Pzt GJS Strat Guide

Command:

- Your Command squads are essential for troop morale on the battlefield.By pressing the space bar in game you can see the radius of influence a particular command squad has.
Altough this is their immediate area of influence they also help keep the overall morale of the battle group up, so losing Command squads has a terrible effect on your troops morale...keep your command squads behind your other troops as reserve rather then putting them in front line spots.

- Obviously, smoe Command squads are more efficient than others, both at keeping your troops at check and actual combat.

- For the Germans the SS command squads are by far the best, rallying to unbelievable feats, armed to the teeth and fanatical fighters, they will hang on when all seems to be lost.

- As with all Allied infantry units, command squads do not carry anywhere near the firepower of their German equivalent. Their anti-tank capability practically zero (except open turret tanks and armoured cars) and their long range ability is limited. Their best use is making sure your troops morale holds during fighting and beating off close assaults (the airborne command teams are particularly good at close quarter fighting.

- You can always take a command vehicle instead of a command infantry team. When the vehicle is destroyed you still can order this command unit around.

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Recon:

Scouts are lightly armed, they are quickly and stealthly. They are faster and less likely to be discovered than average infantry. Scouts are particularly usefull in urban combat. We all know that, it is in the "User manual". Most of us use them for grabbing those first VL's and for fast gains of territory. Let's go a little deeper into this:
1. Detection:
   Scouts main advantage is they are harder to detect. If you leave them in ambush in enemy territory, as long as the enemy doesn't walk over them, they will
   usually pass right by them, your choice to attack from behind, or sneak on and steal some important VL's in the last minutes of the game. You can easily give
   them an assignment to gain some ground in difficult situations. A good example is Gold Beach, at higher strength settings, outgunning those Pak40's in the
   bunkers gets really hard, so a good strategy is gain ground by sneaking some infantry teams around. The ability of staying hidden is much greater for the recon
   teams than for any other infantry team. But remember if you use the "move" or the "move fast" order, they are as easy to see as anyone else! Recon teams are
   also harder to find once you enter a building, and try to kill them with tank support. Can make a big difference for holding the line!
2. Spotting:
   A recon team is better in spotting the enemy than regular infantry. And the better the experience and the morale of this team, the better they perform this job.
   Put a recon squad in a high building, and you can see almost everything.
   And it seems (at the game end) that they capture more ground than regular teams.If you send a normal team on a run to take ground, it's just a thin line of
   territory they take, but recon takes perhaps twice as much!
3. Moving:
   It's not only that they are fast, these teams also don't get fatigued as soon as other troops. The recon team can "sneak" much longer before they get winded.
4. Fighting:
   A recce team running into an enemy team has the perfect weaponryfor such a close range encounter - smg's.
   What looks more like a scout that should avoid combat if possible, turns out to be a hard hitting combat team compared to the much bigger rifle and Bren
   sections, if used properly. The armament is quite different from most other units - only 1 rifle, but 3 smg's (for a 4 men squad), only 1 rifle makes long range
   fire fights a big no-no for this unit. What it does best is short range fighting in dense terrain. Close not only because its weapons are short ranged, but also
   because it is a small team. In enclosed areas, there is a good chance that individual soldiers will have no LOS on the enemy, while others have. Think about a
   rifle team advancing along a hedgerow. When they encounter the enemy, the first two soldiers will fight the enemy at 10 m distance, while the other 5 men are
   still without LOS. The same applies for fights within buildings.
   This way, the recce team can kill the enemy soldiers quickly and one by one, should they be stupid enough to advance without mortar support, vastly superior
   numbers, of similar equipment and experience.
5. Different squads:
   U.K.: this side has a few different recce squads. From "Recce inf." (3 men) and "Recce team" (4 men, the "Vet. Recce team" has a higher morale and
            leadership ), to the bigger "AB Recce Section" (7 men). Don't go into attack with the first two, just use them to take those VL's, gain ground, to spot the
            enemy and to defend your flank. The "AB Section", that's something else. Not only that they are with twice as much, they carry a Piat and a Bren. When
            you lose some of them in first encounters, you will still be able to defend a house or hedge with the rest. I like to use them whenever I can. Especially
            against those German armoured carsand open vehicles. And they can even attack and win against most German infantry teams. Look at their experience
            and morale, it's always high.
   Germans: here we have even more different troops. A regular "Aufklärer" team with 3 or 5 men, a "PzGren Aufklärer" team, 5 men, with a MG42 (the "long
            range" version, but with limited ammo) or Faust 30, and the "SS Aufklärer" with Faust 30 and HHL (very tough guys). There is a "Späher" too with a
            sniper rifle (spotter and sniper in one! In a high Bell Tower, could be fun).

