Please help a complete neophyte

[The Hapless General]

Hi,

I am new to wargaming in general and to CM in particular, CMAK being the my first experience of the series.

Therefore, I am currently trying my hand at the Tiny scenarios, struggling to develop tactics and an understanding of how to run the force. I am already familiar with the interface and variety of commands and my difficulty is really in how to utilize my forces.

My question is about the scenario "Clash of the Titans." I have tried it several times, each time losing magnificently (no matter which side I played). This, coupled with the briefing declaring that if I play against the AI, then I should tip the balance of play to its favor, brought me to ask for help.

Any advice on how one should approach such a scenario, and/or references to places I can learn more tactics, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!

[Hawk]

Hi!

Have you considered buying the CM strategy guide? It's written for CMBB (the previous CM game), but I think you would find it usefull.

It's not essential (especially for veterans of the series), but for someone new to these kind of games, I'd say it's a must.

[Sergei]

Conventional wisdom says you should keep your forces closely together. That means that you can bring more guns on the enemy at once. However, in desert you'll need to be careful with the way you deploy, because you could easily block the lines of sight due to dust raised by a single tank as it moves, fires or as shells hit sand near it. But it is difficult to deploy so many tanks in a line formation.

Because of this, it is beneficial to roll on your enemy's flank - not because you couldn't penetrate his tanks from the front, but because then he suffers from the same dust thing.

In general, anything that helps more of your tanks to fire at fewer of his tanks at a time is a good idea.

[Edward Windsor]

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I played as the Brits in a double-blind PBEM. I was probably very fortunate, but I sent a platoon of tanks to the oasis, one to the left flank and one to the right.

All were moving "fast", so they were in position and stationary by the time the shells started flying - very important for maximising your chances of actually connecting with something (especially vital when all the combatants have paper thin armour and so many hits are penetrations).

I've also had success by ensuring all the tanks in a platoon have very similar LOS (pick a ridge where you expect the enemy to emerge and use the tool to check - I'm often surprised how wrong my guestimates can be). It's pretty obvious, but it enables all your chaps to engage targets en masse as they roll into view.

Against a good opponent, I had one Crusader brew up and another gun damaged. All the Italian tanky thingies were KO'ed in some pretty nasty crossfires :mad: :mad:

Teddy