Jump to content

Road to Montebourg


Recommended Posts

Again, that's one of the best results I've seen playing les Licornets. It can be pretty brutal if you don't do it right. I can tell from the screenshot you posted which AI plan you got. The other would have been tougher on your left flank move . It's VERY satisfying pulling that flanking move off and getting a bazooka team on the StuG's flank. I've had some great fights on that map. And the other screenshot comes from the Grand Hameau mission (#3).

Yes, I got very lucky in that mission with some well-aimed preparatory bombardments. I dropped around 30 105mm rounds, all in the first few minutes, which all landed on the center StuG's position, killed/wounded several infantry and damaged the StuG's tracks. I was able to maneuver Dog company into an advantageous firing position from which they were able to suppress a fighting line on the "left" flank which allowed me to bring up the Shermans for the kill.

Most of my time was spent on the center and right with Easy and they suffered the brunt of the casualties (I believe Dog lost 1 or 2 soldiers; the rest were Easy and a Tank Commander). There were several times when I was able to quickly react to spotting rounds and avoid disaster which would have resulted in platoons being wiped out. The biggest holdup in the entire scenario was the Pak 40 which changed the entire center of gravity and became the focus for all of my movements and significantly damaged one of my Shermans (weapon controls were knocked out; crew member lightly wounded). I had 2 Easy platoons in the center which were able to grind a battle line into dust with Sherman support while the 3rd platoon stayed on the right to direct 81mm mortars on the Pak 40 (which kept it suppressed, but did little else). Eventually, my center platoons were able to gain a flanking position and eliminate the Pak, the ammo team, and the teams centered around it.

The side shot on the StuG was great. I give the crew an A for effort, however, as it took my Tube Guy 2 side shots and 2 rear shots and help from a second Tube Guy to take it out. They also were able to spot the 2nd StuG and, due to the range, I had them wave off while I brought a pair of Shermans directly against the hedgerow. From that position, they were able to put a couple of shots into the second StuG and destroy it.

After the heavy weapons were taken out, it was a pretty simple matter of fire and maneuver. Infantry would pin the few remaining infantry teams while the Shermans would swoop in from behind and finish them off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I finished Panzer Marsch! and I am now done Road to Montebourg.

Try1.gif

The one thing that nagged me was that the mission briefings weren't helpful telling me how to ration my artillery. I never knew if this battle was the last one that I would have a certain asset available, or to what extent I would receive more ammunition. This lead me to leaving hundreds of shells unspent throughout the campaign.

Also, I am now officially sick of having to run infantry through streams against pillboxes :) I also noticed that if you put hedgerows in front of a pillbox, it makes the pillbox immune to bazooka's.

Not that this is an issue, but I made the Germans surrender in, literally, every single battle I played. I was also able to go through the second last mission, the farmhouse with the SP gun, without taking a single KIA.

The very last mission was absolutely fantastic. It is easily the best map I have played in both this campaign and Panzer Marsch. The only real criticism that I can come up with for the last map would be that the AI tried to counter-attack the town mid-way through the game, and it did so in a really retarded way. Lots of infantry came running across the fields towards the town, and so I just gunned them down.

StupidAI.jpg

The part of the mission that was really excellent was the town, though. It was cool how in one mission, you had to fight to take the town, then fight to get out of it. It really worked well, since you could provide support from the rural area to most of the town. Within the town, one of the best parts was when I was trying to take a tightly contested intersection. So, I sent a Sherman around the corner.

AmbushPoint.jpg

You can't see it in this screenshot (since wounded soldiers disappear in the 'review map' phase), but I had a full platoon hugging the length of the wall on the side of the Sherman. When I moved the tank around and the StuG appeared, my Sherman exploded and took 7 soldiers with it. The rural fighting was really intense, and I want to do more of it.

I also have a funny picture of a tank which had 2 of it's crew killed, 1 of it's crew wounded, it's optics, radio, weapon control and MG destroyed, but still managed to bag 64 kills before going rouge and driving uncontrollably through the town.

