Tactics Primer

[Wittman]

1. On-Map Fire Support Assets.

In the German Army of World War II on-map fire support assets basically comprised 81mm. These mortars were man-portable but could only be moved slowly ( MOVE) and thus weren’t highly mobile tactically or strategically or suitable for organic incorporation into units which needed to move quickly unless vehicular transport for the mortars was arranged.

Unit 81mm Mortar Team

Crew 6 Men.

Movement Speed MOVE

Blast Firepower 17

Number of Rounds 25 H, 5 S

Minimum Range 100 metres

Note: Number of Rounds and their precise types is only an average and so you will receive varying total numbers and types of rounds in-game.

It should be noted that during static defence situations 81mm mortars are capable of truly indirect fire at targets out of LOS but more often than not one’s organically incorporated mortar teams will have to have LOS to the target in order to fire and so this will be assumed to be the “standard case” whilst being able to fire at unseen targets will be dealt with as a “special case”.

Let us examine the 81mm Mortar Team in more detail by examining each characteristic of its make-up to gain a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses:

Crew: 6 Men. This gives this unit good potential to absorb casualties in a static situation and still keep firing. So long as the unit doesn’t move it can still fire mortar rounds after having incurred 66% casualties.

Movement Speed: MOVE. This tells us that we cannotuse this unit as part of any tactical rapid reaction force unless vehicular transport is arranged for it. The 81mm Mortar Team must be emplaced along likely avenues of enemy advance long before the enemy approaches its general location. This also means that great care must be taken when siting 81mm Mortar Teams to ensure good fields of fire since they have great difficulty in quickly moving to a better firing location in response to enemy movements.

Blast Firepower: 17. A blast firepower of 17 means that 81mm mortars are only capable of suppressing an enemy in open terrain but not capable of killing large numbers of enemy in open terrain.

Number of Rounds: 25 H, 5 S. The 81mm mortar carries only enough rounds for two to three minutes of firing thus it is not a durable weapons system.

Minimum Range: 100 metres. Well, obviously care must be taken in siting mortars to ensure they can begin engaging the enemy at significantly more than 100 metres. Engaging at 120 metres will do no good at all since it will only encourage the enemies to simply charge the mortars to get within their weapons envelope.

Ok, now we’ve examined the 81mm Mortar Team. Let us now extrapolate some tactical rules and guidelines to help you utilise 81mm Mortar Teams in a more effective and efficient manner.

1. An un-transported 81mm Mortar Team should only ever be placed in your MLR and never as part of an outpost line as it simply doesn’t have the speed to break contact and return to the MLR on foot once the enemy is near.

2. Always site mortars long before the enemy reaches the area so that they aren’t caught on the move. Any casualties suffered result in the team losing 16% of its ammunition for every man lost. This loss of ammunition results in a 16% decrease in the amount of time the mortar can fire/ suppress the enemy and a 16% reduction in the possible number of casualties caused. Such a degradation in ability due to foreseeable poor positioning is simply intolerable and should be avoided at all costs by learning to anticipate enemy advances and effectively pre-positioning 81mm Mortar Teams.

3. Tough out anything but the heaviest enemy bombardments since, for your purposes, a mortar team of 2 men is able to deliver as much firepower as a team of 6 men for the same duration of time so long as it hasn't moved after taking the casualties.

4. Since an 81mm Mortar Team can only MOVE away from an enemy attacking it one should ensure that 81mm mortar teams begin retreating long before the enemy has gotten into grenade range or the 81mm mortar team will simply be shot down as it tries to slowly escape.

5. The 81mm Mortar Team and MG teams should be the first units to break contact since they are the slowest units. Rifle squads should keep the enemy engaged until mortars and MGs are safely away before, themselves, breaking contact.

6. The 81mm Mortar Team should always be situated in Woods, Heavy Woods or Tall Pines. At a pinch Scattered Trees will do. The reason is simply that an 81mm Mortar Team situated on the edge of Woods will only have to MOVE 20 metres before disappearing from enemy view and being safe from enemy direct fire. While there is an increased risk of casualties due to treebursts during any enemy artillery bombardments of the MLR this is more than offset by the increased long-term survivability of the 81mm Mortar Team. Locating in Woods, Heavy Woods or Tall Pines also helps protect the 81mm Mortar Team from enemy direct fire which is the largest threat to its existence.

7. Always site mortars such that the enemy will be much more than 100 metres away when you intend to open fire. The only situation where it is permissible to let the enemy close to almost 100 metres away before opening fire is if you WISH to tempt the enemy into rushing the mortars. This could be desirable if you have a multi-HMG ambush set up waiting for him to reach a point 80 metres from the two “temptation” mortar teams.