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Infantry:

- There are a lot of different infantry squads available in GJS 4.3, German and British. But there are to many variants of them to talk about them all.
German: Regular infantry squads vary from Ost (Eastern) troops to the elite SS units. Infantry are the mainstay of any battlegroup and the German SS, Panzer
                  Grenadiere and even regular infantry are the cream. The majority has fantastic firepower and combined with anti-tank capability they are capable to
                  any task assigned to them. They have awesome MG-teams (light & heavy), and most of the grenadiers have those killer grenade-shooting-rifles. The
                  Germans are without any doubt better equipped than the UK infantry.
   U.K.:     Most of them are Rifle- and Bren sections. But they have a Vickers MG too (firepower ok, but heavy to carry along). The British troops are better in,
                  more rifles, fighting fromm a distance. Off course, they have some elite troops as well, the Commando's.
                  These Commando's have the highest morale and experience possible, plus quite a bit more automatic weapons compared to regular infantry teams,
                  and additional demo charges. They are best used at close range, and are pretty deadly at that.

- Infantry battle:
   When no tanks available, selecting a BG is a little bit different.
   You want to outnumber, overwhelm and saturate your opponent with men and guns. Just an example of a good infantry group, for the Germans it's the same,
    just pick the counterparts: 3 Command teams
                                           2 Bren or Assault teams
                                           1 Bren team or 81mm Mortar team
                                           1 81mm Mortar team
                                           8 Rifle teams
This comes to about 97 soldiers, 93 of them are assault troops. Here are a few tips:
   1. Never pick Recon teams, AT-infantry, 2 men Flamethrower teams, or 5 men Assault teams.
   2. Always pick the elite Mortar team, even if it's a lower caliber. They will fire much more accurate.
   3.Always have mortars firing at likely advances as soon as the timer starts.
   4. Leave one Command team by your mortars for the 1st 3 to 5 minutes of the game, then move them up to their platoon.
   5. Number your mortar teams by selecting them and pressing cntrl+1+2 etc. to quick pick them when you see enemy troops running.
   6. Never pick MG's unless you are working with a very depleted battalion. MG's don't fight well in close quarters and you lose about 3 to 4 men (and weapons)
       off your total strength. A 7 men assault team is much stronger!
   7. Get your Bren teams up high and use them as your firebase. Once the Bren gunners are out of ammo move the team forward and use them as you would use
       any assault team.
   8. The rifle teams are light and more manoeuverable. The Bren sections have more firepower but are heavier. They are great in defence and still can assault.
   9. The assault teams: you have to get them in very close before employing them. If you have large areas to cover ditch the assault teams, they will be tired
       when they arrive.
10. LAST but not LEAST, use the command teams. Without command support, the other teams lose their strength very easily.

- Bounding over-watch
is very necessary when moving towards and engaging an objective. Leaving a squad out by themselves with no bounding over-watch will always result in failure
whenever stepping into an enemy ambush. How will you suppress enemy fire with a squad that is itself suppressed? It just doesn't work.You must have at least
one other squad in ambush bounding over-watch position and covering the path of the forward squad to lay firepower on ambushing enemy forces.
Leapfrogging your squads, one covering the other as they forward advance. (more in the "Attack" section)

- More on infantry deploy:
*I normally place my troops in "ambush" at the back of a house if the following applies:
1. The approach to the house is long
2. If the infantry is running fast they will enter the house 1 by 1 which makes it easier to kill them. Plus having them at the back makes it hard for the enemy to
      ID the team and suppress the team from the front.
* Don't put them at the back in a house when:
1. The enemy has just to cross the street, then put your men up front. An assault team running into a house that's 20meters away will all enter at approx the
      same time and hand to hand fighting will take place. Avoid that, get them in the streets.
2. Another tactic is placing your teams in a house behind the house the enemy will run inside of. Normally your team will get the advantage in killing the other
      team first. Watch out for flame-throwers, they are the wildcards of this game.
Off course it is all a case by case judgement call.

*I have found that units placed in "defend" afford a better reaction than "ambush" in buildings.

*And what to so is, whenever I think there is going to be a hand to hand fight, I give the "move fast" order right though and past the enemy squad. This helps
    preventing my team from lying on the ground or standing there like stunned idiots while the enemy squad bayonets them all.

- Scavenging:
When the battle is long and hard, a lot of your troops will fall out of ammo. Don't forget that you can search for some extra ammo around the dead bodies. And
   not only from your own side, but from the enemy as well. It is even possible to pick up a flamer or bazooka and kill the last enemy tank with it.
   Remember this!


