CMFI Rome To Victory Beta AAR - Indian Infantry / South African Armour

[Michael Emrys]

20 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Any chance of more screenshots from Italy, and less from Telegraphpole Land?

It's a tradeoff. Full trees are prettier but sometimes obscure the view of the things one is interested in; result: confusion.

Michael

[IICptMillerII]

Good stuff so far. I always like seeing the new models/artwork in these beta AARs. With any luck the module will be out before the AAR is finished 

[Mord]

7 hours ago, IanL said:

It is a Bedford QLT TT

And it has room for 29 men - plus the driver. Oh and I already raided some of the supplies from it and spread it around the unit.

I was just dicking around in BN looking at vehicles in the Dealership files and low-and-behold there it is. I have probably looked at those files 50 times over the years and swear I have never seen that truck in there. Funny.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, IanL said:

Yes, same here. I am pretty sure they were assigned a division in the India army but I could not find details. I did not read a lot just sifted through the wikipedia pages in Italian campaign, Indian Army and the Sikh regiment. I am sure the details are out there but I had enough info for our make believe scenario.

 

According to the notes DC  @Darknight (DC) provided me during the Gustav portrait mod (and what was created for it) the Indians provided 3 Divisions to Italy (4th, 8th, and 10th). Formations are as follows.

Note: [INF] denotes British infantry.

In the mod we used New Zealand to represent them but that'll be changed for the new version.

 

..................4th Indian Infantry Division...............

21st King George V's Own Horse (Central India Horse)    [Indian Armd Regt]
        5th Rajputana Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    5th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1/4th Essex Regiment                    [INF]
        4/11 Sikh Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        1/6 Rajputana Rifles                    [Indian INF]
        3/10 Baluch Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        1/9 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    7th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st Royal Sussex                    [INF]
        4/16 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        2/11 Sikh Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        1/2 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    11th Indian Infantry Brigade
        2nd Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders            [INF]
        4/6 Rajputana Rifles                    [Indian INF]
        3/12 Frontier Force Regiment                [Indian INF]
        2/7 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

 

 

..................8th Indian Infantry Division...............

6th Duke of Connaught's Own (Bengal) Lancers        [Indian Armd Regt]
        5/5 (Royal Mahratta MG Bn) Mahratta Light Infantry    [Indian INF]
        1st Jaiper Infantry (Indian State Forces)        [Indian INF]

    17th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st Royal Fusiliers                    [INF]
        1/12 Frontier Force Regiment                [Indian INF]
        1/5 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    19th Indian Infantry Brigade
        5th Essex                        [INF]
        1st Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders            [INF]
        3/8 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        6/13 Royal Frontier Force Rifles            [Indian INF]

    21st Indian Infantry Brigade
        5th Queen's Own Royal West Kent                [INF]
        1/5 Mahratta Light Infantry                [Indian INF]
        3/15 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]

 

 

 

..................10th Indian Infantry Division...............

1st Duke of York's Own Lancers (Skinner's Horse)     [Indian Armd Regt]
        1st Royal Northumberland Fusiliers            [INF]

    10th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st Durham Light Infantry                [INF]
        4/10 Baluch Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        2/4 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    20th Indian Infantry Brigade
        8th Manchester                        [INF]
        1/2 Punjab Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        3/5 Mahratta Light Infantry                [Indian INF]
        2/3 Gurkha Rifles                    [Indian INF]

    25th Indian Infantry Brigade
        1st King's Own Royal Regiment                [INF]
        3/1 Punjabi Regiment                    [Indian INF]
        3/18 Royal Garhwal Rifles                [Indian INF]
        4/11 Sikh Regiment                    [Indian INF]]

 

 

Mord.

[A Canadian Cat]

3 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Any chance of more screenshots from Italy, and less from Telegraphpole Land?

In the orders phase screen shots - nope. In those shots I want you to be able to see the orders.

I know there have been fewer good action shots this time but once the bug effecting over have the force is fixed I'll improve that.

[Mord]

10 minutes ago, IanL said:

I know there have been fewer good action shots this time but once the bug effecting over have the force is fixed I'll improve that.

