Bil Hardenberger

sf, mind if I call you sf? I hope this suffices: Basically when I am the German player on defense in bocage or even close terrain (urban, woods, etc.) I am looking for long engagement ranges, I want to keep the US player at arms length as his close in firepower can be overwhelming. With almost every German team fielding an LMG it will not take many units to provide an effective defense, and I planned on being flexible and giving ground as required. In this map you can see that I have every opening in the hedgerow covered by long range fire, sometimes by multiple teams. The teams on my left do not have LMGs, but I wasn't planning on them holding out so much as being an early warning asset. Team Y in the center is the hinge pin.. if he falls then Field 1 (F1), F3, F2, and probably F4 will have to be abandoned and those units will have to pull back.. the reason? Because then the US player can use the hedgerows in F1 to attack my units on the F4 hedge (teams C and A) with concentrated short range fire. He doesn't need to kill them, just pin them and follow that up with an assault. Also if Y team falls then the teams covering F2 will be in trouble as he can engage them with enfilade fire. That path through the trees that team Y is covering is a dangerous approach as it allows the US player to avoid those long range exchanges of fire.. I have an answer for that approach but I don't want to share it yet. If I was the US player I would look for the angles that give me the closest approach to a potentially defended hedgerow so the long range firepower of the MG-42s is nullified.

Yeah this game has been completed, no spoilers for me.. might be if others, like Phil don't want to know yet.

The Second Minute At the beginning of this turn I was able to do some BDA from last turn's action... as can be seen one squad took six casualties while what I think was an HQ team (Platoon most likely) took two. Now these are only the casualties I can see there could be more. These images show the map at the start of turn 2 and at the end. Note the two enemy troops concentrations one of either flank. On my right it looks like at least two platoons, and probably a full company is trying to overwhelm 1 Zug. Currently the enemy is in contact with only one three man team. That team was taken under enemy fire this turn and was pinned at turn end. This will make extricating them problematic, so I am going to bring an HQ team on line next to them to provide a little assistance and hopefully get them to a point where they can move back to the next line. On my left I have activity from what appears to be another Rifle Platoon. One of these enemy squads runs across one of the fields on the left and falls within the kill zone of 3 Zug. Watch the action in this Video OBSERVATION: My opponent does not appear to be splitting his squads and this is making it easy to identify the size of enemy troop concentrations. Nor does he appear to be doing any scouting prior to any major movement. In this type of battle, you need to find out where the enemy is before you commit to a movement. If you know where he must be, like in this battle, you at least have to discover in what strength. Send a two or three man scout team forward to ascertain enemy strength, but not before having a base of fire that can pour fire into an obstacle like the hedgerows on this map if the recon team comes under fire. The US Squads in particular will have an advantage over the German teams in short range combat, especially if the US player is able to mass more than one squad against a hedgerow at a time. Here is another angle of the map, clearly showing the enemy troop concentrations. By the way all of the unit symbols are platoons, or suspected enemy platoons. Watching contacts through time, either during one turn or over several can help you determine enemy intentions.

Sorry just saw this.. thank you for the compliment, I always enjoy doing these. As far as my Photoshop techniques, I'll have to think on that as this forum is hardly the place for that kind of tutorial.. suffice it to say that I use a lot of layers with varying amounts of opacity, I heavily rely on paths and the pen tool and hand draw almost all of the arrows you see, either filling them or stroking them (PS term for adding outline) depending on my need. Anything specific please PM me and I'll be happy to share via email or PM. Bil

I've started a new section on the blog titled: Old Soldier Tales. I will try to capture any of the anecdotes I find humorous or interesting as I come across them, it would be a shame for these tales to be posted once and then forgotten. First up is little anecdote from our very own Badgerdog about a little training accident. Enjoy!

They opened up prior to the enemy squad even moving through the hedgerow. In this battle I used no covered arcs and except for a few special instances I let my troops choose their own targets. I didn't want to restrict their action in any way. Bil

Clearly.. its funny as we were setting this up he sent me an email wondering how close I could set up.

