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TheChin -> RE: alternative at-weapons? (6/23/2004 7:29:59 PM)
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In my extremely painful, but challenging British campaign I've found that my 25 pounder guns make excellent backup AT emplacements. In my current battle, I'm up against German IIIj's and all my tanks, including the couple Sherman III's I've been able to scrounge, are horribly outclassed. Since it's a meeting engagement I knew that a head on slug fest over the middle 3 clusters (typical cross arrangement) was out of the question. So I moved my ragtag Tank force to reserves behind a hill and heavily fortified the group of hexes that start on my side of the deploy line. Instead of placing my 25 pounders behind a hill and using them for fast arty support, I set them up in a wedge behind my v-hexes and set up an infantry company in front of the hexes. I also had some support 6 pounders set up in front of the 25's and a couple 2 pounder ATG's from my core force, though they can take out halftracks, they are largely ignored by the IIIj's.
I started smoking the area few hexes away from my forward infantry for about a 15 hex length, using mostly 3 inch mortors and the 25's. I kept that up from deployment bombardment up until the first German halftrack emerged form the smoke and then I switched to suppressive fire from the mortors and direct for the 25's. For the first time I can remember, my Boys AT rifles actually made a difference, they seemed to be handling the halftracks nicely while the 25's and ATG's pounded on the IIIj's when they arrived. What was great about the 25's is that not only did they flatten the IIIj's at a pretty good clip, they also heavily suppressed the dismounted infantry (from the destroyed halftracks) that the tanks were in the same hex as, making them easy kills for my Infantry and my Vickers MG's.
True, I took some pretty nasty casualties from the 150mm arty the German's brought down on my concentrated troops, I outlasted the attack. I also lost my Hq to a freak airstrike (see note at bottom). Ater the German armor was neutralized (which I used scouts with 0-range fire to see behind my smoke screen, I had moved them up when the Germans where taking all the victory hexes I was ignoring, they stayed hidden in rough terrain while the entire German attack force drove right over them whithout a clue) I sent my tanks in to clean up the German Infantry guarding the other victory hexes and to root out the pesky 81mm mortors that almost demoralised my dug-in defenders. I haven't finished the battle, but I'm soon to.
How I lost my Hq: I had them behind a hill, one hex away from their command car just a few hexes from my Infantry. BIG mistake. A Heinchel came flying in to attack the car and the splash damage decimated my squad to the point that they decided to disperse. Ugh, that's an expensive lesson. Luckily I had taken out the German HQ earlier, when some of my rear-area muarading Stuarts had stumbled across it. Unfortunately for the brave Stuart platoon, a couple IIIj's took note of their shenanigans and took them out at a comfortable 20 hexes or so. Some of the crews survived to fight another day though, and my core force sure can use the experience. I've rambled on too long.
Anyway, the 25 pounder seems to be a nice AT alternative [:)]
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