Bil Hardenberger

I am happy to hear someone has taken my blog posts to heart and actually took something away from them. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just pissing in the wind. I think your math skills might need some remediation... four light tanks and four APCs you say? I count a total of 14 vehicles (Command group = 3; Light tank group = 4, Scouts = 5, and the ATGM team on 2). Really the infantry in a battle like this over this open terrain probably won't come into much use until you finally assault the objective, but I expect you to reduce most of the resistance before that happens anyway. Your line of study sounds interesting... many jobs available for War Studies graduates these days outside of the military?

Having done an AAR or two in my time I understand the workload involved, especially when writing with this amount of detail. Do you have a military background? Very well done AAR so far, even if the odds are really stacked in your favor. Seriously, a Company Team, plus your available artillery and air power against a platoon plus... that is an overwhelming force. Please don't take that as a hit on you, we fight with the tools we are given. I do admire how you are approaching this assault and it is a delight to read, so thanks for putting it together. Bil

I must be getting old, I don't even know what a Discord is.. other than being a term for disagreement.

Nicely done AAR, thanks for the reading material.

An early war CM (especially France 1940) is a dream for many of us... I personally find it much more interesting than the late war that always gets the love.

Thanks John, looks interesting.

Period photos and paintings all show a darker upper structure, and the paintings show her with the same coloring as in my photo. Yes I agree, the coal ships sound like a nightmare to work on, hundreds of pounds of coal ash would come up to the berthing deck constantly and have to be dumped overboard.. must have been very hard to keep equipment and yourself clean. Of course I have been on many modern US Navy ships as well, and they all seem like horrors to work and live on... I'm glad I was Army.

Cool thread John. I visited the USS Olympia in Philadelphia last weekend (built 1893, the USS Maine's sister-ship and the main star of the Battle of Manila Bay). It is still a beauty.. but like the USS Texas is in need of repairs, especially at the waterline.

Yeah sorry about that, I made the blog private for now.

I like how they kids maintained formation until they made contact then lost all cohesion... heh.. such a lack of discipline could end up with decimation! Thanks for the videos John, I'll review those when I get a moment.

Thanks John, though the Testudo was not an unknown formation, it was well documented. Unless you meant unknown to you. Here is an image of the Romans showing the strength of this formation..

I hear that a lot on these forums... I must be the only person that uses covered arcs in armored combat. I highly recommend them: the narrower the better if you KNOW where the enemy vehicle is sitting, wider if you only suspect its position, and don't use one at all if you have no clue... I find I often get a spot-to-fire advantage over my opponent with them. I could be wrong I suppose, and I know Charles has said it doesn't give any spotting advantage.. ymmv I guess, but I've had good luck with them so I will continue to use them.

It wasn't clear to me whether the question was about the 4.0 Hull Down command or Hull Down in general, as the OP doesn't have 4.0... <shrug> I have yet to use the Hull Down command in 4.0... only now playing my first game with tanks since I came back from my long hiatus... so interested in how it works.

Hull Down is described here: http://battledrill.blogspot.com/2013/09/movement-technique-005-hull-down.html You can use Hunt for the final waypoint, but be aware that your tank can stop short of actually being hull down... or with your gun blocked from getting a good firing solution, so there are pros and cons with Hunt. What Hunt will NOT do is stop your tank just because it can target the area you have selected... it will only stop movement on enemy contact, either visual, or from incoming fire. You can indeed set a target arc on the final waypoint.. see my link above, I have also described this many times in my AARs. You want to use the target command from your final waypoint to check hull down status (as shown in my link) and then set your target arc as desired.

Rob, try the Tactical Toolbox on my BLOG: http://battledrill.blogspot.com/ (links are on the left hand side) Hope it's useful. Anyway a lot of basic tactics, techniques, etc. and some game planning info there too. Yep, that about puts it in a nutshell. do those things well and you will be alright.

Rob, good seeing you here. I love your work on the Ancient Armies project and like Miquel I read every post. When you are ready for a PBEM game let me know, that goes for you too Miquel.

