Clearing buildings

[salwon]

What's the best way to do the above? It's not that I don't enjoy blasting grand architecture to the ground (I do!), it just seems like there should be a better way than waiting to get lucky with an MG burst.

Let's get specific here: imagine the second scenario. Let's assume the barracks, airfield, and everything in between are cleared out. At 1:00 to the barracks, there is a U-shaped apartment complex, with two squads in either corner of the U. These guys can hit anything that moves on "my" side of the map, which becomes a giant pain in the ass incredibly fast : ). Without resorting to just hurling 105 or ATGM rounds at them until the building falls down, how do you deal with dudes like that? What specific combination of movement/attack commands do you give to deal with enemy units (with excellent fields of fire) holed up in buildings directly in your front?

Discuss.

[RT North Dakota]

Originally posted by salwon:

Without resorting to just hurling 105 or ATGM rounds at them until the building falls down, how do you deal with dudes like that? What specific combination of movement/attack commands do you give to deal with enemy units (with excellent fields of fire) holed up in buildings directly in your front?

So why do you want to clear the building? If it means you win the game by clearinf them out, then OK, but ask Why is the first thing.

1. Make sure you can apply as much fire to anyone firing on you, with as little risk to yourself as possible. Anything goes.

2. If you do that well, then they should die, in greater numbers, faster than the same can happen to you. Any enemy attempting to fire, or move, should be killed. - The enemy never withdraw in CM-SF so no need to surround the building.

3. When you are no longer recieving any fire from the target building, commit 1 Fireteam to exploit into the building on reconaissance. - use a vehicle to get them right up to the building if neccessary. If they gain entry successfully and do not encounter enemy, commit more troops as rapidly as possible.

[Bradley Dick]

I personally Apache'd the living hell out of that building with my JTAC guy. I don't know for sure if he gets bonuses for close air support, but I use him in that manner anyways. But then again, attack helicopters are the Army's thing. Oh well, I used my JTAC to blast that building pretty well. It wasn't an objective building, I didn't care to mix it up with the people inside.

The SF building cost me a few troops though. Even with a few airstrikes and a good dismount dispersion, I still lost a few men to the SF inside.

[bigmac1281]

First thing's first, always have enough supporting fire. Don't send a squad across the street into known hostile territory if you haven't done your preparation. Area target known or suspected enemy strongpoints with other squads, or with your Strykers. Lay down this fire for a turn or two (a minute or two for you realtime guys.)

At the beginning of the assault turn, I usually cancel the area target orders and issue arcs of fire to cover suspected enemy locations. Tell your assault squad to either assault, or go fast for the first floor. It's your preference which to use. If the enemy isn't putting much or any fire your direction, I'd use fast, to get everyone in as fast as possible. If there is still some enemy fire coming in, assault will keep half of the squad returning fire while your assault team moves in.

Once the assault team is in, I like to clear other floors of the same building with the assault order. If you use fast, sometimes the squad will run up the stairs, stop for a few seconds, and not kill everyone that's in the room before moving on to the next floor. Using assault, half the squad moves up and stops while the second half links up with them. Then the 1st team moves to the next floor while the 2nd team remains in place. This is almost always enough time to clear a floor.

The above example assumes that you're in a close city fight, and everyone is dismounted. If you're assaulting a building with a large killzone all around it, this is what I'd do.

Again, supporting fire. Pepper the building till there's no movement. Now in these situations, I usually work with 2 platoons. 1st platoon provides supporting fire, dismounted. 2nd platoon races up to the building in their Strykers. 1st and 2nd squads in 2nd platoon will simply dismount at the side of the building. Their job is to draw fire and to continue to supress once they've dismounted. 3rd squad in 2nd platoon will do the assault into the building. Once the 1st floor is clear, send 3rd squad on to other floors, and bring 1st and second squad out of harm's way into the first floor. From there, you proceed according to my first example.

Most good strategies in this game (and in real war I would imagine) are based off of having fire superiority. If you can't put more lead on them than what they're putting on you, assaulting is a bad idea.

That's how I do it. Usually pretty good results, other than when the RPG you didn't know was there ruins your plans. But that's war. It doesn't always go your way.

[ August 30, 2007, 03:15 PM: Message edited by: bigmac1281 ]

[Bradley Dick]

There is absolutely nothing as discouraging as pulling off a flanking move only to see your troop carrier, full of troops, get roasted by an RPG. Dropping an entire squad from your assault team hurts things.