What's the right way to use recon units?

[Maciste]

I know this questions sounds quite stupid, but I don't know how to work properly with the recon units... I'll better explain myself.
As I used to do with first Steel Panthers, I used to run amok towards the enemy with my tanks... until I realized they was quite blind, and now, in SPWAW, the always get assaulted and destroyed by dug in infantry.
'Well' I thought 'let's use recon units'. And so I did... but when using recon tanks... they run blind towards the enemy and get assaulted and killed too [&:][&:][&:] I thought that they could see the enemy at medium distances... [:@][:@]
Where am I mistaken? ¿Perhaps I shouldn't put the recon units at full velocity? ¿Maybe they can only "see" well when stopped? Please, help me.

I hate being a newbie [;)][;)]

[Jim1954]

Recon Rule #1: NEVER motor about at full speed. All you do is become an inviting target and increase your chances for breakdowns. You can't see squat anyway at speed.

RR # 2: Move 1 hex, look around (pivot the unit) move some more, look again etc.

RR # 3: The smaller the unit, the harder it is for the enemy to see you. Infantry recon squads with some sort of transport to get them close are good choices. Spot dismounted if you can.

RR # 4: All they are supposed to do is spot, they don't survive long in action against combat troops. Set your reaction fire range very low. I have even turned off their weapons upon occasion when I want to be really sure they don't give themselves away.

RR #5: Try to keep them in cover. Sneak, sneak , sneak.

RR # 6: Imagine that YOU are that recon unit. "Now do I really want to go blasting through that gap in the trees or should I just creep through that streambed and pop up for a looksee every now and then and duck back out of sight?"

RR # 7: If you are going to use armor to scout with, try to put a rider on it, even if it's just a sniper, to help you spot. You may lose the rider to close assault if you blunder into a hidden position, but at least the tank has a better chance to survive.

That's a start anyway.

[Warmonger]

All very good advice. I have just recently been getting pretty good at recon, and I have learned all those things.

I never use recon vehicles anymore...They are no better than a non-recon foot unit at spotting. (They get no spotting bonus, they just dont get the spotting penalty given to other vehicles).

The best rule up there is the one about pivoting. I've found that sometimes you can move a hex and see nothing, but pivot a little and Bang! There's an enemy unit right in front of you, inside the LOS you had even before you pivoted. Why it isnt spotted before the pivot, I dont know...but it works.

And finally, just selecting a unit will sometimes cause the spot to happen. Usually at the beginning of my turn, I just lay on the N key, cycling through all my units. I usually spot at least one previously unspotted unit that way. And if someone takes fire, just click on all the surrounding units with LOS to the area the fire came from. The unit recieving the fire doesnt seem to see it as well as his neighbors do.

[Maciste]

ORIGINAL: Warmonger

I never use recon vehicles anymore...They are no better than a non-recon foot unit at spotting. (They get no spotting bonus, they just dont get the spotting penalty given to other vehicles).

Now I know where of my bigger troubles were. ¡Damn those t-60! [:@] Then, ¿should I assume the best recon units are the infantry scouts teams?

Thank you both for your answers [;)]

[FNG]

The two-man teams with their range set to 1 or zero work best in terms of stealth.

[Poopyhead]

Don't forget infiltrators. Set their range to zero and send them in deep so that along with scouts up front, you can get a more complete picture of the battlefield. I spend about a third of the game feeling out the enemy, winning the security/recon phase. Use your artillery to weaken targets that your recon units find. A screen of four man recon patrols make a good counter force to catch their scouts. Once you know where they are and they don't know the same about you, you can mass and attack their weak spots.

[rbrunsman]

The deeper the infiltrators attempt to penetrate, the lower they chance you actually have of them showing up, so don't infiltrate too deep.

[Poopyhead]

Just deep enough to get a Line Of Sight to the reinforcement hexes. Send multiple units or airborne troops if you have air superiority. Maybe you'll find the evil A0 and you can go for a head shot. I think Sun Tsu wrote that a good spy is worth a good army.

[Maciste]

What happens if I destroy A0? [&:][&:][&:]

[FlashfyreSP]

Loss of the Battalion Commander does a few things:

1. Lowers the force morale of your opponent's troops, making rallying somewhat harder each turn.

2. Removes any C&C benefit, such as extra orders for other units (only applies if playing with C&C on.)

3. Gives your opponent a quick 200 points to his total (the value of the A0 unit).

Basically, it is not a good idea to lose YOUR A0 unit, but it is very good if you eliminate your OPPONENT'S unit.

[Marek Tucan]

I'm playing SPMBT now, but mostly in non-TI times, so the recipe will work perhaps too:

As a recon, I use scouts on fast vehicles (Landrovers are great) with a direct support of ordinary mech infantry on some kind of fast APC. As the backup there is a MBT, again I prefer faster, even if it was weaker. Sometimes I use even light tanks (AMX-13, PT-76/75) The formation then looks like this:

.............................................Scout
............MBT
.............................APC...........................Scout
............MBT
.............................................Scout

for one recon "platoon" of my own. The number of scout teams may vary between 2-4, the number of MBT (depending on cost) 2-1. If the scouts have vehicles with good antipersonnel weapons, I omit the inf. squad (for example with the USA, I use 4 sections with M114s and as a backup a pair of M-60).

I usually use two-three (depends on size of force and map) such sections.

EDIT edited the formation to appear.

[Jim1954]

ORIGINAL: Maciste

What happens if I destroy A0? [&:][&:][&:]

One other thing. IIRC, when all of the VH's are captured, the opposing A0 has to make a morale check to see if the scen, battle continues. If he's dead, then he obviously fails it.

Of course, if you're doing so bad that the enemy has already captured all of them, you're in deep doo-doo anyway.[X(]

Make the A0 the HIGHEST priority target.