Can't achieve "Investigate Activity" in Advanced Training

[Paulverisor64]

Up to this point I've done fairly well in the Fortress Italy training.

I can not however figure out how to pull off the "Investigate Activity" action in the 2nd Advanced Training exercise.

I have a small group of 6 to perform the recon activity.

The training manual suggests splitting the team into 3 seperate teams. I do this prior to engaging the enemy that awaits in ambush.

My 1st try at this my rifle squad crawled to the left of the chokepoint to have cover behind the stone wall. My anti-tank squad went up the middle so they could achieve a true spot of the half track. In the attack phase I had the rifle squad open up on the targeted area. My anti-tank squad paused 20 seconds after which they had a short hunt command (to raise them up) followed by the targetting of the half track.

The rifle squad survived due to their protection, but I don't believe they even pinned the enemy. The anti-tank squad was gunned down immediately.

Since that time I have tried sneaking the rifle squad to the choke point and attempted to flank to the right with my anti-tank squad. The result of this was that my sneaking rifle squad always is now getting picked up by the ambush while the flanking manuever dies when the anti-tank squad hurdles the stone fence on the right because they get picked up by the other German infantry units behind the main action.

A variation of this had my anti-tank squad pull up to the edge of the stone wall in the right choke point area. My anti-tank squad couldn't pick up the half track, but the half track could pick up them, and finished them off. Afterwards I did a line of sight from the anti-tank perspective and it appeared the half track was in clear view. For some reason the tree branch in between must act as a shield for the half track but not for the poor anti-tank squad.

Could someone prescribe the technically correct way to achieve this small victory?

I could bypass this, but since this is considered training I don't want to miss any details that could help considerably down the road.

[Paulverisor64]

I've found the trick to getting the recon accomplished.

I was on to the correct method, I just didn't look close enough to find a better firing lane for the anti-tank gun. I had the enemy's fire concentrated on the rifle squad so I had an open shot at the half track. I tried this twice before moving on.

I am discovering that the recon was the easy portion of this tutorial. Dodging artillery on the top of the hill is much more difficult. My 1st trial I discovered that I must have missed the fire for effect rounds. My entire line of infantry, machine guns and HQ unit ended up getting virtually wiped out. I just completed the 2nd trial, this was to let the artillery fall and then come back. Little was I to know that the 2nd barage was going to be much worse than the 1st. The small building and it's occupants were destroyed as well as the front wall. My troops that were sneaking back to the just destroyed wall also bought it, and they were behind the 2 story building. Also very concerning was the advance of the 2 light Italian tanks which will eventually take out my pill boxes. At 11 minutes to go I don't even see survival likely. I will want to formulate a better planned trial 3.

[simast]

I am also going through the same Advanced Training campaign right now.

For the "Investigate Activity" objective - I sent my squad exactly as in the manual (3 used for suppressing fire behind the fence and 3 for anti-tank assault duty). I managed to knock out the halftruck and killed some of the enemy scouts, but once 2 of the 3 anti-tank team soldiers got killed, I have retreated. Still, I haven't achieved the objective (do I need to "touch" that "Investigate Activity" zone or to eliminate all the scouts?).

That mission was really fun I managed to hold the hill till the time run out, but the real damage came (as in your case) from the enemy artillery. It literally wiped that hill clean (with pretty much all my units destroyed).

As for the Italian light tanks - use your 50 cal. heavy machine gun. It can penetrate light armor (and even if it can't from the front - keep firing, Italians tend to abandon their tanks when under heavy fire).

Also, one of the bunkers has 8mm Breda Italian machine gun with plenty of ammunition!

I am now at the third and last mission where you start with the units you managed to save during the last mission. I don't really have many left and those that are still alive don't have any ammunition left...

[Paulverisor64]

Excellent, I'm glad someone else is going through the same exercise.

Unfortunately I won't be able to reply in depth now as I am heading to work.

I did discover that the "Investigate Activity" points activate with a touch requirement.

Thanks a lot for the anti tank advice!

