Previous Page End Next Page Game Play Notes This section is intended as a guide for new players. It is a mix of general tactics and techniques, and some game mechanics. "The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.", Napoleon "Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence.", Buddha : Last Words "The way to avoid what is strong is to strike what is weak.", Sun Tzu One main point to note is the game scale, which is 50 metres (yards) per hex. That is half the average football field, and just because a tank or squad looks 'very close' that is just the scale of the unit icon. 2 units even in the same hex can be well over 30 yards (metres) apart, nowhere near point blank! Look at 2 tanks in adjacent hexes in the game, they appear to be 'side by side', however, place them about 10 hexes away from each other to see what the actual 1/1 scale of 2 vehicles 50 metres apart looks more like! 2 units in the same hex can be 50 yards apart, not necessarily at hand to hand combat ranges. Players often get confused since the vehicle scale and the ground scale differ. In the SP series games, you are organised into units (called formations in this game) of platoon strength, or sub platoon sections of detached tanks or support weapons acting as a platoon for our purposes. The commander of this unit is the '0' unit of that formation (In campaign games if the original leader dies, this is not always the case, look for the 'H' telltale in the unit list screen). This leader provides rally opportunities for his subordinates but when 'command' is set to on in the preferences (and only absolute beginners turn this reality setting off!) then he must be in contact with his subordinate in order to command him. For units with a radio, this can be anywhere on the map. Provided the radio is working at that point in time. All radios have a chance not to be in contact, and so are never as reliable as voice range communications. Some units (especially infantry) have no radios and must keep voice contact, this is only reliable to 3 or 4 hexes (200 metres). A common fault many players have is to spread their units in a platoon formation kilometres apart, they are then out of command control, and if they get a reverse, they will then tend to run away a lot. Therefore, keep your leaders closed up to the men as much as is possible, "A piece of spaghetti, like a military unit, must be lead from the front.", General George S. Patton Frontage for a leg infantry platoon (or tank platoon without radios) when advancing would be 150 to 200 metres (3 to 4 hexes), a tank platoon (with radios) might stretch to 400 to 500 metres (8 to 10 hexes). Keep to these sorts of frontages and you will be better off. Also, bar the Russians who tended to advance a complete company in a single line, platoons would tend to advance either '1 up' or '2 up' in UK parlance, though 2 up is normally kept for the assault. With a typical UK platoon of 3 rifle sections ('squads' in the US) and the platoon HQ group, '1 up' means that the point section is at the tip of a triangle pointing at the enemy (the axis of advance of the platoon runs through this unit), the other 2 at the base of the triangle, sides of the triangle about 300 to 400 metres long, platoon HQ in the centre of the triangle, behind the point section. This is a good formation for the phase of the battle known as the 'Advance to Contact', as if the lead section comes under fire, the platoon commander, who is following behind, but not too close as to become involved in the fire fight has 2 uncommitted sections in reserve to bring up to the firing line, or outflank the enemy with as he sees fit. Also, the front section might put a 2 man patrol scouting 150 metres or so ahead of itself, these guys could come from the point section, but most likely from one of the held back sections in order not to reduce the strength of the point unit. (In SP terms, buy a patrol or scout unit as we cannot split sections)
GAME PLAY HINT!! The most important about scouts is to use them as scouts!!! One tactic is to disable all the weapons so the scout unit cannot opfire and another technique is to set their range to 0 ( or sometimes 1 ) so they only fire when the enemy is almost on top of them. Scouts are not mini squads. It's not their main function to fight battles. A typical British rifle section on 1943 has 10 men and costs anywhere from 12-16 points. Fighting enemy infantry is THEIR job! . A typical British scout team for 1943 has four men and costs 20-34 points and scouting is THEIR job. You don't fight infantry battles with your infantry AAMG teams so DO NOT fight infantry battles with your scouts either. Their function is to SCOUT not fight. You really don't want your scout to reveal his presence to the enemy under any circumstances. The best thing that can happen to your scout is to be bypassed by the enemy and be left in the rear of the enemy lines !! THAT is when they are worth every point you spent on them.
