Macisle's Map - Axis AAR - *** Here be SPOILERS ***

[Frankster65]

What a fun read. Thanks for doing this.

[kohlenklau]

The wind is coming from the south right?

Drop a small linear smoke barrage and it will head into his direction.

Then as he is blinded, move in your AT assets and take out a tank.

He is probably bunched up and ripe for some mortaring too...

GO BIG GREY!

[Baneman]

Oh he's a wily one. This turn the tank was heard to be reversing from his position ( movement shown by arrow ).

Another spotting round falls - in a completely different field, so I have no idea where he's likely to drop - but I suspect that he's now going to bombard the hedgerow my LMG is behind. I'll wait one more turn, then pull them back.

I thought I'd show what it looks like with Trees visible in this shot.

[Baneman]

Over on the left, more engine sounds are heard. This may be the original vehicle which hasn't been heard recently, or a new one.

The scout team I've marked has 3 MP40's so they ought to be able to make crossing that field fairly unpleasant. They shamelessly plundered my Kubelwagen so they've got scads of ammo.

Thought I'd also show some Wire and Mines I have which should slow down any effort to cross into the field to the right of my ATG. These are covered by an HMG which is behind the next hedgerow line ( out of frame ).

Obscured by the hedge behind the Mines is another TRP in case he decides to lurk/mass there

All my mortars are off-board, so I'm going to be reluctant to use smoke unless I'm getting pummelled.

[kohlenklau]

Baneman, Whadya think it was? 81's? 105's?

So, your ATG ammo bearers are carrying some extra ATG ammo but are away from the gun?

I guess you don't think it will live very long? Or am I confuzificated?

You've got 2 batteries of 81's and 1 battery of 120's?

So, 4 81 tubes and 2 120 tubes?

Like 200 rounds of 81 and 60 rounds of 120? +/-?

Or just 2 81 tubes and a single 120 tube?

[Baneman]

I think it was 81mm or even 60mm. Hard to tell the difference. Pretty sure it's not bigger than that.

My own support is 2 x 2 tubes 81mm 80HE/6 Smoke and 1 x 2 tubes 120mm 36HE.

Re. the ATG bearers. The gun has 6 HE and 12 AP ( + 1 150mm HEAT ). If it lives to fire all that I'll be ecstatic. If it actually needs the bearer's 6 and 12 I'll just have to suck it up, but I regard the possibility as vanishingly small.

Most likely it gets off 2-4 shots before the enemy nukes that spot from orbit.

[kohlenklau]

stick-with-the-plan

(aint that what Hans Gruber said in Die Hard?)

BUT TINKERING IS SO MUCH FUN!

Thanks again for the AAR

[Baneman]

Apologies for delay, opponent out of town again for work. Honestly, some employers...

On my right, a third mortar bomb drops close to where #2 fell, confirming my suspicion that the hedgerow my LMG team is behind is about to be pounded. Vehicle sounds have moved futher to the right. I now suspect he will try the movement I have marked since there's no other exit from that field. If he goes all the way past to the map edge, I may have to move the schreck team to compensate, but for now they're just moving forward to cover the primary gate.

[Baneman]

Over on the left, the vehicle sounds appear to indicate an approach that may soon lead him into view. My ATG has good los to the field entrance, I sure hope it doesn't prove to be one of those invisible tanks.

[kohlenklau]

These bloody icons are messing with my head.

That is the symbol for a scout/recon team?

Sorry, it looks more like origami.

I'll have to go into the "suppository" and see them closer.

Carry on Hauptmann!

[Baneman]

Aaaannd action !

Not much, but we'll take what we get. Lo and behold, some Ami scouts brazenly creeping down the main road hugging the hedge. They took fire and hit the dirt, don't think there were any casualties.

More puzzling and/or amusing was the strange sight of american artillery landing far to his rear. I do hope someone was hurt I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that FO's dugout...

A little later in the turn another stray round falls and engine sounds indicate the enemy went with Plan B - their tank has pushed all the way to the far edge, so I'm moving the schreck team again to compensate.

[Baneman]

On the left, more scouts show themselves running into view at the rear of the "Irrisistible Gully", just out of range of my scout team.

And then, the ATG gets a good spot on a Stuart, peeking through the hedgerow.

Fires ! Hits !

Does buggerall

It does reverse away smartly, I guess it's too much to hope for a crew casualty.

[Baneman]

I've decided to lay down some fire. If he's moving up I can hope to catch some of his guys, since even with the TRP's, it's all on 3 minute call. Hopefully more will move into the killzone in the next 3 minutes. I can still change my mind if I hear nothing more than scouts.

All fire plans are Medium/Short which should provide good coverage and stop quickly.

[kohlenklau]

Excellent...Case of beer to the ATG crew if they get that stuart!

[Macisle]

Very nice screens, Baneman.

Well, even if you don't catch many of his troopers with your arty this time, you're sure going to give him something to think about with it. With no spotting rounds and high accuracy in three places suddenly, he might feel like he's facing quite a monster force. OTOH, he likely knows that Bodin House and the Laval Farm have no on-site defenders now.

It looks like he's finally exploring the extreme E flank. BTW, what turn are you guys up to now?

Oh, and here's a real-world shot of the current action area:

[Baneman]

Action is hotting up in this, the 13th minute.

First of all, on the extreme left, no more scouts have come through the gate since the little "tank" incident. The enemy appears to be moving further to the flank.

His lucky tank moves with them. My scouts, heartily cursing their commander, move back to their original position to cover the leftmost field.

In our H2HH chat, my opponent said something about his "armour of righteousness" and I, in a throwaway comment, mentioned that it was certainly proof against rifle grenades

Disinformation is fair, right ?

