Two AARs

[JasonC]

Two AARs

In another thread, Berli provided a fun little scenario, which I highly recommend, called "engineers on parade". It is a tight little urban fight, company level, compressed into a very small area - appropriate for the size forces involved and real street fighting. The Americans get a company of combat engineers with flamethrowers (FTs), the Germans get VG SMG infantry, including a 4th platoon. Both sides are veterans, the US forces are somewhat better led. The point odds are 1.4 to 1 favor the US, almost exactly the cost of their FTs. Then they get to attack, since the Germans hold 6 small objectives at the outset. The US also gets to set up on three sides of the Germans, right across the streets at 40 yards away, and the Germans have less than 200 yards square to hold out in.

It is a scenario designed to showcase FTs in urban settings, thus the title "Engineers on parade". I wish to make clear that I do not want to reopen the general FT subject, already beaten beyond the point of further utility. Instead I thought it would be more constructive, and more fun, to talk about a real CM scenario (which again, I urge people to try out).

I decided to test two things about this scenario, vs. the deficient AI for the sake of speed. First I took the Germans. I expected that the point edge and FTs of the attackers, in perfect conditions for their use, might enable even the AI to accomplish something in such a tight setting. But no, the AI can't attack in general, doesn't understand urban fighting, and also doesn't understand the use of FTs. The result was a German victory with 16% causalties, with the attackers wiped out. In addition, this result was achieved without even using one of the SMG platoons, which remained in reserve the entire time and never fired a shot.

I planned to defend the core block, outpost the denser north side outer buildings, and abandon the outer buildings in the southeast, across the railroad tracks. I put the VG rifle platoon and all the HMGs along the southeast face of the inner block, looking out over the more open ground across the railroad tracks, with long LOS to the east and some point south. The HMGs were all on the upper stories, 2 in the easternmost building and 1 each in the next two toward the southeast. The VG rifles took the ground floors, again concentrated in the easternmost. The weapons platoon HQ and battalion HQ were also along that line, and one Heavy SMG squad was added, under command of the battalion HQ. This formed the "firebase" of the position, with 4 HMGs and 5 LMGs.

The SMG platoon from which I took the heavy SMG squad was assigned to outpost "tripwire" duty in the northern buildings. They were broken down to half-squads, thus providing 5 positions (4xSMG for 4 of them, HQ with 2xSMG in the center one). All were on the ground floors of heavy buildings north of the center block, to provide warning time. They were set up far back into their buildings, so they could not be seen from overwatch in buildings across the streets, but just barely had LOS to the streets outside. The idea was they would open up on anyone trying to enter their buildings, especially early scouts, but avoid heavy firepower.

Behind them in the center block were the two full strength SMG platoons, on the north face of the center block. The heavy SMG squads with their LMGs were set up to look along the alleyways between buildings north of the center block position. The plain SMG squads were set back a ways into their buildings, but able to cover all the streets outside. These platoons formed my reserve and mass of maneuver. If he came through the "tripwire" forces, they would meet the successful intruders with a wall of firepower. If the tripwire were left alone, they would be free to move anywhere else sheltered by it, without front line defense responsibilities.

By keeping most of my force back from the outer buildings, I hoped to avoid any early FT burning and to guage the direct of the enemy efforts before committing myself. The fundamental idea was to use the central positioning (aka being surrounded) as an asset if possible. I avoided the inclination to hold every building in some panic over the limited amount of ground I had to start with. In the event, this basically worked, but largely due to the AI's tendency to hang itself whenever given any length of rope.

The AI came in mostly from the east, right ahead of my firebase. I couldn't have asked for a better main avenue of advance. It moved men through the scattered trees between the buildings, and occupied light buildings (only half the cover of the heavy varieties) with two squads at a time. My HMGs went to town, and I threw in the VG rifles with their LMGs soon enough, as well.

The AI then tried hooking around to the northeast, and ran into the tripwire SMGs. One half-squad he managed to overrun, losing a few men in the street outside, but then winning the close combat inside the building. The other SMG half-squads slinked around in their buildings to support, and to cover this or that alleyway, some of them forming up again in the process. When the AI tried to reinforce the first entry, these SMGs from all angles cut the intruders to pieces. One 4-man SMG team racked up 17 confirmed kills in the streets outside.

I sent one of the reserve SMG platoons out into the chaos that resulted. They rapidly overran the scattered and broken remnants left by the outpost platoon, with little loss to themselves. The outpost platoon was down to a dozen effectives, but the intrusion was smashed. Combined with the losses experienced east of my firebase - which lost only half a dozen men to the replies, mostly MG crews who still had their guns in action - the AI lacked the strength to mount any additional attacks.

