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Falcon988

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Everything posted by Falcon988

  1. I'd like to note that when you're on the defense it's great to have a target reference point and place it about 50 - 100 meters infront of the main line of resistance. Medium to heavy caliber artillery will target any attacking formation at a critical moment of the battle and may easily destroy it utterly. This tactic worked wonders for me during a recent Anzio scenario I played TCP/IP.
  2. If you don't have tanks then you may as well retreat. The only way an unsupported infantry force has any hope of breaching a fortified position is if the defenders are low on ammo. But if you're a sadist and you don't care about your men's lives... you'll need high caliber artillery. 120mm, 150mm, etc. Don't even bother trying to "soften up" the defense because artillery is rarely ever effective against entrenched infantry. Get your own men in as close as possible without being in range of the rifles, automatic weapons, and grenades. You'll probably be taking fire from machine guns and mortars but all you can do is keep your men spread out, keep them moving, and soak up the casualties (which, at long range, should be light). The best use for your artillery is -not- to kill teh enemy and destroy their positions, it's to keep them pinned down during your assault. Coordinate your infantry attack with the artillery fire so that your troops are assaulting -while- the bombs are dropping. This is extremely dangerous and prone to friendly fire incidents, but you'll lose less men than you would attacking the trenches while the troops are manning the defenses. This way the enemy keeps their heads down because -nobody-, not even the most seasoned soldiers in any army, is going to keep his head up so he can fire at attacking infantry while 150mm is raining down all over his position. If your men can get in close you'll probably breach the line and once you have that you can outflank their entire defense. In theory at least. What will PROBABLY happen is that your attacking force will be scattered and shot to bits by the defenders artillery. The infantry attack and artillery will not be properly coordinated and the defenders will mow your men down with their automatic weapons. If your troops manage to breach the line they'll probably be forced to retreat by reinforcing enemy troops seeking to close the gap. War sucks like that...
  3. I don't know about zooks, but panzerfausts definately saved a lot of my men in a recent scenario. Basically, they were on a tank column which was ambushed by Americans in some city. Platoon HQ wiped out within seconds by gunfire from a second story building. My infantry disembarked and -immediately and without orders- started firing their fausts into the buildings, over and over and over. These were crack German troops too and I guess they knew what they were doing because they pinned all the Americans and were able to get to cover the next turn having suffered only 1 - 2 casualties in a situation which could have led to the destruction of that whole platoon. Hence I owe their survival to the fausts.
  4. I'll never forget the CMBO operation Villers Bocage. When all my armor was destroyed and the Tigers were advancing on my infantry, the airplanes came out of nowhere at the last minute and blew them up. Greatest feeling ever. But probably the best airstrike I've seen was in CMBB. You all will get a kick out of this I'm sure. During a scenario depicting the battle on the Seelow Heights, my opponent was rushing Russian troops on "pontoons" across the Oder river. So here are hundreds of Russians with 100% exposure, and then comes my four 109's who strafe the hell out of them with their cannons and machine guns. Never saw so many troops going down at the same time. It was beautiful. Of course I still lost the battle, but that probably bought me a lot of much needed time to evacuate most of my army.
  5. Sometimes it's useful for the defender to put up "fake" minefields in order to goad the attacker into going around; thereby setting himself up for an ambush or at the very least into a vulnerable position. Just a thought.
  6. There's not a lot you can do except give the Russians as much hell as you possibly can with what limited AT capabilities you have. Historically the Russians won that battle.
  7. Yep. Withdraw from the map and save as many men as you can. You should only surrender when you're -really- screwed... like cut off, encircled, etc etc...
  8. All right I got one. Germans counterattacked my positions at Anzio on February 16, 1944 and completely smashed through my first line of defense. I mean just obliterated them, causing entire companies of infantry to disappear and never be heard from again. The survivors staggered back to friendly lines and I rushed up reinforcements to fill in the gaps for what amounted to one of the most desperate defensive battles I've ever seen in CM. First the Germans launched a full scale attack on my center, defended by a platoon of U.S. infantry. I managed to strip them of their armor at long range with my own dug in tanks and ATG's, so they resorted to mass human wave assaults. I called in heavy artillery to support, 155mm and 107mm batteries, and hit the attacking Germans with massive fireballs. It was amazing to see an entire attacking formation of enemies -disappear- in the flames. A lot of Germans kept on coming but the remainder were shot up by my troops and they retreated in disarray. Next they pressed my extremely weak right flank, guarded by a platoon, an ATG, and the artillery batteries. This was the scene of the most desperate fighting because if the Germans had broken through there they likely would have won the battle by turning my whole line. Four assault guns and more German infantry than I ever want to see again smashed right into my battered GI's. The Germans bungled their attack though and ended up losing their tanks to my ATG and bazooka fire, so the infantry was left unsupported but they still outnumbered me 5 to 1. Again the 155's and 107's were called down and pumelled the Germans into dust. Nevertheless there was a distinct point of the battle where the Germans entered grenade range and were close to being overrun. So close in fact that a withdrawal order was given and the GI's started falling back. Corporal Grilli on his M1919 machine gun stayed behind and opened up on the Germans, single handedly stopping their attack in conjunction with the artillery. The GI's returned to their positions and the Germans retreated again. After that the threat to Anzio was pretty much over. Anyway, in that battle the Germans took 1006 casualties. My 155mm spotter had 312 kills and my 107mm spotter had 101.