2 up is the reverse of this with 2 sections out front, the platoon HQ behind the centre of these, and one section behind the platoon HQ as the reserve. This formation is the normal assault formation used to fight through an enemy position, more firepower to the front, but the platoon HQ and rear section available as reserves. In the actual formal assault, as opposed to more open battle, the platoon frontage would be 100 metres or so (2 hexes) but the platoon HQ would hang back 100 to 200 (2 to 4 hexes) metres from the front sections, the reserve section a similar distance behind the platoon HQ section. Platoons are put together under the command of a company. This is an HQ unit (which is itself a platoon formation in game terms, but which cannot be cross attached), and the company commander, if in contact with platoon units, can also rally these if required. Organising yourself in companies, rather than buying lots of individual platoons, is therefore a good thing. Now that MBT allows you to cross attach platoons in the deployment turn, you should utilise this to assign a reasonable company structure, lots of independent platoons under the A0 will have problems if many of them need rallying, as they have no company commander to provide rally before calling on A0. Again, UK companies of 3 platoons tended to advance in a triangular formation of platoons '1 up' if advancing to contact, 2 up if fighting through a position. Distance between rifle platoons could be 300 to 500 metres (6 to 10 hexes). Company HQ again central to the triangle, any support weapons attached would be deployed as required where their weapons would give the best cover. Tank squadrons (companies in USA terms) would tend to have more troops (platoons in USA) and these tended to operate paired up, A troop would hold still to cover B troop advancing, then A troop would 'bound' through (or by) B troop's new position while B troop returned the favour by halting and providing covering fire (if required) but at least 'overwatch' (reaction fires in SP terms). Tank squadrons would therefore advance as a parallel set of moving paired troops, any spare troop(s) and the Squadron HQ following behind, at a distance close enough to provide support, but not get involved in the initial firefight when the front troops bounced the enemy. Rifle sections in a rifle platoon would bound forward covered by the rest of the platoon at the halt as well. This is what the military call 'fire and movement', where one (or more) stationary subunit covers the movement of another subunit, either by being ready to fire, or in an engagement, by actual fire. If the formation adds something a bit more 'fancy' to this mix, like using the fire and movement together to aid the placement of an assault (or flanking fire) sub unit off to an enemy flank, you then have 'fire and manoeuvre', where the fire and movement is used to gain some form of positional advantage (usually to the flank and or rear) of the enemy, rather than merely closing straight at him. Back to game detail, still on command and control here. Your commander must be in a fit state to rally subordinates, if he is retreating or worse, then he has no command influence, so you may need to rally him first! Also, before you do rally subordinates, check the commander's status, as if he fails a rally on a subordinate, that is all his rally chances gone for this turn, it can be embarrassing to have rallied all your men back to 'ready' status, and be about to move forwards to find the platoon (or company!) commander is 'pinned' because you forgot to rally him a little in the process. Do not just select units and hit the 'R' key is the motto really, look at all the subunits of a formation, and their current state and plan your rallying. Also note that rallying comes from the top down, hitting the R key on a squad will use the Company Commander's rally attempts then the Platoon Commander's before trying the squad sergeant's. This may not be what you wanted, again, think a bit before poking that R key. When a unit fails to rally itself or its subordinate, its rally chance statistic is set to 0 until next turn, this confused some end users who thought the unit was a hopeless rally case, no, zero just means that it has failed a rally attempt, and so cannot rally again this turn. The number returns at the beginning of the next move. The A0 unit represents you, it is the Battle Group Commander. A0 can rally any subordinates in the chain of command if in contact, just like a company commander. You may therefore want to keep your HQ close to the main action, without exposing him to too much danger to add heart to the key part of the fight. If you buy too many independent platoon sized units, apart from their own platoon HQ units, then A0 will be the only source of rally (if in contact), and will soon run out of rallies, another good reason to buy companies as these have the company commander in the chain of command (and usually nearby) to provide rally opportunities. Marry up most independent platoons under any company commanders you have by cross attachment in the deployment turn, or AO will run out of rally fast. I mentioned fire and movement up above, and the fact that the cover unit would be at the halt. In WW2, with primitive fire control equipment compared to today and no real stabilisation systems that were any benefit to moving tanks, firing from a halt as almost a necessity if you wanted to hit your target ( unless the gunner was very, VERY good. Balthazar 'Bobby' Woll, who was Michael Wittmanns gunner, could do this). Even with modern stabilisers firer movement severely penalises chances to hit, if you move too far. If you want to hit, especially at long ranges (over 1500 to 2000 metres, 30 to 40 hexes) then you should fire from the short halt (having moved the move before, not this one), and if you really want to hit, fire from the full halt (having been stationary the entire previous move as well as being stationary in the current move). In WinSPWW2, you are considered fully stationary only if you neither moved this turn, nor the previous game turn (in technical terms, if you expend >= half your MP in a previous turn, a 'moving fast' flag is set, you need to spend a complete turn not having expended half or more MP to reset this flag). Movement will also break any fire control solution you have made on the target ('target lock') unless you have a tank with a stabiliser, which can move whilst keeping target lock, so long as the LOS between the firer and the previously engaged target is not broken. Charging to point blank range (1 hex or 0 hexes) can help, but do not expect some sort of 'gun to the head' shot, your chance will be better, but you will have movement deductions, and if the target tank itself was moving fast then the speed of his travel is taken account as well (even if the target appears to you to be 'in the same hex' for your entire move, if he was trundling along at 30 MPH at the end of his turn, he is still considered to be doing 30 MPH. If you closed on him at 20 MPH, then the speed difference calculates at 50 MPH, a fast passing shot even if at 'point blank'). Also, since movement takes fire opportunities (and vice versa), you could end up with but 1 or 2 shots at close range and end up stranded with no MP left, and your opponent can repeat the medicine on your tank. However, if no enemy is expected, then you can operate a 'travelling overwatch' where the 2 units merely move relatively slowly, thus leaving some shots for opportunity fire if the enemy reveals himself. Leave full speed (half or more MP expended) travel for when out of contact with the enemy, as it severely reduces shots, and accuracy too and makes infantry more vulnerable to shell or direct fires. In