The life cycle of a CM meeting engagement

[Der Kuenstler]

Just as people go through stages in life, such as infant, youth, adult, senior, etc., I believe there are at least four distinct stages within the progression of a CM meeting engagement. Each stage requires unique tactics and skills in order to win that stage. It is important to try to win all four stages in order to assure yourself of victory. For this article, these stages are broken down in terms of a 30+ turn meeting engagement.

1) SPEED - (approx. turns 1-5) During the speed stage your concern should be: how quickly can I get my shooters into cover within influence of the flags? In order to win this stage you must know several things. When purchasing you should know what vehicles will carry infantry and what ones don’t. You should know what kind of ground you will be crossing - a town will give you roads - a rural setting usually wont. When setting up with roads you should pick the straightest road there,
because every turn you make takes time and command delay for the new order. Also different vehicles have different command delays. They each have different maximum speeds and different horsepower. Trucks may be the fastest on a road, but their command delays are long - so if you line them up in front of your tanks, the tanks will move first, run into the back of the trucks, and you are going to have a muddled traffic jam there instead of a smooth convoy.

The concern here is getting there faster than him - not so much getting shot at. The reason is that he is probably running his men too, and running men don’t spot well. The concern is getting there first. If you don’t get there first, you will be trying to get there with him sitting in cover firing at you - so BE FIRST!

2) FIREPOWER - (approx. turns 6-20) Now you’ve both gotten into cover and you can’t move so easily without getting shot at - you are in range of each other. Here the priority changes - it is now: how many of my weapons can I put on his men while avoiding his fire as much as possible? You can’t win the battle by speed alone - he might have been a little slower but may have brought up more firepower - if you don’t match him you could get pounded to death there. It is important to go
through each of your slower units - FOs, HMGs, mortars, and ask yourself - what cover can these guys fire from and hit where he is likely to be in a few minutes? Plan ahead of time for this stage. The most attrition happens during this stage - not much land changes hands and on some maps it can become a brutal slugfest.

3) MANEUVER - (approx. turns 21-27) Here you begin to see some things clearer - most of his units have shown themselves already and you know apporoximately where they are. You know the places where you’re all shot up and some places where he is weak. Here the priority is: how can I win with what I have left against what he has left? What should I reinforce and what should be abandoned? Should I send that tank in or back it out of sight? How can I can get that schrek over there in those woods behind his AFVs? This platoon is not even in the action - how can I get it in firing range? Is that 100 pt flag really worth taking at this point? One thing I notice about good players is your weapons (such as AT guns) don’t live very long once they reveal themselves. This is because a good player will immediately maneuver something over there to take it out. You may have had a good plan with your full force in stage 2 but now you no longer have a full force and some units are low or empty on ammo. You will have to be skilled at maneuvering around with what you have left.

4) RESERVE - (approx. turns 28-30+) Here the priority is: where can I deliver the final blow? Here your skill is patience - you wait and wait and wait. This is where you roll out that German Sig with the 150mm ammo. Or that platoon with the +2 stealth HQ that’s been sneaking around behind enemy lines the whole game - time to turn them loose. I remember one game where I was able to knock out most of my opponent’s tank force without revealing my ace - a vet Tiger. After the fight he had, as soon as he saw that Tiger roll out, he surrendered! I’ve noticed most players do not have any reserve - they throw everything they’ve got at the front line and use every bullet, and have nothing behind them left. But many battles are won and lost during this reserve stage.

I think it is interesting how all of this plays out - for example, in my current battle with Ken Fedoroff, I won the opening stage (speed). The firepower stage became a typical brutal slugfest like we have - maybe a tie there - except I got to the main flag first and was still sitting on it. The third stage (maneuver) Ken won by bringing up crack shreks and gradually picking off my T-34s (some with one shot from ranges of 200 meters!) one by one. Now we are in the reserve stage and I don’t know if either of us have any - so it could well end a draw.

In summary, when you pick your forces for a quick battle, try to keep these things in mind: what will get you there quick (speed), what has a nasty punch (firepower), what has decent speed and stealth maneuver), and what are you going to bring out for the final blow? (reserve). I would be interested to know anyone’s comments or additions to this.

[The Coil]

I’ve noticed most players do not have any reserve - they throw everything they’ve got at the front line and use every bullet, and have nothing behind them left. But many battles are won and lost during this reserve stage.

I'm usually not much for keeping a reserve until late in the fight, my theory being I'm better off with everything in the fight I can bring. If I can fight my opponent even with 80% of my forces for 25 turns, and then crush him with a reserve, I could have crushed him even sooner with 100% of my dogs in the fight.

If I keep a reserve, it's usually just back from the front line, and gets thrown in the fight pretty quick, turn 15 or so in your timeline, as soon as I figure out where I can use it to get a "many on few" situation with my opponents forces.

[Copper]

I’ve noticed most players do not have any reserve - they throw everything they’ve got at the front line and use every bullet, and have nothing behind them left. But many battles are won and lost during this reserve stage.

