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Arracourt Battlepack: Preview AAR


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10 hours ago, Rinaldi said:

<Snip> Tank-infantry teams rapidly deal with them as they are identified, though a few bursts cause light losses.

These same tank-infantry teams cause the bulk of losses to the fleeing, shell-shocked enemy. Caught in kill-zones, just as they ultimately were at Ley, the slaughter is once more prodigious.   <Snip> 

Nice work.  Thanks for the AAR. 

 

9 hours ago, John Kettler said:

<Snip> how can you yet again be conducting airburst fire? You had said before, I believe, that Fuze MT wasn't in the game, <Snip>

In CMBN CMRT & CMFI airburst rounds must be requested during during pre-planned or in range of a TRP to work.

CMFB has VT equipped assets that can fire airburst rounds anytime with or without a TRP.  

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12 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Rinaldi,

 You had said before, I believe, that Fuze MT wasn't in the game, so how can you conduct a shoot while using a fuzing option not available?

Regards,

John Kettler 

@MOS:96B2P has already noted, but its worth re-iterating that with TRPs timed fires are possible even after the initial deployment. You'll note when you find the time to peruse in depth that Moncourt has two marked reference points of fire. I tried my best to hide them for cinematic effect but one is visible in one of the final shots in game. 

This ground was, on the 20th of September, pre-registered by both the belligerents. The Germans have a lot of TRPs to play with as well, nominally to simulate range cards - its actually why the Panzer IVs shot with such accuracy despite being almost universally inexperienced. A bit of 'behind the scenes' insight to the design.

5 hours ago, jtsjc1 said:

Nice kill ratio. Very entertaining thanks!

Cheers, thanks. I always like comparing my losses to the historical outcome for missions like this, so let's take a gander at the 37th's combat diary for Sept. 20th

"A bitter fight [at the hills] ended in the destruction of six (6) enemy tanks and three (3) anti-tank guns, while we lost six (6) tanks..."

...:

"Enemy casaulties: Four (4) Vehicles, sixteen (16) tanks, fifteen (15) Prisoners of War, two hundred fifty-seven (257) enemy killed, three (3) guns..."

 

2 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:

Nice work.  Thanks for the AAR. 

Thank you.

2 hours ago, IanL said:

Excellent write up - thanks!

High praise, thank you.

Edited by Rinaldi
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Rinaldi,

I knew, from what you told me before, Turn 1 timed fire (Fuze, MT) was doable, but I didn't understand this could be done at any turn thereafter! Does this mean that offset fire from a TRP can also be timed fire? If so, I've been missing out on a useful capability. I would hope BFC has incorporated a considerable degree of round to round  "slop" in HOB for timed fire, for that was the reality, as opposed to the far more effective by way of consistent HOB VT fire. Of course, it should have a dud rate of around 50% or so. Why? Because that was the threshold at which the proximity fuze went into production, with first priority to the Navy for fleet air defense. Subsequently, this was expanded to AAG firing over the English Channel in defense against the V-1, followed by the defense of Antwerp, Belgium, and after that, for ground warfare in the Battle of the Bulge. By then, it was felt the Germans couldn't decipher the fuze from a recovered dud and deploy countermeasures as a result.

Regards,

John Kettler

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I haven't sat down and empirically tested it but I can say that the timed fires are not fully reliable; rounds will often burst early or not at all - but its often more effective than not. I have wiped out an entire enemy platoon in a PBEM with a timed barrage once; they just happened to be setting up a position on a TRP.

I'm more curious to know if air bursts have any effect on men in buildings. The timed fires were really just to punish any enemy whom broke under the general barrage and tried to find new houses as shelter.

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Rinaldi,

Can't speak to the game, but feel safe in asserting an artillery airburst over a house with troops in it could be bad for the occupants, especially the ones in the story closer/closest to the roof. The actual likelihood of achieving such a feat is small, when you consider a 100 m bracket is good enough to commence FFE. And that's just the start, for the FA error budget is considerable. Only a small fraction of shots would have the correct geometry to be able to fire down through the roof. From what I can tell, in WW II roofs were destroyed, not by timed fire but direct hits with Fuze, SQ or on delay, with detonation subsequently occurring inside the building. Additionally, unless the men are shoehorned into the place, they will present only a relatively small area relative to the total area of the house subject to frag strike. And if timed fire were really effective vs troops in buildings, then I'm sure we would've read about it a bunch of times. Offhand, I can't think of so much as one such instance. Instead, what we see are deluges of shells and bombs poured into BUA, and even then, it becomes, at least before overwhelming TOT shoots, very much a matter of rooting out the defenders the hard way.

General Liederkranz,

Good to know. Thanks!

 

Regards,

John Kettler

 

 

Edited by John Kettler
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