How do you go to battle?

[seabolt]

Wasn't Hannibal the colonel just quoting Hannibal the general?

No, no, no. It was the habit of sticking an unlit cigar in his mouth just before popping off a pithy one-liner that the modern Hannibal inherited from his classical namesake. Not the one-liner itself. The closest that the senior commander ever came to expressing such a thing was, "Dudes! Did you see Lucius totally bite on that pump fake? What a tool. I so owned him!"

Of course, they didn't actually have tobacco during the Punics Wars, but one should recall that, being of Sumerian origin, "hemp" is one of the most ancient words in modern usage ...

[Walrus]

being of Sumerian origin, "hemp" is one of the most ancient words in modern usage ...

That's right!!!!...it's a crime that it's a crime.
Oh! The inhumanity!!

:smoke:

[Narwan]

The good old days of hemp underwear...

Imagine fighting with those on! :eek1:


Narwan

[RVPERTVS]

RightDeve:

Sounds like you spend much efforts on tailoring your battleplan!

Could you post an example with it´s map or AAR?, I´m interested in what factors you take into consideration, specially how detailed are they. Seems like my mind works best with given examples.

Thanks in advance

[Weasel]

RightDeve:

Sounds like you spend much efforts on tailoring your battleplan!

Could you post an example with it´s map or AAR?, I´m interested in what factors you take into consideration, specially how detailed are they. Seems like my mind works best with given examples.

Thanks in advance

This may help. While a bit deep, it might get you thinking a bit. It is taken from a Canadian Forces training manual for officers, and I then adjusted it to SP. You can find the whole document at the top of the forum, game guides for new players:

Battle Planning: (For all versions)

You can have the best equipment ever built but you can still die a horrible death if your tactics are faulty. Before you purchase take a good long look at the map. Look at it and try to determine which pieces of ground will be key in the coming battle. Is the map flat with one hill dominating the terrain? Is there only one road which will most likely be used as an axis of advance? Are there north –south roads in the rear area that can be used for rapid shifting of forces? Now consider, how am I going to attack? What is my objective and how can I deploy and advance to achieve that objective? Look at the ground and see if there are any areas that are going to hinder your movement, or force you into a small area (a defile). Also look at your axis of advance and ask yourself, “If I were the enemy, how could I deploy and attack to stop my advance?” Once you determine this, how are you going to counter act it? Will you be able to deploy units in over watch, or will you plot artillery into those areas? Once you feel you have a decent plan take a look at the map from the enemy point of view. Try to determine how he would deploy and attack. Once that is done, try to figure out how you could stop him.

Once this is done take another look at the map and come up with a secondary plan. What will you do if the enemy prevents you from achieving your first battle plan? How will you switch your forces?

Now to the forces: Compare your units to his and determine who has what capability. Does his armour have thermal sights while you don’t? Does his infantry have longer range then yours? Once all things are considered determine how you will counter act the bad and exploit your strength. For instance, if the enemy has thermal image sights then smoke is useless to you, therefore you must use the terrain to cover your approaches.

The following check list will sum all these points up:

Mission

What is the primary mission?

Secondary Mission:

Contingency Mission:

Mission Statement (What are you going to do) (Force or Terrain oriented)

Enemy Forces: What abilities does his best tank have over yours? (Direct fire, mobility, special capabilities)

What abilities does his best AFV have over yours? (Direct fire, mobility, special capabilities)

What abilities do his infantry have over yours? (Direct fire, mobility, special capabilities)

Preview the map for routes of advance. Remember that the best route of advance is normally the best defended.

AVENUES OF APPROACH


Open ground (favours attacker)

Choke points (are there areas where multiple points of advance meet)

Decision points (are there areas where terrain merges or separates)

Concealment (where can you and your opponent move and fight from without being detected)

Best route (that allows you to fire on the enemy from flank or above)

Alternate route (if best route is blocked)

How will your opponent shift units laterally and how can you block it?

Where can your forces employ over watch?

Where can your opponents forces employ over watch?

Inter-visibilities (long areas of open terrain that favour the player with better long range gunnery)

Characteristics of a Good Plan
For whatever the mission and situation a good plan has several common characteristics:
• It is general enough to be flexible but specific enough to be executed.
• It focuses on one main effort and objective at a time but allows for variations in sequencing as conditions change
• It preserves your freedom of action while pinning down your opponent (either physically by fires that suppress his units or by causing indecision/poor decisions on his part by employing security, surprise and deception)
• It is built on a firm foundation but is not dependent upon them, that is if one (or more) of the factors turn out to be different than was anticipated the plan will not collapse.
• It anticipates several possible enemy courses of action (at least the most likely and most dangerous) and has a counter for each. It is not one scripted, lock step plan but a series of actions that can be taken as the battle unfolds. These are known as branches (what if something else happens) and sequels (what do I do next). Developing branches and sequels allows you to anticipate when & where your units need to be so that you can have them there.
• It makes maximum use of cover and concealment and deception, avoiding or masking actions that would alert the enemy to preserve surprise.
• It balances protection, firepower and manoeuvre.

