Scenario of the Week: Line of Defense

[Elmar Bijlsma]

spoiler alert!

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It's been over a week ago since we last had a SotW so I'll take the opportunity to boast about my efforts with this one.

I played as the Germans because I just love defending. I know the AI isn't very good at attacking wich takes some joy out of it but there you go.

Having guessed that the AI was most likely to go through the woods on the hil I placed all my infantry platoons on the left, streching a bit towards the centre to stop the attack in it's tracks. HMGS were located in the church and a large house. Counting on walls to slow down the attackers I extended the barbed wire past it towards the centre of he map. I placed my AT mines in front of it, hoping to deny the area on my left from intervention from any AFVs. The 20mm was in the woods acros the river while the 75mm and 50mm guns were next to each other in the woods next to the church with keyhole fields of fire. I had two Schrecks near houses opposite the minefields hoping to bag any vehicles that swerved out of the way of the mines. Another shreck was positioned in the centre while my right was protected by tank hunters and LMGs, with one LMG and the Wurfmine tankhunter squad in the most forward house along the road. The sniper in the initial deployment ocation was joined by the FO. The StuH was sighted along the road leading into town.

With all the pieces in place the battle can begin.

The StuH was immidantly in luck, being able to fire a HE at the scoutcar and hitting it first shot setting it on fire. It then engaged the M5 coming up from behind the scout car and lobbed a HE directly on it, killing the TC. The M5 subsequently backed off. The other M5 came up from behind and it too got hit with the first shot, but to no effect. It fired a few times more and scored a hit with it's last HC round. Kill. After hitting the surviving M5 a couple of times with HE I decided it was a waste of ammo and withdrew the StuH behind a large building. Just in time as not 10 seconds later a couple of Shermans roll into the view of my defenders.

With everyone else in hiding, my sharpshooter was tasked to take a shot at the TCs and he duely did so, hitting the first two and forcing down two others, later shooting one of them as he popped up again. Meanwihle the first units of enemy infantry were spotted and the 105mm FO ordered a fire mission. With traffic in he woods remaining light he re-laid the guns. By the time the 105mm guns were ready the amount of contacts had increased enough for the FO to expend it's entire load. Whomever was in the woods, they weren't happy, as a number of contacts were seen moving back. The infantry in the woods suitable delayed, the Shermans moved towards the village on their own. With 3 Shermans metres away from death in my minefields, they came to a halt. Two turns later they moved forwards again as infantry moved out of the tree line in force. Gleefully waiting for my first kill of a tank by mines in a long, long time I nearly cried as the three most forward ground to a halt again. I see my carefully planned delay of the enemy infantry go to waste and fear I need to expose my infantry to fend off theirs , in full view of a platoon of Shermans! This disapointment was short lived as all three Shermans turn their sides to my schrecks and guns. I ordered the Schrecks and guns to open up on the Shermans while the infantry and HMGs were ordered to fire on the infantry advancing through the cornfield. Both Schrecks missed with their first shot while a turret swinging round indicated that the 50mm may have had better aim, but not better luck. The Schrecks, despite coming under heavy fire from the Shermans and infantry managed to maintain a cool head and placed hits with their second shots. One schreck didn't have his coolness under fire awarded, as the Sherman it hit fired again and killed one crewman. It got it's own back by hitting the Sherman and causing near immidiate bailout as the 50mm AT gun chipped in after hitting it's first target with 5 rounds. With three Shermans destroyed the 4th stayed still on the top of the hill, most likely still shocked by the loss of it's TC. The 5th was halfway between the three Shermans and it's cowardly platoon member. It chose to try and move towards the ambush site but almost immidiately strayed into the view of the 75mm infanry gun. The Sherman was immidiatly hit and swerved to the left out of LOS of the inf gun but presenting a flank shot to the 50mm gun wich didn't hesitate and pumped two rounds into it's flank. The crew unwisely bailed out in full view of the only HMG still hiding. With the threat reduced from five Shermans to one Sherman, this too opened up and cut down the crew before adding to the slaughter of the exposed infantry in the field and the edge of the woods.

