This is a short one, because it's not a full BatRep and I don't have any pretty pictures. Just a couple of thoughts from yesterday's game (West German Leopard 2s vs Polish T55s and T72Ms, at 150 points).
Numero Uno - your ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) with the Guided ability can also fire at your opponent's helicopters (page 39 in the rulebook) but only in your Turn, not as Defensive AA Fire in your opponent's Turn. My opponent in yesterday's battle forgot this, and as he had not gotten his Spandrels in position to shoot at my vehicles early (like all ATGM carrying vehicles, they have to be Halted to fire the ATGMs at all), they spent several Turns trying to catch up to the battle line to fire into my vehicles. He could have Halted them one Turn and fired at my PAH strike helicopters instead, possibly removed them from the game before Turn Four (or was it Five...?) as he did. And FYI, I don't think I've run into an ATGM that doesn't have Guided. Plus, this goes for your Infantry ATGM Teams, too, so all those Milan-spam British lists you want to play just became murder to any group of helicopters (not because they just changed the rule, but because you now know to use your Milans in this manner). Lesson Learned.
Numero Dos - less a Lesson to be Learned, and more a general observation that may become a houserule in our little club. My opponent spent 18 points on six Su-22 Fitters (with the Kh-25 missiles) that never showed up in six Turns of trying. My own flight of Tornados only made it one Turn out of six (though they were devastating in that Turn, wiping six T55s out with one bomb run). Yes, even with a 50% chance each roll, we got Strike Aircraft on once out of 12 rolls! We are pondering how we can make the Strike Aircraft Roll more like the Reserves roll. The proposed change is that if you fail to bring in your Strike Aircraft, next Turn you roll two dice instead of one, and if you fail again, instead of three dice on the third Turn, you automatically get in your Strike Aircraft. Once you get your Strike Aircraft, you go back to rolling just one die the following Turn. As Anti-Aircraft fire has gotten a lot more deadly on the table with the many additions to the army lists of all countries, I think getting your Strike Aircraft in more often won't necessarily unbalance the game too bad. Do note that we don't utilize Dynamic Points in our game, we just use the standard points that are in the book/on the Forces website, so this may be unnecessary when using Dynamic Points. We will give this a try in future games and report back on how well it's working for us. Houserule Experiment Begun.
Numero Tres - this is definitely a reminder to us as we are bad about forgetting small details, but to you, dear reader, as well. Even with the smaller scale we play in (which is why we can field a 150 point battle with 50 tanks on a standard 6' by 4' table without feeling crowded), often we get Units separated by Destroyed Teams and terrain, and we forget to add the +1 to Shooting for the Teams Out of Command. It may not be much, but in a game as close as last night's game, it could have been over sooner. We are also bad about using the Movement Orders (pages 36 and 37 in the rulebook). Oh, we do Blitz and Shoot & Scoot often enough, and we do Dig In when we bring Infantry and they don't start the game already in Foxholes (I bring Infantry the most of the group, and even then I don't move them much in games), but I can't tell you the last time any of us have used Cross Here or Follow Me. And these are important Movement Orders, especially for our little group. Cross Here - my opponent from yesterday has long been known for failing Cross Checks, but always forgets to issue a Cross Here Order before moving into Terrain. Seriously, you have never seen so many 1s and 2s on 3+ Cross Checks as my friend throws (you can probably go back through our Lessons Learned and figure out who I'm talking about, look for the player with half a company of tanks stuck in the same patch of woods for an entire game, not just once but multiple times), but he - all of us, really, let's be honest - never uses Cross Here. Follow Me - especially for horde lists that need to cross the table quickly to get into those coveted Side Armor shots (as we witnessed first hand yesterday, T55s can't penetrate Leopard 2s from the Front, but a Leo 2 doesn't even get an Armor Save against the same T55s from the Side), the extra movement can be key. When playing bottom-tier tanks vs top-tier tanks, your best bet is to use Dash Moves and Follow Me, moving from cover to cover, to get your bottom-tier tanks into position to shoot at Side Armor. No point in using Tactical moves when Shooting can't even penetrate the Armor you're facing, so move as fast as you can to a flanking position. Why not just use Blitz? If you successfully Blitz (or even fail a Blitz), you can only do a Tactical Move afterwards, while Follow Me allows Dash Moves. And Blitz is far more useful for those Units that need to be Halted to fire their big guns (ATGMs, usually, but also tanks that have Halted 2, Moving 1 RoF) and just a little bit of Movement to get into firing position. Lesson Learned.
