Bil Hardenberger

The Seventeenth Miinute And the pendulum swings back the other way.. damn. Warren positioned his Firefly to engage the units on the center road, not the Tigers after all.. it paid off immediately for him as his damned Firefly killed my foremost Jpz. I thought I would have the opportunity to rush a halftrack across the open space and get closer to the objective now that Warren's line is collapsing.. I misjudged as Warren had a Sherman V on the other end of the line that was more than capable of spotting and killing this halftrack. Double damn. My first reinforcements have arrived! This is 6 Ko. (Pz-IV). I have a section of them moving forward to see if they can spot, or at least get some contacts on anything Warren has on the right side of the map. If nothing else I want him to know I have armor in the center which hopefully will keep him from coming over the fields and hitting my force advancing on Objective 1 in the flank. Blood Board This battle is all about the amount of dead tanks, they will be legion. I will update this Blood Board as losses mount on both sides. Should be interesting to watch the flow of kills. The current exchange rate is NOT in my favor as you can clearly see.

The Fifty Sixth Minute Hill 172 My mortar on Hill 153 opened fire on the ATG near Hill 172. At the end of the turn the crew was seen cowering under the gun. I give it one more turn of mortar rounds and it should be knocked out. The M10 was heard moving deeper into the rear side of Hill 172. The best defense against this TD is to not be where it is.. I want him behind this ridge and not daring to come back over the top.. if he does he will have to contend with my Elefant and one Pz-IV. Coming over the top of Ridge Road from the center is the bazooka team that had been hunting my immobilized Pz-IV a turn or so ago. He loses two members withdrawing... probably would have been better to stay put. Bottom: the effectiveness of cross fire on display. Tame In Tame my Brummbar fires one round at the S. Maria Infante buildings.. there is a method to this madness.. I want the back row of these buildings emptied so am going to try to fire at a different one each turn (if possible).. this will enable me to hopefully get a toehold in the town.

Ken, let me know the next time you come up to Virginia and we'll sit around with our drinking horns telling war stories and bragging about how many pixel soldiers we have sent to Valhalla. I like your plan.. don't you think as soon as your opponent starts hearing your engineers blast holes in the bocage for your tanks that he'll start to think your C Company attack is a feint? Truthfully he doesn't need much to keep C Company's advance to a crawl.. and he can shift some serious assets easily towards your main effort. Not even one tank with C Company to help sell that as the main effort? I'm watching and hoping to learn something, so don't let me down!

Guesses for how many of the remaining 5 Tigers will be lost: ---Jack Ration - 4 ---George MC - 2 ---pnzrldr - 2 ---Baneman - All 5 ---Buzz - None ---Seedorf81 - All 5 ---sburke - 4 ---Fizou - 2 ---Lethaface - None ---noob - 1 - sorry noob, you are going to be wrong ---OrdeaL - None One of these options is correct: A) None Two C) Four D) All Five

The Sixteenth Minute One of my Jpz'z takes the Sherman V on the far end of the line under fire... He manages to score two hits, one partial penetration and finally a killing blow. Now Warren's entire initial line is compromised. Seen redeploying were: Top - Sherman V (hit and penetrated last turn, suspected gun damage) trying to exit the area.. the problem Warren is having here is that there is only one way through the wall, he either needs to use that or go around it.. in this case he is attempting to go around it to save this tank. Bottom - Firefly... remember what I said last turn... Warren will need to redeploy the Firefly to get a bead on my Tigers, and that is exactly what he is doing.. at this point it seems a bit like throwing gasoline on the fire though.

Thanks guys I'll add your input to the Tiger Kill Sweepstakes with the next update. Steve, the Tiger must be knocked out or destroyed to count.

The latest talley: Guesses for how many of the remaining 5 Tigers will be lost: ---Jack Ration - 4 ---George MC - 2 ---pnzrldr - 2 ---Baneman - All 5 ---Buzz - None One of these options is correct: A) None Two C) Four D) All Five

