Engaging German Units at Long Range (Or Fighting the Enemies Fight)

[Sublime]

So Im bored, waiting on Schultz to send me back a pbem. Interesting map he modified. Basically is a big map, with several mountains, a few on my side, a few on his. Theres a river crossing VL, and a tall tower keep VL he added for balance, but the river crossing isnt the only crossing. Theres other ways around the river.

In this situation, I have to take advantage of the mountains on my side, for the LOS etc.

Unfortunately, this does play into the Germans strongest suites - accuracy at range, etc etc.

I wanted to hear everyones thoughts on situations like this. I don't want to get too specific about my OOB, but I'll divulge a few nuggets to people.. First its an ME, July 44, normal weather. Daylight.

I plan to put a few ATGs on the mountain tops, along with some binoc equipped units with cover arcs. Also I'm going to rush a few 60mm mortar crews to mountain tops to take out any excellent targets of opportunity, while my slower on board 81s trudge up the mountain. Then my 60s will go back to my soldiers.

Otherwise, Im going to try to run my armor through valleys between the mountains, to try to engage enemy armor and units at the closest possible range. Dont see any other way.

As far as my troops.. I have some paras, and some regular legs. I plan to use my legs to find a good spot to attack, or defend, depending on how the mountain overwatch battle goes, and use my paras to be actual punch to my legs jab.

So.. tactics.. Tips.. interesting tricks? Anyone?

[noob]

A classic rule of thumb is to try and always use a weapon for the role it was designed for, that way you increase the efficiency of it, it might sound obvious but it's amazing how many games i've seen where players ignore this maxim at their cost, with that in mind i always split my infantry squads using the assault button, that way you separate the long and short range weapons, i.e. one half has the Thompson's / MP40's and hand grenades the other the 30cal's/MG42's and rifle grenades, thay way the short range weapons don't get involved in long range fighting and the long range weapons don't remove their advantage by being too close, another thing to consider are rifle grenades, i recently discovered that if you give a red target command at the bottom of the bocage some of the rifle grenades lob over the hedges and land where enemy troops could be gathering, also area fire is something i'm starting to use more often as i've noticed at the end of some battles, to my disgust, that i have still got lots of ammo left which is a waste.

p.s. Definitely try and close the ranges your Sherman's operate at as you already said, the Germans have the advantage with optics, also this is the only time i would ever advocate smoking, use it, it's the "only" time it's good for your health

p.p.s. The Paras have the highest ratio of SMG's to Rifles of all the forces on the Allied side so you have to exploit that if you can.

[Sublime]

So the battles in progress but I placed two 57mm ATG guns on prominent hills. A less prominent hill that had a larger hill with an old medieval keep on it blocks that one from view, and I placed a .50 cal HMG, m1917 HMG, 60mm mortar, and 2 81mm mortars on that hill. My opponent shot smoke over most high points of LOS and overwatch, and send a small Kampfgruppe on Hannomags with Pz IV's in support to rush the hill with the keep. Unluckily for him, the smoke screen was perfect cover for me to drive the ATGs up the hills and deploy, along with MG and mortar support as well. I kept my 2 shermans and priest in the ravines, one of the shermans had sight of a large hill, the other 2 tanks out of sight. And I advanced - paras on my left, (1 company) and legs on the right (one company) Right away, a Pz IV he had on overwatch on a mountain engaged some of myy inf, killing a couple, put the sherman with LOS killed him and he brewed up. Soon Jgd Pz IV's appeared on two other hills, and were engaged by my ATGs. After a couple turns of ineffectual richochets or track damage, one was hit by a bottom lower hull penetration (odd because it was facing at a slight angle the ATG) and then the other was hit with partial penetrations. Lady luck continued to smile by the keep, I ran the sherman 75 up the steep opposite side of the hill from the enemy, and a PZ IV popped up and shot and killed several paras. however the sherman hit him and got a right turret penetration - brew up. Another PZ IV engaged him however, but the shell exploded on the turret. the commander was killed in his hatch, the crew panicked, but retreated alive, and with very little damage, if any. Meanwhile, Schultz had dropped off troops who occupid the keep, and was shuttling his half tracks back to pick up more troops. I hit one with ATG fire, and started shelling the hell out of some approaching inf. by the destroyed Jg PZ on the otherside of the map. Im also mortaring the keep, and some other approach routes. Use of heavy mortars with TRPs has caught a platoon of my paras on the border between them and my leg infantry - with resulting heavy casualties, but the battle seems to be near decided already. Past experience with Schultz shelling the hell out of me with German cannon at range has shown that even though the enemies fight shouldnt be fought, it had to. The only realistic idea I could think of winning was trying to fight him with ATGs, as no tank should try to engage ATGs head on alone. Admittedly the 57mms are a little lacking in punch, but every time I use them Im more and more impressed. Ill repost the battle maps # so people can have a better idea of what Im talking about..