East Front Strategies And Tactics By Greg Lazarou The following list of strategies and tactics comes from my personal experience playing Talonsoft's East Front and other similar war games (Talonsoft's Bulge/Ardennes game), and represents lessons learned (usually the hard way) from my many worthy opponents on the PBEM battlefields. Most of this is common sense and basic, but still not obvious to the casual observer (at least it was not obvious to me when I started playing these wargames). I broke up this list into two major categories of tips: the one is general purpose, wargaming strategies and tactics, the second is EF engine specific tips and tricks. If you have additional tips or critiques of these please e-mail me at glazarou@acus.com. General Purpose Strategy & Tactics Use Of Overwhelming Force: The most important tip is to use overwhelming force. Whenever possible concentrate as much power as possible on the attack or defense of an area. Basically don't spread the forces around. Pick the strategic attack or defense points and concentrate power there. A corollary to this is: don't allow the opponent to concentrate his force. Divide and conquer as much as possible. Have A Plan / Strategy: Know when to attack, when to retreat and when to stand your ground; these actions or tactical approaches should be part of a larger strategic plan and not left to the opponent to dictate. As much as possible (and often it is not possible) try to gain the initiative and control the flow of the battle, instead of reacting to the enemy's actions. Try to be somewhat unpredictable; attack when he expects you to run and retreat when he expects an attack. Make Maximum Use Of Your Strengths And Minimize Your Weaknesses: Survey your force and its capabilities and if possible the enemy's force and capabilities (I say if possible because if you are playing a blind scenario - in which you are not supposed to check the other side - then this is not an option). If your tanks have better long range shooting capabilities than the opponent's then fight from afar and don't let the opponent get close to your force; if your units have poor shooting capabilities but are capable assaulters then try to develop the fight into a close assault game (in areas of poor long range visibility - like cities and forests). If you have fast moving units, plan for rapid shifts of force, flanking moves etc. If you have slow moving, inflexible forces, pick good defensive spots, dig-in and invite the opponent in a static game of trench warfare. Be Gutless , No Point's For Bravery: If you can't apply enough force to win the fight, avoid the fight if at all possible. Retreat and find a more appropriate time and place for a stand (of course only if that is an option). This can mean abandoning objectives even. In the early stages of the game saving resources and grabbing strategic spots is more important than keeping objectives. As the game progresses, objectives become more important... Larry Reese's line of "If you run you'll only die tired" may be true in some cases, but often it is best to run, to live and fight another day. If defense is hopeless don't hesitate to retreat. Retreats: When retreating, do so in an organized and methodical manner. Pick good defensive spots and sacrifice some units in delaying actions to allow your main force to escape. Also hide some units in forests and other low visibility areas to later create havoc in the rears of the advancing enemy. Even small numbers of units can be quite distructing and distructive to an opponent in their under-protected rear. Pick units to sacrifice in delaying actions that are either of low value and/or are slow to move (units that probably could not escape anyway). Surround The Opponent: Use flanking moves and surround, encircle, isolate small groups of the opponent's force and annihilate them one at a time. Flank, Flank , Flank: Whenever possible, attempt flanking moves to surprise enemy in his soft underbelly (behind the front lines). There you can often find some juicy defenseless targets, like artillery units, loaded or unloaded trucks, etc. Guard against such surprises by utilizing useless units (like extra trucks, jeeps etc) as trip-wires. Of course you then need to be able to react fast enough to bring back support or move weak units to safety when the trip-wire is alerted of enemy flanking operations. Value And Respect Unit's: Treat the units as real, valuable and rare resources; killed units can not be brought back to life, but lost objectives or positions can be re-acquired. It helps to imagine real men and boys fighting instead of computer bits and bytes. This helps me use these units judiciously and to avoid frivolous losses and pointless sacrifices. Use Of Defensive Positions And Fortifications: Use improved positions (villages, forests, hills, fortifications). They make a difference in the effectiveness of your defense. Defend from village to village, if possible. Don't try to make a stand in open ground, especially if the attacker can use any improved positions himself. Attack vs. Defence: Defence is more economical than offense; if you have a choice of attacking or waiting in a good position and defending, often it is best to take the defense. The defender usually takes the first shot, and improved defensive positions (high ground and villages) make all the difference in the world. Of course nothing is more satisfying than a crashing attack with overwhelming well coordinated force on a disorganized and helpless opponent. But if you have parity of force and the opponent needs to take an objective that you control, it is often best to prepare good defensive positions, control the lines of sight and let them come at you. Coordinate Armor And Infantry: Use armor to support infantry advances and utilize infantry to provide support for armor against enemy infantry nearby. Unsupported armor often can be isolated and assaulted by infantry in wooded or city/village locations. Providing infantry as support, often helps avoid complete surrounding and isolation. Infantry without armor support, is easy prey for enemy armor. East Front Specific Tips End Game SpasmsDue to the point system in these games and their sharp time limit, plan offensive spasms for the last moves of the game to take weakly defended objectives etc. Works especially well if combined with a secret flanking move. Again, guard against such last minute spasms by your opponent. Surround And Eliminate: When assaulting and winning the assault, the enemy units usually retreat (after hopefully suffering some disruptions and losses). If the enemy units are completely surrounded (all six sides of the hex occupied, even by weak units such as trucks, horses or commanders) and the assault is won, the enemy is "captured" or effectively eliminated. This is a great way to annihilate large numbers of units with the