Need some specific tactical advice...

[Kami]

I'm a complete newbie to CM, although I've got a fairly decent grasp of military tactics through reading and other wargames. I don't even own a copy of CM. I'm playing a friend at a hotseat game on his computer, and I could do with a little advice from you folks. I've had a look at some of the other posts and got some good general tips, but I need something a little more specific if possible.First off, my friend reads this board sometimes so, David, if you're reading this, don't read any further or I'll kick you square in the nuts.

Ok, we're about 8 turns into it and it's a 25 turn game. I think it's November 1944, although I'm not sure. I can't remember the name of the battle, but the Allies (an American armoured group) are trying to exploit a crossing and create a beach-head. I am the Allies and in case you don't know the battle, here's a quick guide to what the map looks like. All directions (left, right, etc) are from the Allied point of view:

There are two town areas at each end, one in Axis hands and the other in Allied. In the middle there is a tree-covered (mostly scattered)ridge/elevated area the width of the map with a couple of scattered buildings. There are two rivers (or maybe they are the same river, connected off-map, not that it matters) with a number of bridges and crossing points. One river occupies the near right corner, and the other occupies the far left corner. The two victory flags are a quarter of the way in from the German side. One is next to a bridge crossing the river on the German side on the left and the other is on a road on the German side of the ridge (to the right of centre). There is a 75mm pillbox on the right of the ridge with a fair amount of open ground sloping away in front of it. A road runs past this on the left and a track runs around it from the front to the right. There is an MG pillbox on the ridge in the centre. A track runs along the length of the left side. This description isn't great, as you can tell, but it will have to do.

Ok, here's the situation. This is where my lack of CM knowledge will show, if it hasn't already...

On the right I have lost a number of infantry attempting to assault the 75mm pillbox due to some particularly devious armoured car/MG placement on the part of my friend. I am also sneaking an 81mm spotter around the far right to try to put some accurate rounds into his rear. The 155mm spotter is laying down blind fire on probable defensive positions near the victory flags. On the left my armoured spearhead has been destroyed, but they caused enough enemy casualties for me not to be too upset. I have a Priest on a hill about a quarter into the map on the left laying down area fire into some German infantry in the central trees. At the beginning of the battle I made fast advances but these were met with heavy resistance which destroyed these units. I'm not too bothered about the loss as they caused a lot of damage themselves, but just before dying my last unit spotted two Panthers advancing on his position (the left flag) and I have a fairly healthy fear of these beasts. I know there is some more armour rolling around out there and the German town is certainly heavily defended. Now for the good news, my main forces...

I have 2 Hellcats staring down the left road, at the end of which are the two Panthers. I have 10 halftracks full of rifle infantry, 2/3 veteran, 1/3 regular, hidden in my town alongside 2 mortar halftracks. I have an infantry platoon in cover about 300 or 400m in front of the 75mm pillbox. I have 3 Jumbo Shermans and 2 76mm Shermans.

From what I know of my friend he probably won't try to attack me. I think he'll be happy to sit and wait for me to expose myself (metaphorically speaking). I've not seen much of his infantry, maybe only a platoon or 2. I think most of them will be sitting in ambush. If he has any artillery he hasn't used it yet.

I think I should get my infantry out of the halftracks and move them up the centre to sweep up any forward German infantry and spot his tanks, then move my hellcats and 76mm Shermans up carefully. I'm not sure whether to just bypass the 75mm pillbox completely or to take it on with the Jumbo Shermans. Come to think of it, I'm not really shure how best to use the Jumbos at all. I guess I can find some tips around here somewhere.

Please don't post any spoilers for this battle. I'm just after some general tactics. I don't really know the game mechanics for how to handle close fighting with Panthers, etc. I know I have the guns for it with the Hellcats and the 76mm Shermans, but I don't know about firing rates and turret speed and I don't want to push all my armour into a trap.

Thanks in advance for being bothered to read this far, and extra thanks if you actually post anything.

[109 Gustav]

Well, if you want anyone to give you specific tactical advice, you'd better post a screenshot. Maybe I just have a visual mind, but I can't get a very good grasp of the battle from words.

As far as armor goes, your sherm 76s and especially the hellcats are very fast, have fairly good guns, and quick-rotating turrets, but they have thin armor. You can't slug it out in a head to head duel with a panther, so don't try. Instead, use your speed to race around to the enemy's flanks, using trees, hills, and valleys for cover.

The best way to kill 75mm bunkers is to let your jumbo slug it out with them. They can't kill the jumbo, but it should be able to kill them after awhile. If you don't have jumbos, churchills or pershings, or if you are facing 88mm bunkers, your best bet is to use smoke from an 81mm spotter to blind the bunker, then move inf in close.

