Old Gamers Never Die: Getting Better at Playing the ‘Attack’ Skirmish Mission in ‘Regiments’

“In case of doubt, attack.” – Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. USA

I’m getting better at playing Regiments.

I’m not yet as good a commander of armored forces as George Patton, one of America’s best-known generals from the World War II era and the namesake of the U.S, Army’s Patton series of main battle tanks. I am, after all, not a professional military man, and I have never taken so much as one Military Science class. Most of what I know about strategy, tactics, and weapons comes from decades of reading books, watching movies and documentaries, or playing wargames along the lines of NATO Commander, Crusade in Europe, Steel Division, and MicroProse’s new Cold War-turns-hot game, Regiments.

“Good tactics can save even the worst strategy. Bad tactics will destroy even the best strategy.” – Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., USA

To be honest, even though I’ve been playing Regiments regularly since August 16, I can’t say I’ve mastered all three variants of the Skirmish (single battle mode) or Operations (the game’s “grand campaign.”

I am only proficient at the Attack type of Skirmish, and then only with NATO forces under my command. I’m not a big fan of the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact, though at some point I will try my hand at commanding Russian and other Pact forces.

One sign that I am improving: I am suffering fewer ground force casualties than I did when I started playing Regiments six weeks ago.

Moreover, I figured out how to capture all eight of the enemy’s Objective Zones (OZs) before the game clock runs out. It took me a while to get the hang of choosing which OZ to take (and hold) first, then select the proper task forces needed to keep attacking – and then defending – the others. It’s not easy, either, because the game only lets you deploy three task forces, so it’s not like you have limitless amounts of men and materiel.

The hardest thing to do, of course, was to learn how to minimize my losses while inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy force.

In my most recent engagement, my Blue Force lost:

• 30 Killed in Action (KIA)
• 84 Wounded
• 5 Missing; total casualties: 119

The Soviet/East German Red Force lost:

• 113 KIA
• 257 Wounded
• 10 Missing; total casualties: 380

In Vehicles (tanks, armored fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, etc.), the figures favored the Blue Force as well; the Americans only lost 17 vehicles, and the Warsaw Pact forces lost 58.

The enemy’s air defenses, though, took a toll on my air assets, especially my AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters. I lost 7 in this skirmish. The enemy did not deploy his attack helicopters, but he did call in Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes several times. I shot one Frogfoot down; the Soviets shot down one of my A-10 Thunderbolt II attack jets.

Nevertheless, I defeated the Red Force soundly, even though my aerial losses were significant. I held all eight OZs, and the enemy had far more losses than I.

So, yep. I’m getting better at Regiments.