Rinaldi

Let's continue. 1756-1757 Nothing terribly exciting to report this turn. So lets fill some white space with my comments. Here's a general overview of things. Been a bit of a creeping start, hasn't it? The deliberate pace has netted me some decent intel though - for example the dismounted carrier HQ has already reported light vehicle contact on OBJ Tom, likely audio, from his position. Perhaps a prime over for an ATG, or a supply vehicle? We're reaching on both routes the approach of final cover and it's time to begin transitioning to a bounding overwatch. With the Cromwells closing up behind the recce even now this will provide some much needed 'oomph' to the tactic. 1757-1758 The dismounted armoured car crew spot yet another Panther motoring past point 192.4 towards W Village. He's pouring quite a few forces into this area. Amazingly this OP is still in C2 range (visual/long) of its HQs so it will be able to relay this info, albeit slowly, without having to displace as I first feared. Unfortunately despite the wall of steel deploying in front of this thrust I need to continue to probe it if only to obscure my final intentions. I am already accepting that I am going to suffer the loss of the recce section and at least half the tank platoon - not willingly, but we must be realistic about the price of these interim objectives. On the left the carrier section dismounts and move forward with two teams while the Troop 2IC and the 2 inch mortar follow shortly behind. The cruisers have coiled up behind the carriers and can fan out along small hull-down positions, or take up firing positions in the woods where the OP/LP currently is, if the need arises. Still far too early to commit yet to either course of action, however just based on the intel currently gathered, it still looks like the left is best. Draper is reacting fairly strongly on the right thus far and I am, admittedly, moving into the teeth of it. 1758-1759 The carriers of B Coy begin moving forward in the trail of the carrier section and cruiser tanks. 1759-1800 A Kubelwagen is spotted trying to cross a muddy ravine, around the same area the Panthers earlier crossed. Not sure what, if anything, to make of that. Hope the bastards bog. On the left, two sharp cracks of a high velocity gun ring out. The recce 2IC rapidly spots the culprit - a Pak gun - but what the hell is he shooting at? It appears to have spotted a Cromwell coiled up in the ravine and is firing at a very high angle. The first shot misses but before I can give any orders, as its only halfway through the turn, it manages to get a second shot on target, killing or wounding the turret crew and KOing the tank. A bitter pill to swallow. The 2IC calls for fire from a 3 inch mortar section to redress the balance. Something tells me this was not a deliberate fire order from Draper, as while the loss of the Cromwell is annoying its not as devastating as a more disciplined wait could have been. C Coy, moving up behind, will dismount and fan out into the woods. They will probe forward across the water obstacles dismounted since its clear the roads and vehicle approaches to Farm 001 are covered. I doubt highly this Pak is the only weapon aiming here. Well, first blood to Draper, and this will (spoilers!) unfortunately set the tone for quite a few turns yet. A lot of good intel is about to be earned at far too high a cost in my mind, and I will be playing Johnny-come-lately in response. I don't like being the one having to constantly react on the attack. Not a good sign.

