Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT)

General

Military organizations of the world have very in-depth guides on this subject, from anything on movement to clearing rooms to counter-sniper activity. I will spare you the dozens of pages on that and condense things down into the essentials. Fighting in game cities such as Turnhout, Antwerp, Brussels, Charleroi, Liege, etc., can either be a real pain in the butt or pretty fun; mostly depending on how comfortable you are with it.

• Stay out of the roads if at all possible. They are long easy kill zones for tanks, LMGs, etc. Only reason you should be going across a road is at full sprint getting from one building to the next.
• If you do have to cross some open ground and think or know that the enemy has line of fire on you, pop smoke to obscure yourself.
• Avoid “peak” elevation. High ground can be good to a degree as it allows for greater observation, but avoid cresting piles of rubble, avoid roof tops, etc. Remember the human eye is drawn toward the highest nearby elevation. Staying low is generally the best advice, though few people seem to realize this.
• 360 degree awareness is even more critical in a city than it is anywhere else. Given that the fights tend to be rolling, mingling clusters of friendly and enemy infantry there could be threats popping out of buildings etc anywhere around you. Constantly scan ahead, left, right, and behind.
• Be aware of the 3rd dimension! Most people aren’t. Not only is the enemy likely to be at any point around you, but above you as well. Scan every roof line you go by or walk under. Enemy infantry stick out like a sore thumb even from a few hundred meters. If you see someone, find some low cover and take them out.
• Move very frequently.
• Watch friendly tanks for sappers.
• “Cut the pie” or “pie” every sharp corner or dead space you encounter. Get into the habit of it. With this method as you approach a corner, bring your weapon to a “low ready" position (aimed but with the sights down low) and start rotating around the corner. You’re cutting that dead space up into small, manageable pie slices. I like to stay at “low ready” since my weapon will not obscure any of my field of view and I can quickly snap up to engage.

Covering and Capturing a CP

This may seem straightforward, but most people do not get it right. Many folks will do one of two things …

1. Go straight into the CP, even killing defending enemy infantry, and bump the table
2. If they do cover a buddy capping the CP, they do it from the inside of the CP

Neither of these is particularly smart to do. Anyone can bump a table. If you do go in and you're trying to capture a hot CP like a spawnable (and hot CPs are the only ones you should be going after since city flags etc., are meaningless and any Joe Noob can cap it), inevitably due to Murphy’s law an MG34 will come by poke his head in. If you try to defend from inside the CP it’s much too easy for an EI with a SMG or LMG to sprint in, lag by, and kill you.

The first thing you should do when you are the first person on the scene to a CP is cover it, from the outside. You’ve got to cordon the CP off from the enemy so he can’t get near it, can’t lag in and go spraying. Once you and hopefully another guy set up a kill zone and cordon the CP off, let Joe Noob go in and hump the table. Obviously there are exceptions to this when you’re the only guy around, but it's really the only good way of taking the place. See below.

Clearing the Enemy

There are a handful of positions which are particularly good for defending a CP building. These are the most likely places a defender will be. Get into the habit of checking each one,"cutting the pie" on each position. Of them, I’d say “the spot,” “the closet, and "the stairs" are the most popular.

Covering Friendly AFVs (Sapper Protection

On the whole, we do not do this nearly enough. Believe me though,sappers love going after big tanks. Sit around a minute and you’ll bag a bunch!

You’ve got to cover the tank’s left and right sides, and rear. You need an automatic weapon, preferably an LMG, because otherwise a sapper will sprint/lag up and place his charge before you can drop him. I can’t even do it with rifle. You have to be sitting back from the tank at least 100m-200m, otherwise you will be seen by the sapper on his approach (his attention will be 100% on his target area). In addition, to make sure you can cover the tank you really need a buddy to cover your blind spot. When you and a buddy and a tank get it together, the enemy ground forces have little they can do but sit there and take it! See below.