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Just wrapped up re-visiting this classic and figured that, since I'd seen it come up in conversation here a time or two, I'd jot down some notes. A bit less to read than the unofficial strat guide for the game....I tried to keep it to the essentials only....
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Tactical and Strategic Considerations for People’s General
Just finished playing the Western Campaign….won it with brilliant victories in all scenarios, which was the goal I had set for myself. It’s a fantastic battle system, and one that has guided my thinking in a number of ways, as I plan the battle system for Candle’Bre.
For what they’re worth, I thought I’d share my observations on the game, and what it took to get from here to there, down the long path of battles, fought in a staggering array of different terrains and with an equal array of differing battlefield methodologies.
Outfitting yourself
You need combined arms in this game. It’s as simple as that. If you go in with a linear task force, you WILL get handled by your opponents.
Recon Units
The first, most important consideration in your task force is recon. Recon units are your eyes. They have a good spotting range, are notoriously hard to kill, and can fight reasonably well against a good variety of opponents (your mileage will vary depending on exactly WHICH recon unit you buy for your troops). Recon units are also your cloak of invisibility, serving to help conceal your other units from enemy sight. This is important because your enemy can’t attack what he can’t see, and so, your recon units are proverbial bait for the trap, but getting used to using them in that fashion takes time and practice.
Finally, recon units have tremendously good movement. That, combined with their phased movement ability makes them invaluable, able to carefully scout narrow passages forward or penetrate deep into enemy territory (useful for going after those remote victory hexes).
Uses of recon units
Here are the principle ways you’ll find yourself making use of recon guys:
1) Scouting – This is prolly the most common use of your recon units. You gotta be able to see the baddies to shoot at them, and with their better-than-average to excellent spotting range and low profile (making them harder to hit), they’re excellent for this. By making use of phased movement (move-stop-move-stop), a single recon unit can scout out nooks and crannies, around hills, and inside cities all in a single turn. Simply invaluable.
2) Spotting – Similar to scouting, this is a “helper” function that I religiously use my Recon units for. Since they spend a good deal of time on or near the front lines, giving your recon units the “Forward Observer” special is a good choice….they spot for your artillery, and give those units the ability to deal out more damage. Can’t get much better than that!
3) Trapping – The baddies can only hit what they can see, and further, your recon units help “hide” your other units from enemy sight. This can be used to punishing advantage to set up ambushes for the enemy. To do so, simply don’t use your scout’s full movement going TOWARD the enemy. Leave a few movement points to back up a bit. Then, when you move your bigger guns up (anti-tanks and tanks, primarily, though if you’re facing enemy infantry, by all means, use infantry of your own), place them directly in front of your recon guys. The baddies rush forth to engage your recon unit (which they can see) and stumble right into your other units—which they can’t see. Result: You get a free shot, and your opponent gets hammered.
4) Penetration – Recon units have lossa moves. This is good, cos sometimes those victory hexes you’re after are in remote locations. Again, your scouts serve you well. Their long spotting range makes it unlikely that they’ll stumble into ambush if you’re careful, and their good movement range makes it easy for them to slip past enemy units and drive deep into enemy territory. A bit of creative air and chopper support, and a couple of deep recon units can really mess things up for your opponent! Give an artillery unit the “bridging” attachment (if needed) and let him tag along, throw in an Anti-Tank unit to handle the enemy’s big guns, and you have a real menace of a force!
Attachment considerations: IMO, giving your recon guys “Forward Observer” attachment is a must. The synergy you create by combining the scouting function with greater artillery damage is just simply too good to pass on.
Another vital consideration is “Bridging,” but only if the scenario requires it. Keep in mind too that some of your recon units come with this built in….those should be given an extra look, when determining what unit(s) to buy, as bridging “built-in” is extremely valuable in its own right.
Anti-Tank/Engineering: I rarely take anti-tank for recon units, but then, I have a peculiar fondness for the Stormer AT, and those units often travel with my recon units, so I have no particular need for that, however, I find the Engineering attachment to be highly useful, because I do use my recon units in combat roles quite actively.
Recon – An attachment made for the unit, it increases their already good spotting range. Nonetheless, I don’t make use of it often….I’d rather bulk up my unit’s ability to fight.
