manchildstein (ii) Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 ok... i hopefully have a better pic url: http://peter_panzer.tripod.com the first pic of the 2nd aar is the one with the 'big picture' caption setup: i choose to alter the default setup. bremer's company is taken from the right and moved to the left, up on the road where it runs n-s and turns toward the east behind the protection of the rise. the pzjagers and stugs will support that infantry company. i then take the heavy weapons company and situate it over to the right; the 37mm AT and the pioneer platoons are put over on the right in the soft ground. i also strip the other setup zones of armored cars and put the entire ac company on the right. i'm guessing that the low ground pressure of the cars will enable them to get across the soft ground without bogging. the mg cars will provide valuable overwatch support to the advancing pioneers, not to mention the 8-wheeled 20mm cars. the 3 flamethrowers (FTs) are left in the trucks. i'm a bit leery about getting across the soft ground in trucks but figure to play it 'gamey' and run the trucks along the clear terrain where the soft ground meets the marsh on the far right. the weapons company hq is dismounted and will accompany the pioneers on foot. the 81mm spotter is moved from its position with the battalion hq in the center and also put onto the right. in the center the infantry company and 105mm howitzers, along with the 3 'heavy FOs' (150, 150, 105) are dispersed in case they get hit by any pre-planned soviet artillery. the 105mm on-board howitzers are set up and their halftracks on standby. the 20mm aa vehicle is also nearby. the infantry platoons are at the far (e) edge of the setup zone and the 105mm guns and other units are behind them. the battalion hq is here as well. the prime movers are about halfway up the center setup zone, 2 on each side of the train track in the brush. the 20mm aa vehicle is up toward the front with the infantry platoons, and the 105mm guns are about 3/4 of the way up the setup zone, 2 apiece on each side behind the infantry; everyone is in the brush but they can still see the church beyond the bend in the tracks. this could mean an early artillery barrage will greet them at any moment. i'm so paranoid of losing my heavy FOs that i place them way in the back of the setup zone, 2 on the left and 1 on the right with the platoon hq. i may use all 3 of them in a prep barrage, sacrificing fire control to ensure that they get all of their ammo off. the briefing mentions that the areas with flags are suspected positions, so as the scenario designer i may pretend i don't know where the soviets are (and by no means do i have their strengths and locations them memorized in any event) and obliterate 3 of them from the get-go. note: as the scenario designer i often make moves to the best of my ability, where i 'pretend' not to know certain things which i actually do know about the scenario. this is in an effort to duplicate how someone playing blind might tackle a given situation. without going into specifics, sometimes i'll take casualties as the result of some move i've made whilst pretending not to have known the ai's dispositions. in the center, the battalion hq is moved to a position with command radius to the 4 howitzers. the pzjagers are moved from their position on the far left and closer to the stugs in the bend of the road. the pzjagers are facing east so they can move forward over the crest of the rise in a line if needed. i hit GO and after a moment's calculation, it is clear that there are no soviets in los at the start. in one of those instances (or so i tell myself) of 'sound tactical judgement' - and not the actual knowledge that there are 2 120mm mortar FOs in the church - my howitzers target that building. it is really a logical place to hit from the get-go. in all practicality it won't matter though; if those FOs have spotted any of my units along the train tracks, my units in for a real shelling from the start. if those FOs see nothing they're most likely going to die without ever having had the chance to call in any fire on me. in any event, my shelling the church with the onboard 105s does not strain credulity in my book. let's see how the armored cars and pioneers do on the right. doh! i left the 81mm FO with the battalion HQ in the middle! "no biggie" ok... there are no soviets in sight. so i shell the church with 4 105s and creep forward with the infantry platoons. on the right the lmg from the 37mm AT platoon moves toward a 'crest' in the terrain so as to ferret out some enemy locations before the guns themselves make the plunge. the pioneer platoon is split into half squads. the 3 lmgs accompany the platoon HQ whilst the other 9 teams work