Apologies, this one is text heavy - I didn't believe it was worth taking too many screens for what occurs. Let me know if you'd prefer otherwise. 1751-1752 On the right A second Panther is soon spotted. As the rest of the armoured car section crests the hill and makes its move to cover, they all report in succession the movement of this section of Panthers in the general direction of the East village and Objective "HARRY." On the left The carrier section leader has dismounted and is hoofing it to a nearby wooded area to establish an OP. Since the troop 2IC remains mounted with the rest of the carriers (he doesn't have binoculars, sigh) it is hoped the rest of the carrier teams will still benefit from his leadership. The carriers remain at a brief halt while they give the Sarge a few minutes to reach his intended position. The OP will, it is hoped: a. Provide some BDA on the barrage on hill 204.1; and b. Ascertain if the troop movement spotted earlier was incidental, or a deliberate reaction to my movement - namely to cover the exit from the draw I am using to mask my movement as much as possible. 1752-1753 The lead armoured car on the right axis of advance bogs and promptly immobilizes. The crew will dismount and move to establish an OP on a nearby high ground and keep their eyes in the fight. The fellows obviously do not have any form of man-portable radio and will either have to run any intel to another unit or head back to their stuck car to get on the net and report. 1753-1754 The armoured car that now finds itself in the lead sees, but fails to positively identify (or, less likely, can hear) an armoured contact moving in the wheat field behind OBJ "HARRY". The platoon of cruiser tanks operating in close support with the B Company team begin rounding Hill 207.8 and crossing the dangerous bit of open ground traversed earlier by the armoured cars. By the end of the turn the lead tank has crossed back into dead ground- unscathed . Comments: I'm fairly sure at this point that Draper is fully aware of the armoured car's approach, or is strongly suspicious of it. Surely, he must have caught some fleeting glimpses as they crossed between dead ground. Nevertheless, the recce is past the most dangerous point on this potential course of action. So, unless the Panther's now unduly expose themselves with very forward battle positions I should be fine. Draper is not that gung-ho. Way back in the mists of time he once handed me my burned ass on a platter with a single well-positioned, carefully husbanded Panther; he remembers that lesson very well, it's better to play it safe and let the attacker come to you with such assets. What I do hope is happening is that he is starting to focus, unduly, on what he can see. Moving up Panthers so quickly does smack of a bit of an overreaction - and I'm seeing a lot of movement generally. 1754-1755 He is definitely aware of movement on the right - as the second cruiser in the file traversing the "danger zone" takes fire. At the time and despite my painstaking efforts to get a good screenie of the incoming round I was legitimately unsure of whether I was taking direct fire or indirect fire. I am fairly sure now, as I type, that it is a direct fire weapon of some kind. The salient point of course is that, whatever it is, it misses. If this isn't proof-positive that paying attention to terrain and taking pains to reduce your exposure as much as possible pays off, I don't know what is. The unseen assailant chances again on the third tank in file and likewise misses, badly. The troop's Firefly, a more sluggish and conspicuous vehicle, is ordered not to chance it and takes a rough turret-down position near the crest of Hill 207.8. From here it can join in from afar and inch forward into a battle position if the need and opportunity arises. At this point I am confident the fire is coming directly from Obj "TOM." 1755-1756 I'm well pleased thus far with the recce's progress on both axes of advance. Not only have they drawn ineffective fire - which ultimately does help build an intelligence picture - but they've positively identified key enemy assets and have allowed me to anticipate their likely final positions. More importantly, they haven't taken any casualties yet and have managed to establish some decent forward OPs. On that note, the carrier section leader has taken an excellent concealed position that still provides good line of sight to Obj "TOM" and 204.1. Can you see them? On the right, the armoured recce is now within effective firing range of the North Village and has guided three Cromwells up to excellent positions in which they can provide overwatch. We'll slow our pace here and conduct a series of bounding overwatches as we try to ford the river on this side and pierce his MLR or slip past some outposts.

While we cannot know if it lines up directly with CMCW you can find info on the ammo performance gathered in one place here: http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php/Ammunition_Data

No it wasn't coming from an arty-beaten zone so I am not sure what is up. Mild spoilers but I only recently started identifying unbuttoned Panthers.

