BFCElvis

Cool. Thanks. It sounds like we're at the same spot in our story again.

For the most part. Has he caught up yet? If so, I'll put some updates up.

Hee hee...I still think that I have the upper hand with armor. I have 6 tanks left at this point. By my best count I am aware of 5 of his.

Funny you should say that. Before replying to this I looked at the next series of screenshots I have loaded up and most are about infantry. There are a couple of infantry things that have been going on that are interesting.

OK. I'll hold off for a little bit. But I'll drop a teaser......Our hero is not out of it yet. Not even close. (Yes,, of course I cast myself in the role of the hero.).

Let me ask you guys something. Ith and I had a little message exchange this morning and I got the impression he had posted right up to before my tak slaughter. Which means that I'm a bit ahead of him again. Would you like for me to post something now or hold off until we've caught up with each other? We're about 4 or 5 turns ahead of what you've seen so far. And your hero has not given up hope. I still feel like this thing is about even and could break my way pretty easily.

Yes, install the full 4.0 version in the Upgrade link. Then use the Activate New Products utility and enter your 3.0 and 4.0 keys. If you ever decide to purchase any modules or Packs you don't have to install anything. Just use that utility and enter the key that comes with the purchase to "unlock" the content.

Now the real whining will start. The SU-85 entered the Street of Death with about 15 seconds left in the previous turn. If you look at the time when he buys the farm you'll see he was in the street for about 40 seconds......unbuttoned.....and never spotted the TDs. Ditto the other way with the T34-85. He spotted the Panther with 1 second left in the last turn. He got blowed up 3 seconds into the next turn.....He never had a chance. When I kilt the last Panther I thought there might be a second one. As the one I kilt was going down the road there were times that I got 1 and times I got 2 sound contacts. This flaming T34 is confirmation that there were 2.

Yup...You saw that correctly. The smoke cleared out before all of my tanks even arrived. It didn't take long for one of his TD to fire on the Sherman. I never spotted the TD until it fired at me.

Here's where the whining is going to start........The smoke clears out WAY more quickly than I anticipated. I left the game clock in the following screenshots because they're import. These show the smoke at the beginning of the fateful turn and at the end. I have also circled the armor that I am bringing up to the Street of Death. That's give you am idea of how quickly the smoke moved out and how I had already plotted the moves for these clickity clacks and was not able to adjust during the 1 minute turn. Also of note, is the screenshot showing the the Panther that I circled did not appear until the screenshot was taken. 1 second left in the turn.

The smoke has formed nicely at the end of the Street of Death.

I've probably fallen behind Ithikial_AU and this may not be news to you........ Here's a look at the area around Berliner Weisse. It's a battle of attrition. I can see his men popping up and opening fire, then being suppressed and then see a guy here and there getting plinked as casualties. I've got a T34-85, a Sherman and an SU-85 with eyes on the building that are part of the objective but they can't get much more done until I crack the code on the Panther.

The easiest thing to do is to use the full game installer link from your 4.0 Upgrade purchase. That installs everything. You don't need to add any patches to that.

Really? I didn't know that. I also posted the wrong pictures!!!!! I posted the raw screenshots.....not the edited ones.

I realize that I never mentioned that I have another HQ calling in smoke at the end of the Street of Death. It's coming down heavy now. Up at Berliner Weisse the more infantry that I get into position to fire across the park the more Germans appear around the park. He really has a lot more infantry overwatching that park than I would have guessed. Speaking of smoke, having gotten the one Mark IV I couldn't get a clean LOF on the other one before he started smoking up around it. Damn. It would have been nice to have gotten that things.

When posting the screenshots for the Beta AAR I haven't taken time to "stop and smell the flowers", so to speak, on Ben's Berlin lap. So i thought if might be nice to share these screenshots that @benpark took. They aren't from the AAR map but damn are they nice,

I lied it seems. I just looked over some of the rifle squads and they all look uniform. 8x Moson Nagants 2x PPSh 1x DPM I'll keep an eye on it to make sure the correction of my lie isn't a lie.

