Defending in the 1000 - 1500 point range?

[Herr Kruger]

Greetings,

I am in need of advice to improve my defensive skills in the above point range in CMBB and CMAK. Assume I am German, moderate to heavy tree coverage, usually good weather... any really good articles already out there? Or would someone be willing to reply to this post?

[junk2drive]

do a search for member name jasonc

there are 146 items but worth going through the list.

you might try here

the cmbo oracle

[Redwolf]

No vehicles.

Lots of trenches. One or two decent AT guns, more smaller smaller guns. Onboard mortars, in particular if you can get the 3" mortar. Lots of infantry, with HMGs.

[xerxes]

Wire. Lots of wire. Placed in the open with hmgs covering from long range and infantry backing up the wire at close range (for those that make it through) is a fearsome defence.

[Bonxa]

Don't forget some arty as well. It's a real killer in wooded areas and can break up conentrations well. I have just found out the evil in a defence in depth . It might not be to easy to pull of in a smaller battle but it will stop anything but the most determined attacker.

Place those trenches on reverse slopes (the smallest will do, search in view level 1), preferably behind walls or fences and not in trees (because of the potential airbursts).

[HarryInk]

Damn, I managed to accidently clear the long rave I'd written. *sigh*

In short, read JasonC's post - in the Oracle - about the German 'close defence'. It'll give you, in great detail, advice on how to kick butt.

[dieseltaylor]

For those who read the articles and know what to expect from a "best"defence when attacking. I like to keep people honest a few tanks debouching into the infantry advance , running around the attacks rear area killing spotters HMGs and mortars sure blights their day!

Of course you understand I am posting this under someone elses name : ) You have nothing to fear from diesel.

[Probert]

ATGs.

[dieseltaylor]

Probert said

"ATGs"

I think that this is what I meant by keeping people honest - if you know people are anticipating a defence of barbed wire , trenches, MG's, ATG's the odds are they will go infantry, artillery heavy.

The chances of the attacker buying ATG's when they have 1500 odd points to spend is relatively low. Depending on the terrain he may have a lot or few to no tanks and this affects your force choice but I refuse to discount the possibility and subsequent opportunity of the attacker being tooled up in a non-armour mode.

Does anybody routinely buy ATGs when attacking with relatively small points. I do but then I play 3000 pointson large maps when there is a reasonable certainty of enemy armour.

[BigDork]

Something I try to do on defense is pull of a surprise or two. It doesn't have to be anything big but just something that will throw your opponents attack off a little.

Another thing is TRPs. TRPs are great on defense, especially if you are playing as the Russians. I will usually place a TRP up near where I set up my first line of defense. As they start to get over run I call in artillery on that position right after I've pulled out and the enemy moves in. Also if I'm not covering every flag on the map I'll set a TRP on a flag I'm not going to defend and as the enemy moves in to that flag I'll send some arty their way.

Hey dieseltaylor weren't you going to send me a setup?

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by dieseltaylor:

Does anybody routinely buy ATGs when attacking with relatively small points. I do but then I play 3000 pointson large maps when there is a reasonable certainty of enemy armour.

[Well, I don't play CMAK Quickbattles, because of the artillery pricing joke, but from the past]

I found that buying a 105mm howitzer or a 25 pounder can be useful on the attack on certain kinds of quickbattles.

While they get into trouble by enemy mortars very in most situations, there are useful situations. If you attack the "CM standard" map med hill med woods village or town, then you can use it to knock down all two-story buildings, which will most likely have artillery spotters, sharpshooters or HQs in it. Unless he has a HQ spotting for mortars in it he'll be pretty defenseless. Afterwards they can still be useful without exposing them for shooting smoke.

Blasting the two-story buildings can be even more useful if he has guns set up near them, the "airbursts" next to them are nasty.

If you have enough onboard smoke deliverers (tanks, mortars), then you also have a decent change to protect the gun from artillery and mortar fire.

Another useful unit, at least in CMBO, was a 20mm FlaK which can be towed by anything, is quick to set up and was absolutely deadly against light armor. They also supressed infantry well. In CMAK they are next to useless against personnel.