Could you translate that to American?

Thanks.

 

Mord.

 

[Warts 'n' all]

3 hours ago, IanL said:

In the orders phase screen shots - nope. In those shots I want you to be able to see the orders.

Ah, that's a shame.

[Warts 'n' all]

6 hours ago, Michael Emrys said:

Full trees are prettier

It's not only question of making the map "prettier", it is more about realism. If there is ever a CMx3 hopefully there will be some kind of points penalty for tree togglers.

[IICptMillerII]

30 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

It's not only question of making the map "prettier", it is more about realism. If there is ever a CMx3 hopefully there will be some kind of points penalty for tree togglers.

I think its worth noting that toggling the trees is a quality of life thing for the player. The soldiers cannot see through the trees when they're toggled, so it really doesn't affect gameplay at all. All it really does is allow the player to see his units and give commands to them easier, especially because trees can get in the way of giving orders and can sometimes hide unit icons. Plus, sometimes on maps with a ton of foliage, toggling the trees to just be trunks can give a significant improvement to framerate. 

I suppose there is an argument for being forced to play "in the saddle" as it were, at eye level the entire time. This too would be player preference though. Would be an interesting way to play the game, especially if it was enforced by some difficulty setting higher than "Iron."

Edited September 2, 2019 by IICptMillerII

[Warts 'n' all]

Oh yes, you're right it is about "player preference". I'm just weird.

[Arjuna.R]

8 hours ago, Mord said:

1st Duke of York's Own Lancers (Skinner's Horse)     [Indian Armd Regt]

Off topic, but if you ever get a chance read 'Skinner of Skinner's Horse' , the memoir of James Skinner (1778 – 1841). Well worth it. 

[Warts 'n' all]

9 hours ago, Mord said:

        5th Queen's Own Royal West Kent                [INF]        

The only time I ever saw my old dad play an organised game of footy (full size pitch, referee, corner flags etc), it was at The Royal West Kent Barracks. It was in the days before things kicked off in Ireland, and you could just wander around. Nowadays most of it is buried under a dual carriageway, although by co-incidence they have built a football stadium there as well.

[A Canadian Cat]

9 hours ago, Mord said:

Could you translate that to American?

LOL it should have said "effecting over half the force"

[A Canadian Cat]

5 hours ago, IICptMillerII said:

I think its worth noting that toggling the trees is a quality of life thing for the player

What he said and further in this context trying to share the orders with everyone trees as poles is a much better way to allow that.

I will make sure the action shots are with trees on and once there is more action I'll make sure there are more too.

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 0:59-0:58:

The assault guns score some MG hits but are still a bit off with the 105s. Next shots should hit home.

 

The lead units of the infantry recon make it across the river. Still no enemy action against them.

 

The armoured recon end up in a bit of a traffic jam. I am not sure what caused this one

 

Armoured recon elements spot a bunker near the bridge and engage it with .50cal.

 

[A Canadian Cat]

Oops more trees as poles - sorry about that

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 0:58: Orders

Start with cleaning up the traffic jam. This is what the orders looked like before I made adjustments.

 

Now fixed up:

A) just straighten out the move order. No need to turn back towards the right and then gain to the left.

10s pause to let the first tank get back on the road and going again

C) 20s pause so the second tank has moved off before the third tank tries to move.

 

Also the lead tank will swap positions with the recon unit so we can hit that bunker with 105. Noticed I am pausing the withdrawal of the recon element for the turn and making sure the assault gun doe snot move up this turn. I will arrange to have them sit next to each other to share intel before moving the 105 into its final position.

 

Keep firing at the bunker on KT3.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by IanL

[Warts 'n' all]

13 hours ago, IanL said:

Oops more trees as poles - sorry about that

Hahahahaha. Just got to love that colonial sense of humour.

[Combatintman]

22 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said:

The only time I ever saw my old dad play an organised game of footy (full size pitch, referee, corner flags etc), it was at The Royal West Kent Barracks. It was in the days before things kicked off in Ireland, and you could just wander around. Nowadays most of it is buried under a dual carriageway, although by co-incidence they have built a football stadium there as well.

