Tour of Duty advice and PBEM wanted

[cazart!]

1) My vehicles seem to become immobile after only a few moves, is this normal?
2) Is it okay to assault pinned units?
3) Been playing for about a week now and I have yet to see anyone die from mortar fire? I have pinned a unit with mortar fire but I don't see anyone getting killed.
4) Illumination? How do I tell if it is nighttime, there is a mission called "Night Patrol" but I don't see any difference.
5) Attacking a hill seems you have to get lucky with 500lbs and napalm, VC with 3 guns and a trench at the top of the hill and I'm at the bottom pinned Sad
6) What is the deal with the HUGE maps and only 12 turns you will never be able to get across most of the action is within a 30 hex area.
7) I have not seen any tunnels or snipers, where are they?

Just to add on the solid points made above:

1. Every time you move there is a calculation to see if you get stuck. (No way to get unstuck at this point.) The % chance is tied to the cost of the move. You can go immobile on a road, but you are just a lot less likely to. (A regular problem in Indochina, from my reading. ) There is an in depth explanation of the calculation in the manual I believe.

2. Unless you a desperate or running with good quality troops vs poor, I would only assault pinned units. Being able to grok the tipping point of what situations you should (there is still random luck) carry and those you won't is what separates good players from the rest.

3. If the enemy is in cover you won't see a kill result, even in the occasional event that that happens. Be thankful for the Pin result and close with him.

4. I often play with the visible hexes toggle on in reduced visibility scenarios. (And by those I mean dawn/sunset, night, fog, and also jungle (because the LOS lines there can be quirky.)

5. Well you do need a bit of luck, but the TFE tutorials are a big help. Keeping a base of fire and then using maneuver units to close are the only way to go.

6. This was an early game in the series. John has since introduced submaps so you will see smaller maps (based on huge maps) in later games. In DBP for example, all the siege scenarios are based on one huge map of the entire valley.

7. Ditto the above. It was an early game in the series. Now, if you (or any other 3rd party wanted to design your own, these are available to add into the scenario you create. While the series (all of John's series) continues to evolve, scenarios are rarely retroactively enhanced. That being said, John had me do an expansion pack for Tour of Duty that used a lot of the new features of the game. (Including tunnels and snipers.)