  9. One of my most memorable CM moments is occurring in a PBEM game I'm playing right now in CMAK. At Anzio. The German armor has been destroyed by my ATG's and now their infantry is attacking unsupported. In the center a -huge- force of German infantry is advancing on an American platoon. They will surely be overrun. Artillery is called in and huge shells of 150mm and 107mm are falling less than 50 meters away from the U.S. positions, and giving Jerry hell. It was simply amazing watching this horde of Teutonic warriors coming at me and then disappearing in these huge fireballs. The most amazing thing is that I can still see German infantry advancing through the barrage! It's beautiful I tell you.
  10. These stories are nothing compared to mine. I once had a Tiger in a little urban combat and targeted a Sherman at close range. The Tiger's 88 inexplicably did no damage to the Sherman whereas the little pipsqueak Sherman fired its shell and scored a -front pentration- on the Tiger and -killed it-. They had to pick my jaw up off the floor after that.
  11. There are certain scenarios where it's practically impossible as well. For instance in many Africa battles. Currently I'm playing a scenario where I'm assaulting a trench network in the desert with ground so flat it's like a table. One can literally see from one end of the map to the other. In that kind of terrain it's best for the defenders to fight to the death in the trench because the minute they pull out they'll be killed.
  12. Without smoke it's damn near impossible to withdraw from a defensive position during an attack. You're better off holding your ground than running out into the open. Best bet is to anticipate which positions are weak and withdraw well before a major attack is in progress.
  13. Heh, that's hilarious. Tanks can definately fire through buildings though. On the rare occassion that they can fire through a window and out another window to hit their target. Says so write there in the manual and I've seen it done before. This particular instance is either a glitch or... just chalk it up to crew error :-P. I imagine that's a hard shot and if they screw it up then that house is going to explode and take them out.
  14. I'm unable to load my opponent's PBEM file that he sent me. Whenever I try I hear an "error" beep on the main screen and nothing at all happens. I told him to reload the turn and upload it to me again. In case that doesn't work though, could anybody give me some idea of what could be wrong and how I may fix it?
  15. Yep. Send those engineers around to the back of the pillbox. They'll assault it with demo charges and it'll die. It might take a little while but as long as the red target line is aimed at the pillbox they will assault it. Ham & Jam is one of my favorite ol' scenarios by the way. Those pillboxes sure cut me up the first time I tried it.
  16. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll be sure to look that one up soon.
  17. Has anyone ever made a successful attack with nothing but conscripts? Even if the defenders are conscripts as well, it just seems practically worthless to even try. Ever had a situation where these poor troops exceeded your expectations by a huge margin?
  18. YankeeDog hit the nail on the head. Use your LOS tool to help you narrow down the possible locations of that MG. It won't be sitting out in the open so odds are it's in some scattered trees, woods, a house, something like that. If you look around and see that the only place you're visible from is a cottage way way out there, and you're taking fire, pump a few HE's into that building and watch the gunfire magically disappear. That or just keep moving. You're not likely to take many casualties from long range MG fire, as has been stated. Your biggest enemy is artillery. Keep 'em spread out.
  19. Well, it's not open ground but... Monte Gemmano. I still have nightmares about making that attack. Oh the horror. Damn those Gebirgsjagers... :mad:
  20. Just buy lots of AA guns. They may not seem effective, but they are. Recently I saw my AA guns down four Russian planes in one battle. First time I've ever seen them have any effect. The manual says that whenever a plane goes down you're supposed to hear it or seem some flash or whatnot. I've had Combat Mission since '02 and I don't recall ever seeing that. Has anyone?
  21. Cat & Mouse is a CMAK scenario I played about two months ago and it was really fun. Small scale infantry battle, lots of room to maneuver and strategize. I also liked Petracholi Ridge.
  22. Absolutlely. I played The Wrong Hill about a year and a half ago as the Canadians and had a blast defending that hill PBEM. One of my favorite CMBO scenarios.
  23. That demo battle is very difficult for the Axis since it does require a lot of strategy and know-how on their part. The AI can't manage it, hence why it lost miserably.
  24. I played Our Backs to the Volga in November 2003 and I have nightmares about it to this day.
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