What is the best way to attack a defended city ?

[CaesarM57]

Hello, this might seem a beginner question, but I´m trying to figure out what would be the main ackowledged way to approach an infantry-defended city. I tried napalm but didnt work, is it cluster bombs from planes + tanks and your infantry? Or arty + the former? Or anti-infantry infantry, but seems like no one uses them, as well the zippos? What tactics do you think is better? Which are the best planes to flat down a city or at least kill all entrenched troops?

[Monster Fart]

napalm the whole block. use smoke as you advance, call in more napalm. f117 milk run. pretty much decimates the the whole village. when you call in your air assets, napalm or otherwise, it should take 2 runs to weaken the defences, if not destroy them altogether.

[Somme Guy]

Bomb the area with napalm, deploy smoke screens, and then advance with infantry supported by flamethrower tanks.

[Compass]

Cluster bombs won't work on infantry. You want to work with your team to deploy smoke and artillery, and then rush in transports, and unload them into blocks as soon as possible. Expect to lose your transports.

This is an older video, but the premise is the same. You just have to scale up depending on the size of the town. I normally recommend 8 squads of Marines or Riflemen, and 1 squad of Special Forces. The more CQC weapons, the better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrFq3dviglY

[Grey Buddhist]

Why didn't Napalm work for you? were you trying napalm vehicles (or infantry) and they died before they could really hit the area?
Most Jets with Napalm is the best way to go, since they should hit the infantry in the city before any counterattack...unless the enemy happens to have anti-air assets in the area.
You can always try a jet bomber with 1,000 pound bombs (ones I know are U.S. F117 Stealth and one of the F15's...can't remember the exact one but easy for you to find). Usually...but not always...when a 1,000 pound bomb hits, everything in the area goes away.

[Richardguy]

F-15 Strike Eagles. Got a platoon of Spetznaz slowing your assault down? Not anymore.

[Grey Buddhist]

lol..true Richardguy. First few games I played I kept overlooking 1,000 pound bombs....after using them a few times I never overlook them anymore. They are the best things around to obliterate (literally) the enemy.

[washout77]

All the above advice is good. Just remember, expect to take loses. A lot of them. Expect to lose pretty much all your transports, so key there is fast and cheap. A Bradley will die just as bad as a truck in that situation. Taking a town is no easy task, it takes a lot of resources and casualties, and quite a bit of micromanagment if you want to minimize loses. Pretty much just gotta bomb them to hell, smoke the area so no one can shoot you until you're right on top of them, and hope your infantry shoot straighter.

[Grey Buddhist]

Everyone keeps talking about heavy losses which I never see (maybe they play enemies who take over whole blocks of a city at a time?).
Basically if I see Infantry in a city block, I send a plane with a 1,000 pound bomb (F15 and F117 on USA side), manually (won't work well with auto aim) aim to bomb that exact block they are in, jet flies in, bombs them, problem solved. The only time(s) I would lose my F15 (rarely use F117) is if 1) Enemy has Anti Air weapons in the area, 2) Enemy sends an Anti Air Jet after my F15, or if I get brave and tell my F15 to also go try and attack something else with it's other weapon and it flies over enemy Anti Air units.
I would guess if you are trying to send ground forces to try and clear out the enemy in the city block then yes, you would definitely lose alot of your forces in doing so. I've just never had any need to do that personally.

[Compass]

You aren't playing in games where there are 20 units worth of infantry in a single city, then. Killing a single infantry, or a group of 4, with an aircraft, is easy. Killing 20 sets of infantry in a 10v10 solo, now that's hard work.

[Grey Buddhist]

@Compassghost - You are correct. I have not had the pleasure of playing anything larger than 4vs4. I can see how there would be massive losses at that point.
I assume by 20 sets of infantry in a 10vs10 solo you mean having to do it yourself while teammates are busy with other stuff? Since playing solo (vs computer opponenents) the biggest I am able to create are 4vs4 battles.

