This is a Generated Battle, German Advance vs. US (AI) Delay.
750 pts. vs. XXX, AI advantage = 110% (US get slightly over 400pts). All Realism prefs on.
Date = June, 1944. 39 Turns, Random Normandy Map, 3x1.5 km.
The map looks very good and is plausible for the region; I find the random maps in this game generally outstanding.
Contrary to war stories, the very difficult terrain will be more of a help than a hindrance, because my approaches are covered.
I think the 39 turns the game gives me are too generous. The advancing side in an Advance/Delay random battle is rather VERY overpowered, which I will try to show.
I buy a reinforced SS company with an added Inf platoon, a few extra 80mm Mortars and 2 ACs.
*The Golden Rule of Strategy: Don´t try to be too clever!* The plan is to keep my company close together -you know from horror movies what happens when you split up!- and march directly on the southernmost objective, then work my way up from there (OOB & plan pics & setup files attached).
BEFORE YOU READ ON:
*If you are a beginning player, this setup is actually a useful Infantry Combat 101 training exercise. Just extract the setup into your savegame folder, load the save and (likely) get your first win.
*If you are not a Beginner, here´s a challenge: Try NOT to get a Major Win with this setup. It may well be possible, if your plan is creative enough!
Last edited by Ravindau; October 8th, 2017 at 05:21 PM..
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From the bypassed village in the North, a Rifle sqd. opens fire on my right flank, causing some consternation. I pin them with my ACs and send the Sharpshooter around their flank. After he pops a few, they rout into the open and are eliminated. My center is temporarily stopped by a well-situated sqd. that covers their route of advance. I have to wait for the Mortars to take care of that. My left flank is only 200m from the 1st objective and encountering no resistance. Some 60mm Mortar fire hits the woods in my rear. I don´t know where that came from, and don´t really care. 19 turns to go.
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We take Objective #1 and encounter what appears to be the US main line of resistance: 1 1/2 plts situated around the 2nd objective. They are being overwhelmed rather fast and with light losses to the attacking force. Mortars prove useful at pinning the defenders. Occasionally their fire falls short and they pin my own troops, but no matter, since we have all the time in the world. 14 turns to go.
At this point we suffer the only setback in the game: A stubborn US Rifle sqd, even though pinned, manages to destroy one of my ACs at 50m distance! Impressive, though ultimately inconsequential: American resistance is ceasing, and we are taking the 2nd objective and marching on the 3rd.
I propose to reduce the turns given in an Advance/Delay generated game by about 20%. This would put a little more pressure on the attacker and give the defender the chance to play a trade-space-for-time game.
As mentioned timed objectives is one way to cause a hurry up or you could just reduce the number of turns yourself to something more to your liking, I usually do or set timed objectives high.
There are so many variables deciding what the number of turns should be is not easy even when you know the force, visibility & are looking at the map.
Increasing AI% to 150 or reducing the size of the map would have made it harder giving you less avenues of approach & making the AI less dispersed.
Look at mainly the height of the map versus number of defenders, they are forced to be spread thinly so allowing yourself the time to advance as a group across the whole map. You said it yourself engaging lone units with 1 & a half platoons being the stiff resistance.
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John
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You said it yourself engaging lone units with 1 & a half platoons being the stiff resistance.
You got this upside down. The strongest resistance was the 1 1/2 plts I mentioned, but I was of course engaging them with my entire company+ & ACs.
I don´t think reducing map width from 30 to 20 hexes would have made a big difference.
And yes, one could fiddle with the settings. But shouldn´t the official settings be balanced so as to be fit for tournament style play between humans, as much as possible?
As it stands, I doubt anyone would be happy to play the delaying side in a generated game in a tournament...
You said it yourself engaging lone units with 1 & a half platoons being the stiff resistance.
You got this upside down. The strongest resistance was the 1 1/2 plts I mentioned, but I was of course engaging them with my entire company+ & ACs.
I don´t think reducing map width from 30 to 20 hexes would have made a big difference.
And yes, one could fiddle with the settings. But shouldn´t the official settings be balanced so as to be fit for tournament style play between humans, as much as possible?
As it stands, I doubt anyone would be happy to play the delaying side in a generated game in a tournament...
Okay take a breath
I fully understood thats what you did.
Adjusting the settings makes a big difference, I have said several times in this forum 1 out of 3 generated battles vs the AI can be very good probably because the factors are about right.
They are not official settings you can & should adjust map size turns etc to suite the battle you generate.
You are right in that I would not have liked to play that battle as defender l do not have enough units to do anything but sit there deployed close to VP. That map would be terribly boaring just sitting there waiting for you to approach, L0S does not extend far from VP area.
You have learnt for your tastes you need to reduce the number of turns & if you want to make the VP for that battle more important set timed objectives to around the halfway mark. For generated battles nothing is written in stone adjust it so it gives you a challenge.
On a side note vs a human setting timed objectives high in an engagement battle forces them to go for them if they have a habbit of playing engagements like a delay.
Its not an RTS game sides are rarely balanced & delays can go right or wrong sometimes badly so, unexpected avenue of approach can cause major headaches especially if your mainly on foot so manuvering is slow
Delay is fine in most cases, though some map visibility combinations make it a virtualy impossible task, in real life you just would not choose to defend there so dont play it.
Tournament is easy enough play it mirrored, both players play it from both sides to see who does better.
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John
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The Curse of the Delay
Re: The Curse of the Delay
Hybrid Mode
