Bil Hardenberger

The Twenty-Sixth Minute 1st Platoon has the enemy team surrounded, I lose two more infantryman to his fire (total of 4 so far) but take out two with grenades. This team has been extremely tough.. half of the platoon is pinned, luckily I have the other half on its flank and in its rear. If GaJ has bought infantry with these high volume short range weapons I need to be careful how I engage them with my infantry. I need to keep them at arms length and ensure I have plenty of fire support on hand. I will probably stop the advance of this platoon for a while until I am can move my halftracks forward in support... and this won't happen until the S-Ridge is in my hands. Right now I am very nervous about moving the halftracks too far up as I know he has an ATG on the S-Ridge. The assault on Hill 109 heats up... I have mortar fire straddling the MMG team's position, fire from that team was very sporadic during the turn.. I also have several MGs suppressing the mortar team in the foxholes. The mortar hasn't fired a round in a couple turns, so either GaJ has pulled them out or they are suppressed. My foremost 2nd Platoon scout team is just on the opposite side of the ridge to the MMG team. The assault element (3rd Squad 2nd Platoon) going in to Hill 109 is bounding forward. Now that the MMG team is getting suppressed I can pick up the pace of this assault. A halftrack, using the terrain and smoke on the hill as cover from the Tame M10 and the ATG (I hope) has joined in a support by fire position and is also firing on the MMG team's position. 2nd Platoon HQ (not pictured) is back in an OP position calling in fire on some of GaJ's long range assets. On the right side of the map I have a halftrack on the far side of the woodline who's main purpose is to stretch GaJ's defense along this sector in front of 3rd Platoon. The halftrack did receive some fire this turn, but only from single rifle shots and probably from very long range, so perhaps a sniper? In the bottom image, 2d Squad 3rd Platoon bounds forward into the treeline as the rest of the Platoon, a couple halftracks, a mortar team and an HMG team provide overwatch. This Platoon is going to require resupply soon. I will need to slow down my assault in a few turns and pull individual teams out to resupply from the halftracks. Finally, I still have a full pioneer platoon mounted on trucks that I have been saving, as well as 6 or 7 mortars that have not been used at all yet. I am considering bringing that pioneer platoon up to the front, perhaps to relieve 3rd platoon so it can resupply without losing the impetus of their advance. The mortars are all going to be moving forward in the next few turns.

The Twenty-Fifth Minute 1st Platoon runs into a hail of lead from GaJ's forrward team/squad (team I suspect). The one member of this enemy team that I can see has a Thompson and those things throw a lot of rounds.. so I take two casualties. A lot of suppression fire is coming in now that i know exactly where he is located though. One of my Pz-IVs opens fire on the location where GaJ has his M10 sitting. no effect but at least this will tell GaJ that I have eyes on that piece of ground.. so maybe he'll pull that TD back. On Hill 109 the MMG team comes back out firing at my 2nd Squad team coming over the ridge. He causes one casualty. On the right, 3rd Platoon is slowly moving forward.. I do not believe that GaJ has much other than the MMG team, sniper, and one or two other teams along this treeline where the sunken road is located. I now have two halftracks in the area for support.

Beats me I've never timed the fading of the icons. I sometimes lose track of enemy units of course. But if you keep track of where you last saw the contact then you should be less surprised when they pop up again.

Yeah the latter. Same as the icons. I really should have stripped those mods out before doing this AAR but forgot. So there you are.

You'll never know. My lips are sealed.

Nah, they've been missing since I first spotted this gun. They must have hide orders, or else the crew simply has not been spotted. The other gun that I killed earlier in the game I only ever saw one crewman even though I know these guns have several in the crew.

I almost didn't click on this thread to read your post as I thought it was GaJ's current thread until I looked closer that is. Thanks, they are fun to put together. If you like these, don't miss the CMBN BETA AAR at the top of my list below and the Clearing the Niscemi Highway AAR, from either mine or Normal Dude's perspective:

For a preview of a brand new feature see my latest AAR post: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1440616&postcount=420

Notice anything missing from these screenshots? Note: scroll below the images for the discussion. I just received permission to show this feature to you guys this morning. I thought while we wait for GaJ to upgrade to the latest build and get a turn back to me this would be good filler. FOW; now with less data! Note: in all of these I have the enemy unit selected. Also, this is on Elite level.. Iron gives you less, the other settings a bit more, until on Basic Training mode you get all information. So no more of me figuring out the enemy OB just from a few HQ unit sightings. I WELCOME the change and am looking forward to the challenge of playing with some proper FOW in the game. Please discuss.

