Hidden units

[Strela]

I'm a bit deeper into my first "I understand hidden units now!"-PBEM. And I have to say it completely changes the way the game plays (for the better in my opinion).

I'm playing on the defensive and my fire actions are now all carefully selected. The chaotic "everyone shoots everyone in all directions" that dominated my previous games is completely gone. The balance of units and the way in which you need to use them feels much more plausible now. The game is also much "tighter" now - every action/move counts.

As the defender, I keep most of my infantry hidden with opportunity fire turned off completely. So the enemy needs to bring infantry in order to assault my infantry. Tanks alone can't get me out of my strongpoints. Unless he wants to risk sending a platoon against my company, he also needs to attack in company strength, which, in turn, makes him very vulnerable to indirect fire (particularly indirect opp. fire which has a 200% modificator in this particular scenario). My own infantry, by contrast, is relatively safe from his artillery (*0.25 for firing at unspotted enemies). Also, my opponent is delayed a lot for he has to skim through all the fields to make sure none of my hidden infantry units can slip through and threaten his rear units. It's very dangerous to follow up with artillery (towed guns in travel mode = *0.25 defence!!) if the enemy can still see you.

In general, it's a much more "controlled" and better experience for me now.

Welcome to Panzer Battles!

It's hard to explain all the nuances, but you have hit on one of them. Deciding when to reveal yourself and when to fire is key. You don't want to reveal yourself unless you can bring more direct fire to bear than your opponent. If you can't then you use your indirect fire whenever you can.

The other is the variable victory points. That adds a whole range of other incentives, particularly on the attacking side.

Overall, I have found Panzer Battles to be a lot deeper than people realise and its a joy when players start to discover that themselves....

David