Russkies in Oklahoma!

[seabolt]

POST MORTEM

So what did this match teach this unruly student of the game? A few things:

SPMBT (presumably SPWW2 as well) seems to make parachute drops a much more valid option. Though this match became one-sided, it would have been a thorough rout in SPWAW. Actively shooting at little parachute icons was a great joy; everyone's on the ground and usually unspotted by my turn in this build. It's paradoxical, because the Shrapnel builds are much more grim about jumping into non-clear hexes (you take casualties and suppression rather than just the latter), but getting from an SPMBT transport into the fight is about as viable as joining the action by foot or APC, *especially* if jumping into deep woods. In SPWAW, climbing aboard a C-47 was akin to a death warrant.

That said, the real(istic) problem with paradrops remains intact: The infantry tends to move too far in front of its support umbrella. Traditionally, this is partially offset by dropping everybody at once; the idea is to spread the response forces paper thin. Instead, Epoletov chose to jump in stages. I didn't do a good job of pointing out that his artillery fire tended to cluster in the LZs for a few turns prior to his jumps---mostly because it was pure hindsight till the pattern became clear in the late game---but that leads me to believe that he had a plan to mitigate the lack of air and armor support with overwhelming artillery preparation. It's a shame that he can't communicate much detail on that point. If it was his plan, it failed because ...

I've decided that in modern battles, the first role of artillery is counterbattery fire. In the FA tourney and several private matches, I've endured thousands of cluster salvoes in the last few months. After the shock wears off from losing your first hundred or so rifle squads and MBTs, you even get a little blasé about CM fire. The fact remains that 2008 artillery dominates the battlefield far more than did the 1914 and 1941 guns that gave the arm its reputation. I don't think this is unrealistic, FWIW. But that power makes CM-firing guns the top target on the map, worth more than MBTs and attack copters, maybe.

As I predicted prematch, I didn't win the artillery war, but I was able to mitigate the loss quite a bit by knocking out ~two thirds of Epoletov's firepower. (While straying to that topic, my forecast was 3 for 3: I won the infantry war, at high cost. I pwned in the armor war by default; Epoletov didn't field a single tank.) Had I ignored his guns and tried to outdamage him in targeting frontline units, I imagine things would have ended very badly for the U.S.

Other than CB fire, my other trump card was the Apaches. On such a large map, they were an absolutely crucial fire brigade, able to sprint from crisis to crisis in a single turn. They need to rename the equipment category as counterattack helicopters so that other players don't take as long as I did to figure out how to use them. Had Epoletov purchased a couple of top-notch Russian copters, and lurked them near the front line with the sole intent of springing on my birds when they appeared, that also might have tipped the battle dramatically in his favor. As it was, his dependence on AA mostly kept me out of his backfield, but did nothing to augment his own offensive.

Those are the main points. Any comments welcome and thanks for reading.

-- 30 --