Hello everyone,
New HPS gamer and customer here. I am wondering if any of the veteran Squad Battles players who own Red Victory has had any luck winning the 2nd training scenario, the one where you assault a ridgeline?
I have played the scenario maybe 1/2 dozen times completley with 3 or 4 restarts also and I am getting better. I thought I had a pretty good strategy to get up to the ridge and take out the barbed wire obstacles and do it relatively unscathed but I am finding this scenario a tough nut to crack.
I have been using the visibility tool to be careful of how I move my troops and not expose them in hexes that are seen by the enemy. I also detached 2-3 squads to act as a feint to keep some troops occupied and even draw some mortar rounds to help out the real team but I always end up running out of steam, getting pinned down and running out of time and men.
If you skipped the tutorial scenario's because your familar with the game, I urge you to go back and play this one. It's a good one!
Try some of the following if you aren't already:
Move your leader and radio men into hex 7,13. From there, call support onto the objective hexes. If you call it close enough to the ridge line, it should wipe out some of the barbed wire for you.
At the same time, advance all of your units up the middle through the woods while in ground mode. This will keep them protected while at the same time giving the support that you called in a chance to soften up the fortified positions.
If you move your troops in too fast, they will get hit by your friendly support fire. Not to mention, the enemy will not have been softened up first, so they will likely devastate your advancing troops.
When you are calling in for your very last round of support (around turn 7 or 8) change the load to Smoke. That is, when the Targeting Dialog pops up, change the lower right-hand list-box from “120mm HE” to “120mm SK (Smoke)”. Then start advancing your troops uphill in ground mode, trying not to have them in stacks. Try to snake them uphill such that you don’t move them into any hexes that are immediately below an enemy’s hex as that will likely get you pinned. Continue to work your units uphill such that you eventually wind up above and behind the enemy positions, the optimal goal would be to get your units into hexes 10,3 and 6,2. You want to launch your assaults from those hexes if possible. If you are running out of time, try to get your units at least on the same elevation before assaulting those hexes. Also, since your enemy is in fortified positions, you will need to soften them using your Satchel Charges and Flamethrower if at all possible (which means it is vital to get some of your Satchel Charges and your Flamethrower to the top of the ridge unscathed).
Using a "bait" squad is not a bad idea, since it will lower the effectiveness of the opponent weapons and draw some of the fire. Though, I'd hate to be part of that bait squad. : )
I have been playing for quite a while now, and I managed just 20 points (a major defeat), so it is indeed a very challenging scenario. I went against my own advice and moved two squads immediately below one of the enemy positions, causing them to get pinned and then virtually eliminated in the subsequent turns. I think I would have fared a little better had I followed my own advice and not done that. : )
You are definitely correct, it is a nice, challenging scenario. I will have to replay it a couple of times myself to see if I can do better.
And kudos to you for your persistence! A lot of new players might have been frustrated by the high level of difficulty of this scenario. Keep us posted if you find a way to get a win in the scenario.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill,
Thank you for the tips and suggestions. I myself have not managed to break into positive numbers for the scenario. I think my best is around -20 :) . I am going to start again this evening and will incorporate what you have said.
I was sending a platoon and my sapper platoon along the Eastern edge of the map trying to use holes in the enemies LOS to sneak up there, along with some lucky smoke to obscure my advance. The forest route I sent another 3-4 squads to keep the bunkers focused on them and then at the very Western edge I sent 3 squads and a leader to try to get to the rough area hex just above the forested area, that was my bait squad and was also used to lay down some suppressing fire but it hasn't really worked out for me.
I am sticking with this scenario because I want to master the lesson here, assaulting a fortified position. If I am to pose a challenge in any head to head games I want to be the best I can be :) plus I am a little OCD haha. At this point I am staying away from the other scenarios till I pass this one
Going to try your suggestions, thanks and I will post how I fare!
John
I played it tonight and was able to take a major. I found hex 9,11 to be great for the radio and binocs. I held the tanks back and pushed the dismounted infantry forward to the tree line. After the softening the Germans on the edge of town we pushed forward and bumped in to the AT gun. We pinned it and eventually took it. In the meantime I covered the gap at 14,8 with smoke and sent 1 tank and the mounted infantry on a flanking move. Probed the ridge line and then took out the mortar. At this point we controlled the town south of the trail but no victory hexes.
We worked into town eventually exposing the other AT gun. We kept him pretty occupied while the tanks kept out of his LOS and worked over the infantry.
I took all objectives on turn 13/14 and then hunkered down.
So find the best vantage for your spotter. Work forward cautiously (use cover fire), work over the rear areas with your arty, husband your tanks carefully.
I will note that I was lucky and did not roll over the AT mines with anything...
I would not try that western route. That set up MG will be murder. The PaK is mutually supporting. Not worth the hassle or the risk. (As a side note, if set up, the AI will not change the firing arc.
