How to advance over fairly open ground

[BotD]

I am talking basically flat with some small bushes scattered around as the only cover on the way there. My infantry seem to be easily spooked, especially my more defensless units(mortars and mgs). I relegate my armor to overwatch duty and still my infantry scatter. Is there anyway to consistently get your infantry to move forward?

[Guest Mike]

Use the "Advance" order to move short distances with alternate platoons.

Your tanks will ahve a hard time spotting enemy infantry at range, so open fire on any likely hiding spots with area fire - whether you use HE or just the mg's is up to you and depends on how much ammo you have!!

Your stationary infantry will provide you with more spotting than the tanks alone.

Use your mortars and MG's in overwatch too - that's why they have longer ranges!!

If you have smoke then use it.

But regardless it's going to be hard work - the best thing to do with open ground is to go around it!!

[YankeeDog]

Depends a bit on whether you're talking about CMBO or CMBB. Movement under fire in CMBB is considerably more difficult than in CMBO. Personally, I think CMBB is more realistic in this regard, and I think most here on the forum would agree with me. There are some who disagrees at least some aspects of CMBB's new fire and supression modeling, though - you can head on over to the CMBB forum if you're curious about that.

But to your question: The tactics below are more or less derived from real-life infantry movement under fire drill. They're useful in either CMBO or CMBB, but it's even more important to use them in CMBB.

1. Even 'flat' terrain usually has some useful relief. Look for defilade situations in low ground or behind small rises. In CM, the fastest (and safest!) route between two point usually isn't a straight line. Maximize the use of the cover you have.

2. Lots o' supressive fire. Use MGs, mortars, AFVs, and even off-board arillery if you can spare it to put supressive fire onto enemy positions. This is where high-ammo load units come in really handy. MGs are especially useful for this - even at ranges where the MG is unlikely to actually cause casualties to an enemy unit, it can still significantly reduce the enemy units' ability to return fire. Also don't be afraid to area fire at enemy units that you only have a sound contact for. Just remember that sound contacts aren't very precise - you may need to spread out area fire from several sources to ensure that at least one unit is targetted close to the enemy unit.

3. Within the limits of available cover and C&C, keep your infantry units spread out - HE fire especially can hit more than one unit at a time. Even MG and small arms fire can affect more than one infantry unit if they are close together.

4. Advance in small bounds, and alternate bounding and moving units. Using small rushes forward means that units have to move under fire for only a short time, and are therefore more likely to complete their movement order before panicking. It also gives them a chance to rest and recover before their next bound. Having several groups of infantry take turns rushing forward forces the enemy to constantly shift his fire from group to group. In general, other factors being approximately equal (range, unit value, etc.), the TacAI will shoot at the most exposed group, which usually means the group that is moving. This also gives the non-moving units a chance to rest and settle their nerves for their next rush forward.

5. You mention in your post that your are having problems especially with moving your mortars and MGs under fire. There is a very good reason for this: heavy weapons teams are NOT designed to do much movement under fire - their job is overwatch and fire support (see 2 above). Most HMG teams can project meaningful firepower out to about 1000m - leave them back and use their high ammo load for suppressive fire. Mortars (with the possible exception of the brit 2" in CMBO) are similarly a long-range weapon. What's more, their HE shells are about equally effective no matter what the range, so leave them back in a good overwatch position where they won't be so exposed.

6. When and where appropriate, use smoke. Off-board arty delivers the biggest smoke screens, but these aren't always available, or you may need to save your arty for blowing things up. On-board smoke assets (On-board mortars and AFVs with smoke rounds) can so some good, just don't expect miracle - 2-4 well targetted smoke rounds from an on-board 81mm mortar may be able to close up a gap in a covered avenue of approach, or take a pillbox or bunker out of a fight for a couple of minutes so you can flank it.

Now to some specifics about orders: In CMBO, you generally want to RUN when advancing under fire, except maybe when going through heavy cover like broken ground or woods, where MOVE is generally more appropriate since RUN is VERY tiring in this kind of cover and not much faster anyway. In CMBB, for the kind of generally open ground you're dealing with, you want to ADVANCE mostly, unless you're commanding conscripts and/or green Russians, in which case HUMAN WAVE is an option - using HUMAN WAVE is kind of a whole subject in and of itself, though, so I'll leave that alone for now. Do NOT advance under fire across open ground using RUN in CMBB! Your infantry will get killed or pinned very quickly. There are some exceptions to this but in general the RUN order in CMBB is best reserved for when enemy fire is very light or nonexistent and you need to get infantry somewhere very quickly.

One additional note: Especially in CMBB, you need to be careful about your ammo usage on advances like this. In CMBB, if you can spare the firepower, consider giving your advancing squads relatively short cover arcs so they don't blow all their ammo before they get to their objective. You can do more or less the same thing in CMBO by using the AMBUSH command, or by having units HIDE once they're done moving. The latter actually works in CMBB as well, but does have one major drawback: Hiding units don't spot that well, so you're less likely to see new enemy threats.

Once you get close to your objective, and it's time to clear out the enemy in the area, your movement drill need to change, but that's a subject for another thread. . .

In conclusion, there really isn't a way to "consistently get your infantry to move forward," - Just like real-life grunts, CM soldiers tend to develop a serious interest in the ground beneath them once the bullets start flying around. Once you know the strengths and limitations of your units, though, it is quite possible to make an advanace across open terrain in either game. It's easier in CMBO, but it's also certainly doable in CMBB. Just plan on using lots of ammo, and don't plan on moving too quickly.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

YD

[BotD]

Yes that was a lot of help. I think one of my main problems was not using the mg's for cover fire, I didnt realize that they could still suppress at such long ranges, that is why I tried to move them forward a little. Unfortunately the fact that most of the russian army is green does not help the situation. I am playing CMBB btw, I only recently started playing this series.

[Monty's Double]

Good advice from YD. In CMBO I religiously scouted with infantry before revealing my armour. That was partly because the terrain was usually thicker in CMBO, but also because there was no "armoour arc" command. In CMBB I've found I have to lead more with armour. This is obviously very dangerous against dug in guns but there are ways to minimise the impact, such as using fast units (like T-34's) to rush from cover to cover, or heavily armoured units (StuGs) to "gang-up" in a narrow facing. Advancing with infantry is pretty tough in CMBB, and I can only echo what YD says; use lots of suppressing fire, especilly DF HE.

[Tigrii]

Smoke is the most useful thing, IMHO, for advancing inf. over open terrain. If you can pick troops, get lots of radio light arty spotters. They're great for smoke barrages. Also, remember that WWII battles are won with the gun, not the bayonet. If you can locate your foe, you don't always have to assualt, just stand off and use superior firepower, especially mortars and MGs, to rout and kill them. Suicide scouts work well with this technique.