Slow Guns on the Offense

[The Hapless General]

Hi,

I have recently been playing a series of QBs through Robert Olesen's excellent CMAK Campaign Manager. There have been 7 battles so far, in North Africa, from Dec40-Apr41. My core force there consists of a British Rifle Platoon reinforced by a 2 pdr AT gun. Since the British have a dearth of AFVs with HE capability, I have been purchashing, as part of my support force, a 25pdr gun. The problem is that, as I have been mostly on the offensive, I am not able to get the guns involved in the offense. The maps are usually very dusty, with low visibility (it is North Africa) and one has to bring the guns into position on the offense. Usually I end up supporting my infantry with the odd Matilda's MG or with no support at all. But I haven't, for the life of me, been able to make any use of the 25pdr. The same also applies to my own 2pdr AT gun, though with Matildas by my side (when available) or even my own integrated AT rifle squad, the Italian tankettes (The only AFV I have encountered so far) can be dealt with.

As I am nowhere near being good at this game I am sure the problem I am having is due to my shortcomings and not due to any inherent impossibility.

I would be most grateful for any advice you can give me.

Thanks

[flamingknives]

You need some kind of tractor and an idea of where you're going to put the gun. Nonetheless, using towed guns on the offense is very difficult, as if the enemy is entranched, they'll probably spot it and mortar it into oblivion.

A better bet for HE support (my choice, at least) would be the 3" mortar in a universal carrier. As the mortar can fire from defilade, retalitory fire isn't as much of a problem, and the carrier gives it mobility. Add on the massive ammo load and above average effectiveness of the3" and it's quite useful.

[birdstrike]

Yes, onboard artillery is of little use, if you cannot set it up with a good LOS from the beginning on. Especially in the desert. Problem is, if you tow it to a place where you can see the enemy, the enemy will probably see you, too - and won't give you the time to set it up. If you want to try it anyways, a tractor is definitely a must have, like flamingknives said.

You could try to use sight-blocking cover like palmtrees. Tow the gun there, move it into the tile by foot, try to set it up within the cover. If you're lucky, the enemy won't spot you until you fire at him. This worked for me sometimes (though it's VERY time consuming). You could also try to set it up behind a ridge, so that it's only partly exposed. This gives you better cover against enemy fire - though indirect fire will still be a great problem.

[Tigrii]

I just played a game where I had two truck-towed 25pndrs that played a very important role. My platoon of 3 Matildas was KO'd early on by an 88, and my only other AFVs were 3 Marm-Herr MG Cars. The 25pndrs got towed to rough tiles by trucks, dismounted, and took about 5 minutes to walk to the other end, where they had LOS. Both tiles were carefully chosen so that the unloading end was defilade and the setup end had LOS. The guns, using this strategy, escaped two mortars that had LOS to them but didn't get to fire until they were in position and could fire back. The guns then proceeded to KO a Pillbox MG, A PanzerJager 1, 2 mortars, and killed a few dozen infantry. A won a minor victory and I owed it all to the covering fire of the 25pndrs. One technique that helps is to run down the setup timer defilade to a few seconds, then start moving. The timer doesn't reset and you arrive at your firing position with 5sec left, not 2min.