[Mobhack]

Of COURSE the AI buys infantry, since it will not have the points left over to buy any MBT. AI tank heavy just means it will buy more tanks if it has the buy points to do so and in the buy loop point when it can buy armour, and infantry generally by the platoon, where it would normally buy a company. It does not mean "only buy tanks". So, in the later years, you will only get huge fleets of clockwork mice when the AI have huge buy points levels.

Recce vehicles don't spot things by simply charging round the battlefield. The faster you move, the easier you are seen after all. Only use speed where you are in known defilade - e.g. behind a hill or wood. Stop for a move before popping ONE hex to the wood front or onto the hill top to look. Then pop back in cover - esp if you received fire. Remember that a vehicle with infantry on board spots better than a "bare" armoured car - esp against infantry. A BRDM plus mounted scouts is better than one without. And even better - dismount your scouts in the previous example, and let them move to the edge of the cover to makee-looksee.

If you expect your infantry to receive fire - then try to keep movement to 1 or 2 hexes, max. That includes any mounted movement - a scout team that dismounts from a BRDM having zoomed up a road for 22 hexes and is in LOS of an ambusher is in a very bad situation!. If you need to zoom mech inf, then remain halted in a dismount position out of enemy LOS, and dismount next turn from the halted vehicles if at all possible. Charge-and-dismount will only work on a completely neutralised enemy.

Infantry are not hard to deal with, in any case. Invest in a few mortars in your core at the very least, and an FOO to call in quicker fires. Invest in a platoon of BMP or BTR infantry per tank company, and follow the tanks with these to spot grunts a little better. When spotted, shell with HE, call in arty, don't close till they are properly hammered by HE fires. I like the 1950's Russians with open-topped APC with a 12.7 and 2x7.62 MG - good "hose down" units, even accepting the fact they are vulnerable to arty.

And remember to call in arty on spots you are going to pass through later, that may contain enemy infantry. A common "newbie" error (apart from not buying arty) is, if they have it, of simply waiting till they have a spotted target to engage. Use arty like DDT to de-louse potential routes of advance by firing speculative fires. Often, that means you will have arty plotted nearby that you can adjust onto any spotted targets with minimal delay even if your normal arty delay is long, when you make contact.

Cheers
Andy