Bil Hardenberger

The Thirty Eighth Minute Damn GaJ and his ESP! Right before my area fire from my Brummbar and mortars starts to impact he bugged out both M10s. They skedaddled right over the Ridge Road and out of sight. Good thing too, my Elefant will be in place next turn as well. You know.. I don't think they ever even fired a round.. why didn't he do some area fire with them at least? He must have been too worried about my panzers. GaJ is totally abandoning the left side of the road.. several infantry contacts, including one MMG team, fell back in the face of my relentless Pz-IV advance and they too (the one's I could see at least) ran right over the Ridge Road. With all this combat power rushing over the Ridge Road he must have an inkling of my Pioneer Platoon's advance.. though how he could have seen them last turn, unless he still has something near the Spur, I have no clue. Back on the Hill 126 ridge... my lone scout now has what could be either a halftrack or a light tank contact (they use the same UI icon)... That's okay. I'm not coming over that ridge and if GaJ wants to use that vehicle or his tank (possible M10?) that is also in this area he is going to have to come to me. I do not need to engage these forces in order to capture Hill 126. Also, now that his M10s have abandoned their position in the center I can now move my panzer section (and now Elefant) into the positions I had originally planned for them (overseeing the Hill 126 and Tame advance). They will also close the backdoor on this ridge and hopefully keep GaJ from coming over the ridge and causing havoc amongst my infantry.. of course I have a lot of mortar overwatch on this area and that would be foolish of him anyway. This image clearly shows the objective for Hill 126.. most of it is on the forward slope. My forward team will be on it next turn. I have started an artillery barrage and I am firing several mortars into the rear slope area near Hill 126. Hopefully they will cause some damage. I still have not located the ATG that I know is in this area somewhere. I think it is sitting on the other side of the Hill.. hopefully under my now falling artillery. Near the Spur.. while my infantry team throws smoke and performs buddy aid (position marked in red) I now have two halftracks working together to clear the tip of the spur of enemy units. I suspect GaJ has one or two units still in this area. the casualty I took last turn could not have come from the fire from where I know there is enemy activity.. it had to come from lower down the spur. At least that's what it looks like to me. Regardless, all of the enemy repositioning this turn is making me second guess my plan to commit the Pioneer Platoon. I need to think on this a bit more before throwing them into a situation that could be too costly and foolish.

I do not know... I don't have the version you guys have so I have no clue what is included or not. PM me with your email addresses and I'll happily send it to whomever is interested. Bil

The Thirty Seventh Minute On Hill 126 my lead team comes into contact with the first defenders... this enemy team causes one casualty before falling to my automatic weapons. So GaJ intends to defend this piece of ground. Good. Well, I am going to bypass whatever he has on the reverse slope, grab the Hill then proceed on to Tame. Arrayed against GaJ's two M10s on the center ridge I now have a Brummbar and two mortars, which rushed across the open space to set up on a ridge overlooking the M10 positions. Also coming against the M10s is my other Pz-IV section. Obviously GaJ has seen them as he is sending this bazooka team to intercept them. Note the shoulder patch.. this is the second Ranger team I have seen in the game so far. The first was on Hill 109 (the mortar team I think).. so GaJ has bought some Rangers. I have a soft spot for Rangers.. but I'm afraid I won't be taking it easy on them. This bazooka team is still a long way off.. not yet a threat. Don't worry.. I am clearing the way for my panzers with an infantry screen. Back on the Spur my Pioneer Platoon is finally getting sent into action. I believe GaJ has shifted A LOT of his firepower to my left to deal with my armor and infantry assaulting the S-Ridge. So I plan on assaulting around the Spur with my Pioneer Platoon, a mortar in support and the Jpz-IV which is re positioning. With any luck I'll catch him shorthanded on the reverse slope of the Spur. They will drive on to the Observation Point objective as well in order to dominate the valley leading to S. Maria Infante.

Some misunderstanding must have occurred. The icons have not changed.. rather it is the data in the UI that has been eliminated from the higher difficulty settings. Bil

The Thirty Sixth Minute Note: sorry, its early here.. and I forgot to use movie mode for this series of shots. GaJ has moved his second M10 into the woods next to the first. This is going to get interesting. It doesn't look like they are spotting anything yet.. and my panzer section cannot get a good spot either. I am however, maneuvering on these two TDs with my other Pz-IV section... ...one Brummbar and the Elefant are also repositioning forward in order to get better angles on the M10s. Behind the Hill 126 ridge it seems GaJ has placed at least one more tank of some sort. I expect there is more there as well. On the Spur one of my scout teams takes a casualty from another Thompson wielding team.

Los, where have you been? Haven't seen you around here in years.. could be that I just missed your posts though. How is retirement treating you?

