Tutorial help

[Gizuria]

Heh! I've watched all the tutorial vids, but most of my time since purchasing the game yesterday has been gaining 'hands-on' experience actually playing the tutorial mission. Boy, do I suck! I've fought the Phase 1 battle for Steinebruck about 6-8 times in the last 24 hours and it's a really intense fight, far more than the vids lead me to believe. However, it appears that's because of the patch. I've yet to capture Lommersweiler on Day 1 though.

[Remmes]

ORIGINAL: Fascist Dog

Heh! I've watched all the tutorial vids, but most of my time since purchasing the game yesterday has been gaining 'hands-on' experience actually playing the tutorial mission. Boy, do I suck! I've fought the Phase 1 battle for Steinebruck about 6-8 times in the last 24 hours and it's a really intense fight, far more than the vids lead me to believe. However, it appears that's because of the patch. I've yet to capture Lommersweiler on Day 1 though.

Although I am not in the position to give advice because I am new to the game myself, I did find that a heavy dose of artillery goes a long way in tilting the battle in your favour. Plaster 'em!!

[Lieste]

Also, although Lommersweiler is the second phase objective, you only need to solidly secure Steinbruck, and have sufficient force to accomplish Lommersweiler eventually... the remainder can be used to bypass and get further towards Sankt Vith or Breitfeld. Once you can isolate engaged units from supply it doesn't take long for their efficiency and combat power to collapse. Be aware that if it takes too long and you fail to block the routes to Lommersweiler, you will probably find that 27th VG Rgt is relieved by elements of 48th VG*.

Sometimes defending in/near the objective is a better use of limited combat strength than attacking to clear it. Given sufficient time/space the enemy may decide to counter-attack or retreat. Both of which give excellent opportunities for supporting armour or artillery to defeat his troops while they are in the open - stubborn heavy attacks may give a stubborn dug-in defense... While doing this doesn't give you the objective location (and it's points) it does deny control to the enemy. Developing the attack uses these 'close-in' troops as an anvil, with a small number of additional troops attacking from another direction (and lots of artillery) as a hammer. Final clearance of the area can also use the first group ~ but you should avoid attempting to assault from intimate contact with large bodies of troops as the results are often not what is expected.

Movement objectives should be fairly bold, but attacks should rather be given limited objectives... biting and holding. If in doubt, use your motorised forces "elsewhere" - he can't keep up with your much more flexible forces, and they can cause trouble for HQ/Supply/Artillery that would otherwise be supporting the front-line. A fairly weak attack with support will be successful most of the time against troops with low supply, no coherent orders and no support fires.

*If he want's to make FESTUNG LOMMERSWEILER, let him - it makes him incapable of influencing anything else until day 3... while you can clear/occupy the remainder of the map. The only essential terrain is Steinbruck - every single barrel of fuel, bullet and bean has to come across that bridge... I find that deploying the artillery just to the south of the river so that minimum range includes the approaches to Steinbruck aids unexpected or unpleasant surprises. The actual bridge can be secured using another artillery formation - hidden in the valley, he has to come out of the buildings and his trenches to attack, exposing him to direct fires from the garrison, and direct and indirect fires from the other artillery battalions, plus direct fires from the friendly ground forces dug-in in the outskirts of the village.

[Gizuria]

I decided to switch to something a bit more manageable that the Tutorial to learn the ropes. So I've played 'Hofen Ho-Down' a couple of times over the last two days as the German side. What a fantastic little scenario that one is. No bonuses for the Human player, Realistic Orders delay. First playthrough was an utter disaster. Total Defeat - firing squad for me. I didn't even manage to contest the two Hofen VP objectives so the US side really racked up the points. I couldn't get into Monschau either. But I did manage to contest it for most of the scenario. Second time through, I did a lot better. I got the I./751 into Hofen south without a shot being fired. Hofen North was a much tougher nut to crack and I was never really able to capture it although I did contest it throughout the battle. I also had much better luck getting into Monschau and succeeded in clearing the US out of the town itself but not the objective circle. In the end, I got a Marginal Defeat which seemed like a good result to me. After all, I wouldn't expect to get a win in a well designed scenario with my current skill-level. [:D]

I learned more from these two playthroughs than I did from playing the Tutorial mission. probably because it's smaller and more focussed. I think I've got a handle on the bare bones now and I attempted to cross-attach the 326 Fusiliers to the I./753 to make the attack on Monschau more effective. I'm just about to fire it up, this time with the German Help. I want to see how those King Tigers affect the mission.

[simovitch]

ORIGINAL: Fascist Dog

I'm just about to fire it up, this time with the German Help. I want to see how those King Tigers affect the mission.

I think they are Jagdtigers with the 128mm cannon. Try to keep them away from the thick of it, use them as mobile artillery. Use similar tactics with your organic assault guns. And welcome to the community.[:)]

[Gizuria]

Jagdtigers they are. Ten of them! Great stuff. I like to play around with the real heavies from time to time. I managed to get a Marginal Victory this time around. I made Hofen my focus for Day 1. All three Battalions started south of the river and so I sent two at Hofen North and one at Hofen South. I managed to secure both later in the day after some heavy fighting. On Day 2, I secured Monschau, again after some very heavy fighting. I made a pincer attack with one Battalion from Hofen attacking from the south with the Fusiliers and the II./751 reinforcement battalion from the north west. I made a terrible mistake with the reinforcements and sent them on a long march through the night and exhausted them. They didn't contribute much to the mission other than defend Monschau. On Day 3, I went after Mutznich but ran out of time before anybody could get there. as stated earlier, I ended with a Marginal Victory, which I was happy with. I wasn't really very aggressive from Day 2 onwards and perhaps should have tried attacking Mutznich and Kalterherberg earlier. But I'm still learning the ropes, and the AI seems to be really good too. It did a good job of infiltrating the Hofen North and South objectives during the night of Day1/2 depriving me of exclusive control for a few hours on Day 2.

A lot of experience for me to digest from this before I take on something a bit bigger and more challenging. I think I'll try the 'Hell on Wheels' mission as the Allies for my next mission.