The Unplanned Assault Conundrum

[Dog Soldier]

If the defending unit is set by AOF to hold fire, then the attacking (phasing) player who 'finds' this position knows nothing if they cancel the accidental assault described in this thread. Yes, he now knows there is an enemy position in the hex. But what has the defender got in his nasty pocketeses precious? We dont's know!

The moving player now has to wonder what to do?
Run away if they have enough MP to get out of LOS?
Bypass the position if possible?
Press an assault. Call up other units to join in an assault?

All these are right and wrong decisions depending on what the defender has planned or not planned or is just as surprised to see you as you are to discover something is there.
There is the beauty in this design. What appears on the surface to be a bad thing has many layers to it. The persistent concealment married with the AOF feature can lead to a lot of hours of fun gaming with this much better FOW in PzB.
Unless you just hate surprises!

Now the defending player has eyes on the moving player and can call in air strikes and artillery or more nasty things which I will not speak of.

I am all up for training new recruits to the PzB system by playing them in PBEM games, but I will not give away the whole show here in the forums. That would ruin all the fun.

[ComradeP]

If the defending unit is set by AOF to hold fire, then the attacking (phasing) player who 'finds' this position knows nothing if they cancel the accidental assault described in this thread.

Let's say you have a full Tank brigade attacking a position held by a reinforced German battalion. Positioning is crucial for the Germans. However, by assaulting/cancelling/assaulting the next hex/cancelling, the attacker could determine precisely where the positions are.

Sure, you don't know what's there exactly, but you usually have a rough idea of the forces at the disposal of the enemy even if you don't know it in detail from playing the scenario.

ZOC's don't lock, so now move your tank units through the gaps you've identified. The German player now has one or more isolated units, which depending on whether they're actually encircled might not be able to leave their position.

Then you get to what I was afraid of when I read about the timescale: the high mobility of tanks combined with no locking ZOC's allows, within the WEGO system, a player to encircle a slower force without the defender being able to respond. There's not always a village or forest to hide in.

I won't do something like this, it's too gamey in my opinion, but it's certainly possible by cancelling assaults and careful unit movement.

[Dog Soldier]

ZOC's don't lock, so now move your tank units through the gaps you've identified. The German player now has one or more isolated units, which depending on whether they're actually encircled might not be able to leave their position.

Hmmmm...
Sound like a specific set of conditions are required to successfully pull off the 'gamey' move you describe.

You could be right if the defending player has a thin, strung out picket line with no units backing them up. You would need clear terrain in front of the defenders and between them with normal ground conditions. We have to assume there is terrain at least every other hex to hide in for the defenders to be concealed. The attacker could be starting say, within four hexes of the defending line you describe which is not so long laterally so you do not run out of MP with your tanks as you 'bump' down the line, assuming you get the orientation of the line correct because the defender is unimaginative and there are no mines or obstacles to 'catch' the probing tanks....
If all those conditions are met, then the defense can be chopped up motti style with barely a whimper as you suggest.

In a year and half of play testing though, this situation, as you describe did not happen in my experience.

I think the defending player may have thought of this.

There are many uses for concealed units and AOF. Not all are on the front lines.

Unsupported attacking tanks stuck in the defense lines can also be cut off or severely mangled if you use them in this way. Especially if the defense has some ATG and/or armor behind that front line you describe.

I think there is nothing to really worry about here as long as players do not line up their troops exactly along a hex grain and leave them there unsupported.

Dog Soldier