combat, everybody slows down and becomes more cautious about movement. This is especially true for your infantry, for,unlike vehicles, infantry travelling fast are more vulnerable than those at the halt (who are considered most protected, by taking use of the available cover, and going prone), or at least travelling prudently (1 hex or less). When needing to advance infantry under fire, or you expect at any point that hidden enemy will likely open up, do not move over 1 hex if you can possibly avoid this. Do not run around with your infantry at full speed when being indirectly shelled either, fast moving infantry is more vulnerable to HE fires. Slow down to 1 hex in shelling, if you must move at all. Moving 1 hex covers both a short quick dash, or a cautious creep, in game terms. In especial, note that troops who have just dismounted from a transport are considered to be bunched up, and moving fast, especially if the transport has moved a lot. An enemy burst which hits a squad dismounting in a hurry will tend to do a lot of damage, so it is best to dismount in a covered location from fire, and close in on foot with the APC providing close cover. Only do a charge and dismount into an area you can guarantee (as much as anyone can in warfare, brown stuff happens, in combat more so than in any other aspect of life) that there is no real enemy resistance! If your APC has smoke dischargers, consider using these before dismounting. If you need to advance infantry under enemy fire, to close or to retire or whatever, then you should first use (hopefully) stationary squads (or better yet AFV in close support) to fire covering fire at all known enemy infantry and MG, in the hopes you will shut these down, before you move the squad. Even if you do not pin the enemy or worse, the added suppression all makes it more difficult for him to hit the squad(s) you later intend to move. Use the Z key to fire suppressive fires into hexes you suspect have unlocated enemy infantry in them, if you have shots to spare (it is not very effective). If you have MMG or HMG, then when advancing, wait till these are set up and ready, and try to keep them outside rifle range whilst using them to hose down any located enemy (or leave with some unexpended shots for opportunity fires on enemy firing in their turn). Infantry do better at close quarters combat, 1 hex or hand grenade range, but the problem is getting them there when advancing, especially if the enemy infantry is dug in. Simply walking up to an enemy defence line tends not to work that well, as WW1 proved. To advance against an enemy line, you must gain fire superiority over him, 'winning the firefight', or use a small force to pin him while some others approach by an indirect route round a covered flank, say. Or use smoke as a form of human made cover. If your opponent is a human, surprising him can be very good as it can demoralise him (your human opponent), the AI is not subject to emotions. (Human players can be fooled too, try dropping smoke and artillery on a spot you do NOT intend to attack a human opponent at, and maybe a 'feint' probe to back the deception up, then once he is focused on the wrong location, come in from elsewhere with the main strength). The British army uses a rule of 3 when it considers what can advance on what, if all is equal (in other words before you throw in massive doses of supporting artillery, and factor in a supporting platoon of MBT, say). Thus a single enemy section (squad) is what a rifle platoon of 3 sections is expected to be able to take out, an enemy platoon therefore requires a company to remove, and an enemy company defending is a battalion level target. So, to advance against 1 defending enemy squad, you will need roughly 3 of yours in the firing line pumping away at it (if this is a pure rifles versus rifles battle, 1 supporting tank in the mix, if the enemy has no effective AT helps the attack marvellously, this is what tanks are for in reality). However, assuming no support or little, form a firing line at about 400 metres (8 hexes) and start shooting, and inch 1 squad one or two hexes forwards at a time as the enemy allows, and repeat till the firing line has advanced 1 hex. Repeat this process until you have closed with the enemy squad and then assault it, or it runs away, or your troops all get pinned down if the enemy had a good battle and not you. If the enemy is isolated, perhaps fire on him with the base firing line whilst moving one section round his flank if there is cover to eventually close assault him with bayonet and grenades. With an enemy platoon in the defence, you will need a rifle company. Consider a tank troop (platoon) about half a rifle company if it is acting in close support and there is no enemy AT defence, but only if the tanks keep their distance from the enemy, or they may get brewed up. In this case, dismounted infantry support is a must for your armour, and you should try not to approach your tanks or APC within about 4 hexes (200 metres) of healthy unsupressed enemy riflemen equipped with AT launchers if you want to keep them healthy In real life, for a platoon to eject 1 enemy squad from its position can be expected to take 20 to 30 minutes (10 to 15 turns), and an hour if it does not go too well. In WinSPWW2, this will not take quite as long. It's important to remember that the main thing an APC brings to the infantry is increased mobility, and some protection against bullets and shell splinters. APC are not tanks, and if hit by serious AT weapons they will brew up and the passengers will be roasted. APC should try to advance via covered routes as much as possible, and if used for fire support, keep beyond effective enemy infantry hand held AT weapon ranges if possible (>5 hexes). APC are very useful in the defence if you use shoot and scoot tactics, firing on the advancing enemy and then breaking the contact and motoring off to a new position further back. When defending or delaying, if your infantry have APC mobility then consider advancing into no-mans land in the initial phase of the battle and setting up ambushes there, if the terrain and/or visibility permits, then using delaying fall back tactics to win time, after all, time is the key thing in defending, try to slow the attacker down as far away from the objectives as possible. When attacking, use this mobility to avoid and bypass the defence as much as possible, try to get into the enemy rear and then fight your battle as a defence of the objectives you have now taken. "There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time. ", Napoleon. "Go Sir, gallop and don’t forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything but not time.", Napoleon. "Time is everything. Five minutes makes the difference between victory and defeat.", Nelson. Tanks should take out enemy MG positions and bunkers first if they can. This is of course what the tank was invented for in the first world war, and it is the same in AD2000. The tank's part of the job is firstly to neutralise the infantry killing weapons, while staying clear of the AT guns. The infantry side of the bargain is to neutralise the AT weapons like the Panzerfaust and the Bazooka. They also provide close cover for the tanks against infantry assaults. In close country, infantry should move first, and keep a hex in front of the close support tanks. Use artillery to plaster all suspected enemy long range AT weapon firing areas, or place smoke between these and your troops. Tanks tend to attract fire. If you ever see pictures of infantry huddling close behind an AFV for its cover, then these are likely to be inexperienced troops (or conversely the experienced sort who know exactly when a tank is useful to use as cover, and exactly when to not go too