Any ideas for Following the Euphrates?

[BillyR]

I'm getting my arse handed me every time.

I've tried dropping smoke and fast tracking up the right flank. I've tried holding the middle and going through the buildings.

Whatever I do, I'm losing tanks, MGS, Strykers full of troops!

Any pointers would be great. Clearly I'm not designed for tactics...I take losing men far too hard!

[MikeyD]

Hmmm... I haven't tried "Follow the Euphrates" for several patches. It sounds like its became substantially more challenging!

Off the top of my head, I'd advise against having troops in Strykers anywhere near enemy LOS. If you've got to get from point A to point B first scour the area clear of threat then remount your troops to drive in by the most secure route. Spot the enemy, drop artillery on the enemy, repeat.

[Shuter]

I played this one H2H at 1.08 version as Blue and won tactical victory. I bypassed enemy moving deeply through forest at right flank, leaving small overwatch forces at a tall building at the road. My M1s, Strykers and arty smashed enemy with overwhelming concentrated firepower at distances of 300-1000m while infantry relatively easy took ground from suppressed Syrians.

[Dietrich]

I'm getting my arse handed me every time. [...]

Whatever I do, I'm losing tanks, MGS, Strykers full of troops! Any pointers would be great. Clearly I'm not designed for tactics...I take losing men far too hard!

I know the feeling, both of getting my arse handed to me and of taking it hard when my men end up WIA/KIA. Losing one Stryker and all the soldiers therein to an RPG is one too many, in my opinion!

If you even think the enemy has ATGMs, don't expose your vehicles (even your MBTs, though an M1 might be able to shrug off a hit or two from an AT-14), even if the dismounts have boots on the ground. (I understand that some of my advice may not be relevant to "Follow the Euphrates" per se; I've played that scenario, but it's been a month or so.) Avoid moving your Strykers within RPG range of places where the enemy might be lurking, such as buildings and trenches. Try to keep your dismounts far enough away from the vehicles that there won't be any secondaries if one takes a hit (even just a damaging one) from an ATGM or RPG.

Since you have M1s in "Follow the Euphrates", lead with them up the road -- their firepower will smash the enemy forces on the road at the far end of the map.

[MikeyD]

This post reminds me a lot of us who secretly fancy ourselves as 'tactical geniuses' have simply played the scenarios multiple times. Now that I recall, I got my head handed to me first time playing that scenario too. But I only mention the 3rd time when I won a major victory with hardly any loss. A little selective amnesia, I think

[TempV]

A little selective amnesia, I think

Good point.

Curing Syrian blindess in 1.11 made some old scenarios playable for H2H to my opinion. However, newer ones (those in Marines module) are more suitable for that role. I'm looking for new challenges in BritForces.

P.S. Oh, concernig that British. Will we see dedicated Blue vs Blue scenarios?

[Field Marshal Blücher]

P.S. Oh, concernig that British. Will we see dedicated Blue vs Blue scenarios?

I would assume not in the official boxed version, but I'm sure plenty of people will make them.

[BlackMoria]

It has been a few months since I played it and I won on the first go at it.

My plan put 1 plt of Strykers left of the highway and 1 plt of Strykers right of the highway. 1 javelin team and a FO went into the closest building to the setup areas. The tanks took the highway.

The FO started picking up targets down the highway and engaged them. The tank platoon advanced down the highway and inched into hull down postitions and started engaging enemy armor it saw down the highway.

The right flank maneuver proceeded without opposition and I anticipated enemy in the trees so at the fence line, I dismounted the platoon and they worked their way into the trees with the Strykers moving behind in support. Sure enough, the platoon came under fire from dug in infantry but with the support of the Strykers, the various entrenchments were cleared. The infantry and Strykers advanced to the other fence line and used that as a defensive line to engage infantry in the open fields beyond.

While this was happening, the tank platoon killed the enemy armor and cautiously advanced up the highway, going firm just before the edge of town. The Stryker platoon and the assault gun platoon going left picked its way through the trees and towards the walled edge of the town proper. Several RPGs from second floor or roof enemy were fired but missed during the advance and the enemy infantry were engaged by 105mm / 40mm /12.5mm fire from the two platoons and destroyed.

