Scottish Corridor Mission 13 SPOILERS

[Holien]

Thxs, the key to a good defense is a decent analysis of the terrain. It is clear you will be attacked by tanks where and how can they approach. What is your best defensive positions. In CM this is behind Bocage, it trumps all other terrain features, tall bocage being the best.

The bocage on the left flank is outside your set up zone but a quick drive is worth the risk if you can use it to shield your tanks and hold that flank. The German armour then has to come side on to you and Panthers don't like it in the rear or sides, MKIV's the same.

It is all about making it and uneven fight and by using the terrain and angles smartly you can give your side the edge. Luck can mean you can still lose duels but with an edge you will win more than you lose.

Be prepared to look well outside your set up zone to see what terrain works best to defend your objectives. People too often look at just the objective and not what surrounds it or dominates it.

That set up took well over an hour if not longer in thought and consideration as to what would work or would not work. Having your arty spotters in a good position to call in timely arty is also key. Vs the AI you can risk having men hidden on second floor buildings as it would appear the AI does not make speculative shoots. Vs a human you would have to use a different approach. I was lucky my forward OP did not get wiped by the German bombardment and only lost one of the supporting soldiers. If I had lost the FO I would have had a lot harder time, and I had fun trying to extract him from the house when the Germans got too close.

I hope some of this helps in what is an excellent campaign and really showed the beauty of the engine to me. There are some bugs that need to be dealt with and when I have time I will post a new thread showing some of the oddities I found such as a Bren Carrier reversing through bocage as it fled a German tank...

H

[Holien]

Gawd, I really hope mission 13 isn't a "find the trick" challenge (that all those wrist twitchers depend on to keep people replaying missions and thus giving the illusion of value for money).

The great think about CM games is that using good tactics they should be winnable first time thru. I can only hope that TrailApe is... well a real ape (no offense meant mate).

Yes using good tactics and use of terrain does indeed mean you can win first time. It is tough vs the Panthers but if you know how to handle cats you can de claw them...

[Paper Tiger]

Oh, and a ps. I do NOT want to face Panthers. MKIV's are fine.

You'll only face Panthers in Mission 13 if you are playing at Veteran level. Regular and Green players will face MkIVs (with something in support).

[Placebo]

And nothing to say about the ASH missions? :eek: How many of them did you play? Did you get to play the Odon Bridges mission? I spent absolutely ages crafting the map for that one and playtesting the AI plans.

I am only just getting to the ASH battles now, partly because I am splitting time between the german campaign but also as i did so badly in the initial battles the tattered remains of my forces made the later battles impossible so I have restarted this campaign several times

However I have learnt it is more important to preserve forces than push for every kill and VL (which I always do on single battles). This has got me through to the ASH battles on Veteran so things are looking good :cool:

[phil stanbridge]

Having your arty spotters in a good position to call in timely arty is also key. Vs the AI you can risk having men hidden on second floor buildings as it would appear the AI does not make speculative shoots. Vs a human you would have to use a different approach.

Yes, this was essential in my plan too. But I have found (although I cannot prove either way) that if you plonk a group of men on the top floor and receive hits during an artillery barrage they will likely suffer more casualties. The HE seems to detonate on the top floor first if it hits the building directly, rather than penetrating down to the lower levels. That's certainly how it looks anyway. I tend to split my squads if I house them in buildings, and also have them hide - this may or may not offer them even more protection. Most on the lower floors tend to survive an arty barrage even if the buildings are hit directly. Actually I think this was more of an issue in Shock Force if I recall.

[Holien]

Yes, this was essential in my plan too. But I have found (although I cannot prove either way) that if you plonk a group of men on the top floor and receive hits during an artillery barrage they will likely suffer more casualties. The HE seems to detonate on the top floor first if it hits the building directly, rather than penetrating down to the lower levels. That's certainly how it looks anyway. I tend to split my squads if I house them in buildings, and also have them hide - this may or may not offer them even more protection. Most on the lower floors tend to survive an arty barrage even if the buildings are hit directly. Actually I think this was more of an issue in Shock Force if I recall.

Yes I would agree best to put men on ground floor hidden. I forgot and had them on 2nd floor hidden and they were lucky to only have a single man killed. Mind you I think even on the ground floor I lost a man.

In hindsight I would have sent him to the houses on the right flank but I did not know if they were empty and I was prepared for that recon force to become a bunch of smouldering wrecks if the Germans had been able to sneak into those houses.

The men in the foxholes survived and that position did really well considering the Arty dropped on it at the start.

Hope your games are going well and maybe you can crank it up to Vet level for a bigger thrill....