Tanks
Ahhh, and who can resist the lure of tanks?! Awesomely powerful units, especially for the western side. Their primary battlefield ability is the blitz, and a blitzing tank can clear the battlefield of enemy units with frightening efficiency. Tanks tho, are not the powerhouses you might expect them to be. They need help to go on one of their battlefield-clearing frenzies. If you try to do it using tanks alone, you WILL lose units. They’re good, but they need the synergy of working with other types of units to come fully into their own.
Uses of Tanks
1) Snub-nosed artillery units! - Tanks (especially Stealth Tanks, with their range of three), make OUTSTANDING short-range artillery units, working in support of other units that might be better suited to rooting out enemy units (ie – tanks aren’t so good in the close confines of a city, but they can shell units IN cities from a distance, and weaken them so that your infantry units have an easy time).
2) Controlling open terrain - A tank (or group of tanks), protected by one or more anti-air units—air units being the bane of the existence of tanks—is almost impossible to move from the field of battle. Western Tanks, especially operating in fire teams of 2+ have little to fear from Eastern tanks, and shrug off infantry attacks like they weren’t even there.
3) Blitzing – This is the best use of tanks. What they were made for. To set up a blitz, you need support units to move in first and weaken the units to be overrun. Recon units and Artillery are your best choices for this. The recon units move forward (spotting for the artillery, so they cause more damage with each attack), slipping around the artillery-damaged units, and when they reach the end of their movement, they make an attack of their own. Then, the tank moves up, adjacent to the now-weakened units. BOOM! Buh-bye enemy units. The biggest danger to the blitzing tank is that you burn through your ammo at a terrifying rate. Thus, of all the leader specials you can hope to get for your tank crews, having the Quartermaster special (auto-ammo replenishment each turn), is a truly, stunningly beautiful thing. Guard that tank like the gem it is, and he’ll be an absolute WRECKING CREW on the battlefield!
Attachment Considerations: Tanks kill things. That’s what they do. That’s what they’re made for. Thus, the obvious choices here are attachments that help tanks do what they do, even better. Anti-tank and engineering for extra close combat punch, but combat support can be invaluable (extra ammo). I find the other attachments go largely unused (recon?! No thanks…I’ve got scouting units for that! Air defense? Again, I’ve got units to do that….it’s unneeded on the tank, and detracts from their primary role), save for bridging, of course, if the situation requires it.
Infantry
Foot sloggers, Mechanized Infantry….the grunts. The backbone of your army, there are a number of outstanding infantry units available to you, and it would be in your best interest to study them and their abilities closely. At the start of the campaign, when funds are tight, you’d be hard pressed to find a better value than the Lav-25. Good movement, bridging built in….solid all-around little guy (especially if you give it the Engineering attachment to help give them more “bite”). Later on, the Bradley is the standard by which all the others are measured, only being eclipsed later in the campaign by the Knight….a souped up Bradley with bridging built in…sweet. But, just cos Bradley’s are so awesome doesn’t mean that you should go with them exclusively. Bradley’s are good, but they’re not the ideal unit for busting baddies entrenched in cities. No…for those, you just can’t GET a better deal than the good ol’ Engineer. These guys are….amazing. Cheaper than they should be, IMO, and damnably hard to kill, they can take on entrenched infantry, tanks in the open….you name it. There’s not much that these guys can’t handle. When given proper support (recon and artillery), you’ll wonder if you even NEED battle tanks in your crew!
Using Infantry
1) General Advance – Taking and controlling ground, using their ZOC to protect your more vulnerable advancing units (air defense guys and artillery) are one of the most fundamental jobs of the Infantry. They’re your human shield, protecting the other component parts of your force.
2) Softening up targets – GREAT use for infantry! Of course, they’re not much good against tanks, but against pretty much anything else, they guys are tops! They can tangle with enemy infantry, charge in and put a royal hurting on enemy air defenses and artillery….they’re great at stopping enemy recon and anti-tank units cold, too! Infantry can be among your primary tools to set the local battlefield up for a tank blitz.
3) City attacks – some infantry types are better at this than others (Engineers), but most types do fairly well, depending on what’s guarding the city in question of course!
Attachment considerations: I consider recon, forward observer, and air defense to be a waste of a slot for infantry. You’ve got units to act as air defense, and other units to do your scouting for you….why waste a slot covering bases you can cover with units? Instead, my vote would be to enhance the existing capabilities of your units, more ammo, make them hit harder (engineering), bridging if needed, and good ol’ anti-tank if you want some hard-hitting foot-sloggers. Extra ammo is always a good consideration too, enabling your units to hang longer in a fight.
