Infantry Close Assault

[Zemke]

One of my favorite things to do in Combat Mission is close assault. This is the moment when you actually send in your boys to kill those die hards who won't break from direct fire or you just plan don't want them getting away. You have to get close, 25 meters or less to finish them. The perfect time to order an Infantry assault is when you have the defenders pinned or suppressed, ideally from more than one direction, which I call forming the V. I like to have at least 2-1 odds going in on the final assault but that can vary depending on the situation. 1 to 1 will work if your supporting fires or suppressing fires in fact have the enemy suppressed. Your assault element are your killers. They will be the ones who literally wade into the enemy and kill him with rifle butt, SMG fire, hand grenade, knife and my favorite the entrenching tool!! (For all you people into gore the game does not show the actual close combat.)

Let's say you are trying to take a stand of trees that has an OBJ Flag. You think there is an enemy platoon (+), from all indications. For you to get close they need to all be suppressed, so you need to pour on the fire on all his positions from two directions. Which means you are going to need at least a company of infantry to do this. Hmmm thats 3-1 odds right there. Frankly only an Infantry Company may be cutting it thin. What is even better is some artillery and mortars and heavy direct fire. This will save a lot of lives. As you start to see your suppressing fires having the desired effect you need to move in your assaulting elements, which at a minimum is a platoon, but I like to use two when I can. I send in the assault element through a smoke screen if possible. I chose an to enter the tree stand at an area I know is suppressed for sure. You have to gain a foothold in the trees. I start by using the move or run order, then at about 20-30 meters from the trees switch to advance. Once in the trees you should have two elements, a suppression element and a assault element. Rest a turn or two before moving in for the kill if possible. But many times the assault will start as soon as you enter the trees, because the of some enemy you did see or was not suppressed adequately. Once you have a foothold, "Close Suppression Element" provides suppression while you send in the "Close Assault" Element, the real killers. If done right this part usually happens real fast. In most cases the enemy will be destroyed in one turn.

The down side to all this is, good defenders seldom have lone platoon positions that can be isolated, so what you have are mutually supporting positions, and all supporting positions that can provide direct fire support for the platoon you want to assault have to be either suppressed, or obscured.

I hope this helps.