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MG's:

Attacking them:
LMG's (light machine guns) and HMG's (heavy machine guns) when dug in well, are very powerful weapons. Just be sure when manoeuvring your troops, you    are not exposing yourself to a MG. They are deadly and with a command team nearby, they can wreck havoc on your infantry. The key to defeating them is to:
1. cloud their vision ; place smoke in front of a suspected HMG nest to block their LOS.
2. suppress them with mortar and gun fire, as you may know a suppressed enemy has a hard time returning fire.
3. use some heavy firepower to take out the nest. Bazooka's , tanks, flamers or even your own MG's.
4. set up a frontal distraction, and then attack the MG from the flanks, making sure not to run into an ambush. The MG's weakness (esp.HMG) is that it takes
     some time for them to move, set-up and reload rounds, so you should take advantage of these weakensses.
5. use a sniper (or two) from some distance and in a nice high spot.

Defending with them:
See the "Defence" section.

Attacking with them:
You can't really use them to attack enemy positions, the team is to small and they don't have the right stuff to do so. But you surely can use them to support any
attack of your other teams and suppress the enemy. And you can use them to destroy stationary troops of the opponent (guns and open topped vehicles). But
ypu need to do it the right way. Look out with attacking them from the front, one or two shots out of the gun can take your MG out. And an AT-gun has frontal
armour, so you only are going to suppress it. They (like the most units in CC5) are more vulnerable from the side and behind, you will take out the crew quite
quickly. If there are no leaders close to the gun, the crew will abandon it after sustaining prolonged fire. And even if you only take out one- or two crew
members it will vastly low down the guns rotation rate, so you can then easily flank it with a tank for a side kill shot.
Two exections: the German FG44 assault gun and the British Bren gun. Troops carrying these weapons can attack (7 men in one team) or rush into enemy
positions.

German side:
A well-placed MG34/42 can throw an enemy advance/assault into chaos very quickly. The high rate of fire and ammo load of the Schwere teams can easily hold
off infantry for an entire game. Jusy remember moving them means set up time when they get to their new position and depending on the morale / experience of
the team this can mean a couple of minutes. Also they tire quickly when running. They have a lot of ammo and equipment plus the gun and stand, that's a lot for
four guys to carry.

Brtish side:
The Vickers HMG isn't very manoeuvrable, so you have to give it a nice spot in the deploy stage. You really can't run with this MG!
The only unit on this side with some attacking MG power is the Bren section (or -group). You have to remember that, when moving fast, the guy with the Bren
will stay more and more behind.

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Schreck &Piat:

- Infantry can only fight tanks in close terrain. Use broken terrain, vegetation,
and urban areas to deny enemy tanks their key advantages of mobility and stand
off range. Positions with deep and narrow sectors of fire - "keyhole" - positions,
are best for AT missiles. Your AT positions should have protection on both sides,
with a narrow sector of fire limited to one tank. This protects you from return
fire of mutiple enemies. If only one tank is engaged, only that tank might see
you to return fire. When enemy vehicles cannot over-watch eachother, and
concentrate their fires against you, their mutual support is defeated.
Observers and flank defenders need wide visibility, but AT missiles need the
concealment and protection of narrow keyhole sectors. Fighting against well
coordinated enemy armour and and infantry forces is challanging. If you
attack the infantry, the tanks counterattack. If you attack the tanks, the infantry
counterattacks. Separate the tanks from the infantry then kill the tanks first. AT
teams are especially vulnerable to enemy infantry. Protect their flanks. AT
teams should withdraw when discovered and attacked by enemy infantry.
Establish supplementary positions to attack tanks in different sectors.
(from CCMarines WB)

- The "user manual" says: let them (Schreck & Piat) on their own. Don't give them the order to fire your self. Well, IMO, that's a mistake! I had many tank kills
   when I ordered my AT team to fire. Especially with the Schreck. It usually doesn't fire from a far distance by itself. And when you leave the team alone,
   waiting to fire on its own, it can be too late because of the tank is out of LOS or the enemy infantry is suppressing your AT team, maybe killed it already.

