Thermopylae Posted January 20, 2001 Share Posted January 20, 2001 At the request of the Pillar preview, here is a short post on a tactic not many people think about. Feel free to criticize it, offer adjustments, etc. The most common form of play is the attack. We know that a determined defensive player will rarely if ever be beaten just because you've captured an objective. It is far more liekly that the fight will continue around that objective, slwoing your assualt as you commit assetts to its defense/firefight. Now the trick is to keep your force momentum flexible without draining it in holding. Let us accept that for any attack to have serious punch it needs a form of direct HE, delivered usually by a tank. It is very ahrd to break a position without one unless you have overwhelming numbers. This nesscitates the holding of the objective with infantry to free up the tanks elsewhere. Now as with all defenses, you will need manpower, cover, and possibly AT capability. Manpower: Most likely you will need a semi-fresh platoon. If its taken over 25% losses, or if any of its squads have broken, the platoon cannot be counted on to hold. The part about broken troops is critical! Do not use any broken troops for defense! A smaller enemy who ahs been driven back can counterattack and win vs. broken troops, and if your opponent commits reserves the objective will surely turn over. Remember, any platoon that made the attack is not likely to be fit to hold. This makes reserves nessecary. As a rule of thumb there should be one platoon in reserve for every two or three attacking. Other tactics would be welcomed as this is one of my largest problems. (I tend to commit the reserve to early a spart of the asualt force) Cover: Not having the benefits of foxholes, you must make sure the area you are taking can be held without them. Typically you shuld strive tos ecure cover arund thew objective of at leats equal footing with the cover most liekyl to be used by the enemy. I.E., don't hold a grove of scattered trees 110 m away from the woods. Be willing to stay in front of or behind the objective as the terrain requires. Also, the cover shuld not be an arty magnet. Those two houses on the objective are probably going to be taking fire. Don't stay there. The thrid factor to take into account when consolidating is how assualtiable the position will be. In towns one should try to hold an inne r house line, out of the way of direct fire, and preferabbly with a road seaperating it from the next house lien so you haven easy killing zone. In the country, woods provide admirable, unless so large they provide several angle sof attack. The fianl say in the terrian you choose is how mcuh firepower can you bring to bear without packing the troops together? A single hevay building may be a strongpoint, but is very tactically weak because it allows large amounts of troops to be supressed at once, and limits the fields fo fire of the platoon. Ideally you have a staright line of defense that allows for close support, but that need sqauds to be idvidually asualted and targeted. The AT Element: Since the whole point of infantry consolidation is to free up our armro, it must bring its own AT with it. This can be solved by stickign 1 AT weapon inside each platoon, mcuh like a platoon leader, and then distributing them out when the assualt is done. This has the added advantage of giving the infantry the ability to advance agaisnt bunkers and such wihtout their own armor support or close assualts. Once the assualt for an objective is over, bring up the AT weaposn you had tariling close behind, and set 1/2 of them up for direct defense toe ngage armro whereever it appears, and 1/2 of them in rserev, to be moved to any focal point. In the case of an odd number, weight the etxra on direct defense. this complemnt of AT fire is often devastating to a counterattacking enemy, stripping him of his armor unexpectedly, or at leats making it signifcantly harder to launch an assualt, and thus the more likely he won't. If all of these factors are met, the ground you've taken can be held easily by the riflemen. The armor is now free to maeuver to whatever portion of the field it chooses, engage enemy armor, mop up troops, or lend support to other infantry. The extra HE rounds will be what makes the difference between a successful assualt and you cursing at your men for running away from the enmy when they only had to go 15m more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer_n_Pretzels Posted January 20, 2001 Share Posted January 20, 2001 A very interesting and thoughtful post. However there is an additional benefit. If you can setup a tank to direct fire HE onto a enemy position then you have gained an advantage. The enemy must either use smoke to block LOS, or use Artillery and hopefully hurt your tank. However the most usual response would be for the enemy to send a tank to kill your tank. Now If you're a really cunning player, you would have be prepared for this, and as soon as the ugly snout of the enemy tank (or TD) pops up, you hit it with a previously hidden AT Gun, TD or Artillery... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted January 20, 2001 Share Posted January 20, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Beer_n_Pretzels: If you can setup a tank to direct fire HE onto a enemy position then you have gained an advantage. The enemy must either use smoke to block LOS, or use Artillery and hopefully hurt your tank. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Unless your tank decides to not follow your orders and instead fires smoke at the position instead, thereby doing the enemy's job for them. Kitty ------------------ Hamsters at War! Chicks With Tanks Lorak's FTX "I'd rather the Bees than your Mask of Shame." - Stuka Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermopylae Posted January 20, 2001 Author Share Posted January 20, 2001 Note my absolutely atrocious spelling too...but on the beer and pretzels post, yeah, the whole point is to free up that direct HE for an assualt somewhere else instead of just holding an objective . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt the Paladin Posted January 27, 2001 Share Posted January 27, 2001 Buildings are vastly underrated. One of my favorite tactics is to use them as arty and fire magnets to drain my opponent's ammo. Just have an MG pop up once or twice and put a couple shots into the enemy, then retret the MG and watch the enemy smash the empty building into nothingness. Another favorite tactic of mine is to use buildings for ambushes. When your opponent comes for a VL near some buildings, you should use a squad or two for token resistance, but keep a platoon and a PIAT or two hidden in the buildings. If the enemy has armor, wait until the PIATs have a clear shot at the rear or side armor before ambushing. Otherwise, just strike as soon as the enemy lets his guard down. ------------------ "War is like a cat, it is easy to let out of the bag, but hard as hell to put back in!" -Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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