Quote:
Originally Posted by Graeme
Hello everyone,
First post here so be gentle.
After being a big fan of SPWW2 Ive found this modern version and have been getting into it for the last couple of months.
Im playing an underdog N Korea vs S Korea/US/USMC generated campaign and fancy simulating the road to Seoul(or the road to Pyongyang if I start losing battles). Ive won a couple so Im trying to simulate a River crossing battle over the Imjin river.
Does anyone have any cast iron tactics for these battles as its very different to crossing in the old SP?
I re-loaded the previous mission as my attempt ended up with getting blown out of the water and not being able to get my MBT's over due to getting the wrong craft's. 
Any ideas appreciated, cheers.  |
Well you could always play scenario #191 for a taste of what it is like at the receiving end (Commies already across the river and about to tangle with the Glosters, though).
Game Guide->Game Play Notes link, read if you have not already done so.
The section at the end, re "Strategy for taking out big AT guns" - which is basically about blowing a hole in the enemy line with a barrage.
Your barrage will be placed on the opposite bank at the point you will be making your main crossing. It will remain there as and until you have gained sufficient foothold with enough forces to start moving out of there. Maybe lifted a bit to avoid hitting own forces once they have gained an initial pocket.
Once you have enough forces, lift the barrage a step towards the target V-Hex cluster and start following it with your toys.
The problem for you is establishing that pocket in the first place!.
- The enemy is the US. You do not say which
era you are trying to play in. If 1950s then no real problems, since smoke works. So does
night. If 1980s onwards then increasingly many units on his side will have Thermal Sights (TI) and smoke is not very good for those. If choosing a point to cross in the TI era, then try to pick somewhere that LOS into is limited and that is approachable by areas out of LOS (40 hexes) from his possible deployment areas. In other words, barring any nicely placed hills, then you want a point where a wood or town comes right down to the river edge on your side as well as on his. Preferably with a road approach on your side, to move your
barge carriers to the riverside to launch the floaty boaties they carry.
- You are attacking, so it can be assumed that you have picked your desired point on the map, time of day etc. So feel free to spin the map as often as you want to get one that looks 'right'. Feel free to screw visibility down as far as you like since a river assault is best done at night, even in the days of night vision gear - not all will have it on the OPFOR. Also feel free to turn the turn count up to a big number if you desire - river crossings take time. Say 60 moves?. Choosing a small map size means less time to get to the river, but less space to deploy your troops though. Also, if you do not think you have enough support points - then by all means spend some of your unused repair points as buy points. I usually have thousands of the things lying about in a LC.
- Against the AI, break through at one crossing point, about 10-15 hexes wide. Choose a point with access towards 2 nearby V-Hex clusters, if possible.
- Don't cross where the AI has placed dragons teeth. Or if so, be prepared for your engineers to take time to clear these, and expect some mines nearby too. Ditto with barbed wire perhaps. (Usually placed on the flanks, but not always). In that case, send over loads of boatloads of engineers!.
- Check the riverbank on
your side with engineers before moving tanks or barge carriers. The enemy deployment zone can have a little bit on your side - so have mines and/or even troops in places on 'your' bank.
- Get infantry, especially engineers up to the crossing point (use APCS, esp those that can swim), and start them across under cover of the barrage in their rubber rafts. It is their job to establish the pocket on the far bank.
- Your other AFV etc need not rush to the crossing as yet. They need a ferry service to be set up by the barge carriers, and that will take time. Best to hide them nearby the intended crossing so the enemy
does not spot them and start shelling - and splat your soft infantry and engineers in the zone, and more especially any loaded
barge carriers going to the bank!. (If you were the USA and had thermal sight equipped tanks then it may be worthwhile moving up on the shoulders of the breakthrough zone to dominate the opposite bank. If your enemy does not have access to TI. They can fire through the smoke, and the HE dust of the barrages. But do not fire from
within the engineer zone, as that nay attract enemy arty fires which may splat your soft stuff - esp loaded barge carriers).
- If you have a mainly vehicle force, without amphib capabilities, then the barge carrier is a key element to getting these across. Barge carriers are slow, soft heavy trucks that carry a pre-loaded barge. 'Drive' one into a river hex and a barge is launched. Barge carriers are extremely vulnerable things, so you do not want to have to pass through an HE bombardment with them. Expect casualties - buy more than you thought you would require!. Keep some back in deep reserve in case of a whoopsie. Empty barge carriers are meh - take to the rear if you need, or just to clear the approaches to the engineer crossing zone.
- Barge carriers are 2WD trucks, so really do not like swamp etc. Approach the riverbank at a point where it is clear terrain, or a road hex!. As said above - try to pick a point that has a road leading up to or reasonably close to as your crossing site, barge carriers are slowpokes.