Air Defense
A necessary evil, in my mind’s eye. I don’t much care for air defense units, but they have their place in your force structure. Without them, the only real defense you’ve got against enemy choppers are your own choppers and what air points you can spare. This is less-than-ideal, so you need them! Two basic flavors of air units….passive and active. Passive units are units like the Patriot defense system. They can’t actually attack units, but will fire on enemy air units that are incoming. The good news here is that the tend to have good range (the Patriot has a range of fire of ten hexes….as good as your best artillery). On the other hand, your active units (ie – the “Linebacker” are short ranged, but can be ordered to fire on enemy choppers….they’ll also fire on incoming craft, but of course, given their range limitations, that’s not always a thing to be relied on). A good spread of coverage would be two passive and four active. I’ve only ever used Patriots and Linebackers, but others can be mixed in if they fit your force structure plan. In the early goings, you can afford to go light on air defense, since you will have clear air superiority, and your choppers CAN be used against enemy choppers in a pinch. My recommendation would be to focus on your core force first, throwing in maybe two patriot defenders for the early scenarios, and bulking this up with Linebackers as you get more prestige.
Uses of Air Defense units
1) Zone of Protection – The idea here is to spread your air defenders out a bit so that you create an overlapping zone of protection for units vulnerable to enemy air attack, and keep your vulnerable and valuable units inside that overlapping pocket. Enemy air units fly in…BOOM, they get damaged, and your vulnerable units take less of a hit.
2) Hunting – Only possible with your active air defense units, the goal here is to keep your active air defenders at or near the front, where they’re most likely to encounter enemy choppers. When they do, do whatever you must (even at the risk of exposing them to enemy ground fire) to position your anti-air unit(s) so that they can strike the enemy chopper. BOOM! No more enemy chopper, or at the very least, a badly damaged enemy chopper that your own choppers can sweep in and finish off.
Attachment considerations: Anti-Air and extra ammo are really the only ones worthy of consideration here. The others are, in my view, a waste of 30 prestige, if applied to anti-air units.
(to be continued)
Tactical and Strategic Considerations for People’s General
Just finished playing the Western Campaign….won it with brilliant victories in all scenarios, which was the goal I had set for myself. It’s a fantastic battle system, and one that has guided my thinking in a number of ways, as I plan the battle system for Candle’Bre.
For what they’re worth, I thought I’d share my observations on the game, and what it took to get from here to there, down the long path of battles, fought in a staggering array of different terrains and with an equal array of differing battlefield methodologies.
Outfitting yourself
You need combined arms in this game. It’s as simple as that. If you go in with a linear task force, you WILL get handled by your opponents.
Recon Units
The first, most important consideration in your task force is recon. Recon units are your eyes. They have a good spotting range, are notoriously hard to kill, and can fight reasonably well against a good variety of opponents (your mileage will vary depending on exactly WHICH recon unit you buy for your troops). Recon units are also your cloak of invisibility, serving to help conceal your other units from enemy sight. This is important because your enemy can’t attack what he can’t see, and so, your recon units are proverbial bait for the trap, but getting used to using them in that fashion takes time and practice.
Finally, recon units have tremendously good movement. That, combined with their phased movement ability makes them invaluable, able to carefully scout narrow passages forward or penetrate deep into enemy territory (useful for going after those remote victory hexes).
Uses of recon units
Here are the principle ways you’ll find yourself making use of recon guys:
1) Scouting – This is prolly the most common use of your recon units. You gotta be able to see the baddies to shoot at them, and with their better-than-average to excellent spotting range and low profile (making them harder to hit), they’re excellent for this. By making use of phased movement (move-stop-move-stop), a single recon unit can scout out nooks and crannies, around hills, and inside cities all in a single turn. Simply invaluable.
2) Spotting – Similar to scouting, this is a “helper” function that I religiously use my Recon units for. Since they spend a good deal of time on or near the front lines, giving your recon units the “Forward Observer” special is a good choice….they spot for your artillery, and give those units the ability to deal out more damage. Can’t get much better than that!