The Thirty Fifth Minute GaJ is doing the M10 dance again... the M10 that popped over the ridge a few turns ago has now backed away and has emplaced itself in front of a building... my panzers spotted it during its movement but couldn't get a shot off in time. They do have LOS to that piece of ground so I am hoping he either moves it some more so they can get a good spot, or leaves it there so I can have some mortars fire at it. I have lost sight of the second M10. A spotting round falls on the area between Hills 109 and 126. I am well dispersed in that area now.. and will be moving the halftracks next turn as well.

GaJ is taking his time with this next one. Been over 24 hours now.

The Thirty Fourth Minute It was kind of anti-climactic.. GaJ reversed his M10 at the beginning of this turn... I was sort of hoping for a show down. I do believe I will be getting a showdown soon anyway.. as my units on the Tits saw this driving from the Hill 172 area over towards the position the M10 spotted last turn is. I think he got a little careless when he planned this movement.. he did not mask it's movement as well as he did the previous M10. I now have identified three of the four tanks that GaJ has shown me so far... and they have all turned out to the M10s. I guess it makes sense for him to purchase a platoon of M10s to bring their more effective gun against my Elefant. The big question is though... does he have more armor that he is hiding in a hollow somewhere? One of the halftracks that I have bringing some support mortars to the Hill 109 force stopped this turn to drop off an HQ team so I can recover the kubelwagen that my scout left behind. Leading to Hill 126 I have two teams that make up the pointy end of my spear at the moment.. top, one team is within stone throwing distance of the hill itself.. no enemy spotted yet. Bottom, this is the scout from the kubelwagen that has performed exemplary all game. It is very close to going over the top of the ridge to give me a spot at what lies beyond. Back on the Spur, my teams are close enough to be able to finally do a battle damage assessment (BDA) on the ATG I killed very early in the game. Happy to see what looks like a full crew of casualties.

The Thirty Third Minute Hill 126 doesn't appear to be defended at first glance... ...however, GaJ has moved an M10 into view of my Hill 109 force... one of my Pz-IVs spots him and fires... this round falls short, but he was cuing up another right at turn end. I hate that. This M10 is not hunting Pz-IVs however... it appears to be hunting halftracks. With any luck it can't spot my Pz-IV yet. I will be moving the second Pz-IV into a hull down position in case my first falls to the M10. Regardless, even though my tank is on an open slope and exposed I will stand my ground and fire until either the M10 is dead, it withdraws, or my Pz-IV falls. I have learned that to retreat in such a circumstance more often than not ends in losing your tank. Good move and good placement GaJ. I have no clue whether this is the same M10 I identified in S. Maria Infante many turns ago.. or another one altogether. Edit: I just had a view of my tank's spots... they are blocked by the dust kicked up by the round that fell short... that's good. That means he can't spot me either. Both of my Pz-IVs in this section should have good spotting possibilities when that dust cloud clears. Exciting, no?

The Thirty Second Minute 1st Squad takes to the foxholes on Hill 109 while 3rd Squad mounts to resupply. The two halftracks are area firing on Hill 126 to suppress whatever GaJ might have on that hill.. if anything. In the background one two tank section starts to move up to Hill 109. This section will work along with the two mortars that I am bringing up for fire support. By the way... 2nd Platoon lost a total of one man capturing Hill 109. The 1st platoon scout moves forward.. note the dead comrade in the background. he has a Panzer Faust which I will attempt to retrieve with this scout. On my right 3rd Platoon has cleared the Sunken road... it is empty and doesn't appear to hold any mines or anything else. It is very quiet... GaJ has nothing on this side of the ridge from what I can tell. Here is a rare view of some of my rear support units. Note part of the Pioneer Platoon mounted on the trucks along the road. One final note... I have no eyes on any of GaJs troops any longer, excepting for the bunkers but I am ignoring those for now. I am surprised at the lack of a real defense here.. I expected him to have a rear slope defense of some sort on the rear slope of Hill 109.. but nothing.. he had precious little on the Spur to hold that line. Where can he be? I know his armor was mainly in the towns of Tame and S. Maria Infante.. are they still there? I don't know but I believe they might be. I have killed one ATG... spotted and area fired on another (which must be hurting or KOed.. my mortar fire landed right on top of it's known position)... a third I believe is between Hills 126 and 128 is receiving spotting rounds now... But he MUST have more than 4 tanks and 3 or 4 ATGs... What is known? I know there is an AA gun of some sort out there... he has a couple of bunkers... but where are the rest of his forces? Well the options are becoming quite limited... he either is holed up in the towns, or in a rear slope defense behind the Spur... or perhaps in the woods between Tame and S. Maria Infante... or a combination of all of these.. but he can't be too many other places. All I can do at this point is keep pushing.. eventually he will have to come out and fight.

