Question: Anyone ever played Right-hand vs. Left-hand?

[Aeraaa]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

They only exist in the first place for admin/logistic/training purposes, none of which is terribly relevant in actual combat.

Not only that. Keeping all your support assets together gives the commander the freedom to deploy them in the most optimal way deemed necessary. He may ditribute them evenly among all companies, or that one company that is expected to be attacked by armor getting all the AT assets, or only two companies getting indirect fire support, or that one company not getting any support etc.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by Aeraaa

Not only that. Keeping all your support assets together gives the commander the freedom to deploy them in the most optimal way deemed necessary. He may ditribute them evenly among all companies, or that one company that is expected to be attacked by armor getting all the AT assets, or only two companies getting indirect fire support, or that one company not getting any support etc.

True.
But for game purposes it's usually better to have them evenly distributed as you can't usually be sure where the main attack/defense will be.

If you really want to distribute them yourself then you can buy formations without support weapons, then buy the support units and play with the editor. If you don't use Command Control then you don't even need to bother attaching them to platoons/companies.

[shahadi]

It depends on a few factors such as: map size, battle type, and force composition. I always distribute my weapons between my rifle companies. I build in Mobhack formations for company, platoon, and squads with the weapons integrated. If air is not contested, I won’t deploy MANPads. If there are no enemy tanks, I’ll use inf-ATGM but with HE to target enemy infantry units. In short, depending on the mission, the composition of the force varies with what weapons and how they are loaded. I may put an infantry company to field without mortars.

As far as scouts, snipers, trucks, ammo carriers and the like, they are not put of a weapons company.

Now, in the game universe, each formation has a leader. You want to keep your subordinate units nearby the leader for rally and suppression recovery, etc. So, now map size is extremely important. If you have a large map and your weapons company is in the back, then you have to account for a lot of turns to get say a MG crew forty hex to support a rifle squad (at 5 hex per turn.) So, you keep your platoons together so that they can support each other in a fight in whatever formation (column, wedge, line, etc).

Now, scouts should cover your flanks and forward positions, but not as fighters, just to report to you where the bad guys are. Besides, they are not part of weapons anyway.

The one platform that will give your company or battalion the muscle against armor or the unexpected attacks is attack helos. They are mobile, quick, and pack a big punch. They are the cornerstone of the Land/Air battle doctrine of the USA since the 80’s. The Marines use a much similar approach but with more coordination between company commanders and what they call their air elements. In the game, attack helos are not part of the weapons company, but they can be crucial on the battlefield giving you the commander, the desired flexibility spoken of in earlier posts.

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[Mobhack]

One way to play yourself is to go back to the old ways of playing board games or tabletop model soldier wargaming. Solitaire play was always something that came up in wargaming magazines etc. Some hex-based cardboard games even had solitaire rules included, I think?.

Make a list of possible ways to do things and then roll a die or pick a card and reference the list. Then do what you told yourself to do.

e.g. make up a list of possible game strategies at the start then roll
1) Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle. Everyone goes straight forward from where deployed.
2) Attack on his left flank only
3) Attack on his right flank only
4) Pincer - attack on both flanks, refusing the centre
5) Central attack - refuse on both flanks
6) Some other bright idea (e.g. in a meeter - perhaps "advance to the half way line, then let him come to me")

Then before setup (if not a scenario) you roll your die or pick your card and play the game as determined by that. If a scenario, you need to look at how the designer has your force set up initially, as it may restrict your options.

If you want to decide things during the game, maybe make up lists of things a company (say) should do - hold and shoot - cautious advance - all out fast attack etc. Or before playing a particular unit determine a few options in your head and roll a dice to decide which.

Or you could make a set of "tactical cards" with what a company should do and pick one for each per turn. You could if you wanted make up say 50 index cards (from office supply shops) with everything but the kitchen sink included. You could have a stack of cards for "offensive" oriented formations and one for "defensive". Some should be "do nothing" actions - I.e. sit and reserve shots for opfires. A couple of the cards may be marked "shuffle the deck", in which case you reshuffle and pick a fresh one.

A company probably would be the best size of decision unit, other than for skirmish level games.

You may want to roll a die if say the unit has an option to fire at several units - 1,2,3 the nearest MBT, 4,5 nearest non AFV, 6 nearest grunt or ATG perhaps, or simply figure out to yourself in your head the most likely and assign it 1,2,3 and then 4,5 for the next most logical target, and finally 6 for the third.

But figure out a scheme that works for you - and try not to cheat against yourself.

[DRG]

Another way I have played the game when I feel like playing something short or different is set up a game AI vs AI.....you can pick for either side or let the AI do it. Start the game....go do something else for 15 minutes then come back and take over one ( or both ) sides....think of it as you are the replacement commander brought it to stabilise a situation.......just another variation to explore. It can sometimes be very interesting

[scorpio_rocks]

A variant of DRG's suggestion above, would be to alternate sides every three turns or so. Play side A while the AI handles side B then on turn 4 swap and back again turn 8 or so. It can be "fun" watching the AI blow your carefully prepared attack!

[DRG]

...or make it work....it does good surprising things at times

Another variation for RH vs LH would be to decide what type of battle you want set up as Human vs Human then

A..you buy
B--let AI buy

Once that's sorted out you can

A- manually deploy both sides
B-let AI

Then the fun part.... as player 1 you take the units in the bottom half of the map and set the top half units to AI control then as Player 2 you take the TOP half units and let the AI have control of the bottom half then play it out. You'll never quite know what the AI will do in your other sector so you need to adjust your plans to keep it balanced or to assist the AI side in some way. It's a bit tricky but you would have your tanks and infantry and lets say mortar support only and the AI would have it's on both sides and you are generally playing against the AI but also against yourself and when you do you are playing (naturally)as if the other side has really great intel.

Just another variation someone might enjoy. I know I have enjoyed the ones where I take command of the tanks and play to support the AI controlled infantry. Great when you want to play a bigger game but really don't at the same time. Those ones I'm generally working on something else at the same time So I do my part, hit end turn then go back to what I was doing then after five minutes of doing whatever else I'm doing go back to the game ,figure out just what went on and deal with it

[Aeraaa]

I have a relevant question: can you set AI controlled on-map units when you create a scenario? I know you can do it with off-map artillery but is it possible to set on-map units under AI control as well?

[scorpio_rocks]

Originally Posted by Aeraaa

I have a relevant question: can you set AI controlled on-map units when you create a scenario? I know you can do it with off-map artillery but is it possible to set on-map units under AI control as well?

Do you not just use the HeadQuarters menu?

[DRG]

Originally Posted by scorpio_rocks

Do you not just use the HeadQuarters menu?

Correct and that's where you would set their waypoints ( if you used waypoints )