The noble art of defending 101
There are 3 factors and 1 goal to take in account when defending.
FACTORS:
1) The map
2) The forces at your disposal
3) Time
GOAL:
1) Deny victory to the attacker
Let's look at the factors first.
The map.... Where you will fight and either destroy the attacker or get hammered into the ground.
What should you look for when inspecting the map?
A) Natural defensive positions
-Ridges, wooded areas, buildings, sunken areas, rubble.
B) Natural obstacles
-Rivers, wooded areas, rough, swamps, rubble
C) Canalizing terrain
-Bridges, open ground between obstacles, low terrain between heights.
View the map from your opponents side, where would you advance? What areas would be a threat? What terrain features are importnat to an attacker?
Can you identify key real estate where you can make a stand and create a large/deep killing zone? (killing zone = area where you can mass supperior firepower against an enemy, preferably by surprise, and get down in cover afterwards).
Is there any terrain the attacker MUST use/pass through (for example a gap between two wooden areas where his armor must pass, bridges, fords). Set up your weapons so that you can turn those areas into real killing fields.
The forces at your disposal:
Make sure yo uknow what you have and think about how to use your forces!
Mortars up to 81mm should be used to pin down the enemy, not to kill your enemy, (use spotter as a platoons HQ is less visible to the enemy).
Larger guns should be used as a striking force when the attacker is located.
Do not be afraid to use your smaller mortars grouped together, (on 50mm mortar makes no difference, 3 or more together can be realy effective at pinning down an advancing unit(s)).
Machineguns, a long range weapon, perfect to stop an advance but vulnerable to direct fire and dead in close combat
Snipers, perfect scouts, great to force the enemy tank commanders to close that hatch and can make life miserable to enemy HQ’s and special weapons such as MG’s, flamethrowers, open top vehicles as flack guns.
AT guns, Use them wiselly, the first shots are critical! If possible have 2 otr more at guns covering the same area. If an enemy tank rotates to face on AT gun, the other one will get one of those realy nice flanking shots. Do not forget to set covered arcs for them so that they do not fire to soon!
Tanks & TD’s, Look for hull-down positions! (why be a bigger target than you need to?) Place your armor out of LOS, for example behind a ridge or a building and use either hunt or shoot and scoot to move up and engage the attacker. Also here you should try to get flanking fire if possible. (remember than moving vehicles on dirt roads can generate dust clouds ad give away your whereabouts).
What type of unit is it, infantry is not used in the same way as engineers.
Finally, look at the HQ’s of your platoons. An HQ with +2 in stealth should lead an ambush or be a spotter for mortars. A +2 in combat should be placed where you expect heavy action.
TIME: The number of turns left in a scenario can be a realy good friend of the defender. The attacker will ALLWAYS feel the pressure of time remaining, use that against him! If it takes 5 minutes to cross a large field and there are two turns left of the sdcenario, let him run,, who cares? Making everything take longer will delay your opponents attack. Some artillery down on the attackers forces as they prepare to attack will delay him, either due to reorganizing his attack, him wanting to get smoke in the area or just by pinning & breaking units and giving him longer command delays. Destroying the first vehicle in a column will make him slow down and deal with the new threat. Forcing the attacker to regroup his supporting units wil also take time. The key words here are: ACT, DONT REACT!
