Im having a game of TAO with one of the Matrix testers, me as the Allies and him as the Germans. The following is an account of some major learnings he just gave me. In exchange for the learnings he took 2 of my full strength ARM Cav units - doesnt seem like a fair trade to me.. or maybe it was.. because Im sure I wont make the same mistakes again.. read on..
Tell me what is wrong with this image?
I havent shown the full map area because its not that relevant. Nothing stands out? Lets have a look at what has been happening leading up to this image.
Its turn 19, its just started to snow, the Allies, thats me, are on the attack. The 4th ARM, 75 INF and support ARM spy 2 German units sitting in the open on clear terrain.
They go in for the assault and whilst they take medium losses themselves they inflict damage and get a retreat from the Germans. The retreating German units open up a path for the Allies to exploit into the gap and they get an opportunity shot at a German Supply Truck. So they take it.
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Which takes us back to the situation in the first image.
With the knowlegde of events leading up to the state of affairs now.. you can see that the 2 ARM Cav units that took out the German Supply Truck are themselves now sitting in the open on clear terrain. We all should know how dangerous that is. The opportunity to destroy the German Supply Truck was worth putting my units in that position though. Or so I thought.
We should all also know that the CRT for attacks against Clear Terrain generally mean that the defending units will take some form of losses and will get a retreat order. So I figured.. the worst that will happen is I will take a hit and my units will retreat out of the 'clear'. So at best the German player is going to get one, and only one, good shot at those 2 ARM Cav units before they retreat back to good defensive terrain.
Or so I thought. This has the makings of a great blunder on my part. Have a look at that image again. Can you see it?
Oh oh! The 2 two hexes behind the CAV units already are full stacks. Each having the maximum number of units in the hex - that being 4. This means that my poor CAV units will NOT be able to retreat onto them. Nor can they retreat to the hex to the NW as that is controlled by the Germans.
This all spells disaster.. of course the German player wasnt going to pass up this opportunity.. and naturally they attacked.. and attacked they did.. and did.. and did..
The first attack went in at 10-1+ with an overrun.. which is the best attack they could possibly get. Its easier to get overruns on attacks against clear terrain and it means that the attacking units do not lose their attack capability and can attack again in the same turn..
.. and so they did..
and continued to do so..
until my units were no more.
I should have read that better. I knew that attacks against clear terrain generally always result in a retreat.. what I didnt see was that they had nowhere to retreat to. The overruns which the German player got meant that those units had no chance.
I learnt alot from that one skirmish.. I hope it has been valuable reading.
The question remains though, was it worth it? I effectively traded those 2 CAV units for 1 German Supply Truck.. if I had considered what the outcome was going to be.. would I have still done it? Of course.. supply trucks are worth gold.. but I would have made room for the units to retreat into.. thats my learning.