Tactics for the British

[wokelly]

What are your tactics when using the British in the Brit campaign. I'll start off with my own.

1) At the beginning of every mission I give each of my Platoons Bren teams (2 man bren detachment) an extra 500 rounds from the Bren Carriers which brings up their ammo count to 750 rounds. Makes them much more useful for laying down suppressive fire since they don't burn out so quickly.

2) If issued an extra 3 Bren teams from the support company, ditto to the above in regards to ammo (add some additional 9mm for the detachment commander and you got a decent assault unit), issue out the teams as seen fit to each company or even platoon if one is tackling a particularly rough objective.

3) Use spare soft skinned vehicle drivers to be gunners in my Bren Carriers. Each company HQ unit has a few spare soft skinned vehicles usually. The drivers don't do much so I stick them in the Bren carriers as the gunner since on default the vehicle only has a driver.

4) Do not stick 2 or 3 man teams in Brens and use them offensively, the guy in the back does not have much cover and gets hit fairly often. That said the guys in the back CAN fire from inside the vehicle but I don't find the reward outways the risk of extra casualties. If the Bren Carrier carries a Bren team, dismount them, they are more useful on the ground.

5) Use these Bren Carriers as mobile Bren guns. To be honest the Bren carriers are BLIND as a bat even when unbuttoned which I think must be a bug or a hold over from nerfing the tank commanders. That said they can still be useful for suppression (blind firing at squares where enemies are). They got over 1k worth of ammo and two Bren carriers can generally suppress a German squad in cover.

6) Use any spare Bren carriers (with no gunners) to act a bullet magnets. The AI like to shoot at Bren carriers because while bullet resistant they are not bullet proof and can be knocked out. Still the majority of the time the bullets do no harm but they do allow me to identify German HMG positions by drawing fire.

7)Keep the platoons together. The Brits do not have a lot of firepower (I do think they need another SMG, CMx1 gave the Brits 2 SMGs at this time period, not sure why they don't have a second in this one), so I tend to maneuver my platoons as a single unit. In this campaign the Germans tend to be outnumbered, so focus each platoon on each German unit you encounter and you will tend to prevail with few if any casualties.

8) Keep the Bren in action. The squad firepower drops dramatically when the Bren gunner goes down. Buddy aid that Bren back into your squad's TOE ASAP.

9) Use your 6 pounders aggressively. In a few scenario's you get 6pdrs, but the Brits issued them with HE where as the US didn't have any. They are pretty good for knocking down enemy inf in buildings (especially on the upper floors) and with the Loyd carriers they can move around with some protection. Use them aggressively, find good overwatch sites for objectives and use them to blast out enemy inf in buildings.

10) Keep your 2 inch mortars up at the front. They are not great at range and frankly their smoke is often more useful than their HE. You need to keep them close to your squads for the best effect. The HE has knocked out a few German squads hounding me at times so it can be useful.

11) Keep your PIAT teams up front. They are pretty good for blowing the Germans out of buildings. Plus almost always your company HQ truck and one Bren Carrier has spare PIAT ammo (12-16 additional rounds in total between them). If you have 6 pdrs, one loyd carrier often carries another 6 rounds of PIAT. If one objective looks hard, you will often have a spare PIAT or even two in Bren/Lyod carriers depending on what the support company sent you, detach the AT unit from your squad and give them the spare PIAT and ammo for a more hard hitting squad.

12) Be careful with husbanding you ammo though. You often have to go through a few missions before your men and carriers/jeeps/trucks get resupplied. You have a bit of spare hardware you can utilize but keep in mind what you may face in the next mission before you do anything.

Those are a few of my own. What are other people tactics.

[Franko]

Excellent overview. I printed your post. Thanks.

[winkelried]

you shouldn't forget the afternoon tea ;-)

[Chainsaw]

Good post. I agree with all of them except the PIAT teams. I keep my PIAT teams back, about 50m from the platoon because its the platoons only AT weapon, if I stumble across a half-track the PIAT is my only weapon, and I don't want to loose it to a german K98 or MG42 because it was up in the frontline. But agreed, when you need to clear out a building and you are certain you can do it without endangering the PIAT team I use them as well.

