Urban Warfare Tip

[Goblin]

Newbies,

When defending in an urban setting, and an enemy unit pops into the building next to you, you will gain an advantage by not (thats right folks, not) firing the instant you see him. Even if he sees you, wait a second.

If you fire first, you will shoot at them with a very low percentage, such as 2 or 3%. You have then exposed yourself, and they shoot back at a much higher %, maybe 10-15, give or take. Let him shoot first, and the percentages are reversed! He shoots at you with a low number, you rally if necessary, then BLAMMO let him have it.

If the enemy unit is an engineering unit with a flamethrower, let them have it right then and there; you won't get a second chance!

Goblin

[chief]

GOBLIN: How true, how true, cough cough cough, phew is it getting warm in here or is it..... ....... ....

[Goblin]

LOL:D :p


Goblin

[WhiteRook]

Now that is a nice tip for sure! This can be a real fault of mine, at least 60% of the time I do not bother to check precentages. Been playing for years and still only check things like that mabe a once in a while!

[bigtroutz]

ummm, how about when an enemy unit pops up, you paste him with fire from 3 units....lol

seriously, its useful to fire from the more distant units to make it use up its op fires, then blaze away with the contiguous unit, unless the contiguous unit is an engineer, in which case, fry him with that unit 1st.

anyway, blast the sucker with 60mm mortar fire so he WONT fire the next turn, THEN paste him or, if you are feeling brave, use your 81mm mortar, especially if its close to the action.

[panda124c]

Put light scouts in front of your Main Line Of Resistance with the range set to 0 then you will know where they are coming from so you can position your MLR to have multiple units fire on one unit. I like using the ATRs, scouts, and snipers with a little luck the enemy will walk right by them and never see them.

[ivantheterrible]

I set the firing range to 0 for my scouts/recon teams when I hide them in a covered area (building, rough, trees, etc.) with good view of the battle field to just watch the enemy activity without shooting at them. Often the enemy units move right past you, in the adjacent hexes without discovering you. Occassionally you get discovered by an enemy infantry (or even a tank that rolls by if you'll unlucky). In that case you usually lose that unit but no big deal as it's only 10 points or so.

However, I noticed one thing, if the enemy unit moves INTO you hex then your unit will still initiate combat, thereby exposing itself. I wish there's another setting (such as -1 range, for example) which will instruct the unit to NOT initiate shooting unless it's shot at first, since there's a good chance that an enemy tank even if moved into your hex will still not discover you if you hold your weapons still.

To me, the scout is much more valuable as a watcher than as a combatant, which it's NOT good at. Most of the time it fails the tank assult (or loses the infantry shoot-out) and is eliminated. In real battles I'd imagine that a scout would not assult every tank that rolls by within 50 yards if he's pretty sure that he's still undiscovered.

[Capt. Pixel]

Pbear, IvanTT

This is the technique that I use, too.

And it bears repeating:

One needs to remember that a scout unit is your eyes. They are NOT combatants except in the most dire of situations. And then they're usually dead anyway.

Crews from destroyed or abandoned vehicles work well in this capacity too. I don't know if a crew from a scout vehicle retains it's scout recon ability. Nonetheless, a few more pair of eyes watching enemy movements is always going to give you and advantage.

"If I am able to determine the enemy's dispositions while at the same time I conceal my own I can concentrate and he must divide. And if I concentrate while he divides, I can use my entire strength to attack a fraction of his. .." -
Sun Tzu on Weaknesses and Strengths Tha Art of War.

[ravensclaw]

surely to use crews from destroyed vehicals in this way is bad if you are mid campaign as they hopefully hav gained some xp by then and although they may hav had their wheels shot out from under them in the next mission they are back in a nice shiny new one ready to deal out some much needed revenge with better chances to hit and spot enemy units

all for the sake of spotting a few enemy a bit earlier which by that time you hopefully have already targeted with the necessary firepower or they're going to do it again to the next unit


i can see their usefulness in single missions cos as crew they are only worth a few point

just my humble opinion:)

[WhiteRook]

Yep I go through way to many scouts in my games! Bad habit of mine that I have been slowly correcting!
Oh I have favorites that I try protect, but always thought of them as cannon fodder for the most part!
Wild Bill always used to give me a hard time as I would use my Amtrac's to scout inland, I figured once I had my force ashore they were just in the way don't ya know! I guess I really do have a mean streak in me after all!

[zaxilon]

Although I dont recommend you do this it will accomplish what you are trying to do. If you deactivate all of the weapons of your scouts or recon units you dont want to fire during opp fire, then they wont fire, period. But.... They wont fire until you reactivate a weapon either.

IMHO, the opp fire mechanics of SPWAW still needs some work. I want more control of which of my units fire at what and when during my opponents movement. I am pretty certain that I am vastly more qualified to make the tactical decision as to what target is of more strategic or tactical value at any given moment during a battle than any AI program I have ever heard of. I am not trying to hack at SPWAW, I dont know of any computer system which really works this delimma very well.

Being an old gamer with my roots in miniature gaming on sand tables with micro-armor long before the advent of the personal computer there are many aspects of the battlefield which are not well modeled in computer games. Eventually I am sure this will be corrected.

Later,
Zaxilon