their way forward. on the left i have to make a decision. there is a hill crest which runs like a 'spine' the length of the mapboard. it blocks los from one side of the board to the other but is itself mostly wide open steppe so there is little or no infantry cover. the only real cover are a series of gulleys which run off of the spine and downward toward the flanks of the map. in any event bremer's company will have to either move to the left or the right of the spine. i decide to go for the right side and move the platoons into a position to cross the crest and onto the left half of the mapboard. if they were to stay on the right they would have the benefit of the brush on the roadside but would eventually be exposed to fire from more soviet positions. by going to the left they will be isolated from about 2/3 of the mapboard and face fire from only 2 gulleys and the 'weather station' which itself is on the crest. hopefully with the support of 5 stugs and 7 panzerjagers, they should be able to make their way across the open ground and into the first gulley. i think though that the situation calls for the dispatching of both a 105mm and a 150mm fo to assist them in their attack. i've decided against using any of the FOs in a prep barrage and instead will try to use stealth and skill to get the most out of them. i hope i don't regret this decision. i'm basically giving up the automatic obliteration of 3 flag areas (3 heavy pre-planned barrages) with the hopes that by calling in the fire as i go i can spread their fire over even more soviet positions (flag areas). in looking at the mapboard again it would be much easier to bring bremer's company along the road. the FOs earmarked for his support would then have merely to sneak out of the railroad embankment and could provide immediate support along the 'center/left road corridor.' heck though... i'll do this the hard way and see what happens. a 105mm fo is going to attempt to sneak along the back edge of the map, across a large swatch of open ground and over toward bremer's jumping off point. the afvs over on the left will stay put behind the 'berm' (rise). the center infantry is moving forward with 'e' move to contact. GO the first turn was unsettling. the church was rubblized within about 30 seconds. the weird thing was that, on the right the heavy weapons company and armored cars were hit with a rocket barrage! casualties were light (1?) but it was 'touch and go.' i noticed something else... something even more disquieting. those 120mm mortar FOs did indeed go off. they rained down on my transport halftracks and the 81mm FO is caught in the center of the barrage. luckily the FO still has 2 men. i thought i heard some other type of HE... HE beyond the rockets and my own 105mm. another lucky thing... it looks like the 120mm fire is falling just behind my rearmost 105 guns... as if they're on the edge of the barrage... no casualties there... not even shaken. hardest hit is the right side of the tracks. both sdkfz 7s are in flames. too bad i didn't move the 81mm FO out of the default setup as i'd intended. at least the battalion HQ was moved forward. the rearmost, rightmost 105mm gun is going to try and move forward. judging by the craters thus far, it is a minor miracle that the gun and crew are intact. so in a way turn 1 was a success all around. i'd intended for those soviet FOs to 'sting a bit' (but not too much) and that's what they've done so far. i'm afraid though that the 120s were 'loaded up' with ammo pretty well in the scenario editor so turn 2 could be bad for my 81mm FO and that one 105mm gun. GO on turn 2 a stuka hit near the n-s section of road leading into town. the 81mm FO was panicked but hopefully the 120mm fire will let up. the 105mm lost 2 out of 6 crewmen but is still moving forward. the heavy weapons on the left continued to move forward. the 3 lmg teams are sneaking into a patch of scattered trees and from there they'll hopefully be able to provide some overwatch fire. the lmg belonging to the 37mm AT platoon continues to sneak. on the left i've decided to cancel the sneak orders for the 105mm FO and am instead going to try a 'fast' move to an area of brush right behind the infantry and afvs over there. in the center the 2 platoons on the right of the rail line came into los of a t34 and thus stopped their 'e' move. now i'm giving the rear platoon a sneak order and they will leapfrog the lead platoon. the platoon on the left of the train track and the 4 hmgs of the mg section are continuing with their 'e' move through the ditch/brush on that side of the tracks. turn 3 GO 2 105mm howitzers were lost this turn. the rearmost one on the left was in greater danger than i'd thought. the 81mm fo is still alive and without casualties. the 