Community Strategy Guide

[hcrof]

I think that any attack that can be written up will be a 'special case' just because every battle is different. The above illustration is of a platoon assault so that implies that I decided to close with the enemy (because I judged them to be of low enough strength for the platoon to deal with on its own).

You could just keep area firing a position but you would use a lot of small arms ammo (in short supply in this mission). Equally, if they do manage to bug out they might move to a more dangerous position. By flanking a position they lose much of their defensive advantage and by closing them you are able to gain a decisive victory.

What I could have done, especially if the enemy was infantry in trenches would be to pin them with fire before using mortars or GMG's to destroy the position. Eventually I would still have to close with the position to check that it is clear of enemy but hopefully I would be advancing on a load of dead bodies.

[zwobot]

I think that any attack that can be written up will be a 'special case' just because every battle is different.

True

Haven't you area fired into the objective with your supporting section all the time during your assault to keep them pinned?

[hcrof]

Yes, If the enemy ever put their head up they can start chucking grenades at the assaulting section. That is obviously very bad so the support element gives supressive fire thoughout.

Currently I stop my assault element about 3 squares away from the objective and open fire with everything I have before leapfrogging into grenade range and finishing the job. I then stop the platoon shooting and move the assault element through the objective to make sure everyone is dead and to find cover from which I can defend myself/give cover fire to the trailing elements.

[hcrof]

Well after a focused look at an infantry platoon assault it is time to pull back a bit and look at infantry in general. Remember, I would love people to give their own opinions, AARs, pictures and tactics so please contribute!

The Infantry

Infantry have always been and will continue to be central players in warfare. Infantry are the only part of the military that can take and hold ground and when fighting in built up areas they are by far the most important component of a force.

Infantry are however very vulnerable to just about any threat on the modern battlefield and so they almost always work as a combined team with the other branches of the military. Tanks can help punch holes in enemy lines, artillery can suppress and destroy positions and air assets can remove threats as they appear.

The Attack

• Take out enemy weapons first – It might sound obvious but make sure you take out as many of the enemy positions as you can before the infantry assault. They will have enough to worry about during the attack so make their lives easier for them and soften up the enemy first. This will increase the speed of the attack and result in fewer casualties.
  
• Suppression is Key! – Position machine guns, supporting vehicles or even infantry squads into positions with good fields of fire before the attack. Just before the attack starts, open fire and make sure that anything that could contain troops has bullets going into it. Make sure you have a few guns with no specific targets to engage targets of opportunity though.
  
• Blind the enemy – Taking out spotters and deploying smoke will isolate the position being attacked and prevent the enemy supporting the objective. Smoke can also be useful to screen your advancing infantry until the last minute but make sure that you are able to keep suppressing positions.
  
• Keep a reserve – Eventually an attack can lose momentum, perhaps the unit has taken casualties or has run out of ammunition. An infantry reserve can reinforce success and keep the attack moving by throwing fresh troops into the fray.
  

The Defence

• Avoid obvious positions – Defending troops almost always have a disadvantage in firepower. Even if the defence is very strong, it must be a surprise to the attacker for it to be effective. If the enemy guesses where you men are they will suppress them from a distance with heavy weapons and your troops will be unable to fight. Artillery is the biggest killer here – enough artillery will destroy any position eventually.
  
• Create interlocking fields of fire – If a position is taken out it can create a gap in the defences that the enemy will exploit. If units can support each other than the defences are stronger as these gaps will not appear so quickly.
  
• Don’t bunch your troops up – Bunching your troops up will lead to defeat against a competent opponent. Once the enemy has found out where you are you will be hit by artillery. Bunched up infantry are very vulnerable to indirect fire and casualties will be high.
  
• Consider a mobile defence – Although it cannot be used in every situation, a mobile defence will allow you to seize the initiative from your opponent. A unit can fire from a position and displace before effective fire is returned. The attacking force will take casualties and not be able to ‘pin you down’ so heavy weapons and artillery become less effective. This tactic works best in close terrain with lots of covered routes to safety.
  

The Western and Syrian approaches on how to use infantry are very different. Tactics that are successful with Western forces will fail when they are attempted with Syrian troops. Below is a summary outlining their differences.

