Hints and Tip suggestions

[Lorak]

Greetings,

I'm planning on starting a section on my CM page that provided helpful little hints and tips to CM players. I figure there will be a lot of new players coming on board that might find some of the things we have discovered helpful. I'm not asking anyone to give away their game winning stratagies or anything map specific. I was just wondering if any of you had anything you would like to submit to be posted there.

Thanks

Lorak

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http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/combatmissionclub

Lorak's FTX for CM

[Maximus]

Some hints I could provide would be:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>When advancing, use artillery to create a smoke screen when possible.

<LI>Use HE artillery against soft targets when possible

<LI>When confronted with Slot A, insert Tab...err..umm...nevermind.

I can't think of anymore right now, but I'll probably post again here.

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"Today I saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome."

[Lorak]

Thanks Maximus, they are added.

Lorak

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http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/combatmissionclub

Lorak's FTX for CM

[Manx]

Yep...smoke (but it can also work against you remember) and plenty of covering fire. Always try to get more than one line of fire against a target, it will keep their heads down, especially against dug-in units as seen in VOT.

[Lorak]

Thanks Manx, added.

Lorak

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http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/combatmissionclub

Lorak's FTX for CM

[Guest grunto]

Try loading your tanks with machineguns, platoon leaders, and pzks/bazookas, then charge forward where you think there might be a gap. Use your fast infantry squads to make contact then bring your armor around, loaded with troops, through the gaps, so you can try to set up a strongpoint behind them and hit them with your heavy weapons while the infantry continue facing them from their front.

If you have a scenario where your tanks always die, load them up with pzks/bazookas and try to get them matched up and isolated at close range (with the at infantry dismounted and ready to fire) on the enemy armor.

On foot, use your pzks/bazookas as tank-killing groups. It will give you less overall coverage on the field but a better chance of getting kills each time you face enemy armor.

Use the platoon leaders and company commanders in the thick of infantry defenses and assaults. Make them sit up there and set an example for your men. Everybody fights... nobody quits. Keep a batallion, platoon, or company commander in reserve to rally troops at a set rallying point.

Try to get the US 60mm mortars to help out somewhere. Put them all together and have them perform as a little onboard artillery battery if possible.

If the enemy has lots of artillery, try to give your troops supporting fields of fire without putting them too closely together.

Andy

[Miyamoto Musashi]

How about these?

When taking a defensive role, try to keep some (or lots if you can spare them) of your forces safely hidden in wooded areas or buildings. They maintain their freshness that way (and they also conserve ammo and surprise enemy troops who happen to stumble across them).

In some scenarios (and I stress SOME, not all by any means) it is advantageous to sneak in a few troops along the sides of the map into hiding positions to the enemy's flank(s). Depending on the enemy's movements, you can either ambush as soldiers walk by, or if you're the impatient type, you can slowly advance these troops through woods, etc, knocking off isolated enemy squads as you move forward.

Mountain Dew helps you keep sharp and awake during those late night battles.

If you know (or have a distinct feeling) that you're outnumbered, sometimes it is better to find good LOS positions for your tanks and let the enemy come to you. For example, on CE, if you don't want to move your StuG's forward right away, there are several small hills behind the large wooded hill where the assault guns can lie in ambush, waiting for the Shermans to peek into view. This tactic works fairly consistently with CE and could work with other scenarios (again, not ALL scenarios).

Use mortar fire to flush out enemy troops. If you have an idea that enemy soldiers are hiding in a small area (but can only see the enemy symbol indicating a presence), use a mortar attack to force them out into the sight range of your tanks, machine guns, etc.

Brownies or chocolate chip cookies make a great wartime snack.

Sometimes it is advantageous to take out certain buildings early on in the battle if they obstruct LOS or if they would make potential hiding places for enemy troops.

And use the sneak feature as much as possible in heavily wooded areas, but only order your troops to sneak a small distance at a time in case they happen upon the enemy.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head...

[Thomas Norton]

Conservation of ammo! Your men carry only so much. In a fire fight (like the type you see in CE, woods on the East flank), they will eat it very fast if you let them sit back and smoke and joke.

When you see the engagement develop, set your fire base platoon, then push which ever flank you can assult and support. In the Corp, we called it "leap frog" and it works in CM just like it does in the field. Your assulting platoon/s use less ammo and it will force the enemy unit to split up their frontage.

Your fire base platoon will be low on ammo after the engagement, remember they are doing the surpression fire, so rotate them with one of the maneuver platoons.

