Advice for american long campaign
 

What general advice can you give for a long campaign (starting at the earliest possible date) for americans?

The force i went with is looking like 2 companies of infantry, 1 company of armoured infantry, 2 companies of shermans, a few scouts, a battery of self propelled guns and 2 batteries of mortars.

What sort of stuff should I look out for, what is the important upgrades to do, and what should I add to my force ?

I'd like to keep things reasonably historical, but whatever you feel like suggesting :)
Tactical advice is very welcome too

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

Vital: Tank destroyers, M10 as soon as you can get it. Same goes for 57mm AT gun, or, if you have indep. ATG battery, 3-inchers (37 and 57 were infantry AT-guns, 3" was for independent TD battalions, both towed and SP). For artillery, M7 Priest is a way to go, has large ammo supply so you do not need ammo trucks.

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

Bazookas as well, soon as available get some squads with these.

Andy

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

True, forgot about them.

As for infantry, keep them healthy. Germans have great LMGs, US has great primary weapon - Garand M1. Thus you can outgun German infantry as long as you keep your inf. squads strong - with rifles, the number of men is important.

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

Should I go for squads that contain bazookas, or get independent bazooka teams ?


Good point on the M10's. Definately. The armoured infantry company has 3 37mm guns, so I'll upgrade those as better becomes available.

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

Well, independent bazookas are size 0, so harder to spot, good for abushing and bunker busting, but they have only 2 man, so usually 1 engagement(the so called "shot") is needed to get rid of them when spotted, the squads with them have more men, more weapons, and bigger size... its all your choice, but i would go for bazooka teams as they are cheaper to replace, remember, individual teams can only fight armour

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

For the first 3 battles (against the Japanese in 42) I've had the following:

4 scouts (I picked the Fighting Patrol because it looked interesting, but I realized I was using tehm as harassing infantry anyways, so upgraded them to Rangers with 2 BAR's and flamethrowers)
I'll add some actual scouts again, plus a few snipers (love the little buggers) after this (third) battle.

2 companies of infantry. Very solid, and the triple 60mm mortar section is very useful for suppression fire. These guys generally get to slog towards an objective area, and then dig in and fight it out infantry style.
The disparity in troop quality against the Japanese is telling, but they do well enough.
The rifle grenades have inflicted the odd casualty but nothing exceptional. Im thinking when bazookas become available, I'll upgrade the third squad in each platoon, plus the company command squad to include them, then add a couple of independent bazooka teams as well.


1 company of armoured infantry. Their default gear was M1's and SMG, so I upgraded them to the dismount version, which has a .30 cal. Along with all their half tracks, these guys are doing a lot of hard fighting. I need to spread them out more, as they always get shelled by Japanese light arty though.

I almost always play foot infantry, so having these guys zoom across the battlefield to dig in at an objective just as the enemy is reaching it, is a lot of fun.


Shermans, 2 companies. Not sure what the upgrade path will be here. A few Pershings when they come around late war. Otherwise.. a couple of Jumbo's and mostly easy eights ?

A battery of M7's and two mortar batteries. This gives enough firepower it seems, and the M7 is a fantastic unit. Very pleased with these.


I'll add M10's when they show up, but otherwise I think I have what i want. The armoured infantry includes 3 37mm guns, which will become 57mm's when available.

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

1) There was no armoured infantry in the Pacific Front really.

2) Shermans are overkill as they stand, Pershings and Jumbos no need for against the Japanese. Their best tank might frighten a Stuart if it caught it in a close range ambush is all. Consider some 105mm Shermans when available. No need for the 76mm ones, the 75 will drill all Japanese armour, even the experimental late war ones that never left the home islands.

3) M10 tank destroyers against the Japanese?. There is no need, again. The enemy is an infantry army. So some anti-grunt add-ons, perhaps flame tanks or halftracks with 75mm, or 37/.50 SPAA used in direct fire support mode. Or some Stuarts to nip about the battlefield. Or SP-mortar tracks.

4) Company 60mm mortars - consider using a medium truck to scoot them forwards rather than slogging it. (I think it fits one).

5) 57mm ATG? - maybe upgrade 37mms to 75mm pack howitzers to fire direct in anti-grunt mode. You have 2 companies of Shermans to deal with tiddly Japanese tankettes, the Sherman is like a King Tiger to those.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

Thanks for the advice. I want to go fight the Germans though, as soon as that becomes a possibility, so I was thinking forward towards those situations.

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

I think you should upgrade your infantry to ones with a bazooka, and if you like, you can buy separate team.

M10 is your tank killer in the early days. And 76mm Sherman when available.

Do you have FO in your core? I started with one and I've found that it's the single most important unit. Can't live without it. So later I bought another one as backup.

Off-map arty, at least for CB. CB requires exp, so support units are not as good.

SPAA to cover your troops and they can also shoot up enemy inf.

Re: Advice for american long campaign
 

As it happens I've just kicked off a long campaign with the American forces. I started straight off with Torch rather than messing about with the Japanese.

I have a similar core force to you - two Cos of leg infantry one Co of Shermans and 5 M10 Tds plus 3 offboard 105mm batteries plus assoerted Foos, towed ATGs. I've used Bazooka squads to support my scouts (the white scout car is really handy as well - I do like the 50cal!).

Shermans can handle the MkIIIs and IVs but it's pretty even so expect losses unless you work from ambush. My first mission was bizzarly a defend and a brace of Tigers did swan into view but then chose to drive along the front giving me 200yds shots into the flank. Even a 75mm can kill big cats at that range in the flank. Not seen any since to my relief!

Your force is nicely balanced but you will need to take advantage of the cover and concealment offered by the Tunisian hills and flora. Even your M10s shouldn't really engage at range - they have brown paper armour and will die if Jerry gets a decent shot back.

I've made full use of big arty air cover and spotter planes and am actually doing much better than when I tried the yanks last time.

When I am advancing or assaulting I do extend the time available and in assaults tend to drop visibility (on the basis that I can choose to some extent when I kick off an attack)

I lead with dismounted scouts and bazooka teams. The scouts can kill ATGs and the bazookas have had some success in stalking panzers. But I do try to get the scouts deep into the defences so I can target artillery. My last mission was an assualt and I risked a FOO with the scouts - big pay off because I'd lined up a lot of 8 inch and 155mm batteries ready and waiting for juicy targets (open topped SPGs are a particular favorite).

Enjoy yourself and good luck old chap...