A P51 makes an impressive effort to kill my StuH by firing all it's rockets in one volley but failed to score a hit. The last Sherman finally stirs and fires a few rounds into the village. Sadly for it this is when my Tiger arives. After withstanding two shots from the Tiger it turns, reducing it's 45 degree angle and faces the Tiger head on. Bad move! It explodes in an expressive fireball. With all visible tanks KO-ed the StuH moves across town to move towards the church to aid in the defence as US infantry and support weapons start piling up at the woods edge. As the Tiger moves across the bridge into the village it spots another armoured car cresting the hill, which it swiftly dispatches, setting it on fire. It then moves to take the place where the StuH started out. On it's way to the road leading into town it spots a Tank Destroyer and kills it as that M-10 deals with losing it's TC to the sniper. Meanwhile, with my infantry running out of ammo and the StuH making it's presence felt, the last few infantry contacts disappear, only to appear in ones and twos to be easily dealt with by the HMGs. The StuH takes up station next to the Tiger where it immidiatly spots another M-10. It fires a round short breaking LOS. I maneuvre my Tiger a bit closer. Again the StuH fires short and the HE shell again breaks LOS. Suitably distracted the M-10 tries to move to a better shooting location and thus stumbles into view of the Tiger. The M-10 sees it seconds before the Tiger fires but it's fast turret isn't fast enough to save it, as the ammo storages blows up. A turn later the Stuart that had it's TC killed by the StuH stirs itself and get's KO-ed immidiatly as the Tiger spots it. The Tiger then hunts up the hill sweeping away the last few crewmembers and a few battered infantry units. Then time runs out on the scenario and a ceasefire is ordered.

This wasn't a battle, this was ballet as my forces flawlessly progressed through their moves. Every plan worked as it was intended and no crew suffered from bad aim. And it shows! With only 7 casualties (1 KIA) whilst leaving just 74 men available to the enemy forces this has been my finest and most satisfying victory yet. Even if it was against attacking AI. This demo scenario rocks every bit as much as it's Tunesian cousin!

{edited because I forgot the spoiler space even though anyone wandering into this thread not expecting a spoiler deserves whatever happens to him, I later cleaned the text of the worst errors}

[ November 29, 2003, 12:42 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

[Kwazydog]

Thanks for sharing Elmar! Out of interest, was that your first run through the battle...if so you do very well indeed, hehe, glad you enjoyed it!

Btw guys, Ive noticed one or two comments in other thread about the map being a little small. I just wanted to let you guys know that we decided to keep it smaller to allow people with slower systems to see what CM has to offer to them whilst making a small but exciting little battle. It does limit replay somewhat, but hey, thats what the full game is for, hehe

Hopefully you guys enjoyed it too...I know Ive played it several times!

Dan

[ November 29, 2003, 02:19 AM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

[r0tten]

I played Allied versus AI Axis

I moved all my infantry to the woods at the hill on the right flank. They went there with good cover and could get to the forward parts of this wood facing the houses at the right score flag.

60 mm mortars and .50 MG's were placed in good cover in the woody hills with fire line to the church.

My Greyhound scouted the left flank but got shot down by a now identified AT gun.

My Stuarts now approached with wood cover and knocked out the gun.

While this happend, I concentrated all my Shermans behind the hill and my infantry platoons got into their attack positions in the wood at the right flank.

I started the attack with full fire force out of the woods to spotted german positions. All guns blazing.

My Stuarts broke through at the left flank and took out some infantry positions.

After having serious firefights at the right flank, all my infantry started an attack wave direct to the right flag. It was victorious, the MG in the church was annoying but my pioneers captured them.

My Sherman tanks rushed to the top of the hill and knocked out the enemy Stug.

