Knowlton strategy guide

Introduction
Originally, the thought of writing a TOAW strategy guide was daunting. In some ways, it still is. But I think there is a strong need to spell out some basic concepts that will help beginners organize their thoughts, as well as the occasional tip or trick that other TOAW players may not be familiar with. Although the learning curve was very steep for me, I've now compiled a pretty good "bag of tricks" for TOAW -- most of them are in the following pages. For those of you new to TOAW, I would suggest beginning with the smaller scenarios as the defense -- Arracourt and Crete are sily grasped. Once the game system becomes familiar, the strategies will be much easier to implement. (Readers should understand the command interface, and examine the manual and readme file carefully before proceeding.) I've organized my strategy guide into several sections. First, basic concepts of planning and maneuver are outlined and developed for use in TOAW. Aspects of attack and defense are considered next, and are followed by concepts affecting both attack and defense (for example, the use of artillery and air power). Finally, some miscellaneous concepts important to the game are mentioned, including a set of rules that PBEM opponents may want to adopt, in order to avoid annoying turn 1 blowouts.

First thoughts: levels of planning and maneuver theory applied to TOAW

The key to mastering TOAW is to remember that it models maneuver warfare. At the risk of oversimplification, I'll give a very brief introduction to a few essential concepts, particularly those that apply to TOAW. My source for the topic (among the many that deserve mention) is The Art of Maneuver: Maneuver Warfare Theory and Airland Battle by Robert Leonhard, a very readable text with excellent examples.

Levels and importance of planning

TOAW is an operational level wargame, defined by Norm Koger (and in my view quite elegantly) as the "view of the battlefield on a scale just exceeding that at which differing ranges of various direct fire weapons are significant" The elements of play operate at strategic, operational, and tactical levels. The meanings of these terms are somewhat fluid, so I'll use the following "rule of thumb" definitions. Tactical refers to the level of an individual engagement or battle, and concerns such elements as local terrain, the supply levels of the involved forces, and flanking attacks on individual stacks of units. The operational level is where the planning for a series of engagements or battles toward an operational or strategic goal occurs. The smaller scenarios in TOAW (Crete, Arracourt) can be purely operational in nature, while many of the larger scenarios (Korea, France) have a definite strategic flavor. The difference between operational and strategic levels is not critical to playing TOAW -- the difference is fuzzy anyway.

In the broadest sense, strategic planning deals with setting priorities that are theatre or national in scope; operational planning provides the means to achieve these strategic ends. A common mistake is to lose sight of operational or strategic goals in pursuit of "decisive battle". The good player tries to avoid the false idea that discrete battles are decisive, or that winning battles will necessarily lead to eventual victory. Winning battles is good when victory aids in the achievement of operational goals. Victory is irrelevant otherwise -- one can lose several engagements and still win the campaign. This point is essential to TOAW -- one is not fighting to win a battle, but to win a campaign. The distinction means that setting long range goals, and figuring out the cheapest operational way to achieve them, is very significant. Chess provides an excellent analogy. A chess player of only average talent tries to find short-range combinations to obtain a material edge or a quick checkmate. These moves may be decisive against an inferior player, but given sufficient time, it's possible to avoid or overcome these obvious tactical threats. A better chess player threatens attacks that produce a long-term positional edge, i.e. advancing a pawn to simultaneously threaten a piece and stifle the opponent's development. The position of the better chess player is, by the endgame, so far superior as to be decisive. There may or may not be a material advantage- it may just be that the better player's pawn promotion occurs a little faster than his opponent's. That difference may be the margin of victory. In TOAW, as in chess, it is of the utmost importance to set overall goals, and to designate which forces will be necessary to achieve those goals. In the end, if you achieve your goals before your opponent, you win. A small advantage over time can grow to become insurmountable, if you stick to a basic plan to defeat your opponent. Don't be distracted by the lure of battle for its own sake -- plan battles that will get you closer to your goal, whatever it is. For example, in the Normandy scenario, there are too many objective hexes for the Allies to attack concurrently. Any attempt to do so leads to confusion and very slow progress. Instead, pick a couple of targets, and focus your energies on those. Once these are captured, you can pick some new goals. Use the scenario notes to help you set operational priorities and identify initial targets. The Allied player has three advantages: (1) they can pick the time and place for their attacks, so they can set the tempo of the scenario; (2) they have tremendous air power; (3) they have tremendous naval fire support. By concentrating attacks on a few objectives, the Allies conserve air and naval support, reduce the probability of successful counterattacks, and are more likely to achieve a decisive breakthrough. Deception can also be used to induce the German player to position reinforcements inappropriately. The common factor in the above is to plan ahead and work toward achieving goals. The Normandy scenario in particular requires time, patience, and focus.

Basic maneuver theory

The least expensive way to achieve a set of operational goals is through the proper use of maneuver, not through a long battle of attrition. Why is maneuver superior to attrition? Because real victory happens after the battle is over. Throughout military history, more enemy casualties resulted from the pursuit than from battle. (This is why disengagement in 1.03 is not wrong as some have suggested -- although the numbers of casualties are far too high, on the battlefield units often disintegrate when pursued or forced to retreat.) Decisive results are rarely achieved when standing toe to toe with the enemy. However when the enemy turns to run, their losses can quickly become staggering. In a rout, many troops may escape, but much of the equipment is destroyed or left behind. Maneuver warfare therefore aims to force pursuit, which results in highly lopsided fighting situations and easy victories, as opposed to attrition-oriented or set-piece battles, which generally result in heavy losses for both sides. Maneuver warfare's intent is fundamentally operational or strategic.

It is movement toward an objective, with intent to gain an advantage over an opponent. Maneuver does not seek to battle the enemy, maneuver seeks to defeat the enemy. This notion is inextricably bound to the planning concepts above. The good maneuver theorist tries to identify critical vulnerabilities, and then threatens or attacks. An obvious example in TOAW is the supply net. Disrupt supply, and the enemy's ability to fight will be reduced dramatically. Therefore one plan of maneuver would be to find the weakest point in the supply net (a bridge over a river, or better yet, a super river, or a key city), then capture or destroy it. This plan inherently calls for maneuver rather than attrition, since in all likelihood, your opponent will not leave the supply line exposed to the mass of your troops. By the time you take a key point through attrition warfare, it may no longer be critical to the enemy -- the critical points have often moved further back. So the obvious question is, what methods can be used to attack (or at least threaten) a critical vulnerability? The three basic means of maneuver warfare are preemption, dislocation, and disruption.