close to the thing!). On the battlefield, tanks are very visible things, and everyone pops off at them. They also tend to draw indirect fires, which is a very good reason for supporting infantry not to bunch up close to the things. In SP terms, 'collateral damage' gets handed out to units in the same hex as a target, both extra suppression, and also casualties. It is therefore not a good idea for a squad to try to cohabit the same hex as another unit, especially an AFV. It is also not a good idea to stack squads on top of each other either. If a miss occurs, then there can be a near miss situation where the weapon 'sparkler' goes off in an adjacent hex to the intended target, and this causes collateral damage to any squad in that hex. Collateral damage is mostly on soft targets like trucks and squads, but the occasional hit may button up an AFV not directly targeted. Pure tank units can do reasonably well in wide open desert or plains country, especially if enemy infantry obliges by moving around so they can be more easily spotted. However, tanks charging around where the infantry is waiting for them will tend to suffer, even a squad with hand grenades can manage to get on top of a tank and drop some where it hurts! Infantry with Panzerfaust ttype AT weapons can mince pure armoured units up for breakfast, especially in close terrain like cities and woods.The infantry will eventually break tank treads or shoot into weak spots, like into the top armour. Even if you are a 'tankie' you will need some infantry about to help you out in the close stuff, and to help find infantry ambushes. A tank with an infantry squad spots better with the extra eyes provided by the riders, and if it does blunder into an ambush then the riders may be able to defuse the close assault, by acting as a form of 'reactive armour', but usually at a severe price to the riders, who are an easy target bunched together on top of an AFV. Any hit on the AFV, especially an artillery or aircraft strafing attack, is very unhealthy for the infantry dangling off it. Infantry are only given protection by proper APC type classes of vehicle, riding a tank or SP gun, they are outside waiting to be turned into 'people pate' by any stray HE round or MG burst. Infantry is your main arm of decision, and artillery is the second. Armour is just self propelled close support or AT artillery, after all. Your tanks are there primarily to help the infantry take and hold their objectives, by removing any enemy armoured threat, then beating up the infantry killing weapons with main gun HE and MG fires. A tank with no main gun HE is an extremely limited item, as the British found out in the Second World War with no HE ammo issued for their earlier vehicles. This is especially the case if the enemy in question does not oblige by bringing armoured vehicles along to the party, and relies mainly on light infantry. Armour however comes into its own as a weapon of exploitation. Tanks real targets are the soft and juicy rear echelon troops found deep in the rear of the enemy lines, after the armour has exploited a breach in the enemy defence to run riot as much as possible. Again, these tend to be soft targets, so any MBT with no HE round is limited use, though HEAT and AP can kill soft vehicles. If your opponent allows you to loop an armoured force round his flank then you should utilise that opportunity to overrun his artillery lines, destroy his ammo dumps and trucks etc, before attacking into the objectives from the rear. Mobility is a prime asset of armour, just like the horsed cavalry of olden days. Stationary horsed cavalry was useless cavalry, and in modern era, stationary tanks will tend to find themselves plastered by the enemy artillery, which in the later part of the era will have armour piercing bomblet type rounds as well. If your enemy operates tanks which are significantly better than yours in the tank killing area then you should not plan to fight his tanks head to head with yours. Use other means, such as dropping large quantities of indirect fire on his armoured formations, both to get some effect on his tanks, but mainly to drive away the important pieces, his supporting infantry. Once his infantry has been separated from his tanks, they become vulnerable to close infantry assault from yours.. Cover him with smoke and close with engineers or AT equipped infantry, even squads with no decent AT capability can make tanks unhappy (retreat) with unsuccessful close assaults. Meanwhile your lesser armour can utilise the indirect approach, most tanks have weak side armour, so manoeuvre or tempt him into defensive 'fire sacks' where you can engage him in the flank or rear, preferably at close quarters. . If your infantry assaults cause enemy tanks to flee, you will often find this opens his rear arcs to parting shots from your overwatching armour. If all else fails, pour lots of non penetrating shots onto him, this can cause his tank to run away, and if you get a disabling track hit, a crew with bad morale will often bail out when the tracks are shot away. When planning a breakthrough assault, the Soviets use one gun tube per metre of frontage as their 'norm' for an effective level of artillery neutralisation of the enemy defences, and this would be over a front of 4 to 10 kilometres. That is 50 howitzers or mortars per WinSPWW2 hex! However, these 50 tubes would not all fire on the one target hex, as there would be a mix of fire blows on enemy positions and suspected positions or forming up areas, as well as a barrage on the front itself. The British would consider a defending enemy rifle platoon a battery level target, that is 2 troops (platoons), and would plan on at least 5 minutes, but more like 10 of fire before considering the target neutralised. Therefore, assuming the platoon is all inside the artillery battery's fire zone (say a 200 metre circle, 4 or 5 hexes) plan on one battery of 6 to 8 guns, firing for effect (ie on target!) for 3 to 6 turns or so to neutralise (not destroy, just neutralise, reduce in combat efficiency by 50-75%) the enemy before sending the infantry in to sweep the mess up. Of course, the assaulting infantry has to be able to get in within a move or so, so needs to be close to the falling shells. In war, safety distances are less than in peacetime, be prepared to take some 'friendly fire'. Naturally, mechanised infantry or tank riders can attack from further out, but will suffer if not all the enemy in the target area are neutralised (in game terms, pinned or worse). If the enemy is dug in, budget in a factor of 3, either 3 times as many guns (i.e. a British Artillery Regiment (battalion to other armies) of 3 batteries), or 3 times the time of fire preparation for the same result. In other words, where artillery is concerned, quantity is what counts. Artillery is a brutal, club like weapon, and if you have it, lay it on thick if you want a useful effect. Dropping one SP howitzer on one spot and another on another spot 300 yards away, and so on, through an entire Sexton troop of 4, is only going to provide harassing levels of fire. If the target is worth shooting at, drop all 4 Sexton's on the same target hex. Mortar sections of 2 or 3 tubes are not therefore killing weapons, but can be useful especially if the fire is observed, to pin an individual squad, or annoy enemy AT teams. In WinSPWW2, observed fire will drift less off target, Observed means the directing officer can see the impact hex, so try to have observers in the correct position to overwatch the fall of shot. Observer teams and FO vehicles also have shorter artillery delays when calling for fires, and their high skill in artillery means the scatter will be less than an armoured platoon commander would when controlling the fire.