105mm fo is making his way to the left, followed by the 150mm fo. since it appears they are unnoticed, their orders have been changed to 'move' from 'fast.' for turn 4, 2 of the 37mm AA vehicle reinforcements have shown up on the right. they are being moved 'left' up the road toward the main force on the right. as with the rest of the units on the right, they are out of los/lof so far. the 20mm aa vehicle in the center is already out of action. on the right the armored cars are all moving up, toward the patch of scattered trees. the 37mm At guns are being moved about 100 meters forward. it turns out there aren't any good firing positions that far back; that is to say that they could push their way to the left and up the rise but it would expose them to a good part of the mapboard. by staying hidden behind the hill and down in the soft ground, once they do make contact it will hopefull only be with soviet positions around the church/ruins. turn 4 GO on the right one of the 37mm AT guns was knocked out. some apparent 76mm fire is hitting but i can't tell where from. there is a t34 north of the bridge by the church/ruins but it doesn't appear as though that is the source of the fire. there are probably 20 or 30 76mm artillery pieces dotting the landscape so it is probably one of those; from where exactly though i can't tell. the 150mm spotter on the right of the rail tracks has sneaked into position and has los to that t34 i mentioned by the bridge. it is calling in fire now. the other two 'heavy' FOs are making their way north without incident. the 105mm FO is almost to the brush behind the other units on the left. the company of infantry in the middle are still pushing their way up both sides of the track. turn 5 GO soviet 120mm keeps raining down around the 81mm FO. the FO is panicked again by the end of the turn. i must have 'gone off' when i 'amped up' the ammo loads on those soviet 120mm FOs in the scenario editor! i mean it's the end of turn 5 already! i suppose it could have been worse; i could have lost more than 2 105mm guns and 2 halftracks with an 81mm spotter threatened. if the soviets had placed their barrage orders in the midst of my infantry company, it would probably have been rendered ineffective by now. as it is i still have 2 105mm guns and the infantry company is making its way forward. the 81mm FO might survive. on the right i have formulated a plan: there is a band of 'low ground' on the edge of the even lower 'soft ground.' up by the first large (3 tile) patch of scattered trees, the armored cars will gather on that 'low' band of steppe. i've seen more bogging than i'm comfortable with so am trying to get the cars onto some firmer ground without them being chewed to bits by the soviet positions all over the place. the hope is that if i move them to the steppe just 'above' (left of) the scattered trees where the pioneer mgs are setting up, that they will be able to see soviet positions on the finger of land pointing out to the south of the ruined church. 2 more 37mm AA vehicles arrived on the left. that makes 4 so far. at one point i'd actually forgotten about these; but as the designer i can't help but know that there are 8; all arriving on the left, and all by turn 8 or so. oh, it helps making large scenarios then trying to forget exactly what was done; that way i don't even know the exact details such as reinforcement rates or exactly where i seeded the field with 20-some odd 76mm pieces and 15 or 20 some-odd 45mm AT, not to mention the dozen or so t34s! grin anyway, getting back to the left; once the FOs catch up with the infantry and afvs over there, i will go 'over the top' and expose the force to the soviets in the gulleys on the left and the weather station at the top of the hill. the plan is this: get the FOs into position in a line of infantry and AFVs. then shoot and scoot the AFVs all at once, while moving up the infantry and MGs into a firefight. the FOs will also sneak forward at that point. as the AFVs 'shoot and scoot,' the infantry and FOs will remain on line and pour in fire at the AFVs then try another round of 'shoot and scoot.' i have thought of sneaking only the FOs into position, but that seems to risky. with the distraction of the massed, 'shoot and scoot,' perhaps the FOs can get into position unnoticed. the ongoign presence of the 4 HMG 34s and the rest of the infantry company will offer a continued distraction as the FOs wait for their fire to effect. but that's still 3 or 4 turns away. nonetheless, the infantry can get 'online' just behind the berm. so on the left the infantry are shifting 200 or 300 meters further left. this is to ensure that when they cross over the top of the 'berm' that they don't take fire from the entire map but just the 2 gulleys on