Western Forces

Western infantry are incredibly well trained and equipped. This allows them a lot of tactical flexibility and firepower which should pull them through almost any situation the Syrians can throw at them. They can put out effective fire out to 300-400m and their body armour will help protect them against return fire.

Most importantly, their training and cohesion will allow them to push the fight to the enemy even in the direst of circumstances. Where others will be suppressed and broken, they will stand their ground and even attack! This is not to say they are invincible. Unsupported they can be fixed and then ground down by heavy weapons.

Syrian Forces

Syrian infantry is wedded to their fighting vehicles. They cannot operate effectively without them beacuse they need the extra firepower and flexibility. A Syrian infantry squad has a shorter effective range on their assault rifles and worse quality light machine guns integrated into the unit. In addition they do not have the cohesion of the western forces so will quickly break under fire.

Their vehicles are essential because they will transport the infantry safely across the battlefield to a position where the infantry can launch their final assault then support the attack with their guns. This has to be part of a combined arms attack as the vehicles themselves are vulnerable. Because of this, artillery, smoke and tank support are even more important than when using western forces. Any assault will fail without them.

Also, it is best to use larger formations than western forces. A platoon is a unit and must be used together. A platoon however still has to be used as part of a company - they don't have the independence to operate alone. As a rule of thumb, think of a Syrian platoon as a western squad and a Syrian company as a western platoon.

The one advantage the Syrian infantry has over the western ones is the RPG. This weapon is both flexible and powerful, capable of adding huge amounts of organic firepower to a squad in both its anti tank and anti personnel role.

[hcrof]

As above - I am doing this mainly to improve my own skill at CMSF, I am getting my butt kicked right now in a couple of PBEM's

Please add your own tactics/AARs and correct any mistakes I have made, even if you can't do that I would love some more screenshots to illustrate the guide when it comes out.

[zwobot]

In addition to the Syrians: their artillery and mortars are really only useable in pre-planned missions during the setup phase. It easily takes 10 times longer to call in a Syrian fire mission than a BLUE one and they only have a very limited number of spotters whereas virtually any Blue unit is a potential arty/mortar spotter.

[hcrof]

Ah yes, Syrian artillery. Almost worth a couple of pages on its own . You can get it to work but is requires planning and control of the battle. If your opponent has the initiative you are pretty screwed

The lack of target reference points really doesn't help either.

[Atago]

Ah yes, Syrian artillery. Almost worth a couple of pages on its own . You can get it to work but is requires planning and control of the battle. If your opponent has the initiative you are pretty screwed

The lack of target reference points really doesn't help either.

Note - I do not mean this as a jab at the game, just an observation...

The AI seems much more capable of using artillery than I am when playing the Syrian side. I've learned to keep the troops moving and even running to new places when spotting rounds start to fall.

[Ryujin]

Note - I do not mean this as a jab at the game, just an observation...

The AI seems much more capable of using artillery than I am when playing the Syrian side. I've learned to keep the troops moving and even running to new places when spotting rounds start to fall.

The AI FOs seem to immediately jump at any opportunity call in fire, they don't seem to wait for the situation to develop or for high value targets, but this does mean the fire mission is called much earlier than a player might commit artillery. In some cases it's a good idea to copy that mentality and call down a "best guess" fire right away on contact. You can always cancel it if you end up not needing it.

Generally speaking, it seems you should either call it right from the start or use it on static positions or other targets that you can take your time on. Defensively the only tactics I have found to work for me is either call on contact or by somehow getting the enemy to stay in the area long enough to be hit. Either call it down on yourself when they try to over run you or concentrate enough fire so that they have trouble maneuvering out of the kill zone. But you need a good local advantage in troops/cover/firepower to hold them down so the arty can finish them.

Usually I end up using arty more as a scare tactic, players will generally maneuver out of areas where they think they'll be hit, in this way you can flush out a unit to get a quick opportunity to strike or do whatever while they're moving.

[ScubaSam]

Another point on infantry defence - Try to defend in depth if possible. If, for example, you have a single platoon defending an objective, It's inadvisable to place the entire platoon in one straight line, no matter how spread out they may be. A better plan would be to create two forward positions, with a section/squad in each, in line with eachother, about 50m or so apart. Place any MGs you have in these forward trenches/positions, in such a way that they can provide fire right across the "killing zone" to the front of your platoon - in other words, even if an enemy squad was 20m away from right hand trench, your MG should ideally be able to fire across the platoon lines, left to right, and cut them down.

