Matt the Paladin Posted November 13, 2000 Share Posted November 13, 2000 Whenever I play defense scenarios, I lose, badly. I need advice on how to defend, mainly on force composition, placement, and what to do about those enemy arty spotters. ------------------ "I'd rateher die than be whipped." J.E.B. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samhain Posted November 13, 2000 Share Posted November 13, 2000 A lot depends on the force sizes, terrain, weather, etc. Some thoughts, in no particular order: Basic tactics I've found work are to get HMG's or equivalents on the flanks of likely areas of enemy advance to create crossfires. Begin to call in arty on likely areas of enemy advance before you actually see them. You can call it off or adjust as needed. Use barbed wire, minefields and other obstacles to redirect traffic, so to speak--get the enemy moving where you want them. Barbed wire at the edge of a forest is good for keeping troops from just camping there. They'll get hung up or go around. Have a tank or tank destroyer or two if possible, near flanks. Have mortars (preferably mobile) set up towards the rear of your defense. Use the HQ LOS ability with infantry mortars--i.e., spot with the HQ (well hidden) and keep mortars out of enemy LOS. Bring light armor (2 or 3 half-tracks, Wirblewinds, etc. depending on force size) out of hiding after you're reasonably sure enemy heavy armor is knocked out. Then keep these back far enough from enemy bazookas or panzerschrecks, but in range of advancing infantry. A Wirbelwind, amored car, light tank, etc. will easily stop a massed platoon in its tracks a lot of the time. Don't bunch up your squads--keep them as far apart as you can while still in command and able to set up overlapping fields of fire. Don't put multiple squads in the same building or floor, at least of smaller buildings. Use the hide command to set up nasty ambushes. Have a reserve or portion of your men and light armor that can quickly advance to hot spots or weak points that are under attack. If you use AT guns, don't put them on high hills overlooking wide swaths of land, as they'll get knocked out quickly. Set them up where they're blocked by cover on as many sides as possible and where they'll have narrow fire lanes that can be used for ambushes. Don't get carried away buying armor (assuming both sides are combined arms, otherwise more armor as needed), and make sure you have enough "normal" infantry squads to hold things. The big expensive units can wreak havoc, but if you lose a few of them, you're out of luck. You don't necessarily want to keep most of your forces near the front edge of your defensive lines (like all the buildings in a town nearest to the enemy)--it can be useful to draw them in and ambush. Height isn't always an advantage. Reverse-slope defenses that have you at the bottom of a hill (in cover) shooting enemies advancing over the crest (where there's no cover) will turn them around in a hurry quite often. Hope some of this is useful. ------------------ Hope you got your things together, Hope you are quite prepared to die. --CCR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralsaw Posted November 13, 2000 Share Posted November 13, 2000 Here are some pointer that might help you. - Unit composition: Varies obviously, according to terrain. Take lots of infantry, some bazookas, a couple of MG for suppression. Take one or two sharpshooters. Get some tank destroyers or Tanks if you can afford. Take mortars and/or artillery. Make sure you have a combined arms force. You'll end up with a force that suits your game at the end. - Hide your troops. I can't emphasise that enough. The most usual mistake is to let your infantry or MGs fire from long distances. What happens then is that the enemy FOs will zero in on your guys and toast them. Set ambushes so that when your squads reveal themselves, they will inflict lots of casualties (ambush <50m distance). - Position your sharpshooters in front of your line, maybe towards the flanks, covering enemy routes of advance. They are your recon eyes, they will button tanks and tell you where the enemy is coming from. Move them out as soon as enemy infantry closes <100m distance. - Keep your MGs behind the Main Line of Resistance, with clear fields of fire, so that enemy troops will have to get past your hidden squads to kill them. Enemy armour might pop up and start shooting your MGs. Move them back. - As soon as enemy armour pops up, use your TDs to kill them from a long distance. Your zooks should be always hidden and away from advancing troops. Use zooks in ambushes, after enemy armour has advanced. - As soon as the situation stabilises, use your mortars or FOs to kill enemy squads in forests. You can pre-register forests just infront of your MLR as arty targets. This should be fun. - Enemy infantry loves moving through forests. Set up ambushes in forests. When setting up such an ambush, do not set it up at the edge. Set it up in the middle, so enemy direct armour fire cannot hit you. - As far as the enemy FOs go, well, grin and bear it. You can try to kill them with sharpshooters if you know where they are, or with arty, but don't hold your breath. You'll lose a lot of men to arty, not much you can do. If you see spotting rounds falling near your troops, it's time to move, and move fast. And spread your troops out. - Last, try to keep some reserves, maybe a platoon, as you cannot predict which route the enemy will take. Do not be afraid to relocate your MLR if you get a one-sided pounding. Just some quick pointers, not a magic bullet. Hope it helps. ------------------ My squads are regular, must be the fibre in the musli... [This message has been edited by coralsaw (edited 11-13-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingfish Posted November 13, 2000 Share Posted November 13, 2000 Here's a blast from the past: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/003757.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt the Paladin Posted November 14, 2000 Author Share Posted November 14, 2000 Thanks for your help. I tried out some of your tactics against the computer, and I won. P.S. I am also having trouble using tanks well, if you have any advice put it under my new post "Tank trouble." ------------------ "I'd rateher die than be whipped." J.E.B. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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