Bil Hardenberger

With the way this disaster is unfolding, that might be a better idea than actually watching it Ken.

Your fans will rejoice.. well, they would if you had any left after this debacle.

I am very disappointed Ken.. you are badly losing the view & post count battle.. everyone knows that is the only fight worth winning in these games. I have only lost that battle once and it was to you, so I expected better. Perhaps being a little more clever with your tactics instead of with your narrative would help... eh?

Baneman, good luck.. but here's to hoping Ken puts you back in your place, you young upstart. Seriously, go kick his a$$.

Hmm... I think I see Baneman's nefarious plan old man... fog, Germans, nothing larger than 50mm.. of course only the the Germans get 50mm gun armed vehicles... and his infantry is going to be 100% SMG armed, mark my words! You lost the rock, paper, scissors game I'm afraid. In short, you have been setup to fail, prepare to join me in the loser's circle after the match. I am ashamed to be associated with you for getting caught in his net. <shakes head>

Yeah, the Chaffee on the pointy end of the spear like that with no infantry support is worrying.. learn from my mistakes Bud, don't emulate them!

Bud, this is fabulous, and you are doing extraordinarily well in this fight, against Ian too!! I'm impressed. Give him hell and kill those two bastards.

One might. CMFB Beta and I am defending as the U.S.

maybe I'll do an AAR of the game against Scott after release, if just to exercise the demons from this one.

Carl, looks like you and I are destined never to meet in a PBEM game then, and that's too bad because I respect some of the things you have done for the game. But I refuse to play people who demand to play to the last whether they are winning or losing (and I've seen both)... there comes a point where the end result is obvious and continuing the game has nothing to offer other than stroking the winning side's ego. This is why I prefer to play ex- or serving military, they have the same attitude, almost to a man as I do. I suggested the cease fire for sure as I saw that there was no way I could win this one and continuing would not add much to the story. I did everything I could to ensure that Baneman got a victory, I moved off of all the objective locations to make sure I received no points and made sure my units could not fire on his (to the best of my ability). If this doesn't satisfy your blood lust, well...

Congrats Ian, you played a hell of a game! Bil

Well, I didn't see this one as all that close to be honest. I made many mistakes, one of the first and costliest being my reaction to the JagdTiger moving up.. I had one turn's warning that it was on its way if you remember.. instead of closing with my Hellcats and using my Shermans as bait I withdrew all of them and lost the battle. Goes to show actually how close the tipping point was.. after that error Baneman's force inflicted Pain and Punishment on my tanks until I could see the writing on the wall and could tell that I had no chance to win. There were other mistakes as well.. advancing without enough intel (lost three Hellcats that way), pushing a counter-attack well beyond what was reasonable (the Team Punishment Sherman Section), etc.

Sure you can pass that around. Not sure it's more helpful than the blog which has images and is itemized. But still might be a help to others so thanks for putting this together. Bil

TURN 30 (1:01-1:00) TEAM PUNISHMENT - JUMBO: Panther-3 takes it out with a shot through the side.. so yep. I have offered a cease fire to Ian, I am pulling off all objectives so he will at least get credit for the first objective and nobody will get credit for the others. He did a good job of taking advantage of my mistakes.. mark of a good commander. Definitely not my best game, sorry fellas, I had hoped to provide a better show.

TURN 29 (1:02-1:01) HELLCAT RIDGE: Team Pain Easy-8: Team Pain Jumbo (still alive for now):

TURN 28 (1:03-1:02) HELLCAT RIDGE: My Team Pain Shermans come around the edge of the woods on the left edge of the map (from my point of view).. one enemy team hugs the ground in the following image as the Easy 8 takes it under fire. The Jumbo is right behind. One enemy team is already in the woods... from what I can see might only be these two on this flank for now. TEAM PUNISHMENT SHERMANS: Well my plan to use the Team Punishment Shermans as bait worked a treat! Unfortunately Baneman did not have to bring a Panther over the KT1 Ridge as I drove it into an area where it could kill my Easy 8 with a shot through the turret side. As the clock ticked down the Jumbo spots Panther-1 behind two treelines... I do not think he has a spot on the Jumbo. I also have an itchy feeling telling me that Panther-3 is attempting to get on the rear of this tank.. so the Jumbo could be in serious trouble.

Lutker and gang.. yep.. I have to be honest, I think I've been a bit more aggressive than I needed to, this game was unfolding so slowly that I wanted to liven it up.. I think we all can agree that I succeeded in that? Ugh... I think I have target fixation now... that JagdTiger has become my white whale... I am really missing the Hellcat's speed.. the Shermans can take a better pounding, but they are so damned slow that any offensive operations in this terrain is going to be painful. I know I should not have diverged from my original battle plan, but I threw in the kitchen sink to liven it up, plus I did get a little carried away, I can admit that. Now that I have lost a good portion of my armor, it might be time to recede like the tide, sit back and let him come to me. Still, I have hurt him.. but he has hurt me worse... all is not lost.. not yet anyway.

I'm rolling the dice with this next turn.. the next few turns could be win or lose.

