How to fight a pillbox?

tommyl

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Do not fight the pillbox. Allow your energies to flow around and through the Pillbox, enlightening all within. Be the pillbox, and allow the pillbox to be you.
Which module did the Tibetan army come in? I can't find my counters......
 

witchbottles

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and yet no one mentions the firing of AFV MA AP ammunition into the pillbox itself........... "Send 'em back to the ASLRB, boys!!" works just as well from the NCA sides , and is quite effective ....

"B30.35 AP: Neither the CA nor the NCA Defense Modification nor other TEM applies to an AP/APCR/APDS attack against a pillbox/its-contents, provided the Basic TK# of that ammo type being fired is > twice the Defense Modification that would otherwise apply. An AP/APCR/APDS hit on a pillbox is resolved using the normal HE-Equivalency rules (C8.31).


75mm Shermans are real NCA pillbox thumpers. ;)
 

Paul M. Weir

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75mm Shermans are real NCA pillbox thumpers. ;)
Unless it's a ?-5-7 pillbox NCA where you need a 15 to gain entry (57L or better). You would need a 76mm Sherman. However even a Stuart 37LL is good to go against a ?-3-5.
 

witchbottles

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Unless it's a ?-5-7 pillbox NCA where you need a 15 to gain entry (57L or better). You would need a 76mm Sherman. However even a Stuart 37LL is good to go against a ?-3-5.
lighter pillboxes are the stuff that light armor was made for - terrorize enemy infantry in their "impregnable" fortifications. :) The best part is aq still applies, as does point blank fire (or the -1 for 2 hex range), and the hits are 2 flats, over and over. a decent light AFV vs a x-3-5 pillbox with a 2 lbr (40L) or better - will finish off those things inside out with AP ammunition from a NCA LOS in no fear at all of enemy retaliation from inside the bunker, and the ROF means liklihood of multiple hits and multiple 2 FP flat attacks on the occupants will do faster damage than trying to approach and get in for either a CC or a DC or FT attack. - and if enemy inf rushes you, well those Stuarts sure got a lot of MG's, as do Mk III panzers, Shermans, etc and so on. The X-5-7 variety only requires a 6 lbr or better (57L) to work on from NCA LOS - and you can get those in all kinds of mid to late war AFV's. German AFVs are particularly brutal in cracking open pillboxes, almost every AFV they have in inventory can do in at least a X-3-5 and all big guns can do in any pillbox.

In ASL - the games usually evolve into the "infantry" game and the "armor" game - with winning both required to meet the VC's. If the enemy is not given AFVs to use yours on - use them to fight enemy infantry- particularly the nasty ones in good locations hiding in a pillbox with a .50 Cal HMG and a 9-2 ldr, who is blocking the approach / exit routes, or some such. Pound Mr 9 ML 9-2 / HMG nest with a few 2 flats, you'll get your MC's. Build up the aq on the buddy, and THEN let him have a dose of s# Smoke Ammo in the next PFPh by bracketing to ATT and having the extra -2 TH DRM for the all important smoke shot that blinds him if he didn't break down from the concrete spalling all around him.

Like much else in ASL - timing is everything in the game. Set up the Smoke if you are using it for screening - don't fire it willy nilly just to blind them on turn 1a. use the AP ITT MA for some aq that can be applied to the upcoming Smoke shot, some 2 flat IFT attacks that can and do cause damage to the enemy and the other players PMC's as his pillbox offers no TEM from them, and cautiously move up the close assault team to cover just out of LOS of the pillbox, but within Movement range of a single MPh for that infantry- then use that next PFPh to lay Smoke if needed, and rush the pillbox in the MPh to take it down in the CCPh or with a FT, or waltz up if the 2 flats managed to break the occupants and take the pillbox bloodlessly in the CCPh.


Most will realize a pillbox is a strong defensive addition - but only if placed correctly - A lot fewer players realize they are also turned into death traps in such circumstances - so don't bet the farm on a pillbox with your best SW or ldr in there - if it can be isolated, it will be, and as they do not have to rout, an enemy on top of it in the MPh is enough to prevent the rout altogether, forcing a bloodless CC as you won't surrender either, as you are not required to rout out of a pillbox. (B30.42).
 

horseshoe

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I know most folks don't want to hear this, but there is an excellent article in Special Ops #7 about how to battle a pillbox and the ins and outs of defending one. Very good reading out there for those interested in learning the do and don'ts...
 

horseshoe

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In fact, I believe people would have liked very much to hear more about it. But not in some obscure Special Ops mag but rather in an ASL Journal.

von Marwitz
I only said that about not wanting to hear about it because it was in the house magazine instead of the Journal. I know most of the folks round here don't like the house magazine. I look at it like the "General" used to be. I subscribed to it for years and often an issue would have little to no ASL content at all, but I still enjoyed the issue. To each his own I suppose.
 

Michael R

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I know most folks don't want to hear this, but there is an excellent article in Special Ops #7 about how to battle a pillbox and the ins and outs of defending one. Very good reading out there for those interested in learning the do and don'ts...
I suspect this article is written by the same author who wrote an excellent pillbox article in Banzai.
 

FrankJ

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The idea that you could destroy infantry inside a pillbox by firing a 50mm MTR at it from outside its covered arc is honestly quite ridiculous. Unless there was a pile of HE ammunition stacked next to it.
Even with a CH for the 50mm, the attack would be a 12+7 right?
 

peterd1973

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This has annoying side-effects. When a unit IN the pillbox exits (not by tunnel or bunker-trench) it is placed ON the wire and must move under. Sometimes that's ok, and sometimes not.

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