At this point we find our putative blind player starting his/her first scenario. Though aware that no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy s/he knows that one should think first (and second, and third) and then act.
S/he's given an unimpressive force of two infantry and one (light) tank units to capture four villages (the primary objective is marked 1/5 so four to go) and destroy all eight enemy units (the secondary objective has a 0/8 counter) in 25 turns or less.
No requisition points ($) in the bank, $5 income per turn (for 30 turns total to carry forward to the next scenario but with less than 25 usable) with the promise of some $ per each Victory Point (VP) captured and for destroying all enemy units (spoilers: $100 for the Red Base, $30 for each of the other VPs and $20 from the "Magna cum laude" event once the eighth unit is killed).
An allowance of five Land Command Points (CP/L) for extra unit(s) that s/he can't afford at this point in time.
The main screen when playing highlighting the movement range of 1/A Coy on the first turn.
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| Figure 1 - First moves |
A composite of all three starting units initial movement ranges.
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| Figure 2 - Movement allowances |
A composite of the Strategic Map highlighting: VPs; Mountain, Hill and Jungle terrain; and the direct paths on "Open Terrain" an Infantry unit could take between VPs, each arrow represents one turn of full movement and the paths between Strawville and the Red Base don't account for faster road movement. The terrain data panels relevant to this map are included on either side of it.
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| Figure 3 - Strategic Map |
"My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, excellent situation, I am attacking." Marshal Ferdinand Foch
The OPFOR (opposing force) has eight units and four VP to defend so there will be at least one unit at each VP, possibly two. S/he would then be well advised to keep his/her units together (or close enough) to achieve local superiority.
(Spoilers: there will be one entrenched Infantry unit at each Loneville, Strawville, the airfield and the village adjoining the Red Base, one patrolling? the hills by Loneville and another in ambush on the jungle between Strawville and East Town for a total of six U.S. Recruits infantry-class units, one entrenched Anti-tank in the Red Base VP and an entrenched Bunker on the road halfway between Strawville and the Red Base).
There are two immediate options: go North to Loneville or East to Strawville/East Town.
Loneville can be reached on turn #3 but there shouldn't be more than two units there. (Spoilers: technically Loneville can be attacked on turn #2 but only by the auxiliary infantry and the tank; to take advantage of flanking support - described in the manual - the tank is then left vulnerable to being flanked itself or even cut off from supply when - not if, when - the patrolling infantry shows up).
"That's nice. And what do you expect to accomplish with this - preventing smuggling!?" Napoleon Bonaparte (attributed)
Strawville can be reached on turn #2 but if the Red Team goes for the anti-smuggling defense there may be as much as four units in the area.
Either way the Green base is left un-garrisoned but the tank can double back in a single turn if the RT tries to attack it and take the supply source.
If going East to Strawville then one must also take East Town which necessitates traversing an efficiency disruptive jungle.
A second choice to be made after capturing Loneville or Strawville/East Town is to either continue North towards the Red Base or to go back and capture the other village(s), either leaving the auxiliary Infantry as garrison or bringing it along.
Leaving our putative blind player to his/her cogitations, my main goal for this tutorial is to build a core force capable of facing the Imperial Japanese over-strength units in the U.S. Pacific campaign.
To that end and wherever/whenever possible I will try to attack the Red Team only with my core units. That's not to say that the auxiliaries under my command will be twiddling their thumbs back in their barracks: they can scout, take ground, provide flank security and flanking support. They will even get repairs when damaged if the situation requires it, knowing that half of the resources spent repairing auxiliary units is refunded at the start of the following scenario (that's an undocumented feature of the game, by the way, reported some when in the Slitherine forum).
The goal in this scenario (other than the objectives set by the designer) is to gain as much experience (XP) on my core units as possible, particularly the Infantry and ideally reaching one star (2'000 XP). That's so they will be on the same level as newly purchased units after taking the relevant specialisation. For that reason I will not buy any Infantry or Tank unit during this scenario when that becomes possible.
Other than the refund of auxiliary units' repairs and the over-strength of enemy units all this information is available to an intelligent and attentive blind player. There's the tutorial message on connected campaigns, the specialization screen and the tooltip with the amount of XP when hovering the cursor over the stars on the unit picture.
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