I need a brilliant defensive mind!

[rumplemintz]

I need some brilliant advise:

I'm about to start a QB as the axis defender. I discover to my horror that the map is almost dead flat and there are trees everywhere - other than a few roads, I doubt any line of sight is over 200 meters, most like 100! As far as I can tell, there are no obvious avenues of approach either. How do I construct a defense in this mess? I have an infantry battalion, snipers, plenty of arty and some TD's. The only thought I have had is to control the roads and divide his forces up, but with all the trees, even that is of limited effectiveness. Help!

[Sarge Saunders]

Wow that's tough....but in a way, the short LOS works to your advantage. It will be harder for the attacker to bring long range firepower to bear and also make any panzerschrecks you have more useful. In fact, with a reverse slope type defense (discussed in detail in other threads), the idea is to bring all your short range FP to bear on the attacker all at once and to eliminate the attackers ability to pound you from a distance.

So this might fit the bill for that type of defense. Instead of a slope, you'll be hiding in and behind trees. Some other ideas are to set your guys up with foxholes on the MLR and immediately move many back to hold a large reaction force. The foxholes will be there when you want to rush back the the MLR and fight it out. Meanwhile, any HE he does prepare the VLs with will be missing you entirely....

I'm sure others will be along shortly with even better ideas.

-Sarge

[ March 27, 2002, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: Sarge Saunders ]

[Conscript Bagger]

Since you've got an entire battalion at your disposal, place part of your force (up to a company, maybe more if you're aggressive?) well forward, and immediately move them toward the enemy - with so much wooded terrain you should be able to do this without being spotted right away. If his lead elements are suddenly in contact with an unknown number of your troops long before he expects it, he might panic a little bit. Bloody his nose for a turn or two, then pull back into the woods before he brings up enough units to pin you down (use the Withdraw command if necessary). Shift to the left or right and repeat; flank him if you can. He'll be forced to break off part of his attack or bring up the reserves to deal with these guys, and you'll probably delay him as well. Just don't allow him to decisively engage you, because he'll have the advantage in numbers. There's an old AAR (with screenshots) of "The Sunken Lane" at CMHQ (I think) that shows this tactic.

If it's a QB map, there are usually enough openings that you can get decent LOS to the VL's, so that might be a way to use your arty spotters (preceding a counterattack if he took a VL.)

Whatever you do, be sure to let us know what happens!

[Redwolf]

What kind fo Rifle infantry do you have? Heer 44, Heer 45, SS 44, SS 45?

Do you know whether you'll be attacked by US-style or Commonwealth-style troops?

You have no Schrecks? What kind of Panzerfaust do you have, =30, -60 or -100?

What kind of TDs, thick or thin ones?

Is it actually useful artillery?

Which month? Big difference for trees. Ground conditions?

[ March 27, 2002, 10:06 PM: Message edited by: redwolf ]

[gnuif]

Place you're infantry to defend the victory flags. Not too close, he can get ideas about pounding those locations with artillery. Use you're snipers and other scout troups to find his area of assembly. He'll probably have an area where he'll concentrate his inf assault forces. When you find it, pound it with all the arty you got, including mortars, SP guns, etc. This should send his assault forces back to the stone age (with treebursts et al) Further, use your Pz's to flank his troops, get his mortars, inf guns, support troops, reserves etc and harrass his ass off, or use them as a flexible reserve force. Tanks (especially the heavy ones likes Tigers, KT's, Pershings, etc.) tend toget bogged down or immobilized in forests. Keep yours on solid terrain and in reserve, and you'll have the last laugh

And let us know how the battle is progressing. Would even like to see the turn saves.

[ March 27, 2002, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: gnuif ]

[xerxes]

snipers forward, spread out and hidden. Try to place them were he is unlikely to run directly over the. Don't worry about killing with them, use them for information.

You can be easily overrun with the poor LOS. Keep each of your companies together. Spreading out too much will make you vulnerable to a fast attack.

