Tactics: Pre-Battle Planning for Infantry

[OG_Gleep]

I am a little at a loss here. I have no idea how to best assult a position and achieve my objectives. I have read every tactic thread regarding the subject but still don't have a clear grasp on the subject.

When dealing with a familiar scenario (save/reload) you know where the enemy posiitons are, have a good idea where overwatch units need to be placed, and where suppresive rounds need to be placed before anyone has spotted an enemy.

Take mission 2 for example. Your given one infantry platoon. What do you do with them? If you speed in, your going to take inc RPG rounds before your overwatch teams have time to react. There is no way you can suppress every suspected enemy pos. If you dismount early, there is little cover and your men will essentially be bait and take unaffordable casualties.

So, how do you folks tactiacally approach the situation?

Also, unrelated question, how do you get you strykers to pop smoke at the end of a waypoint chain, and what is the best way to get your troops to dismount at that point?

[weasel75]

Same here ...

Or I try to plan extra-carefully and run out of time way too easily.

The entrance to the 2nd mission was really the bottle-neck .. much smoke helped there, getting my guys into the first buildings fast helped too.

Smoke should be able when you click a waypoint and add smoke. However, while this works for Area-Fire and "face direction", my guys do seem to forget about the smoke all the time ... guess because of the health-risks

Salute!

[OG_Gleep]

Just to reiterate, because my initial post wasn't that clear.

2nd mission is the example, assuming someone is looking at it for the first time.

You have your stryker platoon, mounted at the getgo. You are going into an urban environment blind. You know their are enemy units with the capabilities of taking out your transports, and capable of cutting down your infantry. You lack art support to suppress the breach points. With no intel on enemy positions, you still need to go in. Tactically what do you do? In CM1 you would have the infantry move in from the most protected path, and draw fire to reveal enemy positions. If you do that in SF, your dead. The mobility, and supporting fire the strykers provide seems to be the key to using your force effectivley, but above all force preservation has to be the #1 priority.

I guess this is where I get tripped up, because without knowing where enemy positions are, your superior firepower is moot. I guess I am looking for some type of doctrine I can use from mission to mission. Right now, unless I reload once enemy positions are revealed, my casualty rates are unnacceptable. With M1A1's its a lot simpler, as they can absorb whatever the enemy throws at them and still keep moving forward. Without them, things get a bit more complicated.

[John Catsack]

I think part of the solution will be to wait for the TacAI to be improved. Hopefully that will give infantry a better chance at advancing into hostile territory.

In this situation (mission 2), I think the best solution would be to use the MGS platoon as some poor man's artilliary. demolishing the buildings completely would take too much ammo, but one or two shells in each building does a lot to reduce the risk of moving in infantry. Also, weasle75 is right about the smoke.

I think the best advice is to steer clear of that deathtrap-front gate completely and go in by the taxiway.

[thelmia]

Play Real Time. You get a lot more control. WEGO just sucks right now. I don't see why people are so attached to it when the TacAI is so bad.

Use Javelins on suspected or known enemy infantry in buildings. Area target the first floor.

Use artillery profligately on enemy buildings.

Unload an infantry squad or team as bait to draw fire. Then destroy the enemy once he shows himself.

[MirabelleBenou]

Well, I tried to play in RT, but it's damn too speed for me

I have a lot of problem of giving orders for 3 or 4 different groups and follow the battle at all the "hot spot", even with the pause button.

In WEGO, I find it easier to plan and follow the action.

[Subcomandante]

Well, I am still at the mission, but the time limit still gets me everytime. This time I went through the front door with the 1st platoon, and through the taxiway with the second. Both met determined resistance, and both lost a Stryker in the process, even though I knew from the tries before where the rpg crews waited. I nudged a little to far into their field of fire. Both Strykers had a full squad in them. No survivors. War is hell.

The obvious lesson learned, and in fact I read it on these forums before, is when you have to draw fire, don't do it with dismounts and with at least some armor for your vehicle crew. Chances are the Stryker will survive the odd rpg, and then you know where the bad guys are, can pop smoke and get out of harm's way. If your vehicle is immobilized/on fire and the crew still lives, have another unit right behind, that can pop smoke/fire to cover their pedestrian retreat. It's a risky business, but if you have no idea where the enemy lurks, what can you do? A Stryker is more easily replaceable than a squad. Maybe not on your battlemap, but in the results, I think.

I very much guess that this is also the way they do it in real life. If you want to capture a position, you have no choice but to go in somehow and there is no way around placing yourself in the line of fire. Sounds obvious. You can't level everything always from a distance, or at least I hope so.

This is how I understand urban combat. There are the following tactics you can use to get your cannon fodder into houses and onto roofs where they belong :

1. Cover. Operate behind buildings and vehicles as much as possible, where the least number of possible hostile positions can overwatch.

2. Smoke. Extreme amounts of smoke.

3. Cover fire. Try to position as many units as possible in a way they can shoot at suspected hostile positions/houses. Everybody has to fire at something. That's a lot of volume of fire.

4. Artillery strikes or long distance 105mm/Javelin fire to flatten the building. Where the above cannot be arranged. And especially when you already know a dangerous enemy is in there.

