Need help attacking a town

[[Pvt]Darth_grandma]

I've challanged my friend to a little game of CM:BO, and I need a few pointers. He's got Axis, defending a small town on a large map. I got allies attacking. Combined Arms, 1250 points.

I've never attacked before against anything that wasn't the AI, so I'm really in a muddle. I was wondering about force compisition and how I should attack the town. I was thinking of splitting into 3 groups. A main group, a Diversion group and a Reinforcment group. He (my friend) is a bit of a fool, so the diversionary attack will really get him confused, but I was wondering if I should just combine my reinforcment and main group and just go at him with everything I have, or have a back up just in case. Also he'll come in with a lot of tanks, artillary and barb wire/mines. What would you choose for the force, and how would you use it? Thanks a lot, I need it

[ July 24, 2002, 05:13 AM: Message edited by: [Pvt]Darth_grandma ]

[CMplayer]

My style would be to try two groups, an aggressive recon group and a 'hitter group'. Make each group about equal in size, but put your heavier HE chuckers in the hitter group. Give an arty spotter and/or light mortars in transport to the aggressive recon group, and let them move cautiously to the front after the other recon to deal with revealed AT guns. The aggressive recon group should be composed mostly of vets while the main hitter group can be regs. The recon guys should basically advance, pretending to be your main attack, and if they can, take the objectives. Along the way they should provoke him to reveal as much of his defenses as possible. When they can't go any farther without getting too chewed up, use the info they have revealed to hit hard and fast with the follow ons. The recon guys will be like a carpet for the follow ons to walk over. The follow ons should be infantry, HE-chuckers and arty of at least 105mm caliber.

The map may suggest some changes though. For example, if your HE chuckers can fire at a distance on enough areas around the objectives, they may not need to advance up for close support at all.

Finally think a lot about the angles as you develop your attack. If he's got a pesky tank destroyer or something holding you up, sometimes you don't need to kill it to neutralize it's effectiveness. If you can position your armor in the shelter of nearby buildings/trees to provide close support through a narrow keyhole to just the _right spot_ to crack his defenses systematically and one squad/platoon at a time, while not giving his defending armor a way to approach you for a clear shot without your escorts getting the drop on him first, that's good enough. As the allies you are likely to have better turrets than him, and this will be critical.

[tecumseh]

Originally posted by [Pvt]Darth_grandma:

He (my friend) is a bit of a fool, so the diversionary attack will really get him confused

What a great sentence

Like CM Player suggests, it is a horrible feeling when your expensive german tanks in overwatch with the sloped armour that you were so proud of suddenly gets buttoned and reveals itself to be the slow, ungainly, blind, useless bunch of crap it really is, unable to target the company of infantry assaulting it at 15m, because a bazooka is in the trees 1km away. Make you friend get this feeling!

If, on the other hand, he's bought lots of cheap guns and smg squads, get ready for a slow and methodical rolling attack. Your advantage here is that his defence will be static, so you can use the landscape and smoke to attack sections at a time.

Good luck

[Nidan1]

Two groups should be sufficient, use one to try to identify his defensive positions, while gaining observation points for mortars etc that you can pound him with. The second group should be the bigger one, use terrain for cover to get as close to the towon as possible without revelaing your main group. Keep your armor back in cover to avoid buttoning, and target as many defensive positions as possible to suppress them. When you can observe his defenders taking cover, begin your main thrust on the town, getting close as quickly as possible, and try to isolate and flank his positions with massed fire and manuever.

You will take casualties, but keep your men moving and dont let supporting arms, such as MGs and light mortars lag behind. Good luck!

