Fighting through Fortified Positions

[Ricky B]

I wrote this 14 years ago! It was posted in another part of the Blitz, but I believe is now gone after 2-3 site upgrades. But the other recent contributions made me think to add it back in.
Rick.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               ASSAULT ON A FORTIFIED POSITION

Strategy Guide

 

Assaulting fortified positions in the PzC and MC series games, where they are present, can be a difficult, slow and bloody affair that can make the difference in some scenarios between success and failure in the overall results of the game.  The earlier games have relatively minor fortifications, but some of the more recent releases, especially Kursk, Rzhev ’42 and Korea ‘85, have much heavier fortifications to penetrate in some scenarios.  Experience, especially in play against another person rather than the AI, is the best teaching tool for this, along with many other aspects of the games.  However, here are some tips for attacking and penetrating a fortified position for those players having difficulty with this part of the games.
 
The article will concentrate on penetrating heavy defensive positions with minefields in front and BUNKERS/TRENCHES for the defensive forces, but also covers weaker positions.
 
Planning the attack
 
You must develop some kind of plan for attacking the defensive line before just blindly attacking.  As a rule, you cannot just move forward all along the line or losses will be horrendous.  You must plan where you want to penetrate defensive minefields, especially when your number of mine removal engineers is limited.  Trying to penetrate everywhere is normally not necessary and can lead to higher losses to enemy fire.
 
In determining where to penetrate the minefields, there are a number of things to look at. 
 

1. Minefield density, and consistency of the density (are there weak spots?).
   
2. Defending fortifications – bunker vs. trench locations.
   
3. Terrain, both for the minefields themselves and for the defending fortifications.
   
4. Visibility to the enemy forces, to allow artillery preparations to be placed on them.
   
5. Bulges in the enemy lines.
   

These pieces of information all fit together to make the big picture.  Being able to see the enemy defenders can be critical, as being able to see them means you can hit them with artillery fire.  Normally, weaker minefields are the best location, but if the defending fortifications are heavier, then you must consider alternative locations also.  Bunkers are very difficult to hurt, especially if in terrain that boosts the defensive value further, and should be avoided if there are sectors defended only with trenches.  For heavy minefields (strength of 3 for example), choosing to penetrate in terrain that will provide protection to the mine removal engineers can be a benefit, even though it may slow down the attack forces.  But weak minefields of strength 1 in clear terrain can be moved through by regular forces with fairly light losses.  This can allow the defenders, if disrupted, to be assaulted immediately, limiting defensive fires to opportunity fire only.  This can lead to a quick breakthrough of the enemy lines.  And bulges allow enemy forces to be more easily isolated, which means they will then be destroyed relatively easily.

General Tactics
 
Isolation can be critical in achieving a breakthrough.  It lowers the enemy morale by 1 level directly, and the defenders will automatically go low ammo after firing, dropping their morale another level.  This will greatly improve the odds of a disruption from losses to either fire or assault, and once a unit disrupts, it is normally only a short time to total destruction of the unit.  Also, assaulting even a good order defender that is isolated and low on ammo generally results in lower attacker losses than assaulting an unisolated defender.
 
Avoid moving non-mine removal engineer units into level 3 minefields in most cases.  Losses will be much higher than in level 1 minefields.  However, the specific situation, including a chance to isolate defenders or to take advantage of assaulting the defending units behind the minefield before the defender can move reserves up, can make this a good option in the right situation.
 
Generally, concentrate the attack on trenches rather than bunkers, or even worse, pillboxes.  But the stronger positions like bunkers and pillboxes can be good targets if they can be isolated fairly easily, say in a bulge exposed on 4 sides.
 
Elevation differences can make or break an attack.  Entrenchments that are at a higher elevation than the attacker are less susceptible to losses from direct fire.  In one series of game play against heavy defenses, TRENCH's in forest hexes, total modifier of (-70%), were nearly invulnerable to direct fire from adjacent units at lower elevation, but when fired at from the same or higher elevation by similar attacking units, these same fortified units fairly more consistently lost men and disrupted more quickly.
 
Armor units can often move into weaker minefields without loss, but they are not very good at clearing out good order defenders by assault.  They are best used to penetrate the flanks of a defensive position, or using direct fire on the defenders of bunkers, where they can use their normally high hard attack factor to cause losses or disruption.
 
If you attack a point and find it more heavily defended than expected, you can pull back and try another location.  Losses will mount quickly if you attack the stronger positions.
 
Finally, it is almost always faster, and only slightly more costly in terms of casualties, to assault isolated enemy units in bunkers while preventing retreat through ZOCs.  Some players feel that it is better to push the unit out of the bunker through assaults and then prevent retreats to finish destroying the unit (a defending unit that is assaulted, is disrupted and at least one attacking unit is not disrupted “loses” the assault and must retreat or it loses half its remaining strength in lieu of retreating).  But this takes more time and the unit will not retreat unless it is disrupted, and if disrupted it will lose half its remaining strength if it can’t retreat anyway, so normally it is better to assault the defensive unit in the bunker and destroy half the unit than to push it out and waste the assault.  Also, any defensive unit that “loses” the assault will have its defensive positions reduced to the lower case strength of the position if it is still a full strength, all capitals, position, thus lowering the benefit of bunkers anyway.