Your third squad/section and HQ units go in a third "fallback" trench, where they can provide cover to the forward positions. If the enemy get too close to a trench, its occupants pop smoke and fall back, while the other forward trench and the HQ/reserve trench put fire into the advancing enemy - this should be enough to break any assault.

MG -----------------------MG

---SQUAD-----------SQUAD--

-----------------------------

-----------------------------

----------SQUAD/HQ---------

That sort of idea Although of course this is, again, an ideal situation where the terrain allows it. If you're in a hurry you may have to settle for 3 squads in a straight line and just sight the MGs across the open ground But the idea is that there's somebody watching your back as you're defending that open ground, which I'm sure is a reassuring thought for the pixeltruppen.

[hcrof]

I have always wondered about infantry defence. What do you do when the faeces hits the fan and the whole platoon is supressed by heavy incoming fire?

How do you avoid the position being hit with everything the enemy has got as soon as you open up on them?

In a modern defence it seems to me that once the AT defences have been cleared the battle is lost

[lomir]

Hi hcrof,

How do you avoid the position being hit with everything the enemy has got as soon as you open up on them?

It's obvious: don't let the enemy happily concentrate too many weapons against one position at a given time. But if they do such a thing, it doesn't mean that it's tactically wise for them to do so. Situation dictates.

If a whole platoon is supressed by heavy incoming fire, the platoon must be prepared to engage during the enemy's suppression despite this threat fire, otherwise the enemy could draw close to decisive engagement without having taken significant losses. That's the ideal situation. If the platoon is not totally supressed (when you have all of them huging their knees, praying in the bottom of a trench and you can't give them a movement order), and you think that this platoon will be soundly defeated where is currently staying, here may come a point in the battle where evacuation of that position is necessary and it's time to pop smoke and move back to the next set of Battle Positions. You must ensure that in addition to the primary fighting positions, you also have a series of alternate and supplementary positions. As the platoon withdraws, its move is covered by the other platoons (the move is overwatched). Remember to always have as many mutually and interlocking supporting direct fires as possible.

Eventually, you will probably reach the point where you will have to commit the reserve to counterattack by fire. A counterattack by fire is executed to destroy the enemy's exposed threat elements and free your decisively engaged elements. Usually a company team/group executes a counterattack by fire with one element moving on a concealed route to firing positions from which it can engage the enemy threat in the flank and/or rear, while another element (the base-of-fire/overwatch element) continues to engage. The manoeuvre element must move rapidly to its firing position to complete the counterattack before possible enemy's follow-on forces can be brought forward. In real life (or if you play H2H), smoke may be used to deceive the enemy threat. Deception is achieved by placing smoke on the manoeuvre element's previous positions to simulate disengagement, on the flank opposite the counterattack to deceive the threat as to location of the counterattack, or along the counterattack route. Playing against the AI, only use smoke support to screen the movement of your forces.

Once the counterattack by fire is complete, the company team/group continues the defense against the enemy's follow-on forces from the team/group's initial or current positions. The base of fire element may move forward to assist the manoeuvre element and smoke may be called to mask the occupation of the counterattack by fire position from enemy observation, or the manoeuvre element may rejoin the base of fire element on the Battle Position from which the counterattack was launched.

If the enemy is able to press the attack, fires may also be called on the recently evacuated Battle Positions as the enemy arrives on the location. Artillery fire support, when available, must be oriented on those terrain features which may be occupied by enemy forces.

If you have to counterattack by fire using a company team/group to disengage more than one platoon that's being supressed at the same time, when possible, the most engaged platoon should be disengaged last so that overmatching platoons can move to favorable positions to support its disengagement by fire. And you should have one or more platoons overwatching the disengaging platoons.

(A disengagement is breaking contact with the enemy and moving where the enemy can neither see nor engage the unit).

In a modern defence it seems to me that once the AT defences have been cleared the battle is lost.