[Compass]

Originally posted by Grey Buddhist:

@Compassghost - You are correct. I have not had the pleasure of playing anything larger than 4vs4. I can see how there would be massive losses at that point.
I assume by 20 sets of infantry in a 10vs10 solo you mean having to do it yourself while teammates are busy with other stuff? Since playing solo (vs computer opponenents) the biggest I am able to create are 4vs4 battles.

It's a scenario that's very unique to 10v10s. Because the operational area in a 10v10 is so large, people tend to focus on defending critical points much more than in other game modes, because reinforcing is impossible due to travel time (takes about 1-2 minutes to get to the cities on roads).

As a result, to counter being overrun easily, people dedicate a disproportionate amount of units to defending cities. I've seen people put all 1000 points of their soldiers into a single city. Practically speaking, those aren't earning us any capture points, but tactically speaking, the other side isn't going to be willing to attack a wall of missiles and rockets either.

In 10v10, people also choose much more type-cast decks. Artillery, helicopters, jet spam, all of these become more usable because (hopefully) someone else will have a deck for the ground game. Since I play Marines most of the time, the city assault duty falls on me, with maybe air strikes, a few tanks, and a lot of artillery smoke rounds for support from other players.

The ultimate goal is to minimize losses when attacking the city. If you fail to take the city, then all your forces have basically been sacrificed for nothing, so you can't go early, and if you go too late, you'll probably get noticed and bombed.

If nothing else, infantry-based city battles in 10v10 are the absolutely best scenarios for you to get a constant adrenaline rush.

I wish I recorded my 4v4 skirmish the other day where I basically had a 30-minute long city battle with the AI playing defense. I ended up getting about 2/3 of the kills, but lost probably 60 units due to attrition.

Oh wait, I have a replay!

[Forhekset]

AFVs with autocannons firing from out of their range work well as long as they can see them. Though it takes awhile so leaves you open to a counter strike (probably CAS)

[CaesarM57]

Thanks you guys for the awesome replies, will try all of these. Well Grey Budhist, I think napalm didnt work probably because of my inability to use the planes, but i remember trying and nothing happened, will try again and test against AI though. Good to know about the 1000 pound bombs, also will try.
Just one question, when attacking with infantry, and hopefully under that smoke screen, support etc, you have the chance to advance them, then is it better to approach on foot or with vehicles, (I get it must be vehicles), and give orders to unload inside the same blocks the enemy is, or around them? (Don´t know if the game allows in the same one).

[Compass]

Use vehicles. They will attract ATGM fire, but they will keep most of your infantry alive long enough to get there. Infantry on foot will get slaughtered. As soon as a group of 4 vehicles is adjacent to a city block, unload and the infantry will automatically garrison and house-to-house any infantry there. Then your next set of vehicles should find another block (i.e. don't unload them all in the same block, because any group after the first will be unable to take cover).

[Grey Buddhist]

to fix your inability to use planes, when you choose the plane you want to us, look on the lower right of the screen...you should see something like "Fire at POS'. Basically when you pick this you will then have the ability to L-Click anywhere on the map to manually aim/drop your fire (bombs, napalm, etc..) on that specific location. Keep in mind there are dangers to this...if the enemy moves out of the area (or die before your plane arrives, or your forces show up there the bomb will still drop UNLESS you keep track of it and re-aim to another location. Simple, just keep watch on what your trying to hit. Manual bombing is best on targets that are sitting still at a location or starting to group in a specific area. Manaul Napalm is best on stationary targets, targets starting to group up at a location, OR to create a choke--point that blocks the enemy advance and/or retreat.
I've only had to advance on enemy held cities a few times and from I've seen anytime I send them too close with vehicles the vehicles get blown up and then you lose the vehicles and the troops inside. While there may be much better ways to do it, I would try dismounting your infantry at a safe distance (but not too far away) and then Attack-advance the troop carriers then the infantry...that way the enemy will primarily attack the vehicles first and should receive fire from your vehicles and infantry at the same time.