AAR - Wittmann's Demise - The German Perspective

[Bil Hardenberger]

The Fifty Ninth Minute

The last retreating Firefly spots, or gets a UI contact from the Tiger platoon on his right... but it is the Pz-IVs around Gaumesnil that take him out.

It's this sort of coordination between widely separated assets that can make or break a battle. If you can dangle a carrot that attracts the enemy unit (in this case the Tigers), at the same time wind up a punch from somewhere else (the Pz-IVs) then you will stack the odds in your favor in these sorts of engagements. This is the same technique and effect used in my last game with GaJ when I moved a Pz-IV aggressively near an M10 while maneuvering a Brummbar in for a flank shot... the M10 was caught responding to the Pz-IV and never knew the Brummbar was there. Links to this action:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1450581&postcount=686

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1450626&postcount=691

Wittmann had fired on and penetrated this fleeing Sherman III at the end of last turn, but it wasn't until this turn that he finishes it off. Note the Firefly also in this image, that was the tank taken out by the Pz-IVs as stated above.

Here is the current situation in this part of the battlefield.

Note the Jpz and halftrack headed towards objective 3 (top of map)...

...I have identified the spots where the Firefly and Sherman III that were knocked out this turn were located.

...note the Jpz Section at the bottom of the image... they are the subject of my next little vignette. The Sherman III they are facing has already destroyed two of my Pz-IVs over the past few turns.

Jpz Section

This image highlights the power of hulldown and the danger of not getting a proper hulldown position.

The Jpz on the left I failed to plot into a good hulldown position to the Sherman III, it is immediately spotted, fired on, penetrated, and the crew bails. Luckliy the tank is not knocked out and as soon as the crew can recover they will remount.

The Jpz on the right is in a very good hulldown position... it is never spotted, never fired on, and in fact gets off several rounds at the Sherman III, three of which penetrate. At turn's end the Sherman was still listed as okay, but I bet its getting ready to bail.

My point is to ensure you place your tanks, tank destroyers, whatever, in hulldown positions whenever you have the opportunity. The benefits to remaining unseen and or getting the drop on an opponent are too great to ignore.

[Bil Hardenberger]

In case anybody missed the threads where this was laid out, here is how I get a tank into a hulldown position:

1. Understand that hulldown only applies to a specific target or direction.. you might be hulldown to one enemy, but exposed to another

2. Add your movement waypoints up to the hill/ridge you want to deploy on

3. Select the last waypoint and, using the targeting command, check to see if you can "see" into the target area, if you cannot see into the targeted area, then move the waypoint until you can

4. When checking LOS with the target command it will say either "Spotter is hulldown" or "Spotter is partially hulldown".. either is acceptable.. if it does not say this move the waypoint until it does

5. Change the last waypoint to Hunt and your tank should stop to fire immediately upon sighting an enemy unit, you will then be in a nice hulldown position

In addition, if I know where an enemy tank is located precisely then I will also give the last couple of waypoints very tight armor covered arcs over that location (not just the last one).

[Bil Hardenberger]

The Sixtieth Minute

The Jpz fired one more round and this was enough to brew up that stubborn Sherman III in the trees.

Up by objective 3 another Sherman III was attempting to get into a position to block my halftrack and Jpz from getting to that final objective.

Unfortunately for him Wittmann spotted him, and knocked him out. Another kill ring for Wittmann's tank.

At this point Warren cannot have too much left.. I know he has at least one tank (and I suspect a few more) in the south, but those have pulled out in the face of my advance there with a full Pz-IV platoon, a Marder and a Jpz. He might also have a few more near objective 3, and perhaps a few in the center. But I have control of the field now and anywhere he moves, if he acts aggressively I can spot him with something.

[Fizou]

Very intense battle! Thanks again for putting this together Bill, you turn making AAR's into an art. Thanks also to George for another top notch scenario

[Oddball_E8]

Ok, thats it... im buying the game! (again!)