[RVPERTVS]

Thanks Chris!! That was a fast reply!

I did read that guide, very helpful. What I was looking for is a more precise example of a battle plan for a given map, for instance, guide says: "Look at it and try to determine which pieces of ground will be key in the coming battle. Is the map flat with one hill dominating the terrain?"

If I do have that one hill what is the best thing to plan for? placing accurate long-range guns there? delivering infantry first to take the hill and then move on to...? deliver some arty shells first?, flanking that hill with armour first and then advance infantry and then the guns?, etc.

Guide says regarding the battle plan: "It is general enough to be flexible but specific enough to be executed": When would I know my plan is not flexible or specific enough?

I do enjoy Cross´ AARs from SG forum, I hope he posts more of them, something like that is what I was asking for. Please bear with my beginnernes but seems, like I said, that my mind works best with examples and seems also that my planning needs improvement, I tend to execute very simple plans that almost always change during battle, but appears to me that you guys tend to spend hours on battle planning and it´s a fun part of the game just asking in case I´m missing something.

Keep Cool!

[Weasel]

"If I do have that one hill what is the best thing to plan for? placing accurate long-range guns there? delivering infantry first to take the hill and then move on to...? deliver some arty shells first?, flanking that hill with armour first and then advance infantry and then the guns?, etc."

Well in this case, controlling a single hill would probably be deadly to you. If I were up against you, and you had control of the single hill in the game I would pump every round I could into it, making it unusable for you. A simple and true axiom is "tanks take ground, but only infantry can hold it". Anytime you can isolate an objective from reinforcements you are doing well; so yes you could surround the hill with tanks/infantry to cut off reinforcements while you assault forces move in under artillery.

"Guide says regarding the battle plan: "It is general enough to be flexible but specific enough to be executed": When would I know my plan is not flexible or specific enough?"

An example of not being flexible would be deploying all of your units in one area, lets say a map edge, with no ability to move to any other part of the field quickly. An example of being flexible in the above would be deploying all your units on a map edge, but having a lateral road that allows for high speed reposition with mobile forces to counter any sudden threat. Thus, you can achieve the objective, but also be able to achieve the objective with those forces while moving parts thereof to react to any unsuspected situation.

All in all there is no "do this and you will win". A simple and good rule of thumb is to buy and deploy your forces thus: 40% of points for main assault/front line, 40% for second line assault/reaction force, and 20% as reserves.

There are many AARs on the blitz too, I know I have posted 4 with various opponents.

[RVPERTVS]

Thanks again Chris!! pretty enligthning.

It´s easier than I thought, I wasn´t that lost after all.

I was thinking that flexibility was in the plan, but from your post I see it really applies to force movility?.

What thread I can find those AARs at? I can´t see an AAR thread so far

Keep Cool!

[Weasel]

Well you must have flexibility in the plan too. Using the above example: What if your map edge attack is blocked and stopped cold by over whelming forces, what will you do? Your secondary plan would be something like "forces in contact go on defensive and hold enemy in place while bulk of forces move by lateral means (road) to point 'B' and attack along axis 'Z' to take the original objective and in so doing enveloping and destroying the enemy. Now the third part would be "what if that attack is blocked too?

Think of it as a tree, you have the base of the tree and then two branches (alt plans) and then from there more branches from those branches.

AARs are under G2 intel, Articles, and then on the right look for AARs.

[RVPERTVS]

Thanks! that was exactly the kind of example I was looking for! that looks as simple as the plans I tend to play, my plans always change, at certain point you commit second line units originally intended for a different role and from that point comes the branching you talk about and so on. One loses even with a "suposedely" sound and calculated plan, that´s due to your oponents´s plan and execution were better; damn I love this game even when I lose!!

Real life tactics come in use and work at some level but at the end IMHO it´s all about playing a TBSTT game or chess, meaning you have to anticipate moves and know what your units can do thus the necessity for planning, control the center, etc. Plans on those AARs seem fairly simple and yet sound and flexible. That rule of thumb is REALLY useful and gives you a safe ratio you can watch for.

My whole issue came from reading first post, "maybe I´m missing something"? I thought.

Great Community you have here!

Keep Cool