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Road to Montebourg


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I've managed to get to the second battle. SPOILER ALERT I've come to the conclusion that you cannot cross the bridge with infantry. The germans have it pre registered and you get creamed with deadly arty yanytime you try and get close. Tried using smoke from the 81mm but it seems to windy for any screen to last more than a few mins. A couple of mins of smoke will not allow your engineers to clear the choake point for your follow on forces. After total failure to get even one squad of inf across 4 times(reboots). I'm almost content to hunker down and conserve forces for when support arrives. However I'm not sure my tanks will last very long in that very open ground with the germans having the advantage with the high ground. I'll be interested to hear some tactical plans for this meat grinder.

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Anyone had any sucess with Turnball's Stand mission playing WEGO? Seems impossible to hold back a whole company with a couple of understrength squads and two AT guns that like to waste their few AP rounds on infantry.

I managed to knock out a couple of tanks but then just got steamrolled and suffered a major defeat.

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Just starting a thread about this campaign for anyone playing it.

Paper Tiger, why the strict casualty limits, <10% I know that worked for CMSF but don't know if that's appropriate for battling in the bocage.

I was one of the playtesters for this campaign, so maybe I can answer that for PT.

The real reason is that the campaign is HUGE, the biggest ever for any CMx2 game (I think). If you lose too many guys, you won't make it all the way through. It would really suck to get to, say, mission 14, and you just don't have enough dudes to win. The strict limits helps with that. Most of us would rather replay a scenario right away than have to go back 10 scenarios to fix a poor outing that lost you half your guys.

The campaign is built in segments, so once you reach a certain point, you will be rewarded with some reinforcements. Bottom line is you just have to do as well as you can in this campaign. If you do, you'll see some of the most spectacularly beautiful maps made yet. ;)

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bodkin

The 10% award is a bonus if you complete the mission taking less than 10% casualties. You are right. It isn't CMSF and so you can win the mission even with quite high casualties although if you get near 30%, the enemy will have a lot of casualty VPs.

Second, with 'Turnbull's Stand', you have to get your men off the board before the Germans 'touch' one of the objectives. Just kill as many enemy troops as you can and then run for the exit zones. Yoiu're not meant to stop them. The VP locations are not Occupy objectives, they're Touch objectives and if you have failed to get off the board by the time the Germans touch them, they will be in a position to prevent your platoon from joining up with the rest of the company for the action on the 7th.

warwalker

sounds to me like you're playing a different campaign. There are no battles for bridges in the Montebourg campaign ;)

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Everytime I surrender in frustration during this campaign I am amazed to see just how few German units are inflicting such horrible casualties on me.

I think its the 2nd or 3rd battle, right before the mission where you have eliminate the 81mm mortars. There was a single panzerschreck who could hold a whole crossroads by himself - area firing or tossing grenades at infantry and sending the Shermans up in flames. Can't get any supporting fire on him since he's around a bend. Can't get close and mass fire on him without getting a grenade or schreck round into my closely packed troops.

If the AI is this tough I really dread my first PBEM games. Mortars and artillery are so deadly, its been very difficult to get local fire superiority without getting plastered by a barrage.

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Antig3n

You'll find that they are Green troops with Low morale as well. One of the things I really loved about moving back to WW2 was that very well placed German units can hold up a numerically superior US force quite effectively. There are very few defenders in this mission but I worked hard to maximise their effectiveness by placing them carefully, especially with regard to maintaining C2 links wherever possible. What a huge difference THAT makes.

Sounds like you're playing Ecoqueneuville. I have a pretty good idea which crossroads you're talking about. It's WAY too early to start giving spoilers so I won't... except for this.

******************MINOR SPOILER ALERT**************

There are many different ways to play this mission but a good way to lose this mission is to play it too quickly. You have a lot of time and there are very few defenders. You also have a lot of support as well. You don't HAVE to go straight up the road at the start of the mission. The tanks can wait a bit before getting into the action ;)

BTW, there are four AI plans for this mission. Restarting won't necessarily give you an edge. The same goes for almost every mission in the campaign.

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Volodnikov

congrats. I assume you got a win. I'd like to hear how you approached this mission. Which route did you take? Where was that AT gun? (Depending on your AI plan it will be positioned differently to prevent a player from restarting and hitting its start location with a sneaky pre-planned artillery strike)

Indulge an old campaign designer. :) You wouldn't believe the amount of work I put into creating this and I'm genuinely curious to know how folks are approaching the missions. It helps me improve my future work. Same for you other guys too.

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That reminds me:

The road you start out near goes straight for a while, and then hooks to the left into the town, kind of an L shape if I remember right. In my game the AT gun was among the buildings, firing right down that road after the hook, the short leg of the L, perfectly denying entrance that way for armor. Like the panzerschreck, impossible to get supporting fire on. It was a really good position, one I assumed to be set by the scenario designer. These tight blind corners are killing me.

