ChrisND Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Welcome to the Allied side of the Clearing the Niscemi Highway AAR! I'll be playing the plucky Americans against the dastardly Axis troopers fighting for Bil Hardenberger. Bil will be starting up his end of the AAR sometime next week, but I thought you guys would like a sneak peek at a new AAR. : ) So I'm going to show my set up of the battle from my perspective, then after Bil starts his side of the AAR up, we'll do the usual forum AAR thing and progress in synch turn by turn. One more note before I begin: these screenshots have artwork that is in progress, and not necessarily indicative of the end product. Some art elements may be using CMBN stand-ins while new art is being made. Other art is still going through adjustment. Don't bother pointing these out, I already know about them. The Situation It is July 12, 1943. Operation Husky began two days ago, and the 82nd Airborne operation went, how shall we say... less than smoothly. Pockets of paratroopers have been scattered all over the area, from Gela to Niscemi. One such group from the 505th PIR has ensconced themselves into a hilltop villa called the Castelletti Villa, which overlooks the highway connecting Niscemi and Gela. The building itself is large, formidable and on high ground, with grapevines covering the southern slope of the hill, and a small forested area on the nortwestern slope. The surrounding area is harvested wheat crops and orchards intermixed. The Luftwaffe Hermann Göring Division, having failed to eject the American landing forces from their beaches, is preparing to pull back to whence they came, near Niscemi. My plucky band of paras managed to ambush a 120mm mortar platoon as they were travelling along the highway and completely destroyed them. Understandably angered, the Germans, along with some help from the Italians, have set out to destroy me. To help out my defense, reinforcements from the 1st Infantry Division at the beaches are finally arriving to bolster me. But will they arrive in time? The Forces My defense force is a motley assortment of paratroopers. For basic infantry I have one platoon of airborne infantry, along with a number of HQs, including the 2/505 HQ. I've also got one section from the regimental demolition platoon. For heavy weapons I have one tripod mounted .50cal HMG and two on-map M1A1 pack howitzers. I'd estimate my strength at roughly 2-3 platoons worth of infantry. To sum up my paras have: - 3 M1A1 bazookas. - 1 60mm mortar. - 2 M1919A4 MMGs. - 1 .50cal HMG. - 2 pack howitzers, but with only one HEAT round apiece. I've also been promised reinforcements within 20 minutes. They will consist of leg infantry from the 1st Infantry Divison as well as armor and some artillery. I'll just have to hope I can hold out till then. The Objectives I have three land objectives, as you can see on the map. The Villa itself is the most valuable, and I also have orders to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy while sustaining little myself. PSSSHHAWW yeah right like THATS going to happen. Not if Bil has anything to say about it. If I had to guess I'd say that I'm probably going to lose the Orchards objective, but it's relatively open and I can make him bleed for it. The Setup Here's a view of my setup. The regimental demolition section is forward-deployed ahead of my defenses, in the orchards. I'm going to use them as a screening force, detecting the enemy advances, and giving them a little blood then pulling back before it gets too hot. They will ensure that the Germans and Italians don't pull any surprises on me. Most of them are a little exposed, with only a rural rock wall to give them cover. Hopefully not many tanks in the first wave. I've split off one fire team from the section and put them in some woods on the left flank where they observe in cover for any attempts by Bil to sneak his troops through the woods. My main defense is set up to hit the enemy as he crosses the exposed ground in the middle while travelling to the Orchard and afterwards across the highway into to the hill. The pack howitzers can cover both likely routes of enemy armor advance along each side of the hill, while the infantry are dug in on the exterior of the patch of woods. If the fighting gets too hot they can pull back to either the interior of the woods or the villa itself. The .50cal HMG on the 4th floor of the villa has a dominating view, and can even support the demolition section from where it is. However, it doesn't have a lot of ammo, so I'll have to be selective with its shots. Here's the view from my first screen line. Directly to that front of them is crest of the hill, and where I expect the enemy to first appear. The defenses are ready. All there is to do is wait... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mord Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 You sneaky SOBs! I had to do a double take when I read the names on the map. Mord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boche Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Wow, though I was looking at CMSF for a second there haha! Looking forward to updates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childress Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Stickied post..... Some help with the Italians? ....... Steve appears..... Are we looking at the Big Announcement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Yep, looks like there's been a change of plans... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Lee Irked Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I await further postings with popcorn and greasy fingers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneAge Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I want a close up of the Grape Vines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 The big announcement has slipped in behind the lines of the refresh monkeys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ridethe415 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 The Luftwaffe Hermann Göring Division! Drooling. Basking in Italian Sun [no bocage]! Pre-order money is ready... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjkerner Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 At first, I thought how nice of Normal Dude to go to all that effort for a new scenario for the Repository. Using spd's Italian mod to boot! Then I read the rest of the thread. And a good choice for a scenario. Nordyke's All Americans covers the battle well, and it seemed like it would make a good one when I read it. So, WOW, is this a gamette/modulette covering just Sicily, or the Italian Mainland too? Did a 3rd party dev, like CM:A make it? If they are going to introduce fallschirmjaeger uniforms, we'd have a lot of the tools to make our own mainland battles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburke Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Let me guess, it was the windmills wasn't it? Just couldn't get them modelled well enough to forestall the howls of protest so just decided "screw it, let's do Sicily...." On with the AAR, thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Those Yank paratroops didn't have any backpacks on. Is that a model change? Seems to me I always see more gear on the GIs we have now. But, now that my anticipatory senses are tingling, maybe I'm just imagining new things and reading too much into those screenshots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franko Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 HOLY SH*T SNACKS! Stealth announcement there guys. Clever sneaky battlefront geeks -- we LOVE you man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjkerner Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I noticed the same thing, broadsword. It does look like a model change. But what gives? MG put off longer, or is this 3rd Party special surprise while we're waiting, or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeatEtr Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Well well well, the cats outta the bag. And wow, only on the 2nd page so far, damn the forumites are slacking. The whine and sun is great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburke Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Well well well, the cats outta the bag. And wow, only on the 2nd page so far, damn the forumites are slacking. The whine and sun is great! I think we are in that weird time zone gap. Hell I am in India so they are catching the far east and West Coast USA, probably planned it that way. It explains Steve being up in the middle of the night... but then again maybe that is normal for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Unfortunately normal. Even when I have to get up at 6am for something, I'm up at 2am. Stupid biorhythm. We wanted to get this up tonight because tomorrow is going to be a little busier. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisND Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 HOLY SH*T SNACKS! I see someone here watches Archer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 So this is going to be a seperate module? And if so, what subject? Only Sicily and Italy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verulam Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 This is actually more interesting than MG. I take my hat off to you sirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 So this is going to be a seperate module? And if so, what subject? Only Sicily and Italy? Pertinent questions all. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 This is actually more interesting than MG. I take my hat off to you sirs. No, it isn't. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 So this is going to be a seperate module? And if so, what subject? Only Sicily and Italy? From what BFC have said previously, Sicily can't be a module for CMBN (since modules don't add in new terrain, for example), so presumably it would be a new base game with potentially its own set of modules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I must admit I don't really like this unpredictable way of behaving from the side of BFC. It isn't necessary and we aren't little kids waiting for their Christmas presents. Market Garden is next and September is coming. No need for unexpected new base games, modules or weird stuff like that last toy they released. I realize my opinion doesn't matter much, but I feel the need to express it anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerMike Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Exciting times are here again it seems. Yay! This is a surprise indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts