PzC Tips & Tactics Time Again!

[Mowgli]

@3. Disperse ALL enemy units in a stack before Assaulting them. It increases the chances of a successful assault.
Preparing a defender for an assault is a delicate and complicated and slow task. Since ALL enemy units in the hex need to be disrupted in order to dislodge them reliably, assaulting against many enemy units (many small are often better than a single large one...) will result in many casualties but no progress. In general, I find the stacking limit a bit too high overall. Fully manned hexes with good cover are a nightmare, even if you manage to isolate them. A fire action only affects (and potentially disrupts) a single unit. You get three fires actions per turn, true. But the chance for fire to disrupt are quite small (especially if cover is involved).

@11. It's best to stack armor with assaulting infantry and not have armor assault alone.
Unless the "Alternative Assault Resolution" optional rule is enabled and you're attacking infantry in open terrain. In this case it will usually be better to attack with tanks ONLY (so the defending infantry uses its (lower) hard fire value instead of its (higher) assault value.

17. Ensure you understand any engineer unit and their capabilities that are part of your OOB.
I was especially surprised that engineers can cross otherwise impassable rivers and can also let other footunits pass. Refer to the manual (Ferrying).

Don't fire
Not letting a unit fire can be a very valid option. 1) Unless your unit's opportunity fire is triggered in the opponent's turn, your unit can "dodge" its supply test in the next turn; 2) You don't give the opponent a chance to opportunity-fire on your unit. So if you're outnumbered or in general have a lower fire power than the opponent, you can slow down the engagement and delay better if you don't fire.

[LeGeneral]

Great write up! While much of it relates to all games could you do one that France 14 specific please?

Gents:  

After a year of playing this superb and classic game series... it's time to share some tips and tactics again!

PzC Tips & Tactics - In no order.

1. Don't allow your units to be surrounded and cutoff from supply. Isolated units will eventually Disrupt and are eliminated.

2. Use Travel mode when your units are traveling behind the lines or you need them to move a set distance - then deploy at the end of their movement. Never leave them in T-mode near the front lines. Always screen units in T-mode with deployed units. IF you must leave a unit in T-mode in a stack near the front lines, always move a deployed unit to the "top" of the stack so your opponent cannot "see-at-glance" that an enemy unit was left in T-mode. Same goes for "shielding" HQ units in a stack - move a non-HQ deployed unit to the "top" of the stack.

3. Disperse ALL enemy units in a stack before Assaulting them. It increases the chances of a successful assault.

4. Use recon and motorized units to provide flank protection and to make surgical thrusts behind enemy lines as needed.

5. Never use HQ units as defending units in your front lines. These units cannot attack and do not have ZOCs. In a recent PzC game, my German opponent used a HQ unit in such a manner and I was able to surge past the enemy HQ and was able to move many of my armor and motorized units into his back field!

6. Use recon air assets to search for suspected enemy HQs, artillery, and units in T-mode behind enemy lines. You can then follow-up with any revealed enemy units with either bomber assets or (if in range), some well-placed artillery bombardments.

7. Keep your formations intact. Keep battalions of the same regiment together (either stacked or within 1-2 hexes of each other) so you do not suffer a mixed formation penalty (using other units) when attacking / assaulting the enemy.

8. Keep HQs within supply / command range of their attached units so your units do not suffer "out of supply" penalties - e.g. attack at half strength.

9. Practice good morale and fatigue management of your units - especially in the longer turn scenarios. Units that suffer yellow or red fatigue levels will have their morale reduced. This will result in combat ineffectiveness by increasing the chances of Disruption and having your units Broken. Cycle out fatigued units and have them rest (do nothing) behind your lines for several turns. Fatigue increases during night movement / combat so avoid these activities (if possible) during night turns. Also, units reduce more fatigue during night turns - again if they do nothing. I recently played a German opponent in an El Alamein '42 scenario. He aggressively attacked my British defense force nearly across the entire map and non-stop (day and night cycles). By not effectively managing his German and Italian unit fatigue / morale levels, his force rapidly lost combat readiness and cohesion. At the approximately halfway mark of our game, I was able to mount a counter offense and rolled up his right flank!     

10. Cycle through every unit / every turn to ensure you do not overlook them and make sure you consciously do "something" with each of your units - Attack, defend, use as a reserve, etc.

11. It's best to stack armor with assaulting infantry and not have armor assault alone.

12. Check the hard / soft target ranges of your units. Some infantry MG's has a 2 range against soft targets and some armor has a 2 range against hard targets. If you are fortunate to have some superb AT assets (e.g 88's), check their attack value + range. You may be surprised how far these units can project their firepower and against both soft and hard targets!

13. Use infantry units (when possible) to "dig in" as these units will build IPs and Trenches faster then armor units. Use engineers to "dig in" as these units have a better percentage change of successfully digging per turn. Note - artillery units can "dig in" too, but seem to do better with constructing IPs then Trenches. HQ units cannot "dig in."

14. Use your Artillery dialogue box so you don't miss using your artillery assets. It's usually best to bombard enemy positions before the ground pounders go in.

15. Save your game turn often. It's a good practice to save periodically during your move / combat phases so you will not lose any moves if you experience a SW crash, leave your PC unattended, curious kids or pets come to visit, etc. I once had a cat that loved to jump up on the desk and lie across my PC keyboard!

16. Try to move dispersed units in the front lines behind deployed units so they may recover from disruption and cannot be attacked / assaulted by enemy ground units.

17. Ensure you understand any engineer unit and their capabilities that are part of your OOB. Note on the unit description if the engineer unit has a bridge. For example, in Kharkov 42, the Russian has engineer sapper units that do NOT have a bridge and some that do! You don't want to move an engineer unit adjacent to a river only to find out that it does not have a bridge!  

18. Enjoy and have fun! I "discovered" the superb PzC series about a year ago and I have never looked back at CS or most other PC games. The PzC series is "elegant simplicity" with the right mix of grognard features. I get to re-live my early war gaming years of pushing around stacks of cardboard counters on a paper map with the familiar NATO symbols - now digitized for the PC screen. Often, I will conduct my turns early in the AM with a hot cup of coffee and a quiet house. Many times I will sit down to conduct my turns and when I look up - a hour or more has passed. Enjoyable times!    


What other "tips and tactics" do PzC vets have to share with us?                

[Kool Kat]

Great write up! While much of it relates to all games could you do one that France 14 specific please?

Gent:


No can do. I don't play the FWWC Series. Mr. Grumpy (Darran) has written a couple of TOC FWWC articles. Please reference them here:

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=70352

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=68369