Axis Side - 20 000 point Quick Battle DAR

[A Canadian Cat]

A couple of turns ago I noticed an icon for one of my squads (part of 3 Company setup in the orchard next to the village bridge objective) was in a funny place. This turn I looked into it. I split the teams and found that the team lead for one of the teams is way off by himself. And I cannot even find him! Below I have them selected and you can see the movement way point I have set. I am also hovering the mouse over the MP40 carrying team leader and he is nowhere to be seen. Does anyone have any techniques for finding lost guys like this?

[womble]

[quote=ian.leslie;1388772Does anyone have any techniques for finding lost guys like this?

[Heinrich505]

ian.leslie,

The combination of screenshots and the video really captured the frenetic activity as the armored cars rushed into the midst of your column. That is some crazy stuff. A mad several minutes that was.

The large scale of your battle really is hitting home on the importance of flank protection and the value of recon. It has a very real feel to it.

Heinrich505

[A Canadian Cat]

Yes, and I do not think I have spent enough resources or time on recon.

[A Canadian Cat]

The only tip I can offer is that the icon will be halfway between where the main part of the team and the AWOL leader is. Sometimes cancelling all orders and issuing a new move order, perhaps to the place on the ground under where the team icon is, or only a short move from there, will bring the team back together.

Found him

Like you said the icon is located by a weighted average of the team members location. So with four men together near the town and the icon over the orchard the missing guy must be...

Way up on the hill with 5 Company.

How he managed to get there I have no idea. He does seem to be walking to return to his team but he is already tired so I might have to cancel that move order and let him rest.

[A Canadian Cat]

The duel with the Churchill continues – with one more Stug ultimately loosing. But before it does it shrugs off some rounds...

The Stugs do get in some hits but mostly it the trees that are hit.

One solid hit connects but clearly does little damage since...

...the next shot from the Churchill is the fatal blow.

Meanwhile the nearby Panther takes more small calibre punishment but no damage.

[A Canadian Cat]

The panther's platoon mate moves to flank the Churchill.

On the other side of the battle field 3 Battery is still dealing with those sneaky armoured cars. The armoured cars get some hits but nothing is seriously damaged.

The last one has several guns aiming for it at the end of the turn.

But things go from bad to worse: Churchills are coming. One Stug spots a distant Churchill but I am sure it is not alone.

The Armoured cars were scouting for this troop, or more, of Churchills. 3 Battery needs to clean up their armoured car problem and get organized – quick.

Members of 2 Company that were on flank protection duty pack up

[A Canadian Cat]

There is only one Stug left on 1 Company's flank and it now has spotted the Churchill. The nearby panther is repositioning to avoid being hit with out seeing who is hitting it. There are also two abandoned but not destroyed Stugs in the tree line too.

2 Company now joins 1 Company getting ready to approach the town and 2 Battery's HQ Stug is moving up to try to rally the panicked crews and get them back in the battle.

3 Battery try to finish off the interlopers and create a line of defence against the coming Churchill tanks.

Back on 5 Company's hill 1 Battery's supporting platoon move forward next to the infantry.

[A Canadian Cat]

I have another example of soldiers separating from their unit and wondering off. I have only experienced this once before in a game and now I have it happening twice in one game - yuck. When I look at the members of 2 Company that are packing up after flank protection duty I notice that one squad seems fully packed up by their icon is dimmed - that's odd:

Then I realize why. One of the soldiers in the squad is off in the woods.

But this time things are worse. He is running away from the rest of the group and I cannot cancel the move order because the order was to load into a truck and once the load up phase starts you cannot give new orders to your men. Not good.

[Baneman]

Wow, bad luck with the "Flying Dutchmen soldiers".

You can't move the truck either because "it's loading"

[A Canadian Cat]

That Churchill continues to wreak havoc. Another Stug goes down. It has destroyed or dismounted every stug facing it over the last few minutes. The last Stug gets shot...

...and destroyed.

That leaves only the two Panthers and the Stugs I was going to use to assault the town left to deal with that Churchill. The way it has been shooting I am very nervous about my odds. As the turn ends the Churchill dispatches one of the dismounted Stugs.

I have to settle for destroying armoured cars. At least that is the end of the Armoured Car infiltration. The infantry will sweep the field making sure no crew are left to run around.