Identify his main attack, shift at least a company to meet it. Make it a place where you can get your arty FO LOS of at least 60-100m. The goal is to "freeze" his infantry for a turn or two to let your arty fall. Multiple FOs at the same time is worthwhile if he has a big force.

If he is coming to strong in a section, bug out ASAP. Don't let him overwelm you.

Keep the TDs back pretty much, bring them forward only with good keyholes to do a little direct HE fire. His armor (if he has any) is pretty vulnerable.

This is an infantry/arty fight. My guess is the best arty work will prevail.

-marc s

[Patgod]

i might add, SNEAK your forces forward if you do go with the "attack" defense posted above. that way you are more likely to find him first. blast him for a turn or 2 and withdraw to foxholes(if you get them).

[l3w53r]

Defend only one or 2 spots, find the place where ease of defense and points for holding the VLs are balanced, concentrate on defending the area.

is it against the ai or a human opponent?

[Redwolf]

Hey, rumplemintz, what about answering the questions?

The info you gave is just not sufficient. In addition, please post a screenshot (or mail it to me and I host it if you can't).

[JasonC]

The questions are good ones and the answers would help plan the defense. Another key question is whether you have any TRPs or minefields, both of which are more than usually useful in this type of fight. Some of the advice being offered is good, some is not.

For instance, it is a bad idea to put the sniper forward to die gathering information. A few split half squads can do that, with a better chance of making it back out after seeing things. The snipers won't even fire a shot, because they go to ground when there are enemies within 100 yards and will not fire, for fear of exposing their position. But they will die anyway when people run over them.

One sniper, only, doing that might be a reasonable gamble. But they are too valuable to do it with all of them. Instead, use them for ranged support fire, along the longer LOS lines. Two, I don't think much of the "charge him with one company" idea. He will have attacker's odds. A platoon to scout, with 2 of the squads broken down to half squads, I can see. But committing 1/3rd of your (outnumbered 3:2 in point terms) force to attacking, before you even know his deployments, is reckless.

First, assess how the terrain is going to effect the enemy force, and plan the different components of your defense around it.

His tanks are going to have limited avenues through all the trees, and short lines of sight only, for instance. That will make them much less effective, as they can't overwatch wide areas, or fire from beyond infantry AT range at most locations on the map. It also means they are more suspectible to AT mines blocking the few routes through the woods.

Thick fronted TDs can also be sprung on them, as long as you still hold the woods on either side of a particular "lane" through the trees. Pick ones that aren't easily flanked through other lanes, and where it looks like you can hold the woods on either side of the lane for a while. Position your TDs near those lanes, but not actually in them, to stay out of sight. When infantry spots a tank coming along one, hunt out into that lane, kill the tank, and then move again.

If your TDs are only Marders or StuGs, though, this won't work as well. You can still try it, but you will want his tanks distracted by infantry shooting at them - preferably infantry AT too - before hunting into LOS. Watch the facing of your TDs before their pull outs. You don't want to be rotating while he is firing. So pull straight into the position that gives LOS along a lane, without turning (easy enough if you start a little farther back, etc).

The basic idea remains to "spring" your tanks out of concealment behind woods, into particular lanes, to block them. You don't want to position them in the open between woods initially, because it will be too easy for his infantry to spot them first. Expect to see two screens of infantry - yours and his - each with the AFVs behind them, only coming forward occasionally, to duel each other or to blast infantry positions holding up their side.

Then there is the role the woods will play on his arty. Because it will be hard for tanks to support, he will use his arty more. And because you are going to need concentrated infantry positions to stop his own infantry (since you don't have wide areas of open ground to use instead), you are going to present him some good artillery targets. With airbursts. So, his artillery is the thing to worry about most. If he drops heavy arty on built up infantry areas successfully, he is going to run you out of good-order defenders.

What can you do about all that? You need to plan alternate positions and shifts - especially retreats - at the sight of the spotting rounds. You are going to firefight his infantry from first contact until his spotting rounds land. Then skedaddle to the next batch of woods. Let his artillery hit a void in no man's land.

