Matrix Games Forums

Hello
I am looking for a bit of guidance on how to defeat infantry entrenched in vilalges. I was playing through the Becker scenario where you command a small West German unit of about a company of infantry and a few platoons of tanks with artillery support. You are up against a battalion of East German infantry in various villages and entrenchments.

I really struggle to dislodge them and my own infantry is rapidly used up fighting the first two enemy companies.

Any tips?

Should I just plaster everything with artillery every time I suspect there might be somebody in a hex? Should I use the tanks at 2 or more hexes distance or is it ok to close next to the hex? Is it best to charge your infantry directly into the hex or to exchange fire from the hex next to the objective. I am guessing that even if the enemy isnt knocked out, then there should be somekind of surpression going on that limits their capacity to fight back, but I dont know whether that is atually the case.

Getting a platoon of panzergrenadiers (about 20 soldiers) to storm a village defended by about a 100 is a bit suicidal.

Any tips are welcome

Infantry in a built-up area can be tough to deal with, depending on how many weapon systems they have.
Knowing where they are and what they carry is a first step. Recon on the suspected area. If you have recon assets, use them to locate the enemy, then use artillery to thin them out and reduce their readiness (even without kills, dropping readiness impacts their combat abilities). If you are short on recon units, send in a small unit to do recon by fire. Lay smoke to cover the initial approach so the ad-hoc recon can get closer and "find" more of the enemy. Having your recon unit directly supported by your artillery will speed up the response time for fire missions. Once you have found most of the enemy and pounded them with artillery, launch your assault along an axis of attack that hits the flank or weak point of the defenders' location. Also use a covered approach, if possible, during the assault. Concentrate firepower in local areas and work your way through the enemy. Suppress known enemies around the area with your artillery to keep them under duress while you hit the other defensive location on your way in.

Hopefully, some of this helps.

You have to wonder how the second tier WP infantry can stay so well hidden with so many vehicles even at a kilometre or less to even the Fuchs reconnaissance teams, but that is what infantry is great at. The other WP units will expose themselves with long range fire, but the infantry don't have long range AT weaponry to cause them to do so.

I learned to overcome the massacre of my recce, infantry and most horrible of all armour going into lone, "empty", built up hexes by using artillery liberally. Alternatively, you can bypass the towns and presumably dismounted infantry will be fired on, but if they are victory hexes, eventually you will have to take them. With scenarios with air power, you can use aircraft repeatedly as scouts, you can also risk helicopters by overflying a hex, but it is very risky.

Artillery is the best option, expect victory objectives to be held, and shelling will make short work of second echelon troops. Give them a pasting and then send in the infantry to mop up. Also, you don't have to fire your rocket artillery in one big burst, you can be very selective in how you deliver these munitions. You will most likely have to move them forward though, with their shorter ranges and area saturation is best used against high level HQs or off board artillery that may have scooted between the time of detection and the fire mission.

Don't worry, in forty years your PBI get handheld drones to take the risk.

Also, after you start breaking into a defence, the enemy will often need to manoeuvre and become easier to detect. Once infantry is dug-in or far worse fortified rather than in cover, they become a tedious irritant to locate. So predicting where a good place for the enemy to be is definitely a skill to develop.