Piat: - The Piat misses the range and power of the Schreck. The effective range is under 60 m. and it isn't easy to get them close enough to an enemy vehicle,
            especially against experienced players. But in close terrain and urban battles, and from a two story building, I had great succes waiting in ambush with a
            Piat and then hitting any vehicle that comes nearby. Wait in ambush as long as possible, always with a command team nearby, waiting for a tank to get
            very close (20-40m) and then let them have it. The Piat's rapid reload rate and effectiveness at close range have been a lucky charm for me even when
            fighting the Tigers and Panthers.
          - There is another unit that carries the Piat, the AB Recon Section. Seven men with 2 Rifles, 3 Stens and a Bren. When they are available, I always take a
             team or two. But, beware, it can be difficult to get the man with the Piat to shoot at a vehicle (he isn't always in front of the team!).
          - Piats were meant to destroy tanks and vehicles, but you can assault or defend against infantry as well. Two ways to do this:
             1. Toggle the Piat team in "ambush" and "defend" mode (maybe several times). The team will go back to the Piat and fire one shot. After that you have
                 to repeat the order(s) again.
             2. This works all the time. When you are aiming with the Piat, you don't need a direct hit on the enemy (red dot). Target with an indirect hit (brown
                 dot). The man with the Piat will shoot it until it's empty.
           - Always have another team nearby to watch over the Piat team. Because of the short range and the small team (only 2 men with 1 Sten), it's very
             vulnerable to enemy infantry.

Schreck: - This is an awesome weapon against enemy tanks & other vehicles. It can destroy tanks (every British tank) up to 150m. and even more. In fact you
                   can use it against every enemy unit that shows up. Try it against any vehicle, AT-gun and even infantry.
                - To shoot at infantry you can use the same tricks as with the Piat team.
                - The Schreck isn't that defenceless as the Piat. It has one soldier extra (3 men with rifles), and it can target on the enemy from a greater distance,
                   giving them more time to escape.
                - Don't mistake Panzerjägers for PanzerSchrecks. The Jäger team uses only a Panzerfaust (30m. reach), like most of the German infantry units. It
                  does not have the same reach nor power.

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Flame-Throwers:

- These are DEADLY, but vulnerable. They need lots of support. They can be used offensively to clear houses in an attack, but once again always support them
   with the use of other infantry teamsbecause on their own they will quickly be killed.
   I find the best use of these teams is in defence, if you hide them behind a hedge or at the back of a house,and enemy troops foolishly rush in, your flame team
   will make mince meat of them in two shots. They are very effective at dealing with infantry, light armour and armoured cars. BUT as with armoured cars and
   snipers, once they have fired move them. These teams are very powerful as long as they remain hidden, but once they are discovered they are quickly killed.

- A lot of players have complaints about them, not firing the flamer, not firing at all or even lose the weapon (flamer). When pioneers or engineers are under
heavy attack and have no support teams close by and they start to lose their morale, the first thing the guy with the flame tank is going to do is drop it because
they are about to flee the area, hard to do when you are carrying 75 pounds of gas!

- Again, flamer teams work great when you use another rifje squad and/or command team close by. Or what I like to do is when using a recon up front and they
stumble upon some enemy, I like to rush the command team along with the flamer team as back up (works really well in house to house).

- Don't forget there are flame squads with only 2 or 3 men...when being attacked by one or two squads these guys aren't going to do anything but hide unless
you have some cover fire for them (command team is best), it will keep their morale high. These flame teams lose their morale fast and if they do they aren't
worth a darn.

- Ever noticed when you send one of these squads on a long run and the team becomes separated because some run faster - well if you keep an eye open you will
notice that 99% of the time the last guy is the one carrying the flamer!

- A weird bug in GJS relating to the flame-throwers is when a Pioneer squad is attacked, and the guy using the flamer is hit and burns up, leaving a charred
corps, a little while later someone else in the squad is using the Flamer, despite the fact that weapon and fuel tank just ewploded.

              On defence with twin flamers:                                     Attacking with some heat:

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Snipers:

- Witha direct line of fire and the opponent in the open they can be true killers. But you need a clear view. They have great morale and never break, they
normally hold their position until they are killed or remain hidden until the threat goes and then they start shooting from behind.
In some games they can take out a complete squad. Mostly they have one to five kills if they can shoot at running troops or troops in the open. Good cover,
height, open attack route for the enemy. It's mostly because of the map the sniper is so effective. You have to be careful though, because no matter how far
away from a target your sniper is, after two or three rounds he will be spotted and unless he's moved quickly, he's a dead man.

- Snipers tend to target unit leaders (the "user manual" says). But a well-placed sniper (in a good firing spot like a bell-tower or a high building) can do a lot
more. Like taking out gun-crews or vehicle-crews. Snipers are more likely to restrain the functions of a gun or half-track, than of any other units. You can
easily pick off a Howitzer or AT-gun crew with a sniper, even at long range. With open-topped vehicles it is a little harder, but nonetheless very effective to
employ a sniper to pick its crew off one by one. Usually the only way to save the crew of the targetted vehicle, is to move it out of sight, which might be just
what you needed at the moment.

- Some players prefer to take a sniper instead of a LMG team to cover an open field at long ranges. It kills a squad easier, even when they go to sneaking.

- Everyone knows by now that you can't take a VL with a sniper!