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So, my son and I have all of 4 games under our belts now and I think the part I'm having the hardest time with is assaults. I'm looking for any collective wisdom and pointers about how to prepare for assaults and I think more importantly, how to defend against assaults. The last two games basically went down to the wire, where my defenders on the objectives were pushed off by a last turn assault. In both of these cases, there were woods directly in front of the objective and I'm thinking that I should have pushed out defenders forward so that they were on the other side to take away the opportunity to use the woods as cover. Also, what the wisdom on attaching units like HMGs. If I attach them to a platoon, they are more survivable, but then if I sniper pins the platoon, everything is pinned.

It really depends on a lot for factors. Perhaps you could give a brief overview of the forces you have available to you. Fearless Veteran MG teams have a whole different strategy to Reluctant Conscript Rifle teams. Some troops will try to win assaults in melee, others will try to win them by defensive fire and some will win by forcing you to retreat.

Without knowing what you have I can tell you that defence in depth is key to holding objectives. You should plan to defend against assaults while pinned and against concealed troops because any good opponent will plan to assault with these two factors on their side.

I play German Panzergrenadiers. Generally I will try to prevent assault happening by attaching HMGs to my combat platoons and defensive placement of armour (any Tank team with at least one MG) near the objective.

We're playing an Infantry Aces escalation league, so we've been playing 600 and 800 points games (no transport or tank teams). We're playing Panzergrenadiers. I was informed yesterday that MG teams get 2 ROF even when pinned ... so a big oops on our part. In the last game, I had 2 HMGs atached to the defending platoon, but one was guarding a flank from another platoon.

The scenario we were playing was Breakthrough, we were the attackers with Nisei defending. We placed the two objectives up against a trenchline, with the intent that if we sat on the objectives, we'd have bulletproof cover against one the platoons maneuvering against us.

We had one platoon of PzG's with 2 attached HMGs attacking from our table quarter with a 4 gun platoon or 12cm mortars and a 2 gun section of 15cm rocket launchers in support. The second platoon of PzG's deployed from the opposite table edge, near the objectives on Turn 2. They also had 2 HMGs attached.

The platoon got pinned by a sniper, so went from 21 dice in defensive fire to 8, which should have been 13 had I realized defending MG teams get 2 dice.

In hindsight, I could have placed the objectives better so that they weren't right on the trenchline. Had I put them back a little closer to the edge, I could have defended more forward and still had room to fall back. Additionally, I could have used my flank HMG to fire on any attackers on the obj.

Ifurita wrote:We're playing an Infantry Aces escalation league, so we've been playing 600 and 800 points games (no transport or tank teams). We're playing Panzergrenadiers. I was informed yesterday that MG teams get 2 ROF even when pinned ... so a big oops on our part. In the last game, I had 2 HMGs atached to the defending platoon, but one was guarding a flank from another platoon.

Actually, LMGs get RoF 2 when pinned, HMGs get RoF 3 (1/2 normal RoF for infantry and gun teams, rounded down) when pinned in V3. So yes, you should generally not assault HMGs with infantry, they can still hurt them even when pinned.

Page 114, MG teams get 2 ROF when pinned, but only 1 (3 rounded down) when moving.

The key to beating back assaults is defensive fire, you will need at least 10 shots to have a decent chance of pinning an assaulting veteran infantry platoon and as defending teams now need to be within 8" this has become more difficult but it shouldn't be that hard for MG teams.

the best way of doing it is to keep HMGs at key points. Something to think about it spacing an HMG platoon out amongst your infantry (but not combat attached) as they can still fire at assaulting teams within 8" but may well have escaped pinning. Failing that interspersing your infantry platoons can also work but beware of bombardments.

When assaulting always pin the defending platoon first, use smoke to grant concealment and try to assault from the flanks as infantry teams can't fire over each other so only a couple of bases will typically be able to engage.

Looking back, I can definately see an argument about not attaching the 2 HMG teams on the flanking force. While that would have led to some additional variability on what forces showed up on the flank and where, it would have given me an extra SMG command team for firepower and a little more flexibility regarding loss of ROF due to pins.

Ifurita wrote:Page 114, MG teams get 2 ROF when pinned, but only 1 (3 rounded down) when moving.

That is the infantry weapon MG, the HMG is a separate man packed team, with RoF 6 and RoF 3 pinned (pg. 116).

Yes, I had 5 MG stands and 1 HMG stand. The HMG stand (Weapons Platoon) was attached and correctly got the 3 ROF for defensive fire. However, we only calcuated 1 ROF for each of the MG teams (Panzergrenadier Platoon), instead of the 2 we should have, so we cheated ourselves of 5 dice, which probably was the difference between a win and a loss.

I haven't played a 3rd edition game yet (1st game tomorrow in fact!), but it seems like Assaults look like they will be a lot more effective with that 8" rule for defensive fire..

what was the old rule for defensive fire? I've only played 3rd ed.

I learned a good assult lesson last nite.
Here is the scenario
101st Airborne Paras were holed up in a couple ruined farm houses and perimeter set up with Bazoookas and 30.cals.
Well here is what happened,Had him outnumber by 1.5 vs 1 ratio. After a 75mm howiter shot took out their tank support.Then i opened fired with the rest of the armor support causing fifteen hits resulting in only a few deaths.Next my Panzer grendiers got ready for the assult and needless to say the Paras defensive fire was devasting leaving me with only three stands left.What a masscare that was the last round so the stubborn 101st. Went on to narrow win again.So next time for assult iam going to outnumber them 2 to 1.That defensive fire is just a mean Bi@#h sometimes.

when the batttle was done we thought it reminded us of Frosts perimeter last stand, from a Bridge too far.
Well, maybe i will try it again next week and just hope our Para player does not make them last two turn lucky rolls!
Also for next weks game i am going to step it up a notch and try my luck at the 12th Panzer SS and use more Half tracks and lesss Panzers and Stugs.

Were you attacking with one platoon or multiple platoons?

Ifurita wrote:Were you attacking with one platoon or multiple platoons?

I was attacling with 2 platoons and back up by 2 Panzer IV,Left flank kinda survived.It was one platoon with a tank same for the ritght that got mauled.The left flank got pinned down by Barrages.

Ifurita wrote:what was the old rule for defensive fire? I've only played 3rd ed.

In the past any platoon within 4" of an assaulting enemy stand could fire and every unit of that platoon could fire if they were within 16". This resulted in huge 'daisy chains' of defensive fire involving multiple platoons which were almost impossible to assault (I once took defensive fire from over 20 infantry teams). It was a system open to abuse and I'm very glad that it has been much improved.