Meanwhile the approaching Churchills are engaged by the lead elements of 3 Battery. Nothing much happened other than both sides blasting leaves off of some trees.

5 Company's supporting Stugs are not overlooking the Orchard.

[A Canadian Cat]

The Panther hunting that pesky Churchill has not spotted it yet but is very close. Just a slight order adjustment to engage at point blank range.

3 Battery can now totally focus on the approaching Churchills. The platoons are a big mixed up but no one is fussing over that now. I send 3 Platoon to the right to prevent being flanked. One platoons worth of Stugs, made up of elements of 1 and 2 Platoon, move to the centre to engage the Churchills from the tree line. While the rest of 1 and 2 Platoon move down the road rapidly to flank the Churchills. The supporting infantry form 2 Company move to the centre and flank while one squad sweeps the field looking for any survivors.

[A Canadian Cat]

Wow, bad luck with the "Flying Dutchmen soldiers".

You can't move the truck either because "it's loading"

Yeah, this really worries me. I cannot cancel anything and he is running away from the truck. I will see what happens next turn but I might have to get gamey and kill him myself so a whole platoon and a Panther are not tired up waiting for him.

If BFC wants any saved games just say the word - I have them all but they are between 32 and 40Mb each.

[nathangun]

Hi,

Started reading this DAR two days ago and it's a brilliant read. Keep up the good work.

[A Canadian Cat]

The flanking panther going after those Churchills was a bad idea. I don't really know what I was thinking when I cooked it up. Did I think that Churchill was alone. Crazy. I forgot to take pictures but here is what happened. The Panther moved through the woods to engage the Churchill at point blank range. But it never got there. As the Panther got close a second Churchill broke cover and moved towards to Panther in front of the Churchill it was hunting. MG fire killed the Panther commander and the Panther popped smoke and reversed. A nearby tree (the Panther was in the forest – that part was smart at least) blocked a round from this new enemy.

3 Battery on my far right flank moved in a coordinated way to take on their new foe – a troop or more of Churchill tanks. The Stugs in the centre engaged the Churchills from the cover of the tree line.

Meanwhile another platoon moved left and flanked the Churchill's position. The two Stugs on point fired several rounds...

And got a kill.

3 Battery gets the all important first real kill of the game (if my opponent had only armoured cars and Stuart tanks this would not be much of a fight) and it shows that Stugs can actually kill Churchills. Here is what the right flank looks like a the end of the turn.

You can see a platoon of Stugs have flanked the Churchills to the left and a platoon is moving to flank them on the right. I can see one troop worth of Churchills here but there are also three additional unidentified contacts. So it could be as much as two troops.

[A Canadian Cat]

Over on the left flank 5 Company is not beginning to move into the Orchard and they discover – you guessed it an armoured car driving towards them. The nearest squad engaged and manages to take out the car commander just as the turn ends.

5 Company has almost finished convoying to the hill on the left flank. The HQ half track is last to make the final leg of the trip through the depression and up to the top of the hill.

This is also the turn that artillery starts falling. If you remember Osterhaus, the FO, setup three preplanned missions. One across the field form the base of the hill where 5 Company is deploying to support them moving into position to threaten the far rail bridge and village objective. You can see the shells landing in the picture above of 5 Company and the armoured card in the orchard. The other mission was harassing fire on the village itself. The third mission was the ridge line overlooking the main town objective. Just as the shells started landing on the ridge line one of the Panthers spotted and engaged an Achilles tank destroyer scoring another very important kill as the turn ended (sadly the Achilles did KO my Stug that was covering 1 Company's move from treeline to treeline before it died).

Those Achilles are nasty foes and can slice and dice panthers like they are not even there. Taking one of them out is a good thing but I am sure there are more. I do hope they are on that ridge under that barrage.

[A Canadian Cat]

Since the flanking Panther flushed out another Churchill and it presented its flank to the location where I lost all those Stugs I have moved another Stug in to take advantage of that juicy target.

Elements of 5 Company press forward through the forest into the orchard beyond.

3 Battery continues to try to envelop the Churchills they have met. The centre Stugs are moving out of their treeline because they no longer have LOS to the enemy. The have moved up only just far enough to take up hull down positions on my side of the crest of the hill in the middle of the field while the other two platoons continue their flanking manoeuvres.