Once in range of the wall, the assault gun platoon blasted entry points into the wall and the platoon dismounted and the infantry closed up to the breech points.

To say that that part of town was lousy with enemy infantry would be an understatement. I took casualties breeching in due to multiple enemy infantry squads all over the place but with the help of the assault guns and 40mm stryker, my pixeltruppen prevailed and established multi floor defensive hard points in the town. Then came the slow, crueling and bloody job of clearing the town building by building. The assault guns and strykers entered through the breach points and helped the infantry by establishing lanes of fire down streets and lit up enemy infantry trying to use the streets for movement. Javelin teams took rooftop positions.

By this point in the battle, the right Stryker platoon achieved the fence line and started clearing the trenchlines opposite the town across the highway, supported by the hull down Strykers behind the fence. The tank platoon split into two teams of 2 tanks, each one going to support the two platoons.

A counterattack of enemy armor was stopped cold, being engaged by the javelin teams on roofs in the town.

It took time and many infantry fights, which I dominated due to close support from my Strykers and tanks, but I managed to get pixeltruppen into all the objective areas for a total victory. I think I took one Stryker casualty from a RPG in town and light infantry casualties.

Anyhow, that is how I managed the scenario. I took it slow and cautious with the vehicles (hence only one vehicle casualty) and the infantry walked most of the map but I did it within the time limit of the scenario, so don't feel rushed. Haste or impatience will get you killed in this scenario. Keep your forces mutually supporting each other and put overwhelming firepower at the decision points and you should get the sweet victory you want.

[Secondbrooks]

Last time i assaulted directly to town with infantry (used MGS to blow hole into tall wall for me), got bogged into city fight with absurdly formed SF elements (they were in streets and not in buildings mostly, well it was men tot be played in WEGO and i played it again red AI). Cut them down and suffered heavy casualities mostly from RPGs and handgrenades. 1/3 of town was under my influence, and beaten SF elements holding the rest, Syrian units spotted outside town got indirect fire missions on their necks and M1s + sniper team tried to kill what they saw on road. Strykers were just keeping low profile in the back.

Then i got bored and quited, enemy had lost over half of it's troops, SF elements were mostly beated sacks of potatoes (as was my another rifle platoon). It went nicely to that point of time, casualties were higher than what i expected (i'm to blame for lack of micromanagement).

First time i played it i did the right thing, and circled from right thru woods. Used heavy fire from distance and finally performed mounted assault to intersection objective across field and trenches. Still causalities for my men rised pretty high, when they entered town to deal with SF elements. Other times i've played it and tried other tricks just didn't work that well. But now as CMSF in patched up it might not work that well, and juuuust maybe i was bit lucky during my first play thru.

[Lethaface]

I played the battle several times with the RED force

One advice (albeit a little cheat): pound the town with artillery! The SF forces are the only real asset of value to the RED force. Take them on very hard and the rest should be much easier.

[ASL Veteran]

Okay, let me tell you all about the tale of my adventures on the Euphrates.

The original plan was very similar to what Black Moria outlined above. Call it 'Plan A'. I started off with one infantry platoon on the right side of the road and the other infantry platoon moved down the road to the gap in the wall and set forth into the woods on the left side of the road. The Abrams held down the road and the JTAC and the artillery spotter drove up to the three story building and camped out on the rooftop. The platoon on the left side meandered through the woods with the Hummer carrying the sniper team in the lead. My plan was that the platoon on the right side of the road would drive quickly up to the wall in front of the woods, dismount, and the infantry would form a skirmish line and move across the woods to the wall on the far side. Once on the far side of the woods, that platoon would then bring fire upon the town from that side. The Strykers remained positioned against the wall in the general vicinity of the gap in the wall until the woods were cleared, then they would follow the dismounts to provide support. On the left side the sniper team in their Hummer would lead the way to the gap in the wall on the far side of the woods, and then the whole platoon would pass through that gap assuming the sniper team didn't find anything and head towards the restricted building on the other side of town. After capturing the restricted building I would then assault the town from that direction.

