denbushisan

Indirect fire artillary perhaps, but AT guns and short barrel "Infantry" guns are needed pretty much up with the front lines, otherwise they serve no use. AT guns can't stop tanks from overrunning your infantry if they don't have LoS. And in my experience thus far, if my AT guns have LoS to be remotely useful, then enemy FO's seem to be able to spot them and wipe them out with very short mortar volleys. In real life, if on the defensive, one would dig their AT guns into gun pits, cover them with camoflage, etc. In the game we have neither of these options. Other than placing the guns in a wooded area, they are completely exposed. So one tactic that you might use to keep them from getting wiped out by mortars before you ever even see an enemy is to have your gun crews take cover in nearby trenches when you see the ranging shots, but since they can't remount their guns afterward, this tactic is useless. Thus, AT gun crews seem to pretty much be slaughtered within moments of enemy contact, unless you position them so far back behind LoS blocking terrain that they are useless to you. Edit: Every firsthand account I've read of AT gun crews in calibers under 88mm were pretty much right up in the front line trenchworks with the rest of the infantry, usually engaging enemy tanks at very short range. They relied on earthworks and camoflage to keep them concealed and alive until the enemy armor closed in. In offensive engagements they followed a few hundred yards behind the first waves, moving to engage enemy armor as it was encountered by the infantry.

Major issue: Gun crews which abandon their guns, such as to take cover in a trench from artillary/mortar barrages, cannot remount their guns. Lesser Issue: Also, gun crews in general seem to be excessively vulnerable to hostile fire, particularly to artillary fire. A single 1 minute mortar volley of ~6 shells usually seems to wipe out the entire entire gun crew. This is extremely frusturating to me in scenarios where I'm relying on AT guns, especially FlaK 88's, since they can't hardly hide. Their crews are usually wiped out by hidden enemy FO's before I ever spot an enemy.

From what I've observed so far it seems to me that trenches provide rather little cover against small arms or artillery unless the occupants are set to hide and kept prone. Any squad in a trench that I've seen that is exposed to any significant amount of fire is wiped out pretty quickly. A bigger problem is what to do with AT guns, especially vs artillary. The crews of AT guns seem to be wiped out VERY easilly by any artillary strike, and since there is no way to entrench them, this is EXTREMELY annoying to me. I tried having crews abandon their guns and take cover in nearby trenches with the "hide" command until the artillary barrage is over, but much to my dismay, there is no way for them to remount their guns. This is a HUGE oversight in my opinion. BATTLEFRONT, can we PLEASE get a way to have dismounted crews remount their guns, or a way to entrench guns, or a way to camoflage guns, or all three? That would be awsome, otherwise my AT gun crews pretty much get wiped out at the outset of any engagement, particularly when the enemy has artillary/mortars available.