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Best way to sneak up on an AFV?


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Last night I was playing a QB as Panzergrenadiers vs. the AI-controlled Americans, Italy, November 1944. Midday, cool, overcast, windy. It was an Allied probe over relatively open and hilly terrain. During the fighting that ensued, it happened that a buttoned-up Stuart parked immediately on the other side of a slight rise from a regular Panzerschreck unit. The Stuart was in the open, with its rear towards the Schreck unit, which was hidden in scattered woods. No LOS. I decided to sneak the Schreck forward to the crest to try and get off a shot into the Stuart's rear, and ordered a nearby 81mm mortar unit to provide covering smoke. In the next turn, the mortar unit was suppressed by MG fire, so the Schreck started sneaking forward into the open ... and the Stuart suddenly reversed over the crest, less than 50 meters away. Did the Schreck stop and put a rocket up the Stuart's hoo-ha? Nooooooo - the dummies kept crawling forward while the Stuart reversed alongside in the opposite direction. It'd have been quite comical if I hadn't been yelling at the Schreck team to stop and fire, stop and fire ... Needless to say, the Stuart crew spotted the Schreck and put the latter out of its misery with three rounds. And all this time, the Schreck kept crawling forward towards the crest until it was finally dispatched.

Now, I admire that single-minded determination to achieve an objective, but isn't the game coded to allow some initiative on the part of a unit that's still under command of a platoon HQ? Alternatively, what's a good way to get a Schreck unit forward to take advantage of the Stuart's position?

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I had thought of a move to contact order; however, there were a couple of American infantry units within LOS of the Schreck unit, and I figured the sight of those would keep the Schreck from moving at all. Does it matter if the American infantry units were suppressed / broken or not, in determining a move to contact maneuver?

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The mortar being surpressed was a bit of bad luck, but i find smoke rounds usually land long or to the right and do little good anyway (maybe I'm just unlucky). I recall (in CMBO?) having my bazooka guy entirely circle a Tiger II for ten moves to get a rear shot. What you need is a LOT of time and patience. If it takes six moves crawling through cover then it takes six moves crawling through cover. Shortcuts across open terrain are suicide.

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Thanks for the responses; however, I'm still wondering about the sneak command. Will a unit in this mode keep sneaking despite what's going on around it, until it's either pinned, routed, or killed? I just couldn't believe the Schreck unit would ignore a juicy target less than 50 meters away, with its butt exposed, no less!

Mikey - there was no available cover anywhere between the Schreck and the Stuart. I'd have waited for a better opportunity, but the end of the game was fast approaching, and I wanted to claim a kill ;)

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smoke in this game is really ineffective. huge smoke screens aren't even that effective sometimes, and you can see pretty well through them because the smoke clouds are so flat (ie the LOS instantly pops up 100% clear after you go through a smoke cloud). a single 81mm mortar probably wouldnt have gave much cover.

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Originally posted by MikeyD:

The mortar being surpressed was a bit of bad luck, but i find smoke rounds usually land long or to the right and do little good anyway (maybe I'm just unlucky). I recall (in CMBO?) having my bazooka guy entirely circle a Tiger II for ten moves to get a rear shot. What you need is a LOT of time and patience. If it takes six moves crawling through cover then it takes six moves crawling through cover. Shortcuts across open terrain are suicide.

a very hard learned lesson unfortunately. even with smoke, numbers & advance it's far better to avoid open ground.
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Sneak is useful to get your units unspotted into or out of position. But any contact upon getting spotted is usually devastating.

There is no "Sneak to contact" - which would be the only way to go in your case. Somebody suggested doing SOPs.

The order to a human would be "Sneak forward until you can hit that thing. If you can't see it from there or anything happens, crawl back to cover." Or rather "Get that thing". Everything else is added by the brain of the soldier.

No such thing in CM. You can hope nothing bad happens during a turn.

Gruß

Joachim

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