So much for the plan. The Abrams moved down the road and did their thing firing away at all the Syrians running around like headless chickens down at the far end of the map. The platooon on the right side moves quickly to the wall, dismounts, forms the skirmish line, and advances into the woods. Soon they encounter the entrenchments and my guys are getting the worst of it. I don't think the trees were providing any cover at all so I was taking pretty heavy casualties. I started driving the Strykers into the woods to provide support but they were taking a lot of hits and I lost one or two. Eventually I took down the entrenched Syrians with some artillery support and pressed forward to the wall on the opposite side with my remaining pixeltruppen. Because my troops along the wall could not see the Syrians in the entrenchments out beyond the woods I had to send a squad into the entrenchments and clear them with assault move and hand grenades. None of the squaddies I positioned along the wall as overwatch helped in any way since the Syrians were invisible down in the trenches. It was bloody and grinding work but it was going relatively well even though the casualties I was taking was a little higher than I liked.

Meanwhile on the left side my Sniper team quickly made it to the wall on the far side of the woods, dismounted, and walked up to the gap in the wall and found nothing. Thinking the coast was clear I then proceeded to move the sniper team along the high wall next to the town until they got to the low wall where it adjoins the high town wall in the area in front of the Restricted building. There the sniper team found a veritable shooting gallery of Syrians running around and the sniper was picking them off left and right. I even moved the Hummer along the high town wall up to a position close to the sniper so they could reload if they needed to. Thinking everything was clear, my platoon who had been idling in the woods until the sniper team checked things out began to move forward for the gap in the wall to get into position to take the restricted building. Unfortunately the Stryker is a bit taller than a Hummer and as soon as the lead Stryker got into the gap in the wall "Ka Boom!" eleven KIA as some rocket type thing smoked it. The explosion also created a gap in the wall at the corner, so I dismounted the rest of the platoon and attempted to storm into the town from that gap in the corner. It just went badly after that. I managed to capture a few of the low buildings near the wall but it was just impossible. There were way too many of them and way too few of me. At some point my personal morale limit was reached and I cease fired and decided I would take another go at it.

Plan B: Okay, so what I took away from my first attempt was that there were way too many Syrians in the town for one platoon to handle. My next attempt was to load up both Stryker platoons on the left side of the road and attempt to use both platoons to storm the town, leaving the Abrams on the road and the spotter and the JTAC in that three story building just as before. I formed my infantry in a double line across the woods in front of the town with the Strykers positioned behind the squads as fire support. After my Spotter got into position I dropped a max load of 120 mortars as prep fire onto the edge of town such that I could smash anyone in the buildings on the opposite side of the high wall and create breaches in the wall. After the artillery barrage was over, I moved my infantry slowly up to the breaches, but before they hit the assigned breaches they came under heavy fire.

The artillery prep was obviously not as thorough as I had hoped and once again my guys seemed to be taking the worst of it. This time though my Strykers were in position to provide support, but unfortunately that turned out to be as much of a curse as a blessing. There were so many rockets of various types flying through the woods to hit my Strykers that there were frequent detonations when said rockets hit the trees. Since my squads were positioned in the trees in front of the Strykers they were taking some pretty severe hits. Soon the air was filled with cries of "Medic!" and "I'm hit!". Some of the rockets were finding their targets too and so I was taking some punishment. Eventually I was able to get the first platoon to occupy the low buildings on the other side of the breeches and I was able to start assaulting my way forward about three buildings deep on the left side of the town.

I was trying to get my second platoon into position to start clearing the taller buildings on the right side of the town but that's basically when disaster struck. You see, the buildings on the right side all have single entry points on the right side so you can't get into those buildings very easily. There were a couple of Syrians who were giving me all kinds of trouble on the end building, so in a fit of anger I shouted "Oh, you want some of that too eh?" I targeted that building with every Stryker I had and started pounding the snot out of it. I then mounted up a squad in a Stryker to have them dismount near the door and run in (because it was just too open to get to that side of the building in one piece), but the Stryker with the squad in it started doing a goat dance and was reversing, spinning, and driving around like a man on drugs (pre 1.11). That Stryker just couldn't get there from here. So I kept blasting the building until it finally collapsed. I then started on the next one blasting it until it would collapse but I was running low on ammunition for my big guns already. Between the heavy casualties and the dancing Stryker I finally had to throw in the towel again when the Syrian tanks arrived (after muttering a few choice obscenities). On the cease fire screen I had killed like over 200 Syrians and I was like "damn, I was killing them like flies but it didn't even have an effect."

