Dreaded newbie questions

[Geraint]

Hi there. I'm brand new to WinSPMBT (and war games in general) and it's looking great so far. I've only played the tutorial several times to try to get a handle on the basics. A couple of questions therefore (and I have read the manual fairly thoroughly):

1. When the enemy turn is playing out, is there any option to click through the moves rather than them playing out automatically? When damage occurs there is info displayed but it flashes by too fast to take in and, as far as I can tell, there's no way to review this info after the turn is ended.

2. When firing at the enemy, is there any way of choosing which weapons fire? As it stands each unit will fire everything it has. This results in situations like using hellfire missiles on infantry and small calibre weapons against tank's front armour for example.

3. In the tutorial, at the beginning you are told to mount scouts and TOW personnel into armoured vehicles but the tutorial never mentions these people again. As I said I'm a terrible novice at these games and I have no idea if I'm supposed to get them out at any time or if they can have any effect from the 'safety' of these vehicles.

4. In one of my playthroughs of the tutorial, I hadn't moved my Apaches and they OP-fired at the enemy when they were still on the ground!! Is it even possible (in reality) for an Apache to fire chainguns, Hydras and Hellfires from a landed position? Is this a bug?

5. This one is again down to sheer stupidity but can I suggest in any future patches that the 'End Game and Exit' button be moved FAR away from the 'End Turn' button? More than once I've hit it by mistake and hit Y without realising as they are one above the other and both use the same Y/N confirmation. Yes, I'm an idiot and yes, I should be saving after each turn but the red button tempts me so!!

Anyway, I'd greatly appreciate anyone answering any of these and I'm sure I'll have a hundred more once I get beyond the tutorial. Great game, thanks.

[thatguy96]

1. If you go into preferences you can change the slider at the top labeled "Message Delay" to try and make these messages last longer. Otherwise, its just a matter of trying to keep track as best you can. Stay small as you're learning and you'll get more used to it.

2. If you right click on a unit it brings up their stats and other information. You can move your cursor over any of the four weapon slots and click on them turning them red in color. You have disabled this weapon and it will not fire until you repeat the process.

3. Whether units gain any modicum of safety from riding in a vehicle is largely dependent on the vehicle's class. APC type vehicles treat riding infantry as inside, while other classes that can carry do not, sometimes having an affect on the number of casualties when a vehicle carrying units is destroyed.

4. A bug? Yes and no. Because of the limitations of the game code as I have been led to understand, a helicopter on the ground is much the same as any ground unit. If it has a clear line of sight to the target it can and will opfire its weapons at an enemy target within range. That it is a landed helicopter doesn't change anything in the opfire routine.

5. This you'll get used to as well, its something that everyone does, and after probably a good decade of playing some iteration of SP I still make this mistake.

[Geraint]

Wow, thanks for the quick replies guys.

thatguy96 said:
1. If you go into preferences you can change the slider at the top labeled "Message Delay" to try and make these messages last longer.

Great...I'd looked at this screen too and just hadn't spotted that slider.

thatguy96 said:
2. If you right click on a unit...

Again, great...this will make things a lot better.

thatguy96 said:
3. Whether units gain any modicum of safety from riding in a vehicle is largely dependent on the vehicle's class.

Sorry, I worded my question really badly. What I'd meant to ask was, is the intention to transport these men nearer to the enemy and disembark them or can they operate whatever weapons they have from inside the vehicle? And what use are the cavalry scouts anyway? (total newbie remember!)

thatguy96 said:
4. A bug? Yes and no.

Haha ok thanks.

A couple of other questions on the tutorial then if you don't mind:

6. The tutorial doesn't seem to mention the two M106A2s that begin behind the HQ at all. Being the complete novice I am I can't see much use for them. They seem to have mortars but I get 0 or 2% when trying to target anything with them so I basically haven't used them. Any tips?

7. Is the HQ unit ok just left sitting by the US flag all the way through or would there be any advantage in bringing it along with the rest of the tanks etc?

Again, thanks for the replies and if anyone could point me to a detailed walkthrough of someone's game (not necessarily the tutorial) I think it'd help a lot with understanding the use of various units and tactics etc.

[RVPERTVS]

You´ll find lots of tips/tricks/knowledge here:

http://www.theblitz.org/training_gro...ame_guides.php

Robert

[thatguy96]

Geraint said:
Sorry, I worded my question really badly. What I'd meant to ask was, is the intention to transport these men nearer to the enemy and disembark them or can they operate whatever weapons they have from inside the vehicle? And what use are the cavalry scouts anyway? (total newbie remember!)