The Thirty First Minute On Hill 109 my fresh squad dismounts advances and takes out the last remaining member of the mortar team. They will now proceed to the foxholes, meet up with their scout team (which has been assaulting the mortar team), then spit into two teams for the advance on Hill 126. The other squad on Hill 109 will mount, resupply and take up the reserve role. I am moving the third and remaining squad up close to Hill 109 so they can support the assault on Hill 126 as well. The lone scout will continue moving into NAI 3.. so far I have seen no other sign of enemy activity. I need to locate and eliminate the ATG that I know is in this area. In 1st Platoon, I have one lone soldier, the survivor from the team that got cut up by GaJ's scout team, moving forward to get a peek over the ridge to see what is in front. I love how lonely he looks in this image, very Wyeth. 3rd Platoon continues to move into the Spur and consolidate the Sunken Road line. There are a few enemy contacts still in this area, but I am not sure they are real or just remnants, so I proceed carefully. A couple halftacks are moving into this area so this Platoon can resupply. In the meantime I will be pushing a few teams forward carefully in order to scout the Spur objective and to try and get a peek at what lies beyond. However, I do not have to go over the top at this point. In fact, I do not plan on advancing further in this area for the time being, but will take up defensive postions and wait out the results from my left side assault on the S-Ridge. The situation looks like this. 2nd platoon advances down the S-Ridge towards Hill 126. I have a lot of support moving into the Hill 109 position.. two HMG teams and two fresh mortar teams. These will become my base of fire as I advance on the left, and especially for the attack on Tame itself. 1st Platoon has eyes on the S-Ridge, and the halftracks are firing in support of 2nd Platoon, they are scouting forward with one team. 3rd Platoon consolidates on the Spur objective. I have a very strong support base for my fire support elements. From these positions I can cover any enemy activity from Tame through the S-Ridge, down the Ridge Road pretty far, and the Spur itself is well covered. I have almost all of my armor assets on my left, which could give GaJ the idea of using his armor (I know he has at least three tanks left, one of which i know is an M10) to attack my 3rd Platoon as indicated by the blue arrows. The Jpz might dissuade him from making that move... but I think I might need to move something else into that area to provide some extra AT support. I will think on it.

No it's there.. was cut off when I cropped the image.

The Thirtieth Minute I'm so close with my scout team that I can smell the mortar team... one more member of that team falls to a grenade this turn. That will leave just one soldier. That last member of the mortar team will be the last survivor of GaJ's Hill 109 defense... but I doubt he'll survive for long. The Hill 109 objective is mine now. The MMG team loses its last man this turn and my halftracks, one full of infantry are on the objective. That squad will dismount help the scout team clear out the remnant of the mortar team then take the lead on the assault for Hill 126 (red circle in the background). Yes I am already thinking about the next objective and my reorg time on this objective will be short as I am passing one squad through the chaos and pressing on directly to Hill 126. Now that Hill 109 is taken I shifted my support assets and area fired on the location the ATG near Tame was spotted several turns ago. I need to remove this gun from play if I want to keep moving down the S Ridge. On the other side of the map (not pictured) my artillery has finally started to fall on the suspected location of GaJ's ATG that killed my two halftracks... long time coming. I can only hope to get lucky there. 2d Squad clears the Sunken Road... ...as GaJ abandons the position... good thinking on his part as my mortar fire has suddenly become very accurate on his foxholes. The Spur objective will be captured in a few turns.. I need to carefully clear it in case GaJ has left any surprises.

John you should play more.. you are very insightful. There is a solution to how I am using the Elefant and that is to stay mobile, keep moving to where the Elefant is not, ambush it if possible... frankly don't allow it to engage the high value targets easily. Smoke, flank, attack.. of course that requires a much more mobile defense than GaJ has obviously fielded.

Well thank you, I'm honored.

The Twenty-Ninth Minute The assalt on Hill 109 continues... In the top image Team A bounds past Team B which is providing cover fire. In the background the halftrack advances quite close trying to stay on the reverse slope away from the eyes of the ATG near Tame. Bottom image.. my scout team is within 20 meters of the foxholes... they can clearly see the mortar team now.. or could before they went to ground. Two members of that enemy team are dead, one is cowering and another (the leader) is crawling away. All support fire has lifted from the enemy teams on Hill 109, it is all on 2nd Platoon now to mop up the enemy on the objective. On my right side my advance into the Sunken Road is moving forward. The foxholes that contained the enemy MMG team is right around the bend seen in the top image (near the letter 'd' in Road). Team B can clearly see that the enemy sniper team has lost both members. I am surprised that I am now getting zero enemy fire on my units. Could GaJ have evacuated this line? My entire 3rd Platoon is moving in on the treeline to find out. While the one squad advances into the Sunken Road most of the rest of the platoon, an HMG team, and a mortar fire on the few (now faded) enemy contacts I have in the treeline. Finally here is the SITMAP for turn 29... note that 2nd and 3rd Platoons are both moving forward.. 1st Platoon is now holding position. NAI 4 has been satisfied and has been removed. I will be reconnoitering into NAI 3 next to check it out as well. But with no fire on my halftrack or infantry squad that are now on the other side of the ridge I doubt there is anything there either. I have determined that GaJ's bunkers are no threat to me at this time.. my troops, even the units his Tame bunker can see are simply too far away for any of his fire to be very effective. It has been a long time now since I saw any hint of any of the other armor that GaJ is fielding.

