H2H Scenario "Dust off the Shot"

[Rinaldi]

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pbswl4vq5lmetb1/H2H Dust off the Shot.rar?dl=0

A scenario designed and (briefly) play-tested for Head to Head, occurring during the September battles along the Moselle. An American tank-heavy force attempts to secure, or at the very least move through, the Lorraine town of Sainte-Genevive. Best suited if the more experienced player plays as the Germans.

I'd like to say the scenario is fully historical, but I've made too many minor tweaks to the terrain and am far too ignorant of the German order of battle to claim this. The sources, primary and secondary are cursory at best and often contradictory.  

Map Details:

Battle Type: Allied Assault, Open

Location/Time: France, September 1944

Time of Day: Daylight

Size: 2976m x 1504m

Length: 1 Hour

Designer's Notes:

A note on the wild variance in US Armor: 

Finding out the actual composition of American and German armor for this time period was daunting, and unfortunately invited a lot of guesswork. I've outlined the particular details of either force in their respective briefings. Its evident that the series of actions around Nancy becomes a footnote in American histories because it is immediately overshadowed by the general tank action at Arracourt. What should have been a well-researched, textbook penetration to operational depth has sadly been relegated to being a contextual intro to Arracourt in more recent histories. That being said, we can assume that the Americans indeed had such a mix of M4 models during the Period of Sept 10th-Sept. 22nd.  The 4th AD was shipped to the Continent with simple M4s, and replacements, including M4A1s, M4A3(Ws) and 76mms of those same models began to trickle in as materiel losses accumulated during the July and August pursuit. We have photographic evidence of 76mms in action with CCB on Sept. 13th. Don Fox, in his (rather haigographic) unit history also notes the presence of 2 76mms in "A" Company of the 37th out of the surviving 9 tanks only a few days later.

Historical Notes:

The time-line and precise details of this action are confusing, incomplete or contradictory. All sources agree on one thing; that Abrams and the 37th fought a sharp and highly successful 2 hour battle between Sainte-Genevive and Benicourt that resulted in large losses of men and material for the 29.PanzerGrenadier Regiment.

Compared to American sources of this day of action, the German force composition is essentially entirely unknown to me. There appears to be little English language sources on the subject. Therefore, I have done what I feel is reasonable. Post-war histories confirm the German regiment that conducted the counterattacks on the bridgehead to belong to the 29.PanzerGrenadier regiment, 3rd Panzergrenadier division. Sources vary on what armored support they had, just that they had it. Given their paper TO & E and American claims of them being supported by 10-15 "Tanks and Assault Guns" I feel confident in presuming they were being supported by StuG-IIIGs from their own 103.Panzer-Battalion. The exact numbers vary; some sources claim the assault battalions had 10 in support, others as high as 15. The 37th Tank Battalion claimed 12 "Tanks and SPGs" destroyed on this day, but they also fought over a 20 mile stretch. By the time the 37th entered the bridgehead, the 317th Infantry had knocked out at least 4 StuGs in their own defense.

Both forces command roughly a Battalion; the Germans AFVs enter the battle belatedly as a reserve; but they have organic anti-tank elements in position at battle start. For the American player to win, they will have to close distance rapidly under their overwhelming artillery cover and get into town before the Germans can react; just as Abrams did in reality. Objectives are asymmetrical, so a careful reading on the briefing is necessary to know what will score you points. 

 

Some pictures:

^{From the American start positions looking towards Ste-Genevive}

^{Historical aerial photo from Hugh Cole's Lorraine Campaign}

^{A very poor overlap of the two for comparison}

^{Agricultural use dominates most of the terrain around the objective}

^{Outskirts of Sainte-Genevive. Modern street view shows a farm and chateau of some kind; and it seems to be visible in the historical aerial photos from the 40s, Artistic licence.} 

^{Town center. Sainte-Genevive would trade hands several times in the first three days of the 317th Infantry's offensive. It was technically never fully secured by Abrams, who barreled right through. Battle damage would've been evident by the time he arrived.}

^{Past the town and on the road to Benicourt, a good reserve position for the German player}