Jack, Yep cropped and edited in Premiere. Thanks!

The First Minute The action started off within seconds of the turn starting... it was concentrated on my extreme right with 1st Squad of 1 Zug/9 FJ Co. specifically Team B which was providing security over the long thin field on my right that sat on the map edge. This image shows the deployment of 1 Squad/1 Zug: The enemy they encountered were parts of a platoon, two or three squads worth actually. I will let this Video of the Action tell the story. At turn end I had a few other contacts, an HMG team, another squad and UI contact on the left flank... my two teams from 3 Zug had pushed up and taken up overwatch positions over this sector of the AO. Here is an overview of the current situation:

Not at this stage.

Tojo, thanks for your post. It makes me very happy that people like yourself who struggle with understanding he game are able to glean some pointers from the blog. As for the Tactical Problems, yes I do intend to post AARs of possible solutions for them and am open for others to provide their solutions as well. I would be happy to host those solution AARs on the blog. Thanks again! Bil

I just posted an article by our very own pnzrldr on the Battle Drill blog... The Patience to See speaks about reconnaissance and information collection in CM. Highly recommended. Enjoy! Bil

Many have asked me after previous AARs to do an AAR with me on the defensive... what follows is the fulfillment of that request. I hope you enjoy it. This AAR from a game I recently played against one of my PBEM partners highlights defense in the bocage. The scenario is Sacrifice for a New Religion, if you plan on playing it then I recommend not reading this AAR until after you play it through. I played the Germans who are on defense in this scenario. This map shows the objectives and the line representing my forward deployment zone. Note that I expect my opponent to attack across the entire front so I need to plan accordingly. Normally I do not like to have a firm plan this early in the game instead preferring to wait until I get some intelligence on the enemy force, its movements, and what I can predict about my opponent's intent. This scenario however requires me to commit to a plan early, but as I like to do I am keeping as much back in reserve as possible in case an opportunity presents itself to me. The following map shows my initial plan. I have three companies, 9 FJ Co., 12 FJ Weapons Co. (-) - made up of 4 HMG teams and one off map mortar battery, and a Marine Co. that is poor quality. According to the scenario briefing I can expect the US player to field at least a full infantry battalion perhaps with some support. Defending a bocage line can be tricky. If your opponent can breach one segment of the line, the neighboring field's defenders can then be engaged with enfilade fire and it would then only be a matter of time before your entire defense collapses. To combat this eventuality I planned to defend with my best company forward, but in subsequent lines that I could fall back on if it looked like the enemy was getting ready to capture one of my defending fields. My hope was to be able to extricate my forward defenders before they got swamped with the superior firepower my opponent could concentrate and then be ready with my next line as he crested the previous line's hedgerow. My intent is to treat this scenario like a delay operation and attempt to bleed the attacker white. In a delay you do not defend to the last man, but try to time the withdrawal of your units before the enemy can flank them and overpower them doing as much damage as possible before pulling back to the next defense line. The hope is to make the advance too costly for the attacker to continue. Deployments and Initial Plan: 9 FJ Co. will be forward but with minimal units in the Forward Security line.. my hope for those forward defenders was not necessarily survival, but I wanted information and time... information to identify any concentrations and time to allow me to assemble an answer to them. 12 Company's assets will support the 9th Co. but only in the second, third, and final defense lines. The Marine Co. will be my ace in the hole, initially defending the objectives I eventually want to bring it up to the third defense line and ready for any contingencies. The following image shows my initial movements, the Marines are moving forward from their setup zones and two teams from 3 Zug are moving to the first line from their setup zone. Two squads from each of the 9th Co. Platoons are on the First Line (broken down into teams) with one squad in reserve for each along with the platoon's 81mm mortar.

Hister, next up is the Platoon Attack Drill and then a scenario to practice estimate the situation, reconnaissance, and the platoon attack. Bil

Just posted the Reconnaissance section upon the blog consisting of: Reconnaissaince Command Push Recon Pull Enjoy!

Sorry I don't remember the range exactly.. probably 250-300m or so, maybe a tad longer. Spitting distance really.

