Tips from the Frontline

[RNL Tiger]

Initial Engagement

The initial engagement starts as expected and POS notes: “In CM a lot of fun comes from trying to guess and second-guess the enemy, or as Master Po would say - "Expect the unexpected, grasshopper". The shootout should show that PzIV-longs are easily capable of taking out T-34/85's, you don't need Tigers to do it.”

The downside to the engagement is that my tank caught fire and blocked LOS for the others! That was the first time that has happened to me; unfortunately it left my front three at a serious numerical disadvantage giving POS the spoils of war. I asked how long does the tank burn for?


[See this thread: https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=43182]

“They burn for ever in cmbb. Thats a disadvantage of line astern, a burner might block the rest. That’s why mine are in two line astern columns down both sides of the road, so a burner would only block his column. PS - burners in cmbb always block LOS, but burners in cmak sometimes only belch thin smoke which doesn't block LOS so be careful in cmak… In some circumstances a burner can be a good thing, because he provides an instant 'smoke screen' to shield his mates behind him from a superior force, but in your case it worked against you because the mighty Stalins couldn't see through the smoke and were excluded from the battle. Chalk up one piece of good luck for me.”

It's worthwhile analysing the early shootout, I pitted my 11 tanks against your 8 (good odds for me) yet when the dust settled I'd lost 3 and you've lost only 4! That's exactly what we'd expect because even though I had numerical superiority, your T-34/85's are a better tank than my IV-longs at that longish range because many of my 75mm shots lost velocity and were ricocheting off the T-34's superior armour, while a hit on my Pz IV's by your heavier 85mm shots went through them like butter. However it was a slightly longer than normal range ~1000m, and at closer ranges less of the IV's shots will ricochet.”

I had rather hoped it would be 4-3 the other way, especially with the IS-2 at ~1000m but that smoke really interfered badly! I lost three immediately and it was also a shame that I lost another one for the total of 4 when trying to extract my remaining tanks but that was really impatience as I could have gone straight backwards to where my IS-2s were but I came out via the side as I thought they would still be out of LOS, big mistake.

I had thought about just leaving the IS-2s there for the initial shootout but I guessed that facing 10 tanks that the crews would probably bail out just because they were being pinged so much.

“Yes, a hail of pinging would soon result in immobilisations and/or damaged guns followed by the crew ejecting even if my 75mm's couldn't actually penetrate. TIP - that's the way to take out pillboxes and bunkers too, just pepper them with a hail of shots (even small-cal will do) and sooner or later the shots will begin flying through the slit, and slits have zero armour..:)

HEY you missed out on an important option - you could have area fired your Stals down the road into the area near the flak gun, the terrific 122mm blast would not only have sent the gun to Valhalla but would quite possibly have immobd a Pz IV or two, or taken off commanders heads even though the Stals couldn't see the IV's. It's a much-used tactic in CM”

Actually that never even occurred to me - area fire - but wouldn't that result in the use of HE rather than AP? “Yes, ALL area-fire is automatically HE but that's what you want anyway, so that the blast will affect enemy units near the impact point. An armour-piercing shell only carries a tiny amount of HE (if any) and wouldn't hurt a fly. Here's a thread showing how area-firing into the ground (in the second pic) can be devastating. https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=39906”

PS - did you notice my baby 20mm flak gun engaging your Stalins, it fires in bursts of several 20mm shot rat a tat/ rat a tat...I knew it couldn't hurt the Stalins but at least it made the commander button. :)

I only got a vague gun contact. “You can area-fire at vague contacts, they still die, vague or not.”

Actually, there was one other idea that I had, thinking about it in retrospect. What if I had placed the IS-2 in front rather than behind in over-watch? Would you expect that to have made a material difference? “Now you mention it, I think I'd have put the Stalins at the front of your column because they had the best armour. I did that with one of my columns, putting a Hetzer at the front of one of them because its armour is better than the IV's, and I hoped it take (and shrug off) the brunt of your fire, but in the event your boys ignored it and went for the soft IV's, thereby out-thinking me.”

On a slightly separate note I had a question about setting cover arcs when tanks are moving. “The gun stays pointing where you pointed it, even if the tank twists and turns. For example if you point it southwest it will stay pointing southwest. Bit like a compass needle, it always points north no matter how the boat or plane keeps changing its heading.”

So, the initial engagement is over and POS can rightfully think he won that tank battle. I have emerged from it scathed and beaten but still with half of my armour force in tact, so I am not down and out. However, the numerical disadvantage in tanks will now be a feature of the tactics but I am by no means finished yet. The key question is what to do next…I need to hit back and claim some armour kills or get to and retain the flags.