Bocage defense.

[Tom Konczal]

Can anyone help me. I am a pretty experienced Combat Mission PBEM player but one thing still puzzles me. When using a bocage in defense (or advancing and using it as a temporary attacking position), do you actually put the unit into the bocage or just behind it in the open ground to get the benefit?

Thanks

Tom Konczal :confused

[Chad Harrison]

when defending: i have had VERY good success placing the infantry out of the boccage and in whatever cover you can find (scattered trees, ect). when they start to come through the bocage, its hard for them to fire effectivle. better yet, they usually run for cover THROUGH the bocage, and nothing left by the time they get through!

when attacking: sneak/crawl to the OPPOSITE side and engage the enemy before getting all tangled up in the bocage. its very frustrating watching your men walk SLOWLY through the bocage while getting shot up!!! :mad:

best of luck

[Tom Konczal]

My understanding is that, in Normandy in World War II, the bocages were dirt mounds with thick vegitation along the top that seperated farmfields and the Germans hid in the thick growth or just behind the slope on the bocage, firing at the American troops crossing the open grounds of the fields. If the only effect in Combat Mission is to slow movement through them, you cannot get the same historical defensive effect from the bocagde.

[Scott B]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tom Konczal:

My understanding is that, in Normandy in World War II, the bocages were dirt mounds with thick vegitation along the top that seperated farmfields and the Germans hid in the thick growth or just behind the slope on the bocage, firing at the American troops crossing the open grounds of the fields. If the only effect in Combat Mission is to slow movement through them, you cannot get the same historical defensive effect from the bocagde.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Bocage works in exactly the way you describe in Combat Mission. Run a test and see for yourself. A unit just behind Bocage can fire as normal at units on the other side, but gains cover - they are treated as having 30% exposure rather than the 75% exposure of open ground. Even units without a foxhole gain this cover advantage. Additionally, units actually *in* the bocage (assumed to be crossing through) are highly vulnerable, as they have the same 75% exposure as they would in open ground and move very slowly.

I've actually been spending some time playing around with Bocage in some quantity lately, since I'm working on a scenario based on a German strongpoint at Le Carillon, north of St Lo in July '44. Successive rows of bocage certainly will wear down your troops in a hurry, and the casualties are typically high as well. Some of the battles where Americans faced off against Falshirmjagers are particularly difficult (for the Americans), given the extremely high infantry firepower of the latter units.

Scott