DamagedTank.jpg

Oh, and I don't understand why you bothered giving us the 105mm artillery 40 minutes into the game. Without a TRP, it's very difficult to use. If you're going to have heavy artillery come on as reinforcements where only 1 single unit has the authority to call it in, then you should add a TRP, in my opinion. Particularly when it takes a good ~9 minutes just to call in.

Again, the last mission was awesome. You should make it a stand-alone scenario, where you add 15 minutes and remove the intel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FragerZ

You have made my day! I have been waiting to hear from somebody who had completed the campaign successfully so that I could relax and now I can. I've created quite a few campaigns now and I always try and make the finale something special. And, funnily enough, they are usually fights in built-up terrain ('Hasrabit' in Hasrabit itself, 'Road to Dinas' in the heavily damaged outskirts of Dinas, 'The Khabour Trail' in Al Hasakah.) The one exception was USMC Gung Ho! which finished with an assault on an airfield. I spent nearly two weeks developing the battle for Eroudeville and it was obviously time well spent.

Unfortunately, the AI has no way to adapt to the player's actions and so will continue to push its troops forward in the face of enemy fire even after their overwatch has been eliminated. There should be at least two StuGs overwatching the infantry as they advance across the field. Perhaps you nailed them or disabled them earlier?

I am not particularly concerened about the ease you had winning these missions. I've crafted enough stinkers in my time and the sad result is that few people ever complete them. What's the point? (I'm still waiting to hear from somebody who beat the finale in the Canadian campaign - I thought THAT map was fantastic) So, I'm honestly glad that this one was doable. The really important thing to me is that it was fun to play and I hope you enjoyed it.

I'll definitely consider converting the finale into a stand-alone. I enjoyed creating that battle and I'd like to craft a couple more AI plans for it too. But for now, I'm going to take a step back and enjoy playing 'something else' for a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just jumped in to say that I'm enjoing very much the campaign so far!

If I find the time I'll try to give you some feedback about my battles, but since english is not my native language it is a very time consuming job :)

I just have to report a little oversight (or maybe is a bug of the CM:BN engine) on the 4th battle:

*** SPOILERS ALERT ***

At full zoom-out, watching the field behind The Hamlet, you can notice a sort of trench work, even if you have no LOS to that location. Needless to say I will keep my mortar rounds for anything is hidden there!

For the rest really a great job! (2nd mission above all, it was a blast finding that AT gun!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now, you're onto 'Breakthrough'. Good luck with that one.

Could have gone better!

Breakthrough.jpg

Had some bad luck with the IG I never spotted, but spotted me and a MG42 HMG in a orchard that I didn't discover until i entered the field...

But, it was a damn nice mission! went flanking on both sides as it offered best terrain and on the left side it was a lot of firing and moving and flanking along the orchard, really nice! right side was the usual struggling for fire superiority, moving forward to next orchard, pick up the firefight and continue. The next scenario looks real hard thoe...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First up, I'm loving this campaign - prior to starting this I'd only played a couple of QBs to get myself further re-acquainted with the game (coming from CMSF and CMA). I'm on the 4th mission (Veteran WeGo), having won the previous 3 missions slowly but surely and with mostly acceptable casualty rates.

I'm on the 4th mission (Le Hamleu? - can't check, stuck at work) and I am having real trouble keeping my casualties down due to both my impatience and also because I think I've got a bit cocky having managed so well up until now!

Anyway, something happened that I wanted to draw PT's attention to right at the start of the mission.

***** SPOILERS *****

From the set up I sent one platoon to the southernmost field and had them quick move to the hedgerow at the edge of the map facing out over the fields towards the village. The next turn, I noticed that the squad on the very edge of the map behind the bocage had spotted a Marder right on the opposite side of the map behind a hedge during their initial move from their starting position to the hedgerow. Now I've tried tracing their eye-line from that hedge to the Marder, but there seems to be way too much scenery in between the 2 for this to have happened in under 1 minute. The Marder only spotted the infantry after another 4 minutes, by which time the squad had been firing continuously at an MG bunker a couple of fields over.

So anyway, I don't know if this is an issue with unrealistic spotting or a quirk in the placement of the Marder, or just random good luck, but it just seemed a little bit 'off'. Either way, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I moved the platoon HQ to the same spot and was able to call in 81mm mortars to rid myself of this problem - I was just wondering if this Marder should be better hidden so it's not identified in the first minute of the game.