Your post regarding 6pdr are dead on to. I had some success with the 6pdrs HE against germans in buildings that refused to leave

[Childress]

Have you noticed that the typical British squad posses no binoculars? How does this play out tactically?

[Kommissar]

Solid advice. I've learned most of it the hard way throughout the campaign. I definitely agree with your observation about the Bren gun comprising a majority of a squad's firepower.

I've tried the tactic that worked well with the US infantry - rushing the entire platoon into a firing position and unloading - but as the British I still find I take a lot of casualties in firefights even where I have the numerical advantage. I might take your suggestion and give the PIAT a chance in the AP role.

[gunnersman]

Excellent post. I've noticed Bren's are vital too. Good tip. Keep them in the fight. And I agree with Chainsaw. One of the first things I would do is separate the PIAT team from the squad, but keep them close. They can be good at CQB or anti-armor.

[Vark]

Talked to a veteran of the Italian campaign, whilst on guard duty he spotted a couple of Germans sneaking into an abandoned farm house in no man's land and thought they were setting up an OP. It was decided to send a patrol out, early next morning, to assault the building after the PIAT had chucked a couple of bombs into it. Both bombs in his words "wobbled over" and the patrol charged in, to be confronted with the sight of a platoons worth of Germans covering the floor, either dead, dying, or wounded. They whisked the survivors back and after interogation found that over the course of several nights the Germans had moved an assault platoon into the forward position with orders to attack that morning.

Fascinating gentleman, he once survived because he was late for sentry duty by a couple of minutes, enough time for the German sniper to shoot the guy he was replacing, dead. On closer observation they spotted the team up a tree, the sniper's rifle resting on a branch, his spotter moving it every time there was a gust of wind, so it did not look out of place! As he said the line between making it and not-going home was so thin as to be invisible.

[Erwin]

Very good advice. But, I agree that (for any nationality) any AT asset should be split off and kept relatively safe a few dozen meters back with the platoon HQ and 2" mortar until either are needed.

Also, (for any nationality attacking) I'll split off a recon team from a third to two thirds of my squads for recon. 2 guys are harder to spot and can hide easier. And you want a bunch of teams to spot enemy assets asap. And of course always split into Assault and Support teams and move em separately supporting each other.

And always beg designers to put in more time. They test their own scenarios and 3rd party testers often know the designer's tricks... So, it's not surprising that they can accomplish goals in shorter time limits. The fact is you never know if the scenario has been designed by someone who has an ambush planned if you move more than a few meters from set up positions, or if you'll have to cover half the map to find an enemy. So, that means you have to be cautious right from the start - regardless if the briefing tells you to "move quickly" to do whatever...

Take pity on the disabled non-psychic players. Beg for MORE TIME...

[sigop22]

Keep your platoons together but split your squads. Because their ROF and fire-power is far less than the US, I find that if I split the unit you create more targets for the Germans. Ideally overwhelm with your superior numbers by making them focus on more than one guy. That way you can slowly leap frog your way forward, or pin down the said bad guy and try and have part of the squad loop around to their sides.

It's harder to pin guys down, so that's why having the Bren team forward in the middle of your advance is good to have. That way if your platoon is bumped, you can move him to any side of the platoon to lay down that fire.

PIATS are good house cleaners.

Works great on smaller German squads, but MG's are the real killer. Many of my ASH guys in the Brit campaign have been ripped to shreds by a well placed MG. Lost an entire section in two bursts. I find they give me the biggest trouble because not very many of my Tommies are apt to stand up after a burst flies over their heads. With the lack of firepower, it's hard to get them pinned down too. Sometimes two sections firing on the one MG in the house is still not enough.

[para]

Keep your platoons together but split your squads. Because their ROF and fire-power is far less than the US, I find that if I split the unit you create more targets for the Germans. Ideally overwhelm with your superior numbers by making them focus on more than one guy. That way you can slowly leap frog your way forward, or pin down the said bad guy and try and have part of the squad loop around to their sides.

It's harder to pin guys down, so that's why having the Bren team forward in the middle of your advance is good to have. That way if your platoon is bumped, you can move him to any side of the platoon to lay down that fire.