By this point my VG rifles were down to a dozen ammo remaining and I put them on "hide" to conserve ammo. The HMGs continued to hammer away at all visible targets east of the main position. A few US flankers around the south side were cut up in the streets by a scratch platoon formed around the battalion HQ, with the heavy SMG squad, one VG rifle, and one HMG helping out. These continued around the south edge of the US position east of my own, minus the HMG.

I then switched the SMG counterattack platoon to the east face, ready to counterattack the main US position, already broken up by the firebase. I swung the remaining VG rifles out on my right or south to support this movement by closer overwatch, between the HMG firebase and the battalion HQ platoon. Once they were in position to give cover fire, the same SMG platoon that had cleared out the northeast hook charged east, and overran the cowering remnants of the US force. The third SMG platoon remained in reserve in the center block, and was not needed at all.

Overall, the Germans lost 23 men, while the US lost 146 plus 15 PWs. 2 ran off the east edge of the map alive. 96 of the German kills were observed, about 2/3rds. The HMGs and VG rifles got 44 of these, split about evenly between the HMGs and the LMGs-rifles. They lost 7 men in return. The tripwire SMG platoon had 43 observed kills, as already mentioned 17 of them for one half-squad, and lost the other 16 German casualties. The counterattack platoon was unscathed - they basically shot up cowering men already pinned or broken by the other two categories. Naturally the reserve platoon had no losses either.

Next I tried a variation on Berli's scenario as the Allies. But instead of using his combat engineers, I used the same map and defenders, and then spent essentially the same point budget on British airborne infantry instead of US combat engineers. This bought a company plus 3 platoons, or nearly 2 companies. My idea was that FTs were not needed for the tactical task, and that SMGs would do it just as well with the same point odds available. British airborne get 4 stens per squad plus the one Bren, making them only 1/2 automatic weapons - rather like VG rifles instead of VG SMGs. But they are about the heaviest Allied SMG infantry.

The thought behind the revision in the allied force was that the 6 veteran FTs in the standard force, at ~250 points for the lot of them, might be useful compared to having nothing, but still would not cover their enourmous cost. Otherwise put, the same points spent on an entirely different form of close-in firepower would handle the urban tactical task just as easily. Of course, since the defender was not a clever human, my game cannot possibly demonstrate any such thing. But I give the AAR because it might be of some interest anyway.

With 6 platoons of airborne, I decided to make my main effort in the north, where the building cover is heaviest and where the center block is fully masked by the outer layer of buildings. I lined up 3 platoons here, along with the company HQ. A fourth platoon was just east of this line, across the railroad tracks, situated to look southwest along the track or to cover the road west across which my main effort would be made. They were the short side of the "L" that constituted the main effort, in effect, and their immediate mission was overwatch. Later they might help flank whoever tried to stop the main attack.

The other two platoons went clear over on the south side of the position, 180 degrees away from the main effort. They were lined up in heavy buildings, somewhat seperated. They intended to attack more cautiously, but prevent shifts of everyone to the north and perhaps provide some crossfire chances with the overwatch platoon on the east side of the "L". Again the open ground along the RR tracks was part of this idea. The westernmost platoon of this force and the short side of the L connected their LOS lines, cutting off the southeastern block of the German set up area. The eastern platoon of this pair was directly south of that same block, ready to cross and seize it. Ideally, this would provide an "anvil" of three seperated platoon positions NE, SE, and SW of the main block, against which the 3-platoon main effort would then hammer.

Without FTs to open up across the streets and with defenders not yet spotted, the first turn presented the obvious urban dilemma. You want most of your men safe in the heavy buildings for the time when firefights will start. But if they all sit there, then no firefights will start - the enemy will simply remain hidden. The doctrinal and obvious thing is to split off a few half-squads with stens and rifles only, and send them across the streets to scout. Which is what I did at the point of main effort, with 2 half-squads. I also did a little area firing with PIATs at likely defended buildings, recon-ing by fire and hoping to draw some replies.

The first turn had mixed results but developed the German positions. One half squad that crossed the street found itself on the ground floor of a building with a German heavy SMG squad upstairs, so far back in the building that there was little help from the overwatch across the street. They were wiped out. The other brushed past a platoon HQ and made it safely to a heavy building ground floor, with no Germans inside. The spotted platoonn HQ was close enough to the front windows to be seen, and was wiped out by the overwatch across the street. So we traded teams. But I also spotted people and found unoccupied locations across the first street ahead of my main drive. Meanwhile over on the south side, firefights broke out after my PIATs opened up, with one PIAT eliminated but several Germans squads spotted.

