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BATTLE DRILL - A CM Tactics Blog


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Good point about attacking on a broad front. When I started playing, I would try to find a place to smash through the front line and go straight for the victory location.

 

By doing that, I maximised the enemy fire on my flanks and minimised the amount of fire I could return. By going wide front, you can use gains made in one area to support troops having a harder time, and then later vice versa.

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Good point about attacking on a broad front. When I started playing, I would try to find a place to smash through the front line and go straight for the victory location.

By doing that, I maximised the enemy fire on my flanks and minimised the amount of fire I could return. By going wide front, you can use gains made in one area to support troops having a harder time, and then later vice versa.

Bulletpoint, yes you've got the idea. When you spread the enemy defense and probe from many directions you also eventually discover where he is weak and can then concentrate your reserve against that spot. During this process the other probes must keep the pressure on so the enemy cannot easily pull units off the line to reinforce the threatened zone. Once you start your push its going to become bloody obvious where you are striking. The hope is that you can overwhelm the enemy at that point before the opportunity is gone. You have to be prepared to make the decision quickly, as any delay will allow your opponent to react.

Point is that you cannot make the decision on where to strike without some knowledge of where the enemy is, well you can, but your chances of success are much lower if you plan an attack without reconnoitering the area first.

Edited by Bil Hardenberger
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Bulletpoint, I added your comment and my response to the Blog post, hope you don't mind.

 

 

I don't mind at all. Happy that it was worth posting. My comment was actually only based on my experience with the single player missions and quick battles, where I don't need to worry about the enemy reacting to what I do. I imagine it would hold even more true against a human opponent.

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Actually now that I think about it, I realise some things. Maybe banal stuff to some of you, but I never thought about it before now. My idea was always to penetrate the enemy front line to flank him and roll up his layers of defense from the sides. Like getting the crowbar in between the planks. But I forgot something:

 

"Short range flanking good. Long range flanking bad".

 

Why? Because of spotting. If you flank an enemy 50-100 metres away, your riflemen have a good chance of spotting the enemy fast, and then also be close enough to hit and kill him.

 

But if you're 500 metres away, you have a big spotting disadvantage, because all infantry spotting decreases rapidly with range, but you will be the one moving, whereas the enemy infantry is just sitting still. And when the enemy spots you, he will already have his machineguns set up, which means you will likely lose fire superiority pretty fast. Also, making a deep punch, you have your guys basically advancing in a long line, exposing themselves to fire one at a time. You're setting yourself up weak against strong.

 

Same goes with tanks. When you move armour into a deep wedge, you open yourself up to potential fire from a lot of positions that your infantry haven't been able to clear. A moving tank is extremely easy to spot, a stationary AT gun is almost impossible to detect. Not to mention that we all know tank armour is thinner on the sides.

 

Actually, I never understood why tanks were used in breakthrough roles. I suppose the armoured column would have had screening forces on the flanks.

Edited by Bulletpoint
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Actually, I never understood why tanks were used in breakthrough roles. I suppose the armoured column would have had screening forces on the flanks.

 

Operationally a fast moving armored formation is hard to withstand, if they pick the breakthrough point correctly there could be little to stop them.  Once moving fast and once they have broken through their speed is their protection and they can disregard their flanks.  Look at Rommel's 7th Pz Division in the Battle of France for an example... in WW1, the breakthrough attack by Whippet tanks during the Amiens offensive is another...

Edited by Bil Hardenberger
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Once you're past the front lines, the armour doesn't have to worry much about ATGs. "Breakthrough" is an operational scale term, really, and not what you do on a CM battlefield. You might "break their line" or "turn their flank", but "breakthrough" is the units that exit off your opposite map edge because the scenario gives you points for that. Once they've "broken through", the reason tanks are so useful is because they can operate with relative impunity and move rapidly across country. They only have to worry about armoured counterattacks and running out of fuel.

 

Which is why "defense in depth" is such an important concept: to  make those "breakthrough" forces have to worry about running into another layer of defense that can deal with tanks... But it still isn't really a breakthrough until the tanks are past all that stuff and romping around in the enemy rear*.

 

* Ooo! Matron!

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Funny, as I just read the AAR that post is based on. Great tactical info, Bil, thanks for continuing to update your site, this stuff is amazing. I've pointed friends to it who are learning CM as it's the best place to learn how to use real tactics and to use them in the game. 

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First of my series on Tank Tacitcs is posted on the Blog.  First up, I am calling this one the Mouse Trap

 

Enjoy!

 

Just used this tonight with a modicum of success in a H2H; pushed two Stuarts up guns blazing then pulled them back. The reacting StuG exposed its side armor to a 3rd Stuart when it turned to meet the noisy threat. 

 

I definitely recommend this for close-quarters engagements, or any situation where you have a local superiority in tanks.

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Just used this tonight with a modicum of success in a H2H; pushed two Stuarts up guns blazing then pulled them back. The reacting StuG exposed its side armor to a 3rd Stuart when it turned to meet the noisy threat. 

 

I definitely recommend this for close-quarters engagements, or any situation where you have a local superiority in tanks.

