Soviet Human Wave

[JasonC]

I regularly use Human Wave successfully in CMBB as the Russians, for green troops in particular. I also use it with conscripts, but those are "touchy" at all times, and I prefer using them in a second wave. They do work when properly directed but have workable counters (artillery fire especially).

The first thing to understand is that the existence of a Human Wave order in the movement menu does not mean the laws of tactics have been repealed. Movement never takes ground. Fire takes ground. Fire is not used to prepare movement as the supposedly decisive action. Just the reverse - movement is often needed, particularly by infantry with its high firepower but short range and ammo "wind", to prepare effective fire.

This means, immediately, that any idea of putting the end waypoints of your Human Wave directly on top of living defenders, should be blasted out of your imagination with dynamite. That is not what the thing is for. You don't attack with regulars by doing a group select - Run order straight onto the defenders at minute one.

The endpoint of a Human Wave order should be an unoccupied body of cover within good small arms range of the enemy you intend to attack. The size of the Human Wave formation should be a platoon minimum, and a full company minimum most be employed in the overall attack on the enemy you are approaching. Do not overload the available cover - one squad per tile maximum.

When a platoon or more Human Waves for the next empty body of cover ahead of your formation, the rest of the company has to be ready themselves, and either in cover and in range to fire, or themselves moving (on Move or Human Wave, or Advance for fresh greens in command and moving over open ground) to fill the front edge of bodies of cover that can do so.

The point of a Human Wave is present the defender with a fire discipline dilemma - either he allows infantry to accumulate in cover near him, or he reveals multiple shooters to break up their approach. Even if he picks the latter, some may make it to the targeted cover and occupy it - though usually in a poor morale state. Everyone farther back then replies by fire on the revealed shooters, including overwatch heavy weapons and the balance of the company. When infantry fire is used it is massed - a full platoon at each defender, minimum, for 1-2 minutes.

Then the operation is repeated and the ratchet moves closer. The defender has fewer live good order shooters left because of reply fire after the last wave. He deplete his ammo for units farther away that survive reply fire. Attackers accumulate in cover closer to his positions. The rear elements of the attacking column fill cover farther from the forward Human Waves, as the latter draw the defense's available fire.

The operative part of the wave idea, if you do look at any beach, is emphatically not that a single one wipes away everything in its path at one go. That would be a steamroller. Waves break, but the next one comes a few seconds later (in CMBB, 3-5 minutes later). And they wear the defense down.

A successful wave attack by a low quality infantry battalion takes up to 20 minutes to deliver correctly, and may involve half a dozen individual Human Wave orders, of varying scale. The damage is done between them by all the outgoing fire of the battalion. The waves get the infantry close enough for its fire to tell, and "trade through" the defenders by each exposing a new set of defending shooters.