As everybody is going on about how $hitty hull down is in the game I thought I would share this anecdote, and this is just one example from the many I have seen and noted in my AARs. In this situation I had a pair of Jagdpanzers moving up to attack a Sherman III I knew was in the woodline ahead... the Jpz on the left I failed to get into a good hulldown position, it was immediately spotted and fired on by the Sherman III (luckily it was only unhorsed and was able to remount and continue the mission a few turns later). The Jpz in the center of the image I did get into a good hulldown position, it was never spotted, never fired on, and in fact put four rounds into the Sherman III, the final round brewing it up on the next turn. So I contend that all is not doom and gloom when it comes to hulldown in this game. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely, but it is not broken either. Bil FYI this example came from my Wittmann's Demise AAR (link below)

You should always be up to date Michael! It'll be 3 or 4 days before I am ready with the new scenario anyway and have all the information posted that I need as pre-reading and background material prior to the scenario. So install CMBN up to the latest patch this weekend and hopefully by next Monday or Tuesday you should have something to experiment with.

I thought this was neat, Battle Drill translated into French and the main site: www.combatmission.fr Next up on Battle Drill is a section on Reconnaissance, and the Platoon Attack Drill will be added to the Tactical Toolbox.. a new scenario is in the works as well, where you will be tasked with doing an estimate of the situation, perform recon, and attack an objective using the Platoon Attack Drill and the other drills and movement techniques that I shared previously. Cheers, Bil Erwin an update for you, I have completed updating my icon mod, I am running it through some tests and should have it up in a day or so.

Ian, you are not wrong. In fact I bet in a real tank that the loader, radio operator, and driver rarely, if ever, are actively on the look out for enemy tanks. The loader maybe more than the other two, but when the tank is actively engaging enemy armor he too should be taken out of the mix for spotting. The main spotting assets are in the turret, that is the gunner and the TC, the loader as well when the tank isn't firing its gun. Bil

Good and interesting tests. My thoughts on this... even if there is a bug that doesn't give hull down the full spotting advantage it deserves, hull down is still a viable tactic with CM and you would be foolish to ignore it. There obviously appears to be a slight spotting and hitting advantage when hull down, and that echoes my experience through many hours of game play. In game, with tanks moving trying to gain advantage on each other, you are not going to get the clean lanes shown in the test above.. you are going to have some tanks hull down, some moving, some firing, all of them sitting in different combinations of terrain, etc.. all these factors, as well as the crew status, experience, and training level are taken into account when spotting. Plus add to that the fact that spotting is not simultaneous for all units or continuous and you will have some tank's spotting cycles that could be slightly ahead of others... so some anomalies could occur as they did in real life as well. I do not see, nor have I experienced the level of problems that some claim they have, so I would be happy if no changes are made to hull down.. though of course everything could be improved upon and I would welcome that.. but there are bigger fish to fry in this game system than this IMO, for what that's worth. The hull down is a binary thing though is very interesting and deserves more study.

Artofwar, I recommend you check out my blog, which explains Recon by Fire, Fire & Movement, basic movement techniques, Battle Drills, and other tactics related stuff. Its concentration is on the application of tactics in Combat Mission, and I have provided two practice scenarios with more in the works. It will require at least CMBN 2.10 be installed to play the scenarios. The link: Combat Mission Tactical Problems I hope its helpful. I have recently added a few posts on Battle Command and I am working on Reconnaissance techniques now. Bil

Yes, those vehicle icons are not used... GL = Grenade launcher and is a CMSF holdover.. it is also not used

Erwin, I just went through my icons and the only ones I believe that need to be updated are the SPAA icons, everything else should be there, including recon, HQ, and engineer icons. If those three types are not working in your set then there must be something else going on. Conflicting mod perhaps? Bil

Hey Erwin, sorry I meant to answer this question... yes, sorry for the delay on those. I will complete my mod edits to the icons and get those uploaded as soon as possible (perhaps by the end of the weekend) for both CMBN (up through MG) and for CMFI (up through GL). Cheers, Bil