Demo report...

[Francesco]

Hi all!

I've played 4 times Zitadelle scenario of the demo...

Always as Russians,

1st: Draw (units' original layout)

2nd: Tact. Victory (my layout, not using the new commands)

3rd: Tact. Victory (my layout, using the new commands)

4th: Major Victory (very studied layout)

Match-winner of the last one: 45mm gun, 4 tank kills (4 PzIIIs)

Most strange thing:

45mm vs PzIV

distance: 300m circa

projectile: tungsten

PzIV shot in the rear upper hull

Result: "Ricoched"

?

Here is the final result (small, but I didn't wanted to place a 2.2mb image which could cause too "slowerings"):

I've noticed that AI played almost always the same match.

But in the last one it tried to defeat me taking the last big flag without considering the small on the right... I was luky enought to take out enemy tanks before they could reach the flag...

[ September 14, 2002, 11:23 AM: Message edited by: Francesco ]

[pad152]

The trick to this scenario as russians is to create a three sided box and let the german tanks roll into the box so they are attacked on all three sides at once. I've done this and defeated AI even when it had 50% more tanks.

[bobnickbob]

looks as though the demo was more balanced then I thought, after playing it for a few more times yes even I , the Lame Gammer , was able to win as the ruskys... :cool:

(WC Fields) once put it:

"I cook with wine, sometimes I add it to the food"

Thanks ” Winecape”

bnickb

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by pad152:

The trick to this scenario as russians is to create a three sided box and let the german tanks roll into the box so they are attacked on all three sides at once. I've done this and defeated AI even when it had 50% more tanks.

That seems to be an obvious choice for a lot of us! I first played it as the Germans, then as the russians. I set up my men just as stated above and the German AI just cant fight against that.

[gunnergoz]

A line of AT guns along one of the long map edges worked well for me. My secret was to get all the guns firing at once, taking out 10 tanks in the first minute, the others in the next, with the loss of two AT guns. URRAH!

[busboy]

Even with a fairly poor unit placement, loss of 75% of my AT rifle/tank hunter teams at the beginning, and the loss of both my KV-1s's without even scoring a hit, I still managed a major victory with extreme fog of war the first time I played. In the end the krauts had only two tanks left alive, both with damaged guns.

My idea was to cluster the AT guns.

Spoiler allert, just in case (by now I'd be shocked...)

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Nothing much. My idea was to put most of the guns in the valley and then take out the kraut tanks as the crested the last hill (massed fire as they one by one silluette themselves against the hill.) To spread out the fire, I placed 4 guns on the far right flank, 3 on the reverse side of that clump of trees on the left, and 2 by the road.

Well, it turned out that the enemy didn't do a broad line advance, or flank to my right as I thought, so my 4 right flank guns, almost half my strength, was stuck with mostly long range shots for the battle. When the krauts passed the forrest, my three on the reverse side got some good licks in, but they were KOed. Then, just as the krauts went to press the attack, they'd run into the fire of my two center guns...and they'd bite it fast. Things almost got sticky when one gun ran out of AP ammo, but it actually managed to immobalize/gun damage their last functional tank when it tried to bypass the last useful AT guns I had.

KV-1s bought it early...instead of suprising the krauts as they crested the hill with two waiting 76mm monsters, the tanks ended up getting nialed by hull down PzKw IVs. If they had survived, I could have counterattacked and finished off the last 2 panzers that were too chicken to press on with only machine guns active.

While I accomplished the mission against the odds, I was most dissatisfied with my performance. A human opponent probably would have eaten me.

This battle is pretty good though, as if you play for Russia multiple times you really don't get any unfair atvantage other than additional insight on where to put stuff.

[Andrew H.]

Originally posted by busboy:

KV-1s bought it early...instead of suprising the krauts as they crested the hill with two waiting 76mm monsters, the tanks ended up getting nialed by hull down PzKw IVs. If they had survived, I could have counterattacked and finished off the last 2 panzers that were too chicken to press on with only machine guns active.

My KV-1s are always getting knocked out before they do much damage to anything; typically, they kill one tank between them. Next time, I think I'll stick them way in the back and use them to counter-attack only after my AT guns have done their work.

Ideally, I suppose, they would work best to attack in coordination with all of my AT guns...but it's so hard to coordinate them that I would probably have them show themselves a turn early and get knocked out again.

:mad: