Quick battle Battle Types

[z1812]

I see there are 3 different battle types. Recon, defense, and attack. Understanding how attack and defense works seems straight forward.

Attack plus Attack = meeting engagement
Attack plus Defense = 1 side attacks other defends.

But how does recon figure in. How does that work? I have looked at the various documentation but I can't find any explanation.

[Dane49]

I don't really think it matters what you set your side to do as far as the recon and attack option,you basically can do both in that mode,but if you set your side for defense you will get the benefit of entrenchments.

As far as what the options would do for the enemy AI side.
I find that when setting them for the attack they stay pretty much together and don't overly spread themselves and will try to take victory locations one at a time.
During Recon the enemy will spread himself over a wider area and try to capture multiple victory locations at once.
During defense the enemy AI will try and mainly defend the grid that you set the most units in and will entrench also.

This doesn't always happen this way but that's generally the rule of thumb I go by when setting enemy AI options.

[z1812]

Thanks for your reply.

[Dane49]

I find that when I set both sides to recon my games are much more interesting.When I set the AI to attack I find the AI to be more predictable as to its route of advance and I am generally able to break up his attack or disrupt his plan by blindly shelling(H&I) the most obvious routes of advance to my side of the map.

Another thing also,if you set your time for 3 hour battles,the AI will actually take the time to formulate an attack plan.
I find that if I set the game to 1-2 hours the AI will blindly rush my side of the map in a pell mell manner.
But,if the AI doesn't feel rushed it will not blindly attack you and will actually take the time to probe and recon your lines before launching the main attack.
Setting the time to 3 hours doesn't actually mean the game will last an entire 3 hours!
Most of my battles hardly ever last more than an hour before the issue is decided.

[Dane49]

A few other observations about quick battles.

The Russian AI basically sucks in the attack mode,I find that I have to give them some major force advantages so that they have some kind of an equal chance.They won't use a combined arms approach,will shell areas indiscriminately and usually send their tanks far ahead of the infantry to conduct solo attacks.But,they do a fairly good job on the defense or recon.

The German AI in the attack is much better and more challenging and will usually attack using a combined arms approach with infantry defending the armor and observed artillery support.

[z1812]

ORIGINAL: Dane49

A few other observations about quick battles.

The Russian AI basically sucks in the attack mode,I find that I have to give them some major force advantages so that they have some kind of an equal chance.They won't use a combined arms approach,will shell areas indiscriminately and usually send their tanks far ahead of the infantry to conduct solo attacks.But,they do a fairly good job on the defense or recon.

The German AI in the attack is much better and more challenging and will usually attack using a combined arms approach with infantry defending the armor and observed artillery support.

Thanks for the very useful information.

[Dane49]

This is the General area of Operations for the game Achtung Panzer Operation Star.



The book "Last Victory in Russia" by George Nipes deals with a lot of the battles that took place here in detail as to what units were involved and the dates for some of the battles in this area,but tends to focus mainly on the Grossdeutschland and SS divisions that participated in this Operation.

The book used to be free to view online but that link is no longer valid.There are other sites available to download the book for free,but I can't vouch that they are safe and will not harm your computer.I was able to download the book for free and have used it extensively in creating quick battle scenarios.

[z1812]

What setting do you find works best for a type of battle. Capture the flag?

[Dane49]

Generally,depending on what area of the map you would prefer to do battle in,I would set 1 side to defense with the majority of the units assigned to defend that grid square.

For a meeting engagement(ME).Have the area of the map you would most likely prefer the battle to take place in being the center grid square of the 3x3 quick battle area map,with either side given the attack or recon mission.

The victory locations or flags are not always assigned the same position on the map grids and change from game to game.But,generally you can count on them being around key cross roads or the highest point in that grid square.

Another thing you can do before the battle starts is assign controll of grids that neither side has units set up in by right clicking the mouse button,you can do this while you are choosing the force make up for your quick battle.This helps in controlling how the battle will initially unfold.
For example if I want the battle to take place in mainly 2 grids on the map I will assign all the grids except 2 to one side.

I can expand on this further in more detail if you have specific questions for the type of battle you are trying to create,but these are some general rules of thumb I go by.