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timc -> (2/13/2001 2:41:00 AM)
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I just completed a long campaign as a German and have some advice to add about assaults against the AI. Overriding principles to breaching minefields are: YOU HAVE TO BE METHODICAL and YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT.
Phase I - Force Purchase
1. Buy all of the large-caliber off-board artillery the traffic will bear. 3-6 battalions of 150mm is a good number.
2. Buy 2-3 platoons of engineers in addition to your core force.
Mechanized engineers get there faster BUT if you leave the halftracks near the breach they will draw fire.
3. Against Americans or British from 1942 on, buy 3-6 platoons of AA guns. I found the towed 37mm worked best.
Phase 2 - Deployment
1. The AI (as already pointed out) ALWAYS purchases an obscene amount of mines and places them in a row from North to South. There is often a double row of minefield hexes. The minefield always starts in the AI's deployment line or 1-2 hexes back. There is a continuous line of infantry positions and fortifications immediately behind the minefield. This knowledge provides you with an enormous advantage that you don't have
against a human opponent.
2. Pick the area you want to breach. For a battalion+ assault I used breaches 3-5 hexes wide. Assaulting all along the front is asking for trouble. An assault is a dagger, not a club.
3. Position your forces so that the breach force (I always used at least a company of engineers) goes in first, then the support force (minimum number of tanks, assault guns or SP artillery, more on why minimum
later.) The exploitation force (basically all your infantry and tanks)stays put in their initial positions. Keep them away from the breach until it's almost practical.
4. Plot your initial artillery prep on and around your breach area. There is no such thing as too much artillery for the preparation. The purpose of the prep is threefold:
a. To destroy or suppress the close-in defending units.
b. To expose mines (you don't need to use recon units)
c. To create smoke and dust obscuring the breach area from flank and supporting units. I found that most of the time I didn't have to use smoke missions. Enough HE works a treat.
Phase 3- Execution
1. First thing on Turn 1, repeat your artillery prep. This gives you fire on the same turn. If possible, reat again on the next turn.
2. Move your engineers forward. You may want to move them slowly to give your artillery more time to work. The support force moves either behind the breach force at a distance of 2-3 hexes or on the flank.
3. Move the engineers (dismounted) onto the minefield hexes. One platoon minimum per hex. since the AI uses 10-20 mines per hex, it will take a full platoon of engineers 3-4 turns to clear a hex if the engineers remain
unsuppressed. If they take constant suppression, they may never get done.
4. As your engineers near the breach, shift your artillery well away from the breach area. I lost more time from friendly artillery suppression than from any other cause. Firing smoke on the breach hexes is a good idea at this time.
5. Notice if the hex directly in front of each of your breach hexes is a
fortification. If it is, that's the end of the minefield. If it isn't, there is probably another minefield hex there. Once your engineer platoons clear a hex, move them forward to clear the next hex or laterally to assist other platoons.
6. Against the Americans and British (I never fought the Russians in that campaign) it is CRITICAL to keep your vehicles and heavy weapons away from the breach area. This includes the halftracks that delivered the engineers. The reason is that vehicles attract airstrikes and one bomb load from a B-26 can vaporize an engineer company (Let's not even talk about the verdamnt B-17s). I've found it's useful to give the AI something else to target with airstrikes, like a couple of Tigers on a ridgeline in plain site. When he sends airstrikes against them, they run into your carefully planned AA sites along the flight corridor. Watch how the AI runs airstrikes and plan accordingly.
7. Once a corridor gets clear (an unmined path into the enemy fortifications) start feeding your exploitation force carefully through. Don't get in a hurry and don't assume all the enemy is dead just because you can't see them.
8. Watch your flanks. As the dust from the bombardment settles, your breaching force will become more visible and start taking fire from previously suppressed units. Keep good spotting units in position to observe enemy defensive positions and call artillery on them.
Hope this helps. It worked for me. I found that the most difficult assaults were as an American against the Italians with their horrid 305mm naval guns. I lost two entire engineer companies in about three turns against them. I just can't wait to go against the Soviet artillery.
TimC
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