that side of the map, and the weather station on the hilltop/crest. on the left the armored cars are all making for solid ground and some pioneer teams have been ordered far forward. the trucks are bringing up the rear with orders to move into the 3 scattered tree tiles where the pioneer platoon lmg teams reside. the 37mm At guns are going to move a bit further forward and into firing positions. they will be behind the main body of light armor. again the hope is that the cars will be on solid ground but out of los of the main soviet force and thus have to contend with just a couple or 3 guns on that sliver of land south of the ruined church. turn 6 GO everything went fairly smoothly on the right. the lmg belonging to the 37mm platoon found some los as it climbed the hill away from the soft ground and is going to try some area fire on a patch of trees by the ruined church. 3 t34s are visible north of there around the bridge, and the 150mm FO who stayed put on by the train tracks has 1 minute until firing for effect. the other 150mm FO was on its way to support the left, but i stopped its movement there in the patch of open ground between the road and the train tracks. it is unspotted and from there it is calling in fire on another t34 which it has los to, there by the bridge/ruins. i probably made a mistake in not calling in fire on the area around the church/bridge earlier. so instead of sending the 2nd 150mm to support the left (which might be overkill), it is going to sit out there in the open and try to contribute to the developing situation as more and more soviet tanks appear around the church. on the finger of trees and stepp jutting out south of the church into the surrounding soft ground, there is 1 gun and another 'gun sound?' so the situation on the right and center is getting critical. one 105mm artillery piece is duelling with a t34 by the church ruins - the same t34 which will get hit by a 150mm barrage if it is alive in 3 minutes. it is only 1 minute until the next t34 to the north is hit by a barrage. no armored cars have been lost, but one has been immobilized in the soft ground. the 37mm at guns are going further forward after all. if they were to show themselves there where their lmg is, they would be hit by a lot of soviets. so they'll keep behind the hill and keep moving forward in its shadow along the soft ground. 2 20mm cars and one of the pioneer lmgs are about to duel it out with that newly-discovered gun south of the church. on the right the infantry are shifting. the mgs are moving too slowly so i have scaled back their orders. it looks as though the 105mm FO will crest in the center, with the MGs on its right and the 3 platoons on the left. AFVs will intermingle with the entire line. in the center, the advancing platoons are being split into half squads and dispersed along the brush ditches; at least until the T34s near the bend in the rail tracks (by the ruins and the bridge) can be dispatched. the sounds of friendly aircraft have been heard but their effects are unknown, other than the crater they laid down on turn 1 or 2 there where i had placed the KV2 in the editor. i was wondering if the stuka support would readily find the KV2 and at least in this case it appears to have. it remains to be seen whether there was any effect. none of my units have LOS to the area but otherwise there is a big crater there. the 81mm FO continues to panic in the barrage but it is still alive and has 2 men. turn 9: at the end of turn 8, 3 8-wheeled cars were already knocked out. another t34 has popped up; this one in the firm ground south of the ruins. the 105 in the center took out the t34 closest to the ruins. the 150mm FO fired for effect on another t34 and caused it to dash away. 3 light cars are also out of action. it looks like one or more of them was strafed by a stuka. one 105mm gun in the middle was strafed by a stuka on turn 7. so on the right things are 'touch and go' as that t34 may have my units pinned down. the remaining two 8-wheeled cars are set to duke it out with a soviet across the way. on the left the units are set to crest the berm on turn 10. almost everything is in place. the more i look at it though the dicier it looks. not only will there be possible soviet fire from the two gullies on the left, but there may be soviet positions further east along the crest from the weather station which may also be able to contribute to the coming firefight. hopefully the weight of 6 pzjagers, 5 stugs, and 6 or 8 37mm vehicles, combined with the infantry will be able to inflict some kind of casualties; as all the while the 105mm FO will call in some fire. i will have to revisit this situation in my next gaming session. turn 35: on the right my entire force of armored cars, at guns, and