The Fifteenth Minute This turn opens with one of my Jpz's exchanging shots with a Sherman V.. the difference was that mine did some damage. Top image, the first shot to hit (bounced, did not penetrate) caused Warren's tank to button and withdraw off the line. Bottom image, my second hit got a partial penetration, but didn't kill this tank. It must be hurting though. Also on the line another Sherman was hit and penetrated by the other Jpz on the center road. This time it was knocked out. So the situation on this sector is starting to change dramatically. German Situation You can see that my Tigers are now in position, one is engaging a Sherman on Warren's line.. all appear to be masked from Warren's Firefly. The best way to combat those things is to not let them see you. I want Warren to have to reposition that Firefly in order to get a good firing solution.. that should make him vulnerable. Note the two-tank Jpz team on the center road.. these are the tanks doing most of the damage right now. The third Jpz has driven off the road in reaction to several hits, the Pz-IVs are being kept well back in a supporting role for now, off screen at the bottom a second Pz-IV is moving up behind the Tigers. British Situation Not so rosy from the British perspective... Warren has now lost the center of his line.. one tank destroyed and two possibly wounded and off the line. That leaves him with one tank on the extreme right (Sherman V) and one on his extreme left (Firefly). With my Tigers coming on line I think it's time he evacuated this position and moved to his second line. My goal is to stop him from extricating himself... best case would be his entire tank platoon smoking behind those trees. Hopefully he left it too long to be able to get them away.

So far we have: Guesses for how many of the remaining 5 Tigers will be lost: ---Jack Ration - 4 ---George MC - 2 ---pnzrldr - 3 ---Baneman - 5 Isn't this fun? One of these options is correct: A) None Two C) Four D) All Five

I say that 300,000 casualty figure is pure BS. Against N. Korea? It's as certain to happen as finding WMD's in Iraq was or of a tornado blowing you to Oz, pure fantasy. Seriously N. Korea is not a threat to the US military, or even to the S. Korean military... the only thing they have is one or two functional nukes.. but can they deliver them? I have my doubts that they would even get the chance if it went hot over there.

Read the instruction pnzrldr, I don't think three was one of the options. Good questions... how patient are you?

Thanks for playing Jack, you are on the board for guessing four. Anybody else?

The Fourteenth Minute Skipping several turns as they were just filled with tank sniping that had no effect and maneuver... in this turn one of the three Jpz-IV's I have on the center road fires on a Sherman V in the treeline.. Another penetration.. however again this tank seems fine as it fired back (and thankfully missed), then started to reverse out of the line. This is an all too common sight.. a Sherman in a very good position sniping at my armor. They are getting several hits, but my Jpz's seem to be shrugging them off.. I'm glad none of these are the Firefly... In this view you can see that Warren has his Sherman Platoon lined up very neatly... his Firefly is way out on the left end of this platoon.. which is good for me as my advance should be mostly obscured from its view. My Tigers are still making their way forward. Note that there are a couple more contacts on the left end of Warren's line... perhaps there is a second tank platoon setup behind this one? Well I expected that, however these appear to be keeping an eye on the main road where I lost my first two Tigers.

Slim, thanks for the words.. and the warning. I took note that I was rushing things last turn and need to slow down.

Don't miss turn 10 on the previous page...

Let's play a little game... answer the following question, you will learn the result as the battle unfolds: How many Tigers (other than the first two) will I lose in this scenario? A) None B ) Two C) Four D) All Five

The Tenth Minute Artillery started to fall on the objective this turn.. unfortunately it was off target slightly. I pushed one of my Pz-IVs forward on the center road.. they got a quick spot, opened fire... and missed... ...seconds later the Pz-IV was hit and destroyed... damn. I didn't want to do this, especially this early but I think I need some Tigers... I am sending a section forward, including Wittmann (the foremost Tiger). Maybe this will help me break Warren's line....

Yep.. I have three tubes still in action... one on Hill 153 is taking the ATG under fire next turn... another on Hill 126 is firing on the suspected M10 location.. and the final one is moving to Tame in a halftrack to help with the assault on the final objective. The rest are out of ammo and are now OPs. Both Brummbars will be in action next turn.. the Elefant too will be in position on the Ridge Road.

I agree, the AH forum is one of the main places I go for information mining, especially when I require information on a specific action.

Rocky, I believe my morale is fine over all.. my main concern is will taking the town or at least getting a foot hold in the final objective going to be worth the potential cost? I think I have more than enough to call this one a win.. I control all but one objective, I control: --Left Tit --Right Tit --S Ridge (both objective locations) --The Spur --Hill 153 --Ridge Road --Tame GaJ controls: --S. Maria Infante Plus I believe I have dealt more punishment than I have received... although, especially in 1st Platoon, infantry casualties have been high.