NEW for WinSPWW2 and WinSPMBT is an improvement to the AI. It has been given the ability to target "events" exactly the same way as a human player has been able to. For example, when Barbed Wire or mines or Dragons teeth are cleared by the enemy the human player will be warned with a message telling him this has happened. In the past, the Human player could target artillery at those hexes to disrupt the AI's attempts to dismantle them. Now the AI can target it's artillery when YOU do this as well. Another example is infantry popping smoke. If you were playing the AI in the past and forced him to pop smoke you could then target that area with mortars or artillery knowing there were units in that area. Now the AI will as well. This applies to any smoke signature . In the past if the AI fired a on map howitzer at you the smoke trace from firing was visible after a few shots and you could target artillery on it's location. Now the AI will as well. This evens the playing field a bit more when playing the AI. If you can see it, the AI can now as well
"The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.", Winston Churchill: The Gathering storm, 1948. Just remember that planes are flying artillery, quantity is a big factor here as with tube artillery. Having a flight of 2 planes will not tend to tip the balance much, but 12 flights can be dangerous, especially if you bring them in in large wave style attacks to reduce AAA factors, do not use planes in penny packets except to annoy another human player, or to gain recon information from the pass. Aircraft with cluster bomblet ammunition can be extremely devastating, provided you select the right sort of bunched up group target. Hold these in reserve till you identify a bunched target array, try not to waste them on individual targets surrounded by open space. All air strikes increase in lethality with little or no credible enemy AA weapons. Use scout planes to nose around the battlefield and on map ground recce units to try to spot the enemy air defence locations. The best anti AA weapon is a tank overrunning its position, just like the best AA weapon is a tank parked on the enemy runway!. Consider holding back your fixed wing air in a game till later on , when ground troops and artillery have reduced the AA threat for your air force. If the enemy is weak in AA defences, you may have a field day with your planes. "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.", Sun Tzu "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.", George S. Patton, Jr. Your most effective weapon is always your battle plan. Any player with no plan, who just dumps things on the board and pushes them about is merely reacting to events, see what Sun Tzu had to say about that several thousand years BC in the quotation above!. A player who has a plan can impose his shaping of the battle onto anyone without one. You require a plan, even a simple one like 'I will go around the left flank, then down the objective line', or you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage even against the AI, which does have a rudimentary plan of its own. "Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.", Sun Tzu Attempting to ascertain the enemy's strategy, and then foiling this is a primary way to win especially against the human opponent, the AI has a very simplistic 'plan' if it can so be labeled at all !. A few units running loose in the human enemy's rear zones can cause severe distraction, with this perhaps dislocating some or all of his strategy, should he not have prepared a reserve for such an eventuality. Doing the unexpected to human players can put them in 'shock' which you can then exploit. A good ambush deployed forwards in 'no mans land' ahead of your front line in turns 1 or 2 when delaying or defending is good for this as many human opponents will consider that area 'free passage' and charge along at full speed in it. "Passivity is fatal to us. Our goal is to make the enemy passive.", Mao Tse-Tung Against a human player especially, try to impose your plan onto his, in order to make him reactive to your actions, in other words you get inside his "Decision Cycle". Being reactive instead of active is not good, the AI is a good example of a mainly reactive player. However players who defend by simply sitting dumbly in place and not manoeuvring will become passive even to the AI, which will start to gain advantage from this, by bypassing your positions, and ranging its artillery in onto your immobile forces. Always keep a reserve of about 1/4 to 1/3 of your force held back and uncommitted, hopefully a reserve of mobile hard hitting stuff, this is a good tasking for tanks, especially fast 'cavalry' tanks like the Soviet ones. Use the reserve to exploit any gap your front line forces create, as a counter stroke to any unforeseen enemy action, to counter attack, or to flank around the main battle and come in from an undefended direction. Try not to commit the reserve too early in the battle, wait till the enemy is fully engaged and cannot easily move to counter it. If you do use the reserve, try to pull another formation back to create a new one. Against human opponents, invest in some cheap dismounted rifle units to provide security by guarding your rear area artillery and AA units from enemy para props, or fast forces running loose after outflanking your troops. "The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.", Sun Tzu Above all, never fall into the trap of under-rating the enemy in your mind, even the lowly AI can pull an occasional rabbit out of the hat. A human opponent may deliberately be playing dumb at game start, in order to lull you into a sense of superiority that he intends to take advantage of later. A human PBEM opponent is quite capable of playing a few battles against you in 'dumb' mode, simply in order to learn your style, without giving his own away. When playing in a competitive league or ladder, consider registering as a second 'persona' and playing this one as a 'newbie' against regular league players before the next ladder starts. Play at that level, to learn their styles, rather than to win. Use that knowledge when the league or ladder is started. Unfair?, recall Sun Tzu says that all war is based on deception. One person I knew playing SPWW2 PBEM would rename say his Nashorns as 'Tiger 2' as these both had 88 L71 guns, so when firing from a hidden location and still unspotted, false ID was given to his opponent!. "Despise the enemy strategically, but take him seriously tactically.", Mao Tse-Tung "Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.", Sun Tzu.
