Page 2 of 2

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:01 pm
by GoodGuy
I'm glad if I could help some lurkers at least, since the OP appears to be somewhat advice-resistant. [;)][:D]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

.......does anybody have any thoughts on how to destroy that German unit at "point"

I am trying to learn the game and an instruction here would be useful.

Besides the destruction of that inf unit not being the main objective [;)], you could use the Ranger Bn to approach it from the back, while putting up some pressure with the 3rd RTR in a head-on approach. Deploying the AT unit on the right side, and some other detached unit on the left, to block excursions, might do the job.
Once the enemy troops start to retreat / rout / panick, they might just leave their foxholes head over heels, in an attempt to reach a safer location, so the destruction of such units may be easier in open terrain, where tanks have less obstructed (trees) views.

EDIT:
The alternative might be to attack with the Ranger Bn (choose "covered" or "safest" route), with "medium" or even better "low" aggro settings. This will ensure that your units will prefer to advance, instead of taking cover (and deploy) to return fire all along the way.

If you don't care about casualty rates, you could even just issue a "move" task (right to the enemy unit location, "undefined" formation) to the supreme HQ (do not detach units in this case), and just overrun the unit in question (with low/medium aggro). The saying "the more the merrier" might work here, so make sure that all units are moving in. Once they've reached the perimeter you gotta switch to MAX aggro, and they'll go mad on the enemy.

Even very big arty units (or german 8'8' guns if you're playing the Germans) can be moved in on MIN aggro/low aggro and do a hell of a job once deployed within let's say ranges of 500-1000 meters, depending on the type of terrain. They use to fight off any armored advance on many occasions, once they have deployed to show off their precious guns.
This "misuse" of arty units might cause massive losses among such arty units, but if you can afford the loss/reduction (of equipment + troops) of such units, this kind of deployment can be a valuable tactic.

One more hint:
I used to deploy 8'8' AA guns (500-1000m range) in HTTR, if i had to stop enemy tanks advancing to vital positions. They knocked out a good number of tanks b4 they got trashed themselfs.
It's realistic and backed up historically, Rommel figured that some of his 8'8' flak units were able to knock out the Allied heavy tanks in North Africa, and these guns turned out to be an even bigger threat when they were equipped with enhanced armor piercing rounds eventually. The guns could penetrate Allied tanks way before they could see the gun positions, and way before they could return fire (I think there were confirmed kills with ranges of up to 1800 meters). They also caused high numbers of casualties among attacking inf units.

I'm not sure whether these ranges are rendered in the game, since I could not spot an 88 firing any further than let's say 500 or 700 meters.
Inf guns (IG), which used to have a range from around 3800 m to 4800 m, don't seem to be able to fire any further than 500-1000 meters as well......the Germans even had 1800+ Russian 76,2 mm Inf guns ("290(r)".....booty guns) in 1943, which could fire up to 8560 meters, so it's odd that inf guns are being sent (by their HQs) to fight in close-combat, in this game.


Anyway, 8'8' had been used as early as 1940 though, which had been brought forward to fight off counter-attacks conducted by french tank units, but these events may have fallen into oblivion, since these were rare occasions. The 88's had been used there, because the french heavy tanks were causing higher casualties and "traffic jams" during the German rapid advance, and because they couldn't be knocked out with PaKs. Many German tank units bypassed the french tanks, so the Inf had to deal with them.

In Russia, the 88's then proved to be the only guns that could knock out Russian T-34 tanks for a while, when the Russian campaign started 1941, since the PaK 36 (AT-gun) was too weak/outdated.

So, Rommel "rediscovered" the value of the 8'8's too , which then served in a dual role for the rest of the war -> AA + AT. They could be used as regular artillery guns too, since their max. arty range was like 14-15 km.
Downside: they were big, not easy to operate, and most versions had to be pulled by special heavy trucks / halftracks since the biggest versions weighed around 7,5 tons. Also, the crews were very vulnerable when operating their guns.

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:15 pm
by jirik
Hi,

although the file is named zip it is in fact RAR archive. Just give it rar extension an you can unpack it.

BTW it would be good if somebody from MG/PG will correct that on the site.

J.

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:25 pm
by Arjuna
Re Download Graphics file. I believe that the Matrix server only accepts .zip files and not .rar files - hence the change of name. I'll ask them to convert the rar to a proper zip file.

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:45 pm
by Golf33
Infantry and AT guns will only direct-fire if they have line of sight to the target and are set to a high enough Aggro to engage it at range.

Artillery will fire indirect at targets outside its minimum range (shown by the black range ring) and will only direct-fire if it has line of sight to the target and a high enough Aggro.

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:09 am
by GoodGuy
ORIGINAL: Golf33

Infantry and AT guns will only direct-fire if they have line of sight to the target and are set to a high enough Aggro to engage it at range.

Artillery will fire indirect at targets outside its minimum range (shown by the black range ring) and will only direct-fire if it has line of sight to the target and a high enough Aggro.

Yes, I figured/experienced that ingame..... question is why an inf gun (for example), won't be able to perform medium range shots (let's say 1000 - 2000 meters, which is still less than the historic range/use), and why they would somewhat act like a line unit if controlled by the AI, although it could engage from a distance (provided that there'd be a proper LOS) ?
These inf guns are often the first units being routed when advancing during an attack, even with most careful aggro settings, if i'm not mistaken, although they could provide some serious firepower from a distance.

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 8:21 am
by Golf33
Direct fire support units like these would often be used to engage suspected or likely enemy positions, something which doesn't happen in COTA where only spotted enemy units are fired at. There are all sorts of complications in adding this type of fire into a game, not least of which is ammo consumption.

From memory I think correct behaviour for these units in an assault is to move with the assault until they can achieve good fire onto the enemy, then they should halt and deploy to fire. They should then stay back until the enemy is cleared off and the objective taken.

Cheers
Steve

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:40 am
by Demonic Spoon
Sorry to bring this ancient post up again...but I'm having trouble on the second scenario. I try to send my troops around, but they get shot by the units on the hill, and take cover...

If I attack up the middle, my units all get bogged down for too long.

RE: Sarantaporos - tactical exercise

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:42 pm
by GoodGuy
wrong thread, pls ignore