If for AT defenses you mean the ATGMs, it's not lost yet. If you are using the broad meaning for all the AT resources: ATGMs and short-range AT weapons, such as rocket launchers; but also tanks and IFVs, and there isn't artillery support and/or air assets available... well, of course yes, it is. Soldiers with hand grenades and rifles won't be able to win the aboveground battle against the enemy armour. Another thing is the number of casualties they could still stubbornly inflict to the enemy infantry in the underground battle, but in modern warfare the enemy will be wise enough to heavily suppress with all their assets these troops before commiting their infantry into the underground battle, so there isn't any chance for you to win that battle. Nonetheless, again situation dictates: infantry with just RPGs defending in urban terrain (think of Grozny where there wasn't a real need of long range ATGMs), making some clever AT ambushes... and say goodbye to your armour. You'll win the battle.

I hope it has been useful.

Cheers,

Lomir

[hcrof]

Thanks for the lengthy reply - I am certainly going to try it out!

You mention smoke a lot. I am beginning to use it more and more in offense, I shall have to use it more often in defence. I just wish we got more of it!

[Chainsaw]

thats just the problem, you never have enough Smoke...

[zwobot]

Yes good post lomir. But I'm not sure if it is really feasible to full extent in the game. For example:

You must ensure that in addition to the primary fighting positions, you also have a series of alternate and supplementary positions. As the platoon withdraws, its move is covered by the other platoons (the move is overwatched). Remember to always have as many mutually and interlocking supporting direct fires as possible.

I always struggle to find alternate positions let alone supplementary ones on the map. In a built up area this is less of an issue but then you still have very limited lines of sight so it's kinda hard to find positions for your squads/platoons from which they can cover each other. Well MOUT/FISH is a completely different difficulty level than a defense in open ground but still I find it hard to find positions which can support each other.

Your counterattack by fire makes sense in theory to me but in my experience once a Syrian squad (most scenarios have the Syrians as the defenders, I can't think of a scenario in which the Syrians are actually on the attack) receives incoming or even becomes pinned it is virtually impossible to pull them out to a different position and break contact. Especially in built up areas where the engagement range is very close, squads take heavy casualties and become combat ineffective before they can break contact.

Well this is only my opinion and you must know that I am not particularly successful in this game (at least not in PBEM; I haven't achieved more than a minor victory in any CM PBEM game). I think I just want to have more in depth and illustrated examples of real situations from inside the game...

[hcrof]

I think that what lomir described is a bit ambitious for a regular Syrian unit but Airborne or special forces could probably pull it off. I wrote a piece on a Soviet style defence a while back but at company level it is very simple. Essentially sit and wait for a freindly counter attack. With low quality lower leadership and poor quality troops it is probably all you could hope for.

I'll dig it out if anyone is interested, it has a couple of diagrams and pictures.

[Wengart]

I wouldn't mind seeing it, if it isn't too much trouble.

On another note, I tried the defense in depth. With a company sized force of Syrian Militia vs. combatants. The results were good, I was able to disengage and severely damage them at first contact. However, I lost nearly 4 squads to broken morale while pulling back. And, in the end I was overwhelmed by lack of ammo, and will to fight on the part of my militia.

So in the case of the usual Syrian force defense in depth my require too much veterancy to pull off effectively. Although, a static defense in depth is better than a single line.

But, personally, I prefer to go with a more guerrilla fighting style. 5 second burst of fire followed getting the hell out of dodge. It not only preserves your force, but it slows down the blue player and you can even inflict some casualties.

[zwobot]

However, I lost nearly 4 squads to broken morale while pulling back. And, in the end I was overwhelmed by lack of ammo, and will to fight on the part of my militia.

That's what I meant. The Syrian Reserve Infantry is not very durable. I assume the Special Forces are better but I've never played a scenario with those yet.

But, personally, I prefer to go with a more guerrilla fighting style. 5 second burst of fire followed getting the hell out of dodge. It not only preserves your force, but it slows down the blue player and you can even inflict some casualties.

I try to do this too but it is hard to execute in PBEM WeGo games. Depends on your opponent's timing to come into your LOF - and stay there, if it is too far away from the end or beginning of the turn it is likely that your squad will be shot to pieces by enemy overwatch elements.

I'm going to try a mixture of the defence in depth, counterattack by fire and the guerrilla approach in my next H2H scenario.