Next I had to do something about the Hvy SMG squad in a building interior ahead of my planned man effort. FTs can deal with such deployments easily - they just area fire at the building. I decided to do the same thing with small HE. I had several 2" mortars and two PIATs area fire at the building from several directions, spread through perhaps 135 degrees of the compass. Meanwhile one platoon crossed where the other half-squad had found the empty building, by the now-dead platoon HQ. Everyone else just shot up what they could see. The point of SMG infantry in numbers is firepower, not banzai charges, and so the idea was to outshoot the few defenders that had revealed themselves in a many-on-few situation. So no reason to advance when targets exist.

The mortar'ed building caught fire in the course of being hit by over 30 small HE projectiles. The squad there had already been broken, and ran out of the building in panic when the fire occurred. It was instantly cut down by the overwatch across the street. Turns out you do not need FTs to flame buildings - light mortars and rocket launchers can do it, too.

The platoon moving into the clear building discovered a little trap behind it - an SMG squad in a wooded foxhole just behind the building, ready to fire point-blank on whoever moved to the windows on the back side. But a whole platoon moved up to those windows at once, and they had SMGs too. The ambush was sprung alright, but after hitting 2 men in the first unit fired on, the ambushers were suppressed. Then fire ascendency did its thing and annihilated the whole ambushing squad.

Meanwhile, over on the southern side, the firefights blazed, with two whole airborne platoons shooting it out at 40-80 yards with a handful of German squads. The overwatch platoon on the short side of the "L" was also able to help out, firing 150 yards or so along the RR track open zone and hitting German squads at corners from their blind side. My own losses were modest, and the identified German positions crumbled. Once the first few were gone, the rest had no firepower to suppress all my shooters, and rapidly died. Some ran out into the streets after breaking and where cut down there.

By a few minutes into the fight, I had lost 23 men and taken out at least 44. Which meant the odds, created by the point difference so already in my favor, climbed. From 1.6 to 1 manpower (from 1.4 to 1 points and cheap units purchased) the ratio had hit 2.6 to 1. The crust had been broken, and the rest was progressively easier. Not all the remaining Germans were in action at any one time, because they were using depth positions inside buildings to try to avoid overwatch firepower. But that simply seperates the defenders front to back. Some of them are always exposed, having been discovered by the last firefight or advance.

My overwatch stayed together, moving into buildings with whole platoons, and spending almost all their time inside heavy buildings. If any defenders could be seen, I just shot it out with them, getting as many units into LOS of each as possible. When a group of defenders was finished off, I bounded forward one building, taking my time about it and moving cautiously. There was absolutely no rush. The limited defenders showing themselves could often be rushed by a squad or more from an angle they could not cover, until my guys were inside the same building. Once there they just shot it out, counting on more shooters to suppress and set off the fire ascendency chain. Defending squads faced attacking platoons, because of the overall odds created by the initial successes.

The only major position encountered was at the north side of the center block, where the Germans got 2 HMGs and about a platoon of infantry firing at once. But across the street I have a whole airborne company in heavy buildings. They simply outshot the defenders. After the first 4 minutes, my loss rate fell in the middle of the fight, and then dropped off to nothing at the end. The whole affair took 9 minutes, and my overall losses were 37 men - only 14 in the last 5 minutes. The Germans lost 139 men plus 8 PWs from rushed HMG teams; one guy ran off the west side of the map alive.

I'm sure I could smoke out the AI with Berli's engineers too. I doubt it would be much easier than it was with the British airborne, however, since it was easy enough that "easier" would be hard to reach. His scenario definitely shows a situation in which having FTs is useful. But "more useful" than other things you can get for the same price is a much taller order than "useful at all". In any event, the use of engineers and airborne in urban fights are each interesting enough on their own, without bothering about comparisons between them.

[Hensworth]

I think the value of FT's would rise against human opponents though.

Concentrated firepower works well against a scattered enemy, which the AI always is because it doesn't keep its platoons together properly.

In a human v. human situation you're far less likely to find positions where you have that great a superiority in firepower.

With the added burden of having to advance on the attackers, the advantage would swing to the defenders even if they did have less firepower overall.

This is where the real value of FT's kicks in : you can create local superiority by flushing out an entire platoon (e.g.) at once.

[JasonC]

I agree it is easier with an AI opponent - whether you take the engineers or the paras, and from either side. But it is not so easy as you seem to suggest, to avoid giving odds somewhere to an attacker with 60% more men than you have. 6 platoons of veteran paras is a lot of guys, and a lot of firepower, for 4 small VG platoons to stop. I suggest you try it first. Also, if you'd like to take the German defenders against me with the Paras, I'd be happy to oblige. I'm sure you'd do better than the AI did, but that doesn't mean you'd win.

[Marlow]

OK, now try the same using regular U.S. infantry instead. UK paras are not the appropriate comparitor. If you were an infantry BN commander charged with taking a strongpoint, I highly doubt that calling in the Ox and Bucks would be a viable option.