Flag Talk

[Der Kuenstler]

This is mostly for the players who aren't familiar with the basic rules for victory flags:

Victory points in a battle are awarded for the following:
1) Flags held
2) Enemy casualties
3) Prisoners taken

There are two kinds of static flags - the big ones are worth 300 points and the small ones are worth 100 points. Notice that NO POINTS are given to either side for a neutral (white) flag.

You do not need to sit your men directly on top of the flag to control it. Instead, each flag has an invisible "zone of control" around it. This area of control is 80 meters if your units have LOS to the flag, and 50 meters if they do not have LOS to the flag.

The closer your units are to the flag, the more control they have over it. Also the stronger your unit is, the more control it has. (Strength is roughly equal to the units purchase cost.) It usually takes a full strength squad or a tank to exert control over a flag.

Control is not relative. If one side has one decent unit in the area, the other side can have 30 or more units in the area but will not be able to claim control of the flag. (I tested this myself in the editor - a single Russian recon squad, out of comand, hiding in the woods - kept a flag neutralized even though there was a platoon of four fully armed tigers gathered all around it. A half squad didn't neutralize it, though, and neither did a single sharpshooter. A healthy squad seems to be the smallest size of influence.)

Prisoners, ex-prisoners, forward observers, and unarmed vehicles exert no control over flags. Crews do, though, if there are enough of them. Out of ammo vehicles do not influence the flag. Neither do panicked or broken units. The basic rule is, you must be able to shoot to exert control.

Now, most of that was right out of the manual. How does it all play out? I recently finished a couple of games where knowing those rules made a big difference. In one game, my opponent had three T34s pointing at the flag and 3-4 squads of infantry in the woods compared to my hiding Platoon HQ and maybe one decent squad left. At games end, however, the flag remained German. This is because One of his T34s was about 100m away, and the other two were each about 85m away - outside the range of influence. His infantry were in the woods about 60 meters from the flag, but, since they did not have LOS to the flag, they had no influence either. They needed to be less than 50m away without LOS.

In the other game I managed to neutralize an important flag. My opponent had a Panther nearby, a HQ within 60 meters and a squad sitting right on the flag in some tall pines. I had a sniper hiding in the same pines about 6m from them. However, the sniper was out of ammo, so he did not influence the flag. I did have three SMG squads at treeline about 60m from the flag. These guys had LOS to the flag and were able to neutralize it. The threatening enemy Panther did not play a factor, as he was parked about 90m from the flag. (10m outside the circle of influence.)

There are two dependable ways you can get points. Holding a flag or inflicting casualties. (prisoners are a crapshoot) Now say you get to within 50m of a 100 pt flag in a clearing - don't charge out there and lose 100 pts worth of men trying to take it. Just stay in the sphere of influence and NEUTRALIZE the flag, and then let your opponent run out there and get shot up if he wants to.

A good strategy might be:
1) CONTROL the flags closest to you in best cover.
2) NEUTRALIZE the flags that are between you and win the firefight
3) AVOID the little 100 point flag on his side that would cost you 500 points to take.