Duck Feet

Hi John, Thanks for your kind words and advice. I've played the mission a couple of times after posting here. The flanking ATG tactics outlined by Wicky, JasonC and yourself were pretty effective at stopping the German armored advance. I decided to experiment with different combinations of ATG arrangements to see what was most effective in killing tanks in this mission... ie setting up groups of 2,3, and 4 guns at key points... and whether to create one massive killzone or several smaller ones.... etc. I also screwed around with different force groupings (Green only, Green/Vet/Reg Mix), to see how they would fare... Most of these engagments resulted in Minor or Total Victory. In only one mission did I even have to employ my KVs as the ATGs usually annihilated the armoured column... I'm looking forward to purchasing the full CMBB game and rolling through from Stalingrad to Berlin!

My first post here, but I'm not entirely a novice with respect to CM. I enjoyed CMBO quite a bit a few years ago, and got to the point where I could beat the comp pretty regularly at +2 opp... I recently tried out the CMBB demo and found the Citadel Schwerpunkt mission quite difficult as the Red Army. After four repeat engagements, the best I have accomplished is a draw. I am hoping for some advice on how to best achieve a victory. I'm sure many are familiar with this map, but I have provided an rough outline below: As a brief primer: In this situation you are tasked with stopping an German Panzer advance in something like company stength (approx 15 tanks)... to do this you hold a dozen 45mm AT guns (mixed force of vets, regs, green), 2 KV-1s, a slew of recoiless rifle teams and four tank hunter squads.... the setup looks like an "assault" situation and you are free to place units over about 70% of the map... you are supposed to hold two positions on the map marked with victory flags... The map itself is roughly a 2500m x 700m rectangle, in which the terrain is generally wide open, with gently rolling hills, and some patchy woods scattered on the sides of the map. For my intial engagement I used the preset defensive positions (3 lines of AT weapons, entrenched on the crests of several hills running perpendicular to the ops axis of advance)... The penetrating ability of the AT guns with tungsten or AP, well.. is pretty poor at any range over 500yds, so decided to set my cover arcs to about 300 yards... oops. When the Panzer IIIs rolled into range of the first guns, most rounds richocheted off and my four AT guns were torn asunder by DF from 15 annoyed PIIIs. The next lines of AT guns proved little better, even though I kept the cover arcs to within 150 meters, most rounds failed to produce lethal hits, though many were penetrating the armour. My KVs, which I had placed in reserve to plug holes in my AT lines were taken out in hull down positions at my main line of defense... My AAR thoughts were: 1. My AT guns are only lethal from point blank range 2. My AT guns and recoiless rifles cannot defeat the Panzer armor from the front... 3. I need to use my KV tanks to manuever into the rear of the Panzer assault... With this info in mind, I set up a layered reverse slope defense. With all the direct fire those tanks can lay out, I wanted to shield my AT guns from multiple directions of fire... so I created three AT concentrations on the opposite sides of the small hills. I placed the guns within 100m of the crest of the slope.. with LOS out to 125-150m... again, I set my cover arcs to 100 meters, so unless the Panzers crested the hill en echelon, they would be taken out piecemeal. I also scattered my recoiless rifles teams around the sides of my AT emplacements to provide a modicum of flank security to my guns but primarily to to get a lucky close-in side or rear shot at a tank should one pass within 30m... Knowing the Panzers would rumble through the center of the map, I placed my KV-1s in a small defilade in the northwest corner that would allow them to remain undetected (los) by the advancing germans... I then hoped to pop up and fire at the rear of the mass of tanks, taking out as many as possible... In the end, my strat worked to slow down the Germans, but not really stop them... One of my forward tank hunter teams scored a hit on a PIII and knocked it out... A forward deployed recoiless rifle team shocked a PIII with a side hit at 22m... but the vicious Germans tore apart my brave comrade with hellish MG fire before he could finish the job... My plan to "hide" my tanks on the flank and get into the rear didn't work.. the KVs gun weren't quite powerful enough to take out the Panzers from the rear, at 300 yards... they both sucummed to ALOT of fire from the gaggle of tanks... My AT defense worked poorly. I knocked out three tanks, but it cost me all twelve of my 45mm AT guns... creating a reverse slope AT defense fire worked well if the tanks came in directly over the hill in an uncoordinated fashion, (which happened on one hill)... but often, three or more Panzers crested simultaneously and at different angles, making concentrated fire on them impossible... I ended up drawing with the computer after 45 turns (when I requested a cease-fire)... strictly because I held some victory flags with a few MGs... but a few more turns and he would have rolled over me... and against a human, I don't think i would have much of a chance... Have others had success with this mission? How would you arrange your forces? Constructive criticism and help appreciated...