Dawn's First Light (soviets): a very close run thing (Spoilers)

[CaptCarnage]

This was a very scary scenario for me...

I completed it with a Tactical Victory but with 30% force left... So NATO was just a tad quicker reaching that 30 than me...

In this scenario there is a choice - go through center and south, or center and north. I took the first option.
You have a lot of attack Helo's in this scenario - I used 2 pairs to scout the north edge of the map and the other 2 pairs for the south edge. I sent one chopper through the center as to dip a toe into the water. The other choppers I kept in reserve.
All the rest of my units were ordered to move towards the enemy.

In the first turn I thought I was going to get butchered. There are a lot of SAMs nearby and you have to plow through a lot of obstacles and minefields - and those minefields take away a lot of units!
So I was ready to restart the scenario and try a different opening move - but not before I ordered all of my choppers towards the enemy center. This was going to be a massive flying sacrifice. Also the choppers I had sent to scout and who were now in the enemy's rear were directed towards the center to cause a few wrecks.

This helped a lot - as my armoured units kept plowing through and blowing up in the minefields my choppers had a ball although the enemy plucked them out of the sky as if they were huge clay pigeons. But it kept the enemy occupied while my red hammer was slowly coming down on the NATO anvil.

Anyway - I persisted in pressing on and even a few helos survived this whole ordeal - they came in very handy in the end game when I had to take out the (assumed) enemy reinforcements.

Interesting but sometimes frustrating scenario! Overall very good.

[CaptCarnage]

And the battlefield overview:

[Mad Russian]

Every scenario was designed to have strengths and weakness. If you ever think that you are overly strong in a particular scenario you should start to worry.

I play every scenario to the point where I get a draw. Some of them were played long ago and the tweaks to the game have moved the balance a bit. Unless the code moves the balance far off center I don't re-balance them. That and the fact that the AI changes how it plays by how you play, makes for some interesting battles at times. What I'm after is the first time you play it. When you are having to adjust your play to things that come out of the dark at you.

After that first play through I expect you to do better. Sometimes the AI actually gives you a worse result than you had before. But generally I expect the results to get better with each play through you do.

Good Hunting.

MR

[WABAC]

I was going to play this with the new update but I don't understand the mis-match between briefing and map.

[Mad Russian]

What mismatch are you referring to?

Good Hunting.

MR

[WABAC]

Never mind. I found the other Munster this morning with more coffee in my system. [:D]