I'm usually not much for keeping a reserve until late in the fight, my theory being I'm better off with everything in the fight I can bring. If I can fight my opponent even with 80% of my forces for 25 turns, and then crush him with a reserve, I could have crushed him even sooner with 100% of my dogs in the fight.

If I keep a reserve, it's usually just back from the front line, and gets thrown in the fight pretty quick, turn 15 or so in your timeline, as soon as I figure out where I can use it to get a "many on few" situation with my opponents forces.

I usually immobilize a few key AFV's for a fallback defense, just in case. Well, I don't, but the computer sure thinks I need a fallback defence.

Cheers!

Leto

[kineas]

I'm usually not much for keeping a reserve until late in the fight, my theory being I'm better off with everything in the fight I can bring. If I can fight my opponent even with 80% of my forces for 25 turns, and then crush him with a reserve, I could have crushed him even sooner with 100% of my dogs in the fight.

You use the reserve to decide fights, the whole point is that you have a bunch of units available for commitment at the decisive moment. If you throw it in early you probably won't decide anything. You'll win a fight what you would win without the reserve, or you'll reinforce failure and lose the fight together with your reserve. You commit the reserve when you know you need it.

[The Coil]

I'm usually not much for keeping a reserve until late in the fight, my theory being I'm better off with everything in the fight I can bring. If I can fight my opponent even with 80% of my forces for 25 turns, and then crush him with a reserve, I could have crushed him even sooner with 100% of my dogs in the fight.

You use the reserve to decide fights, the whole point is that you have a bunch of units available for commitment at the decisive moment. If you throw it in early you probably won't decide anything.

You'll win a fight what you would win without the reserve, or you'll reinforce failure and lose the fight together with your reserve. You commit the reserve when you know you need it.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I'd say in your typical CM QB ME, you know where you need it pretty early on. With the time scale and map size of a typical QB, it's not like you're going to do a bunch of testing probes of the opponent's defenses, and then throw a reserve at a weak spot in the line. Most of the time maps are small enough that you can reposition on the fly anyway.

I've always thought of it this way: If my opponent wants to play me for 25 turns of a 30 turn game with only 80-90% of his men in the fight, that sounds good to me. I've generally found with equally matched opponents, a 10% point advantage will translate to more than a 10% casualty differential.

You'll win a fight what you would win without the reserve, or you'll reinforce failure and lose the fight together with your reserve. You commit the reserve when you know you need it.

I've always found the opposite to be true, in a CM-scale fight: Your reserve will either bail you out of a fight you would have won more easily if they were in it from the beginning, or your opponent will beat you in two stages in a fight you might have been able to hold your own in if you didn't keep reserves.

Just my two cents, and unbacked by any sort of empirical evidence, so I certainly wouldn't go to the bank on it.

The one nice thing about a reserve is that if your main armored spearhead gets bushwhacked late in the game by a hidden gun, you still have something left to fight with, instead of having your whole tank force pantsed in one turn. Not that that's ever happened to me... (Grrrrr, Zemke).

[kineas]

Well, you don't need to hold them till the last turns, you throw them when you know it's time. In any of the 2-3-4 phases described by DK.

[The Coil]

Well, you don't need to hold them till the last turns, you throw them when you know it's time. In any of the 2-3-4 phases described by DK.

Agreed - I guess my point is really that my reserve is committed by DK's phase 2 or 3 generally, not saved for the last few turns...

[Der Kuenstler]

A reserve for me is not so much something I bring out because I need it, but more because my opponent doesn't expect it. It is not a major part of my fighting force - more like a single stealthy platoon, or a single high HE AFV, or a single hidden gun. These forces are revealed after the opponent has used much of his ammo, and decided he's seen everything I've got, and starts playing more recklessly - it has worked on me before and I've seen it work on many others.

I'm playing a game now where I opened up with my 57mm guns at the beginning of the game on a distant Stug and was instantly wiped out by all of his return fire from other AFVs and mortars. Had I held the guns silent until the end of the game after most of his stuff was shot up and mortar ammo expended, I could now be opening up with sideshots on his expensive Panthers, which are now confidently crossing right in front of the trashed guns.

[Copper]

A reserve for me is not so much something I bring out because I need it, but more because my opponent doesn't expect it. It is not a major part of my fighting force - more like a single stealthy platoon, or a single high HE AFV, or a single hidden gun. These forces are revealed after the opponent has used much of his ammo, and decided he's seen everything I've got, and starts playing more recklessly - it has worked on me before and I've seen it work on many others.

I'm playing a game now where I opened up with my 57mm guns at the beginning of the game on a distant Stug and was instantly wiped out by all of his return fire from other AFVs and mortars. Had I held the guns silent until the end of the game after most of his stuff was shot up and mortar ammo expended, I could now be opening up with sideshots on his expensive Panthers, which are now confidently crossing right in front of the trashed guns.

Let me guess, your playing Bert (Owl).

Cheers!

Leto

[Der Kuenstler]

Well...the sometimes the truth hurts but...yes...lol