Tactics, Strategies, Hints and Tips
This is merely a quick run-down of some of the more popular tactics, strategies, hints and tips to help you get started in your first games of Spring: 1944. This section will be just as helpful to "veterans" of other Spring engine titles as much as to those who will be playing on the Spring engine for the first time.
Game Start
In "Traditional" game mode (building a base, gathering resources, building units, destroying enemy's base - like Command & Conquer, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, etc) each faction has a "Headquarters" or "Commander" unit. For Britain, the US, and Germany, a (Battalion) Headquarters building is provided (in Germany's case, a bunker Headquarters) which will allow you to build Engineers and HQ squads (small, half-strength combat squads). The Soviet Union starts out with a Commander, who can build an array of buildings and units (but not combat units).
Generally, you have to keep two things in mind: You want to expand and take territory, but you also want to build Engineers and other structures to be used to produce better units. Your decisions in these first moments are pretty important: Do you build a bunch of Engineers so you can build an Infantry Barracks faster? Or do you build a few HQ squads to secure territory before investing in building up your base? Most players choose a comprimise -- building an Engineer and HQ squad alternatingly until they have roughly 3-4 Engineers, at which point they set the Headquarters to produce HQ Squads and set it on "Repeat" so it simply builds HQ squads indefinately. With each infantry squad appropriated, more territory can be taken, while each Engineer hastens further basebuilding.
The Soviets are a special case. As noted, they start with a human Commander unit who can not build weaponry of any kind. What he can do, however, is "assign" Commissars; essentially he builds Engineers on-the-spot wherever necessary. This is important for two reasons. First, Commissars are the only effective way for the Soviet Union to secure territory (capture flags), as their infantry can only do so very slowly (while a single Commissar can capture a flag in seconds). Secondly, the ability of the Commander to build Commissars at an extremely fast rate allows Soviet players to gain a lot of ground early-on, as half a dozen or more Commissars split off to flags across the map. Usually, Soviet players build anywhere from 4-8 Commissars to secure flags, build barracks and partisan headquarters, and minefields. That's another thing -- unlike other nations, which rely on their standard HQ and a limit of no more than three Infantry Barracks, the Soviets can build 3 Barracks as well as several Partisan shacks, which can hide -- a standard Soviet tactic is to build Partisan Shacks off in some desolate corners of the map, where they can assemble small armies of Partisans to harass the enemy from confusing directions. One downside to the Soviets' ability to quickly gain territory is their inability to hold it. Because they must build a Barracks (or Partisan Shack) before they can build combat troops, their territory will quickly fall to the enemy's forward troops.
After your first barracks is built, your main priority should be to appropriate as many basic combat troops as you can, as you race with your opponent to seize and hold territory. Usually players will repeat-build Rifle platoons for the first several minutes (and sometimes Assault platoons if the map has a lot of cover). Meanwhile, you can have your Engineers build another Barracks.
An important note: Be sure to keep track of your Command level. Erecting structures and aquiring troops can quickly suck up all your Command and leave you "stalling", ie perpetually low on Command. Things will still build, but at a much slower rate; if you're stalling and your enemy is managing to keep a steady Command level, he will out-produce you. So be sure to measure your building and recruiting to keep it in line with the amount of Command you have.
After you've built a couple of barracks and are "spewing" a nice amount of combat troops, and once your Command economy has stabilized, you can decide which type of combat specialization your little Battalion will have. Advanced Engineers built from Barracks can generally build two types of structures for you to aquire new combat equipment: the Gun Yard or the Vehicle Yard. Each produces different sets of units and will affect which units you can choose later on. Towed Guns are naturally limited in their offensive ability due to their immobility, but can be a good choice for defense. And if you're feeling particularly audacious, you can try and build immense batteries of artillery, to pound the enemy into absolute submission inch-by-inch, Monty style. Or you can opt to go for Vehicles, which will give you access to many types of combat vehicles which will help you defeat your enemy on the battlefield, from Scout and Armoured Cars, to Halftrack APCs, and some other special units.
The Vehicle Yard can also produce Construction Vehicles, like the Sd.Kfz.9 and Matador. These take awhile to build, but they have access to some very special structures -- namely, the Tank Yard and the Supply Depot. The Supply Depot is explained more thoroughly in another section, but in short, it is a massive logistics hub which can resupply vehicles over a huge area compared to the smaller Supply Stockpiles.
The Tank Yard will give you access to, you guessed it, tanks! They may also contain other armoured vehicles, such as self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers. Before you even think about trying to "go tanks" you'd better be sure your economy can handle it. After being built, Tank Yards can upgrade to give you access to different units, such as heavier tanks, more powerful tank destroyers, and other really special things.
It may take you awhile before you learn how to have a "good start". It took me quite literally months of anger and frustration before it finally "clicked" -- some players seem to be able to pick it up almost instantly.
Anti-Vehicle Tactics
This is one thing that will most likely happen very often to you -- you'll be cruising along early in a game, making some very decent ground with your combat infantry, and it seems like you may have victory clinched, until all of a sudden enemy vehicles start bombarding you with automatic cannon fire and high explosive shells. Then the painful realization hits you: you've done nothing to prepare for vehicles. It may happen that your enemy will be able to bombard you with a sudden onrush of vehicles, and decimate you in short order. But there are some tactics you can try to help deal with surprise enemy vehicles.
