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SPOILERS BELOW (my thoughts and a small AAR)!

 

 

 

 

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Just finished this one in h2h vs my regular opponent @Kuderian. Maybe he will drop by and offer his thoughts as well. I took on Carius and the panzers to try and recreate what they did back in the day.    

First off, map and briefing is just awesome, as I have come to expect from you George. It really sets the mood and gets me excited to play. I only had one problem with pathing on the bridge in central Malinava. I have had the same thing happen in other battles in CMRT. The tanks jerk around and dont want to drive straight over the bridge. A bit frustrating, specially when under fire(!).

I think the battle played out well and was fairly balanced. The pre battle intel gave me a small but not trivial help in countering the enemies superior numbers - not used very often so a cool feature in this battle.

I decided early on to go straight for the village as Carius did, but bring all Tigers in one go (alternating over-watch) to tackle the T34s in the village and then take up defensive positions to hold of the enemy reinforcements. I used the HT and dismounted its crew to get a look at the approaching reinforcements so I soon learned they where IS2s (rude awakening indeed, as I thought they would be more T34s).  

The Tigers performed great at spotting and I was able to kill a few T-34s in reveres key-hole positions as I advanced. I lost only one Tiger during my attack into Malinava, this was unfortunately Carius (Nice action by Kuderian as he coordinated three T-34s to strike at Carius and Kerscher simultaneously). Carius only got one T-34 to his name. The T-34s also managed to immobilize one Tiger before the last few pulled out of Malinava. 

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Carius tank lost its gun and was abandoned having only killed one T34. The Tiger was soon drilled by several 85 mm shells. Carius and his crew moved off, and Carius was later wounded by shrapnel. I got him buddy aided at least but very far from his historical result. 

When the IS tanks closed on Malinava they had been split into two groups, approaching from the east and north. Some of my Tigers got trapped behind buildings and I had a hard time relocating under IS over-watch. I learned that the IS2 has pretty darn good accuracy over long ranges. It has a high velocity gun so maybe not so strange, my prejudice got a schooling. 

It was also pretty obvious that the one that has to move first usually is the one that is spotted first, and killed. Always trying to outnumber your opponent will carry the day and its great to setup behind some trees. The long range duels where roughly 50/50 between Tigers and IS2s. 

As the StuGs arrived I thought there would be an exit zone to move them off map, and think that might have been good as I thought that was what I was supposed to do according to the briefing. Instead I used them to anchor my left flank. The second group of IS2s moved in on them and payed dearly.     

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My favorite shoot of the battle. Just as this IS2 moves down in a small depression a StuG scores a hit on the exposed weak top turret armor and takes it out. The kind of detail that makes CM king. 

The IS had a very hard time spotting my StuGs as they where positioned behind trees and high hedges. I was a bit surprised they performed so well head on with the IS2. And the StuGs really took a big chunk of the work. The Tigers scored 8 T-34s and 4 IS2s to the StuGs 2 T-34s and 6 IS2s. The T34s got one Tiger and the IS2s got the rest of the Soviet kills. And I lost all Tigers and three StuGs and as the battle ended, after Kuderian offered a ceasefire there was one IS2 left surrounded by 4 StuGs.

So losses on both sides where appalling - the Soviets could take them as apposed to the Germans and a draw as end result felt fair.   

 

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Thanks for a great scenario and I really look forward to the next masterpiece you turn out :D

 

Edited by Fizou
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Hi @Fizou

Excellent wee AAR thanks. I think your experience goes to show how much luck was on Carius' side in this action. I've played this several times myself and it's pretty much 50/50 whether Carius makes it through this unscathed! Kerscher does not fair much better.

Your fight in this sounds  real toe to toe engagement. Two heavyweight boxers sluggin it out!

Re your comment re exit zones. I did have that in at first but it a/ seriously distorted the scoring (even with bonuses) b/ it changes the whole character of the fight as the Stugs make a bee-line to escape by edge of map crawling. So I went with the keeping em alive until they could "exit", after the fighting has stopped, and it's all clear.

I'm pleased you enjoyed the map and brief. The map is as best a recreation I could manage within the game engine/editor confines and is based on a Soviet 1:50000 map and a German 1:25000 map all WWII era - early to mid 40s.

Thanks again for taking the time to post your comments and AAR.

Cheery!

George

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On 5/10/2016 at 11:16 AM, George MC said:

Hi @Fizou

Excellent wee AAR thanks. I think your experience goes to show how much luck was on Carius' side in this action. I've played this several times myself and it's pretty much 50/50 whether Carius makes it through this unscathed! Kerscher does not fair much better.

Your fight in this sounds  real toe to toe engagement. Two heavyweight boxers sluggin it out!

Re your comment re exit zones. I did have that in at first but it a/ seriously distorted the scoring (even with bonuses) b/ it changes the whole character of the fight as the Stugs make a bee-line to escape by edge of map crawling. So I went with the keeping em alive until they could "exit", after the fighting has stopped, and it's all clear.

I'm pleased you enjoyed the map and brief. The map is as best a recreation I could manage within the game engine/editor confines and is based on a Soviet 1:50000 map and a German 1:25000 map all WWII era - early to mid 40s.

Thanks again for taking the time to post your comments and AAR.

Cheery!

George

 

Man, you're simply amazing! I wish the CM community had 10 copies of you. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 years later...

Four years later than the last post and I've just played this as Carius and co.  Yes @George MC it is excellent.  Lost one Tiger and one Stug so far with some minutes left (I got all of the Stugs back to the village and set them up in ambush positions to back up the couple of Tigers I had there).

Favourite moment was watching one of these Tigers bounce 88s off the turret of a tough IS2 which sneakily had made its way into the back of the village from the slopes on the right flank.  No penetration achieved by the Tiger, but it did make the IS2 go into reverse - straight towards two waiting Stugs.  Both Stugs opened fire and and penetrated the rear hull and turret.  Very nice moment for me but not for the IS2 crew...

Thanks George - hope you can add more scenarios in Fire and Rubble if you haven't already 😉.

Edited by Vacilllator
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3 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

Four years later than the last post and I've just played this as Carius and co.  Yes @George MC it is excellent.  Lost one Tiger and one Stug so far with some minutes left (I got all of the Stugs back to the village and set them up in ambush positions to back up the couple of Tigers I had there).

Favourite moment was watching one of these Tigers bounce 88s off the turret of a tough IS2 which sneakily had made its way into the back of the village from the slopes on the right flank.  No penetration achieved by the Tiger, but it did make the IS2 go into reverse - straight towards two waiting Stugs.  Both Stugs opened fire and and penetrated the rear hull and turret.  Very nice moment for me but not for the IS2 crew...

Thanks George - hope you can add more scenarios in Fire and Rubble if you haven't already 😉.

Thanks for playing this and posting your feedback. Much appreciated ta! Glad you enjoyed it and good effort.

I've a few scenarios in the pipeline for sure ;) 

Cheery!

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2 hours ago, Erwin said:

TSD III has a scenario download spelled "Malinava" (v2) which other sites also mention Malinovo (https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=163515). 

Anyone know which is the correct spelling?

Both ways appear to be used. TSD III (if you check the beginning of this thread) links to the scenario being played.

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5 hours ago, Erwin said:

I have it George, thank you...  Was just curious re spelling.

If I recall, and I’d have to double check... but Malinovo is the name used generally in the west to refer to the place whilst Malinava is the name I have seen referenced more in Russian accounts. Oh there is a PDF in the scenario zip file with all the info I found about the action including the Soviet casualty list. 

Edited by George MC
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  • 3 weeks later...

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