^{I couldn't find true topographical maps, but it appears using Google that the terrain is gently rolling with a sure rise towards the town. This should make for subtle hull-down positions for clever players as they move through the terrain.} 

A final note; the map is mod-tagged for a few old community mods available on TheFewGoodmen, but I've taken the liberty of packing them with the map. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that the 3.PanzerGrenadiers still had elements of their sub-tropical uniforms present due to how quickly they were rushed from Italy. Its most likely a falsehood, but the resources were at hand to make this happen.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2015 by Rinaldi

[RockinHarry]

My researches on the september 1944 actions of the 3rd US AD also indicated that all sorts of M4 Sherman variants were taken into action, even incl. some rhinos with the cutters still attached. So the rarity designators in the games OOB editor can be almost completely ignored, at least where exact figures of types are non available.

[Badger73]

Rinaldi,

It might soothe the wounds you inflicted on Bootie at St Jorge to post this at his repository (TDSIII) too!  Thank you for this effort.

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/search-2/#search/category=CM+BATTLE+FOR+NORMANDY+[SCENARIOS]

Edited December 27, 2015 by Badger73

[Rinaldi]

Rinaldi,

It might soothe the wounds you inflicted on Bootie at St Jorge to post this at his repository (TDSIII) too!  Thank you for this effort.

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/search-2/#search/category=CM+BATTLE+FOR+NORMANDY+[SCENARIOS]

Tried uploading it, don't believe it was successful, or its awaiting moderation and there's a screening process. We'll see.

[Rinaldi]

Version 2 released; should be on the Scenario Depot soon. In the meantime you can download it: here.

 

Change-log from original:

•  All German StuGs begin on map now, dug in -- it seems that this is truer-to-life.
• Adjust German deployment zone; now they shouldn't be able to fire into the open area of the Allied deployment if they deploy weapons forward
• German artillery (2 x 105 batteries) is available much later than in the previous version, to better simulate the batteries still firing harassing fires at off-map areas.
• Minor topographic changes
• Streamlined the Mission briefings, they shouldn't be a chore to read now.

 

[DasMorbo]

Hey Rinaldi!

 

Me and a fellow from 'The Blitz' gaming Club just finished your Scenario - and we had a lot of fun! It is very seldom in CMBN that you play such a huge Tank force. It asked for very different tactics to employ.

It seems like we still downloaded the original version from TSDIII, though.

I like to give you some feedback via PM (to avoid spoilers), as this was a kind of 'life-fire-playtesting'. We think there are still some issues with the balancing, as the Germans have a very hard time to stop the Americans.

It still was huge fun, that is why I would love to help!

 

Best regards

Morbo

 

[Rinaldi]

Hello Morbo,

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah for whatever reason uploading to the TSDIII has been difficult lately -- and the version up is, as you suspected, very much outdated. 

Feel free to PM me your feedback and criticism, I'm eager for advice and experience. Additionally if you're willing I can give you the newer versions of the map. A few fellows have been making a campaign with me and as thus the map has been altered as close to historical reality as possible, and the forces and objectives greatly adjusted. It is still H2H capable at present. 

 

[DasMorbo]

Hello!

I just returned to this post for the first time in a while. I will write you a PM these days!

 

Cheers

Morbo

[wildboar]

Looked for the Scenario in the few good men'd site and could not find it.

Any idea as to where I should look for it.

Thanks for helping. F

[Rinaldi]

10 hours ago, wildboar said:

Looked for the Scenario in the few good men'd site and could not find it.

Any idea as to where I should look for it.

Thanks for helping. F

Hello, thanks for the interest. I've had Bootie pull them down at my request while I cook up new versions. The project isn't abandoned. All I can do is ask for your patience as I find the time to finalize the new releases. I pulled the older ones down as they diverge greatly from the finals.

 

[hank24]

On ‎27‎.‎12‎.‎2015 at 4:41 AM, Rinaldi said:

I couldn't find true topographical maps

You can find them here:

https://opentopomap.org/#map=10/48.9802/6.0191