Are You Blitzing With the Allies?

[TrimChris]

Ok, show of hands. Have you blitzed any of your Allied tanks in any of your games? There are a couple of tricks where this ability is great for the Allies. Getting reinforcements to a town that is almost cut-off, and setting up zones of control that you otherwise couldn't establish. Using a tank from reinforcements with one of your reinforcement supply tokens is a great way to do this too!

Trading a single Allied tank to set-up a temporary zone of control and take away an extra German supply is often a good deal for the Allies.

[RuHurt]

No, I haven't tried it yet, but having read your comments in another thread, I'll try it in my next game, and see how it works for me.

[IBKsax44]

I hadn't considered spending the Allied tanks that way. When I did a piece count and realized the Germans had more tanks and the Allies more infantry, and the same ammount of artillery I figured that little bit of fire power would be better spent making a stand or a counter attack somewhere than dying behind the German lines.

[MrYuk]

I blitz for positioning sake. There are times I've had to blitz to help support Bastogne or the cities north of there because the Germans pushed in and closed the roads. I haven't blitz past the Germans to disrupt as I usually feel I need the armor more than I need the disruption.

[boylermaker]

I haven't had the occasion to do so, yet. In general, I think that allied armor is more useful in plugging gaps in the allied lines. But if the situation came up, I would blitz. (I have "blitzed" to waste supplies, but I don't think this counts).

[Caractacus]

I've only played on my own so far, but I have noticed that under certain circumstances, a single tanks blitzed behind an enemy stack can be lethal to them. If any of the units in the stack are forced to retreat, they can't do so without entering the tank's zoc and so the retreating units are all destroyed instead.

The ideal enemy stack in this case is one that is a little forward of the rest in its own 'bulge'. often, the stack is big, and thus even if you hit with six or so hits, nearly all are retreats. With this technique, though, you can turn these 'retreats' into 'destroyed's...

Of course, the enemy will try to remove the offending tank, and so this works best where you know that there is another major battle coming up that is important. If your enemy wins the initiative and uses his turn to attack your tank, he loses his chance to launch the important attack before you can attack IT and disrupt it a little. Or vice versa.

If your enemy has REALLY stuck his neck out and you can deliver a crushing blow (if he has to retreat anything) then TWO tanks blitzed to two different spaces that both pinch off the 'bulge' work really well. He often can't get both in one go, and so you get to launch your attack on the big stack regardless.

[KillerKatarn]

Even if he wins the initiative and attacks your lone tank, you have gained an advantage. He's had to turn his big stack around just to destroy a single tank. You can lose the initiative and still crush his stack. That one tank saved the rest of your stack. ;)

[Caractacus]

Even if he wins the initiative and attacks your lone tank, you have gained an advantage. He's had to turn his big stack around just to destroy a single tank. You can lose the initiative and still crush his single unit. That one tank saved the rest of your stack. ;)

Well, yes. But not if he has any other units in the area that can attack. It's not all that easy to be adjacent to only ONE enemy stack, especially when you are 'behind his lines', as it were, as a result of blitzing.

But yes, I find that in some situations it is a wonderful way to kill with every 'retreat' result.

[KillerKatarn]

good point. This would be problematic in the south. But in the north, around liege? The allies get to move/reinforce second, so the germans would be unable to bring in more troops.

[RuHurt]

I'm finding it really hard to blitz with the Allies, since as the Germans I tend to keep a very solid front line, with as few gaps in it as possible...

[TrimChris]

It doesn't matter what you do, it's what your opponents do. You do have opponents? ;)

[RuHurt]

Unfortunately, no, I don't. Like I said, I play solo; I don't know anyone into wargames. Guess I'll have to find some this semester, just to try Allied blitzing... :-P