Help, just suffered a Total Defeat in Cracking the Egg

[Basebal351]

I was an avid player of CMBO and CMBB back in the day. I remember regularly playing PBEM and eventually internet matches against other people and even winning probably a majority of the time.

Well, I stopped playing at somepoint (2003 maybe?) and have recently returned. Suffice it to say, my skills have eroded. I fired up the Cracking the Egg scenario and was thoroughly trounced by the AI. My question is, what is it that I've forgotten how to do, and how may I relearn it?

Did I simply play a particularly difficult scenario? I wasn't able to use my Russian assault guns because the Tigers took them out from a very long range. I didn't knock out a single enemy tank. How does one go about defeating the AI in this scenario?

Also, I was hoping some folks could give me a couple of refreshers on tactics. How far forward should my infantry be in front of my tanks? How appropriate is it to fire smoke rounds/artillery? Is this something that should, for authenticity, be used sparingly? What formations are appropriate for infantry companies (ie. how to array, and what distance should separate the platoons)?? When moving a platoon or a company into close contact with the enemy, how much supporting fire is generally recommended? Oh, and when laying down a cover arc, does a unit fire on enemy units that come into that arc? I had mixed results with it during the scenario.

Thanks for answering my questions, and if there any other hints or tips you all would care to share, I would be extremely appreciative.

[Basebal351]

P.S. Is CM:AK a good game? Never been much of a fan of the desert myself... quite frankly I find it to be objectionably dry. But is it a fun enough game that someone like me would enjoy it?

[Jim1954]

Italy is an interesting fight. Not flat and featureless at all, and CMAK isn't just Africa.

[michael_wittman44]

Basebal351, I find it a challenging and good addition to the CM game collection. Try to use smoke and hilly ground to your advantage when fighting German heavy tanks. Get closer to them and outnumber them. This is a historical way of how the Americans and Russians delt with Tiger tanks or Panthers.

[michael_wittman44]

Originally posted by Jim1954:

Italy is an interesting fight. Not flat and featureless at all, and CMAK isn't just Africa.

It involves Crete as well as Italy and North Africa for the record.

[JasonC]

I primarily use CMAK for US and Brit vs. German fighting in "Italy", including the rest of Europe. The updated models make it vastly better than CMBO at this. Another major upgrade is realistic dust from shellfire and vehicles. Sure you can do the western desert too. But I'm working on Hurtgen scenarios these days, in CMAK...

[Pirx]

*Mild spoiler alert*

I played about half of the "Cracking the Egg" scenario then quit. It was pretty obvious that I was headed to at least a draw or a tactical defeat, and was not going to win the scenario. I am no expert tactician, but it seemed to me that it was a hard scenario.

My infantry was doing pretty well against the German infantry. The problem was that my assault guns were getting massacred by the German tanks. Halfway through the scenario I have taken out only 1 Tiger, and my surviving assault guns are cowering out of sight of the Germans. I tried to achieve local numerical superiority, but even when engaging at 3:1 or 4:1 the crap Russian optics and turtle-paced ROF of the SU-152s resulted in near total losses on my part. Typically, all my assault guns would fire and miss. In the thirty seconds or so while they were re-loading (at least it seemed that long), the german would pick off 1-2 of my boys. I tried shoot and scoot, which didnt help much because of the higher 1st-shot German accuracy.

It seems to me that the key to this scenario is developing effective anti-tank tactics that can be used with assault guns with slow ROF. Any tips would be appreciated.

[Andrew H.]

Originally posted by Pirx:

It seems to me that the key to this scenario is developing effective anti-tank tactics that can be used with assault guns with slow ROF. Any tips would be appreciated.

Try shoot and scoot.

[dr dill]

you could try the following: send your tanks left,

around the village and attack the tigers from the

flank/rear. a frontal assault will killyou since

the germans got tigers but also a lot of good at- guns.

[Pirx]

Thank you doctor.

That is, in fact, how I bagged my only Tiger so far. Problem was I didnt go on the left flank in force, just advanced a single SU-152. Since in general I have better penetration and cover on the right side at this point, I am attempting a right flanking maneuver with all the AFV I can scrape together. Will let you know how it turns out.

[Bigduke6]

The drill I would use:

1. Infantry finds the enemy AT thingie.

2. Spread the assault guns out so that you can pop several of them out at the AT thingie at once.

3. If you can get MGs shooting at the AT thingie first.

4. Pop everything out and whale away. You'll take hits and suffer kills but with the big caliber guns you have, connect once and it's bye bye German AT asset.

5. Main thing is, lots of assault guns shooting at the same AT thingie at the same time. A platoon is a good starting point, two platoons are better.

