Tips for playing.

[chuckdyke]

To share what you found works. 

[chuckdyke]

Snipers. I found volume of fire determines casualties inflicted or the lack of it. Snipers deliver not much volume, time seems to be a factor. This shot took 2minutes in position among a few other instances of which I didn't make screenshots. I modified my tactics. Put them on hide till a fire fight develops then unhide and use the direction pointer to your intended target. Entered in the log. Time for the shot to break two minutes, method the pointer direction tool only. Direct fire orders I found counterproductive, a bolt rifle just doesn't produce the volume. They are effective for clearing out foxholes.

 

[chuckdyke]

First Screenshot 01:13:03 Second Screenshot 01:13:02. Credit goes to the sniper. Soviet advances over open ground have the key marksmen in position.

[chuckdyke]

This battle seems to have been fought by Soviet Estonian Forces. Submachine gunner assault. The German K98 is hopelessly outclassed at 100mtrs. At times you get a better picture by turning the Icons off. The Tankovyy Desant is a good unit. Sniper for overwatch and the submachine gunners for the assault. Approach was plotted from ground level. For micromanagement best done on micro terrain Situational awareness is everything. Correct placing of waypoints is the key upon full contact the unit stops advancing at the waypoint and engages.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by chuckdyke

[chuckdyke]

C2 is better than other Soviet Units as they share the AFV's radio.

[chuckdyke]

You have three choices when you have full contact. The first is to do nothing, which is often the best thing. Second order fire on the full contact downside if you miss and the enemy is only suppressed you may have lost the opportunity. Third yes often area fire may be the best, if the enemy is suppressed your unit will keep on firing. It is only a slight shift of the mouse. 

 

[chuckdyke]

The important thing is there are choices, and you can make use of them. Don't be a lazy player and let opportunities slip.

[Erwin]

On most maps especially the larger ones, RECON/SCOUTING is a vital "tactic".  It seems useful to split many of one's squads into two-man teams and send those forward on QUICK with maybe periodic 5 second waypoint pauses to prevent them getting fatigued or exhausted.  The tactic that works well with all games, WW2 and modern, is 1) locate the enemy's prime/most dangerous assets - usually these are ATG's and ATGM's.  (Then tanks and inf strongpoints.)  Once the ATG's and ATGM's have been located they can 2) be killed with arty.  3) Once the ATG's and AGM's are gone, one's own tanks can mop up the enemy inf strongpoints (killing enemy tanks by "ganging up" on individual enemy tanks whose location you now know).

The downside of splitting with most CM2 units is that one can only split 9-man squads once, so once a two-man scout is split, one is often left with an unwieldy 7-man team.  For some reason the CMBS Ukrainian 7-man squads can be split into 2x2 man teams and one three-man team.  Much better.

 

 

[Centurian52]

4 hours ago, Erwin said:

On most maps especially the larger ones, RECON/SCOUTING is a vital "tactic".  It seems useful to split many of one's squads into two-man teams and send those forward on QUICK with maybe periodic 5 second waypoint pauses to prevent them getting fatigued or exhausted.  The tactic that works well with all games, WW2 and modern, is 1) locate the enemy's prime/most dangerous assets - usually these are ATG's and ATGM's.  (Then tanks and inf strongpoints.)  Once the ATG's and ATGM's have been located they can 2) be killed with arty.  3) Once the ATG's and AGM's are gone, one's own tanks can mop up the enemy inf strongpoints (killing enemy tanks by "ganging up" on individual enemy tanks whose location you now know).

The downside of splitting with most CM2 units is that one can only split 9-man squads once, so once a two-man scout is split, one is often left with an unwieldy 7-man team.  For some reason the CMBS Ukrainian 7-man squads can be split into 2x2 man teams and one three-man team.  Much better.

 

 

My approach as well

Step 1: Find the enemy long range AT assets (AT guns in the WW2 titles, ATGMs in the modern titles). I don't go so far as to use 2 man scout teams, since I am usually content with regular sized fire-teams.