Apologies for not posting yesterday, by the time I got on top of everything yesterday evening Draper and I were both free so we chose to do more turns. It is now 1745h and the BG has now coiled up behind a ridge and joined hands with the forward elements from the Hussars. Despite the advanced hour its a muggy, dry August day. Diminishing light is not a worry, nightfall can be as late as 2100h in August. C Squadron, less its two loaned platoons, take up positions on the reverse slopes of several prominent ridges, ready to provide a base of fire. 1745-1746 The first minute is spent, perhaps anticlimactically, in idleness as we paste several forward positions. Particular attention is given to Hill 204.1, which has a suspected anti-tank gun position. The north village also receives a stonk, our apologies to the property owners. The forward elements are coiled up in a file in some gullies and ravines that they'll use to move forward next turn. The order of march for both the B and C company teams is Recce, Tank Troop, 1 x Rifle Platoon, CO, 2 x Rifle Platoons, 2 IC. Comments: I've been burned very recently by what I thought was an effective and on target barrage from indirect fires. I'm therefore trying my best to will myself to assume that anti-tank gun on 204.1 has not suffered any loss. May my cynicism spare me heartbreak later on. Overall I was really shocked at the amount of intel I got, and it makes me even more confident about my infiltration (as much as one can do that with armoured vehicles) on the left. The first "danger zone" the left company team must cross is very far forward and this will mean deploying the armour in support will be a bit easier. On the right the first danger zone is basically just beyond the line of departure and I'm hoping the speedy Daimlers can cross it before any enemy waiting to strike can get a real solution. I'm even going to be a brief optimist and say if Draper is hasty enough to open up at that range on my scouts all he may do is give away concealed positions wastefully. I'm less confident about developing any gap in Draper's defence or masked terrain on the left into favourable conditions for an attack. I won't revisit the terrain analyses in detail but suffice to say exiting a bottleneck to cross two water obstacles does not fill me with a warrior's confidence. I'm husbanding the FOO - who remains attached to the Colonels' hip in the HQ(F)'s assembly area. I will wait until the intelligence picture is built up a bit more before getting him to an OP. I've lost too many FOOs to wily foes who know me too well - and are blessed with common sense - putting down searching fires. 1746-1747 LD Fable is crossed as the company teams get moving. The stonk continues but I've ordered ceasefires on the mortars to preserve their ammunition. The Sexton battery is allowed to continue souring Anglo-Franco relations in the North Village. A look at the planned movement that started this turn, first on the right: Note that I'm going around rather than over ridges. This is bread and butter movement but it will spare you a ballache in CM. The left: Note the intel on enemy positions. We got to be very careful about how we move here. 1747-1748 The columns continue to coil forward - maintaining spacing is becoming difficult in this close terrain and I've had to use quite a few pause commands during the command cycle. This is particularly problematic on the right flank where the armoured cars are struggling through a rocky gully. 1749-1750 The lead armoured car units begin to wrap around Hill 207.8, crossing the first "danger zone" where they are exposed, particularly to the heights around OBJ "DICK." They step on the gas, trading the risk of being spotted by dust for a higher chance of survival. No shots fired. No sparks flying from a burning hulk, no men screaming and entombed in self-same. So far, so good. 1750-1751 Hullo, Mother calling. Roger Mother, Hullo Father. Go ahead. Roger Father, Hullo Mother calling, tell the children the cat's loose in the garden again, Mother out. 1st section lead spots a Panther manoeuvring through a wheatfield - an amazing bit of spotting given the range and movement . Where it is going precisely is, right now, anyone's guess but needless to say we know Panthers are on the prowl. In what number remains to be see. Early intel earned bloodlessly, I will take it. The Panther soon disappears from sight as it moves into its own dead ground created by a fold in the field. In any event, the section leader is completing his own dash over the potential kill zone and his thoughts stray from the Panther soon after, I am sure. But wait, there's more. On the left, the Carrier section reports its own contact, a brief glimpse of feldgrau among the shrubbery near Farm 002. All that is spotted is a single infantryman, and no other intel is gleaned as the UCs dip carefully back into the ravine as they snake forward. Is Draper reacting to our movement? Or is he merely shifting a unit to a position he believes is better, on second thought?

Looking forward to it - any ideas of what the scenario will be yet, generally?

That would be a brain fart, because I was typing "command push" initially. Which leads me to a decent point of minor contention. While I ultimately decided to classify this scheme as a recon pull I think quite a few people here would call this as a command push along two identified axes. A lot of people, with merit, would argue a recon pull provides even more latitude to the lead recce to select a path and find a gap. This scheme is more the Colonel telling the troop leader "I want you to find out which of these two templated routes is more secure" - which is a level of centralization much more akin to a command push ("I want you to secure this route for the follow-on forces and report contact"). I'll have the next part posted sometime today, dealing with a few last minute panic e-mails at work.