The Fifty Fifth Minute Tame Most of the action occurred in the Tame-S. Maria Infante area this turn... GaJ started to area fire with his SPAA, all of the fire fell well short, but one of my advancing Pz-IVs got a spot on him and removed him from the game. However, not long after that same Pz-IV was spotted by what must have been the other M10 and it too was destroyed. A little analysis shows that the M10 must be located generally near where the SPAA was destroyed... At this stage of the battle GaJ seems to be confined to three areas, all fairly close the final objective. The tighter the defensive area gets the better his defensive options.. he now has internal lines on which to react... his M10 near S. Maria Infante is in a great position and it is as yet unsighted... his other M10 near Hill 172 is driving deeper around that hill, which suits me fine as it removes it from the objective's defense. My Pioneer Platoon is maneuvering against the final defenders near Hill 153, the units near Hill 172 are hunkered down and waiting to see what the M10 does.. how deep will GaJ drive that thing? The ATG near Hill 172 appears to be set back up, but its hard to tell for sure. This is the time I need to slow down.. however time is very short now... but still, I don't need to hurry and get a lot of guys killed for little gain. I would be satisfied actually if the game ended now with GaJ in control of S. Maria Infante... but we continue to push and we'll see if there is enough time left or not.

Wow Ken. That is pretty tame advice coming from You.

Scott you can't expect me to hold your hand through the forums now can you?

Marvelous. I look forward to watching the master at work.

The Fifty Fourth Minute Hill 172 GaJ sent an infantry team over Hill 172 last turn if you remember.. I'm sure he used the information that team received in order to determine where my Pioneer team was positioned... He used that information to good effect this turn as he brought his M10 over the top well out of satchel throwing range. He also brought the infantry team back to the ridge.. it cost him at least one member of that team, but his M10 took out three of mine in exchange. Here's the thing.. Hill 172 is not an objective.. this was always meant as a fishing expedition.. if nothing else it uncovered GaJ's ATG and forced him to deploy his M10 to this area... the M10 bagged a hafltrack and most of a team.. it'll probably kill that team next turn. However the other teams are all well over their own crests and he will have to dig them out.. that and the fact that the Brummbar is now on Hill 153 and the Jpz is now on the reverse slope of the Hill 153-Hill 172 ridge, in addition the Elefant and one of my Pz-IVs will be on or near the Ridge Road next turn.. puts his M10 between a rock and a hard place. It will probably be safe if it stays where it is.. however if it advances further on the reverse side of Hill 172 he will come under the gun of my Jpz.. if he tries to run back to S. Maria Infante he could run foul of my Brummbar, Elefant, or Pz-IV. Hill 153 The defenders of Hill 153, the HMG team and a mortar team seem to have regrouped and are attempting to fire on my units on Hill 153 or in the valley. So GaJ has stopped the rout.. good for him. How long they can last is anybody's guess.. the Brummbar is now on Hill 153 and can fire onto those teams if required. But at this point they are gnats on the wall, and I want to start shelling S. Maria Infante or the enemy units in the valley. The Center In the center I have spotted a bazooka team trying to sneak up on my immobile Pz-IV... luckily I noticed the contact icon last turn and rushed a few infantry teams forward to protect that tank. Tame I am now consolidating the Tame objective. This turn GaJ unhorsed the bunker and brought the occupants out to attack my forward team in the rear.. unfortunately for him they were gunned down by a halftrack before they could cause any damage. The Bunker was labelled knocked out a few seconds after it was abandoned... which surprised me.. I figured it would be like a dismounted vehicle. There was an HQ team hiding behind the last building in Tame which took a lot of fire this turn... it was last seen running out of Tame towards the North. Those should be the last enemy teams in Tame but I have a couple teams walking through every building just to be sure. Movement Technique I thought I would show you one of my movement techniques in CM... this sort of movement will help keep your men hard to spot and in return increase the spotting capability of your advancing force. This may be old news to most, but some might find it useful. Top Image The team on the left started the turn with a 10 second pause, the team on the right had fast orders to move forward about 50m. This puts the left team in an overwatch situation and allows them to spot while not moving and protect the moving team. I use these short rushes when I do not know exactly where the enemy is, the area is open, and I want to move forward relatively quickly. You can use Hunt as well, if you know the enemy is close or if you are in close terrain (i.e. woods) The key is that the overwatching team must be able to spot forward of the moving team's final position. Bottom Image The team on the right has now reached its overwatch position, and the team on the left has started to rush forward. The timing for these moves is something that you need to learn by experience.. ideally the moving team will be getting into position at the exact moment the other team starts its movement, as in this example.