About night combat tactics

[Fūrinkazan]

I was curious to see what troops can do at night, when they attack.

I took on company of Syrian infantry, against on US without vehicules, facing each other, the Syrians as defenders.

I was surprised to see that the first to spot were the javelins.

I could see the entire syrian line at 1150 m.

The rest of the company had only ?

I was at about 400 m all the company had identified the syrians.

I came as close as 150 m without problems. When my soldiers moved they used to loose contact. I opened fire at 150 m and the result was 14 dead 15 wounded and 36 missing.

I wanted to do better so i took out the javelins and put the US in the back of the Syrians for the second attack.

First contact for US at 450 m. I let the machine guns in the rear (400 m) and

continue the advance in line.

I was as close as 80 to 60 m depending on the platoons, but at 60 m syrians had a brief contact with one group.

I decided to assault the syrian position at less thang 60 m.

I gave bigger cover arcs to each group and an assault order.

Then i saw something that i had never seen in any game.

90 men assaulting is very impressive. The front line was about 200 m long and i could see grenades exploding all the way with a lot of smoke.

The result was devastating.

47 dead

34 wounded

9 missing

In one minute the company was reduced at 3 men with no loss for the US infantry:eek:.

I did the same test with two companies of syrian infantry against one US. One in a long trench and the other in buildings at about 130 m behind the trench.

I attacked the trench with 2 platoons and i flanked the buildings with the third. I was spotted at 50 m by men in the first building but they lost immediatly contact. I simply opened area fire on the building to eliminate them with no loss.

The trench was attacked at about 50 m With the same devastating results than before :37 dead 24 wounded 14 missising for 90 men at the start.

I tried to do the same with syrians. I took an airborn company to take a trench hold by US infantry company.

The few units that have night vision could spot us at about 400 m. But when i tried to get closer i was spotted at about 350 m. I could not get closer and i didn't have the fire power to assault the trench. Contacts between US and Syrians was not clear.

I tried red vs red with one reserve company against one of the guard (no night vision).

I was able to get very close to the trench before any spotting. At 25 m i still had no contact (my troops were crawling). It's important to use the slow move when you are close to your target. But not to far because your men are too tired to assault (i had this problem when attacking the trench with US infantry they were to tired for the assault order which i think is better for this)

I decided to assault at about 25 m. Very bad idea:D. the attackers were defeated with 26 dead and 13 wounded.

I decided to get closer and some of my soldiers were at less than 20 m when they saw the enemy in the trench. They started without orders to throw grenades with very good results. I decided to assault and could penetrate the trench, eliminating the defenders, but as i did not coordonate my attack i could only do this with two groups. Grenades were impressive and also the fight in the trench at very close range (to bad there is no hand to hand combat, but maybe in the future....)

So, of course troops with night vision have an enormous advantage. But it's possible to obtain good results with the others if you are very cautious (well, that's versus the AI, against human it's another story)

Buildings at night are still hard targets. I was spotted by Syrians at about 50 m and i was lucky to suffer no loss. But when the enemy position is identified maybe by the rear it's possible to launch a surprise attack.

It's important to have very small cover arcs to control the fire of your troops and get closer. I used wide cover arcs for the assault but i'm not sure it's really necessary.

I'm not sure, but it seems that visibility can vary at night depending on the scenario (moonlight, hour etc...). So, the spotting distance may be longer or shorter for the troops without night vision.

Attacking troops with those equipement with normal Syrian troops is simply a suicide.

[Ryujin]

I was surprised to see that the first to spot were the javelins.

I could see the entire syrian line at 1150 m.

The rest of the company had only ?

I was at about 400 m all the company had identified the syrians.

The thermal camera on the CLU works great for spotting tanks and really anything, but I had no idea it was modeled in CMSF. If that's the case I'll start giving CLUs to recon/overwatch units when I can spare them.

[akd]

I believe the Javelin CLU is the most powerful all-weather observation optic available to dismounted US forces, especially as the LRAS3 can not be dismounted from its Humvee in the game.

[Combatintman]

Same for us Brits - the Javelin CLU is seen as one of the best night ISTAR assets going so it is not at all surprising that in-game the Javelin CLU picked up the enemy first and so far out.

[dan/california]

The CLU would be a wonderful toy even without the attached hammer of Thor.

[RadioactiveMan]

FMB's Tip of the Spear campaign features Marine Humvees with TOW missles. These guys can dismount and see very well- similar to the javelin teams.

[Frankster65]

Do the Syrians have something equivalent to the Javelin CLU units?

[hcrof]

No, the CLU is really quite advanced stuff and even if the Syrians where prepared to pay for it, noone (even Russia) would give it to them.

The Soviets/Russians could never keep up with the west in terms of optics etc anyway so I don't see an equivelent device coming out any time soon from the 'East'.

Syrian night combat ability is poor and if they were able to I suspect they would try to avoid it all together. Unfortunately for them, they don't get to dictate the play in any NATO invasion!

[akd]

Do the Syrians have something equivalent to the Javelin CLU units?

The 1PN79 thermal sight (Kornet-E) should provide pretty decent night thermal capabilities.

[Frankster65]

The 1PN79 thermal sight (Kornet-E) should provide pretty decent night thermal capabilities.

Ah...I was wondering about that.