Preemption
Preemption involves using speed and surprise to thrust where your opponent least expects it, preferably disarming them before there is a real fight. It is the most dangerous and difficult to achieve, and often is regarded as foolhardy or distasteful by others. In fact, it often is foolhardy, but that is why it works -- the shock of finding the enemy in an unexpected location literally stuns the opponent into submission or surrender. The fact that its best effects are psychological limits its application to TOAW, since in TOAW psychology isn't strongly modeled. There are many examples where psychology was not the only important impact, of course. One paradigm of preemption was the Six Day War in 1967-a heavily outnumbered Israeli Defense Force preempted an expected Arab attack by attacking the Arabs first. The IDF destroyed the Arab air forces on the ground, and the resulting air supremacy was decisive. Another classic example of preemption was Rommel's initial offensive against the British in Northern Africa. In TOAW, successful preemption often leads to lopsided and problematic results by the end of Turn 1, before the enemy can react. Some examples: Attacks by aircraft or paratroops against enemy airbases in turn 1, before an opponent can garrison or move them, or attacks on undefended, off-map airbases at any time during the game-like most cases of preemption in TOAW, these tend to make a game less interesting. Airborne assault against German supply hexes in Normandy during turn 1 will deny supplies or reinforcements to the Germans, and render the German side utterly hopeless. The first stages of Matt Moyer's excellent DAK scenario can be classic preemption, depending on the strategy of the Axis player. In this case, it is intended in the scenario and thus is not problematic. Since preemption is often decisive, and usually destroys the possibility of an entertaining game, I would tend to avoid it in most scenarios.

Dislocation
Dislocation is perhaps the best maneuver strategy in TOAW. It can unbalance a scenario, but generally not until the opponent has a chance to attempt a defense. Dislocation forces enemy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The German maneuver through the Ardennes, which could also be considered preemptive, is a perfect example of dislocation -the British Expeditionary Force, as well as large groups of other units, found themselves completely out of position to defend either France or the Allied beachhead after the German breakthrough. Another example from TOAW: In Normandy, I often invade only 2 beaches (Cherbourg and Utah) in the first turn. In one battle, this inspired my opponent to fortify a North-South line to the East of Utah beach. Then in turn 2, I landed large mobile forces to the east of my opponent's line, immediately cutting them off and making them useless to the defense, a form of tactical dislocation.

Ideally, dislocation is best when accompanied by deception. In the example of the 1940 German invasion through the Ardennes, both sides were aware that the original German plan (a modified Schlieffen plan to swing through Belgium and then south into France) had been lost by the Germans (and as the Germans suspected, found by the Allies). This made the switch to the Ardennes plan much more powerful than would have been the case otherwise. The Allies were certain that the Germans were going to attack in Belgium, and couldn't seem to recognize any evidence to the contrary. In TOAW terms, if you can successfully fake an attack that draws large quantities of reserves to one end of the board, and then launch a decisive attack at the other end, you have dislocated a large body of enemy troops-this is great fun when it works. The reverse is also true -- if you can keep an enemy's reserves tied up defending against an expected attack that never arrives, while the real attack occurs somewhere else, you have again dislocated your opponent's forces. The Normandy invasion itself was a successful dislocation of this sort, in spite of the horrific mistakes and losses by the Allies. The Germans initially thought it a feint, and thus did not commit their armored reserves early on. These reserves were therefore irrelevant during the critical period of the invasion. If the Germans hadn't been fooled, it's conceivable that they could have driven the Allied invasion force back into the sea.

Disruption
If preemption is undesirable or untenable, and dislocation fails, the final means of obtaining operational ends is through the use of disruption. In general, disruption is the use of unlike forces with asymmetric capabilities to destroy the opponent's ability to fight. It is the least effective method of maneuver, but is sometimes the only option, particularly if the battle lines are set and there is no easy means of obtaining operational mobility (no easy breakthrough points, open flanks, paratroopers, or amphibious forces, all of which will be discussed below). It relies heavily on maintaining your side's combined arms capabilities, but denying them to the enemy. New players often seem to follow the dogma that armor should be used to kill armor, and infantry against infantry. Operationally, the converse is true. In order to effectively disrupt enemy forces, kill armor with infantry at the time and place where infantry enjoys an advantage, and vice versa. An ideal example is infantry defending in dense urban terrain against armor. Using a 5+7/4 U.S. infantry battalion (infantry attack+antitank attack/general defense) defending against a 4+17/20 Soviet armored regiment, gives the infantry an effective antitank value of 21 (3*7), and defense value of 16 (4*4). The Soviets are unmodified, so they attack at 4 and defend at 20. Remember TOAW is conducting two simultaneous attacks, so there are two odds ratios to work out-one for the attacking unit against the defending forces, and one for the forces defending against the attacking unit. The odds for the tank attack against infantry are 4:16 or 1:4- the infantry will "counterattack" against tanks at odds of 21:20 or 1:1. It is obvious in this case that the infantry will get the better of the battle. In another terrainbased example, infantry are entrenched behind a river, defending against an armored attack. The attacking armor will have an attack value of 4*0.7=2.8, and a defense value of 20*0.7=14 (That's one that most gamers seem to forget-according to the manual, defense values are 70% of normal for amphibious or river based attacks!). The defender will have a defense value of 12 (4*3 for entrenched) and an AT value of 10.5 (7*1.5 for entrenched). The odds here are 1:2 for infantry attacks vs. tanks (10.5:20), and less than 1:4 for the tank attacks vs. infantry (2.8:12). The infantry has the advantage. If you are fortunate enough to be defending in favorable terrain, match-ups involving dissimilar forces are obviously a superior solution. For example, it can be beneficial to use infantry forces for attack even in "tank terrain." Take the case of two U.S. infantry regiments (5+8/6 each, as in the "Patton '45" scenario) against a Soviet SP regiment (1+4/1) and tank brigade (4+7/4) in the open. This yields less than a 1:2 (5:12) ratio for tank and SP units attacking infantry, but a 3:1 (total factors 16:5) ratio of attack for the infantry-a "real bad time" for the tanks. Even in a

case where two infantry regiments attack two armored brigades, the odds are 2:3 for tanks vs. infantry, while the converse is 2:1. The key is that both types of units, Soviet tanks and American infantry, are more efficient when killing tanks than killing infantry! This also applies to American (and often German) infantry units, which when heavily armed with antitank weapons, have a relative advantage against tanks. Disruption also indicates that the best way to kill infantry is with artillery, not other infantry. Tanks in the open are reasonably effective against infantry, but the combination of tanks plus artillery in open terrain is better. [Hint: if the enemy is dug in, a preparatory bombardment with aircraft or artillery can often "dig them out," which is crucial to a successful attack. More on this below.] And the best way to kill artillery should be with tanks, but it's not! The reason resides in the interaction between artillery TO&Es and the game engine. In TOAW, most artillery consists of attached infantry (which are "active defenders"), artillery weapons, and supporting transport (which are "passive defenders"). In the game, a unit's "passive defenders" will not suffer serious losses until forced into combat. Either the attached infantry has to be destroyed, or the artillery must be attacked on both sides (flank attack). A flank attack avoids exposure to fire from relatively invulnerable artillery while conducting attack on infantry. If a flank attack isn't possible, then try to kill the infantry quickly, or target enemy artillery with counterbattery from artillery, air attack, or naval gunfire. These arms will directly damage passive defenders, and contribute to a swift kill of active defenders. Combined arms must be as closely coordinated as possible, in order to be an effective counter whenever the enemy is met. Try to deny the same capability to the enemy by removing a "leg" from their combined arms attack. Seize every opportunity to expose and destroy artillery with friendly armor or infantry, trap enemy infantry in the open, and lure armor deep into friendly territory in order to separate it from accompanying infantry (assuming the infantry is unmotorized). The ideal is to induce enemy armor to move into cities or mountains, enemy infantry into open terrain, and to expose enemy artillery to friendly counterbattery or flank attack. The resulting disruptions will reduce the enemy's ability to fight. The importance of flanking attacks in maneuver cannot be overemphasized-flank attacks disrupt or dislocate. When tactical in nature, flank attacks array your strengths against an opponent's weaknesses, by exposing his transport, artillery, or other "passive defenders" to your "active" attack. Flank attacks are also more likely to cause retreats, opening holes for exploitation -- a disruptive effect. Larger scale flanking attacks can completely devastate your opponent. A flanking maneuver on a large scale can threaten your opponent's supplies, and force your opponent to fall back. The dislocational effect is achieved when your opponent's troops are in the wrong place to stop your decisive attack. If the tempo of the flanking attack is sustained at a high rate, if it moves faster than your opponent can react, then major elements of the enemy army will become useless, and unable to deter a decisive victory. Having developed some basic maneuver concepts, we now turn to their specific application in TOAW.

