The art of using troops

[[panzer]]

Looking for any advice on the best way to use troops as ive found through much displeasure theat they can be very deadly. Any advice on positioning, supporting roles ect would be welcomed. Dont be afraid to post screenies.
TY

[ShermansWar]

Use them to scout, get them dismounted, move them ahead( as much as 1500 meters) from the brads. Hide them, use them as Listening posts, dont be afraid to spread them out. I will use the dismounts from a platoon of APCs 500 meters apart, up to 800 meters, so I can get intel across a rathe large frontage. as they make contact, move them up behind the enemy and shoot them from behind.Close range, under 200 meters is best.

They can also be used , not as scouts, but, if you have a lot, to infest an area, a particular peice of woods, for instance, to make it lethal for the tanks, but thats not worth it unless you have at least 2 plattons to throw in there.

Human wave tactics are also not to be overlooked. If you've got a scenario on a bald or largley open map, with a shitload of grunts, sending 20 squads across open ground under the cover of fire definitley forces the other guy to react. if he exposes, you blast him with your tanks. If he doesnt, then he has a mess of troops on his forward slopes, spotting for arty, harrassing him, eventually making the situation untenable. the least effective way i've found to use them is grouped as a platoom, over a narrow front. they are wasted that way, unless they have a lot of support., in which case you dont really need them anyway. often, i use a single squad off to a flank to give me a sounding contact , to see if the enemy is approacjhing from a quarter i otherwise dont have the resources to guard.

[[panzer]]

Cheers 4 that sherman. Some very helpful advice.

[Gunfighter]

http://www.steelbeasts.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=2893&highlight=player+specific+tactics

Well recorded..

[Floydii]

TROOPS IN THE ATTACK:

Unless you have LOTS of dead ground to work with, Troops are only truly effective when the Enemy comes into their grid square and is surprised by them.

If you have to use them in the assualt/attack. Try to get your PC's into the closest dead ground or heavy vegetation to the enemy position (under 300 meters is best, it really pays to do some 3d recon in planning here), dimount the infantry, and then set an engage/slow right through the enemy postion (PCs and infantry. It may sound suicidal, but attacking with Infantry generally is.

You can drastically improve your chances by:
:arrow: Dropping lots of HE and smoke on the enemy position before hand to kill/damage enemy units and limit the enemies ability to engage the whole body of your assualt force at once.
:arrow: Having another PC platoon provide fire support from a position perpendicular to your direction of attack. It will divide the enemy's attention and hopefully force him to take new fighting positions that give your assualt troops good RPG shots.
:arrow: Getting close. When you think you are close enough.. get closer. except for the M1, the AFV's in SB can only engage one target at any given moment, so swarm them. Use killed vehicles to cover your approach from the live ones. RPGs are alot more accurate when the guy using it could also spit on his target. Finally, Unless your enemy is aiming for a Pyrric victory, His Arty won't be a problem as you are too close.
:arrow: Numbers: Sure it only takes 1 round to kill a grunt, but if there are 20 of them, and the AFV has to turn it's turret to aquire the next one, it becomes a numbers game which will result in char grilled tanker 80% of the time.
:arrow: Attacking reasonable targets. If old mate is dug in with a platoon of Tanks and an company of Mech Infantry, you better have a Battalion to thow at him. If you want to win, don't go attacking armour across open ground, or an infantry position that is equal or greater in numbers to your own unit. 3 attackers to each defender is a good ratio to work with.

As Sherman said, use them as scouts. They don't make a noise, and the tiniest cover will mask them. You'd be surpised how many T72's you can bag with a carefully managed squad.

Steel Beasts is NOT an Infantry simulator (doesn't claim to be last time I checked either), the Mechanised battlefield puts Infantry firmly at the bottom of the food chain. But if you utilise them effectively, they can put a dint in the Enemy's forces.

[ShotMagnet]

Don't forget that they often find a target not looking in their direction. I've pegged more than one AFV that didn't see my squad. Dismounts create no engine noise, and I suspect that the game has a harder time spotting them as a result.

Put them in cover that will also let them move quickly to a good ambush spot. I personally have had a lot of success stationing a squad just to one side of a road running through the middle of a patch of woods.

Infantry are ambush predators; they won't last long in any head-on encounter with anything more robust than a rabbit. So don't put them in a position where they'll likely get into head-on encounters.

As noted, they also make great scouts. A useful tactic is to use them as bird-dogs, finding targets which you can then move firepower out to deal with.


Shot