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Unusual Tactics


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One time my opponent had a StuG behind a small hill, only 1 meter out of LOS from my Sherman directly in front of it, about 200m away.

I did "area fire" as close to the front of the Stug as possible, thinking I could either get a gun/track damage from the HE blast effect, or maybe spook it into moving in my LOS. Instead, my Sherman fired 2 round over the StuG, but then the StuG then hunted forward, right after my Sherman fired an HE shell. i thought he'd be toast.

but my Sherman was already "zeroed in" on the spot the Stug moved directly forward on, and my Sherman reloaded and fired right away, KO'ing it.

not a situation that comes up much, and i only won that matchup b/c my opponent broke a cardinal tank rule- don't fire from the same spot twice.

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Vehicles with thin armor can be taken out by nearby HE explosions. I just finished a game where I took out a halftrack that was just out of sight by ordering two StuHs to area fire near it. It's a good way to take out hetzers too. Simply hit shift-V to turn off the vehicles, and area fire on the spot where the hetzer is. For it to have a reasonable chance of success you will probably need multiple guns, and the blast rating has to be pretty decent (75mm HE and up) but your chance of a kill is better than bouncing shots off the front of the armor.

105mm howitzers work wonders.

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If your men (inf or vehicles) are in woods or in the open and you are about ready to get hit by 105 mm or larger arty, get out of the way.

Well placed 105 mm to 120 mm will inflicted large casualties on your men. Larger than 120 mm arty will destroy your men. :cool:

No cheers yet because of last week, Richard

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I am playing my first PBEM game with Herr Kruger (Chance Encounter) and I learned the hard way to not send a lone Sherman up the hill. He had ten shreks in the forest on the hill and wasted my tank (and I used a lot of smoke too). I had left a poor bazooka man on the tank and he bought it too. I need a way to take that hill but Herr Kruger is really good at hiding his men.

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If you want to keep your infantry from firing at anything other than an enemy soldier stepping on their toes. put ambush markers as close to your troops as possible (succes depends a little on unit experience).

A good way to keep infantry from firing at all (again, depending on experience) is to put their ambush markers behind them. Note that this can lead to disastrous results in some cases, especially the ones where it turns out you'd rather have them fire after all.

Another thing, don't forget to cancel targeting ambush markers when you relocate troops, as -upon arriving in their new location- they will rotate to their ambush marker and hold fire, regardless of any new situation that develop (yet again somewhat depending on experience).

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Juju:

Another thing, don't forget to cancel targeting ambush markers when you relocate troops, as -upon arriving in their new location- they will rotate to their ambush marker and hold fire, regardless of any new situation that develop (yet again somewhat depending on experience).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Also, there is a rare bug in CM where units that have ust had their ambush marker target canceled will continue to act as if they were still in ambush, i.e. they will not fire on enemy troops running around in front of them. I have only had this happen to me once, but have heard others have the same expirience. Now, I always give my units an area fire order and then cancel it, instead of just hitting the "x" key, to make sure they are out of their trance.

[ 09-22-2001: Message edited by: Vanir Ausf B ]

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How to keep tank turrets pointed in a different direction of hull movement:

Plot area fire into a spot that will soon be out of LOS; as your tanks move, they will still target the spot even if they cannot see it.

In Meyers 2, I have a mess of Pz IVs moving across the front with guns pointing towards the expected enemy spots. It looks like a procesion of warships with guns pointed at the expected enemy battleline to come. I am in effect, about to cross the "tee" with concentrated firepower on expected enemy positions with broadsides ready.

Of course, you can also do this by targeting a known enemy unit out of LOS, but the Area Fire method seems more "sticky".

Ditto on the area fire thing against nearby units. I have taken out guns, HTs, etc using that method. It is a form, unintended, of indirect fire.

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Mail your TCP opponent a six-pack the day before and agree that every fifth turn you must open a new can. Then secretly drink coffee instead and laugh as his units move randomly around the map by turn 25, easy prey for your keen mind and co-ordinated mouse fingers.

If you would like to try this out then please send the beer over for this Saturday, I'm sure you'll win but what the hell.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been doing a little play with flamethrowers. I've found them expensive and slow and not easy to deploy. Something I've discovered and am trying to play with is creating defensive fires. This is buggy ganeplay (because in real life a fire burns itself out).

F'r instance when on defense of a town I flamed various houses as the battle started to disuade a avenue of attack.

The FT was on a 20 sec move time so I'd plot his stroll (they do stroll don't they!) and target the building. He lights up by the 14 sec mark (lights everytime) and strolls out with no worry. Lit 7 buildings (heavy ones) would've cost a fortune in shells.'

For a fire bug like myself it was beautiful (atho' the sound of the flames in my ears got a bit tiring).

But I think it has hugh potential.

Haven't tried this but I was thinking to buy a Wasp (what's the german version?) for defense and proceed to torch any copse of woods I don't like. I really like this idea.

Whadda ya think?

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Germans don't have a wasp equivalent.

Defensive flaming of locations that the attacker would like to use is a valid tactic. The only problem occurs when VLs are flamed. For example taking a wasp and flaming a circle entirely around a VL would create a VERY unfun game.

-marc

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Earlier today, the best description of flamethrower teams & their use was given to me by a friend (Big Dog, Doug Kewley). He quite correctly stated that "flamethrower teams are only useful against enemies that are about ready to die anyway."

You know what, he is absolutely correct. However, he did not add the following to make it more fully correct: "all the other nearby enemies must also be ready to die, otherwise they will wack the flamethrower team."

So, ... the general usefulness of FT teams is slight.

Cheers, Richard

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The point about the Wasp is that it is very fast, it is very hard to nail it with a Panzerschreck. The German stuff is slower. Don't be mislead by the max speed display, that applies to streets. In terrain the carrier brothers are very agile.

Also it has 75m reach instead of 50m for the Axis vehicles.

If opponents agree, the Canadian Badger could be used instead of the Wasp to even things a little, but it isn't available in all months.

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