PIATS are good house cleaners.

Works great on smaller German squads, but MG's are the real killer. Many of my ASH guys in the Brit campaign have been ripped to shreds by a well placed MG. Lost an entire section in two bursts. I find they give me the biggest trouble because not very many of my Tommies are apt to stand up after a burst flies over their heads. With the lack of firepower, it's hard to get them pinned down too. Sometimes two sections firing on the one MG in the house is still not enough.

How do you get the PIAT guys to clean house?

[Frankster65]

Excellent ideas.

[Chainsaw]

How do you get the PIAT guys to clean house?

Area fire the building, the PIAT team will switch to PIAT and lob some grenades on the building.

[7thGalaxy]

Those 6pdrs are rather good - I had one put two shells right through the frontal armour of a Tiger yesterday, surprised me a little! (it was under 500m engagement range), and knocked it right out.

They've got some bite!

[LUCASWILLEN05]

Also remember to use the artillery The Germans called it Trom melfeur (Drum Fire) for a good reason.

At battalion level I prefer to lead with two companies with the remaining two in reserve.

[Chainsaw]

At battalion level I prefer to lead with two companies with the remaining two in reserve.

Thats what they mostly did to! I'm reading through 2nd Bn Essex Regiments War Diary and in most attacks they attacked on a 2 Coy frontage with 2 Coys in reserve behind. But that was until they had to disband D Coy because of casualties, then it was 2 up and 1 behind for a while :cool:

[para]

Area fire the building, the PIAT team will switch to PIAT and lob some grenades on the building.

I shall try that thanks

[LUCASWILLEN05]

Quite so. Of course there are other options with a four company battalion. You could for example advance with one company forward, three in reserve. Or you could have the companies in an echeloned line. Or you can combine deployments for example one company ahead, three companies in reserve advancing in echelon. A wedge or column formation are also options.

At company level you might do something very similar except you use platoons.

[para]

Area fire the building, the PIAT team will switch to PIAT and lob some grenades on the building.

I tried target light at a building and they just fired their normal weapons. What am I doing wrong?

[TheVulture]

I tried target light at a building and they just fired their normal weapons. What am I doing wrong?

Target light will avoid using things like the PIAT. It limits the area fire to rifles etc. (I.e. it is lighter weapons, rather than all weapons with a lighter rate of fire). You need to use 'target' to get PIAT rounds fired off in area fire.

[akd]

well, "target light" is not going to use heavy weapons. Try "target".

[kipanderson]

Hi,

I agree with the rest, a very good thread.

Equally I too think near all scenarios are too short, by a long way. I “always...” whack the scenario into the editor and increase the scenario length to two or more hours.

CM is so realistic, within the limits of being a PC simulation with a single controlling mind, that you need realistic time to accomplish your objectives. So you can do a proper recon for example. You need to set things up properly before “all hell breaks loose....” and your full blooded assault on say a village starts.

We are lucky to have CM,

All the best,

Kip.

[para]

Target light will avoid using things like the PIAT. It limits the area fire to rifles etc. (I.e. it is lighter weapons, rather than all weapons with a lighter rate of fire). You need to use 'target' to get PIAT rounds fired off in area fire.

Cheers for that

[wokelly]

Hi,

I agree with the rest, a very good thread.

Equally I too think near all scenarios are too short, by a long way. I “always...” whack the scenario into the editor and increase the scenario length to two or more hours.

CM is so realistic, within the limits of being a PC simulation with a single controlling mind, that you need realistic time to accomplish your objectives. So you can do a proper recon for example. You need to set things up properly before “all hell breaks loose....” and your full blooded assault on say a village starts.

I dislike the time limits as well but I don't think it is wrong they exist. Epson was a breakthrough attempt with a timeline for when objectives had to be taken. Having your companies take their time on objectives would slow the advance. Sometimes you need to take more casualties initially to suffer less in the long haul, that means rushing things due to time constraints which happened often.

[LongLeftFlank]

Well in that case wouldn't it be better to have a VP bonus contingent on securing Objective X by a given time? I wonder how many assaults were called off owing solely to the timetable being missed by a half hour (sure, if you're half a day late, that could be a problem).