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CM Final Blitzkrieg - ALLIED (Defense) BETA Battle Report


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Gosh, please don't apologize.  'Twas a near run thing.  This DAR was great!  Your pre-battle thought process and analysis in itself exceeds the price of admission.  You offer exceptional Lessons Learned.   No one bats 1000.  After you lick your wounds, I for one do not envy your next opponent.  Thank you for all your time and wonderful efforts!

Let me echo this - do not apologize, man. I enjoyed watching the match immensely!

 

As I got to observe when CMRT came out (and in some scenarios of CMBN CW such as NEDForce at Les Grandes Bonfaits, for instance), as soon as the fight happens on open terrain (or elevation differences are modeled in the map, so there's a chance to "look over" linear cover) and ranges get longer, the technical superiority of the German armour becomes very obvious. You fought gallantly, but certainly your armour was somewhat overmatched technically and also in crew quality. In my last playthrough of George MC's NEDForce, three veteran Panther crews took out a whole company of keyholed Sherman tanks with average crew experience at a distance...

Edited by BletchleyGeek
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Dear Bil,

all i can say is: nooooooooooooooooo!!! what should I do now in the morning while i drink my breakfast tea? Since the biginning of the AAR the development of your plans and thoughts was my daily bowl of cereals.  

thank you very very very much fot theat thrilling battle, your ofensive playing style - that taught me more than all CM-playing - and all the work you put into this AAR.

Great Job, Sir!

Yours,

b

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The first DAR I've followed in real-time; many thanks for the great, enthralling and detailed write-ups Bil, and commiserations!

 

Not sure what I'll do now at the start of each work day???? The schedule was always;

1/. Read Banemans DAR

2/. Read Bil's DAR and then

3/. Lastly for some humour, read Bud's comic DAR (TWO Sturmtigers!!! TWO!!!!)

:huh:

 

Edited by gnarly
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This was one hell of a battle, and an excellently written DAR. 

I think this is a prime example of doing everything right but still ending up with a bad result. Everything you did had solid reasoning behind it, it just didn't turn out the way that was hoped for. 

I personally appreciated your aggressiveness. I think you made the right call when you determined that the enemy force was mostly dismounted infantry and decided to go on the offensive. Why sit around and wait to get hammered? Its never a good idea to be the nail. 

There are many ways this could have gone differently but here we are with the result we have. I think that at the very least you have provided us with a great battle to learn from as well as one helluva ride. As always the writing was top notch and the pacing in general of this DAR was very suspenseful. You're a winner as a writer!

Lastly, I wouldn't worry about that damned Jagdtiger. Its likely to break down immediately after this battle, then proceed to sit around and wait for repairs for a few weeks, only to be strafed and destroyed by P-47s after the weather clears up. The only real tragedy there is the darn flyboys taking all the credit...

Thanks again for a hard fought battle and a great DAR!

Edited by IICptMillerII
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Well, I didn't see this one as all that close to be honest.  I made many mistakes, one of the first and costliest being my reaction to the JagdTiger moving up.. I had one turn's warning that it was on its way if you remember.. instead of closing with my Hellcats and using my Shermans as bait I withdrew all of them and lost the battle.  

Goes to show actually how close the tipping point was.. after that error Baneman's force inflicted Pain and Punishment on my tanks until I could see the writing on the wall and could tell that I had no chance to win.   

There were other mistakes as well.. advancing without enough intel (lost three Hellcats that way), pushing a counter-attack well beyond what was reasonable (the Team Punishment Sherman Section), etc.

Edited by Bil Hardenberger
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All fair points. It was a battle that had a definite tipping point. I think that because of all the factors you listed is what makes it such a great learning experience. Also, hindsight is 20/20.

Do you think this would be a worthy battle to do a debrief/analysis on? I think that would be very interesting, and if nothing more it would give us something to occupy ourselves with before the release. 

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I second what several have said. This is the AAR I've followed more religiously than any other. Cliffhangers almost every day. I wasn't going to buy this game, backlogged as I am with other games coming out this quarter, but darn it all, it's on my insta-buy list now ;)

Edited by Hamilcar
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Let me add another "Thank You!" Bil.

Certainly, no apologies are needed. While you didn't get the result you were looking for, your audience got to see a unique, interesting battle that showcased cool new units and provided valuable food for thought about how to use them. As you said in your last reply, though the execution of some maneuvers didn't pan out, the maneuvers themselves had potential. That makes for good pondering and your AAR was great reading.

 

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Definitely not my best game, sorry fellas, I had hoped to provide a better show.

Pffft.  No worries here.  I always enjoy your AARs. They provide much more information than just a 'this is what happened in this situation'.

Thank you for your efforts.

One question: with all that white on the ground, did you find it any harder to get a handle on the micro terrain of the map?

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Thanks for that interesting and quite informative showcase AAR! :)  I highly appreciate the way your shared your tactical thinking, analysis and overall graphical presentation, beside what we can expect from CMFB when it´s finally released. Winning is and was secondary. Mission well accomplished, I´d say. B)

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Thanks for the very informative DAR, Bil. Your approach and methods of planning gave me lots to think about. I think we all learn quite a bit from these... and of course they make people anticipate the upcoming title even more. As to the details of the battle itself, it seemed like it could've gone either way up to just a couple of turns before the cease fire. I guess there's never any escape from the "fortunes of war."

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I think you have to look at this battle as a proof of reality.  German armor was vastly superior when it worked.  We know historically that most of the time it didn't work and wasn't present in the required numbers to have a meaningful effect.  The question is do you want a balanced game or a simulation.

As a simulation, what happened in this battle was probably quite accurate, and that's significant.  A negative result is still a result.  The battle overall was quite enjoyable to watch and the chances taken were fairly well weighed out.

Handicapping each side with the freedom that Combat Mission offers is very difficult in practice.  The point values only give you the basic idea.  This comes from years of trying to fiddle around with the Games Workshop family and several RPGs. 

Edited by simon21
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