BFCElvis

That was one of my options (the running behind the ISUs. ...not the dying quick). The other option I've been considering is to go into serial killer mode. Let him level ROT and everything else I have but go on a wild enemy killing spree. One is a gamey way to score points.....the other isn't.

Things haven't gotten much better but there was a bright spot.... After getting a non-penetrating hit on the T34 that took out my Hetzer, the Panther gets another shot away. This one hit home! I was feeling kinda good. But at almost the same moment my other Hetzer takes a killer shot. He never saw a thing. The penetration was the lower left side but after multiple replays the shot appears to come from his back right side. Then these guys show up and I know where it came from. I consider running my Panther up and maybe getting a quick shot at one. But then take a look at how he has them set up and know that it would be suicide.

Well.....well.............. As I mentioned before today didn't start very well. I made a move on the T34 sitting on the south side of GELB and paid the price. As my Hetzer was making his turn after arriving at the treeline he go kilt. Fast. My Panther was turning to face him as well and got a sweet new decal. My flak gun took some small arms fire and lost and a man and abandoned the gun. Never to return. On a brighter note, the one guy left from the flamethrower team continues to kill Russians. Getting 3 more in this exchange.

As you probably already know...it wasn't a good turn for the good guys. The dead Hetzer was in the middle of turning when he got whacked. A missed first shot and maybe it would have been a different result. The Panther ended it's turn firing, so the round should be in the air in the first second of next turn. Fingers crossed. The flak gun went down very easily considering it was small arms from a distance. Bummer. What's left of the flamethrower team still racks up the kills with 3 more. It must be giving Bil fits. But he probably has infantry to burn. The 3 units that have been pinned by the smokehouse have finally been able to escape the HMG in ROT. Screenshots later...sorry.

It looks like Bil is running either a recon or diversion to the left of my armor. I've spotted a man running near the railroad tracks that he must know will be seen. I think it may be time for me to change things up a little bit over there. My flame boys are still doing me well. I saw them get this guy and this time definitely heard 2 screams...I'm going to assume 2 kills. Bringing it up to 9 confirmed. I guess we all knew what his fate would be though. His buddy still lives but the flamer is gone. He may have expended all of his fuel. If not it was very close. That is something I would have taken before the game started if you offered it to me.

Yes, I do. Deciding where to place it now. It takes 8 minutes and will probably be the last mission that I call in. Without being able to see where I would really like to drop it, figuring out the best spot is something I want to be careful about.

ROT isn't very big. And, aside from the HMG in the only 2 story building in the VL, you can't see very far when you're there. The guys from BLAU will probably be used as a buffer/screen. And I'm not ruling out sending them back into BLAU with armor for cover since it seems like Bil is not leaving any armor to help the men he has there. With GELB I have choices as well. And I'm not sure that I have to act on them quickly. My armor sees a lot but not everything. I don't believe he has much freedom of movement for his armor. If he is bringing his big boys back there and thinking about going to toe to toe with my armor, I may want to stay put and let him come to me and hope to get the first shot. Or, I may make a quick play on the armor he has sitting there and try to score a couple of kills before the big ones get added to the mix. The infantry also has a couple of choices. There are a LOT of sound contact icons on that side of the map. The platoon I have set up in the woods may be able to ambush him after all. Any situation like that, where I would score some points and make him slow down, is very appealing. On the other hand, pulling them back and assisting with an immediate quick hit and run on the objective has its appeal. I believe he has a massive amount of infantry. The fact that I have not had a massive amount of hard contacts should let you know what visibility is like. I consider my losses as light at this point in the battle. If you added up all my dead from all units it may only be about a platoons worth of men. When you figure in my heavy weapons platoon, that works out to be only about 20% of my foot soldiers. I count that as a win this deep into the battle. My maths could be off...don't sue me if I'm wrong....but I don't think I'm wrong.

Here is a quick overview of where I have everyone. The blue circle are the units from my platoon by the mines and the remnants of the one that was on the left. The Hetzer circled is the one that took fire from the plane and the lines show where our rounds were hitting trees when the Hetzer and his T34 were firing at each other. In this shot the blue shows where Bils ISUs came from and the direction that they are headed. The black icon on the left side of BLAU is where my flamethrower is. That is also where the "smokehouse" is. The units circled in pink are the dudes that bailed out of BLAU. The red circled HMG is the one that has been able to put some firepower on Bils men as they move through BLAU.

I forgot a pic I took with the others. The HMG crew back in ROT is making good use of it's limited view of BLAU. Here are 3 teams all cowering because of the HMG.

I've got some eyes on the back of GELB and it looks like Bil is content to have a T34 just sit of the VL. I'm not inclined to go in after this guy, so he may spend the rest of the game like this. The ISU122s are heading "who knows where". Is it possible that he is bringing them back in support of GELB? That's a lot of eggs in one basket. The flamethrower team in BLAU continue to be my heroes. Bil has decided to rush a team to their position and take them out. Uh oh! I moved back to the original building! Toasty. That is 7 confirmed kills but the flame team. The dead men count for both sides is probably pretty even right now.

