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CMBS help w Cry Havoc

E

ebphoto

Guest
I'm hoping someone can share some tips, tactics etc., with the Cry Havoc mission in CMBS! I'm a little stumped on how to get the bridges covered/ taken without losing a ton of men and equipment. I've tried a few different ways that I thought might work but obviously, since I'm posting this, its not gowing very well. So if anyone could share and advise, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you,
Eriv
 
I'm not really the best player (in fact I'm kind of terrible), but for Cry Havoc, getting across those bridges is probably the biggest hurdle. You have 3 urban "islands", two of which overlook the bridges you need to cross. On your right-hand flank, near the edge of the map, there's a ford going to OBJ WOLVERINE. If I remember how I beat this map correctly, I crossed my infantry over that covered ford first, and cleared Wolverine using typical MOUT tactics. I.e., cover your approach, isolate a building with cover from multiple angles, storm it and clear. In fact, this tactic for me applied to the whole match. Eat your opponent piecemeal.

You have to treat each objective as its own fight; once you're in control of either WOLVERINE or HONEYBADGER, you can smoke the side you haven't cleared, cross your armor, and then pivot the the far corner objective I forget the name of, while blinding/avoiding contact with WOLVERINE/HONEYBADGER. There are some clear covered approaches, especially for your infantry.

Also, judicious use of drones and artillery, especially when it comes to smoke. If you haven't seen General Jack Ripper's Street Fighting, I highly recommend it for dealing with urban environments when you don't have artillery/armored vehicles to help out. Essentially, you leapfrog your approach to a building/position with smoke grenades from your infantry teams, until you can leverage multi-angle firepower. Link here:
 
Awesome! Thank you so much! Its soooooo frustrating when you get taken out over and over again and don't know what your doing! I played this last night and thought I got pretty far and then the Russian helos nailed me! Anyway I'll try what you suggest. I served in the Coast Guard & I wasn't really taught any infantry fighting techniques!. Thanks again...
Eric
 
Zahard,
Fyi, I tried your way, i.e. attacking wolverine first. I laid down a ton of smoke around both bridges and crossed my tanks first, then the Bradley's and followed the river back and into the wooded area. Offloaded the troops and attacked the far eastern side, then working my way into the objective. It worked pretty well with the use of artillery and the Apache's. I did fairly well but it is still a bloodbath. I only have one tank left and about 6 Bradley's & engineers & reg troops. Now working my way into the next bridge/ town ( I can't remember the name). So we'll see what happens!

Anyway, I have a question I'm hoping you can answer. Is there something you have to do to get the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to work? I had three different areas covered by troops with Stingers on the rooftops and they never fired, while my troops got hammered by Russian helicopters! Do you have to put a attack arc or something? It's very frustrating. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with them.

Hey, thanks for the tips, videos etc., Much appreciated bud....

Eric
 
@ebphoto - If you're looking for some land force tactical tutorials, consider the Armchair General vid's on YouTube. These are WW2 but they're very helpful.

Badger,
These videos are great! Thank you, this will help a lot! I wish someone would do this for modern warfare!

Thank you,
Eric
 
Zahard,
Anyway, I have a question I'm hoping you can answer. Is there something you have to do to get the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to work? I had three different areas covered by troops with Stingers on the rooftops and they never fired, while my troops got hammered by Russian helicopters! Do you have to put a attack arc or something? It's very frustrating. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with them.

Hrm. I'm not sure; maybe someone else could say.

And I may try out this scenario myself today, since it's been so long and I'm free. I'll get back to you on this.
 
Yeah, let me know how it goes and if your stingers work.... Maybe when I figure out how to play through email we can play a scenario..

E
 
Funnily enough, I basically didn't have to worry about those helos... when they did hit, it was ineffectual against my armor. Big trick was to keep my vehicles moving.

I elected to cross toward Honeybadger and ignore Wolverine until later. For this, I snuck a forward observer all the way up to the bridge to get eyes on Honeybadger and prep a smoke barrage to blind people from my approach on the bridge. Once I had eyes and had sat taking a look for 2 minutes, I began moving out my Abrams into the open, with different arcs covering sectors that could see the bridge I was crossing. Of course, they got laser warnings, making them pop smoke and back up... That was fine. More smoke to cover my approach. I maneuvered them back into position within the smoke. Once the smoke barrage began to land, I rushed one of my Abrams across, and then a full platoon of my Bradleys w/ my infantry mounted.

