thanks guys, My problem was not that I wanted to cross that crest, but that I *had* to because the battle was an "Attack" - he was sitting on the three flags from turn 1 - and that single crest ran the width of the map! From your comments it makes me think that I had little hope with the tanks I had... Next time a mix of some lighter expendible tanks might be better... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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