Using this definition a blitzkrieg type battle could definitely be recreated in CM. I also don't think you need to dumb down the opposition to make it work. Ensure you have a good mix of tanks, mech. infantry, artillery and aircraft (extra helpings of arty and air would be nice). A good wide map so the enemy does not know where the schwerpunkt will fall. Pre-order the artillery and aircraft arrival at setup and try to coordinate the movement of the ground forces with the lifting of the artillery... try to setup a rolling barrage as best you can in the setup with your artillery... also as the artillery lifts from the point of main effort time additional artillery to be applied to the wings to suppress the enemy on the shoulders of the penetration. Definitely doable, and could be fun, for the attacker anyway. But really I think the procedure would probably be better represented by a grand tactical or operational game.

The Twenty-Fourth Minute Several interesting developments this turn.. first GaJ moves the Tame M10 back up right next to the bunker. Guess the last position wasn't as good as he thought it was. It doesn't look to me like this TD is spotting anything though and it's looking pretty damned ripe. My 1st Platoon halftracks come under fire this turn from a mortar sitting in some foxholes near Hill 109. No hits thankfully and the mortar crew was hugging the dirt at the end of the turn as my support units started to spot it and fire back. Next turn hopefully I can kill the damned thing. There is an unknown enemy infantry unit to the front of 1st Platoon's 1st Squad... note where 3rd Squad is at the top of the image. This image shows that 3rd Squad has actually progressed past the enemy unit. I will suppress the enemy unit with 1st Squad while one team from 3rd Squad doubles around and takes them from the rear.

Throw caution to the wind, damn the torpedoes, etc. eh? Hey that's my favorite type of player to go up against.

First of all you have more than one question in there... one per customer please. Well I think the German vehicles with their firepower are well suited to this type of use and don't think I especially have much difficulty applying them. I have noticed that area fire seems wildly inaccurate and I prefer to have a clear target to engage. Well I have more forward than you might think... and many of these units, 1st Platoon in particular on the left side of the ridge road, and 3rd Platoon on the right side are meant to catch GaJ's attention and perhaps divert some attention away from my assault element on the S Ridge and perhaps keep him from reorienting. Now the very small teams that I am engaging in front of the assault elements, or as part of them, are indeed meant to scout the terrain ahead and identify any trouble spots. Note that my assault element on Hill 109 is very small... one split squad, a Platoon HQ and two halftracks... I expect them to uncover the enemy positions, fix them, and then I hope to use my base of fire element to suppress and attrit any identified enemy positions or units. I do not want to risk more than this for this role. Two more mounted squads are in reserve to come in and reinforce or to bypass and penetrate as the situation presents itself. The Platoon HQ is there to give me the capability to call in indirect fire on particularly important enemy units, like the ATG uncovered last turn. I hope the explanation above helps in this regard. I just hope the slow pace of this battle isn't boring you all to death.

The two-Tiger sections seem like they will be mutually supporting so I can understand those. Your opponent is going to have a cow when he sees them. My main question was about the other three.. they seem widely spaced and it does not appear that they will be able to support each other. Maybe I'm wrong about that.. and you do have some good units to support them so I'm sure it'll be fine. Even one Tiger is going to be a tough nut for your opponent... I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Turn 23 SITMAP Here is the SITMAP for turn 23. Note the new ATG spotting highlighted near Tame. Note that I have pulled the Brummbar off of Hill 130 and am repositioning it so it can support the assault on Hill 109 and the S Ridge.

The Twenty-Third Minute GaJ's ATG ammo bearers run over the top of the ridge only to be intercepted by the fire from several of my overwatching units. I have no doubt he will probably get some important intelligence from them but they will not last long now I'm afraid. Note my left side recon team on the left side of this image behind a bush. He is within 30 meters at the turn's end and the survivors of this enemy team are suppressed and in trouble. 2d Platoon's lead recon team has an important sighting this turn... interesting. GaJ has placed him in one of the areas of key terrain I had identified at the beginning of the game. So that makes at least one ATG for sure and a second (the owner of the ATG ammo team) across the valley floor on my left. They are on opposite sides of the valley and as such I should be able to isolate and eliminate them one at a time. GaJ does seem to have the approaches to the S Ridge well covered. But is it enough? Time will tell.

I must have missed your reasoning for splitting your Tigers up like you are doing? Would be interested in your explanation.

The Twenty-Second Minute 2d Platoon's two halftracks unload on the rear slope leading to Hill 109. Coming over