Then I had to stop enjoying myself and come to work - but hey, they can stop me playing the game, but they can't stop me writing posts about the game I'd rather be playing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then I had to stop enjoying myself and come to work - but hey, they can stop me playing the game, but they can't stop me writing posts about the game I'd rather be playing!

Well, they could do as on my work. Add Battlefront.com on forbidden sites on the work computers :mad: (Alright, might be a good thing to...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Third mission:

First time through I forgot to plot my prep arty. I went round to the right, hugging the road but moving through the fields. Infantry led the way to each hedge with tanks following on. I took the farm and the buildings across the road, dashed my tanks across the road and moved up the edge of the map using the pioneers to blast through any hedges. I set up a couple of MGs in the three story building and using that as a pivot swung a two platoon wide arc around to the church and the buildings over the road from there so that everyone was firing into the village. I had a tank either side of the church and was able to fire deep into the village and surrounding woods and copses from there.

I had no idea there was an AT gun. I suspected there would be and avoided the road as much as possible but I didn't see it until my infantry was on top of it, and by then the battle was over. I forget what my casualties were but they were in the single figures on the Warrior setting.

I loved this map so much I've played it a couple of times through since, each time trying a slightly different plan. I've had two platoons, a couple of MGs and a pioneer squad go round to the left and attack the village from the left whilst a platoon of infantry and the tanks follow my original route. I've sent them back the same way as I originally went. I've led with the armour up to each hedge, brought them all on line at the same time and riddled every hedge across the field with bullets and shells. Each time I've had a prep barrage plotted on the town. I get the AT gun every time but I am completely unable to repeat my original success even knowing what's out there.

This thread persuaded me to have another go. Thirty wounded, fifty dead. Sigh, that's the worst yet. One more attempt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chainsaw

another great result with 'Breakthrough'. That's one of my favourite maps in the campaign. Seeing as how you've done so well in the earlier missions, I see no reason for you to fear 'Orchard Hill' too much. I'm sure you'll do just fine.

Zatoichi

The Marder is positioned differently in different AI set ups. In the one you got, the default, he has LoS to that southern line of bocage and if he gets lucky with his LoS checks, he'll see your guys quickly enough, especially if you try to move past it too quickly. Just put it down to the fortunes of war. ;)

vbfg

It's funny but I didn't think 'Ecoqueneauville' would prove to be such a challenging mission. (Personally, I thought le Hamelet was the toughest in the opening series but most of you guys seem to have tackled it without any real problems.) Ecoqueneuville has a nice map so it is not a chore to play that mission again (and again.. and again). As long as it's fun to play, that's all I care about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's funny but I didn't think 'Ecoqueneauville' would prove to be such a challenging mission. (Personally, I thought le Hamelet was the toughest in the opening series but most of you guys seem to have tackled it without any real problems.)

First mission was sweet, at first I's like: He wants me to move a company across all that open ground against multiple fortified HMGs? Madness! But, after a few nail-biting rounds of fire and maneuver and a satisfyingly precise mortar round, we made it onto the objective with minimal casualties - I swear, those bunkers are damn tough to suppress - I'd have the whole company pouring fire into one and the occupants didn't even have the decency to duck. Great scenario, thoroughly enjoyed it - also learned a lot about the game while playing it - A+

Ecoqueneaville wasn't bad at all, I noticed that nasty looking road (and the sneaky scenario designer's propensity for devilish gun-placements) and blasted my way through the hedges - sure enough enough the road was a death-trap... but I'd already wormed everyone in behind it on both sides and surprised the majority of defenders; most died fleeing across open ground after their flank got turned. Honestly, I expected worse from this :D

Le Hamelet was a pretty tough nut to crack; I think if I had used smoke instead of HE along that first line of hedges I'd have been murdered, as it was the howitzers destroyed a few heavy weapons and forced the infantry lurking there to flee, I was allowed to waltz into town opposed only by some landmines (tell me.. when the first two guys in a squad step on mines and get blown-up, why does the rest of the squad run ten meters past their still-warm bodies before coming to a halt and crying about mines?). Germans never dropped any artillery, I lost a half dozen guys working my way onto the objective in some short and sharp fire-fights between the buildings, otherwise it was cake. Give the Nazis their Nebelwerfers back :D

