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Hey All, I just got this game last night, and had a lot of fun with it the first night!

After watching the 5 minute introduction (thanks for making that whoever did!) on the ftp site, and glancing through the getting started manual, I decided to use that scenario (Tanks at P... something) as my tutorial. As you can tell I'm not much for directions but managed a decisive victory my 3rd or 4th time through. That was with no orders delay so I look at that sort of like cheating.

I had a total blast with the game and am itching to try it out later tonight! The only early criticism I had was my one problem with most continuous time games: The AI does not counter mass well and I felt like I had a cheap win.

The MLR was a battalion of New Zealanders dug in on a ridge protecting a pass and a railway tunnel. After pounding them with some 105's I frontally assaulted them with a Pz Battalion while simultaneously flanked them with an infantry battalion. I threw in some airstrikes as they became available. It felt wrong to me to have that many units concentrated to assault that small a space.

If anyone is familiar with the scenario... Did I get lucky with bad tactics? Was the scenario so heavily tilted to the germans that it's hard to lose that one? Was I not using as much mass as I thought?

Both of my battalions were ordered to assault the area, is this the correct thing? I kept feeling like I should have some units hanging back to lay down suppressive fire. Or is this something the AI battalion commanders will do on their own?

After the fight the infantry battalion was fairly spent so I let them dig in to defend the ridge, and the two meaty victory point squares. I sent the pz battalion down the rail line to clear out some other victory hexes, while sending a newly arrived Pz Grenadier battalion to penetrate and block the exit squares. They also took some minor victory points, and overran some arty and supply bases on the way.

Once I felt like I had the enemy on the run, I started using the Pz Battalion to overrun cut off units as the Pz Gren's blocked their retreat. I couldn't help but feel like I was being too aggressive there as each time an enemy was spotted the mob of Pz's went after them. At any rate - I'm hooked!

Also, I looked around pretty hard for a way to cancel a waypoint, but I couldn't find it, anyone have any ideas?

Hi Gnome & welcome to Airborne Assault!.

Actually I played Tanks and Platamon a few days ago as germans, with painfully realistic orders delay and still tore through the Aussies like butter; it's one of the easier ones I would say. Try Elasson Rearguard ALt 2 as germans and tell us if you can get better than a draw... (hint - read the German briefing). There are other more difficult ones as well.[8D]

Re: waypoints. you can delete or move them by selecting the waypoint and hitting the delete key or drag it to a new location respectively. You can even insert a new waypoint if you want. If you move the last one (the order location) though, you will suffer a delay as your force replans.

Have fun!

Hi The Gnome  
Tanks at Platamon is a good little scenario to start with.  Your direct attack has a much better chance of succeeding in this particular scenario, as the Germans do have an advantage and should win.  The Allied side has a tough task of both holding back a superior force, while extricating itself to exit points to the south.  No matter what you do, the Allied side will withdraw at some point.  The German capture of the tunnel does not guarantee a victory-there are many tasks that need to be accomplished further to the south. 

As for unit density, just wait until you fight your way through a mountain pass (arty is brutal).  One Bn concentrated in 1 sq km does not seem excessive at all for an offensive operation (for 1941).

Before you have too much sympathy for the AI, try the “painfully realistic” delay settings-this will definitely affect your advances.  The AI is really quite good; you will soon find yourself being defeated by it.  Human players should be better than the AI, but it still makes for a great sparring partner.  The greater the delay, the greater the requirement for accurate and realistic planning-this is what makes this the most realistic, challenging and rewarding operational game on the market.

Regarding the way point; I don’t recall if you can cancel one, but you can easily move it to another location.

  Welcome aboard.  

The Gnome,
 
Welcome.
 
It's good to see others have responded already. Thanks guys.
 
Re unit density. In WW2 the average Inf Bn attacked on a 600m front. In covered terrain this could reduce to 3-400m. So yes they should end up concentrated. The average bombardment zone of a 105mm arty Bn ( 12 guns ) was around 150 x 150m, which is about the size occupied by one company.

Another n00b here. Broke down and got the game, I went through tutorial 1. It's really easy when someone is holding your hand and you have a patsy.

Then I played Tanks at Platamon. My first try I tried to probe the tunnel area with my Krad battalion, major mistake. My next try I pushed that battalion southwest towards Panteleemon, took it, then started moving southeast to outflank the whole Allied position. When the other units showed up, they moved up, and just overran the tunnel in a determined attack. I set up the tank unit to fire on the ridge constantly. Having the Krad battalion moving in from the rear really shook up the defenders. Played with Realistic orders delay, Decisive German win.

Lots of fun. Takes a bit of getting used to letting the HQ unit manage its sub-units. I had an itchy finger to micromanage things. I'm sure with the bigger scenarios I'll _have_ to let it go.

I think next is a Maleme scenario.

You are correct, it is entirely different with the orders delay! Very nice! I played through Tanks at Platamon again, and the AI fought me to a draw the first time. I managed to take all the objects and block the exits (can you actually capture the exits, or just defend them?) but couldn't get the enemy to surrender - which I assume is what was pushing me over the edge for a decisive victory previously.


This is from memory, so details may be confused. The second time through under painfully realistic I played the exact same tactics. Here's the mini AAR:
Day 1:
Made a tight hook with the inf battalion to take the far right objective, while probing the ridge with the independent infantry company. Once the right hook is performed, pull the probing infantry back to woods over the river.

Rest everyone the entire night. This was straight from the excellent intro video, thanks again to whoever did that!

Day 2:
Enemy is content to pound me with artillery fire, and is probing around with the infantry company I had pushed out of the town. My units are in really good shape fatigue-wise and are itching to get back in the action. Early morning the regiment artillery arrives and I am expecting my panzer battalion later in the morning/early afternoon. A motorized infantry battalion is expected late afternoon.