Intense wood and city fighting took place at the right flag but I could hold it. Until then...

A german Tiger approached from the street at the other side of the river. He knocked out 2 of my Shermans and one of my tank hunters.

I got a draw in the end, altough my Shermans were able to capture the left flag.

This is a nice scenario, but wait - its the demo... Now I'm going to play the full version

[Elmar Bijlsma]

KwazyDog: Yes, it was my first go at it as either side.

I'll give an account of my effort as Allied. As could be expected I didn't do quite as well as above, even if I did force an auto surrender.

I line up all three infantry platoons along the edge of the map near the woods on the hill, with the engineer platoon behind as a reserve. 60mm mortars, 81mm FO and .50 MG were position in the centre of the map. The bazookas I kept together near the engineers while the .30s were intended to move along with the forward infantry. The Shermans were on the left of the map along with the Stuarts and the armoured car.

I intended to fake ignorance of the German forces arrayed against me, aswell as their location, because I played this scenario before as the germans.

I send the infantry to move as far forward to the opposite edge of the woods without exposing themselves to enemy fire. The support weapons moved from cover to cover to take up positions on the top of the ridge with it's dominating views. Except for the mortars whom I send to the main wood area but only halfway so they could get decent LOS to the village below. The Shermans moved up to the lower part of the ridge while light armour hunted along the road. Bad timing saw the light armour taking fire from guns and the StuH while the Shermans were unable to participate. They all died without inflicting losses. But with the enemy guns uncovered the Shermans crested and made short work of them, but the StuH eluded them as it dissappeared into the village. They then strayed too close to the village before the infantry got close and three TCs fell to a sniper and two Shermans fell prey to Panzerschrecks. Flattening any building from wich they were receiving fire this avenue of attack ground to a halt while I waited for the infantry to get into place. With the bulk of the infantry finally moving in place a fire fight broke out between them and a HMG in the church and a couple of infantry squads scattered throughout the village. The massed fire quickly proved the deciding factor and one by one the contacts dissappeared. With my Shermans, FO and 60mms helping out to see off the last defenders near the church I decided to use their smoke to cover the advance from enemy fire from the centre and deeper in the village. My infantry moved out of the forest just as my MGs and engineers took their places at the woods edge and provided cover fire. And I needed them! Despite thick smoke defenders that had remained unseen deeper in the village tok their toll among the attackers but were suppresed until the attackers reached the first cover. They then proceded to take out the defender and advanced further into the village with minimal casualties. I reach the far side of the village where I encountered the StuH wich proceded to maul my infantry. The engineers were tasked to close assault it but only one squad was in position at first. Sadly the bazookas got caught in the wheat field and were in no shape to help out. Despite taking 6 casualties the engineer team managed to get in position but refused to use it's satchels.

My rifle platoons meanwhile pushed length wise along the village wich made it safe for me to pass my Shermans through the village towards the StuH near the river. For several turns the engineer squad failed to attack the StuH and came under fire from the opposite riverbank. Not convinced the engineers would do the trick I pullerd them back and cancelled the attack from the other two squads. The Shermans met the StuH head on. One got immobilized as it took a round but KO-ed the StuH in return. This proved little comfort to the Sherman as the following turn the Tiger appeared and put several rounds in its engine block by way of the frontal armour. The other two poped smoke and scattered to cover where they fired smoke to cover the bazookas and enigneers taking up station to cover the bridge exit. They then moved under cover of this moke to hide behind buildings. The rifle squads meanwhile had taken two thirds of the village as they moved from house to house meeting moderate resistance. Enbolded by my succes in the town fighting I decided to drive my recently arrived TDs and AC up to the ruins of the first large building next to the street they moved into the village from and dropped their infantry there. That proved a mistake as the infantry got massacred as it leapt of the tanks and the AC was knocked out by a Shreck. The infantry that already was in town had to hurry and save their bacon and ensure that the TDs could move through the town and ambush the Tiger. This proved very succesful and I was soon mopping up the remaining Germans in the village and picking off those who were trying to flee for safety. The TDs crossed the ford unopposed and set up for a flank shot at the Tiger as it proceded out from the cover of the woods towards the bridge. It was only seconds away from destrucion, just a few metres more...

