I’ve seen a number of calls for a strategy guide for Tide of Iron and while each scenario can have a specific strategy that can lead to a successful game (as has been debated on the forums) I thought that a more broad treatment of concepts or topics would be useful for new players. My regular opponent compares ToI to a chess match where games usually go to the player who makes the fewest mistakes. I agree with him and so what follows are my suggestions on how to give yourself some small edges and make fewer mistakes, to be the best opponent you can be. Clearly strategy can be very subjective in so far as what is good and what works for you, if you’ve got better ideas great. If you’ve got no ideas I hope you find this helpful.
Setup
While not quite as time consuming as the play of the game, the setup of the game is as important as the decisions you make during play.
Note scenario milestones and objectives – Specific things you’ll want to pay attention to include any turn specific events like reinforcements. Knowing when you or your opponent will be getting some help from the scenario may guide your plan in an attempt to capitalize on your own reinforcements or eliminate or overcome your opponents benefit. In some scenarios you may be able to block the entry of reinforcements by occupying those hexes with units (only works when there’s only 2 or 3 reinforcement points).
Read the operations cards – Make sure that you read any operations cards you or your opponent receive as these generally break/change the rules in some way. I can say from experience that it’s very painful to execute a plan successfully only to find out that your opponents operations card altered the outcome.
Build and deploy squads to fit your strategy – When building your squads there can be some natural synergies, especially when playing a scenario with just two players. There are some obvious dominant strategies like doubling up mortars when you have a chance to get the benefit of lots of dice. Here are some other thoughts focusing on specific units or specializations.
- Officers – Officers grant their squads a number of benefits, their most important one is that they grant their squad +1 movement. This trait is most useful when combined with a specialization since extra movement usually allows you to get your squad into position quicker. Not to mention the other traits like granting cover vs. suppressive fire and allowing the squad to make a concentrated attack even if pinned.
- Elite Infantry – The elite troops bring some extra firepower to the fight but I tend to spread them out among my squads so that every squad that can have it, has the extra die of cover against suppressive fire. Nothing kills a good plan faster than getting pinned down by your opponent. While it can be nice to stack 4 elite units in a single squad, especially a flame or anti-tank one, I would make this the rarity since such a squad becomes a high priority target which makes it a waste of units and capability if you never get to use it. I try never to put more than two elite figures in a single squad, and following the strategy of trying to give every squad some cover vs. suppressive fire I rarely group them with officers.
- Mortars – Mortars are generally a disruptive force in the game. They get twice as many dice to suppress as they do to kill. If they’re doubled up it can be devastating when they score hits. That being said, unless you’re playing on a small map they’re likely firing at long range for much of the game and when they aren’t, it’s likely that your opponent is going to close on them as quickly as possible to silence them. Consider that if you’re primary use of them is to slow your opponent down it may be better to separate mortars so that you can hit more targets. You only need one successful hit to pin a squad. Mortars are also a threat piece in that if you have them your opponent will generally try to avoid lines of site where his units would remain in clear hexes. This is an opportunity to control your opponents advance. If you split them and want to move one of your mortars up to get into a better position you still retain the threat despite the need to reposition.
- Machine Guns – Unlike mortars, machine guns don’t do very good by doubling them up. Don’t get me wrong they’re devastating but they’re also huge targets for opposing fire. It is best to have them one to a squad with a couple of regular infantry as cannon fodder to soak up hits. When you look at the map and how your opponent is likely to try and advance on you (or how you would try to advance on you if you were in your opponents shoes) you want to set up your machine guns in ways that they can control traffic and either stunt your opponents advance or direct it in a way more favorable to you. Machine guns on offense are tough since you can’t move and shoot with them you need to be able move them up quickly and get them deployed in an effective way that you can disrupt your opponent’s defenses. Vehicles are great for this which I’ll cover in the next section. Machine guns can reach out a long ways, especially when they’re on top of a hill. Pay special attention to LOS when you’re setting them up, both for the lanes you want to control and where your opponent is likely to try and set up to silence your guns.
- Trucks and Half-Tracks – These troop carrying vehicles are great for advancing troops forward quickly and safely. Yes, safely. Most units (other than Tanks that is) have a much shorter range versus vehicles than they do infantry. Using vehicles can get your squads up closer without being harassed by enemy fire too soon. Of the two half tracks are better bet given their off road capabilities but in a pinch the trucks can get the job done too so don’t blow off the option to pick up the truck with your reinforcements if you’re going to need to try and advance them under fire.
- Specializations – For most specializations I like to apply them to squads that contain an officer. The primary reason for this is because in most cases I want to be able to get that squad into the mix quickly and having an extra step of movement can mean a lot when you have a lot of terrain to cover. Scenarios that allow engineers to deploy smoke is a good example, smoke only lasts for the round so you need to get your engineer forward quickly to deploy smoke for your other units to maneuver behind. Flamethrower squads with an officer are murder in assaults. A full 4 movement points plus the assault makes getting there and sharing the napalm love a lot more effective. Medics are best used getting to your wounded squads rather than pulling squads back to your medics. Medic squads with an officer get the benefit of +1 die of cover for suppression and normal attacks that they get to share with everyone in their hex. An officer with a specialization is a dominant strategy in my book.
Study the Map – There are some key things you want to be looking at as you’re placing your units and preparing to start the scenario. Most of these I’ve already touched on but repetition doesn’t hurt them any.
- On Offense – You want to look at how you’re going to advance your troops. Do some simple calculations to determine where your troops should be by the end of the second round. You’ve studied the objectives and you need to have an idea of where you want your units to be so you can start eliminating the obstacles (enemy units) in your way. If you’re opponent has initiative look for ways in which you can exploit their set up. Think about how their likely to react and have a backup plan in case the dice don’t go your way. If you attack on an “undefended” flank, by the end of round two it will be defended (or fold which plays into your plan right?) so you need to be prepared to see the advance through or hit them where they’ve moved away from. Sometimes placing units in a threatening posture can help you keep defenders pinned in the wrong place (for the defender) long enough to give your attack a better chance of success.
- On Defense – The bad guys are coming and you need to hold them off. This is never an easy chore as you are usually massively outnumbered and a battle of attrition is a sure path to failure. As you study the map you want to visualize how your opponent is likely to advance and where their units are likely to be by the end of round two if they advance unabated. With this in mind you want to place your troops in the best possible position to defend a line of advance or jump off to a defensible position. If possible you want to eliminate any blind spots that would allow your opponents units to get close and avoid getting fired upon. Do not fall in love with where your troops are at. This can be hard to do because usually you want to really hold a position on an objective. The defender has to be flexible. Any fixed defense is going to be circumvented by your opponent. If you troops are out of place to be able to provide an adequate defense on other parts of your front then they’re likely hung out alone and soon to be chopped up by enemy fire. Whenever possible you want to provide supporting fire for your troops or at least secondary defenses for objective hexes that will allow you to withdraw troops if needed to more useful places as your opponents advance draws closer and closer to your lines.
- General Setup – As you set up be aware of ranges and LOS from your opponent. Nothing sucks worse than placing vulnerable units in a hex that seems blocked but do to elevation differences or angles actually is not. It’s a horrible way to lose units and can disrupt your plans before you even get started. Things that tend to be gotchas with range are that opponent units at a higher elevation get +1 range before doubling which means that machine guns can throw dice for long range hits up to 12 hexes away. Tanks on vehicles is just as nasty and even longer range so pay attention to LOS and range, especially if you don’t have initiative.