pioneer squad have been wiped out before the church. the only semblance of success is in the center, where the 'II.' company has pushed all the way up the rail trench to the bridge on the left and the church ruins on the right. even so, the 2 platoons on by the church are suffering heavy casualties, and can't seem to get to the t34s on the other side. some kind of soviet infantry persists in the ruins themselves. on the left of the rail line the platoon has seized the bridge, but is taking fire from mg and armored cars up the gulley to the left. the hmg section is making its way forward. further back the last remaining 105mm artillery piece is being towed forward by the last mover. the 150mm FO and platoon HQ advance up the ditch, with the battalion hq ahead of them. on the left there is but one surviving afv, a 37mm aa vehicle making its way now between the road and the rail line in order to try and get a 'free' shot at an armored car in the gulley leading down to the first rail bridge. the other surviving aa vehicle was hit last turn by a t34. all 5 stugs, 7 of 8 37mm aa vehicles, and 6 pzjager 1s are out of action. the "1." company is scattered all over the steppe, stuck in the no man's land between their starting place by the road and the first gulley on the same side. a lot of soviet infantry just turned up around the weather station and the 'head' of that gulley so the 105mm FO is trying to direct fire to there. the 150mm FO on this side, after directing fire which eliminated 1 of the 2 t34s in the center between the road and the rail, is now on the left and is directing fire at a t34 on the near side of the first gulley. a 2nd t34 on the far side of the gulley has been getting intermittent los to the spotter and has taken some pot shots at it, bringing it down to just 1 man. the attack has pretty much been an unmitigated disaster. there were a few bright spots though: -the way the last remaining 105mm artillery piece took out one of the 2 t34s between the rail and the road with a single shot after a 'move to contact' order and 2 minutes of tense setup time. -the continuing sound of the 2nd company hmg section, there in the open steppe. these guys are being hit by all kinds of enemy shot and shells, but continue to fire at whatever they can. well i guess those are the bright spots. all told my forces have managed to take out 4 t34s so far, so things could have been worse. as long as i've got ammo for my FOs and a functioning 105mm gun, i will play this one out. even with the high casualties thus far, with a little luck i could destroy some more soviet guns and/or t34s. things i would do differently: just as the briefing warns against, i wouldn't open up 'multiple fronts.' in hindsight the 3 key things i would do differently would be: 1. better coordination of my FOs from the get-go. no needing to take several turns to get them positioned. 2. less aggression on the far right. the infantry in the center should have been allowed to move up nearby the church, at the bend in the road, then the real advance on the right should have started. as it turned out, i advanced everything on the right at a certain point and by the time the infantry in the center 'caught up' the pioneers and cars and at guns on the right were all kaput. 3. i would have attacked with the leftmost force, not over the 'berm' and into the 'left side' of the map, but instead i would have moved the infantry up the 'road ditch' or continuous line of depressed brush tiles whilst supporting with AFVs on the 'plain' between the road and railroad tracks. thus everything over and to the left (north) of the 'spine' which runs the length of the map could have been avoided. as it was, almost the moment my forces crossed over the 'berm' and into the soviet guns on the left, i knew i was in trouble, because it wasn't just the 2 gulleys and the weather station, but several other soviet positions which chimed in to obliterate my left wing. as a part of number 3, i would truly use 'shoot and scoot' with the pzjagers. another mistake i made when going 'over the top' on the left was to simply 'hunt' and not 'shoot and scoot' with the pzjagers. it resulted in 6 dead tank destroyers in very short order. i guess a bit of tungsten in the pzjager ammo loads wasn't enough to make them invisible to soviet guns. i played it out through turn 48 and scored another kill with my last 105mm artillery piece. it had been on the left of the rail track, hitched itself up to the last halftrack, gotten towed across the track to the opposite ditch and moved a bit forward before coming under fire from that t34 which had been behind the church ruins. that particular tank had taken a lot of 150mm barrage fire earlier, and had sat behind (south of) the ruins as the 