CM allows you to fire through your units, so take advantage of this by setting a screen. That slow machine gun is going to be your piviot. Use the light infantry to probe.

If the situation allows, attack in the shape of the letter "m". The center is your machine gun/fire base platoon. The "peaks", we had a different name for them, think Pamela Anderson, are your maneuver platoons.

They shoot and move. Your lazy legs support the flanks of your assult. It does not look good to have your neat assult turned into a fire sack, with your boys in the sack.

Always strive to have mutual supporting platoons. Overlap fire lanes. If you are limited from being able to support and overlap, then set as narrow a front as possible. Called "buzz saw" for obvious reasons. Learn to use the ambush marker and hide function in CM. This is called a force multiplier. It makes you more deadly, there is no such thing as overkill. Now:

GET SOME.

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"The Legitimate object of war is a more perfect peace."

[Bullethead]

Initial set-up is one of the single most critical things in CM. Take your time to carefully consider your options because deployment errors are usually very hard or impossible to overcome during play. Thus, most of my tips focus on this phase of the game.

1. Always look for the key terrain features that enable you to maximize the effectiveness of your force. These are not always the obvious terrain features, but are things the possession of which enables you to best control important areas of the map.

2. Look for the avenues of approach to both the objectives and the key terrain features. If you have several avenues to the same area, weigh their advantages and disadvantages.

3. Scope out the map thoroughly with view #1 to determine the LOS in places where you can't place units. Note which areas are in dead ground from the key terrain and objectives. Look for good ambush, overwatch, and hull-down positions.

4. Once you know all about the map, put yourself in the shoes of your enemy. If you are attacking, think about how you'd defend on this map and vice versa. Try to anticipate the enemy's dispositions and probable course of action.

5. After you've thought about all this, make your own plan and set up your units accordingly. Just remember, few plans even make it to the Line of Departure, let alone survive contact with the enemy.

6. If you are attacking, in most scenarios you will have superior numbers and/or firepower. Make your deployments to bring as much of your firepower to bear on the critical points at once as possible. Keep your advancing forces in mutually supporting groups to try to always have vastly superior combat power at the point of attack.

7. If you are defending, don't put significant forces in obvious places if you can help it. Units so deployed are often neutralized by arty before they spot the attacker, or the attacker will surely plan to mass overwhelming direct fire on the position. Put your units where the attacker won't expect them so the concentrated firepower misses them. If you are trying to buy time for reinforcements to arrive, it's often worthwhile to sacrifice a platoon or 2 to disrupt the attacker's timing with an attack well forward of your nominal positions.

8. Obstacles not covered by fire are not obstacles.

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-Bullethead

jtweller@delphi.com

WW2 AFV Photos: people.delphi.com/jtweller/tanks/tanks.htm

[Darwin Beikoku no Akuma]

I'm going to go with the sword saint on this one, lots of cookies and mountain dew for the longer battles with skittles handy for a quick lift as neccesarry

[Geier]

When defending: Learn to use the reverse slope defense. The attacker generally has more things that go boom than you have. Read Bulletheads tips and always always study the terrain. Setup in defense is fundamental.

Only expose your soft targets to HE if you must, they are much happier fighting other soft targets.

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Geier, formerly Kettle Black.

"The succesful execution of a well devised plan often looks like luck to saps."

Dashiell Hammett

[Freyland]

1)Scouting with Tanks will allow the likes of Mr. Peng to win battles (and gloat about it)

2) Contrary to a previous post above, your troops can actually shoot each other on accident (read that in either a BTS or Fionn post about 3 months ago)

3)Ambushes are truly effective

4) Be able to recognize when to pull back your troops. Unless you are trying to hold a particular patch of grass for a deadline, there is no point letting your troops get slaughtered in a fight they cannot win. Bac off, re-group, possibly even ambush the pursuing troops. CM models this well.

5) It is not a waste of ammo to "wide-target" a large area where you are certain large numbers of soft targets are located. In addition to casualties, you may cause panic/rout resulting in position changes, messing up ambushes, exposing troops to be picked off, and generally weakening the defenses at no expense to your troops. If you are really good, time the end of your barrage with an advance (friendly fire sucks, though)

More pending, I am sure

Jonathan

[Kevin Peltz]

If possible, find a spot where your company commander has a good LOS and group your mortar teams in defilade, and within command control range, of him. The Coy commander does the spotting for the mortars.This allows you to bring down a concentrated weight of fire quickly. It is also very flexible, as you can change targets swiftly. Three US 60mm mortar teams can fire 20-25 rounds in a minute- this is a good level of saturation. The German 8cm mortars are even more effective. I find it better to use mortars this way, as keeping them with their designated platoon slows the platoon up, as well as tying down the platoon commander by forcing him to have to constantly look for good LOS positions in order to use his mortar team. He is better off being freed up to control the rest of his men. It is not easy to find a place where the Coy commander has good LOS, and can retain command/control of the mortars, but I think it is worth the trouble to find. The summit of Hill 216 in VoT is a good example of this, as is Hill 209 for the Germans. You have to balance the above with fact that the enemy will be looking at these areas too, and may try to mask/suppress them with fire of his own.

