why buy armor?

[Uncle_Joe]

OK, I've been playing with V3.0 a bit and I think the 'problem' is still present.

What I see is integral to the issue is the 'stealthiness' of AT assets. ATGMs and RR teams etc are almost impossible to spot until they have fired a few times (often even for Infantry and especially if they have even a point of suppression). This greatly magnifies their effects and renders most lighter vehicles/APCs not worth their cost in the face of massed dismounts.

I've been playing a lot of small point meeting engagements (1990, Sov vs WGerm). I tend to buy a nice little combined arms force (Coy of Mech Infantry, a few tanks, some mortars or arty) while the AI usually buys a horde of dismounted troops (with a good group of AT assets like RRs and ATGM teams).

And the result is generally the same. I can take control of key areas and whittle down the initial attacks, but then eventually get overrun in a flood of infantry. Yes, they suffer 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 losses in manpower, but that is irrelevant since they are resiliant enough to keep on attacking. Vehicles are nearly useless in any form of European terrain in situations like this. All it takes is one misstep and a 99% chance ATGM smokes your AFV. Even if its just a glimpse for a half of a second in LOS, that ATGM has a 99% chance of a hit (which I also find very odd).

Once up close, nearly every squad has the capacity to kill light armor and APCs out to 400/500m. Again, it takes turns and turns of pounding to knock out a platoon of infantry costing around 65-70 points, a but single ~40 point APC is annihilated almost instantly by infantry.

The fact that the AT teams are 'stealthy' doesnt help the situation IMO. Its makes it quite possible for those teams to move across fields or other light terrain and get multiple shots off before drawing return fire. Finally, add in the fact that especially in smaller battles, there are considerably less pre-plotted arty points (a good change overall IMO). So, arty is FAR less responsive now at routing out infantry or reacting to the changing battle.

Note that if I go with an Infantry-heavy force, its still extremely easy to defeat similar enemy forces. With a BN and change of infantry vice a company of mech infantry, its usually a cake-walk to win.

I dont know what to say in terms of point cost and whatnot, but to me, its still pretty clear that all things equal (ie, not needing to cover huge stretches of ground) that massed dismounts will tend to win out over a more balanced force for cost.