Just finished the mission to eliminate the German FO team near a farmhouse. Killed the team, took some pretty serious casualties from the AI's ever present quick barrages, and didn't actually send anyone into the farmhouse so I think I had a defeat. Good thing I have a few saves to choose from. I drove right up the right side through the hedgerows - I noticed some German tanks but they played no part in the battle. It was actually pretty light resistance except for the artillery and one or two pockets.

Is there a way to see casualties inflicted by artillery at the end of the battle? The spotter does not seem to get credit, but I could be wrong. I'd also like to know what caliber was falling on me, so I can get to know what is what as far as artillery in this game.

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I hope you don't mind the read. :)

*SPOILERS*

---

"There's something strangely appealing about reducing a tranquil village to rubble and craters." So it was, that First Lieutenant Hunnicut of 4th Platoon, Fox Company, ordered the artillery barrages that would be the only artillery called for the remainder of the battle. Ecoqueneauville was pounded with the 105mm howitzers, all three of Battery C, and mortars, 60mm and 81mm, were dropped behind the hedgerows Fox Company was predicted to receive fire from during the course of the battle. There was some confusion at 2nd Battalion HQ as to whether the combat engineers were finally included in the assault (they never spoke up from the back of their trucks), so the plan of attack was to inch straight up D67 into Ecoqueneauville.

It was decided that 2nd Platoon, under the command of First Lieutenant Reynolds, would spearhead the attack. The first threat encountered was a panzerschreck team at the three-way intersection. Smoke wasn't going to provide adequate cover there, so 3rd Squad was ordered to rush up to the hedgerow and fire into what was predicted to be a harmless AT team unprepared for an infantry attack. The unfortunate underestimation cost two casualties, but the panzerschreck team was eventually uprooted and subsequently removed from the battlefield. At that point, 3rd Squad was on the right edge of the intersection (on the road leading towards Le Grand Hameau). 1st Squad was ordered to cross the intersection over to the side of 3rd Squad. When 1st Squad was in place, they came under fire from machine gun in the direction of the three story building along Rue du Douey, but it was too distant to be adequately effective. However, it was when 2nd Squad darted across the intersection that an anti-tank gun fired from the direction of Ecoqueneauville. The shell landed short, sparing the lives of those men.

With 2nd Platoon ready to begin moving up D67, a runner relayed the situation back to Battalion in regards to how to proceed. The Shermans, provided by the 746th Tank Battalion, would likely get obliterated by the anti-tank gun, so using them was out of the question. Without any other feasible route, 2nd and 3rd Squad moved up on the right side of D67 towards the East Yard, carefully avoiding the attraction of the AT gun. Some Georgian infantry fired their weapons from behind the hedgerows on the left, but after receiving some fire they hastily retreated somewhere west. Fortunately, the enemy AT gun never fired.

After connecting with the rest of 2nd Platoon, 1st Squad, who with the assistance of 2nd Squad, moved south across D67 into the farmhouse area that was more densely wooded and provided more cover. When they lined up at the hedgerow behind the westernmost farmhouse, they came under heavy fire from three infantry squads entrenched in an "alley" of hedgerows. And it was assumed that the enemy squad who previously retreated was there as well. It was here that the leader of 2nd Squad was killed in action. It was then (with around 25 minutes left in the battle) that the combat engineers reported for duty. They blasted their way through the hedgerows on the left, encountered no resistance, and reached the alley of hedgerows from which the men of 2nd Platoon were taking fire from. The engineers flanked those enemy toops, eliminated them, and moved up the alley north to link up with 2nd Platoon. With Ecoqueneauville now within reach, there remained only one serious obstacle before the village itself could be entered. The three story building on Rue du Douey from which an MG was firing from earlier in the day.

While the Georgians in the hedgerows were being eliminated by 2nd Platoon and the combat engineers, 1st Platoon under 1st Lieutenant Clark was moving up D67 to support the attack on Ecoqueneauville. When 1st Platoon arrived at the East Yard, 2nd Platoon moved to cover in the direction of the anti-tank obstacles and the three story building itself. Georgian infantry who were taking cover behind the hedgerows right of the obstacles were suppressed by fire from 2nd Platoon while 1st Platoon assaulted across the crops and through an opening in the hedgerow adjacent to Rue du Douey. Some good men of 1st Platoon were lost, but the Georgians were killed and the path into Ecoqueneauville was clear.

The fighting in Ecoqueneauville was quick, but rough. 1st Platoon moved up on the right of D67, while 2nd Platoon, with the support of the combat engineers, moved up on the left through the outlying buildings. It was when 1st Platoon reached the hedgerow behind the church that all hell broke loose. Three squads of German infantry, who were holed up in the buildings on the road to Le Hamelet opened up with MG and panzerschreck fire. Some of the men were killed or quickly surrendered, while others fled back towards Rue du Douey. There was frustration on behalf of Captain Kulp at Fox Company headquarters at the fact that 1st Platoon was coming under such heavy fire while the combat engineers and 2nd Platoon were still blasting their way to get a line of fire on those buildings. When they finally did, the Georgians retreated into the plowed field. It was 2nd Platoon that discovered the location of the AT gun, which was at the right corner of the road that looks straight down D67. 2nd Platoon took heavy fire from enemy troops along Rue de la Capelle, which made it difficult to put quickly put the AT gun out of action.