minimum expenditure of time and effort. It is somewhat of a game artifact that you can use even trucks as blocking units, but other than that it is realistic. If you can not assemble enough units to fully surround the enemy, then attempt to assault from the front and back of the hex (diametrically opposed sides of the hex); this often leads to the same effect as the complete surrounding, but is not guaranteed to work - on some occasions the enemy will retreat to the side. Use Of Sighting And The "peekaboo move": You can't shoot what you can't see. In many situations, hiding behind trees, villages etc. coming out to take a shot or two and then hiding again is a great way to harass the enemy without much risk to your own units. This is particularly helpful when you have units with good long range of fire and poor defensive strength (like the German Marder, tank destroyer units). As a corollary, use reconnaissance units, hilltops etc. for sighting before moving in for the kill. If you have multiple tanks and you know of the presence of enemy units just out of sight, use one tank (or other less valuable units) to flush them out (make them visible) and then move in for the kill with the main force. Use Of Opportunity Fire: In general you can't rely on the AI to make reasonable use of its shots, so try to avoid disasters by setting your Opp. Fire options carefully (take short range shots, avoid shooting at soft vehicles etc.) and if you have a choice use the action points yourself instead of letting the AI do it for you. For example, when setting an ambush, I'd often select to disable the Opp. firing completely to avoid being detected (or alternatively move the ambush units back and forth to burn up the APs). Then when your turn comes, you can take some nice controlled shots at the targets that you really need to kill. Cover: Smoke provides great cover for moving in close to strong defensive positions. Use smoke in intermediate hexes to block sighting for the defenders. The engine also blocks sighting trough a hex that has 13 or more SPs in it. That means that 3 platoons of trucks provide perfect cover for advancing infantry behind them. This is a game artifact and frowned upon by some wargamers so you may want to use it judiciously or after discussion and agreement. Reinforcements Delay: Bringing reinforcements in areas controlled by the enemy is problematic. A way to buy time, and to sometimes cause enemy forces to be tied up waiting for the reinforcements, is to not bring the reinforcements in. Also such delays can be used to synchronize the arrival of reinforcements so that a more significant force is assembled or so that the enemy can't attack the new arrivals piecemeal. Armour VS. Infantry: Armour units should avoid contact with healthy/full strength infantry units at all cost, especially later in the war. Most infantry units have some pretty sharp teeth at range of 1 against armor. Especially avoid German Panzergrenadier units and most Engineer units. Also close proximity of armor to infantry allows the infantry to use assaults which can often be pretty effective. It is great fun if you can arrange it to shoot units just out of their range to shoot back. That is a great way to use armor units against most infantry units. Shot Selection: When selecting your shots select targets that maximize your strength and minimize the enemy's defensive strength. Try to kill the max value units that is feasible with the offensive strength that you have. Whenever possible try to destroy tanks and assault guns (they are the most dangerous and difficult to kill, therefore if you are given a chance take it). Direct Firing Of Artillery: Artillery can fire directly at targets if has direct sighting of the enemy. This means that, for example, mortar units can be used similarly to other infantry units, with a great range and with fairly deadly attack strength. In some defensive positions small caliber mortar units can behave like machine gun units on steroids - great range and attack strength while still somewhat maneuverable. This can also be used by artillery units in self defense against weak flanking units (for example armored cars that are usually very effective for flanking operations, due to their high mobility, are also very susceptible to artillery fire at close range due to their weak defensive value). The only problem with heavy artillery units in direct fire situations is that direct visibility of the enemy, means that these difficult to manuever units will easily be exposed to enemy artillery shots. Dismount, Dismount , Dismount: Units loaded for transport are very weak defensively. Even weak long range shots can destroy a whole platoon if it is caught loaded in trucks. Late in the war, the long range shooting capabilities of both the German and Russian tanks, makes this point even more critical. When approaching the front, dismount your units if at all possible. Watch The Kill Ratio: Keep an eye out on the value point kill ratio throughout the game (menu options Status/Victory... and monitor the "Total Allied/Axis Point Losses"). If you are seriously lagging here it is an indicator that a change in strategy is urgently needed. If you are attacking and the enemy is getting 3-4 points for each point that you kill, you may want to reconsider the attack plan. This often is a better predictive measure of how the overall game will end, than looking at objectives being held or overall points. Another thing to remember is that killed points are gone forever, while objectives can be held now and lost in the future; kills are a sure thing... Assaults: Don't forget the assault aspect of the game. Especially if you control poor shooting units, try to get close the the enemy and assault, assault, assault. This is often the best strategy for the poor shooting Russian infantry when confronting German infantry or armor. Well coordinated assaults, combined with either full or partial surrounding of the enemy, can be most effective. In desperate situations and when some badly needed units are out of range for a proper assault it may even be worth assaulting with fatigued units; "double time" the units to the enemy and assault to surprise and shock the opponent. Fatigued units are less effective in assaults (attack strength is halved) but they may be able to help complete a surrounding move or they may provide the shock strength to overcome a weak enemy. Fixed Unit's: Fixed units are released when attacked (shot at). For this reason it is sometimes a bad idea to take weak long range shots or artillery shots on fixed units; this results in the automatic "release" of the fixed units. Fixed units can't move but they can dismount and dig in; so while they are fixed and not able to contribute to a fight far away, have them improve their fortifications and at least dismount if loaded in transports.. Greg Lazarou