2-platoon german infantry attack had disintegrated to the north of the same ruins. as that attack had been sliced to ribbons, the tank had moved its way to the north of the church, then ultimately onto the rail track where the 105 was forced to dismount from its halftrack. that 105mm had spent another 3 turns while the t34 more or less had ignored it, choosing instead to fire at the prime mover by the 105mm gun, and the last infantry platoon and hmg section on the left side of the track near the bridge. after those tense turns, the 105mm piece then nailed the t34 in a single shot, then dispatched an armored car in two more shots north of the rail line by the bridge. by then the 105mm FO to the left was out of ammo, some squads over there had actually surrendered out in the open to the t34s, and the rest of 'bremer's' company was being cut to ribbons. about the only 'healthy' infantry units remaining were those by the rail bridge, to the left (north). my 150mm spotters both had about 20 round left apiece, and the 105mm gun could have been moved up toward the church, but my unit strength was otherwise almost spent. that last platoon by the bridge was facing a massive soviet counterattack from just across the gulley to the east. the only other intact units were the machineguns of 'bremer's' company on the left, and the battalion hq, and artillery battalion/platoon hq in the ditch by the rail tracks. the 81mm FO had been wiped out by that last t34 killed on the tracks. so upon hitting cease-fire the score was: 76-24 allies 333 axis casualties, 183 allied (81-54 kia) axis: 3 men captured, 6 mortars, 6 guns, 36 vehicles destroyed allied: 0 captured, 10 guns, 8 vehicles allies had 16 out of 20 (small) flags, germans had 0 (4 contested) so it looks like 6 t34s were destroyed, along with 1 armored car and 1 kv2 (by stuka on turn 1 or 2). the only surviving axis vehicles were 2 trucks, an immobilized mg car, and an sdkfz 7. one thing which really went against my units was the fact that my 105mm onboard pieces did so little firing. those direct fire 105mm rounds are extremely valuable, and only 1 gun out of 4 had any kind of real impact. 2 guns were taken out, basically before they had fired a shot. one thing i noticed about the 105 pieces was that they had - when they would get the chance - a decent shot of killing a given t34. it seems to me that despite their lower caliber, their longer barrel gives them a better chance to kill a t34 than does the 150mm infantry gun (none of which are in this scenario). this is just an offhand observation of course. one last thing of interest was the aggressiveness of the soviets as the battle wore on. t34s and armored cars, along with infantry would actually attack my positions. the t34s had a fairly good ability to avoid incoming artillery barrages, sometimes moving at the moment the telltale sound of incoming fire could be heard, particularly from the 150s. again it was my lack of a center of gravity which really turned this one into a travesty. this calls for a rematch. [ January 14, 2003, 12:25 AM: Message edited by: manchildstein II ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manchildstein (ii) Posted January 14, 2003 Author Share Posted January 14, 2003 rematch: this time i narrow my front by changing the default setup; all AFVs are on the left behind the berm... from there they will break out into the open plain between the road and the rail. I. company will push the road ditch and II. company and the heavy company will push the center with 1 platoon, the HMG section and the pioneers in the left ditch and 2 platoons in the right ditch.... the 105mm and 37mm guns are in the right ditch, behind the infantry. the right side is empty... experience has shown that advancing over that low, soft ground/marsh is very expensive. to open up i lose 3 of 4 halftracks to a soviet 120mm mortar barrage. the infantry moves forward in the center and on the left, up through the ditches. the armor leapfrogs over itself in the middle plain, trying to 'get a bead' on just where it can be seen and where it cannot as it passes around the hillside going up to the left (north). early on they spot a soviet t34 by the church and dispatch it under a hail of fire. eventually though both they and the I. company in the ditch to their left by the road come into view of a substantial portion of the soviet defenses, including many t34 tanks and a KV2. the infantry continues to push forward as their 4 HMGs set up at the 'corner' of the ditch and fire at whatever they can find. meanwhile they're being 'harassed' by the KV2 and other AFVs... over the course of the scenario, several more T34s are knocked out... 6 in all... 3 by the church and 3 more in the nearest dry streambed running n/s from the road to the church... some armor and the 37mm AA vehicles are transferred to the area of the rail track... i've lost several AFVs already, but no stugs... mostly 37mm AA and pz jg 1s... i've got 20mm cars along the train tracks and the whole of my remaining armored force hunts forward on the plain but just north (to the left of) the train track cut... this is where they first come across multiple t34s at range (1500+ meters) and the KV2. they back off from this 'disaster' after losing about 3 more pz jg 1... i still have 5 stugs but only 3 pz jg and a couple of 37mm AA... there is still a platoon of 20mm cars in the ditches by the track... 