First Scenario Played - Need Some Tips

[BadBrad]

I worked through the tutorials and then selected the Tactical Exercise - Brigade Day Attack as the first scenario to play. I played Allies and the end result was marginal defeat for Allies. So after this humbling experience I'm looking for an AAR or some pointers and how a experienced commander would have carried out the attack.

I don't expect to become effective overnight and I did find the experience enjoyable and eye opening. Basically I moved my units into position under cover of darkness, the infantry group up main road, the RTR up main road and then right off road between forest and river and the light cav to the east of the objective on the opposite side of the stream. Looking back I already realize some things I should have done differently.

Well when dawn arrived I tried to push the assult on the hill forward from all three groups, made progress but it was very slow. I used my Arty to bombard units immediately engaged with my advance.

One mistake that I believe I made was to adjust move orders to often it seems that this really slows things down which I can see as being realisitc. Need to make up my mind!! I would give a move order then change the position a litle further down field. Or give and attacck order and then after a bit change formation. You get the picture.

So if anyone has an AAR or can pop off a few quick points I would appreciate the help in accelarting my learning. Great game, very engrossing and I can see that there is an immense amount of depth.

Cheers,

Brad

[Lieste]

Just tried it for the first time for a decisive victory 79/10 - a bit messy and on a re-run I could do it more certainly and with fewer casualties. (67 men and 1 AT portee, against his 466 and seven 'guns')

The most important thing to realise is that your force is predominantly truck borne or tracked, and therefore finds it hard to operate in the rough steep slope of the hill.
You also are under time pressure to apply pressure at the hill, as you only have 8 hours until the VL becomes active, and then 16 hours of occupation-only points accounting for 3/4 of you maximum total.

You must bypass the blocking force(s) that may attempt to hinder your approach to the hill, and then reduce his combat power on the hill (predominantly his mortar and AT batteries, but killing infantry helps). You only need prevent him operating here unopposed, as your brigade is sufficiently strong to give you victory without absolutely requiring him to be destroyed, or be driven from the hill.

As troops on the hillside are vulnerable to direct fires, it is worth preventing his easy occupation of reverse slope positions by setting bases of fire on all three avenues of approach. Also find the minimum slope route to the top of the hill - this is where you want your infantry to push in order to get good intelligence for your supporting fires and the artillery batteries. You might want to approach by indirect routes, and under cover as much as possible to reduce vulnerability. I like to have the artillery fairly close to the objective, able to deny positions on the southern slopes with direct fires, although you want to avoid the whoops of placing them so they cannot engage in indirect fire missions.

Preventing his blocking forces withdrawing on the roadblock, & pushing them aside can be beneficial in a short scenario like this - his repeated attempts to infiltrate will give you easy kills, and several hundred less men on the VL makes it easier to achieve influence - with a longer scenario with more supply movements, a large organised force on the MSR may not be tolerable.

[BadBrad]

Thanks Lieste for the comments, they got me thinking and I'm going to give it another go.

[bairdlander2]

Pretty much the same question here.It is possible to take the hill by 0800 on day 1.

[Lieste]

I'm not sure what the question you meant to ask was?

If you mean is it possible to secure all 100 occupation points, then yes it is.
In the similar Night Attack mission I secured the hill briefly at 17:30, and then lost control as part of his screen fell back onto the hill. With one company remnant screened south of the hill and my tanks and infantry surrounding and swarming over the hill he was forced to retreat by 19:30 and I controlled the hill from then on (regardless of his dispositions as he had lost over 50% strength and most of his heavy weapons).

This starts 12 hours later than the Day attack, so securing the hill at 07:30 would be the equivalent.

The funny thing is this changes the scenarios from 'Day Attack' to 'Night Attack/Day Defence' and 'Night Attack' to 'Day Attack/Night Defence'