The two most difficult parts of a QB in my oppinon:
1) choosing you army (since you havnt yet seen the map)
2) deploying your army (since you havnt yet seen the enemy)
from this point onwards there are logical responses to every occourance, enemy movement and spotting. but at these two steps, you are pretty much making decisions in isolation of any other infomation besides base map settings and objectives, and what you know of your opponent.
It'd be great if some of the more experienced players explained how they choose their armies (call it 2000 points), why they choose the units and levels of exp they use- what tanks they preffer and why (and how they plan to use them), how they decide on supporting units- the full shebang. atm im focusing on 1944 area (CMAK) bcause it correlates most to the lessons i learnt in CMBO, so rosters of around this time would be most helpful, but I do plan to move to 1942 next (play as australians
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I deal with it by making a pre-made map first. That way both sides can have a look at it before the forces are chosen. I also try to chat with the other guy and attempt to play a gamw that is even as it can be by restricting some purchases or toying with the year and months ect. The more work that you can put in before you even start will pay off down the road, plus you get to play with some unit types that you might not ever play otherwise.
Unless it is a totally random generated map you should have an idea of what type of terrain you are playing over, e.g. desert, heavily wooded, city, steep hills, and as such that is always your starting point for your selection, (there not much point on buying a load of guns if you're fighting in forest or city as you are unlikely to have much of a LOS, the same with armour, send your tank force through a city or forest and they'll die without you even knowing what hit them).
I tend to go for a combined arms force, that is at least 1/3 infantry and not more than 1/3 armour, (there are some that will say that armour wins the day and always go armour heavy in your force pick, but that's them).
Unless you want to pick specific units for specifc jobs, (e.g. SMG sqauds for assault work) always try and buy units in as large a formation as possible, i.e. if you can afford a battalion buy it rather than 3 seperate companies, as you'll find that they work out much cheaper, (I have 1 particular opponent who continually buys seperate german companies of Motorised Infantry, Paras and Mountain troops, and I'm still baffled as to why as none of them perform specifc roles).
Everyone has their own playing style, but it helps to have a plan as to how you intend to use units before you buy them. Are you going to use your armour agressively to seek out and destroy your opponents in which case you'll want proper tanks, not SP guns, and good armour; are you going use them from ambush, in which case SP guns are fine and much cheaper, or in a support role, in which case you'll want lots of HE, (and a good size gun), and more AT guns to deal with the armour.
As for setting up your forces, well that really depends on want you want to do, but a basic rule is don't leave any unit, be it armour, support unit or infantry on their own, (unless you have a specifc intent for doing so, e.g. decoy, sacrifical pawn, scout, etc. Where possible make use of combined arms, have your infantry covered by support weapons, (thats why they're called 'support' weapons), and have them backed up with AT guns, armour and/or offboard artilley; and reversely don't go sending your armour off across the map unsupported by infantry.
No single unit type is going to the battle for you every time, and eveything is good and bad at doing certain things, so, (aprt from the exceptions already mentioned), a balanced force mix will give you the best chance of handling whatever the map gives you, and combing those units to give a mutually supporting battlegroup will give you the best chance of not making a total hash of things.
That said, everyone has their own way of playing, and certain people appear just natually better at using certain units types than others, so try thing out and see what your playing style is.
If I do QB's, I usually try to use one of the armor rulesets, most Redwolf. I also do not want Battalion purchases, as they can be quite unfair as well. Nothing larger then Company size.
I agree with Kelen, no pick is going to win you the game every time, but you will find yourself in one of the two camps-Infantry heavy force(the Good side:happy:) or Armor heavy(the Dark side:stir:). Once you find a playing style that fits, all will come together. Most important is to have fun, try new things, and don't take the game too seriously.
I generally always have a balanced combined arms force weighting it one way or the other depending on the terrain.
At least one infantry company, one platoon tanks or SPs, one to three anti-tank guns, couple of mortars, couple of snipers, some carriers, and an FO.
If lots of forest or city would use more SMGs and short range antitank weapons and more heavy caliber infantry support weapons
If in the open, more tanks, rifle infantry and mg's.
You will also get to know your opponents and expect certain picks from them, e.g. M1A1 likes lots of armor and he picks uber tanks to overmatch yours if possible. Counter to that when I play him is Crack or vet antitank guns in a PAK front.
If you have the luxury of seeing the map before you play then you can tailor for special missions, e.g. running a platoon of infantry up in carriers to seize an objective early or something like that.
I also found the hardway that one can get an edge in QBs by tailoring his force mix to the spefic terrain types.
Just resently been offered a CMAK QB with a medium size map already premaid and therefore had the privilage of studying it before hand.
The QB is a 2000 pointer late war.. April 1945
Mid Day Meeting Engagement.
With Heavy Tree coverage, Town, and Gentle Slopes.
I've picked a mixed Battalion of german infantry, (regular) two Fusilier44 companies and one Sturm company.
Three artillery spotters, one 81mm mortar and two 75mm how.
Four; 75mm Inf Guns
Two Hetzer assault/tank hunter panzer and an asortment of heavy MGs, Panzerfaust, AT crews and snipers.
To my surprise I'm winning the game with only a few turns left to go..
Even more important, my two Hetzer panzer are still intact and so are my four Inf Guns.. :-)