Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Afghanistan '11 changes the paradigm of wargaming and manages to bring Counter-Insurgency and guerrilla warfare to your screen, properly represented thanks to a revolutionary gameplay formula!
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joe6778
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Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by joe6778 »

I just lost Operation Achilles with only 49 H&M points. I lost the previous two scenarios as well.

See my previous post as far as what I'm doing to raise H&M. I'm doing what I believe I should do to raise the H&M score, but it's not working.

Can anybody suggest strategy?
kolc
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by kolc »

Sounds like you are doing what you are supposed to...I haven't played the campaigns so my experience is based on skirmishes. I have found that no matter how high H&M gets, it tends to plummet once the U.S. withdraws....but after I win over several villages, I focus more on killing Taliban/militia units by going into search and destroy mode basically. One thing that I have done is set up my special forces team into an observation post on a hill...that way they can call in airstrikes on enemy units as they advance towards bases etc...basically hitting them before they can do any damage to your forces...if you get lucky and get your SF in a good observation position, it can be like shooting fish in a barrel....which will push your H&M into the positive,,,,
DocDesastro
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by DocDesastro »

From things I have seen, there are things which are good to happen H&M-wise and bad ones. Depends on what happens most of the time.
Good:
- destroy an enemy unit near a village (can be nerfed by politics)
- have a road connected to village
- have a waterworks operational in village
- send UN aid
- destroy mines near village
- random event

Bad:
- have damaged water works
- lose a fight near a village
- drop MOAB
- militia and taliban near village conducting certain missions
- artillery strike enemy directly next to village
- ramndom event

Additionally, destroying opium crops has a random effect on a village. Sometimes it will raise H&M, sometimes it will decrease it

Those things will sum up over time so if you let the Taliban grow too fast during the begining, you will have a hard time. In my opinion it is a good idea to use drones for reconnoitering distant villages you will be unlikely to get in the first stages. If you can airstrike the Taliban around those villages, you will prevent them influencing the villagers which in turn seems to generate some kind of income for them resulting in more taliban units on map making your problem even worse. The advice of using specialforces is great. Use many of them and quickly to build up afghan units - you will need them direly. Your goal is to use the afghan units thrice to have them promoted to ANA special forces. Those can recruit ANA units themselves reducing the weight on your shoulders. Regular mine-clearing is a must. Deliver UN-Aid only, when routes are secure. To hit enemy forces, the US infantry's ambush stance is perfect as it engages taliban units from range with good success. Place 2 hexes away and go into ambush stance. Avoid direct confrontation unless units have high experience levels to ensure victory. Also, keep in mind, that killing a unit directly gains intel on the taliban. The greatest problem is to balance the effects the taliban and lost engagements are causing with good influence. You will have to be aggressive and extend your influence quickly without becoming too overstretched, which is a paradox goal, but if you are too passive, the taliban will grow too strong. Usage of the Chinook combined with a special force unit is a nice idea for pest control. It can build firebases so you can reach some points faster than usual and await the taliban. The special forces can call air strikes or snipe and train ANA units where you need them. Just be careful not to have too much casualties as without a Buffalo you can't build MASH units to heal wounded soldiers. Follow up with US infantry for ambush stance and start clearing a way towards the new firebase.
Bitgid
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by Bitgid »

Thet intresting!
cranston
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by cranston »

The early missions where there is no handover objective are easy.
There are 3 core steps:
1. Connect villages to roads.
2. If waterworks break, repair ASAP.
3. Use SF to OP wall around villages. This way, you'll see the enemy if they try to approach any villages. When they appear, prosecute with Apaches.

If you accomplish the above, you'll naturally clear the mission.
tmeluski
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by tmeluski »

Overall, you need to establish areas of operation with the FOBs that you can quickly react to situations. These areas need to far enough apart to allow your forces to reach yet at the same time you do not want to over extend your forces.
Typically, I first establish an FOB close to my HQ that has optimally 2 villages that it can influence. I'll have at least 1 US Infantry Unit and a MRAP there to gather intel. I'll utilize Special Forces to train ANA forces and keep an engineer unit on hand to build roads/build & repair waterworks/add other assets to the base.
As I build income I will potentially establish another base depending on the map that I can move my US forces to begin gather intelligence from villages in its AoO and either utilize the old SF or a new one if I can afford. At this point, I'll start to utilize more Helicopters potentially if I can afford.
Additionally, I typically have 2 SF in HQ building out ANA units for the handover.
In regards to the UN deliveries I find that depending on how early on you establish an FOB in area the less likely you will need to gain H&M. Same goes for mine clearing, there is less needed the sooner you build influence.
One other thought is that villages closer to the edge of the map and further from your HQ may need an FOB close to it to better influence the village
Be Small
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by Be Small »

joe6778 wrote:I just lost Operation Achilles with only 49 H&M points. I lost the previous two scenarios as well.

See my previous post as far as what I'm doing to raise H&M. I'm doing what I believe I should do to raise the H&M score, but it's not working.

Can anybody suggest strategy?
Some decent tips in here. To add my two cents:
1) try to invest your points wisely in the beginning (do not spend it all)
2) setup infrastructure to earn points that you can then spend on more infrastructure and military
3) get commando's top start training as many ANA units as you can as soon as possible
4) make your ANA units go out and fight so you can promote them to commandos (so they can train new ANA units, make them go out, promote, train, promote, etc)
5) the more FOBs you have, the better your spotting availability and the more ANA you can train. Try to have one ANA commando in every FOB before handover.
6) make sure to have trucks with supplies and spare shells in every FOB.
7) invest surplus points (10k+) in delivering UN aid and in stuff you can send back to the US (and get points back). After handover, invest surplus points in delivering UN aid.

