Are Delay battle really Delays? *DELETED* *DELETED*

[narwan]

You may be reading too much into the word 'delay' used for the battle type in the game. Look at it this way, there are only two types of defense missions, defends and delays. One gives you a prepared position with the option of bunkers, mines, wire, trenches, obstacles etc. The other gives you a 'hasty' position without the fixed defenses. I think that gamewise that's all there's to it, well almost all.
A defense allows you to fight from postions and with little need to relocate (if you plan your defense right) while the other needs you to conduct a more fluid defense using movement (and not just back but counterattacks too).

I don't agree that the delay is not a 'defense' or that it isn't about terrain. You have to delay the enemy to prevent him going somewhere. That somewhere means a vulnerable location (which can be considered to be off map) somewhere. It will be vulnerable for a certain amount of time which translates into the time needed to delay the enemy. In other words, you need to delay for the full duration of the game. If you exit or retreat from the flags before games end, you gave away the vital terrain that gives access to the vulnerable location too soon; it's still vulnerable. Infliciting losses isn't enough, enemy follow up troops could be present to take over or even the remains of the enemy troops on the battlefield could be enough to wreak havoc (like a hospital area being evacuated off map, or an fuel depot being emptied, etc).

Tactics must always serve an end. If they don't they're wasted. You can shoot and scoot, inflict heavy casualties while you keep falling back and have a 'tactical victory', based on respective losses. But you may have lost all of the vital ground and suffered a strategic defeat. For example, your falling back caused a much larger friendly formation off map to be cut off and forced to surrender...

The flags in the game, especially in delays, symbolise these abstract factors (which may often be considered to be off map) even if the actual location of a flag seems arbitrary or non-sensical. Consider for example that this ground must be held because if you don't it'll allow the enemy to advance his long range artillery to within striking distance of an extremely vital location. Now these flags are sensical despite how they are dispersed.

Narwan