Advancing Weakened and Unfit Troops

[yuvuphys]

Do ya'll have any special tactics for advancing weakened and unfit troops? Advance just tires them out too quickly, and they rattle very easily if they take fire when moving forward using some other command. Then they can run/sneak for a while, and tire themselves out anyway.

[Yair Iny]

In my experience, if you need to use ADVANCE in order to get your troops moving forward you are "pushing" them too hard anyway. You should stop moving and consolidate your forces to fire back at the enemy (the defender, I assume).

I save the ADVANCE for specific situations like attacking known positions under covering fire etc. For everything else I use MOVE.

If your forces are too far to engage the enemy, then he is too far to do you much harm. Just HIDE the shaken and pinned squads until they recover and in the meantime fire at the enemy. See JC's posts re advancing over open terrain. You don't need ADVANCE to do it.

Cheers

[JasonC]

Um, I definitely use advance to cross open ground, and it says it all over my posts on the subject.

The fatigue problem arises with weakened troops, men already at "tired", and also in terrain conditions like snow other than thin, and mud. All of these are quite tiring on "advance" and the men will wear out before they get far, trying to use the usual drill.

I use move to contact a lot more in those situations. Yes move is brittle. But if you stop as soon as fired on, it doesn't hurt much. The issue then is, you don't actually make any distance when shot at.

In anything but deep snow, I still make some use of advance. But I stick to cover more, using move while inside it. (The only exception is when already in contact within 100m of up and firing enemy. Then short advances are still needed, cover or not. This occurs most frequently inside the same woods e.g., at ranges under 50m. The typical moves are quite short, 10-20m at a time). Move to contact in areas not yet engaged. A few units that have to cross from this cover to that, not too far, will use advance if they aren't already at "tired".

I rest a lot more. When a unit is in tiring in a normal battle I often rest it for half a turn to a turn, which gets them to ready. These weakened types and poor terrain, I frequently push on to "tired". And I will keep men that are "tired" moving, but using move, when it is critical to get them someplace. I do not use run, advance, assault, or sneak once a unit reaches "tired" - they don't really manage to anyway, they just get more tired. If a unit is in cover and tired, and not needed instantly over here, it rests.

I don't try to cross 400m of open ground under fire under such conditions. And all moves I think may be unobserved or inside cover, and all moves period by heavy weapons, are made using "move", which does not fatigue anyone under any battlefield or personnel conditions. That saves their "wind" for a few advances when they need them the most.

In deep snow, you "move" or you don't move. There really aren't any options (even skis use "move" - but go nice and fast). If enemy can fire at you, the move had better be short and the enemy better have some incoming lead to think about. Sending HE works better than sending infantry, in heavy snow.

[yuvuphys]

My particular problem at the moment is I'm 250m out, and have a 100m field to cross before I get to the next cover. I can't advance to contact, I can't advance across the field. My HT's can't stay out in the open very long, or they'll get torn up, and the only other HE chunker I have is a Panther, and two towed 75mm guns which have already spent their small ammo loads. I've made to by using 'move' to get across the field, one at a time, but I've taken a few casualties doing that, because of the shortish range. Possibly I could have planned better, and dropped some smoke so I could move the company across under the cover of smoke just after an arty barrage cleared out the forests ahead of me...but live and learn.

[JasonC]

Rest the guys at the forward edge of cover. Panther sprays with MG continually, HE if and when enemy shooters are heads up. One at a time it, using advance if fresh, and let the enemy waste ammo if he wants to shoot you in cover. Men that make the next body of cover stay at the back side of it, until joined by more. Pick on one shooter if he lights up your mover, try to break that shooter rather than surppress several. If you don't have time, it won't work, but neither will anything else, and it won't lose many more men.

[yuvuphys]

Well, I got through it...my Panther alone wasn't enough to supress all those dug-in defenders. Not enough FP to break everyone before the duck down, either; not to mention the fact that it drains ammo. I had a company on my left make some noise and draw some fire off my advancing guys. I managed to get a platoon across one by one by moving, with about 7 dead. Then I was able to draw enough attention with those guys, that I could move the rest of the company across without significant losses. A bit faster, a few more losses, but now I'm in a position to rout the defenders with time remaining.