Tricks and Trade

By Cal_71

Urban Warfare, now there are two words that will get my attention on even the worst of days. Photographic images that show such places as the gutted and twisted ruins of Stalingrad come to mind. Alan Clark wrote a book called, Barbarossa, The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-1945. In his book, Clark speaks about the conditions of the fighting that took place in the urban nightmare that was the Battle of Stalingrad:

"At Stalingrad each separate battle resolved itself into a combat between individuals. Soldiers would jeer and curse at their enemy across the street; often they could hear his breathing in the next room while they reloaded; hand-to-hand duels were finished in the dark twilight of smoke and brick dust with knives and pickaxes, with clubs and twisted steel (220)."

This is what urban warfare is all about, getting in close with your enemy and literally fighting him for every room. With this in mind I would like to take the time and offer some advice on how to use your army in an urban setting. One of the most important things that any commander must do before a battle starts is to MAKE SURE they know the battlefields in which they are fighting. Learn the battlefield like the back of your hand by being aware of every " Line of Sight" (LOS). It doesn't pay to put an AT gun in a area that has little to no visibility to your enemy, so before you hit the "Begin" button make sure you take the time and check literally every units LOS ( trust me on this... its saved my butt more than once..check on every one of your units... DON'T ASSUME!)

Once you become aware of the terrain of the battlefield, it than becomes time for you to use it for your own advantage and making all that urban rubble work for your own army's benefit. Now think about it for a minute, vast man-made concrete and steel structures are all blown to pieces with their wreckage lying across the battlefield for you to use! Any defensive army that is dug into this kind of environment can extract a dreadful toll on the attacking army. Pay attention to the piles of rubble that are impassable to armored vehicles and tanks. All this rubble will restricted the movement of armor into areas that you (or your enemy) already controls and their path of attack becomes easily aware to you (and vise versus to your enemy).
    
So what is the solution Cal ?!? How can I buy an army that will roll into the streets like the "Red Army?" You can't, especially if you are facing an opponent who knows what their doing and is dug-in and willing to fight you for every room and passage way. Here you must pay close attention to the units that you buy and more importantly, you must pay VERY close attention to where you place these units. From my own experiences I found that defending is almost always easier, but its not a guaranteed thing that you will win if you simply sit on your ass and wait for the enemy to attack you. The battlefield is a constantly changing environment in which you must move units around to avoid needless looses and to "take the innovative and attack the your enemy when he makes a mistake."

Several points to use on a urban battlefield in STEPS

 Key points to remember when playing a urban map:

Buy JSU 152 or JSU 152 tanks to support your infrantry attack. Always "soften up an area before you send in your troops" Don't be stingy about your ammo!!! Use it to kill enemy units.. there is nothing worse than a tank getting killed with all its ammo on board.

Know your units LOS. Don't let your attacking units get their asses out there and find out that they cant draw on the support of your tanks. At the same time DON'T PUT YOUR TANKS ON THE FRONT LINE WITHOUT INFANTRY SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!! I've seen to many tanks get killed because they where foolishly placed on the front line without infantry support. Infantry will help improve your tanks visibility (sitting inside a steel tank will have a severe limitation on the tankers ability to see.)

Watch out for Russian Combat Engineers (flame-thrower's)

Buy two or more command units.

Be careful with any SP tank (self-propelled) you place on the map. If the tank become "immobile" than you basically have a very expensive pillbox with a very limited field of fire. Tanks with turrets are generally a better deal, but SP guns do have their advantages.
If you got any ideas or stragies that you would like to share than drop a line to the GDS website and thanks to all the players who helped me learn some of these " tricks of the trade." I would like to take the time to express my apprection to SGT_Saunders and the GDS CLAN website for letting me write this atricle.

Cal