Quote:
Originally Posted by Stratos
Thanks for all that help!! And using armored scouts is the same? I'm talking about vehicles like the SDKF 222 ot the M8 Greyhound.
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Little scout cars are nippy, but do the same job as a jeep, except that a jeep can be disabled by stray MG rounds or mortar bombs. ie go to some vantage point fast, and look for advancing vehicles (e.g. in a meeting engagement). Then get out of Dodge fast once the inevitable return fire comes down on them.
An armoured scout car can have a backup role as infantry support, hosing down enemy grunts with its MGs in support of yours. Provided the AT threat is removed/non-existent. A jeep with MG has to keep outside of LMG and MMG range to do the same task (and since range is longer, it is less accurate).
Little scout cars and armoured cars are best at spotting
moving enemy vehicles. They are not that good at spotting infantry, or stationary AFV waiting in ambush - unless they pop off a shot at the scout car of course!. Therefore - they are best to use to your flanks to make sure that he is not outflanking you. They can cover a large area relatively quickly. So good for large maps perhaps.
The best light scout vehicles are really those with
carrying capacity. Then they are fast little APCs which carry scout teams to a ridge line or whatever. They dismount these
out of LOS, then the scout team crawls to the tree line, or up on the ridge line and
observes. Once the enemy gets too close for comfort, retire to the ride (which has been "hiding with pride" in the meanwhile) and skedaddle. Do not expose the ride to take pot-shots - it will draw enemy indirect fire which will annoy the dismounts, and give an enemy human a clue that scouts are likely in the location.
Scout APC
with a team mounted that do not move too fast (1-2 hexes or so) can spot enemy infantry outside of 50m sometimes, especially if skilled. I commonly use Bren gun carriers with scouts ahead of my main advance to spot AI infantry plonked out in the open, then hose those with the Bren. They do tend to find the enemy ATG though, but the AI often puts infantry out in plain fields with no AT assets close by. (A human player would have at least a pair of 37mm popguns inside an infantry company position to deal with any tinfoil armour).
If you are say Soviet, or just nasty use sacrificial support "penal battalion" type troops to draw enemy MG and rifle fire.
- use cheap motorcycles charging ahead of your advance
- Use cavalry. They draw enemy bullets - about the only use for them I can see!
- Forget about scouts, put some cheap militia a few hexes in advance of your real troops, then some scouts 150-200m behind (to observe what happens to the militia and maybe spot the firers) , then the infantry behind the scouts. Advance the militia at full speed towards the enemy. Advance the scouts and real grunts at no more than 2 hexes a turn or so once you suspect you are under observation.
If the penal battalion retreat and cannot be rallied after the enemy shoot them up, well who cares? - send another squad in. They draw the fire or trip the minefields. Simply note the area the fires came from, and plot arty. Some may rally well in the rear - motorcycles or cavalry can be brought to the front more quickly.
NB - sacrificial troops not recommended against human players, who may hold fire and/or just mortar them. Also gives a human opponent a clue that you may have some decent infantry following up and trying to be sneaky-beaky - so he will plot a belt of fires behind the convicts to catch the good ones if he has any sense..
Cheers
Andy
Re: Need help finding the enemy.
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