Demo - Frontier Mission Strategy

[Task]

After playing this mission several times, I have tried many different strategies. I used different variations of either 3 pak guns defending the first line, with 1 tank in support, or 2 pak guns and 2 tanks in support.

However, this seemed to produce incredible casualties and breaks in my line nearly every time. I decided to do something different and setup on the other side of the canal. If there is one thing I absolutely love doing in CM is to create choke points and it nearly always produces results. I have gained major/total victories with low casualties by doing this.

Here's what I did:

1. I started the mission with 2 Pak guns, 1 Panther, 1 Jagdpanzer, and the MG34 HMG.

2. Placed 1 Pak gun and the Jagdpanzer along the railroad, a little southeast of the bridge, pointing towards the bridge, like so:

The reason I chose the Jagdpanzer IV/70 is due to its low visibility and its role as a very powerful tank destroyer, which will knock pretty much every Russian tank out in 1 hit.

3. I placed all the infantry within the trenches, with an MG34 covering the bridge or rear slope (this one is obvious). The only things you can't move are the MG bunkers, so I simply ordered them to exit them and withdraw to the rear trenches at the beginning of the battle, as they will not do any good with no support.

4. The Panther is positioned to cover the bridge from the southwest, behind some buildings (notice the gun placed north of it):

5. The 2nd Pak is placed behind the stone walls, making it impossible to be spotted by enemy tanks until it is too late.

6. Also, all my units are told to hold position. Tanks and AT guns have free fire, while the infantry are ordered to crouch and hold fire until the Russians mass infantry rush right before they reach the bridge.

Here are the results:

The tanks become absolute fodder in this crossfire. When the infantry in the trenches open up as well, it is a slaughter.

The only difficulty I had was the artillery barrages, which accounted for most of my soldier deaths. My only tank lost was the Panther, which I abandoned due to a damaged turret. It is the first unit to really pound on the enemy tanks, since it somehow can see to the Northeast, and the enemy too can see it through the rows of trees, brush, and the limited view between the two buildings in front of it. Also, since the bridge became so clogged with the hulks of destroyed tanks, they began to take the long way around. More Russian reinforcements also will take the long way around, bypassing the canal, and travel along the railroad. When they did this, I simply turned my Jagdpanzer and Pak gun towards the new threats and they succeeded in destroying them all.

[ April 29, 2007, 04:15 PM: Message edited by: Task ]

[Spacehusky]

I got the Jagdpanzer, Panther, Panzer IV, Jagdtiger, and MG-34. I stuck the Jagdpanzer and MG-34 where you put them, with the Jagdtiger and Panther behind them guarding the back way around the canal. The Pz4 was put behind the back building complex to guard against infantry coming from the hill to the right of the canal. My infantry squad was put in the left trench.

The bridge got blocked quickly, so a big battle developed along the railroad. I did really well but took heavy losses toward the end. I never got the last set of reinforcements but I all I had left at the end was 2 Jagdpanthers and 2 Panthers.

[himmelstoss]

thx Task!

finally a constructive post on this forum, that shows how to play and win in this game.

i will try this out my self.

weiter so!

himmelstoss

[Sebasv]

I tried your strategy a bit and prob because of my placing it didnt work out that well.

Allthough the tank on bridge was achieved every time.

As a variaton of this i took a Pz4 and a Panther i raced them all the way back to the railway bridge.

As the bridge was blocked they came down the river side and were blown to pieces by my 2 tanks.

Big carnage there.

Arti also blew away my troops but reinforcements secured my trenches again for the big infantry assault wich were mowed down as i was able to reman my mg34 wich was artied.

Dis make an error thinking all the enemy armor would be in the rear so i rushed my reinforcement tanks up the railway only to be (in my horror) rearended by 2 tanks wich were standing in the left field somewhere.

[Task]

It would be great if a mod could move this thread to the strategy section.

[Sebasv]

I tried hiding my guns a bit more so the ans could pass the bridge before i took em out nice tank graveyard in front of the bridge