Polish campaign (first mission)

[skimbo]

Hi all

Long time CMBB2 player and forum lurker now posting!

just wanted to find out from you guys how you completed the first Polish campaign mission. I'm playing on Veterean and have just completed the first mission albeit at great cost to my men and resources.

Just wondering if anyone can give me any insights into their tactics for this mission.

Basically I placed my four guns just along the hill ridgeline at the rear of the map (just in front of the village). x1 (76mm?) and a bofors on the left side of the road and the same on the other side.

The first 2 trenches (left and right) I left occupied with troops but positioned the 2 AT Rifle fellas out on the left and right flanks hiding in bushes.

Battle commenced and my guns took a good toll of the of the enemy tanks and infantry and was feeling pretty pleased with myself. But by the time the 3rd wave of tanks came along I was 2 AT guns down and the troops in the trenches began to waver. Essentially I got overrun and only by keeping my reserve in the village behind the hill line was I able to meet the challenge of the PZ's as they crested the hill.

By sheer fluke (I think!) my little 20mm assault guns managed to damage the remaining PZIV and hey bailed and the AT gun finished off 2 PZII's while a valiant storming of another PZII by my troops saw him dead. (at least I'm pretty sure they done him over!).

Could someone enlighten me as to how they did the mission and their losses - I'm curious to see how it panned out for you guys.

Regards

Skimbo

[Drawde79]

I positioned my starting troops and AT guns in the village - with the guns behind the trench - which was far more effective than the default setup as the AT guns were in a "reverse slope" position, and the enemy weren't able to concentrate their fire on them as effectively (in the default positions, once the enemy have spotted a gun, everything opens fire on it and the gun and/or crew are wiped out very quickly)

However, this caused problems with the AI scripting, an infantry squad and about 4-5 tanks ended up waiting at the trench line. Taking these out with the TKS tankettes was a very difficult task and required a lot of saving and reloading. The AT guns were of no use as the enemy tanks spotted them the moment they were in sight, and usually wiped them out instantaneously with a single laser-guided 75mm round (I even tried bringing up the guns simultaneously with attacking with the TKSs, but to no avail)

[Rapier]

In this mission I left my infantry in the front starting trenches. I moved my AT guns only slightly, placing them in the low bush behind the trench line. Put the guns as deep in cover as you can.

It's important to not have your guns too far back from your infantry as your crews will take losses. You need to be able to run new crew to man the guns as required.

On my first attempt at the mission I handled the frontal attack quite comfortably. Unfortunately I was surprised by the 3 armoured vehicles that entered from the right side of the field. My reserve armour got chewed up. They can't stand against the german tanks.

I didn't change my setup for my second attempt.

This time I brought the AT gun from my reserve and placed it on the hilltop on my right. I kept my armour hidden until all german armour was destroyed. I still managed to lose one tank that managed to show itself while I was bringing it up behind the hill that I placed the AT gun on.

The reserve AT gun and one 75mm AT dealt with the 3 enemy tanks that entered from the right.

My armour were used for mopping up the infantry to win the battle.

I was playing on the hardest setting. My final loses were 1 AT gun and 1 tank. Very few infantry were left at the end of the battle that weren't manning a gun.

The 75mm AT guns are the match winners. Keep them fully manned. The smaller guns are useful but I would usually try to only keep a crew of 2 on these guys.

One last thing, I may have been a little lucky with my initial AT placement as the smaller calibre guns were targetted first by the enemy armour. Maybe they were slightly more visible... I'm not really sure.