Fair enough

You are the saltiest mfer on the planet lmao

Babes brought receipts

Yes, I expect a very bitter fight for it regardless of how the rest of the battle pans out. Hmmm...Cromwell profile picture...not a fan of an Irishman. I'm seeing a theme... *** Friendly Forces My battlegroup is primarily drawn from units of the 22nd Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division. The heavy hitter of a British Armoured Division, in reality by August '44 most Commonwealth armoured divisions rarely fought in their typical brigade formats, the BHQs acting more as tactical headquarters for mixed BGs of 1 armour, 1 infantry battalion + misc. elements. The 22nd is no different, but the stresses of keeping a cross-channel supply line up to snuff, plus nonstop combat since early June, makes the BG a bit more shambolic than its paper ideal. For example, the entirety of A Squadron, 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (the junior armoured regiment) is currently struck from the order of battle due to material and manpower losses. Surviving crews and 'runners' have been absorbed by B and C squadrons, who are near full strength as a result. We are borrowing "A" Squadron from the 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars (the armoured recce regiment) to fill out our combat strength. While this expedient solves the power of combat strength, it complicates greatly the horizontal transfer of timely information between fighting elements. The balance of the battlegroup is filled out by the divisional motor regiment, the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. A halftrack mounted regiment, they are hovering around 70 percent strength and most of the rifle coys have disbanded their scout and anti-tank troops to make up the strength. The sole exception to this is A Coy, who have managed to hang onto these elements, for what worth that may prove. The support company provides us with two heavy machine gun platoons plus a mortar platoon (off map) with 4 x excellent 3 inch mortars. A single troop from the 11th Hussars (confusingly, yet another recce regiment, but more traditionally organised) provides a point element for the entire force. They are divided into an armoured car section and a carrier section. Alongside "A" of the 8th Hussars, they have long been in contact with the enemy and we are joining them. Fires are provided at the higher level by an entire battery of Sexton self-propelled 25lb guns. They possess a prodigious amount of ammunition in excess of 800 rounds, plus ample smoke - perhaps the single greatest asset in WWII titles, imo. A platoon of 4.2 inch "chemical" mortars round out the fire support, notable for their high amount of white phosphorous rounds - again allowing for prodigious and near-instantaneous obscuration fires. Enemy Forces The balance of the enemy forces in Normandy are nearly surrounded further to the south. The shoulders are being held, in the main, by shattered remnants of enemy infantry formations of earlier set-piece attacks (e.g.: Op Totalize, Tractable) who now find themselves on the outside of the forming pocket. Additionally, battle-group sized elements from an SS-PanzerCorps are in the area, trying to punch a hole in the perimeter, or holding open hacked-open escape routes. Smartest thing is to assume I will fight an all-arms force, not greatly dissimilar to my own. Having been in contact with the enemy for some time now, forward elements have produced a fairly comprehensive intelligence picture: Not surprisingly, enemy concentrations of infantry appear to be all along the river itself, and concentrated primarily in the East village. Farm 001 and 002 (Obj "TOM") are also clearly occupied, and are supported by some type of anti-tank gun. The lone infantry contact in between Hill 202. and Pt. 201.7 is almost certainly an OP or LP. Nothing in this disposition appears to be reinventing the wheel, its a competent deployment at a glance with ATGs on, perhaps, obvious positions, but with dominating fields of fire over the centre rolling terrain. Courses of Action What to do? What to do, indeed. The rather milquetoast enemy deployment doesn't immediately proffer a dynamic solution, there's no smoking gun or yawning gap that I can see. Any movement down the middle is going to invite disaster, even with the many small hills and valleys I could probably use for cover. I'm going to have to go up one of the flanks, which means potentially putting a strong force in a complex bottleneck. To minimize that risk I will be conducting a command pull. I've identified two potential courses of action: 1. Moving in the dead ground formed by KT1, assault or infiltrate across the water obstacles in the vicinity of Farm 001 and attack to seize OBJ "TOM", then use the ridge formed by Hills 205.2, 204.1 and 202.7 as a springboard for a general attack; or 2. Maximising use of dead ground on the right, skirt around hill 207.8 and close up towards Obj "OAK", attacking either towards the East Village or punching deep towards Obj "DICK" before rolling up the enemy flank. Either route will have to be probed and recce'd to see which one is held in greater force and is easier to force. This brings me to... Unit Tasking Either COA, being generally variations of the same plan, can therefore result in somewhat uniform tasking and organisation. I will divide my battlegroup into three distinct elements. A forward element drawn from the 5th Troop of the 11th Hussars, an infantry-heavy company team following in close support and a heavy reserve which can be 'pulled' to whatever route I decide is the most viable. The recce will be deployed in their organic sections, UCs on the left, as the terrain is more complex and closed-in and dismounted recce will be more necessary. The troop 2IC moves with them. On the right, the armoured car section, with the troop leader in tow, will probe on the right, which is generally more open and will likely need more firepower and survivability (a relative term) to probe forward. Moving behind either of them will be a company team from B and C Coy of The Rifles, supported by an intimate-support troop from C Squadron of the 5th RIDG. This will allow these forward elements to fight for information and overcome minor resistance encountered, and equally fight for room to deploy my main element on whatever route I deem the most feasible. Equally, the company team that does not identify the main effort will remain a useful screening force and perhaps confuse Draper as to my actual intent and main effort. I've made them infantry heavy as either route ultimately favours a boots-on-the-ground approach to overcome initial complex terrain, mainly the river. Finally in reserve or in long-range support is the balance of the battle group, seen below: The balance of C Squadron will deploy in battle positions on the many hills and points near my line of departure and can provide direct fires on the high ground on the far side of the river. In the event the enemy has a lot of heavy metal of their own, this fire may be of dubious value beyond keeping the enemy interested and under fire. Their HE, however, will be useful at any range against soft targets and built-up areas. I can also, if the opportunity arises, add to this firepower with the anti-tank troop organic to A Coy of The Rifles. Likewise, how I employ the MG platoons will be decided in the moment, either massed as a pseudo-indirect fire weapon at longer range, or broken up into intimate support of the platoons. The point here is to be flexible. I got to be honest here, I got a gut feeling I'm reading the situation wrong and I'm already feeling like the first course of action will be the most viable.

