Tactics Help for Germans in Novyy Rizadeh -- Potential Spoiler

[Gerry4321]

Hello All:

Had a marginal loss. Not so sure I did much here to affect the outcome. Mainly I set all units to Defend --> Hold Fire --> Best Shot. I tried to throw Smoke a few times. When I tried to withdraw the infantry in the tree line to the nearby buildings, I left it too late I think.
Q1. Can they Withdraw if suppressed/pinned.
Q2. What can you do with the reinforcement PzIVJ? They seem really outgunned by the T35-85s and ISU-122s and were knocked out in short order.

Any tips appreciated.

Coolest thing - the FT team brewing up a T34-85.

Thanks in advance,

Gerry

[junk2drive]

1 No They won't follow movement orders. If the morale drops enough, they may retreat on their own.

2 Hope you get lucky. If the Jagds did their jobs and the infantry can get a few kills with their fausts, your IVs have a better chance.

Place the Panzerschreck in the pillbox with hold for good shot.

Once the infantry start firing at the tank riders they start giving away their positions. You can try hold all fire after a couple of shots to see if that helps.

[benpark]

I think of the defense as a series of lines-

Initial contact- These are the squads in the forest areas (both left and right) and RR station. I usually pull the command squad back to the village, and leave the 2 subordinate squads in the first lines. This way, you can still have some cohesion if things get rough. I'll set these squads to "close assault". These squads are going to delay the impact of the Soviet force from achieving a breakthrough to the village (if all goes well).

Second line- The village, namely the first row of houses closest to the Soviet forces. I'll have the flamethrower and MG positioned in the two houses on either side of the "main road" for maximum LoS. This serves as a long range (MG) and close assault (FT) backup while the infantry fights in the woods. Hopefully the FT can take out any initial forces that make it through. The panzershreck and AT team are part of this group, and I will position them in a variety of locations- in buildings or at the side of one. They can really contribute a great deal of stopping power.

Elastic Defense- The two jagdpanzers. I will position these so that they only have a view of 1/2 of the field, generally at the side of a building. This shields them from the full brunt of the Soviet fire, and also compensates for the lack of a turret a bit. One covers right, and one covers left.

Once things get underway, I try to keep the infantry in the woods. Use their smoke capability to get out from their first bad situation, after that use the "withdraw" order. They need to take the momentum out of the advance. Once they are spent, they can try to make a run for it to the cover of the village but that is a rare thing. Keep the fire up from any surviving units in the village, and play hide and seek using the buildings. The Soviets will likely be in the open by then.

The goal is to hold out until reinforcements arrive. They should initially occupy the treeline, and look for targets. Once you gain the upper hand (if you regain the upper hand), counterattack the flags.

[Mobius]

I generally rush the Jagdpanzers into the buildings area and loophole them to snipe at passing Soviets. The drawback if a IL-2 spots them and takes one or both out before they do their job.

[Gerry4321]

Thanks for the replies. I will try it again.

I have to say I didn't even notice the Pillbox. Will that limit their visibility though or do the Pillboxes have multiple slots.

Thanks,

Gerry

[ComradeP]

I place the infantry in buildings, not in the woods. They're too exposed there in my opinion. If the Soviets break through and they have to withdraw, they will quickly be killed.

On my first full playthrough and with some luck for my Jagdpanzer IV's, I didn't lose anyone. My infantry was never seriously targeted by the Soviets, as most Soviet units couldn't see them in the buildings and the Soviet infantry that could was quickly killed.

In my case, the AI had a tendency to move the forces that start in the western part of the map to the central road (generally passing north of the treeline, and then driving through it as it gets close to the north-south road) which allows you to get flanking shots in if you position your Jagdpanzer IV's correctly (like benpark, I prefer to let the one I place in the town hug a building), and move the forces that start in the northeast (from the perspective of the village looking towards the other half of the map) through the woods to the eastern flag and then to the center. For some reason, it didn't try to move its initial units to the westernmost flag (which would be logical), only some late arrivals moved there.

[thewood1]

One thing to note in comparison to people's experience with CMBB...moving assault guns are very vulnerable.  In general assault guns are more vulnerable than in CMBB.  It seems to me it has a lot to do with no Borg spotting.  Assault guns in CMBB had very unrealitic spotting abilities. 
 