Auto surrender. Nooooooooooooooo! How could I be denied this final coup de grace? In CMBB the AI never surrendered as long as it still had AFVs.

I have now played this scenario as the Allies about half a dozen times and only once, when I purposely avoided engaging and destroying the German infantry, did I get to destroy the Tiger. And each time he AI surrendered I suffered a good number of casualties and avarage a 50% morale. A lucky Tiger could still swing the fortunes of war the other way. Has auto surrendering changed or is this a scenario quirk? In CMBB I routinely had 10 PzIIs reduced to 1 while not even killing a single TC of my 10 or more KV-1s and never did the AI auto surrender before the last panzer fell to my KVs. Has it changed with CMAK? If so, why and can I pursuade you guys at BFC to change it back?

But still, I had a blast as the yanks in this one.

[Eddy]

Played this first as the Allies.

Moved all of the infantry and engineers through the woods on the right flank because basically it is the only way for them to approach closely.

I positioned the Shermans on top of the hill to provide direct HE. Also in the centre, on top of the hill in the rocks I placed one platoon HQ and all the mortars and spotter in command behind the hill for arty.

On the left flank I used the Greyhound and the Stuarts to draw fire, which they did very effectively. That is, they died straight away. So I shifted the green Sherman to that flank and advanced it very slowly.

I used the Shermans to destroy the large buildings, even if I hadn't spotted any enemy.

Once the infantry were in position I used two platoons to advance across the field and the the other two plus HMG's to provide covering fire.

They advanced nicely, one of the Shermans blew up the church with the mg in it and everything was going hunky-dory.

Took the flag on the right, moved the infantry into position to cross the bridge when that damn Tiger turned up. By this time I had four Shermans left, one was blown up by a Shrek I think (incidentally great sound when they fire). So I used all four Shermans as target practice for the Tiger. I think it got three of them. Then the M10 turned up and by sheer panic and movement they just kept hitting the Tiger, which had advanced nearly to the bridge by this time, until the crew bailed out of it.

Then I just kept running acroos the bridge to take the rear flag. Turn 26 Axis surrender

Result: Allied Minor Victory

Then I played it as the Germans.

Result: Axis total victory.

The only remarkable thing that happened was I moved a split squad into the woods to giving me a warning of when the Allies were approaching and also to try to disrupt the Allied advance a bit.

They didn't disrupt at all and died very quickly, but they allowed me to predict exactly when and where to target the arty. It was absolutley perfect, as the arty caught at least a couple of platoons out in the open in the field which decimated them.

The only problems I had as the Germans was ammo conservation on my left flank i.e. by the field, and what to do with a Stug who was in a near permenant state of nervous breakdown.

One interesting thing, which I've never seen before in CMBO or CMBB was an allied arty barrage that landed completely off the map several hundred metres away to the right. Is this normal?

So I would say don't play Allies and then Germans because it is too predictable.

Otherwise as the Allies, very enjoyable.

Cheers

Ed

[Boo Radley]

One fun thing I did as the German's in this one, was realizing (like most of you) that the Allies would have to come through the woods on my left flank, I gave my defenders over there (I kept almost to the default positions) cover fire arcs that reached halfway across the wheatfield. Then after I had noticed the Allied troops moving close to the bottom of the treeline, I gave my FO an order to target the clearing about a third of the way back up the hill.

The forward Allied elements got caught in a crossfire when they were in the middle of the wheatfield and as they tried to retreat, got nailed by an arty barrage.

I heard a lot of, "Run for it! They'll kill us all!"