3) Trapping – The baddies can only hit what they can see, and further, your recon units help “hide” your other units from enemy sight. This can be used to punishing advantage to set up ambushes for the enemy. To do so, simply don’t use your scout’s full movement going TOWARD the enemy. Leave a few movement points to back up a bit. Then, when you move your bigger guns up (anti-tanks and tanks, primarily, though if you’re facing enemy infantry, by all means, use infantry of your own), place them directly in front of your recon guys. The baddies rush forth to engage your recon unit (which they can see) and stumble right into your other units—which they can’t see. Result: You get a free shot, and your opponent gets hammered.
4) Penetration – Recon units have lossa moves. This is good, cos sometimes those victory hexes you’re after are in remote locations. Again, your scouts serve you well. Their long spotting range makes it unlikely that they’ll stumble into ambush if you’re careful, and their good movement range makes it easy for them to slip past enemy units and drive deep into enemy territory. A bit of creative air and chopper support, and a couple of deep recon units can really mess things up for your opponent! Give an artillery unit the “bridging” attachment (if needed) and let him tag along, throw in an Anti-Tank unit to handle the enemy’s big guns, and you have a real menace of a force!
Attachment considerations: IMO, giving your recon guys “Forward Observer” attachment is a must. The synergy you create by combining the scouting function with greater artillery damage is just simply too good to pass on.
Another vital consideration is “Bridging,” but only if the scenario requires it. Keep in mind too that some of your recon units come with this built in….those should be given an extra look, when determining what unit(s) to buy, as bridging “built-in” is extremely valuable in its own right.
Anti-Tank/Engineering: I rarely take anti-tank for recon units, but then, I have a peculiar fondness for the Stormer AT, and those units often travel with my recon units, so I have no particular need for that, however, I find the Engineering attachment to be highly useful, because I do use my recon units in combat roles quite actively.
Recon – An attachment made for the unit, it increases their already good spotting range. Nonetheless, I don’t make use of it often….I’d rather bulk up my unit’s ability to fight.
Tanks
Ahhh, and who can resist the lure of tanks?! Awesomely powerful units, especially for the western side. Their primary battlefield ability is the blitz, and a blitzing tank can clear the battlefield of enemy units with frightening efficiency. Tanks tho, are not the powerhouses you might expect them to be. They need help to go on one of their battlefield-clearing frenzies. If you try to do it using tanks alone, you WILL lose units. They’re good, but they need the synergy of working with other types of units to come fully into their own.
Uses of Tanks
1) Snub-nosed artillery units! - Tanks (especially Stealth Tanks, with their range of three), make OUTSTANDING short-range artillery units, working in support of other units that might be better suited to rooting out enemy units (ie – tanks aren’t so good in the close confines of a city, but they can shell units IN cities from a distance, and weaken them so that your infantry units have an easy time).
2) Controlling open terrain - A tank (or group of tanks), protected by one or more anti-air units—air units being the bane of the existence of tanks—is almost impossible to move from the field of battle. Western Tanks, especially operating in fire teams of 2+ have little to fear from Eastern tanks, and shrug off infantry attacks like they weren’t even there.
3) Blitzing – This is the best use of tanks. What they were made for. To set up a blitz, you need support units to move in first and weaken the units to be overrun. Recon units and Artillery are your best choices for this. The recon units move forward (spotting for the artillery, so they cause more damage with each attack), slipping around the artillery-damaged units, and when they reach the end of their movement, they make an attack of their own. Then, the tank moves up, adjacent to the now-weakened units. BOOM! Buh-bye enemy units. The biggest danger to the blitzing tank is that you burn through your ammo at a terrifying rate. Thus, of all the leader specials you can hope to get for your tank crews, having the Quartermaster special (auto-ammo replenishment each turn), is a truly, stunningly beautiful thing. Guard that tank like the gem it is, and he’ll be an absolute WRECKING CREW on the battlefield!
Attachment Considerations: Tanks kill things. That’s what they do. That’s what they’re made for. Thus, the obvious choices here are attachments that help tanks do what they do, even better. Anti-tank and engineering for extra close combat punch, but combat support can be invaluable (extra ammo). I find the other attachments go largely unused (recon?! No thanks…I’ve got scouting units for that! Air defense? Again, I’ve got units to do that….it’s unneeded on the tank, and detracts from their primary role), save for bridging, of course, if the situation requires it.
