Tips from the Frontline

[RNL Tiger]

Setup Phase

The setup of the defense by necessity of limited forces needs to make choices about how to defend the flags. It seems that generally there are three key approaches:
• Strong point - concentrate forces into one or more chosen fire-sacks and by definition leave other parts of the defended area with either light defense or none at all
• Line - deploy forces more widely to defend a greater area but with less concentrated firepower
• Combination of strong point and line using concepts such as defense in depth where a forward line screens the main line of resistance

Each approach can operate with or without a mobile reserve, which provides additional options for a counter-attack or to shore up defenses.

Looking at the map there are three main avenues into the flags:
• Left – road into the village and also heavily wooded
• Centre – road straight into the village
• Right – terrain contains water and various tree cover but less heavy than the left



The left is clearly not good tank country and leaves the centre and the right as the two likely axes of attack. I will be facing a superior number of forces and POS is bound to have a good proportion of his points spent on armour. That is a sure recipe for overwhelming one or two ATGs so it seems that the sensible option is to go for a strong point defense. The choice now is where to form that strong point - in the centre or on the right, as I do not have enough forces to setup two strong points. It seems that the most sensible choice is to set it up in the centre as this deployment allows the centre to remain strong and for units to move both left and right. If the ATGs are setup on the right and the Allied tanks come into the centre then at best I might have one or two ATGs that could hit the centre and they would be easily overwhelmed. If the attack comes down the right then I will not be well setup to repulse the attackers but equally they will need to come across the centre to get to the other flags. So, I deploy as follows:
• Sharpshooters to the front and left to provide “eyes”
• 1 platoon just behind the village in the woods with an HMG
• 1 platoon at the two small flags in the centre/left with an HMG
• 1 platoon at the two large flags on the hill in the centre/right
• 1 platoon and two Panzers held in reserve behind the hill
• AT and AP mines placed in centre village along with some wire
• Some wire and a trench each on the left and right
• 81mm mortar spotter overlooks the centre



The centre fire sack closer up looks like this with 75mm ATGs at 1-3 and the 81mm mortar spotter at 4:



The ATG at “1” can cover the village but not the left; the ATGs at “2” and “3” can cover the centre but have very limited ability to shoot to the right. So their strong point is the centre but they are very vulnerable to infantry coming from the right or left.

The setup went smoothly until I tried to use the trench so a question to POS: “When I tried during the setup to place units into a trench "place" never seemed to recognise the trench when a unit was placed over it. I never got any indication on how to do it.” “Just go to 'Key 6' top-down view of the trench and put infantry and guns in it using your eyeball even though there's no readout saying 'trench' during the setup phase. But when the game begins click on a unit in a trench and it'll say 'Trench' in its data at the bottom of the screen. Warning - if you place trenches in pavement or hard roads, you'll find they disappear when the game begins, it's the program’s way of belatedly saying 'no trenches allowed in concrete'” So, given that minor problem with the trenches I decided to place them in the front - empty, with the knowledge that they would at least draw fire as I knew they would be easily spotted. An attacker can’t really take the risk of approaching a trench without laying down some suppressing fire just in case it is occupied.

Well the defender’s job is done, choices made, forces deployed and now it is time to wait and see what happens…