The attack!
Operational maneuver with paratroop and amphibious forces
One of the most important things to learn in TOAW is how to handle the game's most flexible and maneuverable forces-amphibious and paratrooper units. These units represent the utmost value in land forces in terms of maneuver. Use them to capture high value objectives, deny supply to enemy forces, or prevent the entry of reinforcements. Tip: Examine the event generator in the scenario editor and read the scenario notes carefully, before it's too late! The event generator will tell you the probability of events occurring, such as an increase or decrease in supply. Look for events related to a specific hex, such as "Force 1 captures" or

"Force 2 captures." "News only" events will describe captures; otherwise, examine the appropriate hex. Then search for events that refer to the "news only" events; the former are the results of the latter. Because scenario designers often make mistakes, it is important to recognize what the designers think will happen as opposed to what actually occurs in the scenario. Serious scenario players should look at Todd Klemme's scenario design guide. It's excellent, and covers all of these issues, including common scenario mistakes, in greater detail. Example 1 On turn 1 of "Normandy," the Axis has very weak 1-1 MP defenders on or near their supply hexes. If the Allied player wants a cheap (and dull) victory, then send paratroopers to seize the supply hexes during turn 1. Overwhelming Allied air superiority makes it impossible for the German player to recapture the supply hexes, leaving the entire German force without supply and increasingly outnumbered. Example 2 On turn 3 of "Fulda '55," the Soviets receive an entire airborne division-3 airborne infantry regiments, a recon regiment, and an artillery unit. The airborne division can be used to capture those cities and locations that NATO has failed to adequately garrison. Seizing Frankfurt yields a 50% probability of an immediate Soviet win, while the capture of Gliesin will significantly reduce NATO supplies. If the southwest corner of the map is inadequately protected, then airborne units can cut bridges and effectively trap NATO turn 4 reinforcements for the rest of the game. The reinforcements will remain isolated on an island, effectively dislocated from the fight. NATO's southwest supply hex will also be isolated. The seizure of NATO supply points, and destruction of rail lines and bridges are also valid missions for airborne units, but require air superiority. Example 3 Although the United Nations player can land behind North Korean lines at any time, it's generally a bad idea to do so before turn 6 or 7. North Korean divisions reinforce in the north early on in the game, and can trap an unwary or overly aggressive U.N. commander between a northern hammer of fresh reinforcements and a southern anvil of stragglers headed south. Inchon is the classic avenue of attack, but the threat can be wielded in many areas along the coast, where supply lines are vulnerable, and major elements of the North Korean army can be destroyed or isolated. The logic is to maintain theatre level maneuverability as long as possible (i.e., keep some paratroopers or amphibious forces available), in order to pose a credible threat to your opponent's critical vulnerabilities. If your opponent is not aware of the threat, then you can inflict a decisive defeat by capturing these hexes. On the other hand, if your opponent is aware of the threat, then you may be able to force him to deploy a large number of troops for garrison duty. Often there are more inviting targets than defenders to protect them. The opposition's force gets spread thinly, reducing reserves, and facilitating decisive superiority at the front lines. The same reason explains why it's important to not capture all of the Normandy beaches in turn 1, and to leave open the option to invade Cherbourg. If your opponent remains uncertain about your plans, and disperses scarce defensive resources, you will keep the option to pick the time and place for a decisive attack. [Tip: It's difficult to use all of your troops in Normandy without incurring high penalties for overstacks. Whenever possible, keep overstacks "green" or "yellow"-target-rich environments are very bad! Saving a few stacks until turn 2 or 3 is often useful.]. Another fine example of the threat value of amphibious landings can be seen in the Iraqi conflict of 1991. The threat of Marine invasion tied down over 8 Iraqi divisions in dispersed defensive postures along the coast of Kuwait and Iraq, making them irrelevant to the conflict. As a result, most of these formations were cut off and destroyed by the wide sweep of allied forces, and contributed little to the defense of Kuwait. Hints and tricks for using paratroopers Check the air briefing! Airdrops conducted without at least near equivalence in air superiority factors are disasters. If you have 5 Air Superiority factors and your opponent has 7, then take the chance. But if the ratio is 15 to 5, for example, you're inviting failure. Try splitting up one or more of your airborne units in order to drop a few for reconaissance. It is far better to risk an inexpensive unit in the first airdrop, where it is vulnerable to interception, than to risk a valuable unit. Send the unit toward its destination and hope that it gets there. If it

