Tactic help needed

McDrum · Post by **McDrum** » Mon Sep 25, 2000 1:20 pm

Gentlemen:

I am a complete newbie in this fabulous SPWAW game. Also I am introducing my son to war gaming (=no more pokemon, son), and we two are learning the ropes of the game.

The question is we are surpassed by the complex management in some scenarios, that's to say, we are still bad colonels. NO idea about how begin: deploying arty and mortars first?, infantry after of before tanks? enginneers, for what?, and so on.

Could you please tell us where to find info&tutorials (url's , please) about how to manage our batallion(s)? Sorry if this point is treated in some other thread, I have searched "tactic", but nothing was found enough explicit to help us.

Thanks for all, this forum is excellent.
McDrum

Fredde · Post by **Fredde** » Mon Sep 25, 2000 1:44 pm

First advice: Start with the simpler scenarios. There is no point in playing division-sized scenarios to start with. You can learn how the units work, and work together much better when playing small scenarios with just a few units involved. For the tactics advice, i think there was a very recent thread covering this.

Good luck.

BA Evans · Post by **BA Evans** » Mon Sep 25, 2000 6:32 pm

Hi McDrum,

Try these two threads:

>Tutorial not explicit enough??? <

>tactics help please... <

As for your question, are you having trouble figuring out what is the best way to deploy your troops or do you need some advice on how they should be moved during the game?

BA Evans

McDrum · Post by **McDrum** » Tue Sep 26, 2000 1:41 am

Thank you for your advice.

In fact I have trouble both triying to move the units, and deploying it. Basically the problems is how to get all the units working in harmony.

And yes, I search for small scenarios with not too much units, but even what is small for an experienced player, seems to be big for my actual skill as commander.

Thanks
McDrum

Paul Saunders · Post by **Paul Saunders** » Tue Sep 26, 2000 11:15 am

Try Buchholz Station, available from the SP Arsenal site, that's a very small one, playable from either side and not too difficult against the AI.

Holunder · Post by **Holunder** » Tue Sep 26, 2000 1:44 pm

Hi ho,
there are several ways of learning the game and I agree that the worst one is to start with a divsion sized battle. *g*

It may be nice to see tanks exploding at the beginning (even if they are your own ones, *g*) but at one point everybody wants to win a battle.

I would advise you to start with a training dummy. Create a small battle human vs human with perfect weather conditions and give each side a tank platoon and an infantry platoon of the same kind, eg. T-34 vs T-34. Just place the units of one side on a hill with the infantry 2 or 3 hexes in front of the tanks. Now leave those units alone for the rest of the battle and approach the enemy with the other nations units. Since you know where you placed the units of side 1, it will be fun to see, when your units actually see them. In this way you can learn a lot about
a) detecting the enemy
b) accuracy of shots (while moving, depending on the position, etc.)
c) tactics ('cause you could try one time to approach the enemy frontally and the next time from a flank)

The next step would be to add some small arty (like mortars) and bombard the enemy while or before attacking.

Create a second battle and replace the tank platoon at the hill with an at-gun platoon and watch the effects.

Create a third battle with only tanks trying to storm a hill which is defended by an infantry and an engineer platoon and again watch the effects.

The advantage of this method is that you don't have to learn everything at the same time. You should be now familiar with the basic effects of weapons, movement, position, cover, etc. Starting a small scenario now, will add the "real" enemy.

I hope this is helpful.
Cheers,
Holunder

renwor · Post by **renwor** » Tue Sep 26, 2000 6:54 pm

Deploying: Could be a mess in bigger (what is bigger?) scenarios.
I usually use two step deploy:

press "Human deploy" : all units are lined along your edge of the map.

phase 1.) "Sorting"
I let all commanders to "flock" their units:
I pick A0, deploy him somewhere.
pick B0, place him in the open, press "deploy all units in form." its upper icon.
press "next formation"
deploy C0 ... -dtto-
deploy ?0

Also in this phase I try to flock all units according to unit type. Armour commanders in one general area, infantry in second, support units in third. That helps to visualize my forces, camping in the open.

phase 2.) "taking positions" is the actuall deployment, scaterring infantry in hiding and ambush places, finding good firing angles for armour on defence, or forming spearheads on offence.

Works for me, but I like to be metodical. On the other hand "AUTO DEPLOY" may add another difficulty level to the scenario, with uncertain deployment.

McDrum · Post by **McDrum** » Wed Sep 27, 2000 1:34 am

Gentlemen:

Thank you very much for your posts and emails. I have found what needed as tutorials in the arsenal(for previous versions of SP, but useful yet, I think) and your practical suggestions will be practised soon in our two computers home net, playing SPWaW.

McDrum