And then, sometimes you will want to risk rushes back to the position before he gets to them with his own infantry, after a barrage. Because he will try to walk the shells over you and back you up, running you out of space. Once you don't have space, he can shell you without worrying about further shifts of position.

You want him to expend his artillery ammo early, in "searching" barrages and on spots you just evacuated, not late, on well IDed dense infantry positions with less room to maneuver. Give him false targets in some areas by using half squads or LMGs in groups of 4 counters, to look like platoons. Set real platoon ambushes other places to unhide when infantry moves into the open ground right in front of them, to give him an incentive to shell such places. Run with the real ambush platoons on the first sight of a spotting round.

You can split squads initially to create additional foxholes, forming up again on the first turn. Use foxholes especially to create artillery defense positions. Don't put all of them forward. You want some you can run to when shells start falling on the forward ones.

With your own artillery, you want to catch his densest concentrations of infantry in woods terrain. TRPs are especially effective in this kind of fighting because they allow accurate, tight barrages quickly enough that the target is still there, and without the warning time spotting rounds give the target to shift positions.

Later in the battle you may get tighter enemy targets, but you will probably have to throw some of the stuff reasonably soon to avoid a concentrated rush right off the bat. But do not throw away all the arty ammo quickly. Remember, most of the effect of arty is to morale not manpower, and passes in 3-5 minutes. So hitting early will not mean you are attriting him, only punching yourself out while giving him plenty of time to recover and do something.

Only fire on bunched up infantry targets, preferably ones in contact with your own infantry and thus unable to move farther forward immediately. Be careful with the FOs. There is a tendency to push them forward to get observation on every spot you want shelled. But that is more likely to get them killed.

The best spots for FOs are places that can barely see a bit of a belt of woods "2 groves" forward. Meaning, they are in a rear body of woods, your guys are in the next one in front of them, and the enemy is in the third. Which they can barely see, usually by looking through a small gap between two bodies of woods in the middle layer. You don't need to see the exact enemy location, just a spot of trees in the same general area. So you can plan the spots beforehand.

Use TRPs to cover alterate aim points, or small shifts of position entirely inside trees to change the angle through the sighting gap. Bug out, and if necessary fire unaimed, rather than stay in forward woods areas already under infantry fire. Nothing will lose you the artillery-effect duel faster than dead FOs. For your own part, if you ID any FOs they are obviously the first priority target for your snipers - but don't bank on getting too many. The attacker is likely to be pretty careful with his, too (unless it is the AI).

With the infantry, besides dodging the big shells and using infantry AT against the tanks, the basic story is surprise and concentration to defeat the enemy infantry. The way you achieve concentration is by not trying to cover everything. Leave gaps between built up positions. Single platoon ambushes, or deception positions using half squads, can be used to draw artillery fire or shoot-and-scoot away from enemy scouts. But they will not be enough to stop main infantry bodies. A layer of them ahead of the main positions is fine.

They should not sit still and be overrun, though. They are meant to deceive him about where your main body positions are, draw early arty fire, ambush half-squad scouts, and force him to do recon with whole platoons. They are not meant to fight it out with whole platoons.

If they face such, or when you see spotting rounds, withdraw-run to alterate positions, breaking contact completely. You can lead guys chasing them past TRPs (or AP minefields if you have any), or use light fire missions (e.g. 81mm mortars) to break contact. Aim them at the location you were in while running for the rear before they arrive.

The main positions should each have a higher level HQ - company or battalion - and each have at least two platoons of infantry. Use the higher level HQ as an additional platoon leader, creating mini-platoons of 2 squads and HQ, but 3 or more of them in each main position. The higher HQs can also take individual squads from platoon on deception, split-squad work up front. The best leaders - especially double combat bonuses - leave with 3 full squads.

