Bil Hardenberger

Stop it Hobo. You are making me blush.

sorry John that is not possible. The MMG they bailed with is not the 50 cal MG mounted in the jeep. Looks like they also carry an MMG (30 cal) for dismounted use. That is useful.

Bud, there is no trick here, first of all I almost never use zoom, so if you are using the zoom controls to get into the building then it will remain translucent. What I do is simply move the camera into the building, once I am inside the building it is not transparent, and the windows can be seen through. Shoot me a PM if you can't get it to work.

TURN 17 (1:14-1:13) L SHAPED WOOD: The situation around the L Shaped Wood and the Hellcat Ridge is developing very slowly... One important development this turn though, is that the UI halftrack that I suspected was the Stummel, solidified into an Sdkfz 251/17, that is a 20mm flak vehicle. Interesting.. so my thinking that I pretty much had his armor force on this side of the field figured out turned out to be erroneous. In true c3k form, I dub this vehicle "Pinnochio". COBRU: Two events in Cobru this turn... the halftrack that was on the road being overwatched by the recon Section HQ turned out to be an Sdkfz 251/1.. possibly the same one I had spotted very early in the game, but its possible he has several more of them. This vehicle was carrying an infantry squad, which disembarked way up the road.. so at least they were forced to deploy earlier than Baneman might have wanted... that's something. My Recon HQ team escaped with no casualties from the HMG fire, and are now back in their jeep. On the other side of Cobru, I had an HMG Jeep providing harassment interdiction fire on the enemy infantry in and around the Rectangular Wood.. well, Baneman got what I believe to be a Stummel (either the same as was previously spotted near the L Shaped Wood, or a different one) into position to fire at my jeep.. one close round was enough to knock the jeep out of action and cause one casualty.. though the survivors did dismount with an MMG.. so, that's something. With nothing to carry them out of the town they will take up the best position they can and die in place, or maybe, hide and remain behind to report on enemy activity from their rear.

Heheh, "overegging the pudding" is not a saying we have in the US.

Bootie, I do love your accent!! I smile when you say "fire superiority".. lovely. Umm.. lead with infantry in that terrain, your armor needs to support your infantry when in close terrain. Fun stuff!!

TURN 16 (1:15-1:14) TEAM PAIN - SHERMANS: After sitting in the same spot for several turns I thought it was time to move Team Pain's Shermans, they are re-positioning next to the HMG Jeep section across from Hellcat Ridge. L SHAPED WOOD - HELLCAT RIDGE: The scout teams heading towards Hellcat Ridge were joined by another team or teams near the map edge.. while the first scouts are now following the narrow strip of woods they are in, the new scouts are headed straight for the Hellcat Ridge. The JagdTiger contact jumped back to close in to the L Shaped Woods this turn.. so last turns suspected movement may not have happened. UI contacts can be misleading, you need to watch them for several turns to make sure you understand what is going on. Panther -1 has moved from the back of the map to the location in the image below... I know it was Panther-1 because it has the impact decal from the Hellcat engagement. I strongly suspect Baneman was trying to get angles on my Shermans... Panther-2 seems to be in the same location as last turn. I suspect the halftrack contact is the Stummel. So I think I have a good picture of his armor force on this side of the map. If there were more I think I would have seen or heard it by now. I have been seeing the same contacts since I first started to notice them. COBRU: The Recon Section HQ spotted an enemy HQ unit crossing the road at the entrance to Cobru and opened fire.. dammit.. I forgot to limit their engagement range.. they take down the second man in this team, one of the guys with a PF. This recon team also heard a UI (halftrack) at the end of that same street... the only halftrack I know is in this area is the 251/1 I spotted very early in the game... however I do expect to see another Stummel, and this could be it. We will see. SITUATION:

Combat-Man, sorry this took so long.. I have consolidated my expectations of what I am facing into the following table. As to some of your questions: Yes I am fairly happy with my original assessment and I constantly update that guess as I uncover information. I don't normally go back and check enemy unit points... in a quickbattle he could have chosen any type of infantry formation, and unless you have had some clues or there is an obvious uniform association it can be tough to differentiate them. I do however use the scenario editor as an Order of Battle template file to compare OBs to the sightings and unit identifications seen in the game. The Order of battle (OB) might clarify itself over time, then you can turn your guesses into firm probabilities. Key: Green fields indicate confirmed units or formations. White field indicates units I expect to see but have not identified yet. Red field indicates destroyed element.Amber field indicates formations that I am not convinced are present in these formsGray fields indicate units/formations that I might not be able to isolate, but base their existence on numbers and types of units spotted while playingPROBABLE - term to indicate that a guess is highly likely based on a multitude of factors and other sightingsPOSSIBLE - term to indicate that a guess is less than probable, but is conjecture based on other factors (like templated enemy OB)

