Bil Hardenberger

Yeah, I guess I rate the Panther as an inferior tank to the Tiger, it honestly never even crossed my mind.

Holien, many people, in my experience, keep their tanks buttoned to preserve their TCs.. I personally lose a lot of TCs in my games because I tend to keep them open for better situational awareness (especially in tank v tank action), that's a trade I am willing to make that many others are not.

Bud of course I didn't take your comment in a negative way, I hope my response didn't give you that impression. However feel free to be negative whenever you like if you see me do something stupid.

Of course my tanks are vulnerable.. but mine are stationary and Doug will have to move his into my field of view which will effect his spotting.. in tank v tank combat the spotting battle is where the thing is normally won or lost... moving and staying buttoned up (like Doug did with his Panther) makes it very hard to see and shoot at a hull down Sherman that is not moving. I'm not a fool though, Doug's Panther will probably get a spot on my tank fairly early in the next turn which is why I am withdrawing it (after a 15 second pause to put a few more rounds downrange). You have to take risks to win.. but make sure they are educated risks when you do, they will have a much higher chance of working out.

Yeah I was surprised to see the Panther too.. a couple things about Panthers.. head on my tanks are not a match for them.. but if I ever get a flank shot that thing is very vulnerable. I think Doug must be feeling rather cocky with the Panther placing it there and letting it sit... he better unbutton though or he's going to lose the spotting matchup.

The First Minute I am keeping this one simple, there is no reason to rush on this small map and especially knowing as little as I do about the force I am up against. My initial goal is to get as much intel as possible and to do that I want to get some eyes on the S Road Ridge and as far into the wooded defile towards the objectives as possible. Dog Company I am rushing Dog Company into the defile to get them in the trees and moving towards the low ground. Most of one platoon and two ATGs are mounted on my three trucks and will move forward as far as I deemed was safe from potential enemy fire. The three M4s will remain back on overwatch, their goal to snipe at anything that dares to show itself on the road. Easy Company Easy Company is going to be my reserve force.. but they too will be moving into the defile after Dog Company gets a chance to sort themselves out. HQ Company This formation including three medium mortars will be my S Road Ridge overwatch force. They will be joined by the M10 which I hope to use in a shoot and scoot manner once I start to identify Doug's force. During the turn not much popped up on Doug's side other than one Panther positioned to overwatch the road... 1-M4A1 spotted the Panther and got three rounds off... only one of which hit. I don't think the Panther ever spotted my tank and the fact that it was buttoned isn't helping. Following is the situation at the end of the first minute:

Warren just sent me this question: My response: Warren, yes, as long as the unit is still defending it can indeed move within its assigned area and even carry out small local counter-attacks. Re: HQ and Unit Tasks.. well if the Platoon is on Defense then you could have units on the line actually in a defensive posture, might also have a small reserve on idle waiting for developments, could even have units conducting a resupply or an engineer operation.. all could be still be within the HQ Task intent.. so shoot and scoot is indeed permissible.

Thanks Kip.. be interested in your thoughts after you give it some attention.. there are a few aspects that I have only touched on.. namely using Initiative and Emergency React.. I'll explain those as they come up in the playtest game. Cheers

In my first orders report (coming this evening) you will see that I have that road covered very well from the start. He can try it if he likes, it might work out for him who knows, so go ahead and encourage him to make that run in his thread. Womble brings up a point that many forget.. the angle of the armor and an impacting AT round are very well (and realistically) represented in this game.. high ground and being hull down can be your friends and can act as an armor multiplier. For a good explanation of how this all works in the game see my CMBN AAR thread (first AAR link in my sig) where this is broken down and explained in a quote from Charles.

Don't worry about it Slim, I appreciate your participation in the thread! What do you think of my analysis, anything I missed?

Odin, you might be reinventing the wheel a bit.. my system (now being playtested) does take into account reaction times for radio versus non-radio equipped units. I do however like your ideas about area fire and might incorporate them (I will of course give you credit if I do).

Slim, yes he can move infantry up that hill (that I am calling Finnochio Ridge) and that is an obvious spot for an OP.. I'm not worried about identifying where he might place OPs as there are only a few spots for him to use for that purpose.

Bud, it is possible I can see somewhat into those woods... won't know really until I get something on the ridge to take a peek... I expect though that unless he is moving heavy equipment, at least down AA1 he will be able to move mostly unspotted all the way to the Finnochio objective. There is open ground leading to the Rovinetta objective so I'm sure I'll spot any movement towards that one.. but I expect him to attempt the Finnochio objective first because 1. the route has better concealment.. and 2. He is closest to it (I am a long way from that objective). It will be a race to the Rovinetta objective I think.... he who controls those two center objectives will probably win the game.

