How to move 200 m in the open

[Eric Alkema]

Obviously the first suggestion is DON'T! I am playing in open terrain vs infantry with strong winds. Strong winds means smoke is a waste of ammo. As a result I am getting harased by MGs at long range and I can't spot the buggers. After sending a team out front to make sure that nothing was going to start throwing HE at them I figured that the Advance order was the way to go. Unfortunately there is no way that they are going to Advance for 200 meters, it is too tiring. So I have to slow it down.

What I came up with was to plot an Advance half the distance they can go in one turn (40m), add a Hide order and then add Pauses until the delay is about 30 seconds. This should give them 30 second rest breaks with their heads down.

It's slow but it should work if the harasing fire is light.

[laxx]

i know i am going to get flak for this, but sometimes, if the distance is around 50 m, fast would be good instead of advance, it gives the enemy little time to react. as for 200m, perhaps a combo of fast-rest-fast might help.

[PiggDogg]

Eric,

Interest abounds, especially by me, regarding the results of your proposal. Let us know how the maneuver goes.

Cheers, Richard

[ March 14, 2003, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: PiggDogg ]

[Eric Alkema]

I had already done it. I wouldn't have said anything if it hadn't gone fairly well. The harassing fire was coming from one, and occasionally two MGs (Maxims probably) that were at least 500m from my destination. I can't say for sure, I still haven't seen the buggers. Anyway, I was able to move two platoons with about 2 casualties. I also had a few tanks MGing bits of cover that were near the sound contacts that were shooting at me.

Elsewhere I had a couple of LMG teams advancing with another platoon. Because Advance is not an option for them, I used the Run for a short distance and then hide method that Laxx mentioned. I ran for 40m which was the same distance as the Advancing squads. I think I also added a little extra pause so they wouldn't stand up until after there were other targets moving.

[ March 14, 2003, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: Eric Alkema ]

[Gen. Longstreet]

The trick is to draw the enemy's attention to another place.

[xerxes]

I'm playing an all random game were the attacker has to cross fairly large snow covered areas of open ground. He's just sending in a portion of his force, when they break, he sends in another portion. Eventually I'm going to run out of ammo. Sometimes just slogging through is the right approach.

[Jack Ryan]

well ive covered 100m, you need to cover and advance. Send, lets say 1st squad, forward a bit then you move,lets say 2nd squad, to there postion. So you always have someone coving your squad

hope that helps

[JasonC]

If you have LOS to fully IDed defenders, then cover fire can help. But that is typically a matter of the last 150-200 yards, and the firefight to get the defenders out of their position. It does not work in the approach march, where you don't have full IDs (just sound contacts), and besides the range and defender cover make shooting with mere infantry pointless, because you'd run out of ammo before the defenders so much as pinned.

Once you have some people - a platoon or so - in cover close enough for full IDs, you can do all sorts of things. You can call down arty, bring up tanks or other direct fire HE chuckers, position mortars to deal with enemy MGs, etc. You can concentrate squad infantry fire on one target at a time with a whole platoon, and rotate through the defenders. While a few HMGs and the like shoot at the ones already hammered, to keep their heads down and prevent rally.

But before you first get people that close, firepower will not help you cross open ground. Area fire or big arty barrages on unlocated defenders are too wasteful of ammo. You can't keep it up long enough to help, and without accurate targeting it does little to dug in defenders anyway. They go to "alerted" and snap right back. They can still fire effectively, especially if there are many potential shooters to pick from - which there usually are.

Now, covered approaches or routes with only small areas of open ground dividing up areas of cover, you can deal with by careful bounds. Meaning you just limit the number of squads exposed in the open at any one time. Most guys are in cover, using "move" to get to the next jump off point. A few use "advance" to cross a gap into the next bit of cover, in any given minute. They may get shot at, but with "advance" they typically press on. You take fire over time, but spread out across many units and minutes. If the defenders shoot at everyone, they blow ammo at range on men in cover. They run low on ammo before you run out of rally.

The hard part is the approach march period, before you have full IDs to bring firepower methods to bear, but without enough cover to use the slow bounds method outlined above. Sometimes the map just forces this upon you. Obviously it is better to pick another route if you can - though sometimes the covered route is so predictable, it is actually harder than an open one elsewhere - if distance or the rise and fall of ground break up the defenders into clumps, anyway.

How do you approach if there isn't cover and you've got a long way to go? You have to take it slow. Do not try to rush across the field, as though you can solve the problem by minimizing exposure time. That sometimes worked in CMBO, but it fails in CMBB, because infantry pins much more easily now. And once the range falls, defenders have plenty of firepower to break or kill men trying to push through open terrain to get into the same cover as the defenders.

