Need Some German QB infantry Tactic Help.

[wade]

OK. I play alotof QBs these day. And of Course as infantry only. I dont like handling tanks and vehicles. But anyway. Im having some troubles with cannons on either side. Usally i play as The Heer or American Airborne. I use the 75mm on both side. And in The AA i use 105mm(great gun). But by the damn time they get to there designated spot the battles half over. If i used mechanized my poor infatry soldiers would get chewed up by the dreadful machine guns on them. I was wondering if anyone uses cannons on infantry only battles for QBs. Sometimes if your lucky enough you might get a hill in your territory. But most of the time i get Trees or a valley to start in. Also i would like to also have my purchases checked. For the german Heer i use the Smg Squad and the volksgrenadier rifle squads for range. And then i get support machine guns and mortars. Then the infamousm artillery spotters. I cover my advancing SMG squads with rifle 45 squads and machine guns. Then when i get close my smgs tear up anything in the proper range. I kinda use a blitzkrieg tactic except in a battle. And some info on how to get flame throwers up to the front line with out being corpsed before they get the enemy in tange would be nice too.

[tar]

With regard to maneuvering big guns, you could try buying a jeep or kubelwagen or something like that. It would give you more (vulnerable) mobility. Also, for infantry battles, you might want to increase the number of turns. That will give you more time to move the slow things.

As far as flamethrowers go, though I don't think anyone has any good ideas of how to use them offensively. There have been numerous threads about them in the past, but the consensus seems to be that they are not particularly useful.

Thinking historically about their use and relating it to game terms, it seems that flamethrower usage was particularly good when you could really suppress the enemy AND the suppressed enemy had really good cover (protection). What they are designed to counter is an enemy that can't really shoot back effectively, and one that is in a sufficiently fortified position that you can't eliminate them through firepower and you don't want to try to eliminate them through close combat.

About the only part of CM that comes close to those conditions is pillboxes, where the blind arcs give you the effects of suppression. Flamethrowers seem to be most useful in eliminating pockets of fortified resistance once the mobile part of the battle has ended.

[Silvio Manuel]

You might have more luck w/ Flamethrowers is you play in a lower visibility level, i.e. dawn/dusk, overcast, fog, or even take it further and make the time of day AND weather less-than-perfect. The reduced spotting will mean that your F.T.'s may just get close enough to get used. It's very tough to "get your money's worth" from an infantry FT team, they cost about 1.5 squads, and it's hard to kill or route-and-then-kill that many troops.

You may want to use a vehicle to transport the FT team. OTOH, for purely utilitarian reasons, you might as well take the German SPW 251/16 HT, it has great range (50m? 75m?), can manuever, and has an MG. The Brits have the Wasp in the vehicle column, and the Canadians have the Badger under Armor (Stuart hull).

If you tow your guns, be aware that damp/wet/etc ground conditions will slow a Jeep a bit, HT's and better yet Univ.Carriers can tow things faster, if that matters to you.

[Shosties]

Originally posted by Silvio Manuel:

You may want to use a vehicle to transport the FT team. OTOH, for purely utilitarian reasons, you might as well take the German SPW 251/16 HT, it has great range (50m? 75m?), can manuever, and has an MG. The Brits have the Wasp in the vehicle column, and the Canadians have the Badger under Armor (Stuart hull).

Silvio,

The Wasp, Badger, and the two Crocs outrange the 251/16 by a good margin, and are much better protected. BTW, the Badger is a converted RAM (Canadian medium tank much like the M4, only used in battle in converted forms as Badger, Kangaroo, and Command/Observation tanks).

The interesting features of the 251/16 don't make it into the game because of modeling limitations. It had two flame projectors and a "fire hose" that could be wielded by a dismounted crew member while the HT remained out of sight of the target.

[Shosties]

Originally posted by Silvio Manuel:

You may want to use a vehicle to transport the FT team. OTOH, for purely utilitarian reasons, you might as well take the German SPW 251/16 HT, it has great range (50m? 75m?), can manuever, and has an MG. The Brits have the Wasp in the vehicle column, and the Canadians have the Badger under Armor (Stuart hull).