I wish you could. I have never seen grenades when using the Aquire command. My pioneers have satchel charges, not sure how many grenades they carry but I suspect they don't carry more than a normal squad.

The Twenty-Eighth Minute The assault on Hill 109 has made significant progress. Note that my two mounted reserve squads are moving up and so is a two tank section of pz-IVs for fire support if needed. The halftrack and one team has gone over the ridge into the NAI 4 area (which seems clear) and are taking the MMG team in the flank with fire. The scout team is within shouting distance of the foxholes that held the mortar team... GaJ's MMG team must be hurting.. haven't heard from them in a while and they have taken a lot of on target mortar rounds. Notice how deep I have pushed this turn. Hill 109 is almost mine.. a few more turns and I will have it in hand. 1st Platoon in the center recover from their brush with the enemy team. This is interesting.. . this team only had two men... so... where was all the fire coming from that pinned this entire platoon? Not from a two man team that's for sure. I rewatched that turn and I now think GaJ was area firing on this platoon with his AA gun.. the sound was distinctive and it carried on after this enemy team fell. I still can't see it.. nor can I tell where the fire was coming from. Ouch. What I do know however is that the upper elevation squad seemed to have been hit harder and i now think that the one casualty I had in that squad was from that area fire, not the enemy team. This platoon is now reorienting, staying on the back side of the ridge and overwatching my next target, Hill 126. On my right 2nd Squad, 3rd platoon bounds forward, spots the enemy sniper I spotted several turns ago but had lost contact with... they engage and kill at least one. I suspect both members have been hit as the icon disappeared at the end of the turn. This squad will be entering the sunken road from the flank next turn. Also on my right, I have started resupply of my fire support units... one team resupplied last turn, another mounts this turn, will resupply and exit next turn. I might not need to commit my Pioneer platoon to relieve this platoon. I'm holding off on that for now.

John, you make some valid arguments for sure... but the spotting is a two edged blade... for example I have still not spotted the ATG that fired on the Elefant several turns ago.. even though I have many eyes on that area, and most of GaJ's defenses remain a mystery to me, or simply educated guesses. As for his fixed defenses.. I really don't have solid spots on the majority of his defenses, Hill 109 of course, but I am focused on that piece of ground so nothing out of the ordinary there. The bunkers... bunkers take a long time to build and in many case were in place for years, so really I see these spots as more confirmation of intelligence rather than a spotting error... foxholes.. yeah you got me there.. but again I could see where the mortar fire was coming from so when my forces focused on that area of course the foxholes were identified. Same on the other side when GaJ displaced his MMG team into the foxholes on the sunken road.... focus attention on one area and of course signs are obvious.. this goes in real life as well. I have spotted no other foxholes than these two. As for the M10.. I simply took advantage of the fact that GaJ was simply driving that TD back and forth.. it was a matter of time before I spotted him in that area. Those vehicles should really be used from hull down positions. I carefully maneuvered my Elefant and Brummbar into the position they now hold using terrain masking etc.. I doubt GaJ knew they were there until the Elefant opened fire. So.. some of what you say is true but much of it, well I don't see the issues as serious as you do.

The Twenty-Seventh Minute I placed my Elefant and a Brummbar in good hull down positions on a ridge in front of the Pz-IV platoon and behind 1st platoon... it did not take long for the Elefant to get a spot and open fire... First round.. first hit.. penetration... Kill. GaJ will not be happy with that result I'm guessing. The M10 never even spotted my Elefant.

Steve Adobe uploaded CS2 for free download themselves. So there is nothing illegal about it.

George are you sure MikeyD doesn't have what you are looking for?

Yep, Photoshop. There is a free version running around the internet somewhere.

Hey Phil, I draw the arrow, symbol, whatever (usually by hand using the lasso tool), then apply a drop shadow to that layer.. adjust it for orientation and distance. Usually I give the layer about 50% transparency so you can see the terrain beneath it. Not sure if you have that capability in your graphics program.