If you could improve your game - what would it be?

[Riley D. Smith]

1. Allocate a reserve force and use it as such when NEEDED.

2. Either there is an art to moving loaded units somewhat "safely" on the battlefield, or I am forever unlucky in this area. I can't hardly get my boys to climb into a duece-and-a-half anymore because of the high casualty rates I experience! Men killed during transportation are so costly in vp's PLUS their loss is felt tons more because they never get to contribute to the fight before their untimely demise.

3. Become more decisive on the counter attack. I actually do fairly well with coming up with a battle plan based on the victory conditions and stick with it even after contact is made (while letting the actual contact dictate to a degree how I modify said battle plan). As they say in the UFC...every fighter has a game plan until he gets punched. But I need to become more intuitive/decisive when kicking off a counter attack. Make the calculation, set the objective, identify the assets available and then putting it into effective action.

4. Be way more patient in manuever and cautious in choosing movement paths. Most of these scenarios have plenty of turns. I would venture to say that a player could use up to 60% of the game turns in manuever and 40% in the attack and be fine (probably even more than 60%). Using the available cover, "pathing" with extreme caution when manuevering units, and trying to remain otherwise undetected until at a time and place of your own choosing is as vital in this game as in real life. I am playing a game of Rising Sun (Race to Minywa <sp> ) atm as the Japanese. I actually suprised my opponent with a flanking move on his right and caught him off-guard. It was nice to hear him say "I wasn't expecting that". The only way I pulled it off was by applying exactly what I have just stated. The battle is deadlocked in a viscious hand to hand fight at the moment but my flank assault has kept me in the game.

I am sure that my list of things to improve is much longer but this is the main stuff. Oh wait...one more.

5. Play opponents that are better than yourself and play them often. You can't help but to learn from your defeats. Not to mention that most all of the very good players here have always been more than willing to give me advice (as well as a good thrashing in the process) on ways to improve my gameplay.