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Tips with some scenarios


Agiel

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Thought I'd get a thread going for some help with some scenarios and hopefully sharpen up my tanking skills.

How have you guys managed to complete the Heroes of Hohenfels part I scenario? It seems that taking position in the prepared defenses the platoon immediately sets out for is a sure ticket to death (not to mention the fact that it doesn't give you a very clear line of fire, and more often than not the barrel doesn't even clear the mound of dirt in front of it). I've tried going in forward and going hull-down for a defense in depth, but it seems the AI is real spot-on with its artillery spotting, and you can only realistically kill 3-5 units before you have to reposition before an ICM strike rains down on you. I'm spamming the hell out of my own ICM strikes as well, but that does little to stop the Red Tide when it finally crests. Should I leave the BRDMs and BTRs to the Marders and not-Luchses and save my ammo for the BMPs and T-72s?

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The Heroes of Hohenfels scenarios are pretty old. When they were originally made I managed to wrest a big victory once out of maybe ten attempts, and a minor victory in maybe four of those ten attempts.

I wouldn't rule out that modifications to the vulnerability models of the various vehicles and changes for the terminal ballistic performance of the ammunition used in this scenario may have tipped the balance to the user's disadvantage.

In any case, it was designed to be a substantial challenge from the get go. Pretty much every round that you fire must hit (and ideally kill or at least seriously damage) the target. You cannot afford to waste your artillery support, you need to move back and forth between the different emplacements (you can't afford sticking to any of them for long). You need to be in the middle or rear position when the BTRs come flooding out of the forests, and you may need to swallow your pride and call for reinforcements in a timely fashion, even if that is more or less guaranteed to prevent a "major" victory.

Oh, and even if it is a "major" victory, do not expect to repel two motorized battalions with a single tank platoon and a Grenadiers company without "getting your hair mussed", to paraphrase the immortal words of General Turgidson.

You may even be forced to let a few units slip through your sector, and go after them while they are racing to the final objective beyond your position.

The good news is, the valley will essentially funnel the enemy towards a head-on assault, where you at least have superior equipment. The individual BTR and the T-72s are no match for the Leopards individually, as long as you can keep them at bay. Once that your position is threatened to get overrun however you are usually in big trouble.

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The Heroes of Hohenfels scenarios are pretty old. When they were originally made I managed to wrest a big victory once out of maybe ten attempts, and a minor victory in maybe four of those ten attempts.

I wouldn't rule out that modifications to the vulnerability models of the various vehicles and changes for the terminal ballistic performance of the ammunition used in this scenario may have tipped the balance to the user's disadvantage.

In any case, it was designed to be a substantial challenge from the get go. Pretty much every round that you fire must hit (and ideally kill or at least seriously damage) the target. You cannot afford to waste your artillery support, you need to move back and forth between the different emplacements (you can't afford sticking to any of them for long). You need to be in the middle or rear position when the BTRs come flooding out of the forests, and you may need to swallow your pride and call for reinforcements in a timely fashion, even if that is more or less guaranteed to prevent a "major" victory.

Oh, and even if it is a "major" victory, do not expect to repel two motorized battalions with a single tank platoon and a Grenadiers company without "getting your hair mussed", to paraphrase the immortal words of General Turgidson.

You may even be forced to let a few units slip through your sector, and go after them while they are racing to the final objective beyond your position.

The good news is, the valley will essentially funnel the enemy towards a head-on assault, where you at least have superior equipment. The individual BTR and the T-72s are no match for the Leopards individually, as long as you can keep them at bay. Once that your position is threatened to get overrun however you are usually in big trouble.

Forwards Comrades! For Glorious Soviet Union!!! :biggrin:

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I should also say that I don't believe that the game development doctrine of "perfect balance" should apply to a combat simulation. Sometimes you're getting handed an impossible mission. Keep in mind that for the military mind set, it's a fair fight only when your chances of winning are at 100%.