3 mg cars wait up on the left, out of soviet los... the 1. company comes under fire from the weather station... they return fire, combined with first some 150mm oba, then some 105mm oba... the 37mm at and 105mm artillery pieces have proven to be nearly useless as they're in the ditches by the tracks and no targets are presented. any guns out of that group which do find targets are more often than not knocked out in the ensuing dual with the soviets... i try moving all of the guns 37 and 105 - across the train tracks to the left-side ditch... the idea is to then push them out onto the plains where they might engage in some long-range fire with the soviet tanks... but i know that this is just a pipe dream because if they are to expose themselves to soviet armor, they will be hit at the same time by a fusilade from multiple soviet gun - 45mm at and 76 art - pieces.. meanwhile the infantry has pushed up the tracks and have taken the flag by the church (ruins) on the right and have turned the corner and taken the flag by the rail bridge on the left. there they knocked out a 76mm gun and maxim... one last soviet t34 is on the opposite (south) side of the bridge but it appears to have its gun knocked out as it backs away from the approaching infantry without firing a shot... i've lost a couple of armored cars on the right side of the rail to guns from the weather station... there is still a platoon of 20mm 8-wheelers 'tucked in' on the left... in destroying the gun/mg by the bridge a mg car (psw 221) was instrumental in the final stages... it overran the soviet positions whilst the infantry squads were 'duking it out' with them at a range of about 40 meters... i get the bright idea to send the 221 ahead across the 'streambed' and into the ditch on the opposite side... it gets there without incident... meanwhile... since the afvs were bushwacked in the open plains the 5 stugs are in the ditch on the left side of the rail now... there is 1 37mm aa, and 1 20mm aa vehicle there too... and the 3 20mm cars... so i send the 3 20mm cars across to where the 221 is and eventually have 4 cars over there... and no incident... i'm thinking this must be a 'blind spot' in the defense so i send 1 20mm car way ahead, almost up to the town to check things out... suddenly it gets very ugly and that leading car explodes under some kind of unidentified fire... within a turn or 2 all 3 20mm cars in the ditch are wiped out... 2 in flames... and none of the sources of incoming fire are identified... there were a lot of 'ping ping' bullet sounds, and the sounds of both 45mm and 76mm guns going off, but the actual sources of the fire were not identified... so while the 221 sits there waiting to get picked off i figure my infantry might have a better chance so i send the remnants of the pioneer and recon platoon ahead... the other 2 platoons are around the church... a squad or 2 are in the ruins... but i have to say that the past 10 turns or so... the ones involving the 'turn' in the train track and the push forward to the church and bridge area from there... well those units have been under constant fire from soviet guns and t34s and the kv2... the kv2 itself is simply sitting back and swinging its gun to and fro, picking off some of I. company 'above' by the road, then 'below' by the bridge/church... i run the 5 stugs forward along the ditch... it seems like the most covered route, and the only los the far t34s and the kv2 and guns seems to have at it are right at the 'corner'... my hopes are realized when all stugs pass through the corner, and into the streambed... 4 turn left and 1 goes forward to just behind the infantry and the dead (now 4 of them) armored cars in the ditch... the 2 platoons around the church are spent and will stay hunkered down for the remainder of the scenario... it is about turn 55... 