Step 2: Destroy the enemy AT assets (preferably with accurate mortars/arty, but ultimately by any means available (pop up/shoot and scoot attacks with my tanks will work in the modern era (ATGMs take time to guide or lock on, and modern tanks are accurate enough to hit distant ATGM positions) if I have no assets available that will allow me to avoid exposing my tanks))

Step 3: Profit (tanks and IFVs can now provide close support to my infantry assaults on enemy positions and I can roll up the enemy defenses)

[chuckdyke]

With scouts micromanagement is the key, and you need to plot from view 1. Realistic house rules make the game more enjoyable. Example Soviet Artillery WW2 the Signal System they had is not modelled in the game. This guy gave me ideas. You can use any HQ for the game but what makes it more realistic for example assign the mortars to one infantry platoon who gets the hypothetical field telephone. Having field telephones popping all over the battlefield as soon as an opportunity pops up is not realistic. I follow this guy he is a great influence of how I play the game.

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by chuckdyke

[chuckdyke]

Scouting and Micromanagement.

I do this by waypoint stacking. I stack my waypoints near the scout's objective.

By highlighting and clicking all the waypoints stack on top of the first way point.

Scout is still selected and by using Tab-Key and F-Key I am on View 1 for the scout. By highlighting the Move-Line I can put any waypoint on the terrain feature to give the scout the opportunity to observe from cover and concealment. Suggest to modify a 'Waypoint' with a short 'Hunt-Move' to cancel if he makes a full contact.

[chuckdyke]

Scouting by two men only is not ideal the more scouting units you have the more the odds are in your favour to spot something.

Edited February 16, 2023 by chuckdyke

[RockinHarry]

Scouts: If available in a given force I prefer using small otherwise unused HQ teams with binocs and a radio. The binocs give a considerable sighting/spotting advantage and radio relays back info back to higher HQ´s. It then can be decided if spotted targets are to be taken under direct (sniper, HMG) or indirect fires (mortar, Arty). During advance the "HQ team scouts" receive a short 360° target arc so that they just spot and never shoot. High experience, good leader (+1 or +2) and rather low morale makes particularly good scouts. Lower morale helps them throwing their heads down into the dirt (and thus maybe into conceilment and cover) faster.

Move mode can vary, depending on available cover and other factors. Sneaking up a vantage point preferably in crawling mode, but short distance only. Other modes (move, hunt or quick) depend on terrain, available cover and the scouts tiredness level. These scouts make certain watch stops at intervals and remain at their vantage points for at least 2 minutes. (more time for spotting attemps and if needed for removing some tiredness level) If I´m interested in a particular area I give these scouts a short target arc of maybe 30 to 60° and point it toward that area. Improves spotting chances toward that particular area some more. If terrain allows I let follow the scouts some overwatch units(s) in case scouts get into troubles.

Snipers: Should be at least veteran or better yet crack experience. Absolute minimum for sniper engagement range is 400m. Preferably 500m or more (upto max engagement range) Otherwise snipers get discovered quickly and then are dead meat. I rarely let them engage their own targets unless at greater ranges (500m up to max) and with a good assortment of enemy targets available. That greater range also has a more demoralizing effect on enemy if sniper remains undetecte.

If I want get taken out a particular enemy, I use a very small angle target arc "\/" on him. This way I can eliminate i.e an unbuttoned tank commander (on currently non moving AFV), a HMG or AT gunner or any leader if he reveals himself by using a binoc. A radio operator is another nice choice. Sniper morale level should preferably be lower again. If he gets disovered and beeing shot at, he should rather dive down to cover quickly, instead of shooting back or keep watching. Best time for position change in crawl mode, preferably to a preselected switch position that can be reached under concealment and cover. Should be at least couple AS away, so in case the original position keeps receiving enemy fire he won´t get suppression levels. That also means away from friendly units. That sniper can be helped in this effort by opening fire with another yet unengaged friendly unit that is less vulnerable due to larger size (at least team size or another yet hidden sniper).

[chuckdyke]

Testing some soft factors.

Tired translated in CM =You can't go Fast.

Fatigued translated in CM= You can't go fast or hunt.

Exhausted translated in CM= You can only Move or go Slow. Slow gets you exhausted inside 100 meters but you still can crawl.

 

[chuckdyke]

5 minutes ago, RockinHarry said:

Scouts:

Role needs to be defined. Pathfinding is what I explained, in other words, finding a secure route for the formation. 

[chuckdyke]

Exhausted you can still use the evade button. I didn't test their marksman's performance but it appears to be no different from fit firing units. 

