My first view of 5.01

Charles2222 · Post by **Charles2222** » Fri Jun 15, 2001 11:28 pm

A Semi-AAR report:

Visibility is 9. Fighting a hard battle with AI advantage on. Also have rarity off. This is the first time I've tried rarity off on 5.01.

Fighting as Gerry in Poland, and being assaulted. This is quite the dramatic battle. I've lost 6 tanks to artillery while entrenched. Not a single artillery round has damaged the tanks, they're all destroyed outright. Have lost maybe between 2-6 tanks due either to clumsiness, bravado, or typical assaults from the enemy.

The enemy has tried a new tactic. When the squad leader cries retreat, they come right towards our lines, quite frequently. This is most unfortunate, because the already abysmal visibility is further reduced by squads retreating forwards and laying smoke closer and closer to my lines.

I'm on turn 16 now, possibly the longest assault I've ever withstood (the Poles haven't captured a single objective and still they are fighting!), for one reason because so much of it is infantry (slower). I can report that my men have probably smashed anywhere between 30-50 squads, and still, on turn 16, I've witnessed maybe a dozen Polish units who have received their first casualty. There's no end to their assault.

When there seemed to be a small lull, and the artillery was giving my units greater risk then the hordes in front of them, the engineers were instructed to start clearing the mines they had laid earlier. They have refused these orders and it turns out quite rightly, as every Polish unit destroyed seems to bring two in it's wake. The situation is so desperate and at such close quarters, that the men are firing almost every single round they can during opfire. Even a serious counterattack in a somewhat quite northern area has turned up fresh Polish infantry that are as much as 1500 meters behind their front (how deep is this Polish army?) The only light of hope that has emerged to lift the mens spirits above the threat of Polish artillery catching back up, is that we have now spotted our first 46mm GL squads, which may mean they have very little left.

dbt1949_slith · Post by **dbt1949_slith** » Sat Jun 16, 2001 12:16 am

I just updated to 5.01 and am enjoying it immensly.I started with the Rif Rebellion of 1925.Now I haven't studied this battle but I was wondering---both the Rif and the Spanish seemed to have an awful lot of smoke grenades.Is this accurate or done for gameplay?I tried mowing down the Rifs with my armored car/trucks and got them wiped out.I wouldn't have thought the Rifs would do so well against armor.Learned a valuable lesson there.I noticed they were using "petrol bombs".Did they really use those in 1925 or was this done for gameplay? Also what's the use of the pack mules and wagons for the Spanish?I was a little confused there too.
Like I said' I know nothing of this battle just curious of some things.I really like the obscure battles and am looking forward to many hours of gameplay.Thanks!

Charles2222 · Post by **Charles2222** » Sat Jun 16, 2001 1:54 am

I surrendered the battle, experimentally, just to see what the Polish forces were like, as turn 17 found about another dozen units which had just then lost it's first man. I was seriously thinking there was something enormously wrong with the game; perhaps the destroyed units were respawning.

Well, it didn't appear they respawned, but on rough estimate they had like 550 units!!! And to think I didn't even have to face the 20 or so guns he had along the back line. Something has to be done about that, they shouldn't be back there, and this was a game with rarity off, so there was no reason to buy them either.

I also counted 11 of either the 100mm or 105mm artillery btys.

gators · Post by **gators** » Sat Jun 16, 2001 2:40 am

I'm not sure they're classic Molotovs, but, how much ordnance creativity would it take to field expedient a thrown explosive device. It is a very old concept.

Charles2222 · Post by **Charles2222** » Sat Jun 16, 2001 7:07 pm

A follow up here. I was fairly disgusted by the previous campaign because of all the armor artillery kills and the Polish guns being in the back.

This time I restarted another campaign with basically the same core force. This battle was under the same conditions as the prior one, only the Polish were advancing instead of assaulting, while I turned rarity on.

Well, to put it bluntly they were wimps. They were so wimpy in contrast that I decided to surrender to find out his forces. He had inflicted two armor losses, outright, though his artillery wasn't so bold, with a third only damaged for a change (I'm starting to wonder if this recent HEAT download has changed the artillery-to-armor effect). This time he had close to 40 ATGs out there about the middle of his defense, this time, instead of the back line. If I had been attacking, as inevitably I would, given such a weak attack, his defense would've been very good, but the only problem was that he was attacking me. I could've dodged the artillery all day long and still held the objectives easily.

I'm frustrated. It seems the only viable option in rarity off, for a decent fight, and then you have mega-artillery causing at least half of your tanks being destroyed. It's easy for me to come up with the conclusion that the artillery is so suddenly being deadly, because I've been playing as Gerry against the Poles so long that my soldiers are on a first name basis with them (constantly restarting campaigns, largely due to new versions of the game coming out, of course).