This is for Kohl.. sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this Phil. When set to snow you have three uniform options.. I actually meant to randomize my soldiers but forgot and they all got Greatcoat... the three options are, Standard, Winter, and Greatcoat::

TURN 15 (1:16-1:15) RECTANGULAR WOOD: Team Punishment's Shermans continued to fire on the Rectangular Wood... the Jumbo fired three rounds and the Easy 8 fired four, all hit inside the wood.. I hope those rounds caused some pain. Enemy units continue to move to the wood, and now for the first time Baneman sends a couple teams out the other side moving towards the outskirts of the town. HELLCAT RIDGE: I now know that there are at least two infantry teams moving toward the Hellcat Ridge.. possibly three. they are close to entering the little woodline along the road just below the ridge. I am still in watch and wait mode, letting the situation develop before I do anything about this movement. L SHAPED WOOD: Panther-2 moves back some and its forward position is taken up by what could be a halftrack.. I do not have eyes on this vehicle so am unsure whether this is the Stummel or something else. The JagdTiger moved towards the road, and could possibly be on the road, this movement happened towards the beginning of the turn. its possible he is intending to support his movement towards Hellcat Ridge with this TD, I have outlined a projected path on the image if that is what he intends...

Thanks Miquel, to you as well.

Guys I'm away from my computer doing family stuff right now. If I remember correctly both of those Shermans were targeting the woods, but several rounds went beyond the woods hitting behind it in the midst of his advancing horde. I'll check LOS tomorrow and get back to you.

No not a new Command, interdiction fire is fire that is intended to disrupt or delay enemy movement on its way to the battle area. I use Fraps for all image captures and PHotoshop for adding labels, etc.

TURN 14 (1:17-1:16) RECTANGULAR WOOD: Note the difference of the enemy contact icons from the beginning to the end of the turn in this image... Baneman is pushing maybe another platoon (+) sized element across the open ground between that wood. I have started to interdict this movement with the Shermans from Team Punishment. The second image shows the interdiction fire on this sector. L SHAPED WOOD: Not a lot of movement around the L Shaped Wood.. but it seems clear that axis 1 in this image is heading towards the buildings in the map's center. I have identified at least one HMG team among this group. Those buildings are in LOS of Team Pain's Shermans... I will wait for him to occupy them before I fire on these teams. I have identified the ridge where I have a burning Hellcat as Hellcat Ridge... more on that below the image. HELLCAT RIDGE: Baneman has at least one scout team (looks like a two man scout team) moving towards Hellcat Ridge... I have the door to this approach closed right now with a lot of firepower overwatching. Its possible he is just moving towards the thin line of trees in the center of the image in an attempt to get more information. I am determined to poke these eyes out with only units I know he has identified... that means either my Shermans or Hellcats.

TURN 13 (1:18-1:17) SHERMAN SECTION: The Shermans targeted a building that I had spotted a couple infantry teams move to in the last few turns... this turn I actually spotted a team entering. The Jumbo fired for the first half of the turn while the Easy 8 was moving back, and the Easy 8 fired during the last half of the turn... at turn end the UI icon disappeared so I suspect I eliminated whatever (team or squad) was inside, or simply lost the contact...but it doesn't usually work that way. SITUATION: Baneman continues to send infantry into the L Shaped Wood... Panther-2 did a little driving to and fro... and infantry is clearly entering Cobru from the north, but not in large numbers yet. The infantry holed up in the L Shaped Wood and the Rectangular Wood have yet to move beyond them. I suspect they are resting a bit prior to pushing on.

