Newbie: Which PzC game to begin?

[Mr Grumpy]

I have been playing around with the various Optional Rules, especially the Manual Defensive Fire. I find that they give a much more satisfying experience.

However I have a question: I understand, from the rules in the manual, that units transfering from Travel Mode to Deployed Mode under the "Deploying" status will suffer the same Travel Mode maluses when attacked under Defensive or Offensive Fire. Am I right to understand that it would better for me to choose positions 1-2 hexes away from the enemy vanguard's ZOC, then move in on the next turn's Movement Phase when the Deploying status disappear?

I am glad you mentioned you were using manual defensive fire as otherwise your question would have not made sense, very few players use MDF because of the extra file swaps that are required to complete a turn.

I have not tried this feature since I first learned the PzC system, but it would seem sensible to deploy outside of your opponents range and move up when the deploying status is removed, however it might also be true that if you are in their LOS and they have arty or air units your units might still suffer heavy losses during their next fire phase while in deploying mode.

[Drakken]

I am glad you mentioned you were using manual defensive fire as otherwise your question would have not made sense, very few players use MDF because of the extra file swaps that are required to complete a turn.

I have not tried this feature since I first learned the PzC system, but it would seem sensible to deploy outside of your opponents range and move up when the deploying status is removed, however it might also be true that if you are in their LOS and they have arty or air units your units might still suffer heavy losses during their next fire phase while in deploying mode.

I've wrongly read that most players play with MDF. My bad.

[Mr Grumpy]

No problem, MDF does add an interesting twist to the game system but the default one does rule due to the fact you only have to send one file per turn.

Good luck with your first game, you are treading the correct path by learning the game system and playing the AI before trying a small PBEM game against a human opponent

[BigDuke66]

MDF in this engines works also differently from that of the CW and Napi series.
Here a single actions sometimes triggers 2x or even 3x defensive fire what is something I have never seen in the CW and Napi series, so this opportunity defensive fire seems strong enough so that the defense isn't in disadvantaged.
In the CW and Napi series this opportunity fire is usually only once per unit and has only 1/2 firepower and that is why I use MDF in these series or else the defense would be too weak especially when looking at how combat usually went at that time.