- Once in the water, the barge is a regular barge that can have a vehicle loaded onto it (even from the next hex in their case). Load tank on, putter over to the now developing pocket the engineers and leg infantry are developing and 'drive' it into the far bank to unload. Remember not to unload into a swamp etc - could be sticky news for the AFV.
- Barges are rather vulnerable in the water - avoid HE zones, or getting fired at by even small tank or APC guns. Keep the smoke up (and fire some to the flank of the crossing if needed). You will soon find out if any TI equipped enemy can see your patch of river! - if detected, drop a severe stonk on the offending area with your loads and loads of arty you bought.
Repeat process till your pocket has enough toys to start off to the V-Hexes.
- Your opponent is the US and your main weapon to blow holes in his defence with is (mainly) off-map arty. Unfortunately the USA has good basic counter-battery scores in 1945, and it only gets better as the decades pass. So expect lots of batteries to go off the air, even if temporarily. (You did buy
loads of them though!). Do not expect your arty to be that good at C/B fires (even if an experienced core battery) on any of his. On the plus side, any points the USA paid for arty, is less grunts on the riverbank.
- Your opponent is the USA. The USA has a good air strike score in 1945, and it gets better as the decades click by. Expect enemy air strikes. Cover the engineer zone with SPAA with radar if you can. Do not bunch too much on your side of the bank if you can avoid it - air strikes or arty will eventually arrive there.
- Consider making a feint
far away from the intended crossing, to draw AI air strikes and/or some arty. Have these guys do their 'lookie here!' act as soon as you can. Charge up to the selected riverside area. Even if the AI does not respond with aimed fire, an observer may well have seen your guys trailing their blanket, so move up and down the river bank a bit, run away if fired at (and not dead yet). Do not use core troops for this job...
- If you can get amphibious vehicles, then do so. A PT-76 is not much cop, but it
can swim. A popgun wrapped up in tinfoil on the far bank
can be better value than an MBT stuck on your side, waiting for the barge carriers to start the cross-river ferry. A BTR-50 is not much normally, but it swims, as do early model BTR-60. Using those is better for getting an infantry force established on the far bank than paddling about in rubber dingy. And they can operate a ferry service for any leg grunts on your side of the river (don't waste them in combat till the time comes to move off from the pocket. They are tin ferry boats in the initial stage). The K61 Amphib can carry a fair few grunts or can move little mortars ATG, other arty over if needed. The GSP ferry is self-propelled, and can carry an MBT, available from 1969. Basically a barge carrier that is itself a barge, and a little armour. You can probably drop barge carriers post availability of these if not too costly (about double the cost?). Hovercraft in the 80s on is a really nice thing to shift grunts over with - but can have problems with close terrain on either bank (e.g. forests) so only use if there is a clear terrain approach to and exit from the river. But none of these items should be the
first thing to cross - use rubber duck mounted grunts and/or engineers to do the initial far bank recce and find any mines or enemy defenders and deal with those. Otherwise an expensive fully laden APC can blunder into a catastrophe. But see the BTR rush tactic mentioned below - i.e. replace subtlety with quantity.
- If you have access to
lots of BTRs then you can do a BTR horde rush, driving a mass of loaded APC right over the river and right up the bank and then debussing into the stonked zone. You should have enough at that point to deal with any enemy dug-in grunts, bunkers, tanks etc you find (stunned probably, in rout if lucky) in that small 10 or so hex by 1-2 deep on the far bank. Say 2 companies worth, at
least with one following behind as a reserve. Quantity has a quality all of its own - Stalin. The possible casualties in establishing the bridgehead that way just may be worth the shorter time.
Remember to lift your own arty from the cleared zone now!
!.
- Heliflopters. As NK, unless part of your core, you probably will have few of these, if any. Use to nip into the barrage zone on the far bank (but not too far!) to spot enemy stunned defenders, and possibly to drop scouts off on the far bank if it seems safe. Unfortunately your opponent is the USA and may have access to radar aimed AAA. So keep low, and use terrain masking from hills, trees or buildings to screen any AAA.
- Engineer tanks/vehicles. Probably less useful in the river crossing assault, because of the time required to get them over to the far bank?. They are armoured though. Perhaps not to be bought unless you have bought some GSP ferries. Still may be a better use of points to buy plenty of leg engineers and some BTR or K61s to ferry them over the river.
Once (if) you have enough force and blast through, meanwhile keep moving stuff over the bridgehead. AI may counter-attack on tripping a whole V-Hex cluster. So be prepared for that. But also be prepared to have to take another one to trip it. Maybe all 3.
Cheers
Andy
River crossing battle tactics
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