Platamon: Tanks at Platamon

[PnHobbit]

I put the AAR on my comcast webpage so I had an excuse to the use it.

Platamon: Tanks at Platamon AAR

The scenario went fairly well but again I think was kind of odd in the result of the enemy slowing the attack and I feel like I was largely saved by lack of order delays.

Any suggestions to help explain supply are welcome to if you've played this scenario and understand how to best get supply to troops. I don't think my troops got supply the first two days at all except for the Base unit. Also even later most of my supplies were destroyed, which I suppose I attribute to the enemies tanks having range to take out these trucks even if they weren't behind my lines.

Feedback welcome.

[Grotius]

Good read! I played this one recently (and in fact have an AAR I plan to post soon), and I got a Marginal Victory, about 5 points from a Decisive Victory. Did you try blowing either of the bridges near the railway station? I tried and failed to blow the light rail bridge, and in the process my engineer and another company took heavy losses. I did hold the castle ruins and railway for a good long time, as you did, but I had less success sneaking out under cover of darkness, again taking heavy losses as I withdrew. In fact a mortar company surrendered completely, and an HQ unit had to sneak its away across the entire Greek countryside to get back to its supply lines.

I had supply trouble in the north too. I'm still not sure I understand when and how supply is cut off. This was more of a problem for me in the third scenario I played, "Stemming the Tide."

Anyway, good show! You've encouraged me to post my own Platamon AAR, when I get a few minuts.

[MarkShot]

An observation ...

I took a quick look at the AAR. One thing that is worth noticing about the Ridge and the tunnels is that it is possible to situate an engineering unit in dead space (a LOS shadow) such that they can prime a tunnel with little threat of direct fire from the North-West. Perhaps, this might seem like an exploit, but then if you were out there trying to rig the tunnel to blow, you might try to accomplish your work while trying to avoid enemy fire.

I think in the Platamon scenarios, it is quite feasible to get at least one tunnel rigged to blow. Once that is done any unit can blow it. Once again, the dead space comes in handy when trying to blow the tunnel. A unit with orders to blow a tunnel or bridge deployed in a reverse slope situation stands a much better chance of carrying out its mission. Such a deployment will eliminate or reduce the amount of direct (and also indirect fire which can be laid down on the unit. Thus, the unit is likely not to be supressed when the first enemy units crests the rise. In the meantime, the enemy will be further hampered by bumbling into the defenders as opposed to deploying for a fire fight. So, there is a good chance that as soon as contact is made, you get a big boom.

I hope you find that useful.

[PnHobbit]

I did consider priming the bridge to explode but came under fire when I attempted to "Deny crossing". I didn't notice the safe spot or consider reverse slopes and so the unit could not sufficiently prime the bridge.

Both of you have provided VERY useful feedback. Another question that arised was this: "If I blow the bridge does holding the objective still give me points? I didn't know if blowing up the bridge I was said to be defending would turn it to contested where neither side benifits or what would happen.

[MarkShot]

Part of utilizing dead space for priming/blowing is knowing that as long as you are within 500M of the crossing then you get the desire behavior. Bring up the map and use the LOS tool and click a few times around the South East side of the ridge and you will see some nice dead space.

I believe you get the points whether you hold or blow a deny crossing objective.

Another thing that helps improve the odds of getting your units to blow a crossing (besides leaving a lonesome single unit to do the job) is making sure that the enemy makes contact at night. This works for the same reasons that dead space works (effectively darkness functions to create the LOS dead space). Of course, you may ask how can I make sure that the enemy will show up when I want? Well, if it is already night, then let them come. If it is daylight, then put a road block up the road somewhere and withdraw it when night falls. Don't think that PG implemented an AI without manners, it knows a proper invitation when it sees one.

[MarkShot]

Now, if you really want to exercise command authority and go out on a limb ... I have intentionally blown bridges that I was ordered to secure in order to protect against flanking by the enemy while waiting for my reinforcements to come up. Later when the reinforcements come and my line is strengthened I have had the engineers span the river again. It's for doing stuff like that you either get medals or get shot.

[Grotius]

I did prime the bridge using the "dead space" you mean, MarkShot. It didn't seem gamey at all to me; my guys were using the available cover. My trouble was blowing the bridge once primed. The Germans concentrated fire on the engineer and infantry unit I'd ordered to blow the thing, and one routed while the other was suppressed. The manual suggests that suppressing the enemy is best for blowing bridges, not the other way. And yes, I was trying to blow it during the day.

I'll post a full AAR soon. Too obsessed with the second tutorial right now...

[MarkShot]

And I have also done the opposite too ... intentionally left a bridge open that I was ordered to deny. Why? Well, if you want to know exactly where the enemy will cross a river nothing works better than leaving a heavy bridge along a main highway open. Like I said, the AI knows an invitation when it sees one.

