Best way to use airmobile and panzergrenadiers?

[RecruitMonty]

In depth responces please.

[Mobhack]

Have you read through the "Game Play Notes" section of the manual yet?.

Cheers
Andy

[RecruitMonty]

Yes but I was wondering if anybody used different methods.

[whdonnelly]

On defense,I try to move them in an ambush position on the enemy approach, where they unload out of sight/range and wait for the atack. On offense I'll use them to mop up or go after artillery or OBs. I haven't had much luck using them when the opposing force is still unbroken and aggressive.

[RecruitMonty]

Fair enough.

[Mustang]

I rarely use infantry in armor battles unless there's a strategic choke point in close terrain. They're soo slow and easy to kill, especially in their expensive APCs. So if you want to know how to use them, take my advice- don't.

Against an enemy with less long-range weapons, like tank guns, your APCs might survive long enough to dismount infantry. On the attack, infantry are easily suppressed if they are in clear terrain and they enemy is in cover, so you'll probably need a strong number advantage or lots of artillery to keep the enemy's head down. You probably know the tactic where you lay down suppresion fire so another one of your elements can close in and assault the enemy- does that work for you?

[Pepper]

Personally, I find airmobile to be of limited use in most games. The problem is that they are so expensive and yet so vulnerable. A single SAM and you can lose an entire helo (already an expensive loss) PLUS whatever troops you are carrying. That, combined with the fact that they can be turned back rather quickly by even machine gun fire, limits their utility -- for the most part.

Despite the above, I will occasionally use airmobile if the situation permits. In a large meeting engagement, for example, airmobile will often provide an excellent way to get to the objectives very quickly, thereby changing the game from meeting engagement to OPFOR must advance on me.

On maps with clear chokepoints, if it is meeting engagement or I am defending, I may put a small high-morale team forward, with an artillery spotter. They can do a great job of slowing and/or temporarily stopping enemy advances along such a route. In the end they die, but in the interim, my forces gain a few extra tempo towards the objectives.

Finally, if the map is such that I am concerned about rushing armor forward (i.e. heavy woods or similar terrain where armor routinely runs into groundtroops risking assault), and there are a limited number of objectives deep in enemy territory on the map, I may buy a bird or two of airmobile to use in the final rounds of the game, to mop up the last objective(s). By then I've usually found or destroyed most SAMs and enemy forces are thin, so I can afford to fly straight in. This way I don't risk rushing a 200+ point tank through trees and having some lame foottroop get lucky on an assault and take it out.

Thats pretty much how I use airmobile.