8. Treebursts are a firepower multiplier. What this means is that an 81mm mortar round is more effective exploding in the canopies of trees than when it explodes on the ground. Treebursts are particularly effective at massively suppressing and killing prone troops, something a mortar shell with blast firepower of 17 usually has difficulty doing. Thus, our next rule is going to be to try to plan our fields of fire and placements so that our mortars open fire on enemy troops at a tree-line. Not only will this maximise the suppression it will also maximise the casualty rate and, since any commander worth his salt will move from cover to cover it is much easier to plan your defence to kill him when he enters an obvious piece of cover than it is to plan your defence to kill him as he tries to make his way, along an unpredictable path, to that cover.

9. Since an 81mm Mortar Team only has sufficient rounds for two to three minutes fire our last rule is going to be that 81mm Mortar Teams will only fire if we have a very good reason for them to fire.

Good reasons are as follows:

A. Pinning this particular enemy platoon at a treeline for 3 minutes will disrupt the cohesion and timing of his attack and allow me to concentrate on each pincer one at a time.

B. Using my mortar now will pin the enemy in place for enough time for me to close with him using my infantry in a counter-attack and destroy him.

C. This is the critical moment at my Schwerpunkt. I need to bring all available fire down now to maximally suppress the enemy so that my infantry can rush the enemy with as few casualties as possible.

D. The enemy is rushing me across open terrain. This is the critical moment at his Schwerpunkt. To rob him of his ability to break my lines I need to detail my 81mm Mortar Teams to either fire at the onrushing infantry of his maneuvre element or fire at his supporting heavy weapons so as to rob his maneuvre elements of fire support

A pair of German 81mm mortars and 2 HMG 42s can, very often stop two entire platoons of Americans from advancing a single metre for up to 3 minutes, buying you priceless time to redeploy infantry assets to cope with their attack.

If your 81mm Mortar Teams aren’t that effective then you aren’t using them correctly, Each mortar team should be seen a potential three minute roadblock for an entire enemy platoon if positioned correctly. Also, if you bear all these rules in mind the 81mm Mortar Team should be able to withdraw once its ammunition runs out without loss.

Do you find this interesting/do you want to see this for other weapons systems? Would you visit a website featuring a tactics manual along these lines?

[This message has been edited by Wittman (edited 02-05-2000).]

[JeffRaider]

Awesome!! I learned an amazing amount from the above, and would be an avid reader of any website or articles like that one. Let me know if you need help. . .

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--

Jeff Fraser

VIVA LOS ZAPATISTAS

[PanzerLeader]

Excellent job Wittman! I found the advice very interesting...

[Mike Zeares]

Excellent article. I would indeed enjoy reading similar articles on other weapon systems, and would regularly visit such a website.

The correct use of mortars is probably one of the more difficult skills to master. My paternal grandfather, an infantry Platoon Sergeant when the U.S. entered the war, was kept in England as a training NCO for the duration due to his expertise with mg's and mortars.

-- Mike Zeares

[Peterk]

Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Please, more tactics articles!!!

p.

[Guest Mikeman]

I would definitely bookmark a site like that! It reminds me of CMHQ's Quick Tactics, but super in-depth. Way to go!

Mikeman out.

[Guest TOBRUK]

ditto

[Guest Big Time Software]

Good job! Mortars, and artillery in general, are often ineffective in wargames or sometimes TOO effective. A major design goal for Combat Mission was to have mortars work as they should. Although the demo's treatment of artillery in general has changed since the demo's release, it is still closer to reality than any other game we have played. If used properly they can be the deciding factor in a game.

As an example I had a single British rifle company defending a 500m stretch of low density housing. In support were two 3inch mortars. Attacking was something like 2.5 companies of Green SS troops. I happened to have the mortars in the right place at the right time and I stopped their offensive for most of the game. They took terrible losses too. From what FOW let me know, I caused about 30 casualties and threw the survivors into utter chaos. Unfortunately I ran out of ammo and lost one mortar so I had to pull back my left flank with moderate casualties. Had the mortars not been in the right place at the right time I would have been overrun in 15 turns!

Steve

[Xavier]

Great !!!

Very good job. I'm waiting for the next articles

[Guest Babra]

Having just had one of my platoons decimated by 81mm tree-bursts, I can safely vouch for its effect. An excellent article. Thanks.

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Floreat Jerboa !