Multiple shoot and scoot (a/k/a whack a mole) is also an option, but 30+ turns puts you under a little time pressure. So the further you are in the game, the more you are going to have to risk dueling it out to get rid of the enemy AT thingie.

Small saving grace: Those mucking big assault guns are, well, big. So even if the German penetrates, it's not like every single hit kills.

Mostly, have fun! Smashing things with big assault guns way overpowered to do the job is the Soviet way of doing business.

[JasonC]

Two other pointers on that particular scenario. First, straight ahead of the right is a losing proposition. Only observe from that treeline. Send the armor left, scouting ahead with infantry closer to the center of the map, with the AFVs remaining behind them as a scouting shield.

Second, in addition to the anti-armor pointers, notice the huge HE firepower of your assault guns. As long as they don't die before they get their HE shots off, there is no way the German infantry can withstand both their HE, and the Russian infantry numbers.

So use area fire at probable targets. Don't wait until you spot his infantry, kill it before it opens up at all. The slow ROF means you will shoot only 1-2 times when you move up to take an area fire shot. Use the "rotate" command to check lines of sight for keyhole positions. Blow up anything right in front of your infantry, that might hold enemy.

The effect you want is his tanks needing to come looking for you, because your HE firepower is going to eat his whole force otherwise.

[MikeyD]

"The effect you want is his tanks needing to come looking for you".

Yes! That was the phrase I was searching for! As a rule, no matter what side I play if I'm moving forward towards a stationary enemy he's going to get off more first shots and more first round hits. If I can instead make him come looking for me while I sit in defilade, then I'm going to get more first shots and first round hits. Another must (which the AI is pretty good at) is having multiple tanks fire on the target at the same time. I tend to lose 1-1 duels.

[Pirx]

Thanks for the advice. I am in the endgame now (turn 27-28 of 30+, to my recollection). Bigduke6, I see now that, as you suspected, part of my problem was showing my assualt guns piecemeal and too closely bunched together. JasonC, I am with you on the use of HE. My game plan is whack 'em with 152 mm, then close in for the coup de gras with SMG squads. Worked extremely well until I started taking the losses to German armor. I didnt do 'recon by fire' because, with the low ammo loads, I wanted to maximize the HE effectiveness.

Due to previously sustained losses I am unable to attack the left flank so I am attacking with a strike force (platoon of ISU-122 and two platoons SMG squads) on the right flank, around the woods. It has been successful so far.

Since resuming the scenario I have bagged two STUGIIIs and lost two ISU-152s, one of which was already immobilized. That's a better loss ratio than before.

P.S. I am a wimp so I didnt give the AI any bonuses.

[Pirx]

I finished the scenario with a draw (exactly 50:50). It ended a little early, after only 31 turns (was set at 30+). That was too bed because in another turn or two I would have bagged another STUG and grabbed the rearmost large victory flag, which was a "?" at the end of turn 31. I lost 13 vehicles to 3 for the Germans, and took out 5 AT guns. Thanks everybody for the advice.

[DTrill]

I just finished this scenario PBEM as the Russians and fought to a draw. As has been stated you gotta fling alot of HE at suspected enemy positions and scout out the bad guys with yur inf. It's not the enemy so much as the time limit is your biggest adversary, you just don't have the time to dig out a well placed defender, and those large SPG's aren't that nimble.

[Gopblin]

My experience with this scenario:

1) First played as Germans, with AI +25% troops. Killed off ALL the russian armor with properly positioned Tigers, lost 1 tiger and most AT guns. Then an IL blew up two more tigers, but it didn't matter by then - I won.

2) Then played as Russians, +25% AI. Armor spread evenly around the front, with initial force going right & center and reinforcements going left & center.

German AT guns were traded more or less one-for-one with SUs - I outnumbered&surrounded them, and they are way too easy to kill by chucking HE near them from out of their LOS.

Tigers fell victim to a SU-122 platoon rush on the left - I got there when they were still moving to position and killed 3 out of 4, losing all SU's. The last Tiger was finished by a lone SU rushing behind that platoon. BTW, if that failed, I would have just kept shooting HE near Tigers from out of their LOS - with a 152 it has a good chance of KO.

The Stugs decimated my platoon of 152s on the right, losing just one Stug. They later moved left and traded shots with the force in the center, KO'ed two more Su's and disabled two, but were all KO'ed or disabled themselves since my SU's were spread over the center and fired from multiple directions.

After that the remaining couple of SU platoons + all infantry + artillery finished off the Germans in the town and took it, think it was a Total Victory, or maybe Tactical.

Best wishes,

Daniel.