Tactics, Time and Steel Panthers

[lansoar]

hello,

I've been a lifelong player of SP, from all the way back to 1995, playing the original item thru SPWAW thru Cameo Workshop's WinSPWW2 and MBT.

despite this, i still consider myself a bit of a neophyte at tactics. I've given it thought over the years, and besides mainly playing against the AI thru the decades as a prime disadvantage, I've considered other reasons by which victory often eludes me. (i've at least gotten proficient enough to usually get a draw if nothing else, with a sprinkling of Marginal Victories in the more difficult scenarios and the occasional decisive outcome)

One major improvement i've always attested to Cameo Workshop/Shrapnel Games was modifying/creating scenerios with a much greater time limit. I always found it ironic to be told in the original game manual that "Steel Panthers rewards Combined Arms Tactics." Yet often many of the older version scenarios had scenario time limits so extreme that only by charging head on could on have a chance of achieving victory. Makes using CA tactics rather moot if you can't organize your offense in time to the scenario.

This led, to thoughts about "gaming tactics", i.e. unrealistic tactics that maximize game/scenerio loopholes, regardless whether or not its realistic or not. An example that comes to mind would be skimming the boundries of the map in concentrated groups, bypassing the primary defense of the opposition.

I could go on, but the thing i really want to ask is other HUMANS who play this game and i'll use a specific scenario for a a common reference point.

I recently played scenerio 308: Battle of Lemburg 12/44. (USA Advance vs German Delay)

Initially i played USA as recommended. I found it challenging just to get into the village proper much less the outskirt objectives without suffering heavy losses vis-a-vis motor/armored transport vs small teams of AT squads along with well positioned AFV's and ATs

I then replayed it as Germany. Less insightful in terms of AFVs as basically the AI just advances making it fairly easy to wipe out the armored component. However the AI is much better at Arty....(at least vs Static positions) and it got the INF component more quickly engaged than i did which provided a challenge making me realize how outnumbered i was in bodies, at least within the village.

I'm looking for insights from human players on how they'd approach this kind of scenerio, the tactics used etc. I'm a guy who despite so many years playing this game needs some pointers along with wondering whether or not such scenarios can be beaten with real life tactics. One thing i've identified in my own tactics is a tendency to be conservative.....to not want to risk losses and thus i get bogged down pretty easily. (aka i treat the scenario as real life....vs a game of numbers so i'm always trying to minimize casualties. Points wise it can be significant in many cases as too heavy a cost will usually lead to at best a "marginal victory")

Happy Holidays to all.