Experimental Force: Recon with Heavy Art FOs

[Guest grunto]

what if you had a unit with a bunch of m5s and m20s and paratroopers in m3s with 155 FOs?

would this cost about the same as shermans with regular infantry and 105s?

perhaps if you scrimped in tanks you could beef up FOs and infantry. if you scrimped on halftracks you could get good mobility out of trucks.

perhaps a less powerful but faster force in the field could win with good heavy FO execution.

so perhaps heavy armor with bad or non-existent FO support isn't as good an overall solution as recon/light armor with the heavy artillery (150mm and above) FOs in support.

probably with recon armor and halftracks or trucks you really have to avoid costly firefights and let the FOs do the work.

i could see a counter in a quick mobile thrust by the defense, frustrating the attacking american artillery observers and allowing the germans to close within 50 meters in order to negate the offboard artillery. that is why the mobile attacking force should probably have some close combat weapons

so the keys would be

1) avoid major contact unless it is to your advantage (your force has threaded a gap unnoticed and has fanned out and is in great position to hit from behind).

2) try to anticipate the main enemy movement 2-3 turns in advance and then use 'screens' and 'baiting tricks' to try and 'push,' or 'pull' the counteracking enemy into a barrage zone.

3) let the big offboard guns do the work.

4) keep a lot of close combat weapons (mg, flamethrower, baz) on hand.

5) never fight at intermediate to long range unless you're out of harm's way and calling in offboard barrages on static (unmoving) targets.

6) you're a mobile force. keep moving if you can.

7) after initially being spotted by the enemy, use lots of smoke both to mask your movement and to trick the enemy as to your intentions.

8) Special Rule: never get shot at while riding with infantry in trucks or halftracks. your infantry aren't looking for a fight unless you find a gap in the lines during your recon mission. then your force will sneak through and fan out behind the enemy line of defense. infantry in halftracks and trucks aren't useful unless they're moved and dropped off in some spot which makes the enemy's position untenable. otherwise they're sitting ducks.

9) let your m5s and armored cars ride point

10) find the path of no resistance

so an armored recon company might look like:

4 155 FOs

3 platoons paratroopers

10 m3 halftrack

4 60mm mortar

4 m1919 mg

4 baz

5 m5 stuart

5 m20 armored car

1 m18 tank destroyer

or something like that.

andy