If I remember correctly, it varies very slightly from squad to squad. The next couple of infantry screenshots that I take I will leave the UI in the screenshot so that you can see what is in each squad. I just spilt some off near Berliner Weisse to move into the buildings over looking the park. Other than that I have kept them together for a couple of reasons. First, with so much to move and not being in contact with the enemy it's easier. Next, I want the concentrated firepower when shooting from building to building. LOS/LOF can be difficult to get a "blue" target line. So I want to have the best chance that I have to lay down a lot of lead. It's a risk/reward thing when I factor in the exposure of having everyone in one place. When I play battles in more rural locations I pretty much split everything.....it just doesn't feel right in these close quarters. Lastly, very soon I expect that area to be very densely populated. I have SO much infantry in that area ready to move into position. I haven't counted recently but I could be moving about 2 companies into a 3 block area very soon. If i decide that trying to overpower with brute force is worth the risk. I am considering moving the infantry in close to the Panther for both the close assault that you mention and to serve as a distraction to draw it's fire while I move a tank into position to get it. I am also thinking of bring up either a Sapper squad or team and seeing if I can get it with a demo charge. That'll take some time because they are down near the SMG Company and would have to run across the intersection at the Street of Death.

There's 1 hour 5 minutes left in the battle. I'd say my greatest strength right now is my defenses for my home turf of Jagermeister. I also feel like I've may have an armor advantage. The latter is not based on any real knowledge. Just a gut feeling. I think my greatest weakness is probably my situation around Berliner Weisse. I'm very susceptible to losing armor to panzerfausts. I don't have the freedom of armor movement that I'd like because I'm ascared of the Panther and don't have the means to take him out with anything other than armor. This screenshot will show what I mean. The Panther is located where the blue circle is. The orange circle shows how I can't send armor in 2 directions to try and flank the Panther. The red is about my only choice for going after it. And that looks like death. The pink units need to be moved across the street to prevent any faust coming at me from those buildings. Winning, losing or holding my own? I don't know. Until I started knocking out some armor I felt like I was behind. I don't have enough intel right now to know if I'm ahead. But I can see a patch to victory. In the long term, if I can take Berliner Weisse I may try to continue to Vodka from there, rather than from Jagermeister as I'd originally intended.

My plane has arrived. It was shooting at something near Vodka that I couldn't see. It sounded like it was hitting hollow metal. So, I'm not sure what it was. Also, now that one of the tanks by Berliner Weisse is gone and the other could be facing off against 3 tanks I am starting to move some men into the buildings overlooking the park, as I had originally intended. I'm hoping that once I'm there I'll be able to work on suppressing whatever is still in the buildings there. This brings me up to the minute. My 2 biggest concerns right now are: -The Panther near Berliner Weisse. I won't feel comfortable bringing my armor closer to Beliner Weisse until that has been dealt with. - The TDs and the end of the Street of Death.

YES!!!!!!!!! Now I feel that I definitely have caught up in the AFV kills department. Would I trade 1 M4A2(76)W Sherman and 1 SU-85 for 2 Mark IVs and 4 Armored Cars? Yes.

Uh oh...........INCOMING!!!!

And finally for this turn, I was scampering an SU past the Street of Death and one of his TDs got off a shot......It missed. Maybe my luck really is turning.

Meanwhile....Back in the area of Jagermeister, Ithikial_AU has shown a little bit more of what he's bringing to the party. Coming down a street that I hadn't even considered I spot another Mark IV....Because of the sound contacts there's a chance that there are 2 coming down the lane. Also, I am finially seeing some infantry approaching my SMG Company. The fleeting spot results in 2 German casualties. That is exactly what I was hoping would happen if/when he came at me that way. I think he's going to need a large amount of infantry to stand a chance against my defenses there. But, I guess we'll see about that.

SUCCESS! The T34 took some damage to its optics but both of my tanks survived the assault and I've taken out one of his tanks and now have, at least, an equal position to take out the other one.