There is, by the way, a rather theoretical chance that Red commits the reserve along the other valley. In order to achieve that you have to inflict more severe losses than what will happen to the othe BTR battalion to your sounth-east. Given that they will run into an entire Leopard company plus well prepared mine obstacle and artillery strike, well, chances are that the enemy will rather send the rest towards your position.

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I should also say that I don't believe that the game development doctrine of "perfect balance" should apply to a combat simulation. Sometimes you're getting handed an impossible mission. Keep in mind that for the military mind set, it's a fair fight only when your chances of winning are at 100%.

There is, by the way, a rather theoretical chance that Red commits the reserve along the other valley. In order to achieve that you have to inflict more severe losses than what will happen to the othe BTR battalion to your sounth-east. Given that they will run into an entire Leopard company plus well prepared mine obstacle and artillery strike, well, chances are that the enemy will rather send the rest towards your position.

The companies on the flanks seem to die as soon as the scenario starts. Or they spawn as completely inactive.

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry for reviving this thread, but...

Came back to this sim after a while and thought I'd play through the "Deliberate Assault" missions, and for the life of me I can't get an acceptable number of tanks to secure OBJ Viking in the first scenario "Hurricane at Fulda" fairly unscathed (or with enough ammo to repel the impending reinforcements. In spite of the fact that I managed to get a 100% rating in the Tank Gunnery Range the AI tankers in my company are unable to score hits on the tanks in prepared defences, and they expend all of their sabots trying to do so. I've tried nuking that entire position with ICM barrages but most of those T-72s are hardy enough to shrug the submunitions off with light damage.

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Sorry for reviving this thread, but...

Came back to this sim after a while and thought I'd play through the "Deliberate Assault" missions, and for the life of me I can't get an acceptable number of tanks to secure OBJ Viking in the first scenario "Hurricane at Fulda" fairly unscathed (or with enough ammo to repel the impending reinforcements. In spite of the fact that I managed to get a 100% rating in the Tank Gunnery Range the AI tankers in my company are unable to score hits on the tanks in prepared defences, and they expend all of their sabots trying to do so. I've tried nuking that entire position with ICM barrages but most of those T-72s are hardy enough to shrug the submunitions off with light damage.

Never played the mission.

But I would re-evaluate your tactics. make best use of your tanks superior fire control and Range advantage.

shoot and scoot don't sky line.

As for your Arty try reducing the size of the area you bombard

The smaller the area the more concentrated the munitions will be.

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...for the life of me I can't get an acceptable number of tanks to secure OBJ Viking in the first scenario "Hurricane at Fulda" fairly unscathed (or with enough ammo to repel the impending reinforcements.

I just tried this scenario for the first time in a long time and my forces were pretty much wiped out, as well. :gen004: A look at the AAR showed that I advanced too quickly (tanks didn't have time to reload), didn't use enough arty, and let my units waste too much ammo.

I think a good strategy here is to be patient. Use as much arty as possible to delay the enemy. And maybe limit your units' engagement range. I'm going to try it again and see if I can follow my own advice.

Don't forget to review your AARs thoroughly. They will provide valuable lessons about what went right, and what went wrong. Good luck! :gun:

...Oh, and don't forget: you have smoke (grenades and arty)...use it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is an AAR (37.21MB zipped!) of what might be my best attempt so far. I thought I did...okay. But SB thinks I was defeated. :mad3:

I did modify the scenario a little. But only some waypoint and route tactics for blue. (I got annoyed at all the unloading/loading of troops by the engineers.) And I changed all of the fire control tactics to "no change" and set the initial limit to 1500m for the first half of the assault. Then switched to "at will" for the second half. Didn't touch red.

Anyway, I got pretty roughed up by the enemy. At the end, my infantry was rushing to meet what was left of the enemy infantry as our medic was tending to the injured and the rest of us were resupplying. I just didn't have enough time to get any units back to OBJ Viking. Fun times! :gun:

------------------------------------

DEFEAT

mission score: 485.5 out of 1000.0.