[Baneman]

Much more worrying, is that he has discovered he can "snout" his Stuarts through the bocage and has 2 covering the centre-left. That's a development I hadn't planned for. Curses !

Another demo charge indicates his intention of ignoring the existing gaps and sneaking in through to the sides of the fields.

Since no more men came through the gate on the left, I have cancelled that circular 81mm barrage and will be repositioning it on the TRP by the demo blast.

In the centre, I have been forced to create composite "Time Lapse" screenshots to show all the action.

First the scouts ( foreground ) decide to bug out to the left. Only one makes it.

A short time later another bunch ( background ) are seen heading to the right. 2 minutes to that barrage

[Baneman]

Centre-right, ( another Time-Lapse photo ) there's yet another strange rear-area artillery strike.

My LMG team continues their heroics, taking out 2 men crossing directly to their front, and one of a pair crossing to their left - and who can blame them for advancing when their own High Command is shelling their assemby area ! Those American commanders are ruthless !

An American tank, with callous disregard for French property, crushes a gate and moves across the field as well, taking up another "snouting" position.

This one is the most worrying as there's a chance it can see the house my men are in who have just seen off the scouts in the main road

On the extreme right flank, his tank is now visible to my other LMG team and I'm crawling the schrecks to a position from which they will have LoS. I also have LoS to it from a sniper team a field back - 290m shot, but, sadly, the Americans are not co-operating by being bold and dashing and playing Rommel - the commander is buttoned up

[Florian]

Thanks for this great AAR. It is a great pleasure to read!

I am looking forward about what is going to happen in the next turns.

@Macisle: the map looks fantastic!

Best regards

[Baneman]

Like a fool, I neglected to reposition the LMG hero team. So that's the end of them then

The fact that the Stuart pulled back to deal with them, allows me to move the men in the exposed house one house over, so they are now unlikely to be spotted by the Stuart in that field. They can still cover their front though.

No new movement on the extreme left. In the left centre, sadly, the godlike spotting abilities of buttoned tanks allows 1 Stuart to shell my squad which has been motionless behind the bocage from the start Their HQ spots enemy scouts crawling towards my wire obstacle, although their MP40's prove less godlike in accuracy.

The 2nd Stuart that was snouting at the bocage has moved across, crushing yet another hapless farmer's fence. If he goes just a little further, my ATG will be able to see him ( living in hope ).

[Baneman]

On the far right, the enemy have identified the possible Schreck firing area and are pre-emptively giving it hell. Luckily my guys are crawling slowly, so have amended their destination to hide in the long grass.

A fair few infantry are now making their way across this field. The LMG gets one, but those further away are unscathed. The LMG is unfortunately in LoS of the Stuart, so they're going to run back across the road to the next hedgeline.

My lack of resistance on this flank may encourage him to send more troops here, I'm going to have to move up a couple more squads from the rear area. The threat of Ami artillery may not be as serious as we feared, if his wayward spotting rounds indicate poor/inadequate LoS.

[Baneman]

Next turn and things are beginning to unravel as the enemy discern our weakness

The LMG team successfully relocates and fires on American infantry crossing the field. Unlike their more heroic brethren, they can't hit anyone. At least 2 squads have crossed the field.

I've cancelled the long linear barrage in order to move it to here. However, the rounds count has already gone down, so with luck, some rounds will still fall in the orginal targetted area ( not sure how this works tbh ).

The Schreck team, too late to do any good, are crawling away in the long grass. Unfortunately they're already tired, so how far they'll get and whether they'll remain unspotted is moot.

This picture is looking across the map to the left.

At centre right, the team in the house relocated successfully and are exchanging shots with the surviving scout. The Hero-killer tank has pulled back and appears to be moving to the main road - probably to take the house under fire. The road is still covered by a Schreck team though

[Baneman]

On the far left, enemy infantry having presumably heard my scout team puffing back and forth, are shooting into their bocage cover. I've ordered them to shoot back, let's see how 3 MP40's do on Area Fire.

Schreck team can see the Stuart, but it's a long shot. They have a Cover Armour arc, I've left it up to the AI to decide whether to fire or not.

Centre left, the team that was taking fire from the Stuart decided they were too Pinned to crawl away. This actually helped because that Stuart pulled back and also headed towards the main road.

The other Stuart that almost poked its head around the corner into the Irrisistible Gully was only teasing me and has now pulled back out of the field entirely. Can't even guess where that one will go.

[Baneman]

Another turn and now things go from bad to worse.

On the far right he has clearly decided I have no AT assets ( if he only knew how lucky he was with the timing ) and aggressively charges his Stuart forward. My LMG guys have to run like hell and hope even harder.

On the extreme left, the schreck guys had a go, fired 3 times, missed all three and began taking fire. They've been told to crawl away. The scouts suppressed the enemy to their front and there's been no more movement there.

Centre left we had a good 81mm drop along the line. Can't tell if it had any effect.

You can also see the Stuart which DID decide to try the main road. More on that below.

[Baneman]

Nosy Stuart came trundling down the main road and took a good Schreck penetration.

But then...

Now a 50mm AT round bouncing off a Stuart I can just get my head around, but a Stuart surviving a schreck penetration ?!!

Just before the end of the round, it fired back at my team - naturally it killed the gunner instantly - molten copper and frag flying around inside doesn't deter these guys. Must be Sgt Rock in there

Whether the schreck team #2 can buddy aid him and pick it up remains to be seen ...

Sadly, this will surely encourage him to push down the main road, since his tanks are clearly now invincible and have eliminated the AT asset.

The only good news is that the particular 120mm strike in the foreground ( crater shown ) was associated with a loud scream so at least one shell took effect.