ENEMY With the amount Doug had to spend on armor I expect to see up to three quality tanks on his side... I expect Tigers, but it could be JgdPzs, an Elefant maybe, who knows? If he goes with cheaper armor I could see up to four Pz-IVs, or several STuGs. One thing is clear.. I will find out relatively quickly on this small map, As for infantry I could afford two full companies (minus one platoon) and a plethora of support, mortars, MMGs, three trucks, so I expect to see at least two German companies as well, plus or minus depending on what support he purchases... I hope he came to the fight with no mortars or artillery Check out this view from the S Road Ridge..I have good visibility into the center of Doug's side of the map... the center road itself is very clear. This view shows how dominating the S Road Ridge is.. this view is from the middle of the German road: With the above in mind I expect that Doug will move similarly to what I have outlined below.. Avenue of Approach 1 (AA1) is the most obvious route and provides access to both of the center objectives. With Avenue of Approach 2 (AA2) I expect to also see him hugging the trees to move over the Rovinetta Ridge, especially with his armor... he will attempt to get some long range fire on my positions and this approach could give it to him. this is also a more covered route to the Rovinetta objective.

TERRAIN The terrain in this one is fairly simple... we are fighting in a fish bowl. I really think the fight is going to be for control of the low ground (amber colored area in the following image). Of the four ridge lines (I have named each of them for ease of identification), the S Road Ridge dominates the terrain.. I will have assets up there but it is such an obvious artillery target that I have to be careful.. still it is a long ridge and I can distribute my forces to keep any damage to a minimum. Junction Ridge is so impassable that it would be a royal pain to get anything up there.. so I will most likely not be using it at all... at least at this stage I don't have any plans to put anything up there. I expect Doug to place assets on Finocchio Ridge and on Rovinetta Ridge... Rovinetta Ridge especially will be a nice place for Doug to place some hull down tanks. I expect the wooded terrain to be very important for this fight and I HAVE to move my forces into it to get to grips with the low ground... but it is also an obvious artillery target so I will have to be careful how I maneuver through there.

Thanks Slim, download the workbook (attached to one of the previous posts) and check it out.. that is the heart of the system.. the rules can be watered down to suit your play style, but the workbook alone can be used to drive unit flexibility... which alone is a big step from normal CM game play.

Slim, yes the US squads have an awesome amount of firepower.. and in close (a few hundred meters) they totally outclass the German squad.. however outside of that the German squad has the advantage with their two LMGs.. this terrain should favor my squads though.. but we shall see. Initial analysis and order posts are coming up hopefully later today... I have already sent the first turn to Doug to get things moving.

Thanks MOS.. yes playing against the AI should be interesting using these rules and the workbook.. in fact I think one of the inner circle is thinking of doing just that. I still have a few important features of the rules that I have revealed yet.. for example using Initiative and emergency reactions... those will come soon enough. Ian, looking forward to your feedback.

Change Unit Task After the first turn Warren decided he wanted to change a squad's assigned task.. looking at the workbook in the Change Task At column for that Squad he sees that it can't change Task until game time matches 1.26.. current game time is 1.29 (the time shown in the orders phase and input in the Force Command tab). To change the task the player unhides the Change Task columns (BLUE ARROW) - then he enters the time shown in the Change Task At column into the Lock-In column (RED CIRCLE) - then in the New Task column he enters the new Task.. note that the new task can be composed of a string of linked tasks, these will not be assigned until the time has been reached. When the game time reaches 1.26, the LOCK-IN column entry will turn green telling the player that he is free to change the task.

Unit Task for 1st Platoon 1st Squad will be broken down and given a Scout Task... ...this is done through the drop down menu for each team: The orders for each team look like this: 2nd and 3rd Squads have been given Move Tasks followed by a Defend Task at their destination (see the workbook image above).. Note in the following image that I have specified the route and the desired destination... also note that I have a 1 minute pause before these squads move through the hedgerow... this will allow me to adjust the movement orders in subsequesnt turns. this is allowed as long as the final destination point remains the same.

Turn 1 Initial Orders Starting the game I have assigned an Area Recon task to the 1st Rifle Platoon... this does not mean every unit in that formation has to be on Scout orders, but all parts of the formation must move with the intent of scouting the assigned area.. The HQ Task is assigned through a drop down menu in the workbook: In this case I have explained my intent in the comments section:

bobo, yeah I saw the same thing.. I think Doug might have done some editing prior to starting the scenario... best to ask him about that. Bil