Blue:

Total kills (Vehicle) = 76

Total losses (Vehicle) = 13

Total fratricides (Vehicle) = 0

------------------------------------

Red:

Total kills (Vehicle) = 13

Total losses (Vehicle) = 76

Total fratricides (Vehicle) = 0

------------------------------------

user score: 0.0 out of 0.0.

mission score: 485.5 out of 1000.0

Hit percentage = 50% (2 out of 4)

Average time to kill = 34.9 seconds

User kills (Vehicle) = 1

User losses (Vehicle) = 1

User fratricide (Vehicle) = 0

Kills by units under your command = 62

Losses under your command:

tanks: 10% (1 out of 10)

PCs: 16% (1 out of 6)

personnel: 11% (3 out of 26)

Others: 0% (0 out of 2)

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I played this scenario yesterday and it worked out pretty well but I think this was due to pure luck. :bigsmile:

Here is what I noticed:

So the first part with breaching the minefield and arriving at PL Knife went without Problems. Altough one tank of 1/A was immobilized because of HE arty.

After that your tanks will make a stop and wait for you to trigger their advance to the assault position. I used that halt to let them reload their rounds and I made sure that every single tank of 1/A and 3/A has Sabots loaded.

Then I gave the order to advance. I changed the speed of 1/A and 3/A from fast to slow because in my experience the AI tends to be blind as a mole. They cant spot the bright-glowing, dug-in t-72s dead ahead in obj viking. As a result they drive too far and expose their weak lower glacis plate and the drivers hatch. But now they have more time to react and will not be as vulnerable.

In this phase 3/A lost one tank because they are moving in echelon left formation :confused:. I recommend changing that to wedge or line because there are no signs of the enemy breaking through the forest on the left. IMHO it is crucial here to keep 1/A and 3/A in one line because they do a pretty decent job covering each other. So they arrived at the assault position. Here again I used the stop to reload and ordered every single tank to load sabot.

This halt has a positive side effect because while your tanks are reloading a whole bunch of T-72s arrive from the NE (AA02). But they drive straight into an ambush from supporting 1/B in the east.:gun:

The next phase was the attack on obj viking. This went without problems because there was not much resistance left. Again I tried to keep 1/A and 3/A move as simultaneously and slow as possible. In obj viking i kept 3/A on overwatch while 1/A advanced to their BP. Then 1/A provides cover for 3/A to reach their BP and now the real battle begins ...:clin:

Now the red tide sets in along AA01: T-72s and BMPs stream down the road from the NW towards your position. I didn't expect what happened next because I lost not a single tank in this engagement. Only one was immobilized. So I have to admit that I was damned lucky in this situation. Finally as the time ran out there were only a few troops and BMPs left who didn't dare to advance any further.

Concluding I have to say that this is not a scenario that can be won from the gunners seat. Most of the time I stayed in the Co or Xo tank and left the dirty work to 1/A and 3/A :clin:. I had enough to do to coordinate their movements so I tried to remain always a little behind the main attacking force. Furthermore I ordered not a single arty strike during the whole scenario. Mostly because I forgot about it in the heat of the moment :c:. On the other hand I think you will have a hard time hitting something because almost every enemy vehicle is moving in this scenario.

Thanks if you were brave enough to read this novel!

Best regards

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I am afraid that is a very dumb question but I have read your post Lt DeFault and you uploaded your AAR. I also saved mine so now I have the question how to upload files here. Sorry I am a noob in the forums.:frown:

Thanks in advance!

Edit: So I packed the aar. file in a rar. file But it is still too big (18.8Mb). Is there a way to shrink the file any further?

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You can attach files to a post with the "manage attachments" button under the box where you type a reply, but for files larger than 15MB, you usually need to link to them elsewhere. Besides that, I try not to take up too much of eSim's bandwidth. I use a free service called "Dropbox" to host files such as that AAR.

When using a service like "Dropbox", you upload the file to the service, then copy the link to that file and paste it in the reply box along with your message. Or you can make it a click-able link by using BB Code like so:

[noparse]click-able text goes here[/noparse]

So, for the "BB code" link above, I typed:

[noparse]BB Code[/noparse]

EDIT: No way I know of to shrink AARs further.

Edited by Lt DeFault
Clarity
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