A thought about Points

Ratzki · 12-15-2007, 08:20 AM,

As I was buying my forces for POS's tourney, I began to wonder what the points being spent were actually spent on. For a long time I figured the points were for the units that I was taking, so many for this platoon, such and such for that tank, now I am not so sure. Are the points more for the ammunition carried then for the units themselves?
If you were to shoot with each unit at a viable target and time things so the game ended at the same time as you ran out of ammunition, would you lose the battle? I mean, you would have to make your way towards the flags somewhat, more to find other potential targets then anything else, but would it really matter if you lost most of your units, so long as you were able to get off all it's shots at targets that the unit had a good chance of damaging or eliminating before it was itself eliminated. We all know that just having units alive all over the battlefield does not win the game, in fact, there are lots of times that I figure that i have a flag controlled only to find the the enemy has moved in unnoticed and taken the flag or made it disputed. So the only thing left that I can do to secure flags and win the battle for my side is to kill the enemy units. I do this by expending ammunition of the appropriate type on the targets. If I do not shoot away all the ammunition and I finish with some left, then I have wasted good points that could have been used elsewhere. I was told a long time ago that "...if you kill the enemy, the flags will take care of themselves..." and more and more am I seeing this come true. You kill the enemy and win the battle with HE and AP, not by trying to position your units on the flags. The ammunition is the commodity being purchased and you get to use it by shooting at good targets, the units themselves are just the transportation for the ammunition.

Mad Russian · (This post was last modified: 12-15-2007, 08:53 AM by Mad Russian.)

Just using up your ammunition may not be the answer either.

Just like you're always trying to tell your wife(figuratively speaking here)...it's quality time that matters not quantity.

If your tanks shoot up all their ammo and only kill 3 enemy tanks what is the difference in killing those same 3 enemy tanks by games end and having 20 rounds of AP left?

The proof is not in the quantity of your efforts but the quality.

You see 10% of the units doing most of the fighting.

Checking unit kill listings after the game is over will reveal some most interesting situations to you. There will be a very few units that do tremendous damage to the enemy while others do nothing.

IMO, you spend all your game time trying to maneuver yourself to get those few killers in place for their quality returns on ammo expended.

But as you say, "Kill the enemy and the flags take care of themselves." That I firmly believe. No matter which of my units does the killing.

Good Hunting.

MR

Ratzki · 12-15-2007, 03:26 PM,

Mad Russian Wrote:Just using up your ammunition may not be the answer either.

Just like you're always trying to tell your wife(figuratively speaking here)...it's quality time that matters not quantity.

If your tanks shoot up all their ammo and only kill 3 enemy tanks what is the difference in killing those same 3 enemy tanks by games end and having 20 rounds of AP left?

The proof is not in the quantity of your efforts but the quality.

Well, my point is that many times I see (and have done this myself) a tank roll into a situation, kill three tanks and then sit there on the flag or in a good position waiting for the end of the game or a target of opportunity. There are other less expensive units that can sit on a flag. And there are dozens of jobs left for the tank to do, does it have any HE to blast away at buildings, MG's can help out your infantry, ect.. I just finished playing a fellow who commented how supprised he was to see all the carnage I was creating with a platoon of US Priests, they KO'd 1 Panther, took out 2 guns, levelled some buildings and shot up some woods. When the game was over they had a couple of shots left between them, what did they accomplish? The Panther and the guns are obvious, the buildings had no enemy troops in them, and I wanted to keep it that way for a couple turns, same with the woods, I did not want him to even think about using those woods as cover instaed of waiting 'till he got in there and then try to dig him out, I just made up his mind for him not to enter the area at all. I am just saying that there is no job too small not to be done and there is no such thing as overkill. Don't waste the ammunition, but use it, you paid for it.

Quote:You see 10% of the units doing most of the fighting.

Checking unit kill listings after the game is over will reveal some most interesting situations to you. There will be a very few units that do tremendous damage to the enemy while others do nothing.

IMO, you spend all your game time trying to maneuver yourself to get those few killers in place for their quality returns on ammo expended.

I have noticed that myself, so why do we spend points on 90% of our units making them vet./crack quality just to do little or nothing? It must be the "he who defends everything, defends nothing" syndrome. We try to prepare for every possible situation, which is just not possible, and cost a lot of points doing so. When I looked at the map that POS was using for his games, I thought "I can take this flag with little effort, he will get that one without a fight, this one will be contested, I am staying out of that trap..." then I bought units relative to the job that I have for them, and I don't think that I need crack troops to sit and guard a flag for 30 turns and play cards amongst themselves. The small point battle that we are playing does not leave much room for playing around and we all know POS is gonna be armour heavy so one has to prepare. I have only played POS twice before and I am 2-0, so am not gonna get into what I bought. I only get to play the German side about every 20 games and am not that comfortable with their tank selection, hopefully this will work out. We will soon see.