4 stugs make their way upward to the left along that first streambed... a platoon of t34s comes charging forward from the next streambed to the east, along the open ground... i forgot about 1 pzjg1 also dying in the ditch by the armored cars... speaking of pzjg1s, the last 2 are just back from where the whole group of AFVs was earlier bushwhacked... they see the t34s charging the ditch with the stugs and they are able to get a bead on one of the 3 tanks, and they kill it... they also managed to kill an armored car which came out of the near ditch/streambed... so the stugs have 2 t34s to deal with... one of them is in the trench by now... further up and out of los... the 2nd plays cat and mouse with the pzjg1s in the background... 1 stug tries to hunt 'over the top' at the t34 in the open, but it gets seen by 2 guns and the t34 before retreating back... 1 of the guns was in the 'weather station' and 1 was in the town... it was surrounded by los lines... so the 4 stugs can't seem to easily hunt the t34 in the open, so they go after the one in the ditch... there they come into los - 3 of them at once - with that one and dispatch it... so there is just the one in the open in front of them... as the stugs push northward (left) and up the hill through the streambed/ditch they realize that they can be seen from several angles at once... apparently the ditch doesn't provide good cover after a certain point... too late... within about 2 turns i've lost 4 of 5 stugs... the one down by the bridge bit it... so there is just 1 stug left and it has just 1 ap round... the t34 in the open suddenly dashes downward diagonally toward the bridge... the stug is able to hunt it from the side and 'nail' it with the last round... by now it is about turn 71 and my FOs are just about out of ammo... they've riddled the hilltop weather station with 105mm ammo, and the area around the KV2 looks like a moonscape... yet the thing continues to belch forth the fire... in the ditch past the bridge, not only are there 4 dead cars, but the stug, pzjg1, and a 37mm aa vehicle... the pioneers and infantry making the 'left of the railroad' push begin to sneak back toward the bridge when some fires in the brush rage out of control... for the rest of the scenario about 3 or 4 squads stuck east of the fires will wait it out under a hail of soviet rifle, mg, t34, armored car, and 45mm and 76mm gunfire... in the ditch by the road, I. company has made a valiant push but they have also fairly disintegrated under soviet fire from all directions... the HMGs bring up the rear... the 50mm mortars hide, out of ammo all... some squads sneak and push their way forward, to the 'top' of the ditch where the stugs attacked from below earlier... 1 HMG and section HQ have camped out on the lower flag, but the upper one is contested by an immobilized soviet mg armored car... squads... platoon hqs... they attack the car piecemeal but are themselves eliminated in the process... the game ends after turn 74 with a 'minor defeat' this time i took out 8 t34s, and damaged the gun on a 9th... i also destroyed 2 armored cars and a tankette... on the other hand, the KV2 alone caused 61 casualties and knocked out 2 mortars and 2 guns... i will try to post some late-game screenshots, and re-post screenshots from the earlier contest.. if/when i can find a free site which doesn't shrink the pictures... look in the future for nogai steppe 2.0; i've determined that the armored cars are not useful in a scenario map like this, so the german force is being revamped in the hopes that it will actually be able to contest the town and some of the other 'rearmost' (eastward) objectives... as it is, this version 1.0 is playable but very difficult, at least for a player of my skill level... i know i could have done better with those stugs though... if i hadn't gotten carried away with them, all 5 might have survived and i might have gotten 40-some points instead of 37... the key to this or the 2.0 version is the same... find a center of gravity or a focus to the attack... obviously i got a lot further this time by abandoning the 'flanks' and pushing the 'center'.... i tried another try at this 1.0 version, this time putting all AFVs and 105mm and 37mm guns to the far left, where they could all see out over the left side of the map... after about 3 turns i had eliminated 3 t34s but had lost 3 105mm guns and several pzjg1s... so it's probably best after all to ignore this side of the map... the 105mm guns are supposed to be key to version 1.0 of this scenario, but in 3 tries i have yet to find a way to get them into significant action without them getting killed instead... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manchildstein (ii) Posted January 14, 2003 Author Share Posted January 14, 2003 repeat from edited first message ok... i hopefully have a better pic url: http://peter_panzer.tripod.com the first pic of the 2nd aar is the one with the 'big picture' caption 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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