Yes, getting the inf out of the halftracks is probably a good idea. Halftracks will let them move from one place to another quickly, but inf are helpless in them when there are tanks or AT guns in the area, and can't fire back.

[bulletsponge]

your forgeting one of the most important aspects of warfare, espianoge! when your friend is distracted, or when hes planning, spy in and look at his formations and placements! Remember, alls fair in love and war, excpecially war!

[JasonC]

First, eliminate the 75mm bunker with your Jumbos. Just be sure the Jumbos are facing toward the bunker whenever they are within its LOS. It can't get through their thick front armor. They in turn can put HE rounds through its firing slit and so knock it out. You want to get this done before you have to worry about his Panthers coming up the central ridge to flank your Jumbos, so get a move on. You do not, however, need to get particularly close. The best locations would be ones that can see the pillbox and the area right around it, but little else, especially covered toward your left in case the Panthers move forward. Do not rush the pillbox with infantry. Let the Jumbos take it out.

The MG pillbox in the center you can kill in the same way, using any tanks you've got. Wait until the 75mm pillbox is dead, so you don't lose any vehicles to flanking shots from it. Again, you don't need to be close, just to have a clear line of sight. It would be better to get this done without revealing your Hellcats, if possible. They also have the most limited supply of HE, so the Shermans are a better choice. Button the tanks that take on the MG pillbox so you don't lose a tank commander to its replies, and stay a reasonable distance away so any schrecks near the pillbox can't take out your tanks.

Stop wasting your most powerful 155mm artillery on blind fire. You want to use it on IDed enemy infantry positions. It is extremely effective at that. Call the mission and just let the first few rounds land, then shift within 100 yards if you like. You can stretch out the half-turns of fire quite a ways, since the rate of fire is not high. And even a limited number of 155mm shells do a lot to nearby infantry. The best target is infantry in woods cover, rather than buildings. (Tank HE does buildings, artillery does woods). You can get airbursts in the trees that way, and near misses will do more than they will to troops in buildings.

The 81mm mortars are not that powerful. They can suppress enemy infantry while they are landing, but the target will recover in a few minutes. They are best used on enemies you are currently in an infantry fire-fight with, or on enemy gun positions (just guns, not bunkers), or to lay smoke-screens (which they are quite good at, with rapid FO response and many small smoke rounds giving good coverage).

Your halftracks can support your infantry with their MGs, but are only useful *after* the enemy AT guns and armor have been dealt with. Trying to move forward mounted in them, to any place the enemy can see, is suicidal if he still has tanks or AT guns. Never move them up en masse, especially mounted. One at a time to scout is OK, if you think you've dealt with the enemy armor. If you are wrong you only lose one.

To deal with the Panthers, you have to understand a few things. First, the 76mm guns on your Shermans and Hellcats can penetrate the front of the Panther turret only with Tungsten ammo (t rounds), or very close range, under 200 meters. To use t ammo, the shooting tank has to have some available *and* the target has to be fully IDed - "panther" not "panther?". Lucky hits on the lower front hull can kill them at range, but those are too uncommon to count on. You can also kill them with flank (or rear) shots at any range, with any tank gun or with bazookas. In return, they can kill everything you've got, although your Jumbos will bounce most of their shells at long range if hit from the front.

To tackle two of them over on your left, you want to have shooters spread out in as wide an arc as possible. This increases the chance of flank shots, because they can each only face one direction at a time. You also want to be especially careful with 76mm tanks with abundant T rounds - they are your best shooters. Use the central ridge to mask your tanks until you are ready to tackle the Panthers. After you have cleared the pillboxes, your infantry should be able to move up your side of it.

Now, here is the big problem you will have. The enemy infantry is probably waiting on the back side of that ridge. The pillboxes and anything else far forward is only a screen. The main defense is probably based on the reverse slope of that ridge. By putting infantry close to but behind the crest, he can shoot anybody who crosses the crest at close range. While all of your supporting units on your side, will not be able to see the shooter. Your forward units will be effectively isolated from the rest of your force the moment they cross the crest, while facing his entire force. Moreover, he will probably have panzerschrecks close enough to the crest to hit tanks trying to cross it. Getting over the ridge line is going to be the hard part.

To do it, you will need to coordinate all your different weapons. Pick an area where you will cross, and scout ahead with just a half-squad to see what is waiting for you. You want the least defended part of the ridgeline (on the back side), if you can find it. You can search for enemy AT weapons by sending up one halftrack - though you will probably lose it. When you have an idea of the defense on the far side, get ready and then unroll an attack, as detailed next.