But why do it? Well, suppose you plan on bringing every gun within a 50 mile radius of the bridge area into range and pre-register what will become the enemy's foothold on the your side, then you better be pretty sure what the enemy's intentions are. (Otherwise, you could easily find yourself flanked.) Then, you can concentrate your fire power and dig-in enough strength to permit their foothold, but prevent a breakout. Now, you have a nice kill sac. Later after pounding the daylights out of the enemy, you can counter-attack and retake the crossing.

Doing the above, the chance of getting shot is somewhat less, since you could well be captured by the enemy and end up being ranking officer in your POW camp. Another cheerful prospect ...

[Vance]

Ok long time lurker here. The release of COTA finally enticed me to join the discussion.

Is there anybody who managed to blow the Railway tunnel? The best I managed to get was blowing the Castle Hill Track and priming the Railway Tunnel, but the priming wasn't yet complete and blowing the tunnel failed.  From:

tm.asp?m=1087925

I understand the tunnel was blown in real live (btw a nice thread to reread once you have played the scenario).

PnHobbit, nice AAR, I like reading how others handle a scenario. I was quite amazed you send the base into the line. I used to do that in HttR as well because they weren't good for anything else. But in COTA I value the supplies to my line units more than the meager fire power the base provides. So I tried to keep the base out of harms way. I did get supplies, although some columns were dammaged once the Germans were over Castle Ridge.

[MarkShot]

Also, I believe, if the base should be forced to retreat that it loses half its stocks ... not a good thing ... I certainly wouldn't want to leave my tea, jam, and spam behind to those facist maniacs.

[Vance]

Yeaahaa.



The screenshot shows how I did it. Al says: "save often".

[MarkShot]

NICE!

[RedDevil]

Nice, yes, although the D Coy might have a different opinion [:D]

Still trying to get my head around this scenario, so please keep the AAR going [:)]

Cheers,

RedDevil

[RedDevil]

I played again this scenario trying to prime both bridges as Vance did, but having failed to blow them I started a more or less orderly retreat towards the village on the coast. Since I was clearly being overrun I formed a new defensive perimeter further south and as soon as the exit objective became active I left the map. Result: The game ended at 3am of day 4 (with 9 hours to go) and I obtained a decisive victory.
Problem is: is this cheating? I checked the objectives for the Axis and clearly they would have scored much more than the 7 points they scored if they had sufficient time to exit too... What do you think?

Cheers,

RedDevil

[Vance]

ORIGINAL:  RedDevil
Nice, yes, although the D Coy might have a different opinion [:D]

Well, somebody had to protect the engineers priming the tunnel. And they weren't stuck on the  wrong side of a river. They could retreat over the rough terrain where the tanks couldn't follow.

Here is how it ended.



I only redeployed my forces a little and let the senario run till the end. D Coy was again in the middle of the heat. Don't let the infobox fool you, it is not showing strength, it is showing supply line. Only one unit succeeded in crossing Castle Ridge, it was badly shot up, but I didn't react on it. It has a dramatic effect on my supply lines.

After the senario ended I toyed with the pathing tool and it shows clearly why one is supplied and the other not. (I used an image edior to get both path in one image).

[Vance]

ORIGINAL: RedDevil

I played again this scenario trying to prime both bridges as Vance did, but having failed to blow them I started a more or less orderly retreat towards the village on the coast. Since I was clearly being overrun I formed a new defensive perimeter further south and as soon as the exit objective became active I left the map. Result: The game ended at 3am of day 4 (with 9 hours to go) and I obtained a decisive victory.

Yes I did that too. The one time only the Castle ridge track blew and the germans came pouring throw the tunnel I appplied a collapsing bag tactic and exited my forces as soon as as the exit objective became active. I was amazed the senario ended when non of my forces where on the map. I too got a decive victory. I think the Germans should have got the VPs for the objectives it still could accomplish.

Problem is: is this cheating? I checked the objectives for the Axis and clearly they would have scored much more than the 7 points they scored if they had sufficient time to exit too... What do you think?

No. This is the way the game awarded the VPs.

I reloaded six saved games when things weren't going the way I wanted to blow both bridges. I call that cheating.

Normally I don't reload saved games it spoils the game, but in this case I wanted to see if it was possible to blow the tunnel.

[Grotius]

I'm impressed you blew that tunnel. I started priming it, but I realized it would take a LONG time, so I switched to the smaller tunnel to the southwest. I failed to blow that, but I still came within five points of a Decisive Victory.

This scenario was the only time I wondered about the AI: as I hovered near the exit points, it made no effort to move further south to maul me, or to take the last victory objective from me.