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iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank cheats / iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank hints / iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank faqs / iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank solutions iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank hints As seen in Operation DESERT STORM, the digital revolution has begun profoundly to affect the face of warfare. The result is a vast increase in what the military calls “situational awareness,” or, for the layman, knowing where everybody is and what they are doing. iM1A2 Abrams, derived from the classic M1 Tank Platoon, explores what this increased capability translates to on the modern battlefield. In the game players have to maximize all the capabilities of their superior equipment, situational awareness, and firepower to survive and win. By using some of the tried and true tools of military analysis, players can not only survive but thrive. Theater of pain An aspiring company commander can choose from three theaters in the game: Iran, Bosnia, and the Ukraine. The difficulty increases with each theater, as does the difficulty of the terrain, enemy quality, and equipment. The enemies all use variants of Russian equipment, from the T-72 in Iran to the T-95 (a hypothetical design) in the Ukraine. Each scenario assumes that hostilities have broken out and that the player’s unit, part of a US armored division, is inserted to protect national interests. There are single missions, but the meat of the game is the campaign. Each has two starting options, the initial overwhelming enemy attack through the US counterattack, or beginning at the US counteroffensive. The initial attack campaign is more challenging and takes somewhat more “intestinal fortitude” as you are responsible for holding off the swarming hordes until the cavalry arrives. If you lose your base, the campaign is over and the US is defeated. The final objective of each campaign is the enemy depot, which ends the war by cutting their supplies. As you progress through the campaign, you will be given choices for routes of retreat or advance. Normally, not falling back directly on your base helps keep the enemy at arm’s length while moving directly on the enemy base should theoretically end the war sooner. Remember that the indirect approach may get you around the stronger defenses and the quickest way to victory may not be a straight line. Once in a campaign, the player is faced with the first of numerous choices. In a manner similar to Panzer General, you pick a core force which is present in each battle. Depending on the mission and broader situation, you will be given additional points to purchase supporting units. The core force, since it is often forced to fight without significant outside assistance, needs to be a balanced one. With the four M1s I suggest an infantry platoon, a tank destroyer section, and a 120mm mortar platoon. The armor provides the striking power, while the infantry’s Bradleys and Javelins provide additional anti-armor firepower. The tank destroyer’s mission is to attrit the enemy during the approach, then give supporting fire. The mortars can range the entire battlefield (only in this game, not in real life) and have the mission of suppressing tanks, and possibly killing infantry fighting vehicles and tank destroyers. There are, of course, numerous possible variants of this force. Substituting a cavalry force for the tank destroyers, or taking air defense instead of fire support are each viable options. Players will have to experiment to find their “best mix.” Proper use of combined arms is vital to the game, as it is on the real battlefield, so the “gamer” who only takes tanks and uses support points to round out will suffer in the long run. Proper support Purchasing support units, based on the core force, is both a science and an art. Your force requirements are driven by enemy capabilities, so intelligence is critical. However, it will also be incomplete or incorrect. Therefore, studying the enemy order of battle and theater capabilities will give you necessary hints. The threat drives which support forces you will need. For example, players will most likely not need air defense artillery (ADA) in Iran, some is necessary in Bosnia, and it’s almost always required in the Ukraine. The Iranians will not have significant attack helicopter support (the Mi-24 Hind is the universal enemy), while it shows up 40-500f the time in Bosnia. The Russians will have both Hinds and Su-25 Frogfoot attack jets in what will seem like overwhelming numbers. Also, if your intelligence informs you that you will be facing a motorized infantry regiment rather than a tank regiment, there will be more IFVs and missile carriers facing you. Choosing additional fire support may be wise in this situation. Fire support (FS), in the form of FIST-Vs and artillery units, is also extremely useful. Mortars, by themselves, will not “kill” any armored vehicles, but will force tanks to button up and become less effective; high explosive from artillery performs the same function. Improved Conventional Munitions (ICM), delivered by 155mm howitzers and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), can indeed kill tanks, and will destroy IFVs easily. With the advent of the digital force, everyone is a forward observer (FO). However, FIST-Vs are designed and crewed to observe and call for fire and are “cheap” in the game. They are more accurate and “better” at the FS business than the other units in your force. They are also slow and vulnerable, so position them to on terrain that provides both observation and cover from enemy fire. Another planning consideration with artillery is that after it fires, it will move or “displace” to avoid enemy counter-battery fire; it will therefore be unavailable for a period of time. Mortars are quickest, followed by dedicated 155mm, 155mm howitzers, and MLRS, with MLRS taking the longest to become available. Your fire support plan should be an integral and complementary part of your maneuver plan – don’t spread your artillery around, focus it on the parts of the battle that are critical to mission accomplishment. The best laid plans… Once you have chosen your forces, the computer deploys your units and assigns each platoon a movement path. Jump to the tactical map and analyze the situation. Pause the game; this will stop the reconnaissance units, which will already be moving out quickly. Use the check points button to display each unit’s movement path. Many times, you will not need to change the computer’s initial plan, but occasionally you may want to close in the flank security units. Once you have prepared your starting plan, resume the game, but remember as Von Moltke the elder said, “No plan survives initial contact with the enemy.” On the offensive or defensive, there are a full range of missions, but they all use essentially the same criteria to judge success. Taking or holding the objective and friendly and enemy losses are the key to victory. Knowing the ranges and capabilities of friendly and enemy weapons based on their observation and fields of fire will help you plan your routes. The TOW2B and M1A2 have ranges of 3,750 and 4,000 meters respectively. Thus, the stages of the battle become find the enemy, fix them, and flatten them. Finding means sending out the recon, which hopefully will see the bad guys before drawing fire and usually dying. Aircraft are vulnerable, so do not, I repeat not, send your observation or attack choppers deep before locating and destroying the enemy ADA. Once located, alter your routes as necessary to mass your forces. This is critical. Kill the enemy in bite sized pieces while using your force as a whole to flatten the portions of the enemy. Fixing the enemy is where FS can play a key role. It out-ranges all enemy weapons and can blind, immobilize, or kill those forces you want kept out of the battle. Normally, tanks lead the Bradleys and other support as they are several times more survivable. If you use Bradleys as tanks, they will die. Once the enemy’s anti-tank capability has been reduced, keep moving. US forces can attack on the move, making a “rolling thunder” offensive a reality. Watch for enemy forces redeploying to your flanks and rear. This is an excellent mission for recon and FISTs once the direct fire battle begins. On the defense, use ambushes and mobility. Look deeply into the possible avenues of approach, and set up overlapping fields of fire with tanks and missiles. Plot movement paths with eyes for getting shot while you run. Using the reverse slopes of hills to set up ambushes can devastate the initial waves of attackers. However, the key is knowing when to maneuver. Do not let the enemy get within main gun range of your missile carriers with his tanks. Start moving at about 3,000m range and cover them with your M1s and FS. Artillery delivered smoke can also make the difference in a move to the next battle position and a rout. Although it is possible to enter each tank and play gunner, driver, etc., I found this to be unusual. You’ll often be too busy allocating resources on the tactical map, plotting movement routes, etc., to “be” a crew member. This is not surprising considering the player’s role in the game and how the simulation works. Company commanders kill the enemy by using combined arms, and hopefully not by pulling individual triggers on the battlefield. However, iM1A2 gives you that capability if you want to try. Other iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank cheats hints faqs solutions: 2. iM1A2 Abrams: America's Main Battle Tank hints |