Currently playing the fourth mission, am suffering a little - I was a bit carefree with my resources earlier.. no demo charges left, or mortar ammo - being forced to do things the old-fashioned way (get funneled into enemy kill-sack, die) - on the upside, the mortar platoon has made a fine recon element and are currently scheming up an off-map mortar strike on a conspicuous Marder (who fortunately just can't manage to get a round through that hedge); oh, and on the downside I lost the entire Company HQ to a bolt-from-the-blue in the form of one of those nasty 150mm howitzers, emplaced in a typically fiendish position :(

Outstanding campaign so far, really making this game sing for me. Definately would like to see a revised version with the Germans given back their rocket-artillery etc

p.s. be a pal, throw some extra demo charges into the pioneer trucks! Why not? :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Give the Nazis their Nebelwerfers back' :D

Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it. ;) I hope to review this at some point and expand it up to the fighting for Cherbourg*. If this actually gets done, I might just revive the German Neberwerfer strike in the 'Hell in the Hedgerows' mission. While playtesting the earliest versions of that mission, if it caughts you in its kill zone then it was 'campaign over'. It's just too unfair. But so is war.... At the moment, I'm putting together a small series of maps for a fictional German campaign and there will be Nebelwerfers in there.

* It's likely that such an expansion will take place later once BFC have released the 'funnies' module for CMBN as I'd like to do it properly. At the moment, there are no captured French tanks and I'd like to have some in the fighting around Ste Mere Eglise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just clawed my way through "Hell in the Hedgerows" on Warrior level. Despite replaying a couple of careless turns, I still suffered 27 KIA and 20 WIA, which is about double my usual casualty level.

.

.

.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

I started with a very methodical advance of Easy company up the left and Dog company up the right: split squads, find the enemy, pin them with massed infantry fire until I could get machine-guns into place to take over that role, then call down 60mm mortar fire on their heads. By the time I reached the sunken road across the middle, I was spotting bunkers in the MLR, which forced a major rethink of my plans. There didn't seem to be enough cover to approach on the right, so I decided to swing Dog company over to support Easy company on the left. One guy with a submachine gun foiled that plan - that HQ over on the left literally stopped all lateral traffic on the road. Any infantry teams that got anywhere close enough to have a chance of spotting the location were immediately cut down and thrown back. Easy company could only bypass him by throwing out smoke grenades to block his LOS.

Then the infantry gun showed up, killing Dog company's commander and knocking out an HMG that I left on the upper floor of a building, plus artillery spotting rounds were starting to fall and I was suddenly running out of time. I pulled back Easy company's commander to spot, and had him call in every artillery asset I had on the defense line around the infantry gun. Dog company dodged three German artillery strikes: one was very accurate but on a hedgerow I'd left two minutes earlier, while two seemed to be 50-100m off and were wasted in the middle of fields.

Finally it was just Easy company against two bunkers, with Dog company and all remaining machine-guns adding suppressive fire from the sunken road in the middle (except for the section of it still held by that HQ!). 'Zooks proved useless against the bunkers, despite two teams dying in the attempt, and I lost several more men trying to cross the stream, but I managed to push bits of two squads past it. There was nothing quite as sweet as touching that road with 3 minutes left to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PondScum

This was intended to be one of the most challenging missions for the player in the campaign. Nevertheless, I wanted it to be winnable by the majority of players. Those casualty levels are just fine. What's paramount in this mission is that you win it as a win here eases your path through the remaining missions in the le Ham series. Losing it with high casualties is not good though ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I played Turnbull's Stand, I thought I did ok - inflicted 70-80 casualties, took out their AFVs, evacuated everyone on time, no Germans made the objectives - yet still got a red cross on my objectives.

