BFCElvis

We've reached the point where I feel confident about getting a little aggressive and maybe mixing up whatever plans Bil has. I've decided to move the platoon that has been set up to the east in what I thought were great ambushy spots, and move them forward into the woods where my slowly dying scouts are. It's usually a bad idea to group men closely but the woods are so dense that as I advance them I plan to keep them pretty close so that if one team is engaged there will be another that can join in and help out. That may change quickly if I see a single spotted round. Here is an overview of what I think is going on right now. My scouts to the west haven't seen anything, The 2 teams on the western side of the big woods have neither seen anything or gotten any sound contacts. The eastern side is another story. Tons of sound contacts and dead scouts. I am still considering moving out of BLAU into the western part of the woods. I don't want to sit there and get caught in a barrage or move forward to quickly and get caught in one in the woods. Because of that I am going to hold them in place for a little while.

I got the 2 survivors out of sight. Bil was area firing all around them with no success. Meanwhile, now he's dropping mortar smoke where he was dropping metal rain a little while ago. My thoughts when he was firing there before was that either he saw me and was trying to hurt me, clearing a space to advance or keep me out of the location. I believe now he was trying to keep me out. Or...wants me to believe that is where he's going. Hey, where'd guy come from? Looky what I saw running behind my scout on the left. I even got the first shot off. Didn't hit anything, as far as I could tell, but I got the first shot and he's cowering.

Bil has dropped some mortars in the area recently vacated by the HQ unit that I sent forward to place the fire mission for harassment fire. The HQ has been gone for a turn or two..so this isn't coming close to hurting anyone. The green bit is part of where I have called the 120mm fire in to. He has good intel....but it's old intel. Nice. I saw this guy running through a stream toward the big woods that most of the shooting has been happening in. Most sound contacts I have had so far are in those woods. He was spotted by the scouts that had seen the tank with it's riders crossing the bridge. He also spotted this big boy parked near where the riders crossed. I don't know if it's the same one or not. He is kinda backed up to the water....I'm not sure what he is trying to face....maybe he's just parked for now. My scouts over there have been doing such a good job that it's time to kill some of them. While moving these guys forward they took fire from the main wood and...I have watched this a dozen times and still can't tell for sure....maybe from their left...from close range. BANG! One got popped. http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb203/elviscos01/4_zpsa95eed96.jpg

Nice picture angle. You can actually see my highlighted icon to the left of the screen shot.

They are two different units. That's why they have different numbers. The one in 256 is the HQ unit I am running up to bring in harassment fire. The one in 288 is the scout unit that I am bringing up on my left flank.

You've lost me, mate. Are we talking about the same screen shot?

The 3 designates the squad number in the platoon. This is the scout that I was sending up the Eastern side....they have not been fired on..............yet.

These are the guys that spotted it. They are about 640m away. I realized when posting this that it looks like I might be targeting this. I am not. I am just showing LOs and distance.

Oh my!

My HQ unit is getting close to his position to start calling in the harassing fire. I am going to pull back the team that is now keeping an eye on the area..well, as much as they can see in these dense woods. Meanwhile in the west my scouts can see the western side of the woods I've been mucking around in the most. I've decided to pull back one of the two forward teams on that side to make sure Bil hasn't somehow slipped past me. If I don't find any sign of that, I am thinking seriously about that craziness of moving out of BLAU and into the woods...and maybe surprising him...or dying a painful death

Well, they lived to reach some cover. Time to start looking around.

sburke, it's pretty open ground on that side between my set up area and where I'm going to scout. I don't think I will find much out there in no man's land. If I do run into Bil out there I wouldn't expect more than a probe or scout. That said, I do expect these men to never see their mothers again. Such is the life of a scout under Elvis' command.

With the wind noise in the background and my freezing cold living room...these poor scout seemed like they were in a desolate place while watching them.

I'm waiting for a file but thought I post a couple of random shots and show something new that I have begun. Panzerschrek team in a great concealment location. These guys are between ROT and BLAU on the western side of the map. They have enough elevation to view a couple of key spots on that side. These guys also have a great hiding spot. They are in the area to the east of BLAU. One view is theirs and the other is looking back at their position. I circled where they are set up. Finally, I have decided to run a platoon HQ unit into the eastern side of the woods. The point they have been ordered to gives them just enough of an LOS to the southern section that I have decided to use some of my skimpy arty assets to call in a short "harass" fire order. Maybe it will cause him to think they are spotting rounds and that he is about to walk into a larger barrage. I have only 60 rounds of 120mm. I need to use them sparingly. If blowing off a few with this slows him down or makes him adjust his plan, it may be worth it. The couple of men left in the team on that side should be able to give me enough of a heads up if he is brewing up something large there before the HQ arrives at his location.