The way to see the right approach is to get out of your head the idea that the problem is one of movement, and instead look at it from the defender's point of view. His problem is fire discipline and making his limited ammo last long enough to break the attack. When the attackers are far away, the defender's firepower is lower. Shots at that range mean fewer shots in closer. The longer the defender shoots, the more time the attackers have to rally, as well. Shooting early and often therefore "blows" a large portion of the available defending ammo at low fp numbers, with plenty of time for the attackers to rally from the effect. The defenders shoot lopsidedly, but by that very fact the attackers have more ammo remaining as they get closer. Their greater numbers and ammo in the close range portion of the fight then offset the cover advantage of the defenders.

In contrast, waiting until the attacker is close means each shot gives high fp. The engagement is concentrated in time. That leaves less time for rally. Ideally, each burst or two of fire pins an attacking unit, preventing replies. The defenders then pour in additional fire at good ranges while the attackers cower, killing some and breaking most. The few units that remain cannot overcome the cover difference, and lose the remaining firefight. Perhaps half the attackers rout away in disorder, taking many minutes to reform, if they do at all.

But the downside of waiting until the defenders are close, is if they get close enough for full IDs their replies become effective and they can reach for all of their additional weapons (tanks, FOs, etc) to turn the tide. And the numbers edge has to be manageable at the moment of the firefight. Half the cover difference, for example. Which means men in wooded foxholes may handle twice their numbers (barely), but can't manage 3 times.

The defender is trying to time his shots with all of the above in mind. If the attackers push hard into the defense, slowing or stopping only when defender firepower physically halts the men, then the defender has the upper hand. The attack will fall apart, without enough time to rally. Leading units get "off line", draw more than their share of firepower, and break. Trailing units are pinned and can do little to help them. Platoons split front to back, and exceed the command spans of their HQs. There aren't enough company HQs to patch everyone else back together. Disorganization gets especially bad when units enter "cover panic", changing their move orders to "sneak" in the wrong direction.

So, realizing all of these things from having been on the defender's side of the hill a few times, you can start to see the things an attacker should do to make an open ground advance succeed. Point number one is to go slow, inviting the defender to waste his ammo at extreme range, and using the additional time to rally. "Rally power", spread over many units and minutes, *absorbs* the defending firepower, instead of avoiding it.

The next thing is to avoid too much "cover panic", and to allow your men to rally even though they are in open ground. Units go to cover panic when they are hit too hard *while moving*. Advance minimizes this effect, though it doesn't eliminate it entirely if hit hard enough. Men fail to rally in the open, primarily because they continue to be shot at. Shots concentrate on moving units and closest units. So, you want units pausing rather than moving some of the time. And you want different units moving at different times, and different units closest at different times.

So, how do you put these things together? Say you have 2 platoons each of 4 squads. Turn 1, advance with 2 squads in each platoon, a distance of 50m. The next turn, advance with the remainder of both platoons, again 50m, while the forward squads remain stationary. If anyone is deep in pin, remain stationary an additional minute even when it would otherwise be "his turn" to move. Do not fire back.

If the defenders refrain from firing, you creep closer to the magic ranges where you will get full IDs for replies. If they fire "early and often", you will pin in the open, yes. You will make only slow progress forward as long as the defenders keep up heavy fire minute after minute. But you will lose few men. Squads will not rout clear off to the rear. A few will panic in place, but recover eventually as more advanced squads take the heat off of them. Most will linger in "cautious" to "pinned", down 1-2 men perhaps. Meanwhile, squad infantry defenders will burn through their entire available ammo loads in about 5 minutes, without killing your force.

HMGs can afford to keep up such long range "pinning" fire much longer. And therefore, most defenders will shoot at you at such ranges only with their HMGs. At least, after perhaps a minute or two of squad infantry fire in addition. They cannot afford to keep firing all of their infantry at ~300-400 yards. They simply aren't hitting enough to stop you before running dry. The HMGs, meanwhile, annoy you with pins, certainly. But being only a modest portion of the defending force, at long range they will not wipe you out.

At some point the movement will get easier. Defenders are low on ammo or refraining from blowing what they have left. An HMG here or there has jammed. Some of your units will have rallied particularly well, by sheer luck. Whatever combination, the moment will arrive, when the men "lift" and make steady progress over 2-3 minutes. You have to listen to the men to gauge this moment. Meaning, watch their rally states, instead of focusing on the distance left to cross. When it comes, you want everyone one line and advancing, 50-100m bounds. Stop to rest for a minute if you get to "tired" (tiring is OK). The goal is to get not one squad, but intact platoons on line to the full ID range during such a "lift".