TURN 12 (1:19-1:18) HELLCAT SECTION & SHERMAN SECTION: Both of these sections withdraw this turn... the Shermans put a few rounds into the L Shaped Woods on the way back, inflicting at least one known casualty. GERMAN PANZERS: (note: the following image was Photoshopped, I did not have spots on all three of these vehicles at the same time) the German armor either sat in place and did not move (Panther-1), moved forward slightly towards the L Shaped Wood (Panther-2), or withdrew a short distance (JagdTiger). Eventually Baneman is going to have to move these panzers over the ridge leading to the objective 1 locations, but for now he is happy with using them in an infantry support role. I haven't seen the Stummel in a few turns now, but its last known location is identified on the map below.. however the icon for this vehicle is back near Panther-1. GERMAN MOVEMENTS: It appears like Baneman has three main axes of advance... the one centered on the L Shaped Wood (my left) and the one moving into the Rectangular Wood (center) each look to be larger than a Platoon, so I suspect that they are Company in size... the third, on my right heading into Cobru I suspect might be another dismounted infantry company. I hear a lot of noise (tank and MG firing) on this side of the field so I suspect he has at least one and probably two tanks (most likely Panthers) supporting his advance into Cobru though I have not spotted (or received any UI contacts) any yet. It is possible the firing I am hearing is from SP guns, so I need to make it a priority to get that information, even if it costs me a scout team.

I do tend to be very aggressive when on the defense... it's how I tick. I was working on getting a flank shot on the first Panther.. the frontal Hellcats were just supposed to keep his attention.. the second Panther upset my plans however. Don't forget that the Hellcats, though important were never my real tank killers and are part of my recon force, my main anti-tank threat is the M36s and his Panthers will have their hands full with them.. the JagdTiger is another story.. that thing needs to be flanked.

You know, these sorts of things happen to me all the time: in the CMBN BETA AAR I lost several Pz-IVs before I started killing any Shermans...in the game against ChrisND (CMFI BETA AAR) I was getting my ass handed to me and only squeaked out a victory on the last turnin my Wittman's Demise AAR I lost a couple Tigers and a couple other tanks before I killed my first Sherman..So yeah, $hit happens.. time to stop and think about how to approach this game from here on out.. I can promise you it will be a different game when he has to cross into the open area between objective 1 and objective 2.

Combat-Man, I haven't forgotten your question (sorry it's taken so long to get to it).. I will answer it later today, along with what I think he might be fielding.

TURN 11 (1:20-1:19) These kinds of turns are hard to report... disaster strikes my Hellcat platoon as you will see: HELLCAT PLATOON: Of the two rounds that were left in the air after the last turn, only one hit, and it bounced... the Panther (Panther-1) immediately fired back and hit the middle Hellcat (Hutchinson) knocking it out.. that was within the first four seconds of the turn... MACE & ZEIGER: These two Hellcats moved forwards in the hopes of getting a flank shot on the Panther spotted last turn... they never did spot that panzer, instead, they both spotted a second Panther that I had no clue was near the L Shaped Wood.. how did that get there!!?? They fired several rounds all of which missed, this Panther (Panther-2) took out first Mace, then Zeiger in quick succession with two rounds. I do not know if my TDs were hulldown to this panther (Panther-2), as they were intended to be hulldown to Panther-1, their intended target. SITUATION (L Shaped Wood): So my little attempt to perform a spoiling attack on Baneman's forces in the L Shaped Wood has turned disastrously wrong... but this happens in war. The presence of that second Panther took me by surprise, but the loss of three Hellcats was even more of a surprise. Te recap, I fired around six rounds at the two Panthers, only one of which hit, and it bounced... he fired three rounds at me all three resulted in a smoking Hellcat. Sometimes you are not outplayed, simply out-gunned, and there is no shame in that. It is my fault as my recon was not thorough enough to make the decision for such a hasty set of moves.

Yeah, I don't think we are disagreeing about anything at all. Baneman could still have a mounted force waiting in the wings to shoot forward at the right moment.. I am not even saying a dismounted force is a bad thing.. but from what I can see it looks like he has around two dismounted rifle companies (maybe more) moving forward.. and they are not moving forward like you would expect a scouting force would... but they appear to be in full multiple platoon strength on at least two axes. It is possible that he has bought a battalion or more of infantry and could have a company or two mounted, but he only had so many points to spend, so to have a force like that it would cost him in armor... I don't think he would skimp on that aspect of his force, so I am in doubt that he has more than a company, or probably even less in a mobile exploit role. We will see as this battle continues to unfold.

yeah I got an email from him. He was partying and I doubt I'll see a file tonight. Enjoy your night off guys.

Well done! Some very useful information in this video Slim. I have updated my blog post regarding these videos with the link to this one.

I appreciate it Tux. Sorry I don't have a Sunday morning update for you to enjoy. Baneman must be busy, on the road, or simply confused on how to proceed... I hope its the latter!

Thanks Mark!! I'm happy you enjoy them.