jasoncawley@ameritech.net Posted January 31, 2001 Share Posted January 31, 2001 Sure, a fine question. A big hill to defend on is great. But you don't have to do it from the front of the hill with those beautiful long fire lanes, which as you saw aren't all they are cracked up to be. Behind the crest of the hill, on your side of it, can be a better place for your real fighting line. For one thing, he can't see you there, so he does not know exactly where to rush (except the hill in general). For another, he can't pin the men down with his MGs or anything, beforehand. Then you need the men close enough together to support each other. For the case he tried, wire or mines across the crest-line would have helped, but I doubt you had them. The other key thing is your own arty or mortars, firing HE not smoke. You want to save a full fire mission of that stuff for exactly such a rush. Then put it on the forward slope of the hill and get behind the crest. His men will not come through it - well, a few will make it through but most won't, which is actually better. The only thing certain to beat more concentrated attackers is artillery fire. That is the thing that forces anyone to spread out in the first place. Units on the flank of his charge can area-fire into the smoke, but that is not nearly as effective as arty. The backside of a hill is a better position than you might think. It is easy to think "but he can come right up next to me", which is true, but he can't support with ranged weapons and you can if you are below the crest, and your ranged weapons are on your side of the hill (or off to its sides). See how easy it it for him to get LOS to the area around the hill-top? Well, its easy for your guys too, so get off the hill top (just) and "put" him there. If you have no obstacle belt (mines or wire) and you've used up all your artillery support (or didn't have any to start with) and he outnumbers you, then yeah he is going to take whichever piece of ground he wants, pretty much. When you see the smoke come you could take it as your "cue" to get out of dodge, and he'd run through his mortar ammo, but he would get on the hill. And deployed tight, you can only get him off again if you have artillery of your own. But your men would be alive that way, which is better than the alternative. What you want to have happen is for your guys to still be in foxholes and his guys not to be, when your own mortars come down, close. (And preferably on him not you, as though anybody can cut it that fine). This is called "final protective fire", used to prevent a unit from getting overrun. Even if you hit some of your own guys, he'll get it worse because he is not in the holes yet and you are. But there is not a lot you can do to a "massed" attacker without some kind of fire support. This kind of thing is also one reason I love AP mines, defending not far behind them. What mines and mortars have in common, that just infantry squads don't, is they effect areas not just single targets. Massing does not overwhelm them, instead it multiplies their impact. For what it is worth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wwb_99 Posted January 31, 2001 Share Posted January 31, 2001 When I set up a defense I ask a list of questions: 1) Where should I set up my infantry to hold the objectives while not leaving them completely exposed to fire, as well as leave a covered line of retreat to another strong position. 2) Where will they be exposed to fire from? 3) Where should I set up heavier support weapons (MGs & ATGs) to saturate these areas. So basically it turns into a real nasty trap with my infantry being the bait. Jump his scouts, encourage him to move support up, and drop a couple AT rounds into his support. At the same time, I withdraw my infantry to the fall back position if need be. Generally I set up several of the strong points with mutually supporting firebases. The idea is to entangle the attacker in a multi-layered, multidirectional defense. Then, loose the mechanized reserve and watch him melt. WWB ------------------ Before battle, my digital soldiers turn to me and say, Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutamus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col Deadmarsh Posted January 31, 2001 Author Share Posted January 31, 2001 Jason, Some excellent points. I think your "reverse slope" defense would've done the trick on this small map. Letting him take the hill with the nice multi-level house never occured to me. If that thought ever came into my mind, a little voice would've said, "What are you #@$#%*@ crazy!?!?!" It might though be the best way to defend against something like this as 2-80mm arty strikes from him can fill the place with smoke to easily blind you from your firing lanes as he rushes forth to overwhelm your inferior numbered troops. Even if your arty spotters have LOS on him, you still have to hit him while he's on the run and unless you have TRP's, your arty is gonna take 2 minutes to get there so you will also have to guess where he's going. That's 2 negatives right there about using arty against an attack in this situation. By letting him take the hill, you can make things easier on your own arty because you won't have to guess where he's going next and you won't have to hit him while he's running. You simply wait till he's on top and then hit him as he won't be able to advance anymore and you don't have to guess where he's gonna be next cause he's already reached his desired position. Going any further means him running into your dug in infantry on the reverse slope. From there, you simply take out the houses on top with tanks or SP guns and then cream his troops up there with heavy arty fire until you've attrited his troops enough to launch a counter attack of your own. Can't wait to try this next time. Thanks for the suggestions. ------------------ Youth is wasted on the young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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