Speed in Meeting Engagements

[Mike Abberton]

My thoughts on speed in MB are that your advance should take into account the terrain both getting to the flag and the terrain at the flags.

Obviously getting to the flags fast assumes that you have clear routes to the flags and terrain (and weather conditions) that permit fast movement over that terrain, and ideally better routes than your opponent. Trucks probably work well if you are playing a city or village map where you can be reasonably sure that there will be a lot of roads. If you are playing on heavy woods map, then trucks are probably a waste of points. On a completely random map, I would probably tend to keep with the safe purchases. I'd rather have an FO that I know I can use, rather than some trucks that might be very useful or completely useless.

You also need take into consideration the terrain and natural defenses at the flags themselves. Obviously if the flags are in a small stand of scattered trees out in the middle of a field with LOS to the entire map, you probably don't want to be there first. If they are in a heavy building surrounded by cleared kill zones and heavy woods around that (to keep the tanks away), then you probably do want to be there first. Basically, the harder it will be to dig troops out of the area around the flags, the more you want to be there first.

I am usually more of a plodder. I just don't rush to the flags well, so I usually avoid it as a strategy. I advance carefully and slowly using the terrain I have. I try to neutralize my opponents forces (tanks and guns first usually, MGs second, infantry last), and move on the flags with my infantry when I have the upper hand. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. I have had games where my opponent rushed the flags and I pounded him down from a distance and strolled into the flags with 10 turns left, and I have had times when I never got within 300m of some well-defended flags that my opponent beat me too.

One last note. If you are going to rush the flags to get there first, make damn sure you actually do make it there first (or at least at the same time). There is nothing worse than a half-assed rush that's a turn too slow, and catches your tired, exposed troops in the open from fire by your opponents troops who reached the flags the run before. Also, if I know my opponent always rushes the flags (especially on the back of tanks or better yet trucks), I would not hesitate to try and plot some artillery to fall as he is making the last push to the flags, particularly if I have a position in my start zone that allows me good LOS to the areas that I think he will rush through. You can either pre-plot them with a time delay (preplotting in the enemy setup zone is gamey IMHO), or plot on a later turn and use adjust fire to time things right (i.e. use adjust fire to delay a turn if you are early). The latter approach assumes that you have FOs with reasonably short delays, decent accuracy and a decent LOS to the target zone from the beginning.