Numero Quatro - making your opponent react to you (rolling an easy Armor Save, placing a Ranged In marker even though you plan on moving it the first chance you get, placing Minefields in open Terrain to force Cross Checks through Difficult Terrain... any dice rolls, really) is better than not doing the whatever. In the example above of bottom-tier T55s not being able to penetrate top-tier Leo 2s from the front, if you are running mid-tier T72Ms that can penetrate Leo 2s from the front even though they have an easy Armor Save (3 to tie, 4 to beat), it's better to force your opponent to roll that easy Armor Save. Best to do it from Cover (or even better, Shoot & Scoot back into total Concealment so they have no Line of Sight) so your mid-tiers aren't trashed by those top-tiers in return, but forcing more rolling of dice by your opponent means more chances for your opponent to fail those rolls. Maybe you can only Bail your opponent's tanks - keep doing it! Double Bails on a vehicle is a chance for them to fail a Remount roll and run from the battle. A Bailed tank can't Hold/Contest Objectives, and doesn't count towards Unit or Formation Morale, and they may fail their Remount rolls, exacerbating this state of affairs into the next Turn. Keep making them roll, just don't place yourself in utter danger to do it. Placing Ranged In markers at the beginning of the game, even if you mean on moving them on Turn One, will give your opponent pause, make them react - even subconsciously - to the threat, make them shy away from placing troops under the Artillery Template. And placing a Ranged In marker during Deployment is the only time you get a free placement. You can't fail a Roll if you don't roll the dice in the first place. Make them react to you, take the initiative from them, even if it's forcing them to do things unconsciously, is what you want. Lesson Learned.
Numero Quatro, Bonus Edition - speaking of Minefields, have you ever noticed that NATO army lists don't get to add mine plows to their tanks? Even though, in the real world, all NATO countries used mine plows or mine rollers of some sort? Yeah, so who gets to place Minefields in Missions? Defenders, which is usually what NATO players pick. But if you're a brash WarPact player, pick Defender, and if NATO picks Maneuver (or Attacker, more on that in a moment), you can get your own Minefields... and the NATO player can't remove them (at least with vehicles, and many players don't bring much Infantry because TY is a vehicle-focused game), they can only avoid them. Or drive through them and take their chances that the dice favor them on that roll. On the other side of the coin, who gets to pick what time of day the battle occurs in the Missions? Usually the Attacker, which is usually the WarPact player, but who has the better night vision devices? NATO players, of course. Do you gamble and choose Attacker to get a chance of Time of Day, knowing that you will have fewer numbers of better trained men and equipment to try and take Objectives, or do you play it safe and pick Maneuver or Defend and count on your WarPact opponent staying safe and choosing Daytime? Something to think on, for both NATO and WarPact players. Bonus Lesson Learned.
Numero Cinco - short one, if you can take a Unit in your Formation, or for the same cost, take that Unit from Divisional Support, take it inside the Formation. Divisional Support doesn't count towards Formation Morale. They do count towards Victory Points, if you're bothering to count them, but if you don't care, use your Divisional Support elements as ablative meat shields and keep your Formation whole, longer. Short Lesson Learned.
Okay folks, enough for today. Like I said, a short article, sorry for the lack of pretty pictures, which I know is why most of you come back to read my drivel. Hopefully your own game can improve from my thoughts, or you can get a chuckle from us idiots who are just realizing the blistering obvious. Either way, get out there and roll some dice with your friends.
As a bonus, here are the two lists we used in our little tête-à-tête yesterday:
WEST GERMANS
- Leopard 2 Kompanie HQ - 1x Leopard 2
- Leopard 2 Platoon - 4x Leopard 2
- Leopard 2 Platoon - 3x Leopard 2
- Marder Panzergrenadier Zug - 3x MG3 Teams, 2x Milan Teams, 1x Carl Gustav Team, 3x Marder 1s
- Jaguar Panzergrenadier Zug - 3x Jaguar 1s
- Gepard Flakpanzer Batterie - 4x Gepards
- Luchs Spah Trupp - 2x Luchs
- Luchs Spah Trupp - 2x Luchs
- M109G Panzerartillerie Batterie - 4x M109Gs
- From Divisional Support:
- 1x M113 OP
- 4x PAH Anti-tank Helicopters
- 4x Tornados
POLISH
- T-72M Tank Battalion HQ - 1x T-72M (Formation 1)
- T-72M Tank Company - 6x T-72Ms
- T-72M Tank Company - 6x T-72Ms
- BDRM Scout Platoon - 2x BDRM-2s
- T-55AM2 Tank Battalion HQ - 1x T-55AM2s (Formation 2)
- T-55 Tank Company - 10x T-55s
- T-55 Tank Company - 10x T-55s
- T-55 Tank Company - 10x T-55s
- BMP Scout Platoon - 3x BMP-1s
- 2S1 Carnation Artillery Battery - 6x Carnations
- SA-9 SAM Platoon - 4x Gaskins
- ZSU-23-4 SAM Platoon - 4x Shilkas
- From Divisional Support:
- 6x BM-21 Hails
- 3x DANA SP 152mms
- 1x BMP-1 OP
- 3x BMP-1 Scouts
- 6x Su-22 Fitters (with Kh-25 missiles)
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