That magical end o' the turn

~~The Coil~~ · 12-21-2006, 03:43 PM,

Sort of curious about something that's become standard practice for me, but I've never heard talked about a whole lot, is using the end of the turn to your advantage. One of the realities of the 1 minute turn is you can react quickly to stuff that happends at the end of the turn, while you have to wait a long time until you can react to things that happen at the beginning of a turn. Naturally, it makes sense to try to time critical moves so they happen near the end of the turn.
For instance, if I have a tank cresting a hill, and I'm unsure what's on the other side, I always time it so it crests the hill in the last 5 seconds of a turn. That way, if there's something scary on the other side, I don't have to wait through 45 seconds of combat to pull him back down. This works especially well with a hunt/reverse move combo - hunt him up to the crest so he tops the hill with a few seconds left in the turn - if there's enemy AFV's on the other side, your tank stops when he sees them. If you like your odds, cancel the reverse command and shoot it out. If you don't like your odds, drag the hunt back behind you tank and change it to a reverse command, and he's out of there with no command delay - enemy might get one shot off, but usually isn't going to hit you. Kinda like a shoot-'n'-scoot, only better.
In the same way you can coordinate infantry moves with essentially no command delay by plotting their moves ahead of time, adding pauses until it goes to 61+ seconds, and presto, your men are moving on second one of the next turn. If something changes your plans in the intervening turn, cancel the move orders. Especially helpful with conscript/green/out of command troops if you want them to move in the early part of a turn.
On the flip side, I always try to work it so off-board arty falls in the beginning of the turn, so my opponent will have to sit through 50+ seconds of fire before he can act to get his men out of the way.
Wondering if people have used other tricks/techniques to take advantage of the end of the turn. I guess it's open to the gamey/exploit charge, but being as it works the same way for both sides, and is sort of an integral part of how WEGO works, I think it's something you have to pay attention to...

bluehand · 12-21-2006, 04:14 PM,

I'm the opposite. I like my attacks to happen in the first part of the turn. If the badguys see you cresting a hill they can unhide some of those guns and MGs that the computer might make hesitate. It gives you time to rush halftracks behind and infantry into cover. sure there might be some serious danger out there but if I'm attacking I commited to the attack for a reason and would rather have the computer lag on my side than have caution and a blown surprise...

Artillery I prefer at the end of the turn so I can be sure it will be near the target rather than wasting 12+ rounds of expensive 105s on the wrong target...

~~The Coil~~ · 12-22-2006, 07:46 AM,

Bluehand - for me in depends on the situation - if I'm launching an attack and hoping to catch my opponent flat-footed, definitely going beginning of the turn. If I'm peeking a lone tank over a hill and not sure if I'm going to like the odds on the other side, it's end of the turn. The important thing, I think, is being conscious of where in the turn you move happens, and the relative advantages/disadvantages.

In regards to artillery, if you have LOS to your target and get the spotting round, it is never off target (this has been much discussed in other threads, I think), so off target arty is never a huge concern for me, unless I'm blind firing - so I tend to go beginning of turn (unless you are trying to manage rounds, and only want to drop half a turn on someone or something).

bluehand · 12-22-2006, 10:50 AM,

I often have line of sight on my target hidden in a wood/scattered trees, but somehow the first round hits just past them in the woods or on the other side of that or a nearby tree clump and as a result the spotting round is "not seen" (always seems to happen in CMBB). so if it is off I like to trust myself to readjust rather than the computer. as a result I'm not a big fan of off board artillery...

Soldier · (This post was last modified: 12-22-2006, 10:00 PM by Soldier.)

bluehand · 12-22-2006, 02:14 PM,

so thats who was on the grassy knoll... ;)

~~The Coil~~ · 12-22-2006, 02:30 PM,

Soldier - I don't use it as a pure scouting move, so much as in situations where I'm fairly sure there's something on the other side I want to take a shot at, but not positive about what I haven't seen. For instance, if there's an enemy tank on the other side of the hill flank to me, I'll pop over at the end of the turn. Now there might be an as yet unspotted AT gun covering the tank. If there is, I can pop right back, assuming I didn't get first shot splorked. If there isn't, I can sit there and fire away. Now, a sharp opponent has the covering AT gun on a cover arc, and so he doesn't shoot until the beginning of the next turn. If your opponent starts doing that, you crest the hill next time in the middle of the turn, 'nuff time to shoot his tank, and you can still back down at the beginning of the next turn, prolly before the AT gun gets a shot off... That's the theory anyway.

I'm in total agreement that it's not an effective way to scout if you have no idea what's on the other side of the hill. Although I think there's a certain segment of the CM world that regards scouting with snipers as gamey. I think they're wrong, but there ya have it...