HTTR (mini-guide): And even more tips!

[Tzar007]

From MarkShot:


That concludes my series on using the interface to construct large complex plans. I always do this with the game paused. There may have been more material in the pre-hacked posts, but I did the best I could to recall the material from the screenshots that I had.

[Tzar007]

From MarkShot:


02/18/04 - This post is very significant as it represents the first new tip since the great hacking fiasco of 2003!

Here goes ... The other day I was beta testing. Now, I had planned a nice little massed force attack. It comprised a rear mortar fire base, an intermediate line of heavy weapons for support, and an infantry attack force. I was pretty pleased with it.

However, it failed miserably! For hours (6-8 hours), as my troops tried to get this organized they got hit by one mortar volley or arty barrage after another! In the meantime, my commanders had not a single enemy contact to report. How incredibly frustrating!

And how did that happen? Well, it happened due to differential LOS/sighting. (By the way, I borrowed that term from the Combat Mission forums where I saw it.) This means that just because they can see you doesn't mean that you can see them. HTTR implements this ... however, I am not too sure of the exact details.

I have used a trick of taking one of my save games (I usually have many given my play style) and surrendering at that point so that I could see what things looked like.

Here you see my forces and an enemy company dug-in to the North at Nicoline. Well, I never saw them until my botched attack was well underway, but by then my operation was already doomed to fail. However, they clearly knew everything I was doing as their brutal bombardments of my forces certainly indicated.

Lessons:

(1) Beware setting up in open ground.

(2) Beware setting up at low elevations.

(3) Beware differential LOS.

{I have changed my map textures to use the RDOA Classis Look for this screenshot.}

[MarkShot]

Ugo,

I know I said thank you already, but I just wanted to say it once again. You more than anyone made this recovery possible!

[Arjuna]

Here, here! THANK YOU UGO![:)]

[Tzar007]

Thanks guys ! [:D]

It was a pleasure to do it. It has also improved my performance at HTTR since I had not time to read it all before the forum was hacked.

Now let's continue to populate these threads with tips ![8D]

[The_MadMan]

Great tips, very interesting to read!

[MarkShot]

Glad you enjoyed it!

Now, get out there and give some orders before you're surrounded!

[perpster]

FWIW, Google maintains extensive caches of webpages. If you search for the thread on Google, click on the "Cached" hyperlink if you find a match--it MIGHT have caches of pre-hack pages.

[The_MadMan]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot

Glad you enjoyed it!

Now, get out there and give some orders before you're surrounded!

I never played this kind of game before so I hope I like it!

[MarkShot]

Tzar007 asked elsewhere:

Here is a situation that makes me mad:

I need to hold on to an objective, so I garrison it with appropriate forces. Then the damned AI blast them continuously with some damn heavy arty hidden somewhere in the bushes God knows where. It's an easy target for him since they are immobile at the objective. This makes me crazy.

I sent 1 or 2 units in recon in the area to try to spot the bastards but to no avail (my recon units get repulsed easily as soon as they meet some opposition).

What do you do guys in such a situation? I am now thinking about gathering a task force to go around and clean up forcefully the whole area, but this is a long process and my forces are stretched thin for now anyway (I am playing the Eindhoven Campaign as Allies, and I need to hold on all the objectives placed along the highway, so I don't have much forces to spare beating the bushes around the highway).

My thoughts:

There are two components to being hit by arty:

(1) The battery.

(2) Those who report your position to the battery.

Forget about finding and silencing the battery. That is only achievable in a meeting engagement against the AI or if the AI foolishly parades its guns out in the open; which it will do on occassion. In a meeting engagement, you have a pretty good idea from where the AI will start and if its guns are in range, they may very well stay put. (But probably still not worth the effort to locate them.)

You have a better chance of dealing with item #2; those who report your position. A layered defense will tend to keep the AI away from your main defensive formation and its guns will hammer at what little they can see as their probes contact your screen. In the mean time, the main defensive formation will be in ear shot of the barrage and just keep digging in deeper. The more dug-in they get, the better they will deal with attacks and arty.

Additionally, you want to try to avoid setting up camp in areas with large fields of LOS. Although good for stopping attacks on your position, it's bad for keeping a low profile of those who will call in a barrage.

You might also try establishing defensive positions at night when LOS is limited, arty stocks are possibly low, and you have some time to dig-in.

Another general strategy towards the scenarios which does have some relationship with arty vulnerability is this (I am assuming that a large portion of your points are of the completion variety):

(1) Give priority to those objectives which are wooded or BUA. These areas will be the hardest to take if the enemy gets time to dig-in. So, make sure that you are the one who gets time to dig-in.

(2) Remove priority from those objectives which are in open terrain. These objectives will be hard to defend and most likely cause you to suffer significant attrition by virtue of your exposure.

(3) Towards the end of the scenario seize the objectives in open terrain. During the scenario two things will have happened. First, you should have attrited the enemy who tried to take the more easily defended than attacked objectives away from you. Second, the number of defenders at the easy to attack objectives and previously unthreatened should be relatively light. Defenders tend to go where they are needed and leave behind that which is secure.

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot
(1) Give priority to those objectives which are wooded or BUA. These areas will be the hardest to take if the enemy gets time to dig-in. So, make sure that you are the one who gets time to dig-in.

A word of caution. Arty fire into woods is "enhanced" ( 115% ) because of the "tree burst" effect - ie the rounds hit the branches and detonate creating an air burst which is more deadly than detonating on the ground. This can be offset by digging in, but units not dug in or better will be very vulnerable. Thus for arty protection purposes it's best to deploy your defences in urban terrain rather than woods.