[chuckdyke]

Even though the unit has been exhausted for three more turns they keep going forward. Also, all the usual firing orders are available.

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by chuckdyke

[Brille]

Smoke:

1.)

If your avenue of advance happens to be the same direction as the wind you can use that to your advantage. 

Place a smoke fire mission (or lay smoke via tank smoke rounds or smoke grenades) and watch how the smoke "walks" slowly in the wind direction. If the wind is not that strong it will stay relatively dense for quite a distance. 

So you can advance your troops directly behind it. 

But be careful that those rounds are not WP (white phosphorus) rounds because those will disperse very quickly even without any wind. 

 

2.)

With vehicles that have "smoke mortars" or "Nahverteidigungswaffe" (for the germans) build in, you can lay lanes of smoke. Simply give one of this vehicles several short movement commands, each 20 to 40m apart and put on each of them a "pop smoke" command. On each way point it will pop out up to 3 smoke grenades. 

In comparison to external smoke dischargers (who have maybe 1 to 3 charges - ww2 standard at least), smoke mortars can be reloaded from within and they have a huge amount of smoke bombs. So you can put multiple lanes of smoke with one vehicle. 

 

Directing fire:

1.)

If a squad is in a house/cover you can direct/switch their fire. 

Give them a target command and a pause like 30 seconds. Then give them a movement command on their exact same location and draw another target on another enemy position. 

So they will fire for 30seconds on one enemy, then they move maybe slightly to get on target and then they will fire the rest of the turn on the second enemy unit. 

2.)

Always keep in mind that you will negate any cover arc or target command with the "face" command. 

The thing I often do is "hunt" into a position (like going up into 1 or 2 story building) while putting the hunter on a short cover arc to not reveal himself for distant troops or go prone on first enemy sight. After the unit has reached its position I either can give him another cover arc at the last way point or a face command, which means that he is free to engage on the spot. 

3.)

A rare thing players seem to be aware of or use is the cover circle, a addition or alternative to the cover arc. 

Especially if you don't know from where the enemy is coming from and you don't want to reveal your tanks to simple infantry, you can activate the "armor arc" and press shift. Now you can draw a circle around the tank on the distance you want. (or draw it over the entire map to be sure :D) 

It works the same with the normal cover arc too. 

 

 

[Brille]

Firepower:

1.)

High caliber machine guns, machine canons or MGs with armor piercing rounds can penetrate buildings all the way through, especially those which are lightly build. (e.g. wood) 

This way you can reach enemy infantry or soft targets even if they take cover behind a house.

Especially weapon systems like the shilka are best for that since all of their ammo is AP-I. 

2.)

In addition to the first point:

In the ww 2 games the german halftracks are equipped with the ap rounds for their MG. It is possible to equip the riding infantry with it too. Those usually only come with the standard ammo, which often don't have the force to penetrate brick walls.

I often give my Panzergrenadiers at least a belt (250 rounds) with them so they have a slight advantage in built up areas to pierce cover of the enemy. 

 

3.)

Some units like the soviet BTR will not use its main armament to fire at infantry in the open or on area targets. 

But if they notice that the enemy is in or behind cover (behind trees, in houses) they will use it. 

If you area target a building with them and they have ammo for their heavy mg, they will use those most of the time if not always. 

[Erwin]

11 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

If available in a given force I prefer using small otherwise unused HQ teams with binocs and a radio.

Scouting in CM2 is dicey.  Yes, there are usually a lot of apparently extraneous HQ's.  However, for "realism" sake I try to avoid sending out 2IC's and extra HQ's etc as I figured that in RL they would not be used like that.  In RL one would send out the FO's as well.  But, I find that whoever gets sent up front/scouts have a short life, no matter how careful one is (unless one has enuff time to SLOW move them and let them sit and watch for several minutes when getting close to a possible enemy).  A few designers (looking at you GeorgeMC) are wonderful in creating 2.5 hour missions where once has enuff time to do very careful scouting.  Most designers put time pressure on one, and in those cases, one has to run the scouts as (dangerously) far forward as quickly as possible so that one does not run out of time at the end.

Also, as previously noted, the more scouts, the more info gathered asap the better.  I often will break 2/3 of my inf into two-man scouts to "saturate" the map.  The problem with CM2 is that one is generally left with a bunch of 7-man teams which cannot be broken down.

