thermal imaging...

[Aeraaa]

Originally Posted by jivemi

--Spoiler Alert--

Really. If you want a challenging scenario in which the enemy have TI and you don't try #179, The Bear Strikes (WP), a Soviet assault battle. Tried it several times; even after destroying most of (apparently) a company of TI-equipped Abrams and Bradleys on the first ridge objective there are still enough left to tear huge gaps in my assault columns. Plus they and the West Germans have cluster munitions which are devastating.

Since T-80s can't see them through the fire and smoke generated by arty (they're dug in on tree hexes mostly) I can't finish them off. Airstrikes either can't find them or fail to hit and most aircraft, including SEAD, are damaged on their first sorties from "bristling" air defenses. Any advanced infantry get pinned down by hard-to-spot MGs. What's an armchair general to do? Thanks.

Its a long time since I've played the scenario (I got a marginal victory), but IIRC what I did was use my dismounts to draw fire and provide an overwhelming amount of targets. The Abrams would reveal themselves eventually, at which point they were easy prey for my T80s. Any MGs and dismounted infantry will be dealt with T80s popping out of cover, firing some shots and going back. In addition to that, I managed to sneak one T80 company through the woods to the north and come in front in Abrams at point blank range, just as they finished firing their round for the turn. It was messy and I had casualties in both infantry and tanks, but I managed to break through the ridge and after that the scenario becomes much easier.

Tbh, nowadays what I would do is use the Hinds that you have IIRC and draw fire from these. They are hard to kill and the moment the Abrams reveal themselves they are dead meat. T80s can kill them then. If they pop smoke, wait until it clears and attack again. Hinds themselves can kill the enemy tanks too if they hit the turret side armor.

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by Aeraaa

Tbh, nowadays what I would do is use the Hinds that you have IIRC and draw fire from these. They are hard to kill and the moment the Abrams reveal themselves they are dead meat. T80s can kill them then. If they pop smoke, wait until it clears and attack again. Hinds themselves can kill the enemy tanks too if they hit the turret side armor.

Hinds may be hard to kill but now they take damage from Stingers, even from the front. Already had one chased off the map with a point of damage from one. Seems like the last patch made them more effective (assuming "AAA" includes missiles):

" AAA hits on armoured aircraft were screening out most of the damage from the small warheads . AAA fire that hits a target aircraft now has a higher chance of doing damage."

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by Aeraaa

Its a long time since I've played the scenario (I got a marginal victory) [...] It was messy and I had casualties in both infantry and tanks, but I managed to break through the ridge and after that the scenario becomes much easier.

--Spoiler Alert--

Just finished it myself, cutting the ratio for a marginal too close for comfort (6,200:12,740). Had the 3 Leopards taking pothots at a T-80 sticking its snout out from defilade on the penultimate turn not providentially missed it would've been a draw. Whew!

Carelessly lost 3 T-80s coming off the first ridge towards the town--didn't smoke off the next ridge, so they got whacked by Milans from Marders and dismounts across the way. In addition sloppy play like turning tail instead of using the 8-key to scurry for cover and showing flank to Jaegers lost a couple more.

Those Gepard A1s with radar F/C were murder on BTRs; seems they can fire through smoke at ground targets. Meanwhile could hardly spot anything until almost on top of them, sometimes even in the same hex! No sense in plotting air missions without visible targets so the flyboys stayed out of this one.

Anyway good to have this monkey off my back. Might make a full-blooded AAR about it but as you say it was messy. Need to recover from the strain first. Cheers!