Up against this lot was he?

[Warts 'n' all]

54 minutes ago, Combatintman said:

Up against this lot was he?

Hahahaha... Not far off of it. The team he was playing for was made up of guys who helped out with the local Sunday League, managers, trainers, linesmen etc. So I imagine the Home team was made up of instructors, office workers, civilian staff, rather than young tough squaddies. Given that it is almost 50 years ago I can't remember the score, I think that his team won. I do recall being disappointed that his side played in White and Tangerine, rather than the Amber and Black of the team he ran the line for.

As an aside, I did once see "Private Pike" play cricket. But, that is another story. 

[A Canadian Cat]

This should have been earlier in the thread.

The Plan

The overall plan is to split the force roughly in two and have one group cross the ford and the other group assault the bridge, see the #1 arrows below.

The two groups are roughly going to be made up of a company of 24^th Battalion Infantry, a reconnaissance element plus a little less than a company of tanks. 1 Pretoria consists of A Squadron plus the Battalion HQ tanks and assault tanks and the armoured reconnaissance assault tanks which results in a little less than a company of tanks for each group.

Phase one of the plan is to secure the bridge, fords and the near side of the hill KT3. I do not think I can cross the bridge and assault the high ground at KT7 with the enemy firing at me from KT3 and KT5. At the same time I don't think I can assault across the plateau from KT5 towards the hills at KT7 with the enemy firing at me from the hill KT4 as well. I will let the recon units discover what resistance there is and adjust the groups according to what is needed to accomplish the goal and adjust the make up of the two groups.

The final assault should have my forces covering the approach from KT4, 3 and 5

 

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 0:58-0:57:

The armoured recon spots a bunker near the bridge. They fire some .50cal at it but that is not going to be enough.

 

This one clearly is occupied by the enemy.

 

Meanwhile the first bunker spotted is dispatched with some additional 105 fire.

 

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 0:57: Orders

I will bring up some 105 support to deal with the bunker. Here I will try to get the recon vehicle and the tank to sit next to each other for a while to share spotting information.

 

Before getting the 105 Sherman tank into its final position.

 

The ford crossing continues.

 

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 0:57-0:56:

Members of 24 Battalion's recon company cross the ford. They meet no opposition.

 

The 105 Sherman cannot see the bunker from the location where the recon vehicle could. The Sherman tank is taller and the tank commander is in the trees.

 

[A Canadian Cat]

Minute 0:56: Orders

The tank moves up just a bit to get a clear view of the bunker.

 

Same order as seen from the TC's level.

 

Sending more infantry reconnaissance crosses with the first supporting tanks as well.

 

A company will form up to be ready to assault the town and bridge.

 

B company will form up to cross at the fords and assault the hill below KT3

 

[Rinaldi]

21 hours ago, IanL said:

The two groups are roughly going to be made up of a company of 24^th Battalion Infantry, a reconnaissance element plus a little less than a company of tanks....

Phase one of the plan is to secure the bridge, fords and the near side of the hill KT3. I do not think I can cross the bridge and assault the high ground at KT7 with the enemy firing at me from KT3 and KT5. At the same time I don't think I can assault across the plateau from KT5 towards the hills at KT7 with the enemy firing at me from the hill KT4 as well. I will let the recon units discover what resistance there is and adjust the groups according to what is needed to accomplish the goal and adjust the make up of the two groups.

The final assault should have my forces covering the approach from KT4, 3 and 5

That's a good task grouping for each force, which definitely helps to mitigate the risk you always run when splitting your forces. I like that you've left some degree of flexibility based on what the recce and carrier platoon reports. I know it's early days and you haven't really taken any fire but your communications between recon and combat elements so far has been superb. Good C2 all around.

20 hours ago, IanL said:

 

I will bring up some 105 support to deal with the bunker. Here I will try to get the recon vehicle and the tank to sit next to each other for a while to share spotting information.

QED.

I enjoy your AARs, they're some of my favorite to read/watch next to Miller's and Josey Wales. I love how consistently thorough you are with your orders, which I first noticed in your Eindhoven AAR. Keep it coming!