 

 

[Vacillator]

30 minutes ago, Brille said:

In the ww 2 games the german halftracks are equipped with the ap rounds for their MG. It is possible to equip the riding infantry with it too. Those usually only come with the standard ammo, which often don't have the force to penetrate brick walls.

I often give my Panzergrenadiers at least a belt (250 rounds) with them so they have a slight advantage in built up areas to pierce cover of the enemy. 

I like this and will have to give it a try. Perhaps everyone else knew? 

Anyway I'm becoming quite the acquirer of stuff like bazooka tubes which happen to be on quite a few of the vehicles in the CMBN game I'm playing at the moment.  Hope my opponent doesn't read this.

[RockinHarry]

1 hour ago, Vacillator said:

I like this and will have to give it a try. Perhaps everyone else knew? 

Anyway I'm becoming quite the acquirer of stuff like bazooka tubes which happen to be on quite a few of the vehicles in the CMBN game I'm playing at the moment.  Hope my opponent doesn't read this.

I also do this when available (mostly for HMG teams, not so often for regular infantry). They are (7.92mm AP) better off in the hands of infantry, because if HT's shoot at something armored, it can probably shoot back. But I never completely empty HT's with 7.92 AP. Sometimes it is useful to "disembark" 1-2 HT's in the editor, so that some ammo boxes can be placed on the map that contain this special ammo. Standard ammo boxes unfortunately do not contain this. The same goes for hand grenades and rifle grenades. It's a complete mystery to me why BFC didn't bother to include them.

[RockinHarry]

1 hour ago, Erwin said:

Scouting in CM2 is dicey.  Yes, there are usually a lot of apparently extraneous HQ's.  However, for "realism" sake I try to avoid sending out 2IC's and extra HQ's etc as I figured that in RL they would not be used like that.  In RL one would send out the FO's as well.  But, I find that whoever gets sent up front/scouts have a short life, no matter how careful one is (unless one has enuff time to SLOW move them and let them sit and watch for several minutes when getting close to a possible enemy).  A few designers (looking at you GeorgeMC) are wonderful in creating 2.5 hour missions where once has enuff time to do very careful scouting.  Most designers put time pressure on one, and in those cases, one has to run the scouts as (dangerously) far forward as quickly as possible so that one does not run out of time at the end.

Also, as previously noted, the more scouts, the more info gathered asap the better.  I often will break 2/3 of my inf into two-man scouts to "saturate" the map.  The problem with CM2 is that one is generally left with a bunch of 7-man teams which cannot be broken down.

 

 

That using small HQ´s is unrealistic is not quite true. German HMG Plt commanders, Battery commanders and staff personal from other HQ´s were frequently sent for recon. Of course it was more for scouting a particular units (new) combat positions, but other staff personal was oftenly sent for actual combat recon. Anyway... unless I want "sacrificing"  a normal split off team, I keep prefering small teams that MUST have a binocular for watching at stand off ranges. Anything else of course is always situational dependent. And if given scenario doesn´t include spare HQ teams.

Yeah agree. Putting too much time pressure on a player by giving ridiculously short mission times, is more to hide a scenario designer´s unwillingless to put more thought into his design. It´s sort of an extra very artificial "difficulty" level.  There´s maybe cases where real time pressure is part of a particular engagement  (grab a bridge, before it gets blown up etc.) but otherwise. The CM mission editor allows multiple ways to make a scenario more challenging and interesting.

[Erwin]

1 hour ago, RockinHarry said:

German HMG Plt commanders, Battery commanders and staff personal from other HQ´s were frequently sent for recon

I wouldn't argue with that.  I was thinking of the HQ Support, XO's, Co CO's.  Some battery commanders are required to be close to their mortars to enable C2.  Not sure why since other units with radios should be able to keep the mortars in C2.

[chuckdyke]

Leaders' recon is how I started the Road to Montebourg Campaign. The squad leaders can protect themselves by popping smoke the moment they receive fire. Two advantages the MGs knew where to set up in safety. 

2 hours ago, Erwin said:

Not sure why since other units with radios should be able to keep the mortars in C2.

Yes their radios by default are connected to their own C2 a mortar unit team must have their own radio who is connected to a FDC. Imo radios are not correctly modelled, you should be able to send your tentative contacts to another unit with a radio which is not in your C2.