A few CMBB Tricks I learned yesterday -comments welcome.

[RSColonel_131st]

I played a Quick Battle with a heavy focus on fortifications and special weapons, weak on infantry. Village Map, few trees, small hills.

Only one german engineer platoon against what seemed to be a Battalion of Russian mechanized Inf.

Additionally on our side we had: Two concrete bunkers (one with 75mm Gun), a Wood Bunker, two HMGs 34, two

50mm PAK, 4 TRPs, 4 Tank Mine Fields, 4 Anti-Person Mine Fields and a 81mm Mortar FO with 150 Rounds.

The aforementioned Infantry Platton had 6 Squads, one HQ Squad, and three flamethrowers.

Lessions learned - or to say, what worked rather well:

81mm Fire against TRPs can be there in 22 seconds, that's pretty damn fast. Close to a TRP you just correct the fire (green line) and again it's only 22 seconds to the next salvo, even if you are moving the marker away from the TRP.

All in all the mortars got 52 Infantry Guys - thats well worth the 108 points it cost me.

The FO Team was hidden to the enemy even at ranges under 200 meters, however, when I tried to withdraw them after they had spent all ammo they got pinned and eventually died. Sucks to be them.

What also proved to be very effective was to mine the front of the first houses in the village. The attacking russians tried to find cover, and promptly ran into the mine fields, which added greatly to the confusion. It also made two of their heavy MGs static due to crew loss.

That was a pretty good way to simulate "booby traps" me thinks.

The flame-throwers were hidden at the opposite end of the village, where our flags resided. Waiting in Ambush, all of them got two blasts off against attacking squads. Perhabs I could have used them to set fire to some other important buildings first, to restrict enemy movement further.

Arguable the most important insight to come from this was to use every weapon at it's appriorate range. The HMGs and Guns opened fire on ranges up to 400 meters, splitting the enemy waves, slowing them down and breaking their formation. Around those ranges, those weapons are also relative safe of enemy small-arms counter fire.

The infantry platoon was deployed ahead of the crew served weapons, and uncovered itself only at ranges under 50 meters. That way they got to deal with an already weakened and confused enemy assault, further broken up by mines and artillery.

It was still a LOT of incoming fire, but keeping all squads under HQ Command helped - none rallied.

Until yesterday I often mixed heavy weapons and infantry in the same defense line, which exposes the fire support to more attacks than necessary, and also the benefits for the infantry are not as pronounced. Keeping the heavys behind the infantry, using their greater range to disrupt enemy movement and tactics plays a much better card.

Well, that's it for now. Was an enjoyable QB.

[Jack Carr]

What also proved to be very effective was to mine the front of the first houses in the village. The attacking russians tried to find cover, and promptly ran into the mine fields, which added greatly to the confusion. It also made two of their heavy MGs static due to crew loss.

That was a pretty good way to simulate "booby traps" me thinks.

Interesting use of mines. I'll have to try this. I think adding an MG or two within range of the minefields to rake the pinned infantry. You may have done this already.

[Joachim]

Originally posted by Jack Carr:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />What also proved to be very effective was to mine the front of the first houses in the village. The attacking russians tried to find cover, and promptly ran into the mine fields, which added greatly to the confusion. It also made two of their heavy MGs static due to crew loss.

That was a pretty good way to simulate "booby traps" me thinks.

Interesting use of mines. I'll have to try this. I think adding an MG or two within range of the minefields to rake the pinned infantry. You may have done this already. </font>

[edgars]

Originally posted by Joachim:

If you play this vs. the AI, the AI even might try to remove some mines... Satchel charges into a traffic jam

Have to try this!

[IntelWeenie]

Don't place mines directly behind wire. Place it to the sides. No one (not eventhe TacAI) usually tries to plow striaght through wire but will try to skirt around it. Using wire to channelize the enemy into kill zones is pretty easy, but it's harder with AP mines since they are hidden. I usually buy more wire than AP mines for this reason. When I do get AP mines, I'll place some of them immediately in front of my infantry to help break up enemy charges.

[Joachim]

Originally posted by IntelWeenie:

Don't place mines directly behind wire. Place it to the sides. No one (not eventhe TacAI) usually tries to plow striaght through wire but will try to skirt around it. Using wire to channelize the enemy into kill zones is pretty easy, but it's harder with AP mines since they are hidden. I usually buy more wire than AP mines for this reason. When I do get AP mines, I'll place some of them immediately in front of my infantry to help break up enemy charges.

The AI does go thru wire if the wire blocks an entire patch of cover. Of course you need to block almost any nearby patch, too.

I had a night assault where some burning wood and wire across a street protected my positions in a factory. Huge enemy forces crossed the wire where it connected to the fire. Err.. they tried to. Lots of eliminated markers there in the AAR (but just out of sight druing battle - it was a very dark night. Luckily it was in hand grenade range).

The wire was 60m long, then there was a mined (later cleared) gap in the wire.

Gruß

Joachim

[mrpwase]

If you deploy an unit in a minefield at the start of a battle, if it doesn't move, do any mines explode? A bit gamey (extremely unrealistic, unless you're thinking of using Russian penal battalions ), but as your forces retreat, the enemmy usually move in to occupy where you've just left, seeing as it's the least likely place to be mined. The only problem is, if your forces retreat, they'll blow up some mines and will REALLY rout. Hehe.

[Spears]

Why you people play the AI and do these things ill never know, a human isnt so thick, but if it floats your boat so to speak........ mines sinking at the thought.

[Leopard_2]

Same reason as to why people climb the Mount Everest:

Because it's there.

[Slappy]

If you are set up in mines and don't move, you will not trigger them. I've done this once or twice. Problem is, if the unit panics and runs that may set off a mine and show the enemy the mine marker, blowing the surprise.

[Tifosi]

Originally posted by Spears:

Why you people play the AI and do these things ill never know, a human isnt so thick, but if it floats your boat so to speak........ mines sinking at the thought.

Some of us (OK, me!) need the practice!

[RSColonel_131st]

Originally posted by Spears:

Why you people play the AI and do these things ill never know, a human isnt so thick, but if it floats your boat so to speak........ mines sinking at the thought.

A human will have to take the first avalable cover after coming under fire as well. And if that happens to be a mine-field, then he is not going to avoid it. Especially since these things are controlled by TacAI and you can not really influence this a lot.

Interesting that this topic still runs here, a year after my original post. LOL

[throwdjohn]

Well it's valuable stuff here. I played AI exclusively, then I got the guts to try a couple PBEM games. Well go figure, my comp with the game on it lost its DSL. That was a year ago, and before I learned to love the AI (not really).