[sbg2112]

My first thought was, "Hey, somebody's posted part of CM's manual!"

Seriously, well done -- the content is excellent, but please think about presentation and organization, since you may want to scale this very useful analysis across CM's large number of weapons and unit types. Off the type of my head, this would mean partitioning your analysis into "movement, deployment (relative to terrain / relative to other units), combat employment" -- I'm sure there's an established way of breaking this up, but hopefully I've conveyed the concept.

(Oh, and spice generously with links to historical data for weapon or unit.)

[Moon]

Wittman? Hmmm... Wittman? Hey, I know a guy with that name, and I mean WITHOUT the second "n"...

GREAT text!

[Goanna]

Excellent article. I was already doing most of that based on discussions I picked up from other thtreads, but also learned something. from having it all in one place.

Post the website when you have it set up Wittman (me thinks I smell Fionn here somewhere).

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desert rat wannabe

[Guest Captain Foobar]

Wittman,

I want to request an article concerning the proper use of SMOKE rounds, from AFV's, infantry, and artillery on the the tactical level. I want to know specifically if it was used in WW2 to the extent that it is/will be, in CM.

I have seen shots from games (LD, specifically) where it SMOKE rounds practically covered the center area of the battlefield. It appears to be terribly effective to cover a troop advance. I would like to hear tactics to counter this. Do you guys feel that the CM rules accurately reflect the use of smokescreens in warfare? I am still learning tactics, so don't take this as a slam on CM.

[Mike Zeares]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Captain Foobar:

Wittman,

I have seen shots from games (LD, specifically) where it SMOKE rounds practically covered the center area of the battlefield. It appears to be terribly effective to cover a troop advance. I would like to hear tactics to counter this. Do you guys feel that the CM rules accurately reflect the use of smokescreens in warfare? I am still learning tactics, so don't take this as a slam on CM. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The smoke in the demo is buggy. BTS has said that they've fixed it, and it will fall in a much more realistic pattern now.

One of the little touches that shows their extreme attention to detail is the way smoke rounds won't poof up right away, but take a minute or two to really get going. You can't fire a smoke round and just charge on in. You need to wait for your screen to develop first. Patience... patience....

-- Mike Zeares, learning to be patient. And people say computer games aren't educational.

[Guest Bobb]

Very nice. In my first CM demo game ever today, I gave my Allied morters in the Last Defense another primary mission - to kill off the halftracks. Got everyone of em. No Hellcat fire wasted. Some morter ammo left applied to squads. Also used Bazooka fire in simular manner. Don't think I killed anyone, but the squads sure as hell were ducking. What else are Bazooka rounds good for when there is no armor threat!

[-Kevin-]

Thanks for the summary!

The value of your article for me was the integration of time and physical factors.

"3 min roadblock" is easy to remember.

Three minutes/turns is a short time compared to say a 30 turn battle. Typically, do you think the Germans shot off all their ammo at once or held some in reserve? I have no clue.

As scenarios get larger and longer this brings in the issue of re-supply. I will have to search for threads on this as it must have been discussed. Also, what are the best tactics for the use of teams with no ammo ... recon, head for the hills etc.

- Kevin

[Guest Madmatt]

Hmmm, you know that writting style sure reminds me of someone....

Madmatt out

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If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ!

combathq.thegamers.net

[Fionn]

Aww hell, if I want a little honest feedback I'm allowed to get sneaky .

I wanted to get some honest opinions regarding the demand for such articles since it is a big undertaking to do them for the entire spectrum of weapons.

[Guest Mikeman]

I should have guessed! Due to the positive response I guess we get to see some expanded Quick Tactics at CMHQ, right? Thanks, Fionn. Where do you find the time?

Mikeman out.

[-Kevin-]

Kevi returns as

-Kevin-

with same

old

poetic spacing.

[PanzerLeader]

Haha! Well done Fionn, I didn't have a hint that somebody was playing a trick on us like this!

[Guest Gunnerdream]

Way to go, Fionn!!!! More, More, More!!!

Gunnerdream...floating down through the clouds...

[Simon Fox]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Aww hell, if I want a little honest feedback I'm allowed to get sneaky<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

He he, It was fairly transparent IMO. I saw the name and read the first para and wondered: "What the hell is he up to now?"

[Moriarty]

Fionn, looks like you've got a winner here.

Had a feeling you were lurking here. Style very reminiscent of a treatise on use of armor, which I read on a neighboring site that looks OUTSTANDING these days.

Hats off to you and Madmatt on the upgrade.

[This message has been edited by Moriarty (edited 02-07-2000).]