[Shep]

Just an amusing sidelight. I took an alternate tactic, putting two platoons of infantry over in the wheatfield on the US left and hoping to creep along and do something decisive. The GE AI put a preplanned barrage of 105 arty there, and I found myself with only half the men.

I ground forward and won a minor, thanks to the engineers and reinforcements on the right.

The remnants on the left pushed forward and took that side of town toward the end. They didn't do so badly considering how they started.

[Mr. Tittles]

Excellent scenario.

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I think the US should have 105mm arty and the the Germans 81mm FO with an on board 81mm.

[V]

PLayed this hotseat as the Germans vs. my brother who was the Allies...

SPOILER

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I chose to pretty much keep the default placement at the start of this battle. I have faced my brother on every CM battlefield imaginable (always as the Germans) so I know his usual strategies: strike anywhere at any time.

When the game started, everything was still, but I noticed vehicles moving towards my advance position down the road on my left. A light tank came blazing down that road and drove right up on a house which contained a tank hunter team. The TH team immobilized and then knocked out the light tank.

Infantry continued to move down the road. When they were within 250m or so, a MG42 opened up on them and made their advance difficult. Once again, a light tank, with an infantry squad riding on its rear, came blazing down the road. This tank was knocked out by a panzerschreck team.

My enemy continued to work on the right side of my defense. Several tanks advanced to support infantry but were knocked out by infantry and AT guns. The American infantry eventually gained a foothold in some heavy small buildings ont he right sie of my line. These men would eventually be repulsed in later attempts to advance.

On my left, the Americans were moving large amounts of infantry into the wooded hill. Artillery failed to do much damage, and with long range tank support, the American infantry tried to assault between the wheatfield and barbwire, where there is a thin gap and no obsticles. The first wave was decimated, with some retreating American troops gunned down as they retreated into the barbed wire defenses.

By the time the second assault wave was formed up for attack, the American tank bombardment had done its job on the German defenders holding the most forward line of defense. The Americans sweep through the same gap, while still taking fierce casualties, but were able to clear many buildings and gain its first foothold into the town. More American troops filled the town through this gap and advanced right through the centrer of this town with Sherman tank support. In their rush, they by-passed an intact Germany infantry squad and an MG-42 team, which I redirected to the rear of the church and hid for later use.

By this time, my Tiger arrived and took position on the road north of the bridge. He found an excellent hull down position and began to engage whatever targets became available. Several American Shermans were knocked out and many American support teams were also decimated.

On the right, enemy tanks had knocked out all AT guns and worn down all infantry. I decided to pull what forces I could out of town before they were trapped behind the tank assault which I knew would be coming any minute. I was able to move an empty sharpshooter team, 15 American prisoners, some beat-up infantry squads and my company HQ across the river safely to set up a new defense on t he north side of the river.

The Shermans did come rolling into town as American infantry reached the bridge and got into a huge firefight with what infantry I had left to defend the bridge. The Tiger tank took out the last of the enemy tanks, and the by-passed infantry squad flanked the Americans just as the Tiger turned its full attention onto their infantry. The MG42 in the church rejoined the fight as well and there was mass confusion as many American troops were cut down while fleeing from the Tigers murderous fire.

The scenario ended soon after that. The Americans got credit for holding all the main flags south of the river, but the staggering amount of casualties suffered gave the Germans a tactical victory. 60-20 (score not exact, played the game last week and did not take exact notes.)

I thought it was a great scenario. My brother thought the Americans should have more infantry.

I thought that he had enough to finish me off with, but he did not use his tanks well.

He also had some tough breaks, like his airforce just missing a knockout shot on my stug (I did not mention the stug in the aar because it was knocked out without contributing one round to the fight.) and never did fire on the Tiger.

The Tiger was the difference.

[André]

SPOILER IMAGE BELOW...

This little AT gun lasted throughout the battle, taking out multiple Allied tanks without taking any losses.