Thanks Cazat, but we where talking about the next scenario in training, the one where you assault the ridgeline. I give you an "A" for effort and enthusiasm though :)
Bill, using your strategy tonight I was able to secure 1 objective and get 22 points, at least I am in the positive now. I also was a hair from securing the 2nd objective. If I had 1 more turn I would have taken it, it was down to 1 man and I had 13 men ready to assault it next turn but the scenario ended.
I put my company comander in hex 7, 13 and called support from there. He had to keep his head down because that house his was sitting in was a target some turns. I will play this scenario a few more times and see it I can at least get +70 points, if I would have taken that last objective it would have put me at 72.
Looks like I was getting a little too fancy with my plan, thanks for the tips!
John
I finally scored a major victory in this scenario, 93 points . 2 leaders and 22 men killed for me, 1 leader and 17 Germans killed and both 50 point objectives captured, the last objective captured on the last turn.
I found this scenario to be extremely tough, taking into account Rabbit's (Bill's) strategy I still had to modify the plan slightly and I am not sure I could run the scenario with the same plan and get the same spectacular results. There was a lot of luck that came along with good planning and I had to manage my time well because there is not much wiggle room with 16 turns. I felt like I was on a tightrope here!
One thing I had to change was the placement of the CO/HQ section, the building at 7,13 was a magnet for artillery and I was losing my Kapitan in most scenarios due to the building being raked with MG and arty rounds. I put the Kapitan in 7,14 and he survived and it did not seem to impact the artillery rounds even though he was not in LOS.
I stayed with Bill's plan and went up the middle with the whole company despite it being mined. I took a few loses there. I lost 2 platoon leaders before I had taken my 1st objective. One died to a mine I believe and the 2nd to enemy fire. My 1st Platoon Leader did an amazing job bringing up the "rear" and keeping units moving. I lost track of how many Demoralized units and Pinned units he rallied but it was the 1st Platoon leader that kept my attack going and kept it steady. In the abscence of other leaders, my attack would have ground to a halt if it was not for this single Lieutenant. He literally worked his way up the line of squads that where hanging back pinned or demoralized and got them moving again.
My 1st Platoon leader deserves some sort of Soviet medal haha.
I wish I knew how many losses my artillery did, the 1st objective felt like it was softened up some, maybe I got a lucky hit.
Overall a very fun scenario to play, now that I have it beat I can safely move on to the next one.
Thank you Bill/Rabbit!
Hey congratulations! I tried the scenario twice more myself. I quickly surrendered the first time after my leader with the radio got blown up in that hex along with another leader and a good number of men to the minefield. The second time I got a major victory with 92 points.
I am glad you called attention to that scenario. As you guessed, I would have bypassed it for the other scenarios thinking that I didn't need a bootcamp. However, Oz (the designer) makes a mean bootcamp worthy of gnarled veterans. : )
(07-03-2010, 09:36 AM)Rabbit Wrote: [ -> ]Hey congratulations! I tried the scenario twice more myself. I quickly surrendered the first time after my leader with the radio got blown up in that hex along with another leader and a good number of men to the minefield. The second time I got a major victory with 92 points.
I am glad you called attention to that scenario. As you guessed, I would have bypassed it for the other scenarios thinking that I didn't need a bootcamp. However, Oz (the designer) makes a mean bootcamp worthy of gnarled veterans. : )
You have got to be kidding me with this scenario! It is brutal!
I've played about eight times now, and the best I've managed to score is 20 points. I have secured one of the two objectives one time. Usually I get up the hill with my squads down to 3-5 men, and the fortified locations are still almost maxed. It takes me multiple assaults before I even start reducing their men. Then time runs out.
How the heck can you get up the hill fast enough on the ground, moving one space at a time, rallying pinned units who then can't move for the rest of the turn even though they have full movement remaining, and still have enough turns remaining to assault both locations?
This is a brutally tough mission. Or maybe I just still majorly suck and need to work on my skills. But, I have had better success with the other training missions. This one is just a killer, but I WANT to beat it! :o)
And that brings up another of my questions? How come newly rallied units cannot move at all even though they have plenty of movement points remaining?
Thanks!
-=Jeff
So far Jeff I have found this to be the most challenging scenario in RV and I have played the first 14 with a few later ones.
I think what adds to the challenge is the amount of time you have and the scoring of the scenario, you are correct it is brutal!
Try going up the middle forest, the one that has the mines in it. You will take a few losses but it will put you in a good position to assault the right side bunker once you move passed the minefield. I used my artillery exclusively on that bunker also. I got lucky with a few hits and removed some obstacles around the right side bunker because of stray rounds landing in the barbed-wire field protecting it's South side.
The Germans dont have a lot of troops in this scenario, but they are all high quality units, 2 MG teams and some mortar support. You can afford to take some losses, just keep your men moving with their eye on the prize, those 2 big 50 point objectives!
My intial strategy was to snake up that forest then break away to the open ground East of the forest and use smoke to cover my advance. This may still be a viable approach but after winning the other way I moved on to the next scenario and have not tried fighting this scenario any other way.
Brilliantly designed scenario!
Reading all of the posts make me very happy since I see my aim for this scenario was achieved; that is guiding players to think tactically rather than relying on numbers or die rolls.