Not saying PCO is super realistic, but it feels better and makes me use more real world tactics with Stugs and jagdpanzers.  My first couple play throughs of the demo saw me rushing the Jgp forward and getting them killed right away because as the moved they had almost no sighting abilities to the side.  I found you had to really move VERY carefully and find good keyhole positions.

[ComradeP]

Yeah, based on the demo assault guns and tank destroyers should keep their distance from enemy positions. The closer an assault gun or tank destroyer gets to the enemy, the greater the chance something flanks it and kills it. Urban combat with assault guns should be quite interesting, they'll really require infantry support, instead of being able to drive into a town/city all guns blazing.

[Mad Russian]

On the whole you should slow your game play down from how you're used to playing CMBB. The term, "Only Fools Rush Forward", certainly applies in PCO. You can move forward but it's not a good idea to rush headong anywhere in PCO.  That's the single major difference to my game play in PCO.

The second thing is that infantry in buildings are extremely hard to take out. Put your infantry defense in the buildings and make the Soviets dig them out.



Good Hunting.

MR

[thewood1]

I have found AFVs much more vulnerable in any built up area in PCO, especially once PF become common.  I also found scouting with infantry almost a must before moving AFVs forward.  I just have a better feel for using real world tactics for scouting and gathering local intel.  This is one thing CM2 has donea good job at too.

[Rik81]

In the words of a "famous (TV) German ... {you have to be OLD to remember the show} 'Velly interessting!")

I got a Decisive as the Germans on my first try. (No, NOT bragging here!). What did I do? Basically NOTHING with the Infantry. Bound the Jags up a bit, unfortunately did lose one of them after a few turns because he did not have his side covered by a building.

My point being that apparently the AI plays differently each time you play it! This is a compliment![:D]

Will tomorrow ever come? PS-Scenario ended on T10, just one turn after my Pz reinforcements came in.

[PDiFolco]

Ha ha, my first try was a gross katastrophe ! As my JgdPzIV weren't deployed in the soviet axis of advance at start, I send them forward a bit to stop some T34s. On the turn they moved, one was targeted and destroyed by an IL2 air attack. On the next turn the other one was spotted by a T34 relatively far away, and killed by the first shot...exactly on the turn last second, so the turn ended with a frozen exploding Panzer ! [:D]
I quit there, disgusted by my ineptness [:(]... I have to take a revenge now !

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

Ha ha, my first try was a gross katastrophe ! As my JgdPzIV weren't deployed in the soviet axis of advance at start, I send them forward a bit to stop some T34s. On the turn they moved, one was targeted and destroyed by an IL2 air attack. On the next turn the other one was spotted by a T34 relatively far away, and killed by the first shot...exactly on the turn last second, so the turn ended with a frozen exploding Panzer ! [:D]
I quit there, disgusted by my ineptness [:(]... I have to take a revenge now !

Makes you want to shake your fist at those IL2s doesn't it.

thanks
rick

[z1812]

Hi All,

As Germans, like a few above, I placed all my infantry in buildings. I put the MG in the church tower. I moved the 2 Jagds immediately at a rush to the left

just above the grass island in the plowed field. Panzershrecks in forward buildings . All sop's aggressive and with defend orders.


As the Russian I lead across the front with infantry to scout forward areas. I leave the BA's in the rear. I usually try flanking one side or the other with armour.

Lots of fun with any approach.

Regards,

John

[PDiFolco]

Ha ! Second game was a breeze, got a Legendary Victory, my Jpz killed like 7 russkie tanks *each*, Shreck and FT bagged 3 others, Iron Cross were flowing at the end lol !
Too bad I wasn't able to make a screenshot of the debrief, Prt Scr doesnt seem to work.

And heck, there's really too much grass, or maybe it's just too tall, soldiers are invisible from close view, even tanks are barely  visible..!!

[Mad Russian]

Print Screen doesn't work in PCO. F8 does. When you hit F8 it creates a folder in your your game directory called screens and puts all your screen shots in there. You can hit F8 as often as you like. PCO saves them as a Bmp file and you need to convert that to a jpg before you can post it here but it's workable.

Good Hunting.

MR