Main positions should be farther back into woods areas, not along the forward edges. You want to avoid even firefights with both sides stationary in equally good cover. Instead, hide until the enemy steps into the open. Use the multiple HQs in each main position to set a string of infantry ambush markers in the open ground between one body of woods and the next. If a few guys make it into your body of woods, that is fine. You will outshoot them quickly.

Do not position the foxholes in places that can see the next string of foxholes you want to use, farther back. Use the LOS tool at set up, and make sure the forward lines can't see the rear ones. You want each fight to be infantry in at best woods, vs. infantry in wooded foxholes. What you want to avoid is a fight in which after an initial period like that, it turns into a duel between wooded foxholes on both sides. You need to keep the cover differential.

Also, if your foxhole positions can't see out of the woods toward your side, he will have to advance out of them to engage. Then he won't be in them when you drop arty on him.

Keep a reserve of a pair of platoons behind the main position lines. Use it to reinforce critical points, bring up a new front from an unexpected angle after he goes through a gap (don't just plug them), or use them to reoccupy foxhole areas, follow up artillery barrages with a counterattack someplace, etc. They should have good combat and morale bonuses. Good command bonuses also help, as the men will move out much faster and change orders more easily, which is important for a reserve.

The ideal sequence would be - your scouts and ambushes deal with his probing half squads. He sends platoons and fire missions, and your scouts bug out more or less intact. He wastes some arty ammo. His platoons run into main positions and at least one gets shot to pieces in open ground IDing one of your main positions. You both then play "artillery tag", dogging shells on either side of the field where this happened. He brings up tanks to help, and your TDs spring on them, or infantry AT gets them. He gets more cautious with his remaining armor and it does little for him for the rest of the fight. He bunches up to rush a position you evacuated due to artillery fire. You put a barrage on the bunched up men and break many of them. The remaining odds of intact morale infantry aren't very high. His point units run low on infantry ammo. Your reserve relieves some of your shot-up and low-ammo defenders, and with the help of your last fire missions they break up his last minute attacks.

While it always go that way? No, of course not. But it gives you an idea of the kind of battle you are after. Shifts of your men to secondary positions, when and how to use your reserve, artillery dodging and good placement of your own fire missions - those will make the difference between a well fought defense and a mediocre one.

The edges you have in all of the above are - you know there aren't enemy anywhere your own troops are or can see. He doesn't know where your main positions are. You have pre-sighting your FOs, with or without TRPs, to play the artillery dodging game better. You have secondary positions mapped out for the same purpose. The first firefights will breakout when you hit men in the open at close range, trying to enter your own body of woods without knowing you are there. You will have foxholes, thus better cover than him.

In return, he will have 3:2 point odds, to try to run you out of men and ammo before he runs out. If his arty gets its full quota of men from your smaller force (in point terms), then you will have trouble on that score. If you manage to dodge a lot of it, or he wastes too much time or fire on empty or sparsely occupied positions, your force will remain big enough, long enough, and his attack will run out of "wind" (arty ammo, running tanks, infantry numbers, morale, and ammo) before you run out of men and ammo.

I hope this helps, and good luck.

[Conscript Bagger]

Originally posted by JasonC:

I don't think much of the "charge him with one company" idea.

Jason - I don't either; that's why I didn't suggest "charging." Frankly, I'm amazed that one so prolific as yourself could misinterpret my brief entry

[JasonC]

You suggested fighting with at least one company well forward of the rest of the position, moving forward immediately themselves and thus without foxhole cover, immediately and therefore without knowledge of enemy force dispositions. Then you suggested firefighting him with that force for a couple of turns after contact, and repeating the procedure after a brief withdrawl and a shift to right or left.

That means you recommend attacking the superior attacking force with one company - or more - of the defenders, outside their prepared positions, and instantly, without intel. You don't have to call that charging them, but I do. No, you don't have to rush to point blank for it to be charging them. You certainly aren't letting them come to you.

