long Campaign

[Shan]

Some very good points there - Mobhack, of course, knows the game better than anyone I guess. Works well - but only if you are disciplioned enough and stick to your set of rules, or SOPs. Too often, however, the temptation is just too great to get some more cheap kills - which usually ends up in a disaster for me. I only say: Molotov &Co.

That said, I also prefer to play on larger maps with a rather small force, like Charles22 mentioned - esp. for meeters, but also for delay + defence, later in the war. My ideal force is almost fully-armored, with mobile arty and AA, as well as ammo carriers. The Ruskis often maneuver around in my rear, but this does not bother me when I got my battle group concentrated and doing one job after another. Job done - mount up and deal with another enemy force. AI seems to be confused a lot by such tactics.

This also works for delay+defence - the Germans had trouble to maintain a continuously manned front line and resorted to defending strongholds only, which should overwatch any gaps. During the long retreats, those temporary strongpoints often wouldnt survive any attack and weren't meant to - the real fighting was done by the reserves. Mobile reserves are kept in the rear to deal with any break-throughs and launch counter-attacks. I am planning to create a little campaign which is based on this way of fighting.
A few scouts, trying to sneak past the attackers and check out the enemy rear, are also useful, even thought this is very risky. If they manage to get past or take out the ubiquituous enemy AA + AT units guarding the rear, they are often able to take out the arty as well - and force the AI to turn around some of his attackers, trying to intercept the intruders which by then will have set up a nice little ambush. Fronts reversed, attack weakened, enemy confused, and if you stumble over the enemy HQ unit an early rout may be the result!