Plan C: Currently in progress. Having tried one platoon on each side of the road and two platoons on the left side of the road, I am now trying two platoons on the right side of the road. After a prep bombardment on the trench in the woods, I moved my infantry through the woods to the opposite wall so my pixeltruppen basically lined the wall from one end to the other. I put the sniper team and two MG teams into the two story building just outside the town and they have been lighting up the Syrians in the trenches along the right side of the road. Recently some SF guys in the town started to make my rooftop MG nest untenable and the house is now a bit hot, but I'm still hangin' on in there. My guys along the wall have been very busy because the Syrian decided to leave the trenches and start running for the town. Between the Syrians leaving the trenches and the Mech units running around my guys have been blasting away. So far Plan C is working out waaaaay better than Plan A and B had by this point.

Incidentally none of my local friends or usual CMx1 PBEM opponents have purchased CMSF although I got them to download the demo and try it out. In any event, I would be interested in some head to head PBEM on some of the larger scenarios off the CD (I would actually prefer Red because I don't mind if my troops get annihilated when playing as Red ). If anyone is interested just send me a private message or e-mail me (I think my e-mail is listed - do'h).

[rune]

ASL,

Just to be frustrating, I included multiple AI plans, so what worked once may not if another plan is used by the AI. I won't give any spoilers.

Also, there should nto have been anyone not in a building other thent he destroyed column unless they were moving.

Rune

[ASL Veteran]

ASL,

Just to be frustrating, I included multiple AI plans, so what worked once may not if another plan is used by the AI. I won't give any spoilers.

Also, there should nto have been anyone not in a building other thent he destroyed column unless they were moving.

Rune

In the first two attempts, there were troops in the trench positions, troops in the buildings, and the destroyed column. For the most part only the column troops were moving. Head to Head though the column troops would probably play more of a role in the battle because of the generous setup zone. The AI ones just run around and get shot . In my third attempt though it has been a bit odd I have to admit. There was only about a squad and a half in the trench in the woods which I took with no opposition (I mortared it first). The first trench outside the woods was unoccupied, as was the second and third trench. Although I think there were some bodies in either the second or third trench who were shot by my sniper and MG teams when I took the two story building. The fourth trench though is full of bad guys. Many of the Syrians in the trenches though started running around after my sniper and MG teams started to engage them from the building outside the town wall. I got the impression that they were attempting to run either into the town or into the building at the intersection but I'm not sure. All I know is that it became a shooting gallery for my pixeltruppen along the wall. There are Syrian bodies all over the place around the third trench, but not in the trench. Outside the trench.

[DaveDash]

I love this mission. WARNING SPOILERS:

First time I played it I won, but my infantry got chewed up fighting in the town. I sent one force to assault the town through the trees on the left, and one force to clear the trees to the right and provide supporting fires.

I played it recently in 1.11 and kicked ass.

I sent two tanks through the trees to overwatch the fields to the left. Other two tanks overwatched down the road. Send all my infantry through the trees to the left of the road and assaulted the town, making numerous breaches in the walls with the MGS and used smoke and artillery to gain entry to the town without taking casualties.

After my two tanks on the left flank cleaned up the enemy assaulting armour, I moved them around to clean up everything behind the town.

The fighting in the town can be tough, but as long as you make sure your infantry can support each other, don't expose them on rooftops, and pay attention to where doors are, you should be fine.

The challenge with this scenario is while you have a lot of vehicle support, gaining maximum use from those vehicles can be difficult. It comes down to an infantry assault, so I found it much better to mass your guys to gain local advantages.