[Bil Hardenberger]

The Sixty First and Sixty Second Minutes

The only action that occurs in turn 61 is my last remaining halftrack getting taken out by an unidentified tank.. so the crew and occupants (those that survive) will have to proceed on foot to the final objective, which you can see in this image is not far away now.

The next turn starts with the Panther that is traveling with the Tiger platoon getting a shot off at a Sherman III in the woods ahead.

Dollinger's Tiger gets the drop on another Firefly.. it'll be interesting at the end of the game to examine the kills for this Tiger and Wittmann's as the two of them seem to have done the majority of the damage.

The Firefly was penetrated and the crew bailed.. the tank is still showing as okay though, so I guess it is only unhorsed and will have the opportunity to recrew this vehicle when they recover.. my task now is to ensure they do not have that chance. For this reason this tank is not being counted in the kill stats yet.

SITMAP

Here is the situation as it currently stands... note that the Tiger Platoon will not be moving much further forward from here on out.. I actually offered Warren a cease fire about this time and he wanted to press on a bit longer.. so we did.

Note the two avoidance areas.. there is no way I'm going into that terrain without infantry and my infantry is too far out of the picture to get there in time.

[Bil Hardenberger]

The Sixty Third Minute

Dollinger fired and penetrated the abandoned Firefly a few more times until finally Wittmann joined in, both fire at about the same time, but Wittmann slightly before Dollinger's last shell...

...[bottom image] Wittmann's round just misses, hitting the trees behind the Firefly... however Dollinger's flies true, finally killing it.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2015 by Bil Hardenberger

[Bil Hardenberger]

Game End - Cease Fire

Warren finally agreed to a cease fire.. I was able to occupy the final objective in the last turn. Obviously I had a miscount on British tanks destroyed.

Here is the final map.. note the infantry force Warren had available. Good thing I didn't press into that mess.

The four circles highlight Warren's surviving tanks, all Sherman IIIs. There was a Sherman V near objective 2, which surprised me.. I had to drive right by that thing with my halftrack as it passed through. Gulp!

Here is a comparison of the kill stats of Dollinger's and Wittmann's Tigers. Wittmann takes the prize with seven enemy tank kills, Dollinger has six, each killed three Fireflies.

Finally, the winners of the Tiger kill sweepstakes are:

Thanks for playing!

[Baneman]

Nice going.

I shoulda known - you're not just good, you're lucky too !

[Buzz]

Thanks to you all, Bil, The Capt (Warren) and of course Sir George MC for an informative and entertaining AAR of Wittman's Demise - "one helluva swirling dogfight." Dollinger & Wittman are the Tigers you want on your side when the swirling starts. Enjoyed the battle and I even got lucky in my Tiger kill sweepstakes guess!

[Fenris]

Very enjoyable AAR. I'll add my thanks to The Capt and George MC for their part and Bil for another excellent presentation. Thanks for sharing.

-F

[Ithikial_AU]

Excellent work and a great read. Looking forward to the next one!

[George MC]

I thoroughly enjoyed this AAR - Thanks Bil for putting this together, you made an excellent job of it. Also thanks to Warren for his part in it.

Cheers to all those who enjoyed the scenario. I'm working on a smaller one that deals with the initial part of Wittmann's action on Point 213. Map still in it's early stages. It's a real devil to do using historical references and working within the constraints of the editor (straight lines - hate those saw tooth things!).

[sburke]

Game End - Cease Fire

Finally, the winners of the Tiger kill sweepstakes are:

Thanks for playing!

Hold on a moment there. As I understand it shortly hereafter one of those Tigers bogged, two ran out of fuel and a fourth threw a track. All 4 had to be abandoned so ..oh wait Jack Ration and I won!!!

[Mies]

Thanks Bil, good read!

[DavidFields]

Great AAR.

Looking at the other side:

Should he have shifted his tank positions more after the initial battles?

And was the counterattack not an optimal choice?

[Bil Hardenberger]

Great AAR.