[hcrof]

The soviet defence is based on a series of strongpoints and mobile reserves. It is seen as a temporary measure before an armoured offensive however so they didn't allocate a lot of training time to it.

The first thing to mention is that the Soviet (and likely the Syrian) junior leadership is not very effective. The Soviets knew this so endeavoured to keep as many decisions away from them as possible – leaving most of the command to the highly competent division/corps level staff (or higher if possible!). Because of this, a Soviet infantry company in the main line of resistance (MLR) is only expected to dig in and wait for relief. They will not retreat, even if they are about to be surrounded and so they will be prepared for a 360o defence.

The other thing, before I get into the set-up itself is that they will be screened by platoon sized forward outposts 1-2km ahead of the lines and by forward positions 3-5km in front whose job it is to observe the enemy, call down artillery fire and convince the enemy that they are the MLR. This means that hopefully the enemy will deploy early and conduct artillery/air strikes against very minor targets. They will then be vulnerable as they move forward under the defenders artillery fire.

Below is a bad drawing of a battalion defence but we can use it a a reference:

As you can see, a tank platoon is very often integrated into the company strongpoint to beef up its AT capability. Tank battalions are integral to a motor rifle division and the mantra of combined arms is often applied down to company level with a platoon of tanks attached for both offence and defence.

In this position, the BMP's/BTR's are integrated into the platoons but as seen above, this is not always the case and sometimes they can be used in a nearby fighting position.

Units above squad level are arranged in a line or a V (2 forwards/1 back or 1 forwards/2 back) depending on the terrain or orders from higher up and fights as a stongpoint. Frontages are usually around 5000m for a battalion, 1000-2000m for a company and around 500m for a platoon (50-60m per squad with 100m spacings)

The diagram below shows the anti tank capability of a late 70's Motor rifle battalion. It can be seen that there are overlapping fields of fire throughout the approach and AT weapons are expected to open fire at maximum range in order to slow the momentum of the attack down. (the dark areas are covered by RPG-7's)

The setup is designed so that when attacking tanks attempt to engage or avoid fire from one AT weapon, it exposes its flanks to another one. Minefields and obstacles are also used at all ranges to attempt to turn the enemy or to force them into killzones though this is probably not effective in the scale of a CMSF battle as the ranges are too short.

Although this is a Soviet defence it was used by Egyptians in the 1973 war and the Syrians certainly had Soviet advisor's until the end of the Soviet union. They have undoubtedly changed since but it is good to know the origins of their military theory.

[hcrof]

The defence described above doesn't work too well in CMSF - there are no target reference points which are pretty vital for the Syrians. Ranges are too short to use ATGM's to their full potential, there is no engineering game, you can't camoflage positions (especially AFV positions), the list goes on

I think therefore that this defence, although interesting should be adapted to fit the game but I would be interested to hear what people think.

[zwobot]

I really miss Target Reference Points too. Did anyone ever make a request to get those into the game? I'm afraid we won't be seeing TRPs introduced in the NATO module.

Maybe someone should start a thread about it...

[lomir]

Aren't Target Reference Points a feature of landscape (the only standing tree of that field, around 500 m. away, for example)? :confused:

An image for today:

Remember not to crowd together your troops. Or remember not to park your APC in a antipersonnel minefield

Another thing. Probably it has been discussed before but I couldn't find it. In an uncrewed APC (I've seen it with a Bulldog) you can make your troops enter and adquire things, good, but although you can give an "open up" order and one chap will pop up to man the 7,62mm, he can't shoot with it... It doesn't make any sense. Bug?

Cheers,

Lomir

[zwobot]

Game mechanics wise Target Reference Points (TRP) are points on the map on which the player can call fire missions almost instantly. In CMx1 those points could be "bought" like normal units and then be placed freely by the player in the setup phase.

[Ryujin]

Aren't Target Reference Points a feature of landscape (the only standing tree of that field, around 500 m. away, for example)? :confused:

A TRP is a precalculated and registered target for artillery. So you can call up the big guns and they have everything ready to go, no spotting or calculating necessary. You get very fast and hopefully accurate artillery. It doesn't have to be a visual landmark, but it may be key terrain or such.

[lomir]

thanks for the answers! I guess that TRPs might be especially useful for the Syrians...