[deleted]

Yes no criticism to you, because fighting Soviets in close quarters is always a high risk affair, but your infantry do seem to be thinning out alarmingly fast. Then again, you've given your opponent quite the bloody nose as well.

You start with intel following on from the previous mission by design, its completely unrelated to difficulty setting...

Mission & Terrain First, let's recall the master map: The objectives are plain to see; I'm tasked with occupying in the main Objectives "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry" - high ground on the flanks and a village with tank-proof crossing points. For the purposes of the game, all are worth 550 pts each. The balance of the objectives must be touched, and abstract recceing fords ("Oak, Ash, Thorn") to test their ability to be crossed by mechanized units. The line of departure, codenamed Fable by some Tolkien reading staff-type, is also a touch. These are all worth 50 points, a pittance. Equally important is the destruction of the enemy's forces and the preservation of my own, unsurprising given the operational context of the mission. Inflicting over 50 percent on the enemy will net me a further 500 points and if I keep my own losses below 25 that will grant me another 500. Worth mentioning and not pictured, is that I have a withdrawal exit zone to the rear to take stricken or damaged units out of combat safely. Now, on to Terrain. The ground is generally open and rolling, with agricultural plots being predominate along side open pastureland. Looks very frightening - an anti-tank gunner's dream, with long lines of sight coupled with occasional bocage and orchards with which to conceal themselves in. However, a close second look from the weeds show that there is a shocking amount of cover for someone willing to use it. Key Terrain I've identified, generally, 8 pieces of key Terrain. 1. Is a draw that should be completely hidden from enemy sight, presuming a MLR along the river and strong positions on the heights behind it. It also has a decent country road, facilitating movement of a mechanized force. 2. This draw leads up to the left flank of the water obstacle, and here's where we run into our first real terrain problems. In addition to the obstacle any amount of water may pose in and of itself, the banks here are steep and extremely muddy. Whilst ostensibly fordable in all places, the mud basically makes any type of mechanised movement over this part of the river a risk not worth taking. Further, and compounding things, the river here is split into two smaller tributaries, equally muddy at the banks. 3. As the river crosses my front from left to right, it becomes a far less obnoxious obstacle. While the main river remains generally muddy throughout the centre of the map, at the right extremity the banks present far more solid ground; mud patches remain but give way generally to sandy fords. Its clear movement can be done here by tanks, albeit in small numbers - a larger formation would be strung out and bottlenecked over time. The river itself narrows to essentially a brook. 4. This means that the only hassle-free crossing points are a series of stone bridges near the centre of the map, all within sight of the village(s) that line the valley floor. Draper is no fool, he rarely falls into the trap of not covering an extremely obvious route because no one is expected to take it. These will have guns or Panzerschrecks oriented on them. 5. Any approach to the better crossing sites on the right is complicated by two muddy ravines which create a strip of exposed ground that narrows as it nears the river proper. While the ravines otherwise would provide good concealed approaches, their muddy bottoms render them useless. 6. Nevertheless, despite the narrow approaches, there is still traversable terrain that also offers excellent masking - just as on the left. 7. As we cross the river we get into more traditional agricultural land, with rolling wheatfields and ploughed terrain. This will offer equal concealment to an attacker or defender who hopes to take advantage of it and if Draper is feeling particularly fancy this match he may interpose a few ambush teams in them. The terrain leads inexorably uphill towards an exposed ridge that runs parallel to my line of advance. From this ridge, dominating views can be made over the village (Obj HARRY) and the adjacent high ground (Obj DICK). The ridge is in reality a collection of three high points and their saddles, and basically completely isolates Farm 002 (Obj TOM) from the rest of the area of operations. It is probably the key terrain as a result. 8. The village itself is a typical claustrophobic Norman nightmare. Direct sight-lines into it from the ridge are frustrated by orchards and trees, which would be idyllic in any other circumstance. The village is in reality a collection of small cottages, one-storey affairs, but on merit of every property having some hedge, large or small, the entire damned village can be turned into a fortified mess, with rifle pits/foxholes burgeoning natural cover already provided. Next we'll go over what my force composition is and how I intend to both task them and manoeuvre them.

