pztowns

The defender of a town holds several advantages from the outset as listed here (in no particular order).

1. The buildings provide a 2 column modifier in the defenders favour against, Direct Fire, Bombardment and Assault as well as a 1 column modifier against Anti-Tank Fire.

2. All units in a town that attempt recovery from disruption or demoralisation do so with their own morale increased by one point. This is especially useful when trying to recover from an enemy pre-assault bombardment.

3. Demoralised units that must run for cover can simply move deeper into the town, often avoiding opportunity fire that is lethal to them. Demoralised units leaving an assault hex in a town to move deeper within, still get the town benefit if the 'assaulters' choose to attack the unit as it leaves the assault hex.

4. Units in a town have their visibility range increased by 6 hexes, this means that a leader on the edge of a town can spot for artillery and disrupt an enemy attack long before it reaches the town. Spotting is not an action so does not cause the leader himself to be spotted.

5. Towns count as limiting terrain so unless units at the towns' edge fire, they cannot be spotted by an enemy more than 3 hexes away. This makes it very difficult for an attacker to use a lot of artillery before an attack goes in simply because the target remains unspotted.

6. Movement within a town cost 1 MP for all units, this is a big benefit (particularly the mech + motorised units) for defenders to shift around reserves internally within the town.

7. Enemy (and your own) AFVs have a modifier against them in Assault if they become separate from their supporting infantry. If an enemy combined stack of AFV + infantry enter a town hex, consider using artillery to chase away the infantry, leaving the AFV more vulnerable to a counter assault by defending units. Using defensive artillery within the town makes friendly fire a slightly less risky prospect due to the defensive benefits from the buildings.

8. Optional rule 17.3 allows units to use strategic movement (twice normal movement allowance) if a unit remains out of the enemy Line Of Sight. This effectively allows much greater freedom of movement within the town and to it's rear (blind side) allowing reinforcements to enter faster or retiring units to clear from the town quickly and safely.

9. You have absolute certainty that the attacker is going to have to come adjacent to the town and halt in the OPEN before assaulting, You can prepare for that moment by having a reserve that can move to the point of crisis. 3 units and a good leader will almost certainly get you onto the 16 FirePower column, up 1 for opportunity fire, up 2 for adjacent fire would give you an attack on the 45+ column - more times than not, that is going to inflict some serious harm on the attackers intentions.

Other Points:
If an enemy stack containing one or more AFVs assaults a defender that contains an anti-tank gun, remember that that A/T units can make A/T attacks within an assault hex, this allows the defender to harm the attackers without exposing all of the defenders to the perils of the assault table.

Avoid putting artillery pieces on the edge of a town unless you need them to fire over open sights - their gun flashes will neutralise the benefits of limiting terrain.

Firstly, we can look at some benefits that the attacker may have.

1. Night reduces visibilty down to 1 hex but is quite intensive in it's use of leaders (night movement rules). Since a disrupted leader can only activate it's own hex, the rigours of battle can quickly bring the attack to a halt.

2. If you can catch defenders moving from the interior to the edge of the town then the Opportunity Fire modifier might make the deployment of a firegroup worthwhile rather than having everything move onto the town.

3. Artillery is best fired over open sights (for the modifier) and select mortar / artillery as targets or units stacked threes. A combination of just two of these alone will negate the town defence modifier.

4. Engineers give a +1 in assault and they can be spread amongst the attacking stacks. They get a further +1 if all the attackers are engineers.

5. Remember that even a small amount of blocking terrain, blocks the whole hex for the purpose of Line of Sight rules. this means that due to the shape of a town some defenders in the town will have quite a narrow field of vision, the attacker should be aware of these when planning the avenue of approach.

6. Terrain may be a factor, choosing an avenue of approach that gives good cover will obviously reduce the amount of risk to the attacker but also may provide the attacker with the opportunity to use strategic movement. Woods are the obvious consideration here.

Preliminary moves:
1. Provoke the defence into firing and giving away their positions, send a few units and a leader forward, move them around the town so that they threaten to infiltrate towards the rear. If the enemy don't respond you get the chance to spot for artillery and maybe infiltrate into the cover of the town.

2. Provide enough resources to do the job, being distracted too early by a secondry objective will over stress the attacking force. Get the attackers up to within a couple of moves of the town, if you do get an artillery opportunity, any damage it does will be wasted if the defenders (with their +1 morale modifier) have chance to fully recover.

3. Use stacks of 2 for assault forces on a narrow front of 3 or 4 hexes wide and 2 deep (intending to initially assault 1 or 2 hexes at most). Ensure there are enough leaders to keep the attack force moving, plus 1 for stragglers plus 1 as a spare if possible. The assault force should keep going until it becomes adjacent and maintain stacks of 2 as disrupted stragglers fall behind. If the defence have good A/T guns, hang back with your armour unless you have equally good armour, let the infantry deal with them.

4. Once adjacent and In the same turn, consider using artillery to bombard the hex(es) you intend to attack, the decsion is harder to make in a Russian attack due to the increased risk of friendly fire.

Assaulting the town:
1. Hopefully the attacker gets the initiative in the next turn. Regardless of the casualties taken, assault rather than make adjacent fire. Concentrate the units and leaders at specific points. Moving into the hex effectively locks those defenders down and allows follow up units to move up safely.

2. As soon as possible (next turn !), bring up the machine guns and tanks (if any). Pull disrupted and demoralised units out of assaults and feed a machine gun and AFV unit back in, assaulting immediately. This gives a powerful attacking stack, a combined arms modifier and may subdue any defensive anti-tank capability before it has chance to fire.

3. Having reserves for each assault stack is quite important, After 2 turns, again pull out disrupted and demoralised units, replacing them with fresh units. Remember units attemting to recover in a town get +1 to their morale.

4. Don't let AFVs get isolated within the town, they will suffer a penatly if attacked. Isolated AFVs that get swarmed by enemy infantry can be rescued by dropping artillery onto your own position.

5. Poweful stacks containing AFVs may be able to push forward faster than your non AFV / MG stacks, be aware of the danger of AFVs pushing deep into a position only to find that they have put themselves into a crossfire position with enemy AFVs or anti-tank weapons.

6. In multiple objective games, once inside the town, take a moment to step back and re-evaluate how much stuff you need to secure the town and what can be drawn off to deal with the next objective.