Handling Hills by JasonC

I Asked

The map I'm on features a very large hill near the center of the map. I got down to view level 1, walked up to the top of that hill, and you can see everything from up there. There's even a nice gradual slope up my side of the hill. I thought, man I'm going to march tanks and artillery up here and rain all sorts of trouble down on the enemy.

But then I thought, wait a minute, won't my guys be very exposed up on top of that bare, treeless hill? Doesn't the enemy only have to sprinkle a little artillery up there to render all those units useless (except maybe tanks)? Still, it's a great spot to look down from and in my gut I want to take it, I just don't know how best to use it. Do you have any advice for me?

JasonC Answered

Big bare hills are tactically interesting terrain, but two edged.

First you have to see if it is defended, on the near side. A half squad scout or two needs to get within 175m of the crest on your side. Because there might be hidden trenches ready to use the wide LOS the hill provides, with delaying HMGs in them or the like.

It isn't too hard to clear those out, though. Most of your heavy weapons and tanks will be able to see them if they are on the near side, and only a few defenders will fit in them. So you get a many on few and suppress them. Nobody farther back in the defense can help. You just stick to the near side, and after the trenches are plastered with HE, send up infantry to clear them out.

Humans typically abandon the near side slope for exactly those reasons. Maybe a delaying unit or two, to see what is coming, but nothing serious. The main defense can be expected on the far side of the hill - the famous "reverse slope".

Because there the same factors are working the other way, with the addition that you've got to move to get there. Only a few attackers can fit on the crest at once. Your front to back spread means only some of your guys face the whole defense. Which can include trenches near the crest, and guns and heavy weapons and tanks farther down in bits of cover, or up the next ridge forward. Everybody set up to see the same hilltop. They have cover, you don't; they have everybody shooting, you don't.

So just running up to the top of the hill with your main body isn't such a good idea. A half squad scout can go there, to spot any bunkers or tanks in the open. It may draw fire, but if so just withdraw. If you sneak the last few meters just over the crest, you won't have far to go backward to break LOS, so you should live.

Then you have to look at the hill differently. Not as a spot, the top, that sees everything. But instead as a big LOS obstacle, that blocks long views from one side to the other. As a roundish hill rather than a linear ridge, you can manipulate this blockage in your favor.

You go partway up, but below the actual crest. Then circle around to one side. As you round the hill, your LOS "footprint" changes gradually instead of all at once, like it would going "over the top". Your view "sweeps" the defense position from right to left (or vice versa). Anything not far enough off to one side can't see you yet because the hill is in the way.

So you are using the hill as a *shield*. You want to take on just a little of the defenders at a time, from range. As you silence some, you circle farther. You can back off if you encounter too much fire by retracing your steps, or by descending the hill to the side, to cut LOS.

Now, a smart defender can just wait in hiding until you are farther around, and a bigger portion of his defense can fire. You can avoid that by trickling units off the side you've reached, to pass the hill on one side, staying in the low ground.

Your scouts go that way. If they draw fire, the guys on the hillside support them. If not, they reach and uncover defending positions in turn. Basically, you attack only half the defense by going around only one side of the hill. You can probe both as a feint and to pick the better route if you like. But going both ways in strength would just let all the defenders fight you effectively, instead of only half of them.

Your reserves, in the meantime, are completely safe on "your" side of it, just by staying off the crest. If you think the defense is weakened enough that you can outshoot anything he's got left, then you can put some tanks up near the crest. But that is a finisher, not an opener, if you've got the option to circle the hill.

If from the shape of the hill or ridge, you can't find such a route around it and have to cross the crest itself, realize it is a very dangerous operation. It is like pushing into a planned ambush zone. You better bring a lot of firepower, and in robust forms (like tanks). And they all need to crest together, or 1-2 shooters will be able to kill each one in turn the moment it comes into view, without you getting much in the way of reply fire. Smoke can help, masking half of the defenders, say, while you leave the other half clear and outshoot them.

I hope that helps. Naturally, many of the details depend on terrain and force specifics.