However, woods offer other advantages, such as concealment and protection from direct fire and sometimes you have no better option.

[MarkShot]

I know I have addressed this in my tips, but I thought I would reraise it here as it is a clear error in the documentation.

Page 41 of states that you can have arty provide on-call support by issuing a [D]efend task and adjust ROF as per your requirements. This is incorrect ROF will always be LOW. The only way to adjust ROF for bombard capable units is manually issue ombard orders.

[Mr.Frag]

Page 41 of states that you can have arty provide on-call support by issuing a [D]efend task and adjust ROF as per your requirements. This is incorrect ROF will always be LOW. The only way to adjust ROF for bombard capable units is manually issue ombard orders.

Woah there! You telling me that the only way to get heavy Arty is to call it in yourself? Fine by me, but it is a bit of a shock to find out that all the Arty I have left under AI control has been having tea while my grunts bleed out.

[MarkShot]

ROF was hardcoded to low so that arty would not run out to rapidly; as I understand it.

[Mr.Frag]

ORIGINAL: MarkShot

ROF was hardcoded to low so that arty would not run out to rapidly; as I understand it.

I completely understand the logic, but it's one of those little "gotta know" things [;)]

[MarkShot]

Para rescue? (in reply to MarkShot)

I haven't been able to get better than a draw on this scenario as the Allies. How do you do better?

When I go straight to the Son Bridge it gets blown up every time. Same with the bridge to the east. I find the only way I've been able to secure the bridge intact, and secure the area, is to go waaay east, cross at the unprimed road bridge, and Assault from the East. I can secure the bridge and the obj, but I do not have the strength to take the northern obj.

Any tips?

Crimguy,

You are in luck! My stickied AAR/tutorial is precisely that battle.

The keys to taking a bridge:

(1) Don't dilly dally. The longer you take, the more enemy arrive and dig in.

(2) If possible set up road blocks and prevent enemy reinforcements from making it into the engagement area. (Of less consequence, in this particular battle.)

(3) Hit the area with arty and prior to making contact with the defenders and continue it until all is secured. Don't worry about friendly fire, the barrage will let up automatically. Make note of defender positions (entrenched garrisons) at scenario start so that you can hit their positions. I think the intel behavior was or is going to be changed for HTTR that garrison intel reports don't time out; unlike other units.

(4) Make a crisp and decisive attack. Be bold and apply maximum pressure. This is no time for a protracted effort of falling back and rallying the troops again. You may want to employ engineers in the attack to secure the bridge or you may want them to hold back out of harms way until the area is secure and issue separate orders at the appropriate time. Your call.

(5) Avoid overly aggressive recon or troops deployments near the bridge. If the garrison feels too threatened, they will blow the bridge.

I hope that helps.

[MarkShot]

Today's Topic: Disruption and Harassment

Well, I think I would like to add a new topic to this thread as derived from a fun scenario I played the other day. It made me realize just how important disruption and harassment can be in a commander's repetoire of tools.

These two alone do not have the power to create a victory. However, they can be contributing factors. Effectively, they can alter the key coeifficients of preparedness, support, and coordination that apply to a major confrontation elsewhere on the map.

The two places I applied these was at the enemy's LZ/DZ and in the rear of the enemy's movement and FUP areas.

[MarkShot]

The DZ/LZ is a place of high enemy vulnerability. He arrives out of formation, disorganized, and totally exposed in largely open ground.

Ideally, if we could, we would love to simply create a pocket out of the area and anihilate him with direct and indirect fires. However, that generally won't be possible as the audacity of the enemy's plan has caught us with our pants down and we are scrambling to cobble together a viable defense with every rag tag unit at our disposal.

So, if we cannot eliminate the enemy as he touches down should we simply accept his landing as a "faite accompli" and move directly towards organizing the defense of his assumed objectives? Not necessarily.

We may lack the strength to mortally wound him, but we certainly can still hope to disrupt him with a small force and some indirect fire. As the off balance defender, we can pursue a strategy of many small blows as opposed to a single decisive blow.

Here is one such example. Over the last 43 minutes, I have been bombarded with reports of an Allied landing in vincinity of Johanna Hoeve. I have but a few hundred men in the vicinity of what looks like to be a few thousands Allied soldiers. They don't train you for stuff like this!

Here take a look.

I'll be back with more later today after lunch and some meetings.

[MarkShot]

So, what to do?

I order KG Weber, about 90 Luftwaffe personel with rifles, to jump in their trucks and race down Johanna Hoeve and boldly attack right into center of the Allied landing. They will fulfill their orders nobly and suffer high casualties as the result. Over the next thirty something hours while making repeated attacks, they will suffer 65% casualties.

However, their contribution will not have been in vain and many German lives will be saved. By striking hard into the LZ/DZ, they will disrupt the Allied effort to rally and begin the march to their objectives. By virtue of their early on the scene presence, they will allow mortars and later artillery to lay down fire on Allied units when they are exposed and thus most vulnerable.

In particular, the delay they cause by disrupting Allied movement out of Johanna Hoeve, will permit road blocks to be quickly set up to the East on the major highways and routes leading towards the critical bridges. The blocking companies will have time to dig-in and properly meet the Allies. Conversely, the success of the road blocks will allow other units in and around the bridges to prepare their defenses.

KG Weber will not have stopped the Allies from ultimately reaching the areas around the bridges, but KG Weber will have changed the odds to be faced in these fights yet to come.

(more to follow later)

[MarkShot]

Here we see that KG Weber has retreated and is preparing to attack out from the tree line again. KG Weber lost 12 men in the last drive, but you can see that they also shook up a few Allied units (that and the indirect fire they called in).