Correct, I have been thinking that is where he might be soon

Thanks Thomm. That is what I use (actually Irfanview)

I've been trying to think of interesting things to post but with so little actual contact it is difficult to come up with something interesting. Last turn I ordered a couple of guys to begin scouting new areas. Aside from that there isn't much to show on my end. With Bil moving his units I'm sure he has a lot more to show. The scouts that I am sending out will be on both edges. One team will leave BLAU and go through the open area on my right. On my left where I broke up a platoon and scattered them in ambush positions I am rejoining a squad so that I can break off a two man scout team.

In my turn this morning I saw something that gave me the happys. Bil might just be biting....even if it's just a little.....on my advance men. He has decided to drop some metal from the sky on the area where first contact was made. The remnants of the squad that was in that area, have safely backed off. I am very pleased to see him use these assets there. I was asked for screen shots of the sound contacts but have held back because, being a Beta build, not all the artwork is in the game yet. Finally said, screw it, it's a Beta build...just let'em know all the artwork isn't in yet. Here are the sound contacts with the trees on and off. I am framing to shot so that you can see how they relate to my advance teams. You can see why I am guessing that he is coming down my left side.

As I'm waiting on the next file I am obsessing about a few things. One is HistoryLovers suggestion about setting up my men North of BLAU with eyes on the objective. Unfortunately I'm not sure that there is enough cover there to properly defend the location. But I can't say that I am comfortable with having almost 2 platoons in that one spot. If the arty starts to drop heavy there I'm dead meat. So, I'm considering a couple of things. One is to move them all North, wait for the arty to fall and then high tailing it back in. The other is to move them all forward into the woods to the South (more about why I'd feel ok about that in a moment). Another thought is a hybrid. Move the full platoon into the woods and the reduced one North to ride out the storm. Why do I think it might not be a horrible idea to move the platoon into the woods? The teams I sent forward to be a diversion and scout the woods have not encountered anything on my right side. I have to wonder if that is because he hasn't gotten there yet (I have no idea how far back his set up area was) or if he simply isn't going through there. The open area to the West (my right) is so wide open that I don't think he would approach from there and I have had no indication that he has. The left side of that woods is where I have run into at least one of his units (not a scout team either) and I'm getting a few sound contacts on the far left. This makes me suspect that he is coming down my left left/center. This makes me think that the right side of that patch of woods may be safe to set up in. And possibly a place that he won't suspect a counter attack from. This may be even more true if he didn't buy my making noise thing by the forward teams. He may believe it was the ruse that it was and think that there is nothing going on there. The devil will make work for idle hands.....and still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you.

Things didn't get much better when the going over to help walked into a buzzsaw. The entire team was wiped out in seconds. A question that I won't know the answer to until the game is over is the result of the final act of this brave soldier as he lobs a potato masher directly on top of three Russians.

The third team in this group I'm going to attack the Russians who clipped my men. Having fired their noise makers, it's time to relocate the two teams on my right. I pull them both back with a quick movement order and then have the hunt forward and to the left a little. This might give a good idea of how far out ahead my teams are. The one circled in red is the one that got clipped.

To give you an idea how far I have advanced my 4 teams, here is a wide shot of the woods that they have been moving through. These locations are the end points of their movement orders. Upon arriving I had issued hide and very short covered arc orders. The turn after their arrival I removed their covered arc orders During that minute first contact was made and it didn't go well for me. Do you think I care! HA! Of course I don't.......well maybe a little because it went a little worse than I would have liked. Here's a screenie of the ones who joined the choir invisible. Being a scout under my command is a death sentence. But these guys are intended to be more than just scouts. I need these 4 teams to give the illusion of more than what they are. If I lose too many too fast I'll have to go to Plan B. And we all know that, if Plan B was as good as Plan A it would have been Plan A. Fortunately, even having lost 60% of the team, they have not panicked. or become Rattled. I am able to not only order them back to safety but also order them back forward, to the left of their past position. They haven't begun that movement yet...I'll let you know how well that works out. And these are they guys that did it. Meanwhile, not only did I "unhide" and remove the covered arc of the two teams on the right but I have issued them both very close in "Target Briefly" orders. Now I'm try to attract some attention.

Real life has messed me up the last couple of days. I went in to work at 8:45am yesterday and left at midnight. Then back in at 8:45 this morning. I plan on doing little tonight other than getting something together for you guys. I'm sorry about the delay.

He has probably had a lot more to take pictures of. Mine would mostly just be men hiding in the same spots that they started in. My advance men have reached their spots. I have removed their covered arcs and next turn will unidentified them. I want them to be seen. Contact has been made......more about that when I'm in front of my computer (as opposed to my dead sexy phone that I am using to post this).

I don't have much to report yet. My 4 teams are still working their way through the woods to the south of OBJ BLAU. They are about 3/4 of the way to where I want them to be. They are starting to tire, so I'm looking forward to them getting into position and begin resting. If they get back to being well rested in time I may have one crawl closer to the edge. I have had no contact at all through the first 5 minutes of the battle. I still hope to make them seem like a bigger force than they are. I really want to get a couple of shots off, drop back out of sight and move laterally to give the illusion of more men.