CMBB Scenario - Cracking the Egg

[[MyIS] Buffpuff]

Well considering I'm at turn 20 of 30+ right now with my opponent I don't think there's anyway I'm going to come back to beat him. So this question is for all you tactics grogs out there. In your opinion what is the best way to assault in this scenario? Unfortunately I can't describe my plans since I'm sure he trolls the forums as I do. I've done some recent searching on the forums for tactics and such. I've especially been impressed with JasonC's posts along with countless others who obviously have a better grasp on how to play this game than I do. I used to lead with tanks. I found out the hard way that's an easy way to end up with an infantry only battle without armor support. Then I graduated to sending infantry with minimal support to recon. When locations were identified I would move armor up to pound them. This leads to unforseen AT guns knocking out my tanks. I think my biggest problem is trying to avoid any type of loss which results in a very over-cautious assault. Losing infantry recon squads I know is part of the game but I guess I find it hard to throw them in the meat grinder so to speak. Some helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Tigrii]

Use minimal forces to scout. Half-squads, not squads, tank hunters, sharpshooters, all the little light guys. As to the problem of AT guns KOing your armor when it moves to kill a threat, that can happen with well-sited guns. The best way to counter it is to keep mortars overwatching your armor and to try to keyhole specific tanks to the target so that they can bombard without being engaged in return. In a recent QB I keyholed a 105 SP Gun to an enemy MG trench and routed them, despite an 88mm AT gun being 25m from the MGs. Hope this helps.

[[MyIS] Buffpuff]

Originally posted by Tigrii:

Use minimal forces to scout. Half-squads, not squads, tank hunters, sharpshooters, all the little light guys. As to the problem of AT guns KOing your armor when it moves to kill a threat, that can happen with well-sited guns. The best way to counter it is to keep mortars overwatching your armor and to try to keyhole specific tanks to the target so that they can bombard without being engaged in return. In a recent QB I keyholed a 105 SP Gun to an enemy MG trench and routed them, despite an 88mm AT gun being 25m from the MGs. Hope this helps.

Yeah I had been reading and practicing those type of tactics lately but unfortunately this particularly scenario lacks all of those units with the exception of squads. So I've got half-squads pretty dispersed but dragging along support weapons is counter-productive to recon speed. If I wait for a Maxim MG to continously cover my recon units it'll take me 15-20 turns to scout a good portion of the map. No mortars to take out those guns. No sharpshooters or tank hunter teams to draw fire. When I've encountered enemy units and pinned them with infantry units I have ordered 1 or 2 tanks up to a support position to spread a little HE to those units dug in foxholes. I'm keeping several tanks back to provide cover fire in case my tanks get a surprise but more often than not one of those well sighted guns pops 1 or 2 of my tanks before the others see it...Maybe bad luck or maybe I'm not moving my cover units up far enough to see what's shooting at my assaulting tanks. Or maybe I just suck playing this game...LOL!! But thanks for the advice

[Sirocco]

Originally posted by Tigrii:

Use minimal forces to scout. Half-squads, not squads, tank hunters, sharpshooters, all the little light guys.

You're not suggesting using sharpshooters for reconnaisance?

[Slappy]

Be sure to crack on a flat surface, not the edge of your bowl which can drive shell fragments into the egg.

[Tigrii]

Originally posted by Sirocco:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Tigrii:

Use minimal forces to scout. Half-squads, not squads, tank hunters, sharpshooters, all the little light guys.

You're not suggesting using sharpshooters for reconnaisance? </font>

[JasonC]

The Russians in "Egg" have gonzo HE firepower. But they don't have good terrain for the attack, initially, and lack stealthy "dismounted" overwatch assets. I think the best approach with that combination is a left hook out of the initial forest, to approach the objectives from the high ground side.

The wrong way is to face off against the tree lines right across that "stadium" on the Russian right, using ISUs stuck back in the deep trees as your only heavy overwatch. If you try it the wrong way, they see you long before you see them. Also, the thick trees lower the hit chance, which hurts low ROF guns a lot more than rapid shooters.

See, the strength of the ISU is its mega HE, able to blast positions to bits with just 1-2 shots, whether you know something is there or not. You want them avoiding LOS to most of the map until you want it, then creeping just far enough to get LOS to woods A or building B, and immediately smashing A or B with "area fire" HE. Along a clear LOS. This "shell advance" goes just ahead of the SMGers, who mop up whatever it routs.

Just the initial force of ISUs on the map has 93 rounds of 152mm, each 303 blast. You might think they have to hold their fire because they only have a dozen rounds. But they only fire 1-2 of them per minute, so that is more firing time than you think. And that 1-2 is quite sufficient for any position - without using lots of ISUs on each one. (You've also got 96 big rockets, but they don't come down where you want 'em so they aren't nearly the terror so much direct mega HE ought to be).

And you get a dozen more ISUs later. So it is not like the initial ones need to save their ammo for the second half of the fight. You lose only if you get lots of the ISUs killed off before they have a chance to fire - at all, or more than 1-3 rounds. Low rate of fire makes them poor response duelers, but mega blast makes them awesome if they are the ones that decide to shoot. So don't be shy about opening up.

For ranged small arms fire, you rely on the MGs, both foot team and 50 cals on the ISUs (40 shots each). The SMGers should have very short arcs, to save their ammo for killing range (30-80m). Don't try to haul them around on the backs of the ISUs. Go on foot, forest patch to forest patch. ISUs keyholed between those, and in bunches (at least pairs).

What do you do about a located gun? Avoid its LOS, first and foremost. Creep to marginal LOS to a nearby location and put a round next to it, without full direct LOS. Small moves are the way to get that, and checking LOS from locations with the infantry. Close counts with 152mm HE...

[[MyIS] Buffpuff]

Yeah that makes sense. I guess my big problem has been trying to have LOS to those guns and losing tanks in the process. I don't know why I didn't think about indirect fire. I've done a fairly descent job of avoiding the tank duels with the King Tiger. I found out the hard way that even though the ISU has very good AP penetration values you still don't want to go frontal with a King Tiger. Side flank shots are definitely the way to go there. Thanks for the ideas guys. Oh and Jason have you ever considered writing a book on tactics? I think I like reading your tactics better than I did the CMBB strategy guide!

[PFC Tom]

Jason, I agree with Buffpuff, you put out some very solid advice. Thanks

[Code13]

Bomb the fook out of the cover at the top end of the map and any cover along the road you can see, none of it will need more than one or two shells to get any infantry in it dead, running or broken.