My plan is to launch a coordinated attack on the ridge with the panzers attacking frontally to pin the enemy in place, and running the infantry behind them to hopefully capture the lot of the defenders. The only trick is going to be how fast my infantry can make it over that ridge, and what shape they're in after they make it over as I assume they're going to be under fire the whole time. Hopefully the panzers will draw most of the attention.

Morning:
The arty arrives and begins to hammer on the ridge and the roaming inf company that won't go away. The enemy is content to sit still and hit me with artillery. An airstrike is made available to me mid morning and I decide to hit the ridge with it.

Afternoon:
The panzers (including the regimental HQ) show up around the crack of noon and I put my plan in action. I set the waypoints for my infantry to cross the ridge as far from the defenders as possible using the quickest route. Then run along the ridge and attack the backside of the defenders. I set their parameters as speed: fastest, route: quickest, agro: max, ROF: rapid.

The panzer battalion is set to march down the rail line, cross the two rivers, assemble in front of the ridge, and assault it directly. Really subtle, but hopefully effective. speed: normal, route: quickest, aggressive stance, rapid fire.

I order the regiment hq and the independent infantry company to the town on the far right that the infantry battalion is now departing.

Quickly things start going wrong, but improve markedly through the day. The artillery runs out of ammo before the assault begins. Whoops.

The infantry crossing the ridge is going a LOT slower than I had hoped, and comes under fire from both artillery and the ridge defenders. This is having the benefit taking the heat off of the panzers who are forming up for the assault almost completely unmolested.

The infantry is firing on the move as it crosses the ridge, and the panzers seem to really be kicking out some firepower as the defenders seem to be fidgeting around quite a bit.

By mid afternoon the heat is off of the infantry crossing the ridge, and they have managed to get 2 inf companies and the anti-tank company across. The panzer, recon, and mortar company are making painfully slow progress, but are moving. I decide to halt the mortar platoon where it is. It has good cover on the ridge, the enemy is in range, and decide to manually set it's fire missions on the ridge defenders.

The panzer battalion is enjoying an unexpected level of success. They have pushed 2 companies onto the ridge and have taken the castle ruins. The defenders have been pushed into a bunch, and another air strike is called in on top of them as the mortar platoon pounds them. I'm not sure how much damage I'm doing to them, but it can't be good.

late Afternoon/Early Evening
As the afternoon wears on the infantry as completed its ridge crossing and starts to move towards the railway tunnel. The panzers are having such success though, that they have taken it. As their fatigue is high, I change the infantry's orders to take up blocking positions to keep any ridge defenders from escaping.

At this time the motorized infantry platoon arrives, and my plan is to move them up to the friendly side of the ridge, and rest them through the night.

The night is filled with frustration, as the enemy escapes my trap. I thought the blockers would attempt to keep them from escaping but they sneaked through the cracks. I wish there was a way to tell my commanders to enforce the encirclement but if there was I couldn't figure it out. One day I'll read the manual!

Throughout the night, supplies are requested and arrive at my units including the quiet artillery. I'll try to be more judicious with them tomorrow. We'll see if I am successful.

Day 3:
Well this is it, all my forces have arrived including a pioneer inf company and my supply base.

The infantry battalion is spent. I order them to take up defending positions on the railway tunnel and castle ruins. Barring an emergency their battle is done.

I order my panzer battalion to move down the rail line on the far left. It's objectives are to capture victory points, and destroy any enemy in their way. Their ending point are the exit squares.

I order the motorized infantry battalion to move through my positions on the ridge and make a right hook into the interior. They will roll down a road with the same objective as the panzers. The will also run down the units that escape the trap on the ridge. Their end point it to meet the panzers at the exit squares in a pincer movement.

It doesn't work. Both the panzers and the mot. inf. brush aside what they encounter and capture their objectives. I detach a company from the inf. battalion and move the pioneer inf company to hold the objectives so my mobile forces can move on without losing strength.

By early afternoon I control all the victory squares, and the exits. All of my force is concentrated at the exit squares, but I have only managed to capture 2 enemy infantry companies. It looks like a minor victory or a draw unless I can do something more.

I decide to use the panzers to hold the exits, and the very fresh motorized inf. to assault an area where a concentration of enemy units has gathered to hide. They are completely beaten on and just need a little convincing to surrender.

As the motorized infantry reaches the objective there is one immediate surrender of an artillery unit. That seemed to do it for the enemy force commander who offered me a complete surrender, which I accepted.

Allied Losses:
1300 men
14 AFVs
11 Guns

Axis Losses
200 men
3 AFVs
8 Guns


Sorry I don't have some screen shots!

Very good Gnome, you are learning quickly. 
There is another way to achieve the decisive victory w/o completly destroying the Allied force;block his exit attempts, while exiting your own units to the south.  You just must be careful about what you leave behind, as the Allied side (especially under a nasty human) will get rather vicious around the southern AO.
 
There is still much to learn from the tutorials-bang them out.
 
If you would like to try your plan against a human [;)](mostly), just let me know (no, no ladder game guys).

I think you would mop the floor with me lol. Once I get the mechanics down I may be tempted to try a human opponent, at least then I'd know how I was getting my butt kicked!

Thanks for the tip on exiting my units. I thought there was a more elegant way to achieve my objectives. I probably could have safely moved the entire panzer bat. and 3/4's of the mot. inf. if my objective was just to hold the objective squares. The enemy at that point was down to a handful of badly mauled infantry. His supply base was captured, as was all of his arty.

If I was playing a human, I doubt I would have achieved anywhere near that level of success - although that was a very lopsided scenario!

Whenever you are ready, just contact me.  There are folks here that can help you get set up for multi-play also.