One other trick I discovered while playing (I tested it because I was curious,) was that, while moving, vehicles can still pop smoke... And each vehicle can pop smoke at least twice, so, I abused this. My lead bradley, once it reached the bridge, popped smoke, and at the end of its movement to the left-side of the town by a stand of trees, popped smoke just before stopping. The rest of the platoon arrived, and they all dismounted their infantry which dashed into the safety of the woods. 2nd Platoon wasn't far behind the 1st, and ran straight to the town, abusing this new trick I figured out, and mass-popping smoke on arrival at point-blank range to the first row of houses. APS activated from a couple of RPGs, and at such close range (and simultaneously w/ the smoke popping) the Bradleys' TacAI responded with 25mm at the unfortunate russians. 2nd Platoon dismounted, and stormed houses the Russians were just in.

With 1st Platoon on the left-side moving through the forest, and 2nd Platoon in the enemy's face, I closed the door on them and block busted the rest of the objective.

I ended up giving up after I (stupidly) left my Sappers and overall HQ out in the open... The smoke had been clear for awhile, but finally the Russians reacted with tanks of their own. Abrams had been turned the wrong direction... I was out my sappers, I was headless, and I had lost two of my Abrams from rear-shots. Oof.

I think that without that mistake I would have easily been able to pivot over to Jackal, then finally a wide-front assault on Wolverine.

Funnily enough, I was able to accomplish this before the Stingers arrived (I ended the game 2-3 minutes after they had arrived). I also didn't exploit my artillery very much up to that point, though I probably should have. I took some infantry casualties that could have been avoided if I had instead sat back and hammered known Russian positions within Honeybadger.

TL;DR:

Exploit how well-protected and fast your Bradleys and Abrams are. They're also very deadly and accurate at long distances due to training and optics. A lot of my block-busting I did lazily with my Bradleys -- Russians taking potshots at my infantry? Flatten the whole building with two of my Bradleys. Even my infantry squads are very robust and deadly. At a long distance, with fewer resources than any other faction, you can attain local fire superiority very quickly. If you see it, it's dead so long as you can shoot first, or at least survive their opening salvo.

Big dangers in the scenario are the enemy MBTs (T-90s I believe) and the Helos if you stay still for too long. Everything is deadly for your infantry, so keep them moving, in cover, or hidden for as long as possible. If you see shells landing nearby to your positions, either move forward or fall back/displace to preserve your pixeltruppen.

Also, don't just leave your rear hanging in the wind in the direction of enemy positions. We call this a "Zahard mistake".
 
Your AAR was very good! Now all you need is some screenshots and you’ll be up there with the big boys :). You did what I did the first few times I tried the scenario & quit a after making big mistakes. I still haven’t quit this latest go around but I can already see my mistake. I’m sitting too long. I need to some how keep moving. I don’t see how to do that without loosing a ton of troops & equipment? I’ve already lost a lot. Most due to the T90 counter attack @ obj. Wolverine. Mostly urban fighting. I guess I’ll hv to see what happens and try to use more smoke! I was using the Bradley’s pop smoke thing quit a bit but didn’t know they could do it on the move! Good find! I’ve been stopping them to do it every time. Any tips on how to keep up momentum? Thx for the report.
Eric
 
Local fire superiority. Abuse the fact that the Bradleys can take (some) punishment, and that they move so quick. If you want, you can even bring in your Abrams. There are no preserve objectivss in the scenario.

Don't be afraid to re-mount, even partially.
 
Hey I forgot to ask. Do you know the minimum range for Javelin teams? It would be nice to know how far they must be kept to use their Javelins. That could’ve come in handy with the T90 counter attack. They came rushing in & I think they were too close for the teams to use them. They were in great positions just too close.
Thx
 
I'm not sure there is a minimum range? But the farther the better. Javelins can hit from far away relatively stealthily.
 
Well, the Javilins worked at 50 yards! I didn't think it would ot that they'd shoot it at that distance, but thank goodness they did! I honestly thought it took longer for the missile to go up and activate! Those T90s like to rush you, come in fast and get close to mess your troops up! Those guys got digitized back to digital heaven quickly, then out of the blue fired a javelin and got even. I thought it was over. Now I have one more objective. Hopefully my losses Rent too great to still pull off a victory.
E
 
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