Having seen no enemy artillery falling 3 Company moves take the village in preparation for assaulting the bridge and beginning a river crossing. I also issued orders to pack up my temporary command post in the small farm to move us all to the village.

[A Canadian Cat]

3 Battery exchanged fire with the Churchills they are trying to surround but no damage was done and by the end of the turn there was so much smoke and dust that no one was shooting any more. Time to manoeuvre. The smoke from the fire fight between 3 Battery and the Churchills.

The Panther in the centre of the map that ran single handed-ly into the flank of the Churchill that shredded 2 Battery ended the turn with no contacts backing up. Since there was no picture from last turn here is how the turn started for that Panther.

And they backed up more and ended up here:

Meanwhile Griess's 3 Company has taken the village and is getting into position to cross the bridge.

The recon 20mm half track of 5 Company spots a Stuart and opens up. The Sutart is lucky and seems to suffer no ill effects.

[A Canadian Cat]

3 Company is taking up positions ready to cross the bridge. Griess is getting his men in position at the edge of the town. One of his mortar teams is going to throw some smoke on the other side of the bridge. As the smoke screen falls one platoon from Hofmeister's 1 Battery and the Panther will cover the bridge for the infantry to cross.

1 Battery assault guns will move to the tree line as the smoke comes down.

Meanwhile 5 Company will continue its move through the orchard. On their left they have a an Armoured Car and on their right they have a Stuart. Off in the distance there is a Churchill. The plan is to have them occupy the orchard and protect my left frank while they wait for the time to assault the furthest village.

3 Battery continues its enveloping of the Churchills. The left flank will consolidate its position with infantry moving up to get eyes further forward and to spot any threats trying to flank the assault guns. The right flank will move up rapidly to try to get guns on the Churchills and the centre are moving forward to the edge of a hump in the field to keep their guns on the Churchills which have backed off a big. The will be hull down in the centre.

The panther's dealing with the single Churchill are backing off to a safer position.

[A Canadian Cat]

My Panther that I sent to kill my own solider failed in its task – the runner had moved pass the tree line when the Panther started shooting. However he ran headlong past a Staghound Armoured Car and right into the water, where the Staghound shot him as he was reaching neck deep. Crazy! But thanks because now the rest of his squad can finish loading their truck.

[Baneman]

My Panther that I sent to kill my own solider failed in its task – the runner had moved pass the tree line when the Panther started shooting. However he ran headlong past a Staghound Armoured Car and right into the water, where the Staghound shot him as he was reaching neck deep.

As a bonus, your opponent probably now thinks you have mad recon skills

[A Canadian Cat]

As a bonus, your opponent probably now thinks you have mad recon skills

He he, I have to admit I told him about it - I do not really consider this episode as part of the game. It is a bug.

[Heinrich505]

Ian,

Good back and forth action. The momentum swings are interesting.

That bridge rush might be very exciting. We are standing by.

"Mad Recon Skills." Nice one, Baneman.

Heinrich505

[A Canadian Cat]

That bridge rush might be very exciting. We are standing by.

Thanks, I am in the middle of watching the latest turn now and the smoke has totally missed the mark so I have some deciding to do on how to cross that bridge.

[A Canadian Cat]

5 Company's recon half track tries to nail that Stuart again. Again to no effect. I'll have to get one of the Stugs to take the half track's place next turn.

One of the Stugs with 5 Company does manage to destroy another armoured car.

The AFVs supporting 3 Company approach the bridge. The smoke shells from the 81mm mortar team land way off the mark. Instead of landing in front of where the Staghound is hiding so the wind can blow the smoke across the opposite side of the bridge the rounds land in the field 50m away. I have to come up with a different plan now. I do not want to just rush the bridge because that Staghound can easily immobilize any of my AFVs and certainly it would not be healthy for the infantry either.

The lead elements of 3 Company approach the barn just on my side of the bridge. The will likely act as a fire base for the rest of their platoon to leap frog across the bridge next turn or the turn after depending on what I decide to do about smoke.

Dungeon Tiger keeps telling me I will never take the town from him. I do not think he understands what a German Infantry company can do fighting in an urban setting. Nore do I think he sees how well covered my approach to the town is. 1 Company will be able to transition from woods to buildings with very little exposure. Here are the lead elements waiting in the woods for their armoured support to catch up.