[Mobhack]

Me, I don't really bother too much about moving FOOs around - place them on a big hill in back and provided visibility is good you can see plenty. But I'm entirely happy to fire blind with them. (MBT is different - with access to radars or TI).

FOOS are expensive (esp in MBT with the toys!) - I only ever buy one. First item I buy in a core, so it appears right after A0 on the lists. His experience is vital for speed of call, so I never ever risk him.

Experience is primarily for speed of call, I go for the British system
- speed of response comes before any worries about accuracy - just plaster the intended area!.
- And have lots of it. It is your army's forte.
- Fire in big concentrations, don't as a rule dot arty all over the map. Drop a big sledgehammer, work the target area for 2-4 turns or so, then apply the mallet to whatever else needs a hammering.

Reserve the small on-map e.g. mortar sections/inf guns to support individual rifle coys or to pester any enemy mortars in range etc. Rifle coy HQs can call for fire, so use them - as experience grows in calling fires then their arty skill grows. Don't lose experienced coy HQS (avoid melees!).

Why charge right at the victory hexes (unless it is a good defensive area?) - set up an overwatch in a U-shaped ambush on your side and let the AI find it. Victory hexes are only totted up at end game. So no great rush - walk the grunts to them. In the meantime, whittle down his tank force.

Greatest priority really is to push the North and South flanking armour and/or carrier borne ATG so they can fire into the flanks of the central German push. If the flanking party meets a big pack doing a flank attack on their flank - then hold back and shoot them when they eventually divert towards the V-hexes is probably best. Essential that the flank armour and the central one all can fire at the same targets (must be reasonably in LOS of the middle one anyway, and not too far away - within ~30 hexes or so, depends on visibility too). Mutual support is a must.

ATG should never be in trucks, really. Too fragile, though 15cwt class is fast. The bren carrier can carry ATG, as can half-tracks and are far better as being shell-proof (plus can biff up any infantry with their MGs). Essential to deploy ATG out of LOS - crew can push them the final hex or 2 if necessary.

Trucks for the support weapons are worthless, unless you actually relocate them a lot. Plus as they increase in value from added experience then the enemy will get more points to play with but they cannot do anything with it (e.g. fire at something). Consider giving to a rifle platoon (cross attach) and upgrade to half-track. Gives you a mobile mech inf platoon for recce or objective grabbing. Get the one with a 12.7mm AAG - useful if the Luftwaffe shows up.

Yes - as you increase in experience then your core will grow in value. So the enemy will have relatively more points to spend. Duh!. (Why do folks have to keep being told this blindingly obvious fact over and over and over again?)...

That is one reason not to have worthless or expensive but limited value stuff in your core. e.g. trucks you do not use, flak if the enemy does not appear with planes much, costly ammo bunkers (as opposed to ammo trucks), armoured engineer vehicles. Too many ammo vehicles (if you find you are not using those in games). Anything that sits idle a lot and is expensive. Buy those from support points if you can get away with it. Artillery batteries (esp (+) types!) are rather expensive, so do not go overboard with core arty. One battery for a battalion (3-4 coys) - so 2 troops of 25pdr, 3 at the outside probably.

Andy