I "should" Interesting Miquel.. not so sure about the game, but the map-maker is cool.

That's okay, its been a good gauge showing the amount of interest that there is in this little project. Seriously, I think I have shown enough gameplay anyway. Anybody with any interest in trying it out is free to use the rules and the templates that I have posted links for. If you do try it, please let me know how you get on.

Hey Slim, when is your next play through using Command Friction?

I made an interesting discovery this morning... after reviewing the previous turn I noticed that the 2nd Platoon was definitely NOT in C2 Range (no command link to Company HQ)... Image from the 38th minute: ...yet, this turn they definitely have a communication link and are within C2 Range. it was surprise to me, as stated in the quote above, that comm links are established with HQs prior to them even entering the map, and it is driven by how close they are to arrival. Maybe this is only new and interesting to me... ...seriously, it never mattered prior to using these rules. Image from the 37th minute:

Here is the link to the 37th minute Battle Log

37th minute (counting down to zero): 1st Platoon - 1st Squad has reached the hedgeline that was outlined in their task instructions, so now automatically reverts to the Defend Task. I simply change each of the 1st squad teams instantly to Defend. And delete the task Comments.. remember last turn we selected New Tasks for 2nd and 3rd Squads.. these will be rolled for at the end of the Orders Phase. 4th Platoon - Even though the Company HQ is not yet on the map, 1st and 2nd Platoons both have command links to it, so are considered within C2 Range (see the 1st Platoon image above, note the green dot and the radio icon indicating C2. Compare that to the 4th Platoon image below.. the red dot and no C2 icon indicates out of C2 range.. thus this formation cannot receive a New Task and must sit idle until the Company HQ arrives. The reinforcements however are now all within C2 to the Platoon HQ, so they can now fall under the HQ Task that was set for this platoon. I delete the Unit Tasks and the Comments for these units (see below). I select these fields, then hit the delete key to clear them. 2nd Platoon - 2nd Platoon, like 1st, does have a C2 link to Company HQ (see the image below)... so they can be given a New Task... I know last turn I said they couldn't because the Company HQ wasn't on the map.. however I'm figuring this out as I go.. EDIT: Looking back at my last turn post this platoon definitely did NOT have a C2 link to the Company HQ... I don't think I ever noticed before that prior to an HQ coming in as a reinforcement the C2 link gets activated (for radio comms) a turn or two prior. I found this very interesting... by the way, in the next turn 4th Platoon also gets a comm link established with Company HQ. I assign them an Idle Task as I want them to stop for now. Note in the image below that I have assigned 1st Platoon's 1st Squad (A Team) a New Unit Task.. this team is within C2 Range, however C team is not, and though I would like to assign it a new Task I cannot. I want to extend their Scout Task to scout to St Martins Farm. After assigning the above all of my task assignments are complete, which means that the Die Rolls have all been updated and finalized for the turn. We will check the A Team and the 2nd Platoon New Tasks next order Phase... ...but we are now checking the 1st Platoon 2nd and 3rd Squad's New Tasks (assigned last turn).. and as can be seen in the blue circle, they both fail. Next turn we will check for all of these tasks... for now those two squads have to remain in place on their Defend orders.

Bud, after thinking about it, I am going to have them default to a Defend Task.. it has been updated in the rules.

That is already in the Scout rules: SCOUT This Task is used to send units ahead of your main body in order to scout either an area, or a route Must specify area or route to recon and destination Description placed in the comments field Must operate within the specified boundaries A unit or formation on Scout orders can withdraw (or send one or more units) to contact their HQ or a neighbor unit in order to share information (if required). Once the HQ or neighbor unit has the enemy contact themselves the Scout unit must return to its area of operation and continue its task. This order is cancelled upon reaching the destination if conducting a Route Reconnaissance or after completing the Area Recon (to the player’s satisfaction) (Formation or Unit assumes a Defend Task)

Thanks Bud, let me chew on that one for a bit... there is a reason I did it like that but it escapes me right now. You are right they should default to Defend when they reach the end of their Scouting area.