Beginner advice from Andy for players in a German campaign facing the Poles for the first time Polish sections are 19 men, ie twice the German section size. So they will hit harder, when they connect - especially as range declines under 500m. However, the disadvantage to large infantry lumps is that you suppress 19 men at the one time, and they disperse at higher numbers. 19 man lumps are ideal mortar and MMG fodder... 1) Don't take them on with just riflemen alone if you can help it. If you do, then you will need to reckon on 2 German sections per Polish one to even things up. 2) You are probably doing the newbie thing of selecting one element and repeatedly firing it, and at the one target. - Move from element to element and fire each one the once, at a different enemy target element. Thus any return fire has to swap targets, and so does not climb the fire control ladder - if you keep firing the same element, the enemy will range in quickly. - Newbies probably try to kill, but suppression works best. Try to get all the visible enemy elements suppressed or worse first. That overloads the enemy rally ability whereas simply concentrating on the one target means he only has the one to rally. - Once they have all been set into pinned or retreat status, then you can try for a few kills. Dont try to eliminate elements as it is best to reduce as many to 50% as possible first. Damaged sections have less shots, especially for the LMG and other heavier weapons, and are more difficult to rally. - As you keep them pinned, and get several elements reduced to 50% or so then they will start to break and run eventually. - Dont do "rallyitis". Your german sections can carry 5 or so S points with maybe only a loss of a shot. Reserve your rallies for any critical elements, e.g. one that received a kill and went to 20 S points and retreat status, say. (Newbies seem to have to try to waste rally opportunities on troops that really don't need it.) 3) As a German, do not take the Polish on at 50M range ambush in woods, without first stacking 2 German sections (or at least add a panzerknacker or scout to the section). That will even the odds up a bit, and provide 2 slaps to the advancing Polish lump(s). If the Poles get to 50M and fire back, 19 men blocks really do tear a chunk out of their enemy. But the main rules for a fire-fight really are: - When you spot a lump of enemy soft elements, call in your arty. Arty is the killer weapon on softies. - Use your company MMG to suppress them (MMG have a blast sircle effect). Dont ever get your MMG teams within rifle range (500m). - Always have your point men covered by the MMG teams. They are slow, so consider a light truck to shift them about. - Use the blast effect of the MMG - target those portions of the advancing horde that you will cover several elements with the one blast circle. Play the MMG over the horde like a fire hose, as you want to suppress loads of elements rather than concentrating on murdering just the one team. Your ideal MMG target is the clump of 3-4 elements especially those in a stack. - If you think enemy infantry will be coming at point X, then pre-plot your company mortars thereabouts. Don't wait for them to announce their arrival. - Always have a section of 2/3 medium mortars assigned to each rifle coy, and only use these as dedicated support for that particular company's fire fights and advances. - If you have tanks, or even a tin can armoured car with 1 MG, then wheel them up and use like HMG if the enemy infantry has no anti-tank support. A section of 2 panzer 1 working with each rifle coy in Poland and France as an anti-grunt fire department is good practice, just hide if there are any baddie tanks about till the P3s deal with them. - Germans have access to heavy infantry with several direct fire 50mm mortars. These are rather useful against enemy lumps of infantry, if stacked. - Use the riflemen to sweep up any remaining stragglers from the support weapons firing. But otherwise, I usually leave unfired so they have plenty of opportunity fire shots for use in the enemy phase. I usually only use self-fired rifle shots once the enemy infantry have been reduced to a running mob, or at least a cowering mass of 50% damaged elements. Don't fight "fair" in other words...
