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Bunkers and satchels


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I am going to move up on a bunker with an engineer unit.

Do I need to give an order to throw a satchel charge either by using the target or area fire command or will the unit know enough to throw it on it's own?

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In my experience it doesn't matter what you do the engineers won't throw the charge, though they may, if you give them a target order, all rush round and stand in front of the firing slit and may or may not win the resulting fire-fight just using their small arms.

Others, possibly because they are better players or the spawn of Satan, may have better experiences.

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The bunker is just on the other side of a hedgerow (at a road intersection).

So it may be better to move a squad up and duke it out instead of sneaking up an engineer to toss a satchel?

Wish I had me a spawn of Satan about now.

How many points do you think a SoS is worth?

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If you just have your truppen sit next to the bunker for a minute or two, they will toss grenades or demo charges onto the bunker by themselves. Just don't give them a target order or anything like that and let them take care of it without your intervention.

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Blackcat, if you give them a Slow order to one Action Square away from the bunker and make sure they are facing it, they may throw a satchel at it. There is no guarantee they will, and they may just chuck 'Andes at it, or do nothing, but it is the only way I know to get your troops to throw explosives. There is no command specifically for it.

Sorry I couldn't help more, but I'm the spawn of Ward Cleaver.

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No order. Just move them up really close and they'll use the demos if they feel so inclined. I haven't taken out bunkers with demos very often, but I've done it a couple of times.

I don't recommend trying to close assault a bunker in the frontal aspect, ever. Doesn't matter how tricked out with Demos, Panzerfausts, etc. the assaulting unit is, and how much smoke and covering fire you use, IME assaulting from the front will get your men killed before they can get a grenade or demo through the firing slit.

From the side or rear it's a different story. In CMBN, bunkers themselves are completely unable to fire to the side or rear, so unless a bunker has mutual support covering the flanks/rear, it's rather like an overturned turtle once flanked. Log bunkers actually succumb rather easily to just hand grenades from the side or rear.

Don't give the assaulting unit an order to move all the way into the same action spot as the bunker. The ideal position for a unit close assaulting a bunker is 1-2 action spots to the flank or rear of the bunker. Demo charges can and will be used from this range -- in the game, they're visually represented as "thrown", just like hand grenades, but as I understand it this is abstractly intended to represent a brave soldier running up and placing the demo charge on the structure. IRL, throwing a demo charge more than a few feet would be quite difficult.

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Sorry, Ted, I really can't help you. Whenever I have been in such situations I have usually lost. Bazookas or tanks are the only things I have found that can be relied upon to take down bunkers (though both may take many shots) or you duke it out with small arms and hope that eventually you will kill the occupants (though the bunker will not show as destroyed). I have never seen a satchel charge used by my chaps against a bunker, though I have tried on numerous occasions.

As I say, one of the players on here that are better than me (and their are lots of them) may have firm advice on how to take down such a bunker, the hedgerow probably complicates things further. Can you not by-pass the wretched thing?

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Bunkers behind hedgerows are a b*tch, because the hedgerow restricts flanking possibilities. A lot depends on the exact position of the bunker in relation to the hedgerow, and other nearby terrain... hard to offer specific advice without a picture. As Blackcat suggests, flanking/bypassing is usually the best option.

If the bunker is right up against the hedgerow, it is sometimes possible to gain a flanking position on the opposite side of the hedgerow from the bunker, about 2 action spots away. I have seen it where in this position, an infantry unit is able to throw grenades at a bunker, but the bunker is unable to return fire because the infantry unit is far enough on the flank that it's out of the bunker's field of fire. But I'm not sure if this is true for all bunkers behind hedgerows, or if it depends on a certain set of circumstances; I've only actually used this trick once.

Basically, a bunker's field of fire is not 180 degrees; it's more like 160 degrees or something like that (SWAG on my part). So you don't have to get *all* the way onto the flank in order to be in the "blind zone", and be able to toss grenades/demos etc. at it with impunity. But it can be difficult to judge exactly where the bunker's field of fire ends, and if you're just a little bit off, your guys will get shredded.

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knocked out a couple tanks... and bunkers, with satchels.

Most times set up an ark range 6-8m, Thought this helped them to keep low, and is about the right distance for satchels, in the game.

Although, no guarantee of success... can end up firing, throwing grenades, can only assume their sandwiches are in the satchels.

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  • 3 weeks later...

fabiovir, I don't know if it is caused by a bug but in my experience such behaviour is not unusual. What I have also seen on many occasions is that although the bunker never shows as destroyed its crew are killed by a few penetrating shots. Of course, with FOW the only way to find out if the bunker is still operational is to give it a target and see what happens.

On a similar note, recent changes seem to have made buildings much stronger than they used to be. In one recent game I put a dozen 95mm HE rounds from a Churchill into a farmhouse type building, not only did the building stay up but the squad inside was still able to engage and mow down the infantry unit I sent forward to take possession.

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On a similar note, recent changes seem to have made buildings much stronger than they used to be. In one recent game I put a dozen 95mm HE rounds from a Churchill into a farmhouse type building, not only did the building stay up but the squad inside was still able to engage and mow down the infantry unit I sent forward to take possession.

This seems to be a fluke. The house should not even be standing after that treatment. Hedge just in front of the house maybe?

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"Hedge just in front of the house maybe?"

No, a nice clear line of fire into the side wall of the house. After maybe eight rounds the lower side wall of the house came down, but the rest of the structure remained intact. I put another four rounds into the building, with no obvious effect but I thought that the squad I knew was inside would be at least seriously suppressed if not eliminated. So I switched the tank to light fire and sent in my infantry section under cover of its MG. I was a bit miffed when the defenders opened up catching my chaps in the open.

It may well have been a fluke, as you say, but since I upgraded to 2.01 buildings do seem a lot tougher, and provide better cover, than they used to.

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Did you suppress both stories of the house? I've found that troops on the first floor do not care if you bomb the second floor to smithereens..

That said, I also find it difficult to make suppression work consistently. It seems "hit and miss"... :)

I see what you did there :)

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