gets bounced, recheck the air briefing. When and if you attain air superiority, or at least parity, you can take a shot with the rest of your forces. If your unit gets "bounced" try reloading it on the aircraft. Often units can try again, or even 3 times before landing successfully. Don't persist if your first recon airdrop units are eliminated-get air superiority and then try again. Attriting enemy fighters by having them shoot down your infantry is usually not a good tradeoff. Land units one or two hexes from their objective. One hex distant is preferable, so that units needing to reorganize can still "see" into the target hex. Then send a recon unit or two to determine if the objective is heavily guarded. The intelligence gained will indicate whether or not you can take the objective easily. If you're lucky, it may even be possible to move the recon unit in for the capture. Don't neglect the value of landing near an airbase. Airbases can be used to take off again and land somewhere else. As the Warsaw Pact player in "Fulda '55," I landed a paratroop unit in the northwest corner of the board, which my opponent either didn't notice, or forgot about. Six turns later, this unit had been resupplied and restored to full strength, which the delay in time made my opponent drop his guard. This unit was then able to capture an airbase deep behind enemy lines and on the subsequent turn drop into an undefended Frankfurt, yielding a 50% chance of immediate victory. If you expect to be able to maintain air superiority, try to keep a couple of airborne units "in reserve," awaiting targets of opportunity. Again, it is the maintenance of a credible threat that works on both the posture and the psychology of the opponent. If they are oblivious to the threat, you should be able to make them pay very dearly for their oversight. If you have inadequate air transport for a decisive attack, you can "save it up" by loading some units on each turn, until all the necessary units are in the air. This works great in "Normandy"-if you take an airbase by turn 2, you have 150 air transport points, which permit one airborne subunit to load per turn. After 3 to 5 turns, you've built an effective little force to distract, annoy, and impede German reinforcement, or threaten supply/reinforcement hexes. Keep in mind that American airborne units will be recalled after turn 7, and turn 13 to 15 for the British. [Tip: The above also works for naval transport.] Remember that if you land paratroopers early in the turn, you will have a significant portion of your ground movement left over. Use it, for example, to obliterate a series of bridge hexes. To reduce the probability of "breaking up" on landing, or reorganizing if the unit won't split up, send a scout unit ahead and then land on friendly territory, or try to land on an open hex as opposed to a city or hills. Landing in open terrain and avoiding areas adjacent to the enemy seems to be helpful. When the vital hexes are inaccessible or too well guarded, or if the enemy is reinforced near important objectives, use paratroops to isolate enemy units and conduct flank attacks. This exposes passive defenders to assault, which is particularly effective against artillery. Attacks to cut supply are more advantageous for player 2, because supply is determined at the start of player 1's turn. Therefore, when player 1 conducts an airborne landing, player 2 has a chance "break out" before being considered out of supply. When player 2 conducts an airborne landing, player 1's units are considered out of supply at the beginning of the turn, before player 1 can react! This can have a tremendous effect if player 1's troops have been in heavy combat. In order to cut supply, one must generally have an unbroken string of friendly controlled hexes around the opponent. The best way to ensure this is to have units spread every third hex around the opponent. (Units usually gain control of adjacent hexes at the beginning of the subsequent turn, so if two units have two unoccupied hexes between them, they effectively control the area). Dropping paratroops every third hex around a group of defenders works reasonably well. When player 2 kills player 1's airborne units during player 2's turn (just after the airborne assaults), player 1's airborne units are always considered as "supplied," and thus will be reconstituted. When player 2 conducts an airborne assault to cut supply of enemy units, 2's paratroopers will (often, but not always) be considered unsupplied if they are destroyed, and will not be reconstituted. (In 1.04 reconstituted airborne units will be unable to air assault after reconstitution, therefore this is not the penalty it was in 1.03.).

Hints and tricks for amphibious assaults: Avoid attacking heavily defended beaches-the 30% penalty is a killer! If the hex is defended, first soften it up with a naval and/or aerial bombardment before attacking. This won't affect your ability to exploit (because of the movement foible below). It may also force defenders out of entrenchments, and reduce their unit proficiency while using up their supplies. Either outcome is extremely helpful to a successful attack. I try to cause 20% casualties before invading, although 30%+ is much better. If the landing is opposed, consider taking one beach, and attacking "sideways" to capture adjacent beaches. Attack with overwhelming firepower in order to use as little time as possible. After widening the "base", attack in depth and to develop distance between the frontline and the beachhead. If you don't get off the beaches, you'll be in dire straits when the enemy counterattacks. TOAW doesn't "do" Dunkirk! Kill coastal and nearby field artillery ASAP. Coastal artillery is deadly for units loaded in transports, and for other naval units as well. Examples abound in the scenarios, but minimum casualties of 40% from one artillery attack is not unusual

Operational maneuver with flanking and enveloping movements : the importance of flanking and enveloping movement
It is important to develop operational maneuverability and to defeat your enemy through movement by avoiding endless battles of attrition. This generally involves exploiting the flanks, or breaking through lightly held areas to expand outwards behind the opposition's defenses. It also involves keeping a fast "reserve" or exploitation force nearby where a breakthrough might occur. Reconnaissance is crucial to finding the weak spots or gaps, where the force density is insufficient to maintain an unbroken line of units. Once a weak spot or gap is found, press very hard. If it is a weak point, attack decisively, and try to use the phased combat system to break through into the open. If it is a narrow gap, try to widen it to 3 hexes, to avoid the disengagement movement penalty (or the disengagement penalty on your units in general). Hold the base of the gap open with some infantry units, and run breakthrough mobile units (armor, mechanized, or motorized units) toward the enemy rear. If possible, make a deep thrust toward a hex which must be defended. Send a small scout unit to check it out. You may be able to easily capture a supply or reinforcement hex, or some other important objective. A few small fast units (break one down to make three for this purpose) can scout deep behind enemy lines to see what's out there-assuming the breakthrough comes early in the turn. If the breakthrough is late in the turn, defend the breakthrough area strongly, and force your opponent to commit his mobile reserves to "plug the gap". Each time you break through, you draw scarce enemy reserves, even if you no longer have the movement for exploitation. In one PBEM game I played, I had 3 late turn "breakthroughs" that were immediately covered by opposing units. Eventually my opponent ran out of reserves, and the fourth breakthrough was decisive. Once in the clear, I ran my troops all over the map. Within four turns, I captured the rear area supply hexes, and cut off the entire opposing army, which pretty much ended the scenario. If you can avoid enemy force concentrations and find good objective hexes, or rivers with intact bridges, put your troops into a defensive posture, and try to hold the breakthrough open for later exploitation by your mobile reserve. This can be a big advantage, especially if you hold good defensive terrain. Then you make the defender, who presumably has fewer troops, attack from a position of weakness, and suffer significant casualties. After that, your exploitation force can attack and break through the weakened reserve units. Then you are off to the races If your scouts discover a second line of defense, or reserves sufficient to prevent a deep penetration, the above won't work. You may have to settle for surrounding a group of front line units, and cutting them off from supply.

As mentioned above, position units to a maximum of 2 hexes apart. Ideally, you'd like to be closer together, so that the retreat of one stack doesn't restore supply. I've been known to exploit with a double line of units a couple of hexes apart in depth, so that even clearing one or two stacks in the first line of flanking units doesn't restore supply. If you can trap the units for a couple of turns without supply, you may be able to turn a small gap into a huge one, since the surrounded units will become far weaker over time. One tactic is to make small, probing attacks against the cut off defenders, which consumes their irreplaceable supplies rapidly. Use AT or AA units, since these units will suffer fewer losses. Artillery bombardments are better still, since you will take no losses. As the supply and readiness of the surrounded units declines, they will also experience desertion, reducing their strength still further. Finally, flank attacks will often produce evaporation of the weakened and unsupplied enemy units. If your opponent fails to react in time, you will have a large hole to exploit. If your opponent does react, you can at least expect to win a series of battles with a favorable loss ratio, which may make the next breakthrough easier... If you find a narrow gap and can't widen it, then it still may be useful to fortify the base of the gap and pass units through the gap. Make sure you stack your units to reduce the possibility of a disengagement penalty (you can get zapped moving forward as well as retreating). I've used this tactic with some success as the Germans in "France '40"-in essence, you bypass opposition and exploit the gaps to enable tactical flanking attacks on succeeding turns. Although you may have supply problems if you leave your troops there, or let them get surrounded, they provide a good base from which to stage flank attacks. Those attacks may let you widen the gap over time. There's an additional benefit: if your opponent has tactical reserves next to your penetration, they incur disengagement penalties and movement penalties when they try to move into frontline defense hexes, which slows their reaction capability and reduces their effectiveness. The point is to have fast moving troops running rampant in enemy rear areas. In spite of the lack of simulation of psychology in TOAW, this will have a psychological impact on your opponent, as well as the obvious strategic advantages. Failing this sort of breakthrough, tactical breakthroughs and exploitation which surround groups of enemy units will help to keep the game from degenerating into an attrition-based slugfest.

