Close Combat Series

Boot Camp #4 Indirect Fire
Date: Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:56 am
Topic: Boot Camp


Indirect fire to Close Combat is equally as important as directed fire. All weapons that fire HE rounds have a blast radius, which means near misses cause injuries and death. Armour piercing rounds also result in near miss kills but the effect is minimized. Indirect fire comes in most useful when you see where an enemy is, but you cannot target him yet either by blocked LOS or your men just haven’t spotted them yet. High explosives will do the job, and at the very least they will suppress your opponent and force him to move. Let’s go over a few ways you can provide indirect fire...

Flame tanks need only to score near misses to inflict casualties. A massive morale drop is also inflicted on survivors. Flame attacks can be followed up on very quickly by infantry assaults. The flame attacks put the opponent’s soldiers in a state of shock, unable to move quick enough to counter any attack. The flame tank alone driving to your opponent’s position will most likely make him relocate.

For the two man flame teams, it’s wise to leave them on ambush if not confronting the enemy at the beginning of the game, and I mean at the 1st second! If you do suspect a large concentration of enemy soldiers in a particular spot upon the timer starting, have your flamers force fire into that direction, keep a command team within its radius to give the team a boost. Flamers within engineer sections do not work as well with this technique. If you force fire an engineer team they will also lob a bundle of dynamite, suppressing and even killing your own men at close range.

The AVRE is undoubtedly one of Gold Juno Swords super tanks. It’s used almost exclusively for indirect fire and has the fear factor or a flame tank. Indirect fire with an AVRE can cause damage to around 40m away from the main blast. The biggest drawback is a 90second reload time. After you fire one round, your opponent has tons of time to relocate or counterattack the tank. AVREs can also destroy heavy tanks indirectly. The German 10cm Tractor and the Centaur have a similar effect but nothing equals the AVREs splash damage.

Panzershreks are excellent indirect anti-infantry weapons. To get your shrek to fire a rocket at the enemy, you have to target somewhere close to them even if you have clear LOS. Targeting the actual soldiers will result in the shrek team switching to rifles. Hits usually result in one to three deaths. Bazookas usually do not have the same blast characteristics as the shrek, but they can score kills.

Small arms fire is generally ineffective for indirect fire kills. You can order a team to fire across an obvious approach route, and they will score kills if your opponent is moving fast through it. Otherwise, don’t even bother using small arms for indirect kills. Light and heavy machine guns will do the job of suppressing, firing them indirect will seldom score any hits however. 30cal, MG42 and 50cal are good suppressive weapons.

Artillery, mortar and naval strikes can be very devastating. These will kill your opponent’s troops and slow him down for about two minutes. In some cases wise to save it for the final minute of a battle to protect a vulnerable position from last minute rush. It’s also effective on damaging vehicles. Where vehicles are highly concentrating, do not pass up an opportunity to drop your support on it.

60mm mortars are very effective in direct fire role. They can be setup very quickly and follow your front line, just because to remember their minimum distance. Mortars also used for harassing fire when meeting engagements start. Where deployment areas stop next to prominent defensive features, the opponent may rush men in when the timer starts. Ensure your mortar team is pointed in the direction you want them to fire otherwise additional time will be wasted in repositions, same applied to mortar trucks. Do not leave mortar teams on defend, they may move to get better cover.

Anti tank and flak cannons are also excellent infantry killers. Simply target where you think your opponent is hiding and start banging away. Anti tank guns have limited HE ammo while flak cannons have tons.

So just remember, all high explosive shells cause splash damage. There is always a chance you will kill, injure, suppress or damage an enemy unit. Constant indirect fire may be noisy, but it ensures you control and own the battle space.





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