First drop 155mm on the far side of the ridge, to break infantry defenders. While that is landing, call for 81mm smoke. Put Jumbos on the crest, facing toward wherever you expect AT shooters (or his Panthers, if still alive) to be. And rush over the ridge with 2-3 platoons of infantry at the same time, heading all the way for cover on the far side of the ridge.

Once you get a toe-hold on the far side of the ridge, intact, roll up the ridgeline. Send some infantry over the crest from your side, where they can wait safely, while other infantry, FOs, and especially tanks, shoot along the far side of the crest. When you have cleared the whole ridge you should be able to hunt forward with your 76mm shooters at will, at any point along the ridge. Do so, taking out each of his armor or AT assets, by first giving them "bait" (like a halftrack, or if they can't destroy it a Jumbo facing them), then popping up a 76mm shooter in a different spot.

When you have run him out of armor, park all your tanks up on the ridge and blast away with HE at everything you can see. Use the Jumbos (if any are left alive) to crawl closer to re-establish LOS to anyone who slinks away from stuff the ridgeline tanks can see, but do not press far forward. Just enough to see again. Bring up the remaining halftracks, onto the ridge, to hose down everything with MG fire. Gather your infantry at the base of the ridge, to keep his infantry AT weapons away from all your vehicles and to form up for the final attack.

Wait. Hose some more, and fire off more tank HE. Blow up every building with somebody in it. Area fire with the halftrack MGs at any suspected enemy position, even if you don't see someone there, to trigger reply fire ("recon by fire"). Keep your infantry back slightly in cover, or on "hide", to save their ammo, just using the vehicle MGs (which have hundreds of shots instead of 40 each).

When you have wiped out every target you can see and enemy fire has dropped off to nothing, drop your remaining 155mm HE on the town, and smoke the approaches to it with any remaining mortar ammo, and with smoke from your tanks. Then rush the objective with all your remaining infantry (save perhaps one platoon as a reserve, optional). If they get hung up anywhere, blast it from the ridge or bring up a Jumbo.

Your big problems with be (1) the Panthers, (2), crossing the ridge line and living on the other side of it, and (3) not getting all of your armor killed in the firefights those two will involve. If you manage those things you will do fine. If the enemy has more infantry than you think, or considerably more armor that you just haven't spotted yet, your early losses might be more important than you suspect.

It was obviously a mistake to rush forward with a large force, like you did. It would have been better to probe first with half squads and lone halftracks, to discover the layout of the defense, while eliminating the pillboxes with your Jumbos. You should have been able to clear the near side of the ridge - including the pillboxes - with very few losses, and without using up any of your heavy artillery support. Then you would have had everything for the ridge-crossing fight.

But that is water under the bridge, and you have to make do with how you played the opening. Understand, though, that it was not good. Be realistic about the enemy. His force is probably pretty darn strong, considering the size of your own. You probably haven't seen half the defenders yet. This takes getting used to in double blind wargames. You see your whole force, you've discovered a portion of the enemy, and you think you are doing reasonably well. But you are implicitly comparing everything you have left alive, to everything the enemy has left alive *that you can see*. Which can easily give a false sense of the odds, and lead to overconfident or reckless play. Slowly, carefully, therefore.

I hope this helps, and good luck.

[Gpig]

Hmmmm . . . what scenario are we talking about here? Sounds cool. I'd like to give it a try.

Gpig

[Mustang]

Kami-

Your signiture is from KELLEYS HERO'S. Great movie, and funny as hell too. Probably the best way to 'take out' a tiger as I have seen yet LOL!

[Redwolf]

There is no reason to discourage from attacking Panthers with 76mm Shermans "because they are thin".

In general in one-to-one duels, if you are thin enough for the enemy to penetrate it does't matter how thin. If you face a Firefly it doesn't matter whether you are a StuG or a Marder.

Having said this, the stupid US 76mm needs a certain distance to a Panther to kill it, so you must watch that.

[Flakfizer]

I thought I should let you know how the battle went. The scenario was 'Bridgehead at Benicourt'. Kami and I played through to the end resulting in an Axis tactical victory. He dropped a turn of 155 arty blind behind the ridge and managed to almost kill one squad of reinforcements, panic another, damage the gun on a halftrack/75 and worst of all imobilised one of my panthers moving to the other flank. After that he pushed his remaining shermans and infantry up to the flag and held there. My forces concentrated on killing his remaining armour then scrubbed his infantry from the flag.

Kami said thanks for the advice and that one of these days he might manage a draw