With casualties mounting, the combat engineers were sent back east to destroy the anti-tank obstacles that were denying the Shermans direct access to Ecoqueneauville. Sending the tanks in was beginning to be contemplated, but Captain Kulp was confident that 1st and 2nd Platoon would be able to take the town without the assistance of the tanks or rest of Fox Company.

---

The battle ended when time ran out. 2nd Platoon was about to destroy the AT gun. The result was a U.S. Army Major Victory.

ohpw8g.jpg

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The real reason is that the campaign is HUGE, the biggest ever for any CMx2 game (I think). If you lose too many guys, you won't make it all the way through. It would really suck to get to, say, mission 14, and you just don't have enough dudes to win. The strict limits helps with that. Most of us would rather replay a scenario right away than have to go back 10 scenarios to fix a poor outing that lost you half your guys.

Understood in terms of gameplay, but really this seems more appropriate for a CMSF type theatre, unlike Nomandy where units suffered alot of casualties in order to achieve objectives.

It would be more realistic if your losses were replaced by low quality troops rather than not getting enough troops to make it through. Although I'm only into about the sixth mission so my comments maybe premature.

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yesterday night i managed to finish the first mission with 10 killed and 8 wounded

for me it was a tough nut to crack

i was a bit indecisive especially with the use of my mortars. hammered the trenchline with my 81mm and used my 60mm for direct fire but failed to establish a proper smoke screen.

tubeguy.jpg

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-------------------minor spoiler -------------------------

after i saw spotting rounds falling i rushed all platoons forward - fortunately the main artillery barrage didn't arrive.

especially the two wooden bunkers held up my advance. the occupants didn't get suppressed or died even though the whole company was hammering them with machine guns and rifles. so i had to sneak up some tube guys to finish the job.

but after i took out the machine gun bunker with a bazooka the mission was a cakewalk.

i'm looking forward to the second mission

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That's a great screenshot, permanent666. Really illustrates how beautifully crafted the game visuals and map designs are.

I was one of the playtesters on this campaign and I had an absolute blast testing it. It was tough but fantastically good fun to play, with every map being a real beauty. By the time I got to the end I genuinely felt I had improved as a tactician.

Get your tactics right and (sometimes with a little bit of luck, too!) you can win several of them with pretty minimal losses; get it wrong and you'll be sent home with your tail between your legs - if you're lucky enough to still have a tail! :D

And as PT points out, there are four AI plans for each, so if you lose and need to replay you are unlikely to find yourself playing the exact same battle again. Makes it very challenging and loads of fun!

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I tested in WEGO. I usually prefer it, mainly so I can go back and replay all those WOW! moments (or alternatively, work out how that squad of mine got so badly beaten up!).

Results? Well, read the above. I can't remember each battle but I think I got a major victory overall, but remember we were playing, making comments and suggestions, replaying with PT's changes etc, so my results may not be wholly representative of the full campaign as it stands.

Actually, I'm really looking forward to playing it again soon. I enjoyed it that much, and as PT has added new AI plans since, I can be pretty sure I'm not going to have any major advantages in terms of foreknowledge.

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***SPOILERS***

My own little AAR for Ecoqueneuville:

Looking over the map I figured I'd push two platoons up in a wide sweep, bypassing as many of the bocage-bounded fields as I could, and using a squad of attached engineers to blast through where necessary. The main road would be the unit boundary between the two up platoons. The remaining infantry platoon, the weapons platoon, and the attached armor would be held in reserve.

Two clusters of buildings would form intermediate objectives, with troops consolidating at each before resuming the advance. Machine gun teams would displace forward when each of these was captured.

CMNormandy2011-05-2008-58-59-36_crop_marked.jpg

The initial advance went well. Scattered resistance, where encountered, was broken with concentrated fire from the rifle platoons. The medium machine gun teams were brought forward a couple of times to support where necessary. The first set of buildings was seized with few losses.

By now fire from the buildings in the town was becoming more intense, but was not enough to significantly slow the advance. With the seizure of the second intermediate objective, which included a tall building with good overwatch on the village center, a base of fire was established with machine guns. The light mortars of the weapons platoon were brought up, while the additional machine gun teams were moved into covering positions. As the tanks were being brought to holding positions in the yards of the first intermediate objective, the lead unit was destroyed by fire from a concealed AT gun firing down the road. This was brought under concentrated machine gun fire, which kept it suppressed until it could be destroyed by assault.

The platoon on the right blasted its way through the churchyard to establish a base of fire through the village center. From here it was able to support the advance of the platoon on the left through the village. The AT gun was destroyed by a combination of close assault and light mortar fire. The assaulting units were fired upon by a hidden unit (which turned out to be the Company HQ), which caused significant casualties (40% of those sustained in the engagement). This too was destroyed by mortar fire and assault.

The village was cleared, with several prisoners taken and no remaining enemy resistance. Friendly casualties totaled 31, with one tank lost. The reserve platoon was not engaged, and no non-organic artillery assets were employed.

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