Close Combat: The Bloody First – Basic Tactics Guide

This guide describes some basic tactics to help you deal with the enemy successfully in Close Combat The Bloody First.

Suppression

Suppression is the term used to describe the fact that people tend to keep their heads down while they are being shot at. A soldier with bullets flying around him is less likely to take the time to aim carefully at the enemy when he fires and may not even risk sticking his head up to shoot at all. A suppressed or pinned soldier fires less often, as well as less accurately.

A typical tactic to take advantage of this is often called “Fire and Movement,” where one unit (or more) fires at the enemy while another unit advances. When the advancing unit has reached its new position, it provides covering fire in turn while a unit further back moves up. With their rapid-fire and large ammunition supplies, machine guns are excellent at suppressing enemy troops. High Explosive (HE) ammo from big guns and mortars is also very good at suppressing the enemy.

When using “Fire and Movement,” be careful not to move your own troops into the line of fire. Soldiers can be hit by friendly fire, especially that of machine guns.

Flanking

Flanking describes any attack made from a direction that the enemy is not facing. Units that are being shot at from multiple directions have a hard time finding cover and quickly lose morale. Units being flanked also have a difficult time returning fire when attacked from multiple directions. Flanking is not only a powerful tool against infantry, but in some cases, it may be the only way to deal with enemy tanks that have thick frontal armor, such as the German Panther or Tiger tanks.

Anti-Tank Tactics

Defeating enemy tanks can be difficult and costly, especially in the case of an American Sherman tank faced with the bigger guns and heavier front armor of a German Panther or Tiger tank. To be successful, you need to have reasonable expectations about what your own weapons can do to the enemy tank and use them under conditions that will maximize your chance of a kill. Move your tanks cautiously, and where possible, scout ahead with your infantry. A bold tank might quickly overwhelm enemy infantry, but it could result in high tank losses if there are any enemy anti-tank weapons in the area.

If you find your tank faced with a superior enemy tank or under fire from a hidden anti-tank weapon, you can use a MOVE order to have it reverse back out of sight. When facing enemy tanks, set ambushes and be patient, or try to lure the enemy into them. Anti-tank guns or infantry anti-tank weapons will usually want to hide on AMBUSH until they have a good shot, preferably at the enemy’s thinner side armor, and careful stalking using the SNEAK order will usually give you the best chance of winning a tank on tank engagement.

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