Tactics, Time and Steel Panthers

[lansoar]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Well, as suggsted - if you are a slow" player then simply extending time available may well do it for you- in either or both of maneuvering to the approach and also in preparing the contact line with your arty assets. If your mortars are getting depleted in ammo wih these extra turns - then try adding a few ammo carriers perhaps.

Another thought might be to reduce visibility a bit so you are onto the defenders with less fire recieved?.

Also with regard to your arty preparation - deliberately use a few (60mm say) mortars deeper into the enemy predicted formation as "what the british termed "pepperpot" fires - to keep retiring troops heads down and encourage them to run away. Move the pepper dispensers about as its suppression not killing you want. US 60mm has a useful range, ~2km, not the 1000m of some WW2 50mm's. Useful to bring forward on a truck, unload some bombs and get clear before return fires fall onto them.

Welcome to the art of scenario editing!

Thanks. all good advice. In this scenario i ran into several issues:

1) distance to cover
2) close quarters fighting.
3) artillery delay


in regards to 2), even with a good smoke screen or bombardment.....it would need to be precise to suppress the fairly numerous AT INF units entrenched. I did find myself getting tunnel visioned on the several AFV's well placed. In the end it was the INF units that made life hell...as it should be in a city/town/village environment. I did think about my arty at that point which leads to the below:

in regards to 3), its tough to work around the artillery delays. Even when using FO units. The average delay can go from 2.5 - 3.5 turns. Even in a 30 - 35+ or larger scenario thats a significant slice of time. While the average WinSP scenerio allows a much greater time span than the classic game, it can be hard. Thus i keep thinking there's some secret sauce that i'm failing to pick up on.

Some advice on how to better employ arty would be welcome. Despite all the years i've played the game i actually think the AI deploys arty better than me save for it's tendency to hit where unit's "were" vs. where they are.

replaying the game as German also was enlightening in that the AI managed to get it's INF units closer to the action far faster than i did.