I took your suggestion to be based on a notion that a "whole battalion" of defending infantry probably outnumbers the attackers, or at least is far more infantry that the defense needs (in your mind, not mine) - which I see no reason to believe from anything said. Attackers have superior point odds, and if the defenders have a battalion I'd expect the attackers to have a battalion too. Probably with larger squads, since the defenders are German. And their points go somewhere, so presumably they will be superior in artillery and supporting arms as well.

I therefore don't think very much, as I said, of getting 1/3rd or more of the defenders hotly engaged without benefit of an intel edge or foxholes. It strikes me as a nice way to attack, himself, in difficult terrain with 1:3 point odds or worse, and get 1/3 to 1/2 of the defending force chopped up quickly, to little purpose.

[Conscript Bagger]

Originally posted by JasonC:

...you recommend attacking the superior attacking force with one company - or more - of the defenders, outside their prepared positions, and instantly, without intel. You don't have to call that charging them, but I do. No, you don't have to rush to point blank for it to be charging them. You certainly aren't letting them come to you.

You can call it the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy if you like, but that won't make it so. The point is to surprise the opponent with the sudden appearance of troops where he isn't looking for them; to do so you'll have to move up fairly quickly, yes - but "quickly" doesn't have to be "recklessly." By doing this, you contact him while his troops are on the move as well, not deployed for attack, which removes some of the attacker's superiority. If he knows what he's doing, he'll be advancing in a formation that is resistant to ambush, but you will still inflict damage, and force him to react to the threat. At any rate, you'll note I made a point of cautioning against being caught in a protracted fight. Maybe all you do is whack his scouts - fine, now he's got to split some squads he'd planned to use in the main attack. You've forced a change to his plan, his timetable, and his mindset, which - while intangible - is still of value in the battle.

Intel is a byproduct of this tactic, not a prerequisite for it (and there's nothing saying there's no room for recon in such a tactic). You certainly don't get information on his force by sitting in your foxhole on the MLR and letting them come to you, or when you do, it's too late to be of much use.

I took your suggestion to be based on a notion that a "whole battalion" of defending infantry probably outnumbers the attackers, or at least is far more infantry that the defense

What I was saying is that with a battalion, you have enough troops to use a significant number (a company) for the maneuver described while still having a strong force for the rest of your defense. Granted, that depends on terrain, number of VL's, troop quality, whatever. If you felt that all you could devote to forward defense was a platoon, I'd suggest a different approach (perhaps recon alone) because they're not going to be as robust as a company for harassing work.

Perhaps I should have made it more clear that the forward force is not meant as an attack that will break the enemy's combat power, nor is it a blocking force, nor is it a sacrificial lamb. You will need those troops later in the battle, which is why I said don't let them be fixed, overwhelmed, and destroyed. Hit and run once, twice, as many times as you think you can get away with, then pull back before they're trapped.

[rumplemintz]

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas!

The reason I wasn't more forthcoming about details is that my opponent may read this page as well and so I have to leave some things unsaid.

Not to worry, though, as I will keep you posted as things develop and are released by the censors for public consumption. If it turns out interesting, I may even write up an AAR like sunken lane (I'm keeping all the turns).

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by rumplemintz:

he reason I wasn't more forthcoming about details is that my opponent may read this page as well and so I have to leave some things unsaid.

I'm afraid you got us hooked :cool:

I think you can give the following information without intelligence loss:

- month?

- US or British attacker?

- you Heer or SS?

- time, weather, ground conditions?

[xerxes]

Sharpshooters in cover and hiding typically only get ID'd when the enemy runs directly on top of them. If you're facing very high quality troops they are found more easily. The advantage of using a sharpshooter over a 1/2 squad for detecting the enemy are:

1. Sharpshooters are much more difficult to spot.

2. Sharpshooters are less likely to fire and give themselves away

3. Sharpshooters are weak in firepower, a 1/2 squad depletes your firepower more. Not good in closed terrain where you need all the firepower you can get.

