AAR: Modern War "The First Battle"

[Rabbit]

The Kamdesh scenario you mentioned gives a good impression of being overrun by a large number of enemy troops, doesn’t it? The tough thing about that scenario is that if you encounter setbacks early (for instance, losing several of your vehicles), it has a large snowballing effect. This means it will feel like you are doing worse than you really are, since a few improvements in your defenses will likely go a long way in turning the tide.

I know people often say it on this site, but I recommend periodically re-reading the User Manual while you play, as you will likely pick up very useful tidbits each time you check through the manual. For instance, one helpful tidbit for the Kamdesh scenario - once you have an enemy unit pinned, unless he is with a leader, all you need to do is shoot at him once per turn to keep him pinned, and even just small arms fire will do the trick. This means you might primarily use your leaders to fire single shots at pinned and demoralized units, which will allow you to use your main firepower to try and disrupt and pin other enemy units. And if you are able to kill off enemy leaders, it will also go a long way towards making it so the enemy cannot rally his pinned units. Pinned units can't advance towards enemy positions, so the enemy won't be able to assault you with any units that you are able to pin. (The exception to this is when the enemy uses his Fanatical Charges. These will cause pinned units to rally and become unpinned. All you can do is simply try to withstand them and then re-pin the enemy units again afterwards.)

A big key to this scenario is in picking your targets very carefully. Initially, you will want to focus on the units that can cause the most damage to you; that is, the RGPs and the satchel charges. If you can disrupt or pin the enemy units carrying those weapons, it will reduce their weapons lethality by half! It’s even better if you can pin those units before they can close in on you, so that they cannot fire upon you or they are forced to do so from a distance.

Also target hexes where the enemy has stacked units, as that makes it easier to rack up kills. (The converse is true as well, try not to stack your units, unless perhaps a particular hex is at risk of getting assaulted.)

And keep the elevation in mind as well. Three of the American hexes are elevated, which makes them much harder to assault. You might consider retreating to the higher ground if you begin to get overrun.

Lastly, pay attention to which way your vehicles are facing and who can shoot at them from the rear. They are particularly vulnerable to rear shots, so try to turn your vehicles so that the enemy can’t get a rear shot in with an RPG.

Hth,
Rabbit