Saros posted:

If you have not read this do so right now it's crucial to understanding how to command in combat mission.

Combat Mission Boot Camp

The manual is available here. - it has some nice walkthroughs to help you understand whats going on.


Move orders



Most of these are fairly self explanatory - faster movement means less time to be shot at, but tires your men out - slow is the trap here, as it means crawling through the dirt on all fours - great for not being shot, but is actually the most tiring movement mode in the game!

Move orders are done by waypoints, so you can plot a good number of moves in advance if you want - pauses can be issued at any waypoint and go in five second increments and you can also issue target orders at the end of moevments.


Movement types

All sorts of movement reduce your spotting capabilities.

Fast = A flat out sprint - in combat situations you want to be using this to change location, 1-2 minutes will leave your men exhausted which will reduce their combat effectiveness.
Quick = A jog - Good for covering ground across multiple turns but in combat please use fast instead. Using for multiple minutes will exhaust your men especially in snow.
Move = Walking places - Good for moving long distances without tiring but suicide to use in combat. If you tell a squad to 'move' somewhere without specifying a speed Grey will probably use this and if they are shot at they will all die.
Slow = Crawling along the ground. Extremely tiring but good for moving short distances without exposing yourself. If you are being shot at and need to move a little bit to a better spot use this.
Hunt = Move forward while seeking the enemy and stop as soon as you see something. Use for slowing advancing through woods seeking combat and the like. No good for actualy combat as your men will immediately be interrupted by seeing someone.
Assault Noooooooo please don't use this. It basically splits a squad and tries to have your men use a bounding overwatch move up but the AI is uh, not very good at it.

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Fire orders.



Target - if you can see an enemy unit this order will tell them to focus fire on that unit.
Target area - The squad will fire at an area specified by you as well as shooting targets of opportunity that present themselves. Be specific with your target you have to set it to a single square. (combat mission maps are divided into 'squares' of terrain.) Best way to give this order is via a top down view with a red or otherwise line from your squad to the area/contact you want to fire on. Can be tacked on the end of a move order.
Target briefly - Same as above except you set a time e.g. 1 minute of fire onto X location.
Hide - This means your men will hit the dirt and not even attempt to fire back or spot. This should only be used for specific situations like last game when we were hiding in buildings from artillery. If used in a firefight it means you will lose because your men will not even try to fire back.

Again, fairly simple, Arc fire is another trap for the newer players, as it actually massively restricts your fire arc and range - it should only be used for ambushes or when you don't want your troops giving away their location by firing at something a kilometer away.

Area fire allows for firing at a location you suspect has a target, but cannot spot.

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Special Orders



Smoke - You throw some smoke grenades, good for providing a bit of extra cover.

Deploy - means set up a crew served weapon.

Blast - blow a hole in a wall or side of a building to create an access point.

Mount/Dismount - ride around in Trucks, Halftracks and on the back of tanks.



Unit splitting options. So you don't have to get your entire squad killed!

Split orders

Split = Halves the squad. For most of your squads this will split the unit into a 4 man MG/rifle team and a team with 2-3 rifles and 1-2 SMG/Semiauto. The split happens along the vertical lines between the men in the unit card.
Assault = Splits an assault team i.e. anyone with SMG/Semiauto off - because of the scarcity of them in small Panzergren squads usually a rifleman or two will end up in there as well.
Antitank Team = Splits off your Panzerfaust carrier with a buddy. Good for sneaking up on tanks.
Scout team = Splits off a two man scout team with rifles you can send ahead to scout die.

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Understanding screenshots.

A few important points. If you get a screenshot with your unit selected the individual parts in it will be the highlighted in a lighter color on their unit symbols. The interesting quirk here is that if you select a unit it will only show what that specific unit can see in terms of other units.

Reading unit Datacards.

Here is the infantry version.



1 - How tired a unit is, past 'tired' status you can no longer sprint and have reduced combat effectiveness.
2 - Morale. Taking fire and casualties will reduce your morale which reduces combat effectiness and how likely they are to cower under fire. Being near your HQ means you will recover morale faster but some damage is persistent so squads that lose morale will break easier in the future.
3 - Your command structure, red means there is a break in the Command chain as units are too far apart to communicate.
4 - Ammo count for the squad.
5 - The symbols mean you can both see and hear your direct HQ so are under full command. The triangle below them in teh 'pinned' meter - if it is full your squad will not be able to return fire.
6 & 7 - The halves of the squad. Yellow weapon symbol means a minor wound and yellow weapon with 'casualty' scrawled over it menas dead or incapaciated.
8 - HQ command link.
9 - HQ unit, you can see the fellow units in the platoon highlighted in a pale grey while other unit symbols are a darker grey. When you select a unit its other platoon members are highlighted like this.

Special equipment and symbols





Command and Control



By now you have probably begun to wonder just what the HQ units with flag icons are good for. These units contain your leaders. Usually, every section, platoon, company, and battalion possesses a HQ unit. Leaders fulfill two very important functions: they exert a leadership modifier on their subordinate units, and link units to the Command and Control (C2) network.

If you select your platoon leader, you will notice a "+1" next to his name in the unit information panel (1). This means that he exerts a positive leadership bonus on all units under his command. The details of what this bonus entails are intentionally murky, but the gist is that units under his command will perform their jobs better than units under the command of a leader without a bonus. In order for a leader to exert his influence over his subordinate units, he must have command of them. A leader must be within visual signaling or shouting distance of the unit he is seeking to influence. This is usually about 50 meters but will vary dramatically with the terrain; the more dense the terrain, the closer your HQ unit must be to have command of his troops. Note that most armored fighting vehicles use radios to stay in command and don't need to stay within a short distance of each other.

