Bobb recently posted a note about telling how it is when you get down and dirty into a game instead of the little blurbs that generally populate my reports. What was I thinking when I sent that company of ENGs into the waiting maw of a bazooka held valley? What was going on in my head during that final play of Death Stand? I hope that this Staff Report will explain a little more about what goes on in my head. I will describe the first dozen or so turns of Bobb's A Sweep to the Sea. A secondary topic of conversation will be my concept of good tactics make up for no strategy. I will describe further. Settle down boys, the Captain is shifting into lecture mode. [NOTE: This is pure recolection and perhaps fantasy. No one, least of all me, knows.] Let's begin at the beginning... first there was darkness... no, too far. I sat at a humming computer contemplating the havoc Bobb has wrought with the Long Description. I don't know how that man does it. What goes through his mind as he makes these LDs into something akin to a foreign film, it looks kinda neat until you actually start watching the thing. OK, a simple objective, take two cities and win on points if you can. Airports are reinformcent points. OK, I can handle that, now where are those airports? Ah, the Northern one shouldn't be too tough to get to. The Southern one might be more interesting. That fort thingy in the middle looks ugly. OK, the set-up. Hmmm... no choice of units. How many Engineers?!?!? Oh, this must be the one Bobb was talking about in the last debrief. Jeez. And look at all the VPs. Crap. These scenarios really bug me. I've got to take all those points. OK, Let's see... Step One: Set up some engineers where they can get to points on one turn. Set-up MGs on the other point locations. Use more MGs along the edges of cities and on that RR. The engineers will move through the trees and stuff while the MGs will be the street sweepers along the RR line. Oh, yea, got to have a few MGs in the North. Oops, I'm out. OK, fill in with BZs. No really coherent plans at this point, other than using MGs to run down the RR and clear it out. First turn is move to contact with the enemy. And that's it. I just don't move that much. The first of turn two is a massive volley of fire that cleans the cities of enemy troops without hurting me too much. I lost a lot of those important MGs, though. Then movement, the least I can say about that the best. Suffice it happened. I sent a few ENGs south to take out the hill-top forts. No reason other than do have it done. No mention of the AI reinforcements. Best to be safe. I go ahead and occupy all the VP locations I clear. The only reason is so that I won't win half way. If General Bobb wants it done, I'll do my best to do it. Why don't I like to just win half way? To be honest, I'm not sure. 99.9% of the games out there have a clear winner, but in those we are playing other people or a computer with specific rules. Win the race or score more points. These games are getting pretty wild sometimes. Why, oh why, did I make that first pure mission oriented scenario? I guess the reason is not because I have to beat the AI, but because I have to beat y'all... or maybe not even that. I seem to have aquired a rep as a fanatical player with a severe chip on my shoulder about not winning. (I have no idea how that could have happened.) Now, it's turn 3 or 4 and things start to get more interesting... why, you ask? Well, I've got the lion's share of my troops holding down the VP locations in the back. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea. On about turn 6 or so, I start stripping the rear VP locations. I pull troops from all the 5 pointers, I leave them in the 10 pointers, because I have to. I can't stomach leaving those VP points uncovered. Bobb, has such a way with VPs, sometimes none, sometimes too many, yet all crazy... crazy like a fox. The charnel house that is the valley just to the east of the central fort is eating men and equipment like killer whale in a school of salmon. Finally, that location has calmed down, but not before eating most of my MGs and an unfortunate number of ENGs. However, now that he's thinned out a little I have these reserves coming up. During the night turns they manage to get in close and prepare to swarm the opposition. Same thing in the south. While, the conflicts were all but nonexistant, I sent very few troops. I have managed to sneak some ENGs to point blank range on two fortified MGs and we'll see what happens later. The North is somewhat more interesting, during the night, I managed to move some ETs carrying LAs past the hills along with a few BZs, MGs, and ENGs. There is a wave of infantry coming from the airport. I have no idea what to do with them, but they are on the move. Now, we come to the part of the story where I tell you how all my plans worked out. Well... you see... it's like this. I had no plans... no strategic plans. I believe I have come to a painful conclusion about TPG2. Tactical brilliance can correct a complete lack of strategic planning. "What the heck?!?!?!" you cry out. Yep, that's what I said, and the proof of this may be coming at the end of the Sweep to the Sea. I started out with no plan. I developed no plan. I haven't got a plan. All my planning is done on a turn-by-turn basis. Yea, I might plan a few moves for the future, but they are Tactical plans. I rarely think much farther ahead than the next VP location up the road. However, the central premise behind this thesis, is that highly succesful tactical planning and execution, can elminate the need for strategic thinking... at least in TPG2. Example: The central fort in Sweep to the Sea: A great commander would probably surround it and ignore it. A thinking commander would move around it so that it wouldn't be a factor. A by-the-book commander would move up the artillery. Me, I'm assaulting it. Why? Because this is TPG2 and I can get away with it. Now, I said that I planned to run the MGs down the RR and clear out the enemy. This is roughly equivilant to McArthur saying "I will return." It's been said, but how does one go about returning? Anyway, what I'm doing is planning the elimination of the outer edge of forts by close assault, then I will move in and trade fire with the inner ring. Then I will have taken the fort. Is that a tactical plan? Well, it's not too bad. Is it a strategic plan? No way. What's the objective in all of the latest scenarios posted to the site? Move forward through terrain, contact enemy, defeat same, capture VPs. That can easily be accomplished through pure tactical planning. The only strategic planning is set-up and that is 95% dictated by terrain and proximity to enemy regions and VPs. As I write this, I'm thinking of some scenario ideas that will be pure hell for some, but might encourage strategic thinking instead of pure tactical. I think I got completely off the subject, but that subject was answered long ago. What does Kev think about during the fight? Not a whole lot. It's not about thinking for me. It's about movement and fire and preserving troops and completing goals. I am enamored of the state of mind that comes when I don't think about things, I just do. It is an exilerating feeling. To sit back and watch the subconcious do what it knows how to do best. When I inject thinking into things, I tend to get hurt. Literally. True Story: I love to play volleyball. That's where I first discovered this feeling of not thinking, but doing. Anyway, I'm playing in one game and I'm at the front in the middle of the net. The ball comes over the net and it's pretty high. My body doesn't move. However, my brain says, "Kev you're tall enough to get it. Let's go for it." So I jump. However, my body knew what the heck was going on. By the time my brain thought about it and got me in the air, the ball was behind me. My body doesn't do anything. My brain says, "Not a problem, let's just lean back a bit and get under it." So I do. The next thing I realize is that I'm looking straight down at my feet and they all level with the bottom of the net... as is my head. My body says, "So. Now what?" And I hit the ground with an awe inspiring thud, breaking my wrist and doing severa damage to my knee and head. My brain is best left to thinking. When stuff has to get done, cut the brain out of the loop. It hurts too much.
In conclusion: The other part of this is the new theory of mine. I'd really like to hear what y'all think about that. I'll keep you informed of the results of my Sweep to the Sea. I'm glad you got me to thinking about this Bobb. Keep it up.
See ya |