CLICK HERE To read a letter from a British platoon commander in North Africa where he discusses German and British tactics ( From the Intelligence Bulletin, August 1943 ) and A report on Soviet armor tactics in the Battle of Berlin based on an article in the Red Army publication "Red Star", (from the Intelligence Bulletin, June 1946)
Various Military Quotations "It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations", Winston Churchill: My Early Life (1930) ch. 9. "Engines of war have long since reached their limits, and I see no further hope of any improvement in the art.", Frontinus, 90 AD "Goddam it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me" -- Henry P. Crowe "The principles of war, not merely one principle, can be condensed into a single word--`concentration.' But for truth this needs to be amplified as the `concentration of strength against weakness.'. . . Here we have a fundamental principle whose understanding may prevent the fundamental error (and the most common)--that of giving your opponent freedom and time to concentrate to meet your concentration.", Liddell Hart - The British Way in Warfare (1932) "Choose the line (or course) of least expectation. Exploit the line of least resistance. Take a line of operations which offers alternative objectives. Ensure that both plan and dispositions are elastic, or adaptable. Don't lunge whilst your opponent can parry. Don't renew an attack along the same line (or in the same form) after it has once failed.", Liddell Hart's maxims "It is right to be taught, even by an enemy.", Ovid "Adherence to dogmas has destroyed more armies and cost more battles than anything in war.", J. F. C. Fuller "Every art has its rules and maxims. One must study them: theory facilitates practice. The lifetime of one man is not long enough to enable him to acquire perfect knowledge and experience. Theory helps to supplement it; it provides a youth with premature experience and makes him skilful also through the mistakes of others. In the profession of war the rules of the art are never violated without drawing punishment from the enemy, who is delighted to find us at fault.", Frederick the Great "Man is the fundamental instrument in war; other instruments may change, but he remains relatively constant. . . . In spite of the advances in technology, the worth of the individual man is still decisive. The open order of combat accentuates his importance.", US Army Field Manual 100-5 "Man is the fundamental instrument in battle. Nothing can wisely be prescribed for an army . . . without exact knowledge of the fundamental instrument, man and his state of mind, his morale, at the instant of combat.", Ardant du Picq “The human heart in the supreme moment of battle is the basic factor ”, Ardant du Picq "They fail to consider as a factor in the problem, man confronted by danger. Facts are incredibly different from all theories.", Ardant du Picq "War is not an affair of chance. A great deal of knowledge, study, and meditation is necessary to conduct it well.", Frederick the Great "The difference between the professional and the conscript-based army is that the former half-train their officers and then give them to a highly-trained sergeant to finish off officer training. The latter, lacking in long-service sergeants, train their officers to the point where they can train the sergeants.", N°113, August 1996, p.94. British Army Review "No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and in the long run no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.", Robert Heinlein "The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.", Stonewall Jackson "It is impossible for Westerners to understand the force of the people’s will to resist, and to continue to resist. The struggle of the people exceeds the imagination. It has astonished us too.", Pham Van Dong "Men are seldom born brave but they acquire courage through training and discipline, a handful of men inured to war proceed to certain victory; while on the contrary numerous armies of raw and undisciplined troops are but multitudes of men dragged to the slaughter.", Vegetius (3rd c. AD) "No plan survives contact with the enemy.", Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke. "[Blitzkrieg is] The art of concentrating strength at one point, forcing a breakthrough, rolling up and securing the flanks on either side, and then penetrating like lightning deep into his rear, before the enemy has time to react.", Erwin Rommel "Tanks are easily identified, easily engaged, much-feared targets which attract all the fire on the battlefield. When all is said and done, a tank is a small steel box crammed with inflammable or explosive substances which is easily converted into a mobile crematorium for its highly skilled crew.", Brigadier Shelford Bidwell "All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are.", Carl von Clausewitz. "Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war.", Carl von Clausewitz. "The difficulty of accurate recognition constitutes one of the most serious sources of friction in war... War has a way of masking the stage with scenery crudely daubed with fearsome apparitions.", Carl von Clausewitz. "The military machine--the army and everything related to it-- is basically very simple and therefore seems easy to manage. But we should bear in mind that none of its components is of one piece: each piece is composed of individuals, every one of whom retains his potential of friction. ... A battalion is made up of individuals, the least important of whom may chance to delay things or somehow make them go wrong.", Carl von Clausewitz. "Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.", Carl von Clausewitz. "It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.", Carl von Clausewitz. “The art of war consists, with a numerically inferior army, in always having larger forces than the enemy at the point which is to be attacked or defended. But this art can be learned neither from books nor from practice: it is an intuitive way of acting which properly constitutes the genius of war.”, Napoleon "Intuition is often crucial in combat, and survivors learn not to ignore it.", Col F.F. Parry, USMC (Ret.) "Intuitive decision-making and mastering this profession are one in the same.", Lt. General Van Riper, USMC. "The enemy resembles us. Therefore, he needs to be approached not as an assembly of 'targets' to be destroyed one by one; but as a living, intelligent entity capable of acting and reacting.", Martin Van Creveld "The inevitable never happens. It is the unexpected, always.", Lord Keynes "Nine-tenths of tactics are certain and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pond and that is the test of generals. It can only be ensured by instinct, sharpened by thought practising the stroke so often at the crisis it is as natural as a reflex.", T.E. Lawrence: The Science of Guerrilla Warfare. "No matter how enmeshed a commander becomes in the elaboration of his own thoughts, it is sometimes necessary to take the enemy into account.", Winston Churchill "When the enemy advances, withdraw; when he stops, harass; when he tires, strike; when he retreats, pursue.", Mao Tse-Tung "Hit hard, hit first, hit often.", Admiral Halsey "If your bayonet breaks, strike with the stock. If the stock gives way, hit him with your fists. If your fists are hurt, bite him with your teeth", General Mikhail I. Dragomirov "New weapons require new tactics. Never put new wine into old bottles.", Guderian "Whether in attacking, counterattacking, or defensive tactics, the idea of attacking should remain central, to always keep the initiative.", Nguyen Giap "In all honesty, we didn’t achieve our main objective. As for making an impact on the United States, it had not been our intention-- but it turned out to be a fortunate result.", (General Tran Do, on the 1968 Tet Offensive) "A piece of paper makes