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So I'm going to try to win this battle using only one mortar halftrack and no other units. If I were CT, I'd just put all my men on move and walk them to the end of the map.




(Just in case CT sneaks in here to see what I'm up to, that should throw him off the scent )

Forces picked - I picked working on a few assumptions:

1) CT is way better than me. His W-L record is scary, he pays attention to detail, and he probably actually knows the difference between all them panzer models (which puts him way ahead of me). I suspect in a straight up, balanced battle, I'd get destroyed. My best hope is to throw something he doesn't expect at him...

2) Any time someone suggests unrestricted forces, they have some sort of sneaky plan to take some extreme loadout of units that they think will give them some sort of advantage over their unsuspecting rube opponent (in this case, CT happens to be right).

Given that, my best hope is to pick some even more extreme loadout. If you take the 'paper, scissors, rock' approach to CM, his extreme loadout might have him heavy on 'rock' units, for example. I'm hoping I pick a loadout heavy on 'paper' units, giving me a big advantage. Of course, not knowing what he has, I'm equally likely to end up with 'scissor' units. But that puts us back at random: 50-50 chance I end up with the big advantage. When playing someone better than you, 50-50 is pretty good odds... I'm being realistic, not pessimistic here...

So, starting with those assumptions, several thoughts occur to me:

1) First, I consider the conscript LMG and AA gun defense. 100 LMGs and 50 20mm AA guns, all easily bought with 1500pts. Several things going for it: He wouldn't expect it, it would be highly amusing, and I think it would actually be pretty formidable. Always wanted to try it, but to work, your opponent would have to not expect it, and I've never been that willing to annoy someone just to test it. Maybe I'll try it on Nort next time we play - he's my current test lab for extreme force picks... Anyway, I discard it as a bit to silly, even for me.

2) Second, the armor heavy pick - 2 platoons of Stugs, one of PzIVH's. Should be easy to take out whatever armor he has, enough HE left over to hold down his infantry. Only leaves enough points for a bare minimum of supporting infantry, but it usually surprises the attacker when the defender has the greater amount of armor. Also, in my experience, infantry fights tend to go to the more experienced player, whereas armor is more of a toss of the dice. This favors me. However, I don't go this way, as it leaves me a little too infantry light for my comfort, as well as a few reasons noted below:

3) Option 3 - this is what I went with. The regular mountain recon battalion. My reasoning goes like this: I chose Axis - most people assume the (relatively) new guy who picks Axis is enamored of uber-tanks, or at least is going to show up with plenty of Stugs or Hetzers or something. I expect CT to show up with plenty of stuff to blow up tanks, this will give him nothing to shoot at with those assests. Also gives me plenty of infantry to litter the field with and slow his advance, as well as lots of HMGs and plenty of guns to take care of any armor. Other battalion picks were either out of reach points-wise or didn't give me supporting units to my liking. Would've liked to grab a SMG battalion (there can actually be quite a few trees on a mod trees/rural map), but they just didn't quite fit. A few AT mines, a wooden MG bunker (set me a little AT trap with it, I will), and some LMGs (forward scouts to try to pick off incoming sniper/scouts I fully expect CT to be sending) round out my pick.

Hoping CT shows up with lots of AT assests, and I can stall off his advance with lots of infantry. 35 turns straight up doesn't give him a ton of time to attack, if I can slow him down a bit, should be able to win even without outshooting him.

We shall see...

I love that battalion pick, it went very well for me in the CMAK Infantry Only Tourney....it's basically the same for all the Jager types, unless I've misread and you're thinking of something else. Three companies of SMG heavy infantry, 18 heavy machineguns, 81mm and 120mm spotters....that one, yeah? And a couple of 75mm infantry guns....or is it the type with three 75mm At guns? Spit it out...what's in it?!?

Good pick, anyway, if I remembered rightly, the HMGs should make life exceedingly difficult for him.

McI - close...It's the auflklarungs (sp?) battalion. No SMGs, which is sad, but 4 inf guns, 3 75mm AT guns, 81mm spotter, and a mess of HMGS.

Not thrilled with the map...plenty of cover on his side, sparse around the flags.  With all my infantry, hard to find places to stick 'em all.  Big flag on the right, small one next to it.  Big flag left-center, smattering of little ones to its left.

My basic theory - protect the flags on the left, give him the ones on the right, with some harrassment to slow him down.  I figure if I can keep just over half the flags, I'll win on points, especially if I can rack up some casualty points on the way in.  Have some forces arrayed to meet an attack in the middle or my left head on.  If he comes strong on my right, I have a bunch of harrassing units to slow him down, then meet him strong on my flank.  A platoon placed deep behind the flag on my right to either a) harass his flank if he turns to attack my middle or b) retake the flag late in the game if he leaves an inadequate holding force.  Couple platoons in the back center that can move to reinforce the main line, a platoon on the far left way ahead of the MLR, hoping he misses them and they can hit him from the side as he starts his attack. A half platoon of half squads far ahead in the middle - they'll retreat back immediately, they're just there to leave foxholes (where they won't help him) in the treeline, hopefully make CT go tactical a little early.  One foxhole left on the very edge of the treeline, 'carelessly' left in open ground so it will be easily spotted, and also to try to encourage CT to think I'm kind of stupid and an easy win (he's probably correct in thinking this, but still).  AT mines on my far right to placed to prevent any armor making its way through there, most of the guns placed on my left/center.

Looks like this (it's kind of a crappy screenshot, but it's my first one, so back off...):

Defend forward, I say. Some people however like to defend right back on the baseline....that's ok sometimes. In this situation, with the cover sparse, I'd be defending in depth.

I agree, with Ivan use the cover you have to molest his advance out front and make him spend time opening holes to come thru.
Keep a reserve back to plug the area where he eventually punches thru and slow him down again.

I like to utilize the front ground with a good mix of units to slow an advance up to the point of stopping it where it benefits the attacker and make him come thru an area that he doesn't want to. In a 35 turn game, if he's still banging on the outer defenses on turn 25, you've done excellent IMO

Ungood if McI and RD don't like your defense...

I hear what you guys are saying, and probably would've gone that way with SMGers. Chose to stay back so there'd be better firing lanes for the MGs and guns. There's only a few covered routes in on my center/left that I think I can keep pretty well under fire. Right side a couple low hills and lots of cover, didn't want to go toe-to-toe with him there. Hoping this way I can hit him with a bunch at once. If he comes on my right, he's got to come over that hill and through the trees, where I can shift to meet him pretty easily.

You guys are right, though - it does let him pretty much march up to the point of contact relatively unmolested, might give him too much time to work. I'm also pretty ripe for a large caliber arty pasting, should he bring some - he'd have a hard time not hitting a platoon or two.

You can also drop some units reverse slope at the big flag on your right. No cover but he wont be able to see you due to LOS.

Yeah, my right flank has some decent lanes of fire on that flag. My plan is to let him walk up on it, even past it a bit, then open up. Arty spotter is poised to hit that flag. Hoping I can bring that platoon in the back up on his flank as well.

Were you allowed to buy trenches?