There are some points I'd like to raise with the way all of you seem to be laying mines.
#1 In most of the descriptions, and particularly 'Greifbringer's' example, you all seem to be laying mines in straight lines. When your opponent finds a minefield, unless it's the AI, :rolleyes: he's usually smart enough to just drive along the edge of it until he finds the end. Of course you've got appropriate units covering the entire path, right.
#2 If he doesn't drive around it, then he smokes it, brings up engineers and takes it out. Usually doesn't take too long since the minefield is only 1 or 2 hexes deep.
#3 To make a serious minefield more than a few hexes deep with solid mines that will take him a while to get through, takes a lot of mines and therefore buypoints that could be more successful buying something that will actually shoot back at the opponent instead of just slow him down.
#4 The two RL uses of a minefield are to slow the enemy down and direct him into your killing zones. It's actually rare that you get more than one enemy with a minefield since once he knows there are mines, he changes his activity.
Therefore, some suggestions for minefields in keeping with the above observations.
#1b Stagger the forward edge of the minefield or at least every so often, put one mine a hex in front of all the others. That way, if he drives along the edge of the field and speeds up once he thinks he knows where the field is going, he hits one of these "teeth". I'd even put extra mines in a tooth like this since he's more likely to hit them than he is the body of the minefield.
#2b Register your artillery on his side of the minefield (the pre-plotted 'gold points') since you know where he's going to have engineers. The small mortars won't reveal any more mines but will stop the engineers from finding them. With registers, you can hit him quickly and every turn without LOS.
#3b Just don't do it! At least with solid walls of mines. Just like Greifbringer says, you need paths for your own units to raid and retreat through but the minefield is just as effective if it's more like a honeycomb or sieve pattern with lots of paths and spaces between the mines. If you make a path through solid mines as in GB's example, your opponent can observe where it is you come through or at least guess at it. But if the minefield is deeper, say 4 or 5 hexes deep, and completly random in appearance, he can't follow your movements. But he can't charge in there full speed either since any hex may or may not have a mine. This results in three benefits. 1. You can get through at almost full speed. 2. Your opponent still must go one hex per turn to spot mines and be sure of not setting them off. 3. You can make the minefield significantly deeper without using any more mines and probably using fewer mines, thus saving points for 'shooter units'. 4. Your opponent is less likely to hit a mine on the leading edge of your minefield. By the time he hits a mine, he has many units of his force already in the minefield and no matter which way they turn, they run into more mines. You're likely to get more than just one kill per minefield this way.
#4b Remember that the real purpose of a minefield is not to kill the enemy but to slow him down and direct him to where you can kill him easier. A porous minefield does both of tasks just as well as a solid minefield but is much cheaper and can cover a much larger area.
A final parting suggestion. Single mines can be devastating also. Particularly if they're placed in areas your opponent is most likely to go to. For instance, if there is a building at the edge of a river, where is his recon going to go to scan ahead? If there's a clump of trees in the middle of a wide open area he has to cross that gives you a good field of fire? What about a wall or row of buildings that he can hide behind and cover his movement?
If you make him fear all these places of natural safety, he has to slow down to check them out or stay out in the open more. Either way, you have a big effect on what he does. And again, you don't have to mine every likely spot, just a couple of the first ones he comes to is enough to change his tactics for the entire game.
" Look alive!! Here comes a Buzzard"