 

Thanks for that, its always great to hear when you have success with these techniques.  :)

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As first step in assault games, I usually take long time to determine good spots for heavy weapons and FOs, that enable not just general overwatching, but also screening flanks beside the point of main effort, from further back. That´s an ongoing process during each step of an assault and before actual movement toward intermediate objectives. I like to use the HMG section HQs and any spared HQs with 1-2 binocs to recon the possibly good observation/overwatch points in no mans land and keep them nearby the assaulting troops. Reserve HMG, mortars and FOs follow in good cover and move "silently" into combat positions, once I ascertained with the HQ recon troops, that these new positions have useful LOS/LOF. If TRPs are available in the game, I also spare the majority of them for screening flanks beside the PME. It takes lots of patience to find and get support weapons to best positions, before moving assault troops any further. All that if terrain and available cover allows any such screening and overwatch methods. In dense terrain there´s not much choice, beside moving all support weapons with the assault troops. Quick reaction possibility then is more important, than careful reconnaissance, the more if the attacker is hurried due to short mission length times. More time then also needs to be spent beforehand to find the best spots for TRP beside the main attack route.

Another point in CM battles is that these are isolated battles, that are taken out of a bigger frame. Usually there could be supporting attacks in the area just outside the map area (the flanks), or pinning forces. These could be just those troops that neutralize those enemy that is badly flanking the attackers movements and such. So a mission designer needs taking that invisible outside area into consideration as well, when setting up defending forces, as well as map and force sizes. Not much of concern for QB or freeform H2H engagements, but when playing a halfway historical pre set mission, I´d like things like that reflected both in mission briefing, as well as map size and force setup, so I don´t get the feel, my troops are the only ones battling along a ten miles frontline. Something is always going on at the (outside map area) flanks and has some effect on the actual battle.

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One significant problem with setting up with "good LOS' is that often once the game starts those "good LOS" positions no longer provide good LOS.  I know that it's been discussed many times b4.  But, often "what you see is NOT what you get". 

 

One learns to ignore the problem.  But, when I read "I usually take long time to determine good spots for heavy weapons and FOs, that enable not just general overwatching...  use the HMG section HQs and any spared HQs with 1-2 binocs to recon the possibly good observation/overwatch points..." etc.it reminds me all over again that one cannot depend on getting LOS by eyeballing from level 1 or from waypoints.  I would say it's closer to 50:50 that one can see what one thinks one will be able to see.

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One significant problem with setting up with "good LOS' is that often once the game starts those "good LOS" positions no longer provide good LOS. I know that it's been discussed many times b4. But, often "what you see is NOT what you get".

One learns to ignore the problem. But, when I read "I usually take long time to determine good spots for heavy weapons and FOs, that enable not just general overwatching... use the HMG section HQs and any spared HQs with 1-2 binocs to recon the possibly good observation/overwatch points..." etc.it reminds me all over again that one cannot depend on getting LOS by eyeballing from level 1 or from waypoints. I would say it's closer to 50:50 that one can see what one thinks one will be able to see.

Did you read the posts about LOS issues due to time passing during setup?

Apart from that issue, view height level one is not at human eye level.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just posted: The Deep Attack

 

Excerpt:

 

The Deep Attack

Attacking deep in the Combat Mission games potentially can have a huge impact on the tempo of operations, the psyche of your opponent and can dramatically change the outlook of a battle and the fortunes of both players.

 

This movement will include both a change in tactical tempo and hopefully, an increase in violent execution. 

 

You are hitting the accelerator in order to hopefully catch your opponent off guard and cause him to react and perhaps make a mistake.  You want your opponent to be saying something like, “OH $HIT!!” and start to scramble to deal with the threat.  Breaking the linear battle line by attacking into the depth of the enemy zone can change the battle from a close run thing to a run away.

 

Enjoy!

Edited by Bil Hardenberger
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Bil, thank you again for another great addition to your site. I did have a question:

You indicated that you don't see Deep Attack from the Soviet interpretation, and in fact penetration of enemy lines is not necessarily the desired outcome. I see that in the Eye of the Elephant AAR, but in the CMRT AAR I feel as if you're doing exactly what you say you don't want to - you're penetrating the enemy lines and it's far far more than diversionary, it becomes an exploit and drive straight for the objective.

I do not doubt you, your logic or tactics, so I'm not splitting hairs, I'm trying to understand the distinction you make with Deep Attacks from merely penetration of enemy lines and rapid exploitation of the gap that follows.

Edited by Bud_B
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Bud, the circumstances in the CMRT AAR game were unique. Of course the depth of the Deep Attack is going to depend on the situation and what the enemy gives you. Though penetration of the enemy line is not the ultimate goal, it cannot be discounted either if the possibility exists. Drive as deep as you can and still feel relatively secure. Though it isn't necessary to penetrate the enemy line for a Deep Attack to be effective, if the possibility exists then why not take the chance?

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Bud, the circumstances in the CMRT AAR game were unique. Of course the depth of the Deep Attack is going to depend on the situation and what the enemy gives you. Though penetration of the enemy line is not the ultimate goal, it cannot be discounted either if the possibility exists. Drive as deep as you can and still feel relatively secure. Though it isn't necessary to penetrate the enemy line for a Deep Attack to be effective, if the possibility exists then why not take the chance?

Yes, that makes perfect sense. It would be...peculiar...to drive only partway when you're not encountering resistance. Thanks Bil!

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