4. Sharpshooters are most effective against afvs, afvs will not dominate in the terrain you describe.

Once the enemy main force in the area passes by the sharpshooter, if the shooter has good LOS to an enemy HQ or support team you should unhide them. Pinning an HQ can really mess up an advance.

-marc s

[Redwolf]

I agree about the sharpshooter comments. I am regularily surprised how far I can move them without getting them killed, as long as there are some trees. I always have veteran ones.

Having said that, they may not weaken the force much when killed, but 22 knockout points for a single man aren't pretty, so they are in fact bad to have killed.

In my opinion, they are most effective against guns, artillery observers, HQs spotting for mortars, the mortars themself, or to take the best squads out of a late-game charge trying to overrun you - big difference. When hitting a tank they shock it only rarely, even my veteran ones, and the tank is open the first second of the next turn. I did not find that for pure AFV dueling purposes buttoned makes a big difference, although for tangling with Schrecks or guns it makes. The only AFVs I always shoot at when I can are those who have flex MGs only, especially when they are .50cals - the M3A1 being the most prominent example.

Back to moving the sharpshooters, if you move them along a line the enemy will not use for a big concentration, you will either get away with the Sharpshooter intact, or else you will have evidence about what the enemy main concentration is not. The latter one is valuable enough to warrant the price of the sharpshooter, IMHO.

[rumplemintz]

Right, well this is the first time I've wanted it badly enough to invest a whole day (when I should have been working) crawling all over the map to very carfully design the perfect setup. Of course, I've already discovered a major mistake I made (after sending it off to my opponent, wouldn't you know). Von Clauswitz should have said, "No plan ever survives contact with the commander's own stupidity." (heavy sigh)

I've managed to convince myself, in a "you did it, now you have to live with it" kind of way

that this might actually lead to some interesting strategic flexibility. If it works, I will be sure to emphasize in the AAR how this major innovation was the result of my unparalleled creative genius - all I have to do now is find someone to blame it on if it all comes crashing down.

Ok, so maybe I am teasing everyone with these tantalizing bits. In deference to Redwolf, I can tell you this much:

It's winter, 1944, but no snow.

I'm Heer

I don't know what he is - I have yet to kill anything to ID it.

It's clear and dry.

Chin up, head down, wish me luck...

[Slappy]

For what it's worth, here is my opinion on the 'moving a company forward to throw the attacker off balance theory'.

The answer is, as always, it depends.

1. I would be much more likely to use this tactic if I had a company of high quality, SMG heavy infantry. For the short length of engagement we're talking about (this force needs to shoot and scoot) they're going to do the most damage in the time they are in contact (1-3 turns). They are also going to be the most able to scoot. If you try to throw a quick jab and pull back with regular or worse troops, many of them will be left behind to be eaten up when the main body pulls out.

2. It also depends on your assessment of game length v. ground to cover. One of the primary advantages of this maneuver is that it causes the attacker to pause, redeploy and then scout much more carefully and in greater force, generally committing some of what should be maneuver or reaction forces to the new stronger recon efforts. This is going to take a couple of turns. You have to decide what the value of a 5 turn delay is to you. How pressed are you in the space v. time tradeoff?

That said, if you're going to do this, here is my recommendation:

1. Prepare your company as a strongpoint described above. Set up the foxholes, even secondary ones, as if you were going to fight from that position. Just space the holes out a little more. Chances are that not every one of those holes will be filled when you do get around to fighting there. Turn 1, move out. Do any rejoining you need to and get set up to bound forward. Put one platoon up front, split to scout, wiht an extra HQ for cohesion if you can. Close behind (closer than you would on an attack, we need to get out into no-man's land quickly) bring the other two platoons. Only bring a shrek or two and maybe a LMG or two along. Nothing that can't RUN get's to come on this mission. Leave the heavy stuff at home in case you need cover on the way back. Behind the main body, pretty far back, trail a FO, preferably 81mm, and an HQ if you need one.

