Best Tactics for Advancing?

[brucha]

I seem to suffer a terrible affliction - advancing upon an enemy position and getting torn apart by opportunity fire. I always try to advance at speeds of 1 hex per turn and once encountering enemy units, I stop my advance, begin shelling the enemy position with artillery and mortars to soften them up. Using the prescribed methods, I then use some infantry sections to pin down the enemy and move up others slowly, section by section in a slow manner while keeping the enemy pinned down.

However, I always take considerable losses in doing so. A perfect example is the campaign battle I am currently fighting -your basic assault scenario against entrenched German defenders. I selected tanks and scouts to support my core units at the start.

For each platoon, I set up in the following deployment:

S M/HQ S/S SC

Basically a scout patrol 3 hexes in front of 2 infantry sections 1 hex apart. Behind them some 3 hexes was the platoon HQ and mortar team, and in reserve 1 hex further back the last infantry section. Between the scout and the lead sections I placed my tanks.

Moving 1 hex per turn, I moved up to the suspected German line as cautiously as possible. As soon as the scouts came into view of the Germans, the enemy units began firing, killing many of the scouts. I then sent up my tanks to lay down suppressing fire on the Germans from 3-5 hexes only to have them end up becoming so suppressed that they either could not return fire or retreated. This all occurred while my infantry was still moving up.

I am now forced to have my infantry advance with no support or cover. I am shelling the enemy positions but I see that its going to take a brutal forward assault to take the enemy positions - which will cause considerable losses on my part.

Am I missing something or what? I am good at defending a position but absolutely suck at assaults or even simple advances in the face of enemy units. Any help would be much appreciated.

[planner 3]

My scouts seem to last longer if I shut off all their weapons (or "Y" [range] set to "0"), does same thing.

[brucha]

DO you need to shut off scout weapons for this to work even if you never fire the weapons?

[KG Erwin]

As the US Marines, I rely heavily on local artillery assets (usually mortars and light howitzers). Before assaulting a strongly-held position, it must be "softened up". In SPWaW terms, this means hitting the target until it is incapable of OP fire. The AI frequently uses this tactic in its tendency for saturation fire. Suppress with fire, then assault with overwhelming force. That's the basic scheme, and it doesn't matter if your force is primarily armor or infantry.

[brucha]

If I understand you correctly KG Erwin, I am not allowing my artillery enough time to soften the enemy before I begin my actual ground assault?

[Goblin]

Also fire at a .3 or .4 delay. Any less and the enemy has a auto-rally before your troops attack. Firing at .3 or .4 allows you to hit them suppressed.
 
 
Goblin

[Goblin]

Try to get the enemy to switch targets often too.

When a unit is fired on, return fire with a different unit. As they shoot at the new unit, you shoot with the original, or, better yet, a third unit. When they engage him, repeat with a new unit. The enemy does not accumulate an accuracy bonus against one target then, and your units concentrate suppression, where the bad guys are spreading it out over your units.


Goblin

[KG Erwin]

There are SO many factors to consider, especially when you take into account various nations' capabilities. The Americans have a quick response artillery capability which some folks despise, but I love it, as it is based on reality, rather than the conservative "everyone is equal" philosophy that some gamers love to promote. [:'(]

[planner 3]

It works much better, but not perfect, with weapons shut off.......

[vahauser]

brucha,
 
Advancing against a strong opponent requires that you have a numerical superiority at the point of attack.  If you are advancing along a broad front, then you will have problems.
 
Advance on a narrow front (historical WW2 attack frontages are 8-10 hexes for a battalion advance).
 
Use smoke to your advantage.
 
You also need to have high Rally and Morale ratings.  If the enemy has higher Rally and Morale ratings than you do, then you are going to suffer high casualties unless you significantly outnumber them at the point of attack.
 
Use ALL of your assets.  Use your supporting forces to keep your forward units alive.  Having a numerical advantage at the point of attack will only work if you can keep your forward units moving and active.  And you can only keep your forward units moving and active if you use all your supporting units to help them.
 
Eliminate one enemy unit at a time.  Don't spread your fire all over the place.  Pick one target and eliminate it, then move to the next target.
 
Study the AARs of other players in the AAR sub-forum.  You can learn a lot from watching how other players do it.
 
 

[brucha]

Thanks for the feedback - I admit that I tend to spread my battalion out far too much, forcing my companies to take an objective alone in some circumstances. But I never thought of deploying an entire infantry battalion on a 8-10 hex front! That would mean no more than 2 infantry sections per company on the front line while advancing for an entire battalion. Am I understanding this correctly, Vanhauser?

[Goblin]

If you do it that way, and the enemy has heavy guns, you will get annihilated, brucha.





Goblin

[vahauser]

brucha,
 
How you deploy your force to advance depends on a variety of factors.  There is no single answer.  You must be flexible and adaptable to circumstances.
 
However, if you are going to advance against a superior enemy, then your only chance for success is to gain local superiority.  It's up to you to figure out how to best accomplish that.
 
Here is a suggestion.  Post some AARs in the AAR sub-forum and let people give you advice while you play.

[brucha]

Aye, I am posting my latest Long Campaign right now in the AAR Forum, complete with screen shots, so feel free to comment

[Five_of_Swords]

Use artillery to smash the hell out of em before you advance, and they wont get many opp fires due to suppression and vision blockage. Smoke can work also, simply take your position and wait for it to clear. If you have fast tanks with good fire on the move then you can do drive by shootings since they are harder to hit on the move and their armor will soak up a lot of damage and waste oppfire while your other units quickly move in. It can effect how you apprach based on the comparative ranged power of your two forces. If you are better at range, then find the best los position while trying to bring recon (sniper, probably) to reveal units. if its the opposite, try to find how you can move in giving as little LOS as possible (smoke works well here). Against the AI I usually find it most effective to lead with some recon tanks because defensive enemy armor is easy to spot from far away and makes itself an easy target, while non-armor AT is generally quite insufficient. look for ways around and send some flankers to the spot you will assault. this drastically increases the firepower you can put on each individual hex because more units will fit in the same good range (both accuracy and LOS boost). from your question it seems you are trying to assault with infantry. They are very, very bad at this role and you are bound to take heavy losses. Consider using units actually designed for the assault role. Spotting is impotant, of course, but either use a unit smaller than recon team in hopes you arent seen, or use recon tanks, or get the enemy to fire at heavy armor to reveal it, stuff like that.
In the campaign I generally use my support points to buy assault tanks. Some will die in the assault, perhaps (actually its suprising how often they dont), but the job gets done. It creates confusion and disorder in the enemy ranks, and guartunees at least some enemy death, giving you time to set up your follow up force, which will generally win the area without losses.

[Kuokkanen]

Assault tanks? Don't you mean assault guns?

[Five_of_Swords]

sure a stug would work, I mean any big well armored tank with lots of firepower that could fulfill a spearhead role.