Little Tactical Problem ** SPOILER KC Major Bake **

[fluidwill]

Okay, first off this thread will contain a fairly major spoiler for HSG KC Major Bake H2H so if you ever want to play it blind READ NO FURTHER.

Secondly I'm new to the whole screenie thing so they may be a bit pants, bare with me and any advice gratefully received.

Now, in a recent game I came across the following little problem which struck me as interesting for a number of reasons.
I'll give you the situation, lay out the problem, invite discussion and in a couple of days I'll post up my solution and the (fairly comical) results.
I should stress that there are no right answers and indeed I'm not sure mine was right as such so chip in if you have any ideas.

[fluidwill]

Weather is heavy fog, dawn so max visibility is down.

Late in the game a PzIV pops out of the fog and systematically routs one of my two platoons guarding the flag. This leaves me with a platoon of green (2x green, 2x conscript with a regular leader) rifle squads with which to assault and kill a PzIV.
On our side we have the fog, I'm fairly certain he hasn't seen the platoon (too busy shooting up the other platoon) and just off camera I have an ATR who is pumping rounds in from 80 odd metres. A quick check of the tables shows he may even get a penetration but either way the crew is buttoned and distracted.
The whole platoon is in command and rested.
On the other side of the coin i dont have any time, its turn 22 of 20+ so sneaking is out of the question.
The only forces available are those mentioned, i have tanks etc but they are too far away to affect the issue.
I liked this because it occured to me that the QB hounds with their forces of hand picked veterans never get to deal with stuff like this and it sums up in a nutshell why I prefer scens to QBs.
I spent one of my happiest CM hours pondering this one, over to you.
The good platoon is on the right, the routed platoon on the left.
If you have any Q's or want more info, ask away.

[Der Kuenstler]

At this point I would just hide everybody and do nothing - if you try to sneak the green platoon forward they will probably be spotted and blown away - thus giving him the flag. Right now you can just stay there and it will at least be neutral, if it is a full squad.

[PoorOldSpike]

According to the score the Germans are going to get a minor win 54-41, so the Russians must do something (unless they want to gamble that the score is wrong and that it'll end in a draw).
I'd therefore cancel any cover-arc and sneak the foremost Russ squad straight towards the panzer, and with any luck he'll start throwing grenades when he gets within 40 metres, even while he's still sneaking. And he's in cover (brush?) which will help him stay unspotted)
In fact he already looks to be about 40m now, so I'd order him to target the tank and give him the sneak order at the same time.
Like I said, the Russkis will lose if they don't do something, so they've got no choice but to try..:)
"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do"..

PS - I'd also start some other squads sneaking towards the flag to increase their chance of capturing it because the closer you are to flags at the end, the more chance there is that the computer will award it to you.

[fluidwill]

It is a full squad.

I started from the assumption that capturing the flag (killing the tank)would win me the game which was otherwise a draw. I must say I was also of the opinion that enough of my troops were near the flag that it would remain neutral almost regardless of my actions.
[/i]
I didnt kill the tank and I lost the game (on the flags, casualties were about equal) so I'm not selling a doctrine.

It was a morale victory though because I made a rediculously complicated plan which nearly worked except that inevitably it got a bit Laurel and Hardy and ultimately failed. I enjoyed myself immensely.

[fluidwill]

My solution (drum roll)

I decided that the greenie nearest would be the trigger man and the rest of the platoon would run about in front and cause a distraction. To this end he sneaks to the edge of the brush and hopefully does a short advance to a promising shellhole.

The conscripts got human wave orders mostly for the morale boost and its the only way to get conscripts to go forwards under fire. That (morale considerations) is also why the furthest greenie got assault rather than advance orders. The HQ gets a hide order after his advance sideways, I would have left him where he was but i wanted everyone to stay in command, especially when they got near the tank. Morale again.

Stay tuned for the action.....

[fluidwill]

Here's what happened:

Everything works like a dream, the tank decides the ATR who is dutifully ricocheting tungsten off the tanks sides is the biggest threat and turns to show him the error of his ways. The trigger squad heroically attacks the tank with a molotov cocktail (*we'll come back to this*)
Unfortunately they give the molotov to super man to throw and he's so excited he heaves it 80m down range!

Now I dont like to criticise my little pixel soldiers too much and I definately wouldn't want to attack a tank armed only with a bottle of burning petrol but thats some miss! Watching it live had that feeling of eerie unreality all the best nightmares give you and then I saw the funny side, anyone seen a molotov thrown further than that? can I claim the record?
Analysis next.

[fluidwill]

With respect to DK and POS (and I have to give respect to DK he's fresh from stomping me in a QB and POS, well, his medals speak for themselves really don't they?) I think we can say that doing nothing and sneaking represent percentage play and the problem as set was "how to" assault a PzIV not "do you think its a good idea".

It therefore gives me great pleasure to publish the following which I received privately, the author is shy and has requested anonynimity though he obviously has a great CM future ahead of him. Thank you anonymous caller.

"1) under command and morale check, human wave with the conscripts and greens at the back (effectively ridding you of morale checks, making those troops only subject to reduction) and distracting the tank... while buttoned, the tank will focus on the wave attack if it is unleased first, so make sure you pause (if you have to) the green squad at the front to follow after the wave has started.

2) split the green squad and assault with both after the wave has launched. This also splits the grenade/MC load, ensuring that one of the split squad has grenades and no MC's (if the squad has MC first). The squad that has the MC will stay behind to guard the flag and keep it neutral no matter what happens."

The point 2) improves on my solution and is a TIP worthy of note, close assault (the grenade throw) is way more effective antitank than a molotov. I missed this though I was aware of the tactic and its validity because I habitually dont split my squads (morale again). An error on my part, next time i will do better.

Finally, in the final screenie there is information that had I picked up on it in game (and it was there) would have won me the game outright without any need to fart about with molotov cocktails at all.
If you are a truly elite CM player you will have picked up on it immediately, if not look again.
I didn't and I'm not though i did pick up on it when I looked round the map after the game ended so maybe ther's hope for me yet.
....when i finish kicking myself and move on....:rolleyes:

[fluidwill]

** SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER **






The tank has no main gun ammo. I still haven't read the german briefing so I dont know if they represent training tanks or HQ tanks but my opponent (the wiley Herr Oberst) had from about midgame four tanks left none of whom had any main gun ammo.
I had loads of T34's left and could have kicked him all over the map. I had been losing tanks at about a 3-1 ratio up to that point though and as such was understandably cautious.

USE ALL THE INFORMATION AT YOUR DISPOSAL

That's all folks.

[herroberst]

Yeah, the story is its a depot for repairing tanks and there was only so much ammunition. About eight tanks had no main gun ammo but they had machinegun ammo. Originally I was going to not use them as they are Crack and Vet and worth lots of points but your swarm tactics and my mistakes that led to tank and infantry losses led me to try and bluff you with them. First mistake was on the left flank when I ran into your light tank horde... I had meant to have stopped my tank a turn before they engaged but overlooked that. I also did not expect infantry hordes late in the game and had little in the way to stop them other than the machine gun armed tanks. Fun game, you did well I thought in moving the conscripts around in hordes.