[Rat]

Well, what I love to do is (future opponents go away ) Is to let them WAIT, and Wait and wait untill he gets freakingly anoyed with the waiting. Meanwhile get 2 or 3 sections as close as possible (as others allready suggested), but do so that your enemy wont see ANYTHING coming for a huge ammount of time.Meanwhile, smoke a possible entrysection of the town and let a little recon division go in undercover here. If you can pull the time long enough that your opponent doesnt see your main force, it is VERY likely ( especially when your friend is like you said a FOOL ) going to concentrate his defences on that point. when he is aware of the diversion, it usually is allready to late for him and you can bring barbequesaus and patatoes with you for a picknick on the town square

[Sarge Saunders]

Well my advice to you is buy this (if American):

3 M4 Shermans

1 Jackson TD

1 M7 Priest

1 105mm FO

1 81mm FO

8 regular rifle platoons

If you want to you can even lose 1 sherman and buy 9 platoons. Your attacker advantage is about 500 points more forces than your opponents. If you put that advantage in infantry then you will win most of the time. This is always true unless the terrain is very open. Even then, use the 81mm FO to smoke your main force approach.

The end result is that you can have a full infantry company advantage in numbers. That is usually enough to be decisive in a smaller battle.

-Sarge

[ July 24, 2002, 10:33 AM: Message edited by: Sarge Saunders ]

[Shosties]

Isn't this a rather small battle to have a purely diversionary component? Wouldn't it be wiser to divide your force into N+1 packages, where N is the number of promising approach routes to the village. The last package, your reserve, is the strongest one, and it is committed once the most favorable route has been determined through making contact with the defense, reinforcing success rather than failure. The force packages that are sent up the less favorable routes act as your diversion, helping to tie your defender down. Basically, you stay flexible, not commiting to routes being either diversionary or a focus of effort from the very beginning.

[Monty's Double]

I pretty much agree with the last post. Most humans defending a town will put the bulk of their infantry in the buildings of the town (with the bulk of them behind the first layer of buildings), with their AT/HE elements in the open country either side. Usually that will take the form of either a single mobile group (tank destroyers) or two static groups (guns), with perhaps a mix of the two if he can't decide. I would try and work out the basis of his defence with light recon forces before committing, but that would depend on how much time you have, and the visibility conditions. The town, if it's situated centrally, can help you concentrate forces against one part of his defence, as it will block line of site. Sometimes it's worth picking a building or two and just knocking them down with lots of HE assets (a couple of Priests or 3-4 Shermans firing together). You might get lucky and take out a spotter, but even if you don't it can be unsettling for a defender, and it might make him spring an ambush too soon.

[[Pvt]Darth_grandma]

Thanks guys, tonnes of helpful hints here. I think I might use the flexibility strategy, just so I can get the best advance into town. He's probably gonna be packing a _lot_ of MG42's in the windows, should I just rain firery death on these before I move in or save my arty for something else?

[Shosties]

I would warn you against geting overly fixated on the town itself. There is the chance, if he's not as much of a "fool" as you think he is , that he will defend the town with a small force: perhaps with squads split into teams to make it look larger, maybe with some flamethrower teams in second row buildings to make for a HOT reception! :cool: This will allow him to form a mobile reserve group or two to station in cover some distance away from the town. With these he can counterattack you in the flanks or rear if all your attack columns are directed at, or are in, the town itself.

This is not a pleasant experience, just ask a German Stalingrad veteran, that is if you can find one!

Since it's a big map with a small town, it might pay to throw two attack columns wide about the town, cut it off from reinforcement, reorganize your forces and consolidate gains, scout out the places a reserve might be hiding, and THEN when you feel secure, commiting yourself to the assault. While you're securing your hold on the surrounding country and assembling the assault force to take the town, you can use this time to give the defenders there a taste of your arty. Hopefully you'll have plenty of turns in your battle to be so deliberate.

[ July 24, 2002, 08:06 PM: Message edited by: Shosties4th ]

[Redwolf]

This thread from May was about town tactics.

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=001088

I guess the verdict was that everybody has his own style

[Shosties]

redwolf,

Wonderful thread there in the beginning! (As for the later part.... )

*LOL* I especially loved this tidbit:

Originally posted by Fionn:

Once they are moving about outside of the town you can simply let them run into pre-prepared ambushes or, even more simply, drive over them with tanks, HTs and suchlike. The sort of slaughter which ensues when a short Bn gets ridden over by tanks and HTs has to be seen to be believed.

:cool:

Thanks, redwolf!