Manual Woes
V for Victory's manuals are a bit daunting.  With no index they offer a veritable gulf of information presented in an inscrutable mass at which even the most die-hard gamers balk.  The following column, then, will include some material from the manuals - condensed and clarified.

Scenarios vs.  Campaign Games
The scenarios are extremely fun, though many cannot be won by one side or the other given equal opponent skill and historical settings.  Playing the Germans in Utah Beach's Mopping Up scenario is an exercise in humility.  Each campaign game, however, tends to be fairly well balanced - with Market Garden presenting some of the most difficult challenges of any computer game.  Playing a campaign game allows for a scope not possible in scenarios and also creates opportunities for divisions in hopeless situations to dig in and wait for reinforcements.

In the campaign game, then, don't be afraid to simply have a division sit and wait for other divisions to come rescue them from an impossible situation.  Furthermore, in the campaign game, one must always remember that after one battle (scenario) has been won, your troops must move on to fight another - it's quite possible to loose a campaign game after a few pyrric victories in the early stages because too high a price has been paid for those early victories.

Supplies
Supplies are critical in V for Victory - as they were in World War II.  One easy way to make sure that each unit is supplied is to select the Show Supply Lines command. (Green means the unit is supplied, yellow indicates that their supplies are depreciated, and red shows a unit's supplies have been exhausted.)

Another way to manage supplies - and battle management in general - is to issue orders for each separate HQ during the planning phase.  Using the HQ command bar, alternately show each separate HQ by clicking the Show This HQ button.  With each HQ's units shown without the others it is possible to issue orders so that each unit stays close to its HQ - and thus stays in supply.

One way to hinder your opponent's supplies (and a tactic seldom used by even seasoned players) is to designate air, naval, and artillery attacks on supplies lines and HQ's rather than on the more obvious targets that the enemy units present.

Allocating supplies always depends on the amounts available and tactical conditions.  Using "defensive" supply levels for divisions in the rear (or those in movement) allows one to conserve for (hopefully) brief bursts of "attack" supply levels for other divisions.  Leaving one's supply levels on "general" for an entire game mitigates an army's effectiveness and may lead to defeat.  Armies perform well when supplied at "attack" levels but no army has access to unlimited supplies.

A note: many scenarios and campaigns begin with many divisions supplied defensively.  Be sure to deliberately decide your supply levels for the first turn.

One way to get a feel for the supply demands in any given scenario or game is to play quickly once, ignoring all elements of the battle save for supply, and experiment to see how the supply load plays out thought the battle.  This creates a condition WW II generals never had (until too late) - future hindsight.

Last, supply issues become tactical targets in-and-of-themselves, beyond mission (or victory) objectives.  If the opportunity presents itself to overrun an opponent's HQ unit, it is almost always advantageous to do so - it weakens an enemy substantially while bolstering your own forces.

Artillery, Air Strikes, and Naval Strikes
There are two camps of players here: one advocates offensive support where enemy units are attacked with these three types of long-range bombardments, and the second camp favors the use of long-range weapons for weakening supplies and hindering enemy movement.  Both are "right."  A delicate balance must be achieved: if a player too much uses support for offense he or she leaves an enemy free to move and supply its units; however, if support only focuses on interdiction a player may leave his or her units too much alone in their attacks.  This balance depends on the hour-by-hour decisions each player must make.

There are, however, some guidelines that may be used to increase the effectiveness of artillery and ground support.

When possible, move artillery units only at night and only during one turn (or they may become overly fatigued).  By moving artillery at night one maximizes the effective window of daylight for artillery attacks.

When possible, concentrate artillery attacks.  More is better.  Spreading artillery attacks over a wide range of targets will, at best, interdict supplies; however, it is most effective (especially when conducting an assault) to combine several units' attacks to one target area.

Sustained artillery bombardment of one area is sometimes called for.  Example: shelling a particularly vulnerable link in a supply chain throughout an entire battle can sometimes reduce crack troops to uselessness.  One effective way to maintain bombardment constantly (even through nights) while avoiding the worst penalties of fatigue is to use two artillery units in conjunction.  Units alternate each turn - one resting while the other fires.

A unit in trouble will benefit from defensive artillery support and may even be allowed to retreat from a near-hopeless position.

Requesting too many ground support (air strikes) attacks will only reduce the overall percentage of any attack occurring.  Request few, but necessary attacks.  Be sure not to request air strikes near your front-line troops.  WW II pilots often mistook friendly troops for targets.  Choose the most effective planes for your plans - interdiction or attack.  Last, plan ahead and set your planes for the appropriate level of interdiction for any given day (at the bottom of the calendar window).

Terrain
Entire treatises have been written on the effects of terrain on combat, from Sun Tsu to Schwartzkopf.  It all boils down to this: it's better to attack downhill and better to defend from a forest on a hilltop.  It is a grave mistake to ignore terrain in V for Victory.  For example, often a head-on attack across a dike or up a hill seems easiest while often moving troops around to a more advantageous front would be too time consuming.  While obviously dependent on a variety of factors, moving troops to a better position almost always will reward those players who are patient enough to do so.  Incurring heavy casualties in a head-on attack may win an objective but what will be left to hold or move on from that objective?  There's a reason Jackson was nicknamed "Stonewall."

One effective tactic with the computer and some human players: when an attack is imminent and one's opponent occupies a stronger terrain position, set your units to "retreat if attacked."  This will cause one's units to fall back quickly and may prompt an opponent to advance - down from the advantage they held and potentially into an area surrounded by your troops.

Another way to deal with troops entrenched in strong positions is to ignore them, flank them, overrun their supplies, and accept their surrender later in the game.

Bridges
When motorized units have only one option for movement, choosing one's terrain becomes a luxury that, at times, cannot be afforded.  To quote Robert Redford's character: the best way to take a bridge is "both ends at once."  Try to get some infantry units across the river and at least engage troops on the other side.

Remember where Engineer units are.  Don't waste them in combat.  Allow them to form bridges and fords for troops capable of using Engineer-constructed crossings.  Using Engineers effectively will allow a player to move troops across a river in a nondescript area, after which those troops can flank enemies holding a bridge from the rear.

Fatigue
One tactic effective in head-on attacks (common when taking bridges) has fresh troops rotating in for tired troops.  Don't force one stack of units to take the brunt of an assault.  It is better to fatigue many troops than to throw a few exhausted troops against a large foe.  Tired troops will lose more than rested troops - by forcing one stack of units to take the brunt of an attack one will lose more than if the demands are spread more evenly.  And forces will recover more quickly if only moderately fatigued.

Allow your troops to rest as much as a battle will allow.  Any given unit will have a series of battles to fight and movement to make.

Companies and Zones-of-Control
Zones-of-Control are critical for movement and supply.  Moral is increased in one's own ZOC and when attacking into one's own ZOC your troops will gain a bonus.  Similarly, when attacking into an enemy's ZOC, your troops will be penalized.

Companies (units with slashes across their lower right corners) are largely useless in direct attacks but can be extremely well used to establish ZOC's and bolster adjacent troops attacking or defending.

Companies, placed strategically along a long supply line, can also help to insure that front-line troops remain supplied.

Last, companies can hold minor victory objectives while other more effective combat units move on.