[Black Sabot]

Lorak,

This one should have a few tasty morsels:

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/003757.html

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"I do like to see the arms and legs fly"

[Herr Oberst]

Reserves, reserves, reserves.

If the scenario doesn't give them to you, make them on your own.

The MLR shouldn't be the OLR (only line of resistance).

Don't count on ANYONE to do ANYTHING "just like you planned".

[Jeff Pattison]

1. Know Part I of the "Combat Leaders Field Guide" paying attention to the sections on battle drills.

2. On defense, try to setup up positions so that they have cover in front of them and can provide grazing fire to cover the front approach of adjacent positions.

3. Defend in depth and all around.

4. The best time to bug out is at the start of a fight.

5. On offense if there is more than one good avenue of approach, the one that offers more flexibility is the best.

6. Maintain the initiative. Maximize speed and violence on the attack.

7. Cover all obsticles with fire.

8. Always plan a couple of turns ahead.

9. When planning offensive operations, try not to violate the principle of mass. Since the defender already has to spread out to cover all likely avenues of approach, dividing your forces without good reason nullifies any local advantages.

10. Try to use cover to conceal the direction of your main axis of attack.

11. The job of the infantry is to close with the enemy and kill him, period.

12. Resist the temptation to have your armor stay in static positions.

13. From defensive positions always leave yourself an escape rout. If you make it too hard for the enemy to get in, you can't get out.

14. Remember Murphy's Laws and plan for them.

15. Plan based on your enemy's capabilities, not just actions.

16. If you can't achieve armor superiority on the battlefield, then at least contest it.

Maintain a credible antiarmor threat, the threat limits the mobility of enemy armor.

17. Remember all treatizes on tactics are just guidelines. Don't be Ranger Jones.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Pattison (edited 05-30-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Jeff Pattison (edited 05-30-2000).]

[jgdpzr]

Excellent suggestions, people. Keep up the good work!

Just a few of my own:

-Learn the tactical doctrine of the side you are commanding. Being familiar with how each side usually utilized their units and weapon systems is critical in games, such as CM, that accurately model the individual weapons. Each side developed their weapons for use with their tactical doctrine, so use them as they were intended whenever possible.

-Don't forget about the flexibility that splitting squads can afford. Sometimes you may fool your opponent regarding force number and disposition, thus providing you with a local tactical advantage. This can be a very effective way to deceive your opponent into a move that you can tactically, or even strategically, exploit. Also, splitting squads at setup can effectively double the number of foxholes a platoon digs before a defensive battle. This is advantageous when shifting forces within a platoon to withstand directional attacks.

-Defend aggressively! For me, this is one of the most difficult skills to refine. When on the defensive, especially when given strong static units, the temptation is to focus on a static, conservative setup. Against the AI this may work, but a solid, human opponent will usually be able to break down static defenses with relative ease. When you are tasked with a defensive mission, it is usually a given that the attacker will have greater firepower. To offset this, in most cases, you must do all you can to disrupt his attacks. This will usually involve some calculated risks, but a good setup will provide you with at least a couple of options. Your intel of your opponent, as the battle develops, should guide which options you pursue. Sure, some of these options may backfire on you, but personally, when I'm facing a superior enemy on the offensive, I'd prefer to go down fighting, always trying to seize and maintain the initiative. This beats a slow death of attrition, in my book, and can at least give you a chance of winning the field.

-This has been stated many times, but is worth repeating, always seek to isolate your opponents assets and bring in as much firepower as quickly as possible. This goes for both the attacker and the defender. When on the defense, seek out the flank or advancing elements that can most easily be isolated and then pummel them with everything you can. In this way, you can both cripple an assaulting element and force him to alter the immediate objectives of other assets he has in proximity. Sometimes, this can even produce a ripple effect that throws off his attacks across the entire field. When attacking, of course, you want to concentrate firepower whenever possible.

[109 Gustav]

My #1 tip- High explosives solves most problems. Isn't playing as the amis on VoT fun?

