Mines and engineers...

[CatLord]

Newbies' questions:

Having troubles playing the Brits in my first SP campaign since a looooong time, I currently enjoy "defending" more than "assaulting" (and ever more than "advancing", as my UK tanks do not match PanzerIIIh at all, early 42).

I recently discover the fact that Engineers could now (well since SP1 :rolleyes: ) set mines in front of them and find it very useful.

My actual tactic to "defend" against the AI, is to set forts around hilly position with VH (the AI tend to concentrate all its fire on forts, I don't know why), minefields just at the border of my forts' LOS (-1 hex, so that I can shoot at Engineer trying to remove my mines), and UK engineers just behind the line of mines -1 hex, landing more mines every turn to increase the depth of the minefield.

It is true my engineers do not put a lot of mines on the ground (generally 1 or 2), but as I only move them one hex at a time, backward (as soon as they have mined a new hex in fact), they sometimes could travel a long way before being spotted by the AI, and I increase the depth of the minefield easily from one to 3-5 hexs (most of the maps in the desert are so that you set your minefield ~10 hex away from the hill with VH, so quite close from your forts and retreat position from the engineers when they have finish their work - of course I prepared them fortified hex by using the entrench button during deployment with them on the hill, and move them to the front afterward just before quiting deployment menu... is that cheating ?).

As there is no way to tell if a hex contains 1, 2 or 10 mines, from opponents point of view, that slows the AI a lot, and I can aim at its tanks and engineers and rifles squads (to prevent them removing the mines) from the hills, and gain a lot of time (which is essential when you defend 15VP/turn hex)...

Now:
- Is that a standard tactic ?
- Is it realistic or is it a game trick ? (I realise it is quite unfair that during a game my engineers could land as many mines as I want without counting, I haven't seen a max ammo number for their mines, so I believe there is none...)
- Any idea to improve it ?
- Any better tactics ?

Cat

[VikingNo2]

Gary told me that if you buy mines and don't deploy them your engineers will place them much faster, I have not tried it though.

Heres is a tip smoke 1 hex in front of the mines that way when the opponet tries to clear them or gets caught in them you don't have to worry about long range counter fire.