Steel Panthers-Rallying and Leaders

Article written by Mark 1 [Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:05 pm]

The more leaders that are involved in the rallying of a unit, the greater the chance that unit will be ready to fight in the upcoming turn. Based on this, it cannot be stressed enough that your platoon be kept within the three hexes necessary for senior leaders to exercise their control.

Platoons that have only one unit (the “0” unit) probably contain a senior officer (check the rank by looking at the unit details screen). Ensure that you make use of these senior leaders. Make sure you have these units helping out in the critical areas of your battlefield as they bring extra rallying capabilities which can be the difference between holding a position and the collapse of your line. These leaders not only rally troops, they are generally better at it than the inherent squad and platoon leaders.

The order in which you rally your troops is important. To use the abilities of a higher level leader, they must be in the “ready” state (not “pinned” or “retreating&rdquo. Therefore it is important to rally them first. Since these units are not usually in the front lines of dirty firefights, they do not have to have their suppression down to “2”. Rally these units just until they are “ready”, no further, until all units are fully rallied. If your Captain is “ready” with 6 suppression and you attempt to further reduce this, you run the risk of him failing in the attempt and he will not be available to help any other units.

It is important to rally the most important stuff first. If you have a unit that is desperately shooting to hold a position, get it some leadership support. If abandoning their current position would be devastating to a platoon (leaving an objective, or the only cover in an area), then only rally the troops into a “pinned” state to make sure that they do not run from their positions. Once it is determined that all the squads will stay put, then rally the most important squads again to bring them into fighting form.

If you are exchanging fire, it may not be the best idea to lower the suppression as low as it will go after every fire exchange. If your unit fires, the enemy will fire back and your squad will suffer suppression. As long as you have the ability to rally, you can stay in the firefight. Once you fail a rally however, you can only take one or two shots before the boys put their heads down for the rest of the turn. My suggestion would be to rally only enough to stay in the fight, or until the enemy quits shooting back (then rally to the lowest suppression you can get and shoot like hell).

I know this next statement will sound a bit odd, but sometimes you don’t want your guys to rally. If you are trapped in a position where you are going to lose your unit, you may not want it to rally. If you can keep the unit in a routed state, it will be able to retreat, all at once, during a phase of the turn where no firing takes place as opposed to moving one hex at a time eating lead the whole way.

Keep in mind there is an automatic rally phase at the end of the turn. You must ensure that your unit is in “retreat” or “rout” state with no rally options left, otherwise you will have the unit rally at the end of the turn and be sitting there when the enemy comes in to mop up.

The trick here is to kill off your rally options. There are a few tricks you can use to do this. These are the opposite tactics to staying in the fight.

Try to rally outside another leader’s sphere of influence so you can reduce the number of leaders involved in the rally, and thus decrease the chance of your unit rallying. Try to get involved in a weak fire fight to make sure suppression is enough that the guys will turn to run for safety. Make sure you rally as often as you can and as completely as you can after each exchange of gun fire. By doing this you will increase the odds that your leader will fail on one of the rally attempts.

Another time that you may want to consider keeping your suppression is when you are in a position to close assault. When you have good tank killing weapons, sometimes it is better to shoot those weapons at close range than it is to assault with those troops.

If I have an anti-tank rifle (ATR) unit that I have been able to move to an adjacent side or rear facing of a Pzkw II, I sure don’t want my men climbing all over the tank. I would rather they set up 20 yards away and plug it full of holes.

If a unit has a suppression level 6 or less and is adjacent to the armored fighting vehicle (AFV) it is attacking, it will “assault” the AFV. If the unit has a suppression of more than 6, it will fire its weapons normally.

With the ATR unit the kill chance is as high or higher just shooting the tank. Also, after an assault, the ATR unit (like all assaulting units) will need to regroup and let the adrenaline subside before they make another attempt or action. With the ATR firing normally, it is in a position to fire 5 or 6 times on occasion, with each shot increasing in probability that they will catch a weak spot in the armor, take the engine out or just plain puncture the shell.

Just before the end of your turn, check all your units one more time. You may have moved a leader to a position where some previously exhausted unit may now be rallied by the officer’s presence. It can also happen that watching an enemy unit get tagged will inspire previously reluctant units to become less suppressed, if they are in the same hex as the successful attacker.

If squads are the building blocks of this game, then leaders are the mortar. Keep your leaders involved and cement yourself a victory.

By Mark 1