TURN 27 (1:04-1:03) SITUATION: Looks like the JagdTiger moved a bit towards the road, oriented to the center of the AO? What can he see form there? Baneman has at least a split squad moving up his right map edge towards the woods and my scout team... I have lost sight of the two known Panthers, Panther-1 and Panther-3... and yes, that is a concern. Team Pain's Sherman section is moving as shown below.. I really miss the high speed the Hellcats brought to the table. Team Punishment's Sherman section is bait right now.. will he bring Panther-1 and Panther-3 forward in an effort to take them out? If so I hope to have my three Jackson's in overwatch and able to hit them. If the JagdTiger keeps moving in that direction.. something I am not convinced of yet... I may be able to get onto its rear aspect.. but for now that's just a hope.. perhaps a forlorn hope. But still, one needs to have hope eh?

TURN 26 (1:05-1:04) TEAM PUNISHMENT SHERMAN SECTION: Luckily the Jumbo in Team Punishment received no more fire from Panther-3... and it now sits alongside the Easy 8 which spent the entire turn firing into the small copse of woods, hopefully causing some punishment. JAGDTIGER: Well this is interesting... the JT appears to have reversed then taken a left moving towards my Team Punishment Sherman Section. Could this open up an opportunity for me? I will say this.. any move I make to counter this will be long and he'll be able to see it coming and be able to react before I can get into position.. so I need to think hard on my response, I need to give him problems on more than one flank... this tank destroyer is, I believe, the key to the battle and it is in capable hands... that is never a good thing.

Negative all shots at it have been misses. Not that it would have mattered much at this orientation and with these weapons.

TURN 25 (1:06-1:05) TEAM PAIN M36 Section: Okay, its getting ridiculous now... he spotted my foremost Team Pain M36 and took it out with one shot from the JT. Note the exit hole at the rear of the turret... that one hurts. These guys weren't supposed to get engaged until he came over the center ridge.. I checked LOS and it looked to me like it was blocked to the JT.. guess not. I give credit to Baneman for finding the perfect position for his JT... that was well done. [edit: I had second thoughts about a remark (now removed) that was not fair to Baneman, sorry Ian.. I blame it on the stress. It had been bothering me all day.] I need to think of something to take that asset away from him, or I'm going to lose the entire left side of my force. I am not confident that the two Team Pain Shermans are safe where they are.. it's possible that as the smoke clears his JT will be able to spot them, So they need to skedaddle.. but are pretty much pinned, as he has shown he has visibility over that entire front ridge. TEAM PUNISHMENT SHERMAN Section: Well, I got my wish this turn, I got to see how the Jumbo would fare against the Panther gun.. and it did rather well... it takes three hits from Panther-3 and suffers only minor damage.. the driver is taken out by some internal spalling, but this tank is still operational. When I did my orders after last turn I saw that his Panther could have LOS to the Jumbo so I advanced and angled the hull to maximize protection, slightly angled to the panther... next turn I try to get out from under that gun. because I cannot spot him and continued hits can only end with one result. Team Punishment's Easy-8 advanced on the little copse of wood in front of the L Shaped Wood, there is about a platoon of infantry in there, and began pummeling it. Only one known casualty, but i suspect more. Sadly the Easy 8's TC fell to automatic gun fire. So I continue to take hits.. and I cannot afford to take hits like that,

TURN 24 (1:07-1:06) HELLCAT RIDGE: This one was my fault.. I plotted a covered route to try to get a flank shot on the JT, but failed obviously to account for the height advantage that thing has... he spotted my final Hellcat and quickly dispatched it with one round. I will tell you this, the JT if handled well, as Baneman is doing is a real bitch. I have a new plan for dealing with this monster.. see below... So, I lose all five Hellcats with little really to show for it... one Sdkfz 251/3, and the Sdkfz 251/17. Panther-2 was taken out by my Jumbo, so doesn't count.. TEAM PAIN - JUMBO: The Jumbo, which took several shots at the JT, all were to miss, was also hit by the beast as it withdrew into the woodline... luckily this round was high and only took out the external MG. The Jumbo's commander fell as a casualty to MG fire from the JT seconds before... this thing is causing me fits. New Plan.. RUN AWAY!!! A lone German scout watches the action on Hellcat ridge... note the building smoke in front of team Pain's Shermans. TEAM PUNISHMENT: Finally uncovered a third Panther! There was indeed another Panther, at least one, supporting the assault on Cobru - I labelled this panzer Panther-3. Note: I only show it in relation to Team Punishment's Shermans to show their orientation, Panther-3 was spotted by a withdrawing scout team. A beautiful panorama, Team Punishment pushes into the center:

My Easy-8 can see him.. not sure if the JT has me spotted.. the other two, Olson's Hellcat and the Jumbo should both be behind slight rises, neither of them can spot the area the JT is sitting on. He'll have to advance more to get them. Reload: in my tests the JT (veteran crew) reloads in about 14 seconds.. which should mean it should have around in the chamber at turn start... next few turns should be fun!!

TURN 23 (1:089-1:07) HELLCAT RIDGE: I figured that with the JagdTiger coming and with the losses I had inflicted that it was time to pull back and let things develop a bit more.... JAGDTIGER: As my Hellcats and Shermans were on their way back to their original positions, the JagdTiger, like a bad dream makes an appearance.. I'll let the images tell the story... Damn! I thought I could get out of the way of that beast before it appeared.. what I should have done is rushed it.. but I was worried he would bring some infantry out with it... oh well.. for what I killed, this loss was worth it.