Taking on Trenches

[black_prince]

I'm looking for advice on how to clear trench networks with infantry when it isn't possible to hit them with endless linear target missions.

I tend to find that if I have my team inside the trench they become vulnerable due to being bunched up and unable to bring alot of fire to bear whereas a fire team outside the trench is very exposed. I have been trying to use one fire team inside the trench and others 'up top' along with area fire on other parts of the trench network from MGs but I'm still taking alot of casualties.

Does anyone one know the proper way to do this? Thanks.

[Sakai007]

I actually had this assigned to me as a tactical problem while in OSUT at Ft. Benning. I was not shy about letting people know about my shooting and wargaming back ground. Well, they put me to the test one day, and wanted me to wargame out an assault on a trench network. I failed in an epic way, choosing to assault the trenches head on after an arty and mortar fire mission with all the 240B's the weapons platoon could muster. Afterward, the Company CO showed me why I had failed (VMI grad even, a good and fair man IMO) You just can't assault a trench from the front, no matter what kind of support you have, in the modern warfare era. If there are even six or seven men in that trench still alive with assault rifles and maybe an RPK you will suffer horrible casualties. Besides, trenches protect men very well from indirect fire, unless your rounds land IN the trench, it's a no go.

The way I was taught, and the way I TRY to go about it in game, is to assault the trench from it's flanks. If you are advancing and meet a fortified line, STOP!!! LoL! Use the forces at the front to provide suppressing fire so the other elements of your unit can pull back some out of danger. Get any heavy weapons you have, grenade launchers, machine guns, maybe an IFV if you have one and enemy AT fire is light or ineffective. This allows you to move your forces around to the flanks of the enemy position. It is important to keep the fire on the defenses, as we don't want the enemy to shift his forces as you redeploy. If the next spot you advance on is to strongly defended, attempt to pull back and try another spot. With luck, he will reinforce that spot while you strike elsewhere. If you can find an honest to god 'flank' of a trench line, this is where you strike. Once in the trench system, it's a slow process of clearing the surrounding trenches to open a route to your rear so reinforcements can come up to carry the fight through the rest of the defensive line.

It is all summed up in the old saying, Find em, Fix em, Flank em, and Finish em!!!

Granted, casualties are going to happen in a battle. But sound tactical reasoning can really minimize the losses. As I play more and more CMx2 campaigns the notion of preserving forces for the next mission becomes even more pressing.

ALSO - Almost forgot this, and that's not good at all, being sneaky can help a lot too. If you can stay in some sort of defilade you can close to grenade range in before being spotted, use it!!! Your route to the expected point of contact should be executed like any other movement to contact. Scouts out front, squads in formation within the platoon, platoons in formation within the company. As they say, your forces should flow like water does. The low lands will conceal you from observation, and the closer you are the more effective your weapons will be when you open up on his trench line. This is vital in CM:A as both the Muj and Soviet weapons are pretty much crap at range. The enfield .303 being one notable exception. This isn't like in CMSF where the closer you are to the enemy, the more effective THEIR weapons are. Get close, and kill the crap out of them!!!

[black_prince]

Many thanks for the above reply. I will certainly take it on board. I already try to concentrate on the flanks but once I'm inside the trench things tend to get very bloody indeed. There always seems to be that one fighter who isn't spotted until there's a grenade flying through the air towards your men. Perhaps I have to accept that that is the nature of fighting at close quarters and expect casualties.

[Vark]

Can you give an area fire command for grenades? Most historical trench assaults used prodigious/speculative use of them, let the fragments spot the rebel!

[Vark]

Apart from the lack of laser pointers and beacons I think Soviet tactics would be very similar.

http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/EIB/EIB_Related_Battle_Drills/battle-drill-7-enterclear.shtml

Lone sentry on German use of trenches: extract is from Soviet assault techniques

"

SOVIET OFFENSIVE TACTICS

In trench warfare Soviet officers emphasize the importance of reconnaissance, aggressive attacks rapidly followed through, and concentration of fire on vital points. Their views are summarized herewith:

The account of the structure of German defenses makes clear how important it is for the attacking side to maintain adequate reconnaissance. The attacker must know in advance the structure of the enemy's defenses and discover its vulnerable points. Among such points are the firing positions of artillery and heavy infantry support weapons, the areas of tactical reserve concentrations, the command posts, and the main communication centers leading from the centers of resistance and switch positions to the trenches.

Attacking troops must take into account the enemy's tactics, to meet his tricks with their own devices. Before infantry goes into action, artillery must concentrate its blows on the areas where the enemy's most important firing positions are located. Artillery and mortar fire, and infantry and tank attacks, must be so directed as to paralyze the defense, disrupt it into isolated parts, and effect a break-through in the entire depth.

Of particular importance is the fight against German artillery observers located in first-line trenches. To eliminate enemy observation points must be the task of artillery, infantry, and particularly of snipers.

Combat experience has demonstrated that best results are attained by attacking trench sectors where communications trenches connect with the first trench line. In such cases Soviet troops, after capturing the first trench, spread through the communication trenches to the second and third line, disrupting the entire defense system and destroying its defenders in hand-to-hand combat.

Rapid and decisive action is essential to success. The enemy must be prevented from retreating and erecting a defense at the junction of communication trenches and the first trench line. These areas should be attacked immediately by infantry using large quantities of hand grenades. While fighting is going on in the first trench line, artillery and mortars direct their fire upon the second trench, aiming particularly at the intersection points of the communication and main trenches in order to disrupt reserve formations and prevent a counterattack.

In attacking enemy positions, infantry should never stop at the first line of trenches but should break through to the enemy's main positions. Experience has shown that it is important to assign small groups to exterminate German machine gunners stationed at the first line of trenches—ordinarily in flanking positions and at angles of trenches—as well as to protect against possible ambushes. (Ambushing has been practiced by the Germans on a large scale.)

In the break-through of reverse-slope defenses it is especially important to determine the character of the forward edge and to eliminate the enemy's firing points in that edge. Observation points must be placed on the slope facing the enemy as soon as the attack begins. This will enable the attacking side to give effective artillery support to infantry units and tanks after they have entered the enemy's defenses in depth. It will also make possible effective direction of the attack. It has been found that the greatest success in overcoming German defenses was achieved by Red Army units which learned to attack violently without stopping at the forward edge. They break through in depth at once, leaving it to specially designated groups to handle such enemy resistance points which remain intact."

[Erwin]

The trouble with real life manuals is that they don't always work in an entertainment game product.

In the CM series, including CM2 games you have to become experienced enuff to "play the game system" which is not the same as RL.

[Vark]

Thought the whole point of CM2 was to allow greater fidelity to real life. Of course a simulation will always be that, but what stops you performing realistic assaults against a trench system?

[black_prince]

Thanks for the info and the very interesting link. I think it's true that you can't always use RL tactics in game exactly the way you would in real life. I do think that yo can adapt certain RL tactics however or adopt certain aspects which you are able to execute in game. As far grenade throwing is concerned, area firing at the next action spot usually results in grenades being thrown. I think infanry are more prone to throwing grenades at close range in CMA than in CMSF.

[Erwin]

Knowing in what context you can use RL tactics to achieve RL outcomes in CM and when the game system is not realistic and where one has to "game the system" comes from experience.

AFAIK CM2 is the most "realistic" game of its genre commercially available.