What "Leto's Learned Lately" Thread

[Copper]

There is an old axiom in Combat Mission that clearly states: "lose your armour and you lose the game".

So how do Soviet and Yank players ever win against a superior German kit of armour picks?

I've learned that notwithstanding any side that you play, axis or allied, the key to winning is bifurcated between the above axiom, and a secondary little rule of thumb that I like to call "evasion".

So Leto, you big "think your so smart" arsehole of a veteran... get to the point. Not that I'll listen to you because I think your a pretentious bag of wind... (but I'll read on anyways... ahem).

The points are these:

1) never reveal your armour, or move it into an open area where it cannot retreat from unrevealed armour until you know the battlefield.

2) how do you get to know the battlefield? Advance your infantry... slowly.


Once your infantry make contact, keep them hidden as well as you can... don't worry about getting to the flags first. If the enemy has a superior tank force (if German, then he will have less than you as Allied), use numbers, speed and "evade" the enemy armour.

What you want is to begin using those 76 HE shells in your T-34 or M4 and begin pounding on his infantry. If the German tanks advance, retreat and find another avenue to pound those infantrymen into dust. It's almost like a chess match at times, having to think a few turns ahead and not let the enemy tanks catch you flatfooted in one turn where they can advance, fire upon and perhaps destroy your own armour.

To sum it all up: Infantry is the King of the battlefield. Never forget this. If your enemy wishes to come get your armour, it has to go through or near that line of your own infantry, and the accompanying AT guns (that you should have in abundance) and infantry AT weapons (that do not care how thick the armour of a tank is, especially when you're tossing a grenade bundle into the copula of a Panzer). The closer to your skirimish line he gets, the more vulnerable his tanks are... and the greater amounts of your units you can use to converge on and destroy his armour.

While your enemy tries his best to nail your tanks, you evade, destroy his infantry where you can, and then let your infantry do the final work.

It may not be a slam dunk win, maybe not even a win, perhaps just a draw... but I guarantee you... it's hard to lose when you play tactically smart (luck does turn the day sometimes though).

Here ends the lesson.

For those of you who are learning the game, good luck and I hope this helps... for those of you who are veterans (even the ones I'm playing), you already know this... it's just sticking to it that is hard.... and for those of you who believe that I am nothing but a pretentious self-aggrandizing board yawp and think that I post these threads because of ego related problems... go piss up a rope. You know who you are.

: )


Cheers!


Leto

[Grumlin]

I find it instructive from time to time to play without any tanks at all and not to tell my opponent. I am playing a 2500 pointer across a CMBB QB and I have taken NO tanks and NO AT guns. Plenty of infantry, handheld shrecks and the like. 120mm+arty as well.

Doing this really makes you learn how to take tanks down using cunning. ambushes, infantry rushes, even arty strikes. And once you master winning without tanks, when you go back to using tanks everything becomes easy.....

It also means that the enemy Anti-tank assets become worthless, and you have a lot of infsntry to throw around. 5 shrecks for one PIV means that you can end up with quite a lot of extra men to swamp his line with.

oh yeah - do not try this tactic in the desert.

G

[Copper]

Of course this pre-supposes that the German player will do exactly as you want and not use exactly the same tactic on you. As always its Scissors, Rock and Paper time when any game of CM commences.

[Copper]

Of course this pre-supposes that the German player will do exactly as you want and not use exactly the same tactic on you. As always its Scissors, Rock and Paper time when any game of CM commences.

If that is the case, then the german player will typically keep his armour back and be punching out your infantry as well. Then it becomes attritional, and as the Allies can mount a copious barrage of AFV HE, I'd take the allies.

Also realize that the Americans and British often have a great deal of smoke and this can be utilized very effectively by direct fire to nullify any advantages of the German armour as well. You can protect your infantry by smoking out the lines of attack of the Germans, protecting your AFV's as well. Then pound the hell out of the kraut infantry.

Thus having access to a lot of smoke in your kit choices, and having greater numbers of HE chuckers can have a huge impact on the rock paper scissors issues. Nevertheless, tactical theory based on this level can always succumb to rock, paper, scissor issues.

At the end of the day it boils down to the competence of the armchair commanders manuevering their forces. These tips are only there to enlighten those of the big picture.

Leto

[Copper]

I couldnt agree more and always find these discussions very interesting. I am merely being a Devils advocate. In your scenario the best thing the Germans can do is to create a mini-Kamfgruppe and push in on a flank, try to turn it, ignore the flags (turn them off if you cant) and concentrate the majority of your armour.

The old German adage is punch with the fist dont slap with the hand. Always remember also that all things being equall german Infantry will be much more effective, especially in the later war, against all Allied armour and most Allied Infantry.

[Mike Abberton]

In a QB where I am the Allies on the move, I'll usually have some HE support AFVs (Sherman 105s, Priests, or the like) and some AT AFVs (76mm Shermans or TD or if you're really lucky some 90mm TDs or Fireflys).

The HE AFVs will usually advance well behind the infantry line ready (within 2-3 turns) to move up and provide HE support to the infantry for suppression of MGs/mortars/etc. Infantry, artillery and the HE AFVs deal with enemy infantry, and mortars (especially those precious allied 60mm infantry mortars) to deal with AT guns and stubborn MGs. The HE AFVs try to stay out of sight as much as possible and shoot hull down when possible.

The AT AFVs start in some secluded and hidden part of the map, with very little LOS to the map (to guard against those early turn long range AT hits), but ideally the position has some good covered routes of advance to what look like good firing positions later in the game. If they are way out on their own, I usually give them some spotters to make sure they don't get ambushed. Then they just sit there until the first enemy tanks appear. Once that happens, they start to move towards good firing positions on the now exposed enemy tanks, hopefully lining up for flank shots.

Obviously this isn't close to fool-proof, as the other guys could be using additional tanks/SP guns to cover his firing tanks' flanks and what not. But I find it a good overall strategy.

[Abatis]

Great thread!

Glad I looked at it before I started cranking out the files tonite!

I feel more confident about some OOB decisions I made in a couple of QB's..

[Ratzki]

Something that I would add is to use the smallest amount of force required to get the job done, and do not use units for tasks that they are not intended for. Using more is a waste of assets and it allows the enemy to get good info on your force. Good recon is key, and along with your infantry, wasted enemy fire is good to use as well. You gotta stop your fire at excessive ranges, and fire that has no chance of harming the enemy, all this does is give away position and identification of your troops.