Red Victory has Arrived & Installed!

[Kool Kat]

And for God sake, dont run towards set up machine guns :)

So that's why my guys were dropping like flies? ;)

[Jeff Conner]

"Setup" heavy weapons have their lethality multiplied by three, but with a limited arc of fire. If they move or fire outside of that arc, they are no longer considered "setup." They are best flanked or avoided if at all possible. There is no corollary in CS.

Another important factor to consider, especially when running towards setup machine guns, is stacking. If there are more than ten men in a hex, the lethality directed at the hex is increased by 10% for each man over ten (fifteen men in a target hex would have a lethality modifier of plus 50%). It also works in reverse; a hex with five men has a negative modifier of 50%. Only stack when you need to. This is somewhat similar to artillery fire in CS.

Jeff

[Compass Rose]

Here are a few extra tips to help your learning curve.

99% of the PBEM opponents I normally play against use the email encryption. The main reason I use it is to prevent myself or my opponent from accidentally opening the wrong side of the turn. You will easily find out that once you start learning and enjoying theses games, it can become very hard to remember who's on what side. Also, it is good to know that once you enter in a password, it can not be changed during that scenario battle. I use the same password all of the time so I don't have trouble forgetting it.

Another helpful piece of advice is to make sure you go to the Settings drop down menu located along the top of the map. Make sure you select (has a check mark in front of it) "Ask Before Advancing" and "Ask Before Unloading/Dropping". While learning the game, you will not always know what you are clicking on and having these two setting selected "on" will help give you a "safety check" to make sure you are doing what you really want to do, and not dropping weapons when you don't want to or advancing the game turn accidentally, before you are ready to.

Also make sure that "Select Single Use" is not checked. Not selecting this, will greatly help prevent you from accidentally using single use weapons or weapons with a certain number of uses, inadvertently. Theses type of weapons can include satchel charge, smoke grenade, flamethrower, etc.

Another big helpful hint: It doesn't matter if you are using the main tank gun or a anti-tank gun, if you decide to switch ammo loads to a HE, the gun will only fire that load type until you manually switch it back to AP. It is also possible to switch ammo load types even when the gun or tank does not have any more movement points. It is good to remember to do that, or you could easily find yourself in big trouble during your opponents next turn, he has a tank or two that come into LOS of your tank and you happen to have HE loaded, instead of AP!

Finally, protect your vehicles as much as possible. They are worth alot of points which can easily turn a Minor Victory or a draw into a loss for you.

[Kool Kat]

Also, it is good to know that once you enter in a password, it can not be changed during that scenario battle. I use the same password all of the time so I don't have trouble forgetting it.

Yes. I always use the same password or I will forget it! ;)

Another helpful piece of advice is to make sure you go to the Settings drop down menu located along the top of the map. Make sure you select (has a check mark in front of it) "Ask Before Advancing" and "Ask Before Unloading/Dropping". While learning the game, you will not always know what you are clicking on and having these two setting selected "on" will help give you a "safety check" to make sure you are doing what you really want to do, and not dropping weapons when you don't want to or advancing the game turn accidentally, before you are ready to.

Also make sure that "Select Single Use" is not checked. Not selecting this, will greatly help prevent you from accidentally using single use weapons or weapons with a certain number of uses, inadvertently. Theses type of weapons can include satchel charge, smoke grenade, flamethrower, etc.

Done!

Another big helpful hint: It doesn't matter if you are using the main tank gun or a anti-tank gun, if you decide to switch ammo loads to a HE, the gun will only fire that load type until you manually switch it back to AP. It is also possible to switch ammo load types even when the gun or tank does not have any more movement points. It is good to remember to do that, or you could easily find yourself in big trouble during your opponents next turn, he has a tank or two that come into LOS of your tank and you happen to have HE loaded, instead of AP!

Whoops! Just learned how to switch ammo type... now I know to switch back to AP!

Finally, protect your vehicles as much as possible. They are worth alot of points which can easily turn a Minor Victory or a draw into a loss for you.

Yes! As I mentioned earlier, vehicles seem to have a LOT more random "hurt" come at them in SB... blown tracks, mine field, stuck, and soft-skinned AFVs like half tracks are pretty vulnerable to most small arms fire?

Many thanks for all the hints and tips!

P.S. What optional rules should I use as a newbie?

[Laza]

One tip I would give you as old CS vet is one of the big issues I had coming across to this game was weapon effectiveness.
While you can blast away to your hearts content in CS games you need a bit more discipline in this game especially in some bigger scns.
Weapon effectiveness degrading because you fired everything you had at everything you could early in the game. Can really bite you in the proverbial late in the game

[Compass Rose]

P.S. What optional rules should I use as a newbie?

In WWII games, I always play with Vehicle Fire Over and Quality Loss Modifier as the optional rules, which are the same two you normally see used in Blitz SB tournaments.

[Richie61]

P.S. What optional rules should I use as a newbie?

In WWII games, I always play with Vehicle Fire Over and Quality Loss Modifier as the optional rules, which are the same two you normally see used in Blitz SB tournaments.

And "Fog of War".
I asked Alan about it and he said "yes" to FOW.

[TheBigRedOne]

P.S. What optional rules should I use as a newbie?

In WWII games, I always play with Vehicle Fire Over and Quality Loss Modifier as the optional rules, which are the same two you normally see used in Blitz SB tournaments.

And "Fog of War".
I asked Alan about it and he said "yes" to FOW.

I've been playing so long that I don't consider FOW to be optional. Does anyone really play with FOW off?