I should get a mod that puts all my scouts in that uniform. And tank crews.

Correct, and from a weird-ish angle.

The souls of the departed.

I plunked a few more guys this turn without losing any. That flamethrower team in BLAU has officially earned its keep and I think they'll get a couple more before they end up meeting their makers. I wanted to bug them out of the building they have been in to both get a shot at some guys I spotted in nearby rubble and to change locations in case Bil has had enough of them. I drew an area fire target to the rubble but before they could execute it they saw these guys running through the lettuce patch. Got one right away. And then sent the others to ground. They have 4 confirmed kills and I think it maybe more. 2:1 is a ratio I am going to need going forward to make up for some of my early losses. As the turn ended my Flak gun was ready to pull the trigger on these guys moving on the western side of BLAU. More interesting is what happened when my HMG in Rot caught sight of these guys moving along the fence. They took down a man and sent another to ground but looked what rolled toward the smokehouse. That is not even close to what I thought Bil would be doing with those IsU122's. He must feel safe there (man, wouldn't it have been cool if that flamer was just a little closer) and has bunched them on the far side of the gully not far from where his T34 Flamer died. I'm not sure what he thinks he needs to be there for but I am happy that they aren't headed anywhere near where they can hurt me. Except for maybe the HMG in Rot.....but even that doesn't need the commitment of both of them. Whatever the reason is, for now I'm happy.

That is way way cool. I have never seen anything like that and what is equally awesome is that you get a message telling you what happened!!!!

Yup.

I was just doing a plot turn and noticed something I may have missed in the last turn. I had the flak gun facing toward BLAU along one of the roads. They just spotted someone and when I went to give it a target order, I noticed it was now facing back toward the Hetzer that just got hit from the plane. I wonder if it was firing at the plane and I was too busy holding my breath to notice.

They factored into my set up by anticipating how Bil would advance on them. BLAU was the obvious first point of contact and my initial recon/hunting missions originated out of there with very little success. GELB and the woods in front of it seemed like the most likely path that Bil would take and so setting up a defense of a platoon with mines in a spot that may have caught him off guard seemed like a good idea. I never would have guessed that he would charge GELB with no regard for what I might have back there. He took a big gamble on that road being clear and it paid off. Rot is where I figured the final stand would happen and deployed with that in mind. The sight lines out of there are just as poor but the sight lines into it are too. And I saw when an HMG can do against infantry in the open to the east of BLAU. The VL seem like natural ones. It is a beauty of a map and a challenge to defend. I found a spot this morning that I hadn't noticed before that may have been helpful around BLAU. But that ship has sailed. Regarding what I purchased in relation to the map and the VLs. I chose the Straggler group because it was requested and I hadn't played with them yet. In hindsight I would have been better served with a SMG company. The HMGs were 100% selected because of the VLs and the map. So was the Panther. With the Panther I wanted something heavy duty with a turret in case I got into a tight spot. The Hetzers were by request and also something I wanted personally. The terrain and VLs had no bearing on my buying them. And so far they look like my best purchase. This is kind of a rambling post and I hope I kinda answered you questions.

Ah, the last men in BLAU. A flamethrower team that is in a building adjacent to the smokehouse. There was no way to move them to safety from their position. I decided to leave them hidden until I spotted some men waking by their hiding spot (see previous screen shot). By the end of that turn I had lost the line of sight, so I issued area fire the location the were headed for As the next turn began, not only did the enemy units reappear but a unit was also moving behind my spot. He walked right into my area fire. My turn to get the jump on Bil with some machine gun action. And then, snap, the flamer opens up on the guys sneaking up behind me. 3 confirmed dead but I thought I heard other screams.

We all knew this moment would come.....and here it is. I lost the tank commander. Not good but it could have been worse. Fortunately I had just reversed him to behind slight slope, so that while he recovers to a fighting condition, he won't be the LOF of Bils tanks.

Did I say BLAU had been evacuated? Well.....almost.

Near GELB, the armor engages. As usual () I get the first shot off. But unfortunately it hits a tree. Bil got off a shot and he also hit the thin tree line between us. I was able to get another shot fired and it hit the tree as well. With all the smoke in the air we lose our lines of sight. Bil was also firing something else into that tree line. It was hard to tell if it was rounds from the other tanks or direct mortar fire. Either way, he must think I have infantry there. I am looking forward to the end game to see how many kills this HMG team got. They did a fantastic job and I am happy to see that they all didn't die and being taken into the loving arms of the Russians who will give them shelter, hot meals and nice cozy beds. It's easy street for these guys for the rest of the war. Good for them..they deserve it. BLAU has been evacuated.

That is the exact plan, Stan.

They are each worth points (I think 100 each). The more VLs I hold the better. If I only hold one at the end there will have to be a lot of dead Russians for me to win.

I'm not convinced that attacking will do me any favors. I do feel like I have my armor is set up well and they will probably determine how this plays out. The fact that they are alive this late in the game is a small miracle because sending scouts to their death and losing armor are two skills I have mastered.