2. Get out in front. You're looking for the enemy, and he's going to be on the move when you find him. The goal is to get local supperiority on some recon elements and chew them up. Find them with your recon platoon, and bring the main body up FAST. Pound for 1-2 turns, but don't over pursue. Best to do the jump in some heavy woods if you can. This will minimize the effects of AFVs (which you cannot really defend against) and give you some space to retreat.

3. Knowing when to leave is the hard part. Here are some signs: Spotting rounds, no-one left to kill around you, you are evenly matched with what's in front of you. Don't stick around too long. He gets to give orders at the same time you do. If you decide to stay, and he orders in the cavalry, you're in big trouble.

4. The pull back. This is where the FO comes in. When you decide to bail out (continually pre-target in front of your force just to make sure) have him drop either HE on your position (which you will soon be leaving) or smoke behind your position (which you will soon be running through). If you need to (or even think you need to) withdraw run out. If you need to, leave a depleted platoon or a couple of LMGs to cover your escape.

5. The next requirement is that you break contact. You need to escape without letting him know where your prepared position is. This lets you get a fresh crack at a new set of scouting assets and prevents artillery from raining down on your parade.

6. Form up in your foxholes and proceed as usual. If this goes well, you will have eliminated, broken or mauled 1-2 platoons of attackers and cost him 5 minutes at the cost of 1 platoon of friendlies.

[Redwolf]

There is no hope in a direct fight against Americans with Heer Rifle in December of 1944 inside of woods, much less tall pines.

The visibility in woods is 65 meter, in tall pines 25 meter.

The 40m-firepower of the Americans, who get Rifle 45 weapons in December is 230 at 40m, the firepower of Axis rifle, who get the 1944 setup, is 161. To make things worse, the Germans has almost half of their firepower at this range in two SMGs, which can be dropped at any time when casulties oocur - they will not get picked up like the LMG. The Americans make half of their firepower from 9 M1 rifles, which is as robust as it gets, and another big chunck from two BARs, which continue to work if one is down and are supposed to be picked up. If you get into close combat, things will go downhill very fast with 9 men against 12.

The only hope here is to hit them with HE, where the big squads lose more man on the same hit. Tanks and SP artillery are not available, so artillery has to do. Artillery is hard to deploy in a way that a spotter is available where you need him, given the tight LOS and the dangers that a spotter faces in this environment. If the long LOS lanes are 120m, then you still face a firewpoer of over 100 from a single US squad.

Against British Rifle things look better, the intial values are almost equal, but again the Axis rifle squad will lose its firepower faster, as the British have a bigger chunk of their firepower in the Lee-Enfields. The British also have one man more, which should not make a big difference when a certain percentage of each squad has been lost prior to close combat.

As for TDs, they should have pretty good odds even against a much stronger tank force. You definitivly don't want to place them shooting down a lane (unless you have IV/70 or Jagdpanther), but ambushing a corner where enemy tanks are to be expected, so that the enemy tanks are hit from a 90 degrees angle. Wide range preferred to emphasize on the better hit probablity of the typical weapons in combat here. An important point is to stack as many TDs as possible for one ambush, so that an enemy tank coming into LOS is shot by from seveal own guns, and at the same time trying get as much time as possible playing with one tank alone. Hence the 90 degress ambush.

Friendly AT teams should be near the ambush point, to hit subsequent tanks before they get LOS to the TDs, while the TDs tangle with the first one or two enemy tanks. Friendly sharpshooters should be by the TDs, to button the enemy tanks, as general spotters, and to defend against Bazookas.

From my experience it should be quite straingtforward to kill most of the enemy tanks. In a 3000 points attack quickbattle you get around 2200 points in flags. The 4500 points attacker might get 1500 points in armor and further 500 in light vehicles.

You might want to play on getting the flags neutral, taking them out of the game, making the knockout points more important. If the 2200 points in flags are 400 you, 400 opponent and 1400 neutral, and you inflict 2000 points losses while losing 1400, you get a tactical victory.