The first one is, of course, to be prepared anyway. Every faction has some sort of anti-vehicle infantry specialists, and others not particularly made to fight vehicles are quite good at it as well. First thing's first, though, is that riflemen and submachinegunners have the capability to destroy vehicles quite easily -- if they can manage to get close enough to lob grenades into engine grates, between tracks, into crew compartments or hatches, and so on and so forth. Sometimes the only way to deal with an enemy vehicle is to rush your infantrymen towards it in hopes they can get close enough to pummel it with grenades. This tactic can even work on heavier tanks.
Another method are mines. Most lightly-armoured vehicles are somewhat susceptible to anti-infantry mines and are, of course, utterly obliterated by anti-tank mines. Though anti-infantry mines contain only small amounts of explosives, it can often be enough to jam the wheels of a tank, or break its track links, pop off a tire or entire axle, and do other minor damage which will essentially cripple the tank and remove it as a threat. Placing minefields in places you suspect the enemy may try to send vehicles -- such as out-of-the-way valleys and chokepoints that he thinks will let him smartly flank your forces -- can do wonders to remove their threat. This also has the added bonus of being able to kill any infantryman who also try to move there (including your own, so watch out!)
Each faction also has dedicated anti-tank infantry, armed with a variety of armour-killing weapons, from the British PIAT, German Panzerfaust, and American Bazooka. These guys can make mincemeat of any lightly-armoured vehicle. Ontop of this, the US and Soviet armies have access to two quite useful units; the American Flamethrower and the Soviet Anti-Tank Rifle. The Flamethrower is quite a spectacular and deadly weapon; its wielder can slowly sneak up close to an enemy vehicle and rain liquid fire down upon it, quickly burning its crew alive. Anti-Tank Rifles, though useless against actual tanks, are still quite capable of penetrating the armour of armoured cars, scout vehicles, halftrack APCs and other lightly-armoured targets, and can do so from much longer range than other all of the other infantry.
You can, of course, try and rush-build a Vehicle Yard of your own, hoping that your anti-vehicle tactics delay the enemy long enough that you can field a real counter in the form of your own combat vehicles.
Cracking that Egg
Some players are notorious "porcers" -- they like to hide behind row upon row of defenses, from minefields to anti-tank guns, field guns and artillery, hoping to blast the foe into absolute oblivion before he can even come into range with his infantry and tanks. Such a tactic can be quite effective, especially for the more attentive players who can pull a "Monty" and advance with alternating lines of artillery; while one line provides covering fire, the other moves up into position and deploys a new forward line, and when it's up and running the rear line can move up and repeat the process. Although it's slow, it can catch a player unaware, and subject him to a brutally slow, highly explosive death.
Artillery is fairly useful against almost any ground unit. With enough artillery shells, you can pummel any tank into a pile of wreckage. So you've got to figure out a way to get past it or destroy it successfully. A frontal attack is pretty much suicide, even with heavy tanks; you may do some damage, but ultimately, unless you have an enormous force of heavy tanks well-supported by Logistics units, you're not going to crack that egg. Here are some other tactics you can try:
1) Flank the line. It's very unlikely that your opponent will be able to provide 360-degree fields of fire to protect himself from attack from any angle. Search for weakspots and exploit them; send fast-moving armoured cars and scout vehicles to penetrate weak points in the line and hit those artillery batteries from behind.
2) Fight fire with fire. If you feel confident about it, you can try to best your enemy at his own game, producing your own lines of artillery. This may or may not work, however, especially if your artillery is shorter ranged than his.
3) Self-Propelled Hit-And-Run. Most factions have some sort of self-propelled long-ranged ordnance, be it self-propelled howitzers, rockets or heavy assault guns. These can be very useful in hit-and-run artillery attacks on your enemy's line. The tactic is simple; probe ahead to try and spot where your enemy's positions are. Once you've spotted them, note them down. Then grab a bunch of self-propelled guns and move them up into firing range quickly, and have them douse the area with shells for awhile. If you start coming under fire, move away, and try from another position. The Soviet Katyusha truck-mounted rockets are exceptionally good at this -- they're able to unleash horrendous amounts of explosive ordnance in a very short period of time, allowing them to do quite a lot of damage and escape unharmed to re-arm and do it again. German Nebelwerfers, although not self-propelled like the Katyusha, can serve the same role, though their deployment time makes this riskier -- they have to take the time to deploy into a firing position, which may give your enemy enough time to spot them and hit them before they can fire. But if you can get some Nebelwerfers into a good position, such as on a flanking hill or protected so that enemy scouts can't get near, then go for it!
Sneak Tactics
Both the British and Soviets have special infantry units which are capable of performing "special operations" behind enemy lines. The British Commando is by far the better. Though small in number, they are quite adept at hiding (so enemy units have to get closer to them to spot them than other units that can "hide"), which makes them great at infiltrating behind enemy lines where they can wreak havoc, destroying supply structures, barracks, vehicle yards, and any other under-defended target.
Partisans, on the other hand, are ridiculously ineffective in your standard combat situation. They're incapable of meeting anyone one-on-one, and usually require 3:1 or better odds to pull off a victory in combat -- and even then they're likely to lose most of their number. They can, however, be an incredibly demoralizing and confusion-sewing tool, thanks to the fact that they are built from hidden Partisan Shacks. A couple of Partisan Shacks built in far-off corners and hard-to-reach territory can spew out large armies of rifle-wielding, molotov-throwing nuisants which can descend upon undefended targets in a horde of badly-aimed shooting and downpours of flaming gasoline.
