Low on ammo

[Der Kuenstler]

What are your tactics when managing your squads that read "low" on ammo? Are they still useful to you in some way?

[Bannon DC]

The will still fire so you can get a minor suppression value out of them. Effective against enemy units that are already suppressed/broken or in some way bad off. Even a minor shot helps prevent them from recovering.

In the right conditions I will use them as "berzerkers." If the out of ammo squad is big enough... 8 or 9 men... I will have them assualt an enemy squad and let them finish the job with hand-to-hand combat. Of course, your chances of success are better if the enemy squad is suppressed and has already taken casualties. I send them in instead of a squad with ammo in order to save the ammo of the other squad.

Other uses would include decoys... firing to draw the enemy's attention. Bullet magnets... having them move location in order to draw enemy fire and therefore identify enemy locations. You can form a picket line with them to keep enemy in sight and prevent infiltration. Deep flank attackers... if they are not useful on the front line, you can send them to attack the enemy flank to at least give him something to worry about. Flag sitters. Prisoner sitters.

[Brent Pollock]

Amen - if they still have grenades bayonettes, fists & teeth, in they go.

[JasonC]

Gosh, no way, gives away too many knock out points. When any unit gets close to 10 ammo I put them on short covered arcs to defend their immediate neighborhood. And try to relieve them if possible, or stop pressing with them at a minimum, if it isn't. I consider a low ammo platoon a very vulnerable thing, a way the enemy can get a free flag's worth of points if he just knows enough to wade into them. They need protection from the rest of my force.

[Bannon DC]

Originally posted by JasonC:

Gosh, no way, gives away too many knock out points. When any unit gets close to 10 ammo I put them on short covered arcs to defend their immediate neighborhood. And try to relieve them if possible, or stop pressing with them at a minimum, if it isn't. I consider a low ammo platoon a very vulnerable thing, a way the enemy can get a free flag's worth of points if he just knows enough to wade into them. They need protection from the rest of my force.

I wouldn't attack assuming I would lose.

If the situation is right... fix bayonettes! In house-to-house fighting when I am hot on the pursuit of the enemy or I have softened up an enemy stronghold... charge!

If I don't have the men on line to finish the job and waiting will cost more time and possibly loosing what I have just fought hard for, it is worth committing a stong squad(s) to use their rifle butts and shovels. They have to be supported and then a fresher squad can move in and occupy.

An observant human opponent will be able to tell if you are low on ammo. Attacking the AI like this is easy enough. Think twice before doing it against a human.

[JasonC]

Think 3 times about doing it at all, then don't.

[Brent Pollock]

Think 3 times about wanting to win versus generating a smashing great movie (of course, nothing says you can't do both).

[Aco4bn187inf]

In the right circumstances a low ammo squad can still kill tons of enemy infantry.

For example, at night, defending in a trench, armed with smg's. (Admittedly, this was against the AI, which could only find them by being killed by them, and I think the squad must have gone fanatical.) Nevertheless, they killed many times their own number with their 'last handfull' of ammo. I'm sure the same thing would work defending heavy buildings, etc.

[Zalgiris 1410]

Originally posted by aco4bn187inf:

In the right circumstances a low ammo squad can still kill tons of enemy infantry.

I absolutely agree that a low ammo squad (or HMG team) can still kill tons of enemy. I have had that happen loads of times, as long as I manage them correctly or find them in the right circumstances.

I admit that I've gained my experience only against the AI, but all the same when I've been defending they still fire effectively for suppression and often actually inflict more casualties than they did when they had a real amount of ammo! IMHO.

Obviously, this could be because of the way that I play, but just in case you suspect that I may be a novice at CMBB or CMAK, I'll just state that I often suffer only 15-80 casualties and a gun or tank or three as against the AI's totals of 500-1500+ and 30-60 ATG/AFVs, not to mention the shot down aircraft!

I normally fight large 3000-5000 point defensive battles, eg my re-inforced Inf Btln with a good combined arms mix against regiments of Inf, guns, tanks and lots off board and air support all very badly handled by the AI.

My tactics basically involve holding fire until a position has to start firing and then just firing in support for suppression as much as posible, move supporting weapons and units up or around to re-inforce the innitial contacts which then become the anvil upon which I grind the attack to a holt. Most of the squads and HMG teams in these key positions run out of ammo but I inflict so much damage (especially of AFVs) that the momentum of the waves of attacking Infantry becomes a dribble.

Low ammo Squads and HMGs can easily deal with these fatally fanatical dribblets. With the AI enemy tanks and guns mostly all abandoned, destroyed or burning a coup de grace in the form of a counter attack is all that now needs to be arranged.

At end of battles the kill figures are massive for my key low ammo Squads and HMGs. Usually they're the guys with all the enemy dead finished off around them. And trust me I've been watching them with desparate attention!

On the attack some of the advice in this thread is spot on for low ammo Squads, at the very least because the more you pressure the enemy with numbers and finish off broken and routed troops so much the better. Low ammo squads can bayonet and capture hopeless enemy Infantry and crews just as well as those carrying ammo. Also they can be used for probing or guarding wide or important areas, just to be sure.

I've noticed too that they still fire especially at the start of turns (good for suppressing the enemy) and usually still have some grenades and can close assault hiding or upset HMGs, mortors, guns, as well as bunkers and AFVs, bloody beautiful! With command delays and time management they really help suppress enemy fire before each step of a charge over the areas of the attack.

IMO just use common sense and enjoy worrying about the lives of those low on ammo while wasting the enemy in time and numbers.

[ July 07, 2005, 06:26 AM: Message edited by: Zalgiris 1410 ]