How to fight a pillbox?

[jrv]

The enemy can't advance the pb hex, right?

He *can* advance in (or move) on top of the pillbox and wire, but if he advances in, he will be on top of the wire for cc. If he moves in, he may or may not be able to also move under.

JR

 

[Robin Reeve]

Would a solution be to have a Trench placed in the pillbox hex or ADJACENT to it, so that the unit moves directly into the Trench from the Bunker, under the Wire?

 

[witchbottles]

A good tactic is to mine or wire the approaches to the pillbox/bunker, but leave its escape route to the rear clear, so the occupants can bail out when necessary and head via a trench or a tunnel to the rear where they can re-form, the now surrendered Pillbox will not do much for the enemy, its firing CA is facing the wrong way to be of much use on you. Those mines in front (or wire in front) will slow the enemy assault on the pillbox/bunker so you can get away when the enemy decides to go for broke.

Like any position on any ASL game map - never be too fond of it that you lose the units inside for no gain. If you have to ask yourself if it is now time to leave the position, you waited too long. "Stand and Die" defensive positions are for the last turn of the scenario - not the first. Even a single board width scenario has limited capability for a fallback and/or skulk - both should be used to full advantage. Only hold onto the pillbox/bunker for dear life if losing it means you lose the game, too. (ie its occupation is in the VCs).

Another useful idea to consider if you have three pillboxes/bunkers is to look at the idea of the "death triangle" as a possible setup - where 2 CA's cover the NCA side to each of the other pillboxes/bunkers. Anything trying to get around to the NCA side of one is going to eat fire from the other two. It gets nastier if tunnels interconnect them, and even moreso if the last (third) tunnel feeds into say, a stone building nearby, so reserves can be fed into the death triangle. It is not suitable for every scen with pillboxes/bunkers, but should not be overlooked if you get three or more of them as a possibility.

no matter what, screen the NCA tops of the pillboxes/bunkers with MG fire - this can be a useful place to boresight a MMG or a HMG if allowed- you know the enemy is going to try to silence the pillbox, so you know your -2 Bore Sight DRM is going to come into play at some point.

KRL, Jon H

 

[Paul M. Weir]

Another useful idea to consider if you have three pillboxes/bunkers is to look at the idea of the "death triangle" as a possible setup - where 2 CA's cover the NCA side to each of the other pillboxes/bunkers. Anything trying to get around to the NCA side of one is going to eat fire from the other two. It gets nastier if tunnels interconnect them, and even moreso if the last (third) tunnel feeds into say, a stone building nearby, so reserves can be fed into the death triangle. It is not suitable for every scen with pillboxes/bunkers, but should not be overlooked if you get three or more of them as a possibility.

My variant is to have 2 PB whose CA are facing each other, ideally adjacent. Effectively having the CAs at almost right angles to the enemy's approach. It has two advantages. First is that ART or AFV can't hit the CA from deep in the enemy's rear and the second is that they make it difficult to approach to CC them as they cover each other. Look at historic PB's, many are arranged so that they hit the enemy from the side as they advance and are practically immune from fire from the front.

 

[Vinnie]

I keep seeing the title of this thread and getting an image of an MSC ripping his shirt off and going "okay, pillbox, fight me.,"

 

[jrv]

The enemy can't advance the pb hex, right?

It occurs to me that you may be misunderstanding B30.44. Per B30.1 a pillbox is a separate ground-level Location. You can refer to these two locations at ground level as "inside the pillbox" and "outside the pillbox." A friendly unit may move and/or advance into the "outside the pillbox" location freely when the only enemy units in the hex are in the "inside the pillbox" location [B30.43]. If there are enemy units in the "outside the pillbox" location, friendly unis may also enter the "outside the pillbox" location normally as if the pillbox was not there, e.g. by advance, vehicle, unload from vehicle, cavalry charge, berserk charge, etc. What may not happen is that both friendly units and enemy units are simultaneously in the "inside the pillbox" location.

JR

 

[Eagle4ty]

It occurs to me that you may be misunderstanding B30.44. Per B30.1 a pillbox is a separate ground-level Location. You can refer to these two locations at ground level as "inside the pillbox" and "outside the pillbox." A friendly unit may move and/or advance into the "outside the pillbox" location freely when the only enemy units in the hex are in the "inside the pillbox" location [B30.43]. If there are enemy units in the "outside the pillbox" location, friendly unis may also enter the "outside the pillbox" location normally as if the pillbox was not there, e.g. by advance, vehicle, unload from vehicle, cavalry charge, berserk charge, etc. What may not happen is that both friendly units and enemy units are simultaneously in the "inside the pillbox" location.

JR

That surely clarified that! ...Who's on first?

 

[witchbottles]

That surely clarified that! ...Who's on first?

yes....

 

[Robin Reeve]

This requires some thinking out of the (pill)box. :nod:

 

[peterd1973]

I meant my example of wire on top of the Pillbox.

It occurs to me that you may be misunderstanding B30.44. Per B30.1 a pillbox is a separate ground-level Location. You can refer to these two locations at ground level as "inside the pillbox" and "outside the pillbox." A friendly unit may move and/or advance into the "outside the pillbox" location freely when the only enemy units in the hex are in the "inside the pillbox" location [B30.43]. If there are enemy units in the "outside the pillbox" location, friendly unis may also enter the "outside the pillbox" location normally as if the pillbox was not there, e.g. by advance, vehicle, unload from vehicle, cavalry charge, berserk charge, etc. What may not happen is that both friendly units and enemy units are simultaneously in the "inside the pillbox" location.

JR

 

[jrv]

I meant my example of wire on top of the Pillbox.

The normal rules for entrance of the "outside the pillbox" location apply, as if the pillbox was not present. The friendly unit may move/advance on top of the wire "outside the pillbox." The existence of units "inside the pillbox" have no bearing on that.

JR

 

[Matt Book]

What the title says. I will have my first scenario with pillboxes soon. I have DCs and mortars on my side, that's it, and I have no idea what I should do about them.

Set the DC when you are in the pillbox hex, 36 -3 DRM with no TEM afterwards usually leaves no pillbox. I think DC's placed/thrown from the pillbox hex into the pillbox location are treated as Set DC's as well.

 

[jrv]

Set the DC when you are in the pillbox hex, 36 -3 DRM with no TEM afterwards usually leaves no pillbox. I think DC's placed/thrown from the pillbox hex into the pillbox location are treated as Set DC's as well.

It takes a minimum of three player turns to fire a set DC (minimum one to set and advance away, sit one enemy player turn at range one, then on the third move the required two hexes away & fire in the AFPh if you can pass the NTC. If you voluntary break it can be done in two with luck.) the game is nearly over by the time a pillbox is cleared with a set dc.

DCs placed from inside *and* to inside the pillbox location are treated as Set DCs [B30.31]. It's never been clear to me when this would be useful as you can't have friendly and enemy units inside a pillbox, but the possibility would arise only with the Japanese as they are the only ones that can place/throw a DC into their own Location [A23.61]. The Japanese could use it to kill some marines in a pillbox cellar in Suicide Creek, I suppose.

JR