Let us know how you are doing.
Aka Fokker G1, A.B. Ushavov (CMMC)
cranston
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by cranston »

Ideally, you'll want a (spaced) wall of 3 FOB running north to south, as far east as practicable.
Why 3? 'Cause you've only got 3 Arty units.
Why east? To intercept the taliban army which come on screen when the americans pull out.

Don't promote all ANA units to commandos.
SF cannot ambush, which should be your primary method of fighting taliban.
Therefore, use just enough commandos strategically to watch avenues of approach.
Then train up veteran infantry that can use ambush.
Use them to form a wall when the taliban army comes.
GandalfsBeard
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Re: Can't ANYBODY offer strategy tips???

Post by GandalfsBeard »

I'll give you a quick guide:

1. First, your objective should be to build infrastructure and the train the ANA, not to "win the war". You are fighting almost exclusively infantry. You aren't actually ever in any danger to lose militarily.
2. Get a big number of Special Forces for both vision and training.
3. Make sure to build as many FOBs as possible. Why you ask? Because they grant you: a) vision along roads. b) a mortar in case you are in dire need of fire support. c) free supplies for anyone in them, so you can hop along a row of FOBs to avoid running out of any supplies. d) extentions like medical facilities, which you will need a lot of. and e) they allow you to train three ANA units each. The more ANA you have, to more points you get as an early handover reward. The more ANA you have, the easier the lategame.
4. Do every fight possible with ANA units. The more experience they gather (they get experience for losing btw), the stronger your troops will be at the end of the game. The more special forces you promote, the more vision and control you will have and the more ANA units total you will be able to deploy. When you get closer to the handover (somewhere around 35ish) you usually want to start saving up some pretty well trained ANA infantry to do the heavy lifting in the later fights.
5. Use Huskeys excessively to make sure you get the H&M from IED clearing, rather then losing them on tripping IEDs. This will also give you more points, make sure all your movements are safe, and if you get a huskey damaged here and there it's not a big deal.
6. US Forces should only ever be used as a last resort. If you don't have enough ANA, if you are facing a larger force then the ANA can handle quickly, if the enemy is pushing into areas where you don't want them to go, go ahead and use US-forces.
7. Be aware of your limits. I usually interact with two, maybe three villages tops in the first 15 turns. I am not in a hurry, and it allows me to establish a strong grip on villages I am already supporting. With enough ANA infantry units, a decent number of special forces and all ANA vehicles and helicopers it's really easy to push fast and safely.
8. To push, start with a drone. If the road is clear of enemies, follow that with a huskey, send in a buffalo to build the next FOB, then send in the troops. If the drone finds enemies, push them back with ANA infantry dropped from helicopters. Even if they lose, they send the enemy running, securing you a way to send the huskey down the road.

I'll give you a short run through a typical game of mine.

The entry stage:
The units I usually try to have as early as possible are one or two huskeys, five or so special forces, two buffalos, two mraps or other means of transportation and at most one US infantry.
I start my games getting a FOB up on turn 1, if possible. The moment the FOB is build I staff it with some special forces and start training ANA infantry. The other special forces train the MI8s and ASVs.
I build roads to all nearby villages (everything within 1 turn distance along roads for buffalos from my HQ basically). That's usually one or two. Once the first FOB is build and the roads are constructed I build water towers in all villages I connected by road.
Now I wait for the ANA units to be ready (three infantry from the first FOB, at least three units to transport them, in the worst case I get a supply truck to fill the gap). This will in some cases take up till turn 12 or so.

The expansion phase:
With a first foothold secured, enough units trained and political points production up and running, I start slowly expanding, one FOB at a time, connecting all villages and building waterworks in all of them. Take your time. Make sure you keep enough points for emergeny drones or airstrikes. The special forces from earlier now still train ANA units in the newly build FOBs, but any not involved in training will scout for militia caves. If I Identify the exact location of a cave by witnessing a milita spawning, I usualy start setting up a "ANA-training-FOB". Simply put: I put an FOB as close as possible to the cave (and if I have to use a chinook, I will) build a medical facility as quickly as possible and just send fresh, untrained ANA to fight any militia that shows up. This produces about 1 ANA special force all 10 or so turns, which I then immediately fly out to help expand.
By turn 35 or so, I usually have connected all but the most remote villages, with a continuous line of FOBs, with a number of special forces spread around and with ANA+ASVs waiting near every village to pick up intel. Whenever I find anyone to fight, I fly in ANA for training. I'll usually fortify the eastern end of the map with three FOBs, with a med-bay and and artillery-pit each. I generally tend to keep 1 ANA infantry in ALL FOBs and up to three aditional units in the eastern FOBs. With well places special forces and smart use of intel from villages, it is then possible to keep the map litterally completely clean outside of surges, that will take two or three turns to clean up. On a clean map, supply trucks can be used freely (with huskeys to make sure they don't run into any nasty surprises you might have missed). I use UN-Aid to bribe any unhappy villages and keep filled supply trucks in all bases that are likely to use supplies. And ammo trucks in all that are likely to use ammo.

Handover to end:
By the time the US forces leave, I tend to have about 30 ANA infantry, 6 to 10 ANA special forces, 5 ASVs, 3 MI8s and 3 howizers to combat any enemies. I keep a buffalo in every FOB in case I need extra facilities or in case roads or waterworks get damaged. I keep one huskey for every stretch of road I frequent with any kind of movement. And I have way more supply trucks then I could ever need that do tend to come in handy. At this point, I am usually securely above 60 H&M and this number will only rise till the end of the game.

The only missions this does not work exactly as spelled out here are missions that limit the troops you can get. But the core stays the same: focus on training the ANA and advance slowly enough to keep up control.

I hope this helps you!
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