André

[Michael Emrys]

Okay, I finished thise scenario this afternoon after turn 24 and after I had completed the orders phase for turn 25. By the way, I really, really wish we would get the AAR at the beginning of an orders phase instead of at the end. It really bugs me to spend half an hour of careful thought and planning for my next move only to hear that bugle when I press Go.

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

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Anyway, I won a total victory 93:7, which kind of surprised me as I hadn't thought I was doing quite that well. Something that struck me as quite odd was that the Tiger was shown as abandoned at the end. I know I didn't hit it with anything, and as it was still sitting on the paved road where it came in, it was unlikely to have bogged. I guess it just got caught when the great surrender occurred, but it seems to me that it should have been able to withdraw off the map. Oh well, cest la guerre.

BTW, I suppose everybody knows by now that there are two shallow fords across the river south of the bridge.

Michael

[Yaba]

Just finished this one today as Axis vs. a friend of mine. We had an interesting go of it with neither side getting the upper hand until my Tiger rolled out of the woods. At one point I had my Tiger right up near the church targeting a Sherman that was out in the open on my far left flank when my opponent crested the hill with a couple of his M10's. Each M10 took one shot at the side of my Tiger, missed, dropped smoke and backed out of there. If they had stayed I am pretty certain that my Tiger would have been killed and I would have lost the battle. As it was my Tiger survived and apart from losing a crew member to Bazooka Joe he was the deciding factor by the end of the battle. I think by the time my opponent had requested a ceasfire the Tiger had caused 28 inf. casualties, KOed 3 shermans and 1 M10. Not bad for an afternoons work. I thought it was a great scenario - right up there with the original ones from the CMBO demo days. The only problem might be the lack of re-play value. Perhaps a wider map that might allow for more defensive and offensive variations might help out. Still - good fun.

[Micheal Wittman]

Originally posted by André:

SPOILER IMAGE BELOW...

This little AT gun lasted throughout the battle, taking out multiple Allied tanks without taking any losses.

André

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Holy Cr_p!!!! How does that happen :confused:

If only I could do half that good, I wouldn't be

getting raked over the coals/ or empty "he" rounds, all the time.

[Airborne]

Played as the US against the German AI. Infantry advanced to the woods. Took out the Stug easily with a Sherm. The Tiger really surprised me, though. He gave me quite a whooping. I entered the town from the woods and began a house-clearing party. My last Sherm lobbed 3 smoke rounds at the bridge and I started an infantry assault. Reached the victory house near where the Tiger was roaming. Most German infantry were now ineffective. I managed to get an engineer squad and Plt HQ past the Tiger into the woods and my eng sqd tossed 2 satchel charges onto the back deck of the big tank--boom!!! No more. The game ended on the next turn. Minor Allied V about turn 37.

I took my time with this one as I haven't played CMBO in quite a while. Forgot how kewl this game system is. It's nice to be back.

[Falcon988]

This was a great victory against my TCP/IP opponent. He played Axis.

I, like everyone else, advanced my infantry through the left forest. There were a few casualties early on in the vineyards to German artillery fire, but nothing my men couldn't handle.

The Shermans and Stuarts popped smoke and moved up the hill. The smoke covered their advance, and allowed me to protect certain units while giving others opportunities to fire. In this way I wiped out both of the German AT guns and the Stug while only losing one Stuart. It was a great armored attack.

My GI Platoons reached the northern edge of the forest and engaged the defending German platoon across the wheatfield. Our overwhelming fire pinned them down and allowed me to advance several squads up to the wall. This is when we took our first heavy casualties as at least a dozen men were killed or wounded as they fought from that wall. After the German MG42 in the Church, which had caused me most of my casualties, was routed I advanced my men through the wheatfield. The GI's ran through, stopping to shoot along the way, until they reached the second wall. My two forward platoons effectively wiped out all German resistance over there. The three platoons I ran in as reinforcements was just overkill.

