Load Scenerio “tutorial2” from the classic_tutorial folder in the ATgoldscenerios folder. Leave both regimes control to “human”. You will play both sides. This scenerio assumes you have played the first tutorial and know how to assign production centers to HQs, order production, create and assign units, transfer to units, move and attack with units.

Red Turn 1

Your screen should appear as below.

We want to find and destroy the opponents army. Move you forward units along the roads to locate the enemy. The 5th Division on your right sees the enemy but cannot move farther. The 2nd Div, armored car formation still has 60 AP (action points) after finding the enemy. We should try a probing attack to see if it is weak. Set the “Loss” box for this unit to 25% so it will retreat before taking many casualties.

Attack the unknown blue unit with the 2nd Division to learn about the enemy unit. We took some losses, but we now know that we are facing a strong infantry unit. The bazooka presents a concern for our armored car. Another thing to note is that the unit is walking, so it will move relatively slowly compared to formations that have enough horses, tracked vehicles or trucks to ride.

Right click on the picture of the bazooka to learn more.

The attack and defensive strength of the bazooka unit is shown versus different classes of units. It is clearly a danger specifically to armor.

We have three more armored car units with our HQ. We will try to use the speed our armored car units to gain advantage over the slower unit traveling on foot. Move the armored car units up the road but leave them a hex away from the enemy infantry. Move the remainder of the 2nd Division there also. Concentrating them together should improve our defense. Forcing the enemy to move before attacking uses up some of their action points (AP) which will shorten their attack.

Our armored car units also contain men. They can still move quickly because the men are riding on the armored cars. To understand how to create units this way, pick one of the armored car units and click the ANL button in the lower window of the screen. Notice on the left of the armored car symbol it says “tracked”. This shows that the unit moves at tracked unit speed. This is because the weight of the foot speed units (5 men at weight 1 each) is less than the carrying capacity of the armored car (can carry 5 weight). If there were 6 men in the unit, it would move at the slower “foot” speed. Keep your faster formations light enough to use their increased mobility and you will find this a great advantage against the AI.

Before we end the turn. Choose your HQ village and order production for the next turn. How much supply should we make? Look at the bottom row of information for the HQ unit. This shows that there is a stock supply of 133, that 59 were requested by your units and that 59 were sent out.

We should be safe in ordering 67 supply (40%) and with the remainder, choose horses (60%). Horses are cheap transport and useful in forests and hills. That's all for now. Hit the end of turn button and we will take Blue's turn.

Blue Turn 1

Blue has an army of two powerful units. The armored unit on the right contains light tanks which are powerful against infantry. Move it down the road and attack the Red unit. Because the tanks can move at tracked speed, they can do multiple attacks against their Red opponent. Continue attacking the Red unit until you run out of action points or the Red unit is completely destroyed. If the tank unit still has action points, move it down the road towards the Red occupied village.

That went well. The Blue infantry unit faces a stack of three or four Red units. I would probably retreat back to the bridge, but they have strict orders to attack. Move them down the road and attack.

That was not so good. Try to have a significant advantage when attacking. A three to one ratio of attacker to defender power points is a good rule of thumb. Now Blue is in trouble and does not have enough action points to retreat. Blue has used up the action points for both of its units, so hit the end of turn button and we will play Red again.

Red Turn 2

Red has a favorable opportunity on the left and a difficult situation on the right. We will deal with the right first. Red R&D people have wisely developed a counter to armor. We have two anti-tank guns. Choose the HQ unit and right click on the AT gun formation picture. Pick the button “Combat Stats” and then the “Compare” button. Choose “Light Tank” for our comparison. Light Tank has pretty good numbers against every ground formation. AT gun is very good at only one situation, defensive against armor.

Next pick the “Landscape Stats” button. We see here that armor has penalties to attack in every landscape except plains. Our AT gun is effective everywhere. We will set up an ambush on the road in the heavy woods. Move your Scouts unit along the road into the heavy woods. Then transfer from HQ to the Scouts unit both AT guns.

The big danger to our defense on the right is that the enemy is mobile (tracked movement speed) and we are slower. If the armor unit sees the danger, it could avoid the AT guns and just go after the HQ. Lucky for us we had that unit of Scouts. Right click on the Scouts formation picture and set up a comparison with Rifles. Choose the “General Stats” button this time. Although Scouts are twice as expensive as Rifles, they have a recon of 5 each versus only 1 per rifle and a hiding factor of 10 each versus 0 per rifle. Now we will consider the left. We could attack the infantry unit with our armored car units and maybe win or we can weaken the enemy further before finishing him off. Move one of your armored car units around the enemy and cut off his connection to the bridge to the North. Try to leave a space or two between the enemy and our unit to shorten the time the enemy can attack if he decides to “break out” of our trap. Finally choose the enemy infantry unit and pick the button in the row of buttons with the fuel can on it. If he can't trace a line back to his HQ, then he will suffer from loss of requested supplies on his turn.

We have laid our plans. Now to see what really happens. End Red's turn.

Blue Turn 2

As Blue, the first thing we notice is our Infantry Division is suffering from loss of supply and loss of communication with HQ. The little red square tells us that no new supply was received. Although there was enough supply for this turn (a stock of 2 remains), 41 supply was requested and 0 received. Besides the threat of going hungry next turn, they haven't heard from HQ. Both the number of action points and level of readiness of the unit is diminished. I knew he should have gone back to the bridge. We will see now if it is too late. Try to move the Blue 1st Division back to the bridge. It is only organized enough to move one hex. Move the unit one hex closer to the northern bridge.

On the right move the armored 4th Division down the road. That appears all Blue can accomplish this turn. End the turn and we will proceed with Red.

Red Turn 3

Move your armored car units in such a way to be able to set up an attack of the Blue infantry unit from three directions. Notice as you add the second and third attacking unit we are notified of a attack bonus for attacking from multiple hexes. Our opponents readiness is already low because it is cut off from communication with its HQ. It is not always possible to cut off a defender, but you can also decrease their readiness by artillery bombardment or tactical air strike before attacking them with ground units. The more disorganized the defender is before the battle, the greater the chance the attack will succeed.

Order the attack. This enemy unit is finished as a serious threat. Finish off the survivors with follow up attacks.

That leaves the danger to our right. Our ambush force is in position. By leaving it where it is this turn, they will become more entrenched in their position, which is a significant defensive bonus. Look at the analysis view for this unit (ANL button). It receives a combat bonus for its proximity to its HQ unit.

Move the HQ unit down the road to just behind it and check this again. If the HQ is within 3 hexes, the unit will receive its maximum leadership bonus. Since this a do or die situation, increase the “Loss” number from 50 to 100.

End Red's turn.

Blue Turn 3

Move the Blue armored division down the road toward the Red village. They are surprised and their advance is halted.

The basic tactics tutorial ends here. Blue needs some more soldiers and a better general. Try playing it again. This time break up Blue's two large units into smaller units. Guard the bridge in the North and put an infantry unit with the armor unit to probe ahead for surprises; or better yet try your own idea.