The life cycle of a CM meeting engagement

[Der Kuenstler]

Just as people go through stages in life, such as infant, youth, adult, senior, etc., I believe there are at least four distinct stages within the progression of a CM meeting engagement. Each stage requires unique tactics and skills in order to win that stage. It is important to try to win all four stages in order to assure yourself of victory. For this article, these stages are broken down in terms of a 30+ turn meeting engagement.

1) SPEED - (approx. turns 1-5) During the speed stage your concern should be: how quickly can I get my shooters into cover within influence of the flags? In order to win this stage you must know several things. When purchasing you should know what vehicles will carry infantry and what ones don’t. You should know what kind of ground you will be crossing - a town will give you roads - a rural setting usually wont. When setting up with roads you should pick the straightest road there,
because every turn you make takes time and command delay for the new order. Also different vehicles have different command delays. They each have different maximum speeds and different horsepower. Trucks may be the fastest on a road, but their command delays are long - so if you line them up in front of your tanks, the tanks will move first, run into the back of the trucks, and you are going to have a muddled traffic jam there instead of a smooth convoy.

The concern here is getting there faster than him - not so much getting shot at. The reason is that he is probably running his men too, and running men don’t spot well. The concern is getting there first. If you don’t get there first, you will be trying to get there with him sitting in cover firing at you - so BE FIRST!

2) FIREPOWER - (approx. turns 6-20) Now you’ve both gotten into cover and you can’t move so easily without getting shot at - you are in range of each other. Here the priority changes - it is now: how many of my weapons can I put on his men while avoiding his fire as much as possible? You can’t win the battle by speed alone - he might have been a little slower but may have brought up more firepower - if you don’t match him you could get pounded to death there. It is important to go
through each of your slower units - FOs, HMGs, mortars, and ask yourself - what cover can these guys fire from and hit where he is likely to be in a few minutes? Plan ahead of time for this stage. The most attrition happens during this stage - not much land changes hands and on some maps it can become a brutal slugfest.

3) MANEUVER - (approx. turns 21-27) Here you begin to see some things clearer - most of his units have shown themselves already and you know apporoximately where they are. You know the places where you’re all shot up and some places where he is weak. Here the priority is: how can I win with what I have left against what he has left? What should I reinforce and what should be abandoned? Should I send that tank in or back it out of sight? How can I can get that schrek over there in those woods behind his AFVs? This platoon is not even in the action - how can I get it in firing range? Is that 100 pt flag really worth taking at this point? One thing I notice about good players is your weapons (such as AT guns) don’t live very long once they reveal themselves. This is because a good player will immediately maneuver something over there to take it out. You may have had a good plan with your full force in stage 2 but now you no longer have a full force and some units are low or empty on ammo. You will have to be skilled at maneuvering around with what you have left.

4) RESERVE - (approx. turns 28-30+) Here the priority is: where can I deliver the final blow? Here your skill is patience - you wait and wait and wait. This is where you roll out that German Sig with the 150mm ammo. Or that platoon with the +2 stealth HQ that’s been sneaking around behind enemy lines the whole game - time to turn them loose. I remember one game where I was able to knock out most of my opponent’s tank force without revealing my ace - a vet Tiger. After the fight he had, as soon as he saw that Tiger roll out, he surrendered! I’ve noticed most players do not have any reserve - they throw everything they’ve got at the front line and use every bullet, and have nothing behind them left. But many battles are won and lost during this reserve stage.

I think it is interesting how all of this plays out - for example, in my current battle with Ken Fedoroff, I won the opening stage (speed). The firepower stage became a typical brutal slugfest like we have - maybe a tie there - except I got to the main flag first and was still sitting on it. The third stage (maneuver) Ken won by bringing up crack shreks and gradually picking off my T-34s (some with one shot from ranges of 200 meters!) one by one. Now we are in the reserve stage and I don’t know if either of us have any - so it could well end a draw.

In summary, when you pick your forces for a quick battle, try to keep these things in mind: what will get you there quick (speed), what has a nasty punch (firepower), what has decent speed and stealth maneuver), and what are you going to bring out for the final blow? (reserve). I would be interested to know anyone’s comments or additions to this.