EXAMPLES
 
1.  Assault on heavy fortifications, rough/wooded terrain.
 
Minefields: Density 3 throughout.
Terrain: Forests, hills, low visibility.
Fortifications: Mix of bunkers/pillboxes and trenches.
   
Moving units into level 3 minefields is a recipe for heavy losses, if not disaster.  This situation requires patience on the part of the attacker, and concentration on the best locations to penetrate the enemy lines.  Limit the number of attacks to important areas to so that support weapons can be concentrated on a few sectors.
 
In this case, try to identify defending positions in clear terrain and trenches, with the mines in forested areas, if some enemy units are visible.  In particular, defending positions lower in elevation than the minefields you can move into are even more susceptible to fire from the attacking units.  Concentrate artillery fire on the defending units, move mine-removal engineers into the mines.  Do not move in other units until the mines are removed or lowered to level 1, if at all possible.
 
As the mines are removed and defenders disrupted, concentrate your attacks on those locations.  If you are making multiple attacks in a fairly small area, you should probably stop some of the other attacks to lower casualties and provide the strength to open up successful ones.
 
In the example below, the defensive minefields are level 3, with a mix of bunkers and trenches for the defender.  The best position to attack would be the circled location near the center of the picture.  This minefield is in a forest, providing some protection to the engineers removing the mines.  Also, the defender is in a trench in open terrain.  A second attack can be launched through the minefields to the left that are indicated, although it will be through open terrain, meaning the engineers will take heavier losses.  But these 2 attacks will open up the defensive positions and help isolate the bunker position in between them, allowing it to be attacked with a better chance for success.

2.  Assault on medium fortifications, rough/wooded terrain.
 
Minefields: Density 1-2 throughout.
Terrain: Forests, hills, low visibility.
Fortifications: Mix of bunkers/pillboxes and trenches.
   
Weaker minefields like this can be moved into without suffering too heavy of losses in most cases.  More locations to attack should be selected, assuming there are enough units available, to spread out the defender’s reserves that may respond.
 
In this case, identify locations where your units can reach the defending positions through open terrain, without streams slowing down your movement, allowing an assault to be carried out in the same turn, unless the weather is bad limiting movement in all cases.  Best are defending positions in open terrain with minefields also in open terrain.  Fire artillery at the best locations for an attack until the defender disrupts, if possible, then shift further fire to other locations that are also good candidates. 
 
When the defender is disrupted, move combat units into the adjacent minefields, taking the losses, and assault the defenders.  This will allow the units to have an excellent chance of pushing the defenders out of the entrenchments.  It is important in this situation to follow up with engineers to remove the mines, or the attacking units may be isolated unless other units move into the minefield.
 
Generally, do not move units into the minefields if the defenders are still in good order, especially when the defender is in a bunker.  However, you may want to do this to isolate the enemy, or to bring direct fire onto defending units in trenches.  Also, if the enemy units are weak, a quick attack can be a good idea, even without disruption.
 
In the situation pictured below, successful attacks on the three marked hexes will result in isolating 2 defensive positions and quickly open a hole that is 7 or more hexes wide.

3.  Assault on light fortifications, rough/wooded terrain.
 
 
Minefields: Density 1 throughout.
Terrain: Forests, hills, low visibility.
Fortifications: Trenches.
     
Weak minefields such as these can be entered as needed to penetrate the defensive lines as quickly as possible.  Artillery fire should be massed as needed to disrupt the defenders of the best penetration site, then shifted to other sites to maximize enemy disruption and speed the penetration.
 
Engineers should be saved to remove mines after the defenders are pushed back or eliminated, or moved into heavy defensive terrain to protect them as they remove mines.  Meanwhile, the attacking troops should move forward and assault where possible, when the defender of a position is disrupted.  This can allow engineers to remove mines while not under direct fire.  Even if the defender is not disrupted, the attacking forces can move into the minefields to place direct fire on the defenders to speed the process of disrupting them, if needed.
 
In the below situation (from Korea ’85), the engineers and weak recon forces are near the defensive minefields, while the main forces are further back.  To speed the attack, the engineer unit can move into the marked minefield (in a forest hex) to begin the process of removing the mines on the road while the main forces move up.  The recon unit could attack through the minefields also, but probably only if the defenders of one of the nearby hexes are disrupted.  Generally, in situations like this time is of the essence before the defender brings up reserves, unlike in attacking heavier fortifications where a hasty attack will usually hurt in the long run.

These are just general guidelines to help develop a plan of attack.  Use your judgement, and as you gain experience, you will be able to develop your own strategy for these important operations.

Rick Bancroft