Silvio,

The Wasp, Badger, and the two Crocs outrange the 251/16 by a good margin, and are much better protected. BTW, the Badger is a converted RAM (Canadian medium tank much like the M4, only used in battle in converted forms as Badger, Kangaroo, and Command/Observation tanks).

The interesting features of the 251/16 don't make it into the game because of modeling limitations. It had two flame projectors and a "fire hose" that could be wielded by a dismounted crew member while the HT remained out of sight of the target.

[Beta1]

To go back to the infantry question

As allies I tend to go with the sturmkompany/Volksgrenadier combo for lethal short and good medium/long range firepower (although you dont realy want to fight at long range). I dont play much as american airbourne but as brit airbourne I always take 75mm pack howitzers, they seem to be man portable at a decent rate, one game I lugged one halfway across the map and up a hill into a wood. Suprised the hell out of my opponent to suddenly get flanking fire from a gun halfway across the map in a ME. The 105 gives a bigger bang but if you cant get it anywhere its not worth it.

Supporting MGs are always good but I have started not bothering with large numbers of on board mortars in MEs- I now prefer an extra FO. you normally get a couple of mortars thrown in with the infantry companies but I wouldnt buy extra. I do like the lighter brit mortars though esp the larger one (not the 2", might be 3") as it has a huge ammo load - they are great in defence for dissuading SMG squads from closing in.

If you want big bangs dont bother with the gun and get another FO

[wade]

OK now the ARtillery PArt. I always have trouble deciding which artillery to choose. I think mortars are good against infantry, cheap, and usally lots of ammo. And the bigger ones expensive less ammo and good agaist well about anything. On my infantry battles i believe artillery spotters are a nesscasry ingrediant to winning a battle. But like i said i have no idea what ones to use. I believe i used a 5.1mm maybe, on a gun and it wiped it out with 6 rounds, i was impressed. The major question here is though, what is the best artillery spotter for infantry, and considering i like small battles(300-600 points, small maps, good amount of trees, and small hills) what should i use.

Sometimes when i do go mechanized are the greyhounds worth putting in. They are the only light tank in the american vehicle selection. Plus the nice 2 machineguns make, well sometimes, or aatleast sounds like, would make mince meat of the Germans. And the nice cover support smoke ordinace is also nice for advancing. But the question is are they worth it, or would a half track with 250 rounds be better?

Sorry im really bad at asking questions, or atlest organizing them, But thanks for the info. I enjoy reading how things actually happened in WW2.

Wade

[Beta1]

so really small battles then - I normally go 1000-2000 rather than 3-600. At that size you can take 150+mm FOs and pretty much always have a good target to drop it on.

I guess you have to ask yourself what you're going to be facing in a battle this size. The most infantry you'll see is probably going to be about a company of rifle squads and they wont have much else to back them up (at the 300 point end of things). Probably two decent squads and a little backup, maybe a HT or two, one tank at most.

Because of this arty is not really going to be as much use as in a larger battle - in a 2000 point you can bet your going to run into a couple of companies and will get the chance to hit a decent concentration of troops with your big 105-150mm FOS. As your not going to see that number of men in this battle is you really want arty it will have to be fairly small calibre due to the price.

In this situation I would probably prefer to use direct fire HE from shermans/M8HMC/Priests etc + 2-3 on board 88mm/3" mortars (yes I know I said I dont use them much but this is different setup than I normally play)

Greyhounds are great little units, and are very good halftrack/light armor killers. If you want anti-infantry though a sherman has a goof 75mm gun, 3 MGs (including a 0.5 on the roof) and enough ammo to sit 250m back from the enemy and pound away all day. The reall killer at this size (if you can afford it) is the brit churchill croc - its very well armored (not much can kill it as its unlikley you'll see Tigers or heavy TDs in a 3-600 point game), has the same HE capabilities of a sherman, 2 MGs and a 100m range flamethrower. Stick one of these behind you infantry and when you contact the enemy roll it up to your front line and thats it. Use it properly and it can break most defences(just dont leave it without an infantry screen - you dont want to let it get ganged up on by a group of shrecks)

[wade]

Alright thanks for the info. But im gonna have to disagree with you when you dont need atillery support on small battles like i play. Some times the computer decides the want to start a fire and camp for me to come to them, or other wise ambush me. If i dont see any enemies in the first 3 minutes it goes to artillery support. No problems though.