In the lower left corner of the Unit Info Panel you will see what organizational C2 levels the unit is linked to, and whether they are currently connected to them. A green dot means that they are connected, and a red dot means that they are not. If they are connected, then information and leadership bonuses can be shared. How efficiently this sharing happens depends on the type of C2 established. This is very important as units will pass on spotting info as well as pull down leadership bonuses from higher levels as long as they stay linked in the C2 network.

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Grenadiers

A Grenadier platoon consists of three squads of 8 men plus a HQ unit with four. The squads have the following weapons/roles.
-1 Light machine gunner (MG34 or 42)
-6-7 Men with bolt action rifles, one of these will be the gunners assistant.
-1-2 men with SMG's or Semiauto rifles. The leader always has one.
-Mayyybbe if you are lucky a sharpshooter with a scoped bolt action rifle.
-Usually 1-2 men with have a Panzerfaust which is a very short ranged single shot anti-tank rocket.

Basically all your firepower is provided by the light machinegun (LMG). It does not need time or specific orders to deploy like the heavier machineguns but there is a small innate setup time after a move (5-10 seconds afaik).

Using German Panzergrenadier squads effectively.

Compared to an american squad you are outnumbered and on an individual level outgunned by their Semi-auto Garand's against your bolt action rifles. However US squads do not have a decent LMG only BAR rifles. Essentially your squad exists to support and be ablative armor for your light machinegun (LMG.) Getting in close range firefights with American riflemen is a losing proposition but even there you can leverage your amazing LMG to suppress them via target area orders to keep their heads down.


Suppression

The key to winning an infantry vs infantry fight is suppression and morale. There is a little pyramid on squads unit cards that indicates how suppressed they are - generally this is how much lead is flying around near them and taking less fire causes it to go down while other things like casualties and wounds also influence this. Once it hits a crucial level they will basically stop firing back (become pinned) or doing anything at all except trying to hide and if this is maintained they will break and run which usually results in them getting mown down. having a bad time is cumulative across the battle so units who get pinned once are easier to pin in the future as their morale erodes.

The key thing is you don't need to have a specific target to generate suppression on men. Once you have a good idea where they are you can simply pour fire onto the probable contact and this will generate a lot of suppression - something German LMG means you are much better at than US squads. Once the enemy is keeping their heads down you can send the non-MG part of your split squad closer to get a better spotting and finish off the suppressed troops with grenades or just shooting them at point blank. Pouring fire on also results in things like wounds and casualties from ricochets (CM has a delightful ballistics model) which will further impede the enemy effectiveness.

Basically to win infantry vs infantry you need to put more fire on the enemy - even if some of it is not hugely accurate - than they are putting on you.


Using Heavy weapons (HMG and Mortar)

The main difference between heavy weapon (HW) squads and normal squads is they tend to be smaller (3-5 men) and obviously carry a heavy weapon. The main trick with HW's is that they need to be specifically ordered to deploy after moving or they will not be set up and will not fire (its usually best to give them a facing too. Some specific heavy machine-guns can be 'semi deployed' and will fire less effectively but generally you want to deploy them which can take 30-60 seconds and while doing it the squad is very vulnerable.

Heavy machine-guns are incredible weapons once set up properly. The bigger HMG generate more suppression than your squad base LMG and also are much more deadly due to higher rate of sustainable fire, bigger rounds and much more dangerous riccochets and penetration ability. HMG can usually tear up anything up to an armored car in toughness which includes things like halftracks and non-stone buildings will have their rounds easily go right through the walls.

Mortars are a bit more tricky, they also have to be set up but as we saw last game are very effective in the direct fire role.


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German Infantry Weapons

Exact weapon loadouts per squad are somewhat randomised by the game.


Your standard bolt action rifle, pretty mediocre really compared to the Garand due to slow rate of fire. 6ish of these per squad.


Rifle grenades attached to a bolt action rifle, short range but can be effective against infantry and maybe very lightly armored vehicles. US open top tank destroyers (M10, M18, M36) are also vulnerable.


Basic SMG firing small caliber bullets really fast and not super accurately. 1-2 per squad with the squad leader usually having one.


Babbys first AK-47. Probably the best small arm of the war but usually only found on specialist troops or occasionally replacing a MP40.


Squad LMG's. Covered pretty extensively above. 1 per squad but some rare lucky squads get 2.


The weapon of your HMG squads. Pretty great overall.

German Antitank weapons

Panzerfaust
The Panzerfaust (literally "armor fist" or "tank fist") was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon. Basically a short range single shot bazooka. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead, operated by a single soldier. The projectile traveled at just 30 meters per second and could penetrate 140 mm of armor.





A German bazooka capable of breaking pretty much any allied tank. Generally only found in specialist AT squads.

Flesnolk posted:

the guns on the western hills should face the open field on the fort's western approach. If description is unclear, the red arrows in this image indicate the directions I want the guns able to see.

Saros posted:

Not much, they were moving and all our guys are in cover. I expect they thought it came from the bunker.
81mm mortars are pretty lethal, not sure what the kill radius is but they definitely do good work.

Right now the biggest things we can do is get the other bunkers manned and get arty called in on where we think this advance is going to set up their hmg/mortars to cover them while they advance.

sniper4625 posted:

Bac, please chime in with thoughts on the latter.

Saros posted:

Fray posted:

It only takes a single soldier in a bunker to use its MG.