Use teams of 3 bazookas, working together to outflank enemy tanks. This way, you can triple your odds of knocking out one, although you can't cover as much of the front.

Hold fire from fixed guns until you have a truly good shot. Once you shoot, you are seen, and once you are seen, you aren't safe.

Use fire and movement in infantry assaults, letting half your troops cover the half moving forward.

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There is nothing certain about war except that one side won't win.

-Ian Hamilton

[Maximus]

I don't know if this has been mentioned above, because I'm too lazy to read through them all, but....

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>Try and time your "banzai charge" with an artillery barrage.

ie. If you are trying to flush out defenders in foxholes and have some nearby infantry ready for an assualt, bombard the enemy with mortars or something right as you are getting ready to assault. And try and time the assualt so they don't quite get into the barrage before the turn ends. Then next orders phase, cancel the barrage and chew up the defender as its retreating.

I usually get this effect by accident. Pulled it off a couple of times with the Beta Demo in Last Defense. Did it once in VoT, near Plomville.

<LI> Use tanks in mass. Especially if you are the Allies. Drive a bunch together, so if one gets knocked out, the others can return fire.

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"While stands the Collosseum, Rome shall stand.

When falls the Collosseum, Rome shall fall.

And when Rome falls -- the World."

**Byron**

[This message has been edited by Maximus (edited 05-30-2000).]

[Lorak]

Thanks Guys, Just what I was looking for. Too Bad I can't Just cut and paste your comments...

Oh well, I just love to type

So please don't get offended if some of your comments are paraphrased.

Thanks

Lorak

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http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/combatmissionclub

Lorak's FTX for CM

[This message has been edited by Lorak (edited 05-30-2000).]

[Guest grunto]

When on the defense, look for opportunities to attack. This is a paraphrase of what jgdpzr was writing. Exploiting mis-positioned enemy assault forces with confusing and hopefully crippling counterattacks is sometimes key to grinding the enemy attack to a halt.

So even when you're outnumbered 2:1 on the field, if somewhere locally you find you're in a position to inflict harm through the counterattack, take that chance. VOT for instance often offers the astute German many such chances for 'local' counterattack.

Andy

[Guest *Captain Foobar*]

***SPOILER*****

OK, I haven't seen this discussed yet so I will bring it up....

I am currently in a situation where 5 shermans are having there way with me in VoT. There are 3 driving happily up my right flank (as germans), and my Panther has not arrived yet.

Luckily, I have my 150mm Infanty Gun hidden up on a hill on my right. I have withheld firing at random, because he will probably die from acute arty disease (AAD) a couple of turns after he fires. It has been very difficult to keep my finger off the trigger, but NOW the 3 shermans in question are within 350m, and I am pretty sure that I will be more effective firing at him, than when he was at 700m away. And he has no idea what is in store......

The reason I mention this example :

there's a depressing # of things on the batlefield that you have no control over. I could not control the fact that he smacked down my 75mm bunker on turn 3 with a lucky hit. I think its important to leave hidden daggers on the map. Things that the attacker cannot plan for as he commences his attack.

I wouldnt need my sIG33 if things had gone well in my defense earlier. But when things go bad, sometimes all you have going for you are hidden daggers. They let you dictate something in the bttle, instead of being slowly attrited away.

[Dan]

one quick one. when attacking bunkers with infrantry the two week spots are the front. (they can shoot you there!!) or the back. DO not do as I did and try to flame the things from the side. damn flamethrower fired all six "shots" to flank of a wooden bunker and at the most spooked the crew. Cause when the reast of the platoon closed the gap and started to move into dead ground on the flanks. the crew bailed. But not before wasting my defensless flamethower crew.

[Freyland]

Expect a firefight, but just make sure you do it on your terms.

Jonathan

[Bullethead]

One I forgot to mention earlier:

When chosing ground to defend, always have a covered path of retreat. Failure to provide such converts every defense into a do-or-die last stand because your troops can't pull back without being gunned down in the open. And remember, like Pattison said, the best time to pull back is early in the fight, before you're surrounded, suppressed, and depleted.

In conjunction with this dictum, always try to have a secondary defensive position at the other end of your retreat route. So also use Jgdpzr's tip about split squads making 2 foxholes per squad. Set up 1/2 of the squad in the initial position and the other 1/2 at the 2ndary position, giving you a foxhole in both places. Then quickly move the rear 1/2 up to recombine with the forward 1/2.

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-Bullethead

jtweller@delphi.com

WW2 AFV Photos: people.delphi.com/jtweller/tanks/tanks.htm