Other tips for the attacker

1. Don't push your units too hard! Try not to attack with "orange" or "red" units (look for the color on the status indicator). Artillery is an exception to this rule - if you keep them out of combat, it's less of a problem since although their effectiveness is reduced they won't evaporate if used at range. 2. Allow units to rest in between battles. This is one of my favorite historical effects of TOAW: In scenarios like "DAK," where resting is too slow, you may have to take a chance with "red" units. AT/AA and high proficiency units are generally least likely to evaporate on the attack, so if you have to make that last push, keep that in mind. 3. Recognize when you are overextended. If most of your units are "yellow," "orange," or (bad news!)"red," if your opponent seems poised to counterattack, or if your units meet large, unexpected enemy forces, then be prepared to go on the defensive, at least locally. Even if you attack with overwhelming numbers, your troops can be tired or locally outnumbered. So if a series of attacks goes poorly or you are in danger of losing units to evaporation, think about defending, at least while your key units rest, reorganize, or regain strength.

4. When battle lines are fixed, and the defenders are in strong, well fortified positions, take your time. Use artillery or air bombardment to soften up. Preparatory fires will often "dig out" defenders, enabling a much easier attack. Bombardment also reduces defensive readiness. If the attack is over quickly enough, reserves will not arrive in time to help the defense. A good preparatory bombardment is very helpful and can be the difference between success and failure. (In some cases, it may take two or more attacks to sufficiently "soften up" a defender, especially in fortified or dense urban hexes.). 5. If you use preparatory bombardment, make sure you use enough firepower. Large amounts of air support will take fewer total losses than smaller air attacks. Also, large stacks are immune to damage if the attacking artillery or air support is inadequate. I'm not sure what the ratio is, but in general it is far better to overdo it, because each casualty you cause in the bombardment will not be shooting back when you attack the hex. 6. Plan out some goals for your turn ahead of time. Remember what your overall goals are, and think of what you can do in the immediate future to move toward the goals-e.g., "I will try to make a breakthrough at hex x, widen the breakthrough if possible, and move my exploitation reserve up to the front to take advantage of the breakthrough next turn.". 7. In order for the above to work, you'll need to estimate how many combat rounds will be required to achieve the goals. This will depend on how fast your units move. In "Korsun," if you ever get more than two attacking rounds with average movement in the 5 to10 per turn range, it's a miracle. Therefore that scenario requires multi-turn patience and multi-turn planning of attacks. On the other hand, scenarios like "Korea 50-51" have unit moves near 30. In some cases the Noth Korean units can get 6 attacks in turn 1!. 8. Plan phased attacks, especially in high movement scenarios. In the first series of attacks, attack weak hexes with powerful forces (significant overkill power). This retains as much of the turn as possible for exploitation. If the attack is overwhelming, tactical reserves may not have time to respond, and if they do, they may be "bounced" back to their starting hex immediately. Move units that need to travel far during the turn (i.e., reinforcements headed toward the front) a portion of the way before the first attacks. Try to not move them all the way-the more movement points you save, the more likely you are to keep playing your turn. In any phase of attack, try not to use units that have moved alot further (percentage wise) than other units. It's easy to lose the turn by attacking with just one unit that has moved nearly its full movement allowance, even if the rest of your units haven't moved. 9. Rebuild bridges as you go-it is crucial to keep a fully supplied net as near the front as possible. In "Normandy," you may end up rebuilding 3 to 5 bridges per turn, but it is easily the best use for your numerous engineers. 10. A series of short, sharp attacks spaced several hexes apart can actually "bounce" local reserves between two points on the map, so that they never actually help against any of the attacks. If you see a local reserve headed toward a set of hexes undergoing crucial series of attacks, take the time to plan a feint attack which may draw the local reserve away. If the feint attack uses fewer units than the intended attack, it will generally happen first, since lower "complexity" attacks go first. If it takes a couple of phases, and is in range of the local reserve, it can keep the local reserves from the main battle. 11. Sneaky tip: At the beginning of your turn, click on all weak units adjacent to your troops (especially 1-1, but others can also conceivably work). Select the strongest unit next to them, and then right click on the weak unit. This works especially well if the status indicator of the weak unit is "red." The strongest unit is likely to cause an overrun attack on "red" units, gain a free hex, and damage or evaporate an enemy unit without requiring

an attack. It does use significant movement points, but not attack phases. One point to remember is to try to do this with units with good recon levels, or in stacked hexes, because disengagement penalties apply to advances, as well as retreats. Once you've clicked on a unit and advanced, you may very well get another chance to move forward if you click on it again (move another unit forward to help cover disengagement). 12. "Soak off" attacks. If your opponent uses tactical reserves on a regular basis, then exploit this by attacking hexes near your ideal target. The point is to draw enemy reserves into a useless hex, and prevent them from affecting the battles for more crucial hexes. This can be done either early in the turn, by a series of attacks separate from the main attack (to ensure that the "soak off" occurs before the more crucial attack), or later, by non-moving units already in place at the beginning of the turn, especially if the main attack units have to move up (this makes it more likely that the soak off attack will take place first, drawing reserves out of the way). Generally, a soak off attack will involve only a few units, which will also make it more likely to occur earlier than the main attack. The trick here is to figure out the loss settings for the troops. If they are set at minimize, they may break off before the reserves are forced into the hex; if they last too long, they're likely to be mauled by the arriving reserves. 13. In 1.04.08, remaining movement may affect the ability to retreat. If true, units with 0 remaining movement are more likely to evaporate when attacked-a big advantage for player 2. Since player 1 is often the aggressor, if the attacker has used the full movement allotment, a counterattack can evaporate otherwise healthy units of division size! BE CAREFUL. Protect yourself from this sort of problem. One solution that seemed to work in 1.03 was to stack a cheap unit on "ignore loss" settings with more expensive units on "minimize loss" settings.

The defense
Defending against attack with operational mobility
1. If your opponent has paratroopers, then gain air superiority. This cannot be overstated. If you have a dominant air superiority position, no airborne assault will be effective. If you can maintain this position for a couple of turns early on, it may be enough to allow you to set up reserves and garrisons to deal with the inevitable landing. 2. Garrison! Split up defending units to guard possible air landing sites. Even a paltry 1-1 unit can, when well supplied and dug in, often evaporate the attacker that lands atop, or at least cause tremendous losses and force reorganization. This can be very important to slowing down the attack. Split up AA units make great defenders for this purpose! 3. Keep a highly mobile reserve available to deal with threats at the front or those behind your lines. A few units on local reserve far away from the front can move close to the enemy if he attacks your garrisons. If possible, keep a couple of engineer units available for repairing bridges-leave them entrained for rapid movement. 4. Defend in depth. Because you will not be able to keep all of your troops near the front lines, it is particularly important that your defensive strategy be oriented toward trading space for casualties. This implies that thinking about the next defensive terrain feature should occur before your opponent breaks through the line.