Infantry
Foot sloggers, Mechanized Infantry….the grunts. The backbone of your army, there are a number of outstanding infantry units available to you, and it would be in your best interest to study them and their abilities closely. At the start of the campaign, when funds are tight, you’d be hard pressed to find a better value than the Lav-25. Good movement, bridging built in….solid all-around little guy (especially if you give it the Engineering attachment to help give them more “bite”). Later on, the Bradley is the standard by which all the others are measured, only being eclipsed later in the campaign by the Knight….a souped up Bradley with bridging built in…sweet. But, just cos Bradley’s are so awesome doesn’t mean that you should go with them exclusively. Bradley’s are good, but they’re not the ideal unit for busting baddies entrenched in cities. No…for those, you just can’t GET a better deal than the good ol’ Engineer. These guys are….amazing. Cheaper than they should be, IMO, and damnably hard to kill, they can take on entrenched infantry, tanks in the open….you name it. There’s not much that these guys can’t handle. When given proper support (recon and artillery), you’ll wonder if you even NEED battle tanks in your crew!
Using Infantry
1) General Advance – Taking and controlling ground, using their ZOC to protect your more vulnerable advancing units (air defense guys and artillery) are one of the most fundamental jobs of the Infantry. They’re your human shield, protecting the other component parts of your force.
2) Softening up targets – GREAT use for infantry! Of course, they’re not much good against tanks, but against pretty much anything else, they guys are tops! They can tangle with enemy infantry, charge in and put a royal hurting on enemy air defenses and artillery….they’re great at stopping enemy recon and anti-tank units cold, too! Infantry can be among your primary tools to set the local battlefield up for a tank blitz.
3) City attacks – some infantry types are better at this than others (Engineers), but most types do fairly well, depending on what’s guarding the city in question of course!
Attachment considerations: I consider recon, forward observer, and air defense to be a waste of a slot for infantry. You’ve got units to act as air defense, and other units to do your scouting for you….why waste a slot covering bases you can cover with units? Instead, my vote would be to enhance the existing capabilities of your units, more ammo, make them hit harder (engineering), bridging if needed, and good ol’ anti-tank if you want some hard-hitting foot-sloggers. Extra ammo is always a good consideration too, enabling your units to hang longer in a fight.
Air Defense
A necessary evil, in my mind’s eye. I don’t much care for air defense units, but they have their place in your force structure. Without them, the only real defense you’ve got against enemy choppers are your own choppers and what air points you can spare. This is less-than-ideal, so you need them! Two basic flavors of air units….passive and active. Passive units are units like the Patriot defense system. They can’t actually attack units, but will fire on enemy air units that are incoming. The good news here is that the tend to have good range (the Patriot has a range of fire of ten hexes….as good as your best artillery). On the other hand, your active units (ie – the “Linebacker” are short ranged, but can be ordered to fire on enemy choppers….they’ll also fire on incoming craft, but of course, given their range limitations, that’s not always a thing to be relied on). A good spread of coverage would be two passive and four active. I’ve only ever used Patriots and Linebackers, but others can be mixed in if they fit your force structure plan. In the early goings, you can afford to go light on air defense, since you will have clear air superiority, and your choppers CAN be used against enemy choppers in a pinch. My recommendation would be to focus on your core force first, throwing in maybe two patriot defenders for the early scenarios, and bulking this up with Linebackers as you get more prestige.
Uses of Air Defense units
1) Zone of Protection – The idea here is to spread your air defenders out a bit so that you create an overlapping zone of protection for units vulnerable to enemy air attack, and keep your vulnerable and valuable units inside that overlapping pocket. Enemy air units fly in…BOOM, they get damaged, and your vulnerable units take less of a hit.
2) Hunting – Only possible with your active air defense units, the goal here is to keep your active air defenders at or near the front, where they’re most likely to encounter enemy choppers. When they do, do whatever you must (even at the risk of exposing them to enemy ground fire) to position your anti-air unit(s) so that they can strike the enemy chopper. BOOM! No more enemy chopper, or at the very least, a badly damaged enemy chopper that your own choppers can sweep in and finish off.
Attachment considerations: Anti-Air and extra ammo are really the only ones worthy of consideration here. The others are, in my view, a waste of 30 prestige, if applied to anti-air units.
(to be continued)
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