I still got a tactical victory on casualties, but what more do I need to do achieve the objectives? I'd have backed my guys to stop em cold if I'd had more time :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are no Terrain Objectives or any other VP parameters for the Allied side. You only get points for destroying the Axis force. Perhaps the lack of these objectives is why you got the Red Crosses. Otherwise, you got a Tactical Victory and that is all that matters. Congrats :). Given more time, I have no doubt that a good player could stop the Germans cold. The AI really isn't that great at attacking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember the briefing saying that if I didn't destroy enough attackers they would have sufficient forces to prevent my platoon from rejoining it's company - I was a little concerned for their fate. (did they get reinforced and are in the next battle? I haven't started it yet)

I really liked the battle (Turnbull's); I was agonizing over the decision between withdrawing my guys in time, and hanging on to kill a few more Germans to secure the escape. It turned into a nail-biter with Germans only meters from an objective when my last guys exited. Much tension, good stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have finished the first battle and I have 27 minutes more till the end of the second one and I have a great time: thank you very much to the designer of the campaign.

Since CMBO I have always been very bad at using the artillery/mortars and I still suck at it in this battle. As you see on this screenshot two of my platoons and one Sherman have already reached the edge of Ecoqueneuville (the rest is right behind and ready to storm the village), I still did not use the Howitzer and mortars at this point of the battle and I do not know when and specially where to use them. I sent a spotter to the third level the tallest building and still I cannot see any enemy force/target that I should spend artillery shells on.

I am not asking to be told the spots where I should use my artillery in this particular battle but more to understand what to do in such a situation where my troops are ready to storm a village and I have a huge amount of artillery shells at my disposition but no enemy is seen and no enemy position is known from pre-battle intel ? In such situations I am always worried to waste my shells by spreading them a bit everywhere hoping to hit something here or there or to concentrate on some spots that are maybe empty of enemy troops and find later, when I have no or far less arty left, a huge concentration of enemy targets that could be easily wiped with the shells I have wasted earlier on some empty spots. What is the best way to act in such a situation ?

SPOILER --------------------------- SPOILER

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Ecoqueneuville.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Khane

Advice on use of artillery as requested...

SPOILERS

*

*

*

*

*

*

It looks like you are making very good progress there. When I have no intel on enemy positions, I use my artillery to plot a strike in front of my advance. I wait until the barrage starts to fall and then I advance rapidly towards the strike zone. If there happen to be enemy troops there, then they'll be suppressed or killed by my artillery strike. Then I consolidate, form up and call in another strike. The 'little' 60mm mortars also come in very handy for pounding a hedgerow in front of my advance. They set up very quickly and as long as they have LoS, can start firing in as little as a minute. You don't need to put down a lot of fire to shake up the defenders either. They are Green with Low morale and so will hunker down quite quickly when a shell goes off near their positions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Khane

It looks like you are making very good progress there. When I have no intel on enemy positions, I use my artillery to plot a strike in front of my advance. I wait until the barrage starts to fall and then I advance rapidly towards the strike zone. If there happen to be enemy troops there, then they'll be suppressed or killed by my artillery strike. Then I consolidate, form up and call in another strike. The 'little' 60mm mortars also come in very handy for pounding a hedgerow in front of my advance. They set up very quickly and as long as they have LoS, can start firing in as little as a minute.

Thanks, I will try that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When on the attack, I usually look at the map and plan out where I'm going to move, then consider where I would least like to encounter defenders. Put another way, if I was defending and knew the axis of advance, where would I set up? Wherever that is gets plastered. If there's nobody home, that's fine; either way, I've got an easier shot at making my advance successfully. Given the delays, I tend to use the larger stuff in preliminary barrages and save things like battalion mortars for contingencies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm now in the campaign finale "Eroudeville". It seems that I have none of my troops carry charges and there are no engineer troops available. Is that by design? Especially when it comes to occupying the little town in the north having no charges severly restricts the avenues of approach.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Started this as my first campaign. I got a tactical victory in the Beau Gillot mission. Had 10 KIA and 16 Wounded. Are Wounded counted as casualties? I guess so. So I didn't earn those VPs. And only got 154 points for killing the enemy. I Ceased Fire with ca. 15 mins to go as I had not seen an enemy for a while. I assumed they were all tot. Maybe that was a mistake. How far away should you go from an objective in case there are more out there?

Looks really interesting. There must have been an amazing amount of research done by PT for this.

Gerry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...