This is a matter of how closely you want to follow historical doctrine depending on country and a matter of personal preference. The US Army, for instance, had a very "battle taxi" concept with regards to APCs until the adoption of the M2/M3 Bradley series, with some notably exceptions in how things played out on the ground in Southeast Asia. That is, the point of APCs were to add mobility to infantry, transport them to the battleground and have them disembark and fight.

The appearance of so-called Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) such as the Bradley, Warrior, and BMP-3 (and BMP-2 to a very limited degree) showed a change in what the vehicle's role was supposed to be. That is, the vehicle was now supposed to be a platform that could be fought from, both by infantry riding (firing ports and this ability is not modeled in SP) and in terms of a base of fire by dismounted infantry.

Cavalry Scouts, mounted, vehicular, etc, really depend on your play style. I would recommend reading as much in depth as you find interesting on scouting tactics and then playing around with how useful you find these units. They can be very useful in terms of keeping a watchful eye on your flanks or other gaps in your line of advance. Some people also use them as a semi-expendable method of scouting enemy force composition.

They also usually have size zero, which in game terms means they can be harder to spot, especially when in cover. If all their weapons are disabled sometimes enemies will run right by them without even noticing, giving you a potentially crucial edge.

As for the other questions, indirect fire units can be accessed in the bombardment menu, which is mentioned in the game manual, allowing units with the appropriate radio contact and command level to call in artillery strikes. I would recommend reading the manual section on indirect bombardment for more information. The HQ, on the other hand, generally does sit the game out. If you have to commit it, you're usually in a bad way.

[Geraint]

Thanks for your time guys. Really useful info. Thanks for that link also, RVPERTVS. I'm in the middle of reading it all now!

[RVPERTVS]

Geraint said:
Thanks for your time guys. Really useful info. Thanks for that link also, RVPERTVS. I'm in the middle of reading it all now!

Anytime

I´ve attached a guide that you might as well find very useful, although your questions are about game mechanics.

You´ll also want to read this one: http://www.bostream.nu/brickhouse/spp1_0.html

I understand they´re both classics and "must read" material.

Robert

[Mobhack]

6. The tutorial doesn't seem to mention the two M106A2s that begin behind the HQ at all. Being the complete novice I am I can't see much use for them. They seem to have mortars but I get 0 or 2% when trying to target anything with them so I basically haven't used them. Any tips?

7. Is the HQ unit ok just left sitting by the US flag all the way through or would there be any advantage in bringing it along with the rest of the tanks etc?

6 - Tutorial walk-through, section entitled "Setting up an Artillery Bombardment", paragraph 3 begins "Now look at the first unit in the right pane, an M106A2. There are 6 buttons.." and a picture entitled "Artillery bombardment screen details".

7) HQ - is an administrative rear link, but as it represents you then don't get in the habit of losing it!. (In a long campaign, getting your HQ terminates the campaign at that battle). (Game Guide - "Game Play Notes" - paragraph beginning "The A0 unit represents you, it is the Battle Group Commander.."

As for the scouts, the tutorial mentions nothing about dismounting them. Up to you really, but not much use in this scenario which is intentionally a bit of a turkey-shoot - the tanks and TOW units etc will mop the enemy up quite handily. Mounted units don't fire. However infantry - even mounted infantry in APCS - are a bit better at spotting than plain AFVS, especially WRT spotting infantry, as they have more eyeballs available. So keeping the APC with mounted grunts close behind your tanks, just may spot the odd lurking enemy leg squad that the tankies would miss if not so escorted.
Game Guide - Game Play Notes - Paragraph beginning " Even if you are a 'tankie' you will need some infantry about to help you out in the close stuff.."


Cheers
Andy

[RVPERTVS]

Geraint said: there's no way to review this info after the turn is ended.

There´s a green box at the top right, that will replay the last turn all the times you want.

Regards
Robert

[TLAM_Strike]

Geraint said:
2. When firing at the enemy, is there any way of choosing which weapons fire? As it stands each unit will fire everything it has. This results in situations like using hellfire missiles on infantry and small calibre weapons against tank's front armour for example.

Pressing 'W' will bring up a screen allowing you to fire only one weapon from a unit. useful if you want to just fire the main gun on a tank or an AT weapon from an infantry unit. You will have to have a target selected first just press 'T' and use 'N' to cycle though the targets a unit sees.

5. This one is again down to sheer stupidity but can I suggest in any future patches that the 'End Game and Exit' button be moved FAR away from the 'End Turn' button? More than once I've hit it by mistake and hit Y without realising as they are one above the other and both use the same Y/N confirmation. Yes, I'm an idiot and yes, I should be saving after each turn but the red button tempts me so!!

I press 'Q' then 'Y' to end my turn rather then press the buttons on the right hand side of the screen.