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Kudos to Christopher Hall for his CM HQ "Infantry" article


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Madmatt has also paid note to Christopher Hall's recent contribution (6/15) on the CM HQ site, both at the site and in his topic thread here for today. But I figured to mention this as a separate topic to give Christopher some added recognition.

Anyway, Christopher, well done. It is a very solid piece of work; good use of pictures and diagrams to explain your examples of infantry maneuvers on the attack. Given the importance of infantry in both CM and the WW2 tactical scheme, your article should be great reference information at CM HQ.

Ed

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Guest Madmatt

Yeah, and check out that layout!!!! biggrin.gif

Way to go Madma errr???!? oh...Hehehe That's me...

Madmatt

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I think this article is a good introduction; but IMHO, I think it did not go far enough and missed some things. The portions about choosing an axis of advance and movement to contact were excellent, but that only covers the opening game. What about manuvre on contact? Battle Drills?

On defense, I thought his discussions about the pros and cons of forward and reverse slope defenses were good. Except in rare instances, I would not choose a forward slope defence, because it invites your opponent to scrub you off the hill with Artillery or Direct Tank fire which you should always assume the enemy has until proven otherwise.

The other problem I have with the defense portion of the article is that it's discussion of defense in depth is a little thin. What he would call observers, I'd call a screen whose purpose is too force the enemy to stop and deploy for battle before the screen retires. The screen is were I'd put my MMG's and light antitank weapons that need flank shots to take out the enemy. We haven't yet seen a scenario for combat mission yet that allows us to do this.

There is also another line behind the MLR that I like to call the goal line or line of last resistance. Here go typically the mortars, heavy machine guns, and heavy antitank guns. The goal line's job is to backstop the MLR if it should get breached and prevent mobile forces from exploiting the hole.

And, that's my 2 cents worth.

[This message has been edited by Jeff Pattison (edited 06-16-2000).]

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I will confess that a few of your issues were in the back of my mind, too, Jeff, particularly the "defense in depth" note.

But given that the bulk of prior CM HQ articles has been for armor, I just think it's refreshing that the far more prevalent combat arm of WW2 is getting some commentary too. I wouldn't mind a future article in which the small arms makeup of a squad/platoon would guide the tactics for each.

So with that note, I should ask MadMatt for Chris Hall's e-mail and then ask Chris if he's interested in collaborating on more "infantry" pieces in the future. I don't know what alias he goes by here.

Ed

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Agreed. It was a solid start and very well done as far as it went. But there is still much room for discussion in subsequent articles.

'Course, hopefully the manual will give us lots of insight into the subtle workings of some of the game mechanics.

Vetch

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OK, now I'd like to see an article on "combined arms" tactics.... using armor and infantry together.

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

So with that note, I should ask MadMatt for Chris Hall's e-mail and then ask Chris if he's interested in collaborating on more "infantry" pieces in the future. I don't know what alias he goes by here.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

crhall@fas.harvard.edu. As for all the points brought up above: yea those are all really interesting topics. I'm personally most interested in doing armor and infantry togeather, but I'm definately going to wait for my life to calm downa bit before writing anything more. Feel free to contact me if you want to think about something colabrative or you just want advice. Hey, contact Fionn and Madmatt too, they were a big help putting this togeather. (and say... editing it for spelling smile.gif) Oh yea... and that layout just brings a tear to my eye everytime... such beauty! smile.gif

--Chris

[This message has been edited by Maastrictian (edited 06-17-2000).]

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