5. Utilize tactical reserves. Even though the use of reserves is dangerous against an opponent unscrupulous in the use of artillery (see Artillery tips below), it may be necessary-you will have lower force densities at the front. 6. Use coastal or field artillery against naval units and transports whenever possible. Check what's in the transports-if it's artillery or armor, kill it. Then go after large naval units or infantry. These are the cheapest kills in the game.

Tips for defending against operational maneuver: preventing flanking and breakthrough attacks
1. Keep your opponent in front of you. For those who like football (I am a fanatic), think of it as a "bend but not break" defense. Nothing is as frustrating to the attacker as a defender who gives up ground slowly, and causes casualties all the way. If you can afford the territory, setting units to "minimize losses" can really help. 2. Counterattack! Most scenarios have at least some "give and take." If you see a weakness on the flank or a gap in enemy lines, dispatch some small units into the rear to destroy bridges and railroads, capture supply hexes, and tie up enemy units in chasing you. 3. Always keep a reserve. Send reserves to "put out fires," and create new reserves as needed. If nothing else, try to find quiet areas of the line where perhaps you have a few extra troops, and pull the most mobile of these into the reserve. 4. Secure the flanks. Try to avoid leaving flanks resting on "air." If sufficient troops to form a continuous line are lacking, put a small reserve on each flank, and rest the flanks on difficult or impassable terrain features. [Tip: One very useful tool for avoiding sneaky flank attacks is the "viewpossession-borders" feature (under the view menu), which shows possession by highlighting the contours around friendly controlled hexes. As many people have pointed out, this is almost too good to be true, in the sense that you can rarely get a real "surprise attack" when the opponent can see the telltale "finger of possession" representing a sneaky column, sticking out in the middle of nowhere. That can and often does mean that one or more units are trying to flank you. Sometimes these outward jutting "peninsulas" of possession happen of their own accord, and do not represent enemy units, particularly in mountainous terrain. If the scenario has "Guerrilla warfare," they can pop up behind your lines for no reason, as well. But in general, if you see a "finger" pointed toward an open flank, send a scout unit to check it out. If you run into enemy units, rush over some of that mobile reserve you've been saving for just such an emergency.] 5. If at all possible, defend in depth. If you have enough units, keep a double line of troops to prevent easy breakthroughs. As your opponent forces the front line units to retreat, move them back at least one additional hex, and if you have time or good supply, dig them in. That way, ideally, your opponent will see only wall after wall of relatively fresh units. The faster the movement, the deeper you have to think in terms of depth. In "Korsun," a double line isn't necessary, but in "Normandy" or "Korea," it's essential. 6. Keep HQ units within a hex of retreating units in order to receive the 50% supply bonus.

Other defense tips

1. Spoiling attacks can be highly useful, especially when supported by artillery. If you can use a non-crucial unit to blunt an attack, try it. The best units for this purpose are ranged artillery, followed by AT and AA units. 2. Take advantage of terrain features. Setting defense lines behind rivers (preferably after having blown all bridges), in cities, and in solid defensive terrain with dug in units, is critical to a successful defense. 3. Tactical reserves are quite useful in two ways: They enable an area to be held with fewer line units when a breakthrough is not expected; They are available for counterattack. Place several strong units on tactical reserve behind a moderate strength unit you expect will be attacked. When it is, your powerful tactical reserves enter combat, surprise the enemy, inflict excess casualties, and consume alot of your opponent's time for the turn. Note: Tactical reserves make sense only if you are sure your opponent isn't using the evil artillery tactic (see artillery, below). 4. If you are defending in poor supply terrain, it is of critical importance that HQ's are used properly (see HQ use below). 5. Defend roads: A defensive line covering a road is great for the defense, because you will resupply significantly faster than the aggressor. Only road, port, airbase, and city hexes receive maximum supply. 6. Destroy bridges, then defend behind them. I've witnessed many opponents defending on top of broken bridge sites. This is great for the aggressor, because in the best circumstances, the defense receives only 2/3 normal supply, and will therefore suffer attrition at an accelerated rate. There are exceptions: If the area is densely urban, I sometimes take a chance and defend there, because I may very well be able to cause horrific casualties in such favorable terrain. Otherwise, pull back, dig in, and watch your opponent beat himself to death. Your opponent will suffer the reduced supply rate plus the 30% penalty for attacking out of a river as you, more likely than not, are sitting on a fresh road hex, obtaining maximum supply, and gaining the full entrenchment benefit for defense. 7. Many scenarios allow a successful defender to shift to the attack-watch for the opportunities to do so. Keep a reserve for the defense, and build up additional troops over time to allow you to assume an offensive posture. When your opponent overreaches or wears out his frontline troops in a particular sector, you can be the one to conduct a breakthrough and exploitation. This is particularly true in the "Patton '45" or "Fulda '55" scenarios in which the initial Soviet push often bogs down. Be patient and look for openings, and you may be rewarded. Remember that good defense is crucial, but defense itself is not decisive in war. In most scenarios (the "Balkans" and "Normandy" excepted) it will be necessary to counterattack in order to score a decisive win. 8. Artillery supports the defense and assists when disengaging. Keep your artillery behind the fight, but within range of the front.

Air power
Air Superiority
Aaron Prince has already defined the subject, so I'll confine my remarks to the following additions:

1. One way to obtain air superiority is by setting traps for the enemy's long range fighters before the short range fighters move up. Send a small paratroop unit (preferable) or a lone bomber (less preferable) to a target where only a few enemy fighters can intercept. Beat up on the smaller number of their longer ranged fighters with every Air Superiority unit you have. This works wonders! 2. Fighters escorting bombing missions lose more aircraft than interceptors, and when bombers are included, the attack loses far more than the defense. 3. Once your opponent's AS is knocked out for the turn (in any given turn), keep your fighters off AS while running bomber missions. The reason is that each time a bomber goes out, fighters must fly a cover mission, which uses up supplies and reduces readiness. If possible, plan your bomber missions for the middle of the turn, in order to return fighters to the AS role before the end of the turn. 4. Fighters previously assigned to AS missions will revert to the AS role when reorganization is complete. If player 2 is trying to conserve fighter strength by resting some units, or has all fighter units reorganizing, player 1 will receive an additional advantage. For example: Player 1 and player 2 both have all fighter units assigned to AS initially. After combat, and because player 1 had the advantage of attacking first, let's say that all of player 2's fighters are reorganizing at the end of a turn, and that player 1 has a couple of fighters available. If three fighter units for each side finish reorganizing, they immediately revert to AS at the start of player 1's turn. Player 2 cannot have these fighters "lay low" by resting until all fighter units are ready, because player 2 never gets the chance to change their orders. Player 1 immediately draws player 2's reorganized fighter planes into combat, and because player 1 has more fighters available, forces most or all of player 2's fighters back to be reorganized. Player 2 never gets a chance to give his fighters a rest of any kind, and may not even know if reorganization ever was complete. Therefore player 2 spends turn after turn thinking that his fighters never stop reorganizing, because player 1 is beating up a fraction every turn. This cycle be sustained for a long time when player 1 starts with an advantage, because in each conflict, player 1 has more planes available than player 2.