All the while I'd ran my Shermans up to the very doorstep of the town, just far enough away to keep them out of range from German infantry. They captured a tank hunter crew, and shot the living crap out of the German troops in the town. This was very useful since it kept my opponent from moving his platoons to interrupt my infantry attack through the wheatfield. He was effectively pinned down. At this stage we lost an additional Sherman to a panzerfaust, but all in all casualties had been light.

Now though my men were very quickly approaching the climax of the battle. With the left side of the village in American hands we had to move right and flank the remaining German infantry (pinned down by my Shermans). Just then the German Tiger crashed the party and wiped out 2 of my Greyhounds up on the hill to our south. It took up a position at the bridge and harassed any American infantry that came into its LOS. As of yet though my tanks couldn't see it since it was blocked by all the houses.

As my platoons advanced right they met strong infantry resistance. Which we could handle. The climax came when the German tiger opened up on my infantry as they advanced and caused me some 15 - 20 casualties. One of my squads became routed and ran off. It got pretty bloody but all German troops were eliminated and my men were able to hide from the Tiger. Now all we had to do was take the bridge (which the Tiger was occupying).

I fast moved all my tanks into the village streets after a Sherman was destroyed by the Tiger. They took up positions all over town hiding behind houses. Then, essentially, I rushed the Tiger from all sides with a Sherman, 2 M10's, 2 Engineer platoons, and 3 Bazooka's.

In the end it came down to the final showdown. True spaghetti western style. You could hear Ennio Morricone's music as the Tiger took aim at one of my M10's, the M10 took aim at the Tiger, and another M10 further up (which my opponent hadn't seen) took aim at the Tiger's vulnerable side armor.

Also in true spaghetti western style, all tanks fired simultaneously, and when the shooting died only 1 of the 3 was left alive. My M10. The Tiger and the M10 fired. The M10 was destroyed, and its shot richocheted off the Tiger's armor. But at the same time my other M10's blast ripped through its armor and disabled it.

The Germans surrendered immediately afterwards. I had 65 casualties. He had about 105. Great battle.

[Lawngnome]

I played allies first time through... was it just me or was the allied side REALLY easy? I don't know, but i got my tanks into position by turn 3 and from then on i just used them to pound every square inch of that town... total chaos for the germans... I sent my two stuarts up the main road and into the town. They both made it to the bridge where they killed the german Stug with a nice side penetration.

Unfortunately that dumb flak gun got a rear shot on one of the stuarts and made the crew abandon ship... but the stuart that remained racked up 60 kills by the end from mowing down all retreating axis infantry.

I just sat my shermans up on the hill and slowly moved them forward. All of my infantry except one platoon went right flank, the other platoon with the .50 cal went left flank. I sat my infantry on the woodline and slaughtered the germans with those wonderful American rifles. by turn 13 I had moved past the first row of houses and there wasn't a German squad that wasn't retreating.

By turn 14 I had all of the flags and was taking pot shots at the few who had escaped to the opposite shore.

Germans surrendered after turn 16, Total Victory. Final casualties for me were: 1 Stuart (flak gun), 1 Greyhound (left flank ATG), and 37 infantry casualties from my advance. I had no routed squads except for the greyhound crew.

EDIT: There is a German Tiger? When does it arrive?

[ December 06, 2003, 01:35 AM: Message edited by: Lawngnome ]

[Falcon988]

Originally posted by Lawngnome:

EDIT: There is a German Tiger? When does it arrive?

Later on in the battle. The Germans probably surrendered to you before it could arrive.

[Thin Red Line]

Played it PBEM as germans.

MG fire took out one Tiger crew member.

Two turns later, a ricocheting MGC AP round caused internal armor flaking, hitting another crew member.

Apparently the rest of the crew decided 3 men was not enough to man the beast, so they abandonned it.

End of the story and of my victory hopes.