[Rake]

I am now at the third and last mission where you start with the units you managed to save during the last mission. I don't really have many left and those that are still alive don't have any ammunition left...

Pray those reinforcements show up FAST!:eek: The start of the last mission is a blast

[simast]

Pray those reinforcements show up FAST!:eek: The start of the last mission is a blast

Already made it through Tho it was a very close call. By the time my reinforcements arrived the only unit still alive on that hill was my FO team, hiding in the second floor, with target arc of 1m and enemy panzer just a couple of meters away :eek:

Surprisingly the FO team survived, and I didn't lose any of the Shermans during the counter-push. I am really enjoying the infantry scenarios with just 1-2 armor mixed in. I suppose I will try the Italian campaign next.

[Ranger33]

What I loved about this scenario was that it showed off just how extremely useful the Armor Only arc can be. Give the .50 cal an armor arc covering the whole map, then forget about it. No micromanaging arcs or hoping the armor is exposed just as the turn ends so you can target it.

[Paulverisor64]

I've finally got to the point of playing through the Hill 1056 training scenario.

I think this mission could be summed up with "Wow, what a barrage".

I did learn a lesson from my 1st play of this mission.

I learned to fall back as the manual suggested. I also used cover from the buildings as suggested; however 1 of the 1 story buildings didn't fare that well with the shellings.

I fell back just after revealing my HMG and troops that defended against the gun threat from the 2 half tracks. I fell back just in time as the artillery hit my position the next turn. I waited through a considerable hail storm of artillery. I could watch the German forces slowly advance in great numbers.

The 2 Italian tanks came up to near point blank range of the bunkers. The German troops also advanced to this position, but for some reason they weren't able to finish the 3 bunkers off.

On the flank of the bunkers I had an anti-tank squad in position for flanking from the tanks. This never happened. However they were in great position to pick off the troops that made it to the back side of the bunkers. Perhaps they also took out 1 of the tanks.

The numbers encroaching the bunkers were quite substantial. I called in Mortar fire to get many of them pinned. I also took my HMG out of hiding to drop back this advance.

On the other flank I had a machine gun stationed on a ledge to prevent enemy advances along with one of the HQ units.

I more or less lost my scouting troops from the 1st initiative, but they certainly slowed the advance down.

My great disappointment was that I didn't get the 300 points for defending the bunker position. My big question would be; do you lose the position even if the enemy just reaches your position? I thought my forces did an amazing job of clearing out the opposition. Would this also mean that I failed the mission?

My comments of the mission were that the AI was great in telegraphing the firing of my better units to set it up for artillery fire.

I was a little perplexed that I didn't lose all my bunkers to all the fire directed at them. I had very little defense in each one.

It was interesting how a couple of my troops literally hid away even though they were close to the action.

This was an awesome training mission. If I failed it I may be tempted to try it again. I do think the mission gives you a good feel for the game.

From sounds of things the difficulty must even escalate in the next mission.

[simast]

Enough with the training already

Paul, do you want to try a PBEM (play by email) game with me? Being that we are both relatively new to CM it should be an equal skill match up.

And how do you guys get your PBEM matches going? Is there a special forum section or a website for this? I don't think I saw a lot of PBEM requests in the general forum area.

[Paulverisor64]

Enough with the training already

Paul, do you want to try a PBEM (play by email) game with me? Being that we are both relatively new to CM it should be an equal skill match up.

And how do you guys get your PBEM matches going? Is there a special forum section or a website for this? I don't think I saw a lot of PBEM requests in the general forum area.

Certainly, that would be good practice for both of us. I would like to figure out how PBEM even works.

Perhaps someone might know how the mechanics of PBEM works. I briefly looked at Quick Battles and it did appear you could pick a scenario and make a PBEM from this.

If I had a choice I'd prefer an infantry or light mechanised matchup. I'd prefer a small or medium even balanced map. I'm thinking that a meeting engagement might be interesting.

Would anyone out there have a recommendation for a good PBEM map to play?

Perhaps we'll have a chance to give it a go.