Once you have men that close, do not try to press to point blank right away. It won't work, and the men will "come apart" if you push them too hard into an intact defense. Instead, halt the forward squads, and collect the stragglers. Bound them up to the line of the forward guys, or a little past them (through, between, half a minute or so). Fire by entire platoons on single, fully IDed enemy shooters, if you think you have enough firepower for it, given their cover. But do not expect to break all of the defenders at ~200m with mere infantry fire. You are just spending some ammo to reduce the heat of the reply fire.

Then the goal is to rally in place at that firing line. If you have heavy weapons, now is the time to make full use of them, to reduce the heat of the defender's fire - or if you have enough (tanks e.g.), to break the defenders outright. If not, you have to move by bounds down to 100m or so, before trying to shoot it out infantry vs. infantry. Go for differential range, i.e. getting a whole platoon 100m from one defender in an arc that is mostly farther than that from other defenders. Then break that defender, and repeat vs the next, rolling up the defending line.

At that point it is a normal fire ascendency battle. The closing phase is over. Don't close to grenade range (even with single squads) until the defender you rush that way is heads down. Once you've broken some defenders, try to get attackers into their bits of cover or their foxholes, to eliminate the cover difference.

It is all much slower than a CMBO rush. You rely much more on "fire discipline intimidation" (FDI for short), rather than covering fire. FDI means the defender's sense that he cannot afford to fire his remaining ammo that far away, at men in cover that good (if you have any), or he will run out before he can break your attack. Late in a fight, FDI will allow you much freer movement in areas far from the defenders, than early.

Vastly simplified, you suck out half their ammo at range, use "rally power" to absorb it, then use FDI to close after their ammo is limited (the "lift"), then firefight your way into their position from ~100m range. Twice the ammo remaining per man times odds, will counteract the defender's cover edge.

I hope this helps.

P.S. One other useful tidbit about fights of this sort, which I now realize might not be obvious. Given a choice, always concentrate your fire on the *new* shooter, not the old one. That HMG that has been firing at you throughout the entire approach is already low on ammo. The squad that just opened up, on the other hand, has not spent itself yet. If you break one or the other with your own fire, which should you pick? Obviously, the one that still has all its ammo. Breaking a unit after it has fired off all its ammo doesn't help; breaking one for good after it got off only a few shots is worth loads. You are fighting against the defender's limited ammo, not his manpower.

PPS - It also helps to get in the habit of thinking of long range as itself a mild form of cover. You would not hesitate to maneuver through scattered trees, even reasonably close to defenders. The firepower reduction of scattered trees compared to open ground is typically around a factor of 3. Most infantry firepower is cut in half for each range window (40 to 100, 100 to 250, etc).

So, in terms of fp received, being 300-350m from enemy infantry but in the open, is akin to being in scattered trees 100m away. The big difference is you can't reply in the former case and can in the latter. But if ammo expenditure isn't a great idea for the other guy, you don't much care that you can't fire back yet. You are saving your ammo for better shots, later on.

[ March 17, 2003, 02:20 PM: Message edited by: JasonC ]

[Eric Alkema]

I thought that's what I said!

Leave it to Jason to explain the science behind my hunch.

I do have one question. You suggested moving by alternating units. I would worry that this would allow the defender to concentrate on fewer targets and have a better chance of pinning ALL of your units that are attempting to move. If he can do this with HMGs alone, you may never get anywhere.

[JasonC]

It is better to have the defender spread his distant firepower over more units. If you try to move everyone, the leading guys draw more than their share of the fire. They don't just pin, but break.

If you alternate movers, the moving men and the closest men change from turn to turn. And those are the ones that draw the most fire. It gives the ones hit hardest last turn, or the turn before, a chance to rally. They are sitting still, while others who weren't shot last turn are advancing. If the movement doesn't draw fire right away, soon the range will be closer to the movers too, and that will.

The goal is -not- to avoid his fire. The goal is also not to press a few men as far forward as possible, as though crossing the ground quickly is the important thing. (A few guys broken from their time on "point", others advancing somewhat, strung out across the field front to back - not what you want).

Rather, the goal is to keep as many of the men in decent morale states - yellow or better - and more or less together, throughout the advance. Regardless of how slow that makes it. Force him to stop more guys than his ammo can easily stop.

You are maximizing total rally that way. Units broken all the way to red rally very slowly, and units not hit at all aren't contributing any rally. Units in "pin" or better, not being fired at this instant, are doing the most "rally work". That is what absorbs his ammo without lasting loss.

[Eric Alkema]

Got it.

Thanks.