you an officer, a radio makes you a commander.", General Omar Bradley "The common soldier's blood makes the general great." - Italian Proverb "It takes 15,000 casualties to train a major general." - Marshall Ferdinand Foch "The terms leadership and command are often used as interchangeably, which does disservice to the understanding of each concept. Command is a functional process and, therefore, unemotional, calculating and analytical. Leadership on the other hand, is a lot like love, because it deals with personal relationships, and these must be lived to be developed. Command is not an art or personal style, but a military science and process, a synergistic and cerebral application of equipment, tactics, weapons and men to achieve a defined military aim. Leadership, on the other hand, could be expressed as visibility and contact. A platoon commander is 95% leadership and 5% commander; he should really be called a platoon leader. A company commander is still highly visible and in direct man-contact, but he also has command tasks such as organising fire support, co-operating with tanks, controlling logistics, reporting to higher headquarters, etc. Let's say he is 50% leader and 50% commander. A battalion commander has restricted opportunity for direct leadership of men, but he is certainly a visible authority. Let's say he is 20% leader and 80% commander. Above this level, leadership is less than 5%.", Major-General N.G. Wilson-Smith, PPCLI (paraphrased) "Ubi concordia, ibi victoria" [Where is the unity, there is the victory.], Roman proverb "Never lose contact with the enemy! An objective, at junior combat level is usually a geographic feature that tactically is advantageous to own. In attack, when captured, it is not a resting place for tired, frightened soldiers. It is a base from which to exploit the success of the assault. By continuing movement toward the enemy, he is compelled to disclose his reserve defensive position and the pattern of his defensive fire. Such knowledge is essential to higher commanders if your initial success is to exploited. If contact with the enemy is not maintained, a program of patrolling to find him must be developed and a long drawn-out and costly process that is. It was most apparent in Korea where "bug-outs" rather than "planned withdrawals" were the order of the day.", Colonel J.R. Stone, DSO and Bar, MC, CO of The Loyal Edmonton Regiment in World War II and CO of 2 PPCLI at Kapyong "Never lead forth a soldier to a general engagement except when you see that he expects victory.", Vegetius MESSAGE FROM THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TO THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE IN LONDON,- written from Central Spain, August 1812 "Gentlemen, Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying with your requests which have been sent by H.M. ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our headquarters. We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty's Government holds me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit, and spleen of every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted for, with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence. Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion's petty cash and there has been a hideous confusion as to the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, since we are at war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall. This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty's Government so that I may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one with the best of my ability, but I cannot do both: 1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or perchance, 2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain. Your most obedient servant Wellington" "A risk is a chance you take; if it fails you can recover. A gamble is a chance taken; if it fails, recovery is impossible.", Field Marshall Erwin Rommel "He, general or mere captain, who employs every one in the storming of a position can be sure of seeing it retaken by an organised counterattack of four men and a corporal.", Colonel Ardant du Picq "Gentlemen, you may be sure that of the three courses open to the enemy, he will always choose the fourth.", Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke to his staff "Never interrupt the enemy when he is doing something wrong.", Erwin Rommel "All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time" -- Lieutenant General Lewis B."Chesty" Puller (when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions) "What difference does it make if you have two tanks to my one, when you spread them out and let me smash them in detail?", Erwin Rommel, to a captured British officer in Libya, November 1941 "When the situation is obscure, attack.", Guderian "Only study of the past can give us a sense of reality, and show us how the soldier will fight in the future", Ardant du Picq 1870. "The study of history lies at the foundation of all sound military conclusions and practice", Alfred Thayer Mahan 1914. "Theoretical knowledge is of no use if it is not supplemented by positive practice. You must train yourself to select terrain and make dispositions; you must reflect on this subject; and then theory, reduced to practice, makes all of these operations skilful and easy.”, Frederick "The important thing is to see the opportunity and to know how to use it.”, de Saxe "If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there." - Marshal Georgi Zhukov "Tactics, the evolutions, the science of the engineer and the artillerist can be learned in treatises much like geometry, but the knowledge of the higher spheres of war is only acquired through the study of the wars and battles of the Great Captains and by experience. It has no precise, fixed rules. Everything depends on the character that nature has given to the general, on his qualities, on his faults, on the nature of the troops, on the range of weapons, on the season and on a thousand circumstances which are never the same.", Napoleon "History is a catalogue of mistakes. It is our duty to profit by them.", Liddell Hart "The purpose of history, is to learn how human beings react when exposed to the danger of wounds or death, and how high ranking individuals react when submitted to the onerous responsibility of conducting war or the preparations for war. The acquisition of knowledge concerning the dates or places on which certain events transpired is immaterial . ", Patton "History is a fable commonly agreed upon.", Napoleon. "To learn that Napoleon in 1796 and 20,000 men beat combined forces of 30,000 by something called `economy of force' or `operating on interior lines' is a mere waste of time. If you ca n understand how a young, unknown man inspired a half-starved, ragged, rather Bolshie crowd; how he filled their bellies, how he out-marched, out-witted, out-bluffed, and defeated men who had studied war all their lives and waged it according to the text books of the time, you will have learnt something worth knowing.", Field Marshal Earl Wavell "For heaven's sake don't treat the so-called principles of war as holy writ, like the Ten Commandments, to be learned by heart, and as having by their repetition some magic, like the incantations of savage priests. They are merely a set of common sense maxims, like `cut your coat according to your cloth.' `a rolling stone gathers no moss,' `honesty is the best policy,' and so forth.", Field Marshal Earl Wavell "Ut visum, quo diligentius assuefacti sumus, eo manus modo ordinata nunc est reordinanda. Senior cum essem censui nos rebus mutatis semper reordinandos. Atque mirabile visu est tantis processibus effectis secutum nihil iusti ac bene morati exercitus et cum perturbatione irrita." [We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.] Attr Petronius Arbiter, 210 B.C. Next Page Previous Page Top