Combat Support
1. Avoid flak and reduce supply usage by using units to directly support individual combats. 2. Do not use Close Support during the opponent's turn unless you have firm control of AS, because escorts suffer more casualties than interceptors. 3. CS during an opponent's turn can be phenomenally powerful. When I am faced with somewhat stronger AS and aircraft in CS roles, I start a number of small battles early in the turn, while all of my AS units rest. Each battle I plan forces calls for CS, which means escorts have to fly missions as well, reducing supplies, readiness, and combat effectiveness. Even if I lose all of the small battles, I have paved the way to high fighter casualties in the next round of combat, when my rested fighters will intercept the combat support bombers and escorting fighters. If I really need a combat to go well, I will often plan a series of smaller combats to occur before the most important action occurs. If I can wear out or weaken CS units in a series of trivial or useless combats, they may not participate in the main event.

Interdiction
Interdiction costs bomber units the least amount of casualties, and can have stunning effects on enemy supply and movement.

1. The effectiveness of interdiction depends strongly on the scale of the scenario. I have never seen interdiction higher than 1% in "France '40," but I have seen one to two bomber units obtain 75% interdiction, which appears to be the maximum possible, in "Fulda '55." 2. Changing the number of units on interdiction doesn't affect the current interdiction percentage, but will impact the interdiction percentage on the following turn. 3. Interdiction missions, like CS missions, can be supply and readiness hogs. Rest interdiction units frequently, and rotate them to maximize long term effectiveness. 4. Know when your enemy is to receive reinforcements, and maximize interdiction for those turns (Remember: This needs to be set up on the turn before reinforcements arrive). If your opponent is appalled at the high interdiction rate and reduces movement, that's great --- you've effectively slowed the reinforcements.

Artillary
The artillery foible
Every TOAW player should be aware of an effect that I call the "Artillery Foible." It works like this: A player attacks his opponent with ranged artillery in direct support of a small AT/AA unit (any unit will do, but AT/AA units take the least number of casualties in attacks), with both artillery and AT/AA set to minimize losses. The AT/AA unit, which is usually heavily outnumbered, takes a few casualties and breaks off the attack immediately. The artillery, on the other hand, continues attacking (taking no losses) until the defending unit evaporates or retreats, or the end of the turn arrives. This means that the artillery unit gets up to ten free shots against the defender (vs. one in a direct bombardment). And where a direct bombardment seems to require a minimum attack factor in order to obtain results, a 1-1 artillery battalion can attack a stack of three full-strength Soviet divisions, cause 20% plus casualties, and force the whole stack to retreat, if they are not evaporated. This kind of artillery attack is even more dangerous against reserves, because each reserve that joins the defense merely increases the amount of casualties on the defender's side. The reserves not only get beaten up, they increase the casualties for all the units by increasing the likelihood of incurring a stacking penalty. This is why I am wary of using reserves as much as I might otherwise. It is simply too dangerous to use reserves in significant numbers against a human opponent who takes advantage of the foible. The Artillery Foible unbalances the game, since it overvalues artillery and favors slow, ponderous, and unstoppable World War One-style artillery duels in which infantry cannot survive. Tank units with no infantry attached are nearly immune to this condition, but the Artillery Foible changes the nature of the game when used. I recommend that you agree with your opponent not to use it.

Other artillery tips

1. Using artillery (and aircraft) in direct support (by clicking on the artillery piece or support aircraft in the "plan an attack" window, rather than the default of supporting all attacks indiscriminately) conserves supply --- units remain more powerful, and reserve their tremendous firepower for when it is truly needed. DS preserves assets for use later in the game, for stopping counterattacks, and for assisting disengagement (on defense). Many gamers who fail to use their artillery in direct support complain about how weak their artillery has become over time. Air units used in this manner can also avoid flak concentrations, giving good results while saving valuable planes. 2. In order to reserve artillery units for later use in a direct support role, be sure the artillery stays out of range until needed. Keep artillery at maximum range from the nearest enemy troops. Artillery units intended for later use will often need to be moved one hex backwards, to prevent their being consumed through the automatic support of early attacks. When the enemy is pushed back, the artillery often must be moved 2 hexes forward. That result is quite annoying, but better than indiscriminate artillery support, which rapidly erodes artillery strength to nothing. If the front lines are uneven, the order of attacks will also often need to be planned very carefully, to avoid accidental artillery support and resulting complications. 3. Artillery is a very strong component of the combined arms team, trumping infantry and giving early era armor a hard time when present in sufficient quantity. Therefore artillery must be preserved. The best way to do that is to keep artillery out of contact as much as possible (obviously, in large scale scenarios where all arty has range 1, this is impossible). 4. Keep all artillery on roads, and adjacent to HQ units. Artillery sucks up supply rapidly, and therefore needs maximum replenishment.

Other Issues
Reinforcement Entry
Many players are not aware that reinforcements for both sides arrive at the beginning of player 1's turn. This is important to remember, especially if you are planning as player 1 to take that supply/reinforcement hex and stumble upon a huge stack of waiting reinforcements.

HQ units
HQ units are extremely valuable, because they confer upon the units next to them a 50% supply bonus, and because they avoid all disengagement penalties when they retreat to a hex occupied by a friendly unit. HQ units are crucial to maintaining supplies for artillery and air units, which can go through supplies remarkably fast. When positioned on airbases, they (like other ground units) are the first targets of attacking air units as well, which is a nice bonus. I consider the replenishment of artillery and air units to be the highest use of HQ units.

HQs are also extremely useful for maintaining the supplies of front line troops. Try to place HQ units where they can have a positive impact on the largest possible number of other troops, usually by keeping them one hex behind the front line. The free disengagement concept is also useful for disengaging front line troops when you need to retreat. Move the HQ into the hex you want to evacuate, then pull the non-HQ units out, followed by the HQ unit. This generally prevents a disengagement penalty.

Stacking
My personal opinion is that the massive penalties associated with red stacks (2x losses or more) should be avoided whenever possible. Attacking troops already tend to receive higher casualties than defensive troops, and even a successful attack from a massively overstacked hex can kill far more of your troops than the enemy's, sometimes by a factor of 7:1 or more. What is more, air and artillery bombardments against such target-rich hexes can slaughter your magnificent stacks. Whenever possible, spread your units out, and attack from multiple hexes, even in an amphibious situation. Green or yellow penalties are not too bad, but orange is a problem and red is a no-no, because there is no upper limit on the number of extra troops you can lose.

Unit Cooperation
This is one aspect of TOAW that I have paid little attention to. In general, the penalties on defense do not seem too severe. On the attack, a silver flag seems to be a moderate penalty, a black flag is a severe penalty, but quantitative aspects are a mystery. If anyone has any thoughts on this area, I'd be happy to add information here.

Naval Units
Naval units as of 1.04 are still exceedingly fragile. I think it would be better to err on the side of making them nearly invulnerable, but it's a serious problem. Naval Units Air or artillery attack can kill any naval unit instantly. Keep naval units out of range of land based assets as much as possible. One thing to realize about naval transports is that they still have an effective zone of control--they act as a brake on units moving along the coast. Since these transports are generally immune to ground attack (except to artillery fire, obviously), you can load a couple of recon companies and slow down an enemy advance along the coast. Don't use valuable units, since this is effectively a suicide move if the enemy has any artillery.