It's 1525h on August 18th, in some village near the river Dives, just northwest of Falaise. Further to the south, Canadians (and the Polish) are launching a decisive effort across the "neck" of an emerging pocket, fighting equally ferocious actions on the hills overlooking the river valley as they are in the small towns that dot the valley floor itself. It's clear to everyone, even if no one is acting like it: Jerry is finished in Normandy. Word has now come from on high that our division is to 'get ahead of the game' and begin pushing to the river Seine. This will mean smashing into German units fighting to hold open the escape route as they latterly also try to expand it. So the battlegroup conducts a hurried O group in a tiny cluster of command vehicles... Whilst throughout the village, in laager, the squadrons resupply even as the COs conduct their troop level o groups. In two hours' time the whole lot will be moving forward to join units already in contact with the enemy for a late-afternoon effort. *** I've been inspired by MMM and Bud's own DARs to begin one of my own, and in any event, it's been a long while since I've done one, having mainly dedicated AAR efforts to single player. My opponent, James (goes by the handle Draper) is an old buddy of mine and I filmed a few of our slapfight PBEMs wayyyyy back in the day when we were both teenagers and had no idea what the hell we were doing. We've played steadily ever since and know one another quite well, so I figured this would make for a particularly interesting DAR. We've had a handful of medium matches against one another recently, mainly infantry-centric affairs, and both wanted to open up with winter break providing us with more time. Draper's a teacher and I currently run a pro-bono advice centre at a University in the UK, so we have the luxury of being beholden to student's schedules. The scenario we're playing is "forging steel", a side-swapped variant of GeorgeMC's "Schmiedestahl" my little group has had bouncing around for a bit. I am playing as the British attackers, and it will be interesting to see how the tactics I use will naturally have to differ from the default German-attacking scenario. For the time being here's a look at the map and objectives.

Yes I'm glad to see this is revived. Was pleasantly surprised when I started seeing e-mail notifications for it again.

I think he's more referring to the use of recycled assets and "feel" to games released at AAA game prices every couple of years. Not to say that I agree with the position, but its self-evidently true from the art asset perspective, and is perhaps most painfully obvious between RT and BS's rural aspects. Thereafter it becomes a matter of opinion whether you think that diminishes from the game. To my mind its a necessary time-saver by a dev team that is made up of, essentially, a lumberjack, a brain preserved in a jar (I demand proof of life for Charles now), and a smattering of commissioned persons. People relatively new to the games and ignorant of the context they're developed in may not share my patience or empathy, or don't care if they are aware - and for 42 to 60 bucks a pop for base game titles, I don't blame them if they take a less lenient view than me.

I think templating a company is a very strong and safe assumption, given its the smallest building block for Soviet tactics and that this is a default/packaged scenario, which is therefore more likely to reflect that.

No worries boys, better safe than sorry and thanks for the lesson.

Rather than start a new thread also going to tack on a potential bug. I've already reported it to a beta tester I have on that hotline bling but hey, he's a busy man. US light infantry do not have any squad level automatics (e.g.: only M60s are the pair at the platoon level) at any era or location - not sure if that is a bug or accurate TO&E for this time.

Have been silently enjoying but going to chime in because I know how much the occasional comment from the peanut gallery helps encourage these huge-effort DARs. I also realise I am largely preaching to the converted but indulge me. Assuming its an entire platoon is smart and should always be the baseline assumption (or in the 4-tank troop formation, at least assume a wingman). Could equally be that he has spread out a troop of tanks forward(ish) to take shots of opportunity, however. Or it could be this - he may not have planned to take shots of opportunity but saw a lot of metal involved in shooting infantry on to the objective and decided to have a bite. I'm sceptical of that though due to the later spotted T-34s in the village environs itself. I think this may have been a preplanned deployment of armour in a strongpoint style fashion. Or it could be this. He could always be making a mistake.

Was my go-to in SF1 in the dark days before the engine update and introduction of target briefly. Might make a return to try your little solution above for targeting 4 spaces briefly in a turn.

I recently did a PBEM on the La Fiere Causeway scenario and I loved it, was like playing the Darkest Hour map save in CM.

Clear and succinct, and I agree it more or less is universally applicable advice for CMBS.