The challenge is to coordinate it all, and being new to CM I have still my problems.

That said, I too think with the mission at the airport the key is not to muscle your way through the gate but take the other entrance. Simply because it takes too much time to do it with low casualties. From the other side of the compound you have a good view on everything, especially from the tower. From up there you can theoretically blow it all up with, what, 40 Javs at your disposal? All in all? Plus 105mm, plus artillery plus airstrikes. They key is to only blow up the approaches to your objectives, while letting the buldings which cover you from enemies behind them intact. For that you need to secure them with infantry. The good thing is that in the wide areas on the map the rpg teams reveal themselves from further away, which means that they don't hit that effectively (ie they miss), and the grenade has a low trajectory with a good chance of your side grill armor intercepting it.

You can effectively drive around the strong point at the entrance and attack parts of it from behind, as per mission objectives. In real life you would also bind them from the front, but here the enemy does not seem to move too much. The places I would try to flatten are the huge strong points in the middle of the map.

Anyway, the trick is (combined arms imo) to indeed get your infantry out into a place where they can harm the enemy. They are fragile, but they also have lots of firepower. I would go so far and say that the majority of your firepower is in the grunts. Ever got a squad of nine people on the roof and fire at will? It surely looks like more firepower than the supporting IFV in the alley with its single .50 cal. They can do the covering fire very well, they have machine guns, a surprisingly large number of 40mm grenades they can lob over, and they can take out any tank (and anything in fact ) they see with their ATGMs. Very importantly, the squad also is another unit on the ground that can see hostiles, more eyes is better. And they have thousands of rounds of ammo, easing the load on your auto grenade launchers. Don't know about you, but I always run out of ammo with those. And they can go in and flush the suckers out in close combat, using that splendid high rise for your advantage.

Lastly, when it works, dismounted infantry is fun. That airport mission is worse than Grozny.

[Zepheris]

unfortunately thelmia is correct... the TacAI is crippled as it is so it is quite likely that if something goes wrong... ur unit will be completely wiped out before the next command phase kicks in.

i've watched my infantry staring at the sky while a hostile infantry squad becomes visible on the building right next to them and starts opening fire. For 50 full seconds my riflemen squad just cower there facing the wrong direction and do nothing while they get cut down one by one.

[Chelco]

Originally posted by OG_Gleep:

Take mission 2 for example. Your given one infantry platoon. What do you do with them? If you speed in, your going to take inc RPG rounds before your overwatch teams have time to react. There is no way you can suppress every suspected enemy pos. If you dismount early, there is little cover and your men will essentially be bait and take unaffordable casualties.

Hi OG,

I haven't played that one yet.

Is it Stryker infantry?

[Bonxa]

I did fairly well with an entry through the front gates. I had the 1st plt drop off one squad in each of the "guard houses" (outside the walls). This can be done safely. Then I waited for the 2nd plt to arrive to get me more overwatch fire. I proceeded to craw the area just outside the entrance full with Strykers. My trigger unit was then a single Stryker with infantry which took an immediate right and unloaded it's infantry by the short side of the front right building (no windows there). I used smoke from the bait Stryker and area fire onto the buildings on the left that could intervene. The infantry could then just run around the corner (towards the wall) and into the building. This whole maneouvre triggered enough enemy response to get the ball rolling yet cost me hardly any casualties at all.

[snake_eye]

Pre battle planning

1st don't do anything before having some intel. Do it through your HQ team or Fist. Better have a high point to observe.

If you get some art fire on your line of departure, move the hell out of it fast to another place (behind buildings or land features masking you).You are being watch by a forward art observer. Suppress him quickly.

2nd, when you get a clearer picture, try to move to your objective(s) with a two axis attack, while a third is pouring suppressing fire, or you may have (if available) art rounds pouring down on the MLR (found by your observation, or where you intent to go).

From then on progress with over watch.

When on the objective or near it,dismount your squads and split them. Don't forget to get some AT4 or better Javelin, 5.56 and or 7.62 (MMG)ammo. You are going to need it. Suppress the enemy with your tracks fire.

Make moving your tracks and squads around the ennemy.

Don't hesitate to have them mount the trcks and or dismount it as often, as nneded.

And last not the least I recommend Tim PRICHARD book "AMBUSH ALLEY" it is a must. If you play real time you are going to understand how things are rarely going the way you think they should.

[bigmac1281]

If I'm thinking about the right mission (The one with the Barracks and the SF HQ, right?) might I make a suggestion? Don't assault through the main gate. Make your own gate. This goes for assaulting the Barracks too. Your MGS can make mighty nifty holes in the walls around the town. Make your own gate, and go in from there. Much better than going through that main gate.

Never take the obvious approach if you can help it. Do the unexpected, come in from angles they aren't covering.

[RT North Dakota]

The biggest mistake folks make, including proffessional soldiers, is the Fire and Manouvre rubbish that gets taught. IT DOES NOT WORK.

Fire, so that you can then manouvre. Manouvre to find places to fire from. DO NOT DO BOTH, or try and co-ordinate. It goes wrong too easily.

Find the enemy and pour as much fire onto him as possible. Find another group to add more fire. Once the enemy is no longer shooting back, send a very small recce group to check if they are all dead.