Modern Campaigns - Tactics and Strategies!

[Mowgli]

These are some excellent tips! I was unaware that artillery can dig-in and fire in the same turn. 

A remark on helicopters: At first sight, they're very good spotters for artillery. However, unless they have started their turn within the very short nominal command range of their FARP (usually 3-4 hexes), they count as detached and any artillery barrage they call in will have 50% fire power only. (I've tested it ingame, it's true!). So here you have another reason (apart from fetching ammo) to let your helicopters operate close to their FARP. [The manual, pdf-page 68, says that air strikes are affected as well, but I haven't tested that ingame]

AA units: Many AA units have a great range (4 hexes). In order to fully exploit that range, however, your AA units still need to see the enemy choppers coming. For this reason, it can be wise to position AA units on hills (at least at daytime when visibility is beyond 1 hex). Preferably in good cover, of course. However, the firepower is negatively affected by increasing range.

Delay tactics
I think this might be of particular interest for any inexperienced NATO player, but can be applied to the defence in any Panzer/Modern Campaigns title more generally as well. As a NATO player, you face the problem that you need to delay the soviet advance. All those giant soviet units are superior to your units both in terms of fire power and in assault power (they're about twice as strong, if you do the math). Your units have better stats but are much smaller in size, which means that every loss hurts your combat power. So how do you pull off a delay without getting utterly destroyed? 

As the enemy's fire actions are much more powerfull than yours, you need to minimize the number of times the enemy gets to fire on you (and maximize the number of your fires on the enemy). This is achieved by making proper use of opportunity fire. Opportunity fire is great because: 1) It's free. It doesn't cost any movement points, so it allows your units to fire without cutting down their manoeuverability. 2) Opportunity fire doesn't trigger the opponent's opportunity fire. This is very important in situations in which your units are outmatched and outnumbered. You really don't want to fire actively, i.e. in your turn, if there are 5 soviet artillery batteries and 2 soviet monster bataillons pointing their guns at you. 

So what I tend to do is to use my turn exclusively for manoeuvre: In my turn, I move my units out of sight and range of the enemy. I  don't fire (except for artillery) as this will give the enemy a chance to opportunity fire at my troops. By retreating, I force the enemy to approach me in his turn. This will achieve two things for me: 

1) It will cut down the opponent's offensive power and thereby reduce my casualties: For each 1/3 of its movement allowance it needs to spend in order to approach myunit, an enemy unit loses one of its 3 fire actions. What's more: If it uses over 1/3 of its allowance, the enemy unit can't assault (which is the most dangerous weapon of WP units against NATO). How much space you need to trade for reducing the enemy's combat power depends on the terrain and the enemy's movement speed/manoeuverability. Obviously it's harder to conduct a delay against tank units and in open terrain. But don't underestimate the importance of even small streams. They won't prevent the enemy from getting to you, but at least they will reduce the number of times the enemy can fire on you. This might allow you to make a stand and delay the enemy for one more turn. Artillery mines are also a great tool to steal fire actions from your enemy or spoil his assault plans. 

2) By retreating, you force the opponent to approach you during his own turn, which will give your units opportunity fires on the approaching enemy units. The ideal situation would be one in which the enemy needs to spend over 2/3 of his movement allowance to approach you, so he cannot fire even once, while your unit peppers the enemy with 3 opportunity fire actions. How much fire power those soviet units have doesn't matter if you don't allow them to fire! Note, however, that even a unit that has spent all its movement allowance can still call in artillery.

And another word of warning: You need to make sure that your retreat paths are adequatly covered. If the hexes through which you disengage from the enemy are within range and sight of the enemy (hard target range = 2 for most units; in daylight range 3 is also dangerous because of enemy artillery), you will draw enemy opportunity fire. So don't be that guy! Your retreat path should either be out of sight of the enemy (hills, woods, dawn/dusk/night) or at least offer excellent cover. You should plan your retreat positions in advance accordingly. A retreat path that can be overlooked by the enemy is no good. In daylight, hills can be very crucial for this reason.

Unless the Soviet troops strongly concentrate on one point (1 fire by 6 units is still a total of 6 fires against your single unit! :( ), it's hard for them to cause a breakthrough against such a delay, or even to inflict significant damage. I think that the recent rule change has also made it safer (disruption reduces movement allowance only by 33% and only during night turns). I think the worst enemy of NATO players are concentrated soviet tank bataillons who start their turn out of sight, cross open terrain (spending fewer than 1/3 of their movement) and assault into a NATO unit - all within the same turn. If the WP player fails to surprise and assault in a single turn, then the NATO player is safe (can move away, can call in artillery and airstrikes on the soviet attack force).

Thoughts on recon units
Let's face it: Recon units are very vulnerable and don't have any fire power. So in order to use them properly, you have to concentrate on the recon unit capabilities not as a fighting unit, but as another "manoeuver" counter. One way you can use recon units is to let them prepare defensive positions for your combat units. It is often risky to move units in travel mode due to the threat of air interdiction. Recon units are smaller in size and thus have a lower risk of being struck by enemy airpower while moving in travel mode. So they can blitz ahead of the slower units into the target hex and prepare defences for them. Another idea is to use recon units to secure supply corridors (lift the opponent's zone of control in hex to allow supply to pass through - but beware that the opponent could assault your recon unit...). Recon units can also be used for the delay/screen tactics described above: use their zone of control to stop the opponent, keep your losses low by increasing distance. You should make sure that the enemy gets none or only a single fire action at them each turn, as recon units are so vulnerable. If you only expect enemies in travel mode, your recon units can be placed more confidently (units in travel mode only have 50% fire power, so you will take fewer losses even if the enemy gets 2 fires on you). And last but not least, there are the typical suicide missions: You can use recon units to reveal enemy units (ideally, you reveal your recon unit to as few unspotted hexes at a time as possible, at a range of 2 and with good cover) and to draw the opponent's opportunity fires. In both cases your recon units will typically suffer many casualties. Provoking the opponent's fire can be quite worthwhile during night turns. It will keep enemy units from recovering fatigue. Instead, their fatigue will increase, potentially/randomly quite significantly (the night fatigue optional rule is usually active by default). The loss of 2 or 3 recon vehicles can be a comparatively cheap price for e.g. 30 enemy fatigue on the combat units of an enemy stack.