Loss Settings
I generally use minimize losses on defense, unless the terrain or conditions are very favorable, because I favor trading terrain for lives. This also reduces the effectiveness of the Artillery Foible, since the units retreat before being annihilated. Of course, if I need to hold a hex, I will put the troops on ignore losses On attack, I use limit losses more often because I don't want to break off attacks immediately. I use ignore losses only for units which are unlikely to lose many troops, such as range 1 artillery units, or units that I really need to advance into a newly vacant hex. Units with lower loss settings seem to use fewer supplies, which is very important to keep in mind. If I have overwhelming superiority, I usually set all units to minimize losses. Units that need to be kept fresh can also be set to minimize losses.

Play vs. the programmed opponent

Although I've not played against the PO since version 1.02 (with the exception of a couple of test runs of "Arracourt '44"), the following general concepts have produced easy victories against the PO, except in the most lopsided scenarios. The basics are probably the same between versions, because the PO would have to be substantially re-written in order to remove its operational weaknesses (a huge programming job, if it is even feasible). Playing the "Programmed Opponent" in TOAW is unique in one important way--it is the first AI I have ever heard of that is more effective on attack than on defense. The PO is quite powerful at optimizing attrition-based attacks. Think of the PO as a solid tactician, and a lousy operational theorist, and you will have the correct understanding to beat it. In a nutshell, if you slug it out against the PO, particularly on a defensive battle, you will have a difficult time, because you won't have too much of an edge in executing tactical attacks or defenses against the PO. In most cases it can crunch the numbers better than you can, and most of the time it "knows" the combat model better than you. The way to beat the PO is through the use of operational maneuver, because maneuver is extremely difficult to implement in AI. To give one example: Each PO formation has a series of objectives, which it tries to take in order. The PO has a number of ways of deploying once it takes its final objective, but the path that it will take to get there is determined by the intermediate objectives. So the PO has essentially a fixed allocation of forces for each objective, and relatively fixed ways of getting to the objectives. The PO can't change its axis of advance based on enemy resistance, it can't reinforce to exploit successful breakthroughs, it can't change its objectives when the game situation changes, and it does not automatically garrison intermediate formation objectives. Some enterprising scenario designers have tried to get around some of these weaknesses by adding garrison formations and replacing formations to match changing operational requirements during the game, in other words, if hex x is captured, replace 3rd Army with a new 3rd Army having new objectives. Although this solution is very clever, I worry that it tends to replace veteran units with new units--thus potentially changing available

equipment, unit proficiency, and supply on the fly. This can destroy game balance, so it is something to think about. In any event, if you maneuver around the PO's forces, capturing objective hexes behind the PO's lines with small, agile forces, the PO will overreact, sending entire formations to retake objectives held by a recon company. This is, for example, the only way I know to beat the PO in "Arracourt '44." The lack of garrison troops makes this strategy almost pathetically easy in scenarios with low unit densities. If you have paratroop units, you can drop them on supply hexes and often the PO will not react, if no PO formations are tasked with those hexes as objectives. The result is an easy victory. If a PO formation is tasked to take that hex, it will return all the way from the front to take it--the nearest units will not respond! This again leads to an easy victory. The PO is also not adept at rebuilding bridges, destroying bridges in the defense, or other tasks we humans take for granted. A solid, albeit more expensive strategy is, traditional maneuver. For example, in play against the PO in 1.01, I was able to use substantial American forces to break through a detachment of the North Korean army working its way down Korea's east coast. The PO did not respond to the strategic threat, so I sent my forces on a wide swing up the coast and then southwest to attack Seoul. Any human player would have been terrified by the prospect of five American regiments disappearing from the map behind their own lines, but the PO didn't realize the need to reallocate forces or defend. So the attack on Seoul from the northeast, coupled with the traditional invasion at Inchon, caused considerable consternation to the NK forces, because many of them were tasked to capture Seoul. When Seoul was recaptured, they immediately headed back North to attack it. [An aside: Unfortunately, the fact that the entire NK army was surrounded had little supply impact on them, and I was forced to destroy them unit by unit. Ugh! This is no longer a problem with version 1.02--the same tactic would not only work, but will result in an easy annihilation of most of the NK army.] The following strategy is absurd, but based on how the PO works, there is no reason that it shouldn't work: Given a large scenario, with sufficient distance between the various objective hexes, move your units out of the way, and let the PO take most of the objective hexes. Then string your units (every 3 hexes) across the map behind them, cutting the bulk of the PO units off from supply, while maintaining your own supply lines. The fact that you have surrounded so many units generally means that air transport points will not be adequate to keep them in supply. Wait several turns, until desertion effects start to pick up, and then annihilate the remaining shell. Therefore, if you want a challenge from the PO, try a scenario where the PO is attacking with high force density and little room or opportunity for maneuver. The PO shines in these cases. By that reasoning, the PO will be an absolute killer opponent in the upcoming World War One scenarios! It may still have weaknesses, but it will be a heck of a challenge. I would suggest that once the PO becomes too tame and boring, you take on humans. They are much scarier opponents!

Possible optional rules for play-by-email

No use of artillery to back up a lone unit set to minimize losses, solely for the purpose of causing excess casualties or cheap retreats. No use of paratroopers to seize undefended or lightly defended supply/reinforcement hexes on turn 1. No attacks or air drops on undefended, off-map airbase hexes. (Notice how Norm put large Soviet/Chinese divisions on those airbases in "Korea 5051").

No massive exploitation with amphibious forces late in the turn (or a set depth of hexes from the beach on turn 1--i.e., no moving more than five hexes from the beach on turn 1 in "Normandy").

Norm's post on unit proficiency and commentary

The following is derived from a post by Norm Koger to the TOAW board: "Untried units do have their proficiency reset in their first combat. The range is +/- 25%. (The function declaration is look_at_the_elephant (int unit_index).) " Every round of combat in which a unit participates has a chance of increasing the unit's proficiency. The chance = (100-proficiency)%. Low proficiency units improve more rapidly than high proficiency units. If a unit receives a large number of replacements in a given turn, there is a chance that the units will revert to its untried state -- meaning it has its proficiency reset at the beginning of the next combat. That's what happens to a unit when it first "looks at the elephant". Then it received a large number of replacements, lost its veteran status, and became even worse the second time it saw the elephant. The "Korea" scenario is interesting in this regard. An element in this scenario is the necessity of training US troops on the job, and rebuilding SK armies, without taking too many losses. This subtlety makes "Korea" one of the more difficult scenarios. I usually form the US units into a Corps and start hammering in one spot for a fistful of positive combat results--it's good training, and the units do not take enough losses to trigger loss of their veteran status. The same applies to the South Koreans--use part of the army to screen the bad guys, and train a three or four division assault Corps for use on the US flank. If you do it right, you'll have one US Corps and one SK Corps with over 70% proficiency when the time comes to invade the North. One way to use this information is to train your troops in combat with small victories. Another way is to take a unit with lousy proficiency (compared to its untried proficiency), and have that unit soak up losses. It will likely reset with an influx of replacements. Thus when it re-rolls, it will on average be higher rated than it was before--in some cases, much higher.