Strategy - Smolensk Op. Situtation #3

[GerryM]

Hello All:

Looking for tips for how a player tackles a scenario like this. This is my first operational WW II wargame. (I have played ASL, Squad Battles, and CMBN. Also chess.)

I played through the Mius getting started scenario using the Getting Started guide and the Playing Guide. That was more of a slugfest with the 2 armies facing each other.

This scenario is different as it involves maneuver. Sometimes in these kinds of games I think I am just shuffling counters forward. But there has to be a lot more strategy to it than that. Any do's and don'ts would be appreciated.

Here is the scenario briefing:
"Orsha, 85km WSW of Smolensk: In this Operational Situation, which simulates an armor breakthrough against an armored force, the 17th Panzer
Division attacks the Russian 5th Mechanized Corps holding at Orsha. [500 sq Km - 13 Turns]"

Thanks,

Gerry

[Dog Soldier]

Are you looking at this Smolensk 41 scenario?

**SEE the "Getting Started" with this Introductory Scanario. Orsha, 85km WSW of Smolensk: In this Operational Situation, which simulates an armor breakthrough against an armored force, the 17th Panzer Division attacks the Russian 5th Mechanized Corps holding at Orsha. [500 sq Km - 13 Turns]

Dog Soldier

[GerryM]

Yes, that is the one. Gerry

[Dog Soldier]

Try the "Hey Diddle, Diddle, Straight Up the Middle" approach with the AI as the Axis.
Be sure to guard your flanks by placing units there that do not engage the Russians until they are softened up by your artillery. Your artillery should be used to break up anticipated Russian counter moves first, then as a secondary mission support your assault forces.

This will never work against a PBEM human, but the AI is more like the 1941 communist commanders. Brave, but tactically inept.

Dog Soldier

[GerryM]

Thanks. So many questions to ask.

1. Who would you send straight up the middle and who would guard the flanks? Would it be some weaker units to mind the flanks for example?
2. Does armor go into the city accompanied by infantry. Or is it mainly infantry that goes into major built-up areas?
3. I would never have thought of artillery to weaken their counterattacks. I thought it was mainly to disrupt the defenders in the way of your assaults?
4. What does a human defender do that the AI cannot?

I appreciate your time and patience. I am sure most of this is obvious to non-noobs.

Gerry

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

One thing and the most important thing, IMO, is a human can change his plans at any time. When I first started with the ai, I was thinking, finally, an opponant anytime I need one. Once I played that first email, ai became boring really quick. And with this bunch, total unpredictability overall. If you want even more, play your scenarios blind, no studying the scenarios before you play them, just take what is as is and go for it.

[burroughs]

Yes, by no means once You try the first PBEM or online mode against a human opponent in any wargame there's no turning back to fighting against the AI.

1. What a human opponent cannot do is to be as fluent as the AI in all the calculations regarding the movement & fire allowance, casualty rate, fatigue and disruption handling, supply net service etc.

2. What the AI cannot do and a human opponent is ever likely to apply is military cunning, setting traps, maskirovka, gambling and making mistakes that can be turned into one's favour later on, even the one's who has made it in the first place and then trying more or less desperately to offset that.

Actually, both TOCs and SB get their fantastic depth and an aweseome playability factor with humans in both seats.

[Dog Soldier]

GerryM,

Your questions in post 5 are best answered by yourself. Play the scenario as many times as you like against the AI. I think the name of several scenarios is Smolensk Operations, situation # "X". These are training scenarios. Experience, even against the AI will give you some ideas of what ot do and what not to do.

Knowing what was done on an operational level in the historical war helps too. Sound tactics of the time, will work well in PzC most of the time. I say most of the time because when you play another human opponent, they are usually aware of what you already know in this regard. Some know much more. Many know more than I do.

Consider it a hobby to invest some time in these games and you will enjoy them much more. Look at the digital manuals. One has a bibliography. MSCD has some of these books in their library last time I checked them out.

Dog Soldier

[GerryM]

I appreciate what you are saying. I have started reading some military history this year. On Paul Carell's "Hitler turns East" now. And may get Glantz's "Barbarossa Derailed".

What I miss in all wargames I have tried is that there are no books on strategy and tactics. One picks up it piecemeal; via an AAR here, a Tips article there, etc. In chess, there are some basic and essential techniques, building blocks really that you pick up from books. Knowledge of these can then help you tackle tougher problems on the board.

I will be looking at your Mius AAR again also btw. Lots of good stuff in there. And I have started the manual.

Take care,

Gerry

[Dog Soldier]

Do not sweat it. Some here have spent a lifetime in this hobby. If it were all in a book or manual somewhere, what fun would the "treasure hunt" be?

Have fun, learn something now and then, and this is a great pastime.

Dog Soldier