Looking at the other side:

Should he have shifted his tank positions more after the initial battles?

And was the counterattack not an optimal choice?

I did think that Warren kept his initial line in position for a few turns too long.. they were effective at the start, but that effectiveness slowly petered out.. and it was clear when that was happening... he should have extricated his tanks at that point. The balance of that kind of operation is tough.. you have to be on the look out continuously for when to pull your force out of a position.. and it needs to be done before they lose the advantage, but just before.

If he had counter-attacked like that while I was busy with the three Fireflies and other tanks on my left after I took the first objective instead of after those tanks had been dispatched then his attack might have worked. As it turned out I was able to shift my entire force to deal with the threat rather than being able to shift just a portion of it. I liked that he had a support by fire position of at least two platoons overwathcing the movement by the two that were maneuvering... that support by fire position cost me a few tanks and was ultimately tougher to eliminate than the maneuver element had been.

Throughout, my main fear was just this sort of counter-attack, so it was the right decision.. however he performed the action too late for it to have much chance of success.

The CW tanks were much more effective when they were in hide positions and could snipe at my tanks as I advanced... once he was out in the open his tanks didn't last long... so really in this battle as the CW player you really need to be performing a delay operation... cause some damage on the first line then fall back to the next line to do it all over again. With one big counter-attack in a flank to cause some real damage when the opportunity presented itself.

Bil

[RevJack]

Thank you Bill,

very enjoyable and adds lots to the battle and to the game.....as others have said, I look forward to your next one!

[Jock Tamson]

I started this scenario a few days ago against the Allied AI, and am about 45 moves in. Fantastic map with lots of possibilities, I'm glad I didn't read the AAR before playing it.

Recon, careful probing, and using Regular or Veteran crews to spot and engage at range has been critical, as has careful scouting out of decent HD positions on the approaches. Where possible I have steered clear of trees and used lanes and hedges for covered observation. There are also some useful elevation changes within the wheat fields to allow a bit of room for manoeuvre.

I've knocked out 3 Fireflys and 4 Sherman Vs and have captured Gaumesnil which provided some very entertaining moments, not least of which was stalking a Sherman V with an Aufklärung team in the woods only to see them hit a tree right in front of them with their Panzerfaust, the projectile rebounding and suppressing them. They later disabled it with AT grenades.

I've lost 1 Tiger and 2 Green crewed Pz IVs, all around Gaumesil. The loss of the Tiger was early on in the mission, since then I have been more careful to keep a distance until I am sure the treelines are clear. The left flank now seems two thirds clear so I am sending three armoured platoons down there in a wide left hook in order to work my way up to Objective 2. One of the surprises has been the survivability of the Shermans, particularly when engaged by the Pz IVs' 75mms. This probably the largest amount of armour I have played with so I have seen more instances of the Shermans surviving 2 or 3 shots than I might otherwise be used to in my usual encounters.

On the right flank I moved a Pz Gr platoon into the farm buildings 400m in front of their starting positions. They provided some very useful spotting of ambushing tanks in the treeline ahead, which I drove out with HE from supporting Pz IVs and then picked off with two panthers I had crept through the wheat fields.

My plan for the right flank is a little seat of the pants. I am reasonably confident that the initial defences have been driven off so I have moved up another Pz Gr company supported by PZ IVs and am intending to probe into the gully half way to Garcelles which looks like it could be a useful avenue of approach provided it is not chock full of infantry. Hopefully this probe will also provide some useful recon of the middle approach up the map and allow me to move remaining armour up in a big push.

I really wish conditional triggers linked to unit groups were available to scenario designers to allow the AI to pull back or launch a counter attack as the situation demands, similar to the Arma editor. It would add massively to the replayability and general dynamism of the AI. Imagine the possibilities of a trigger on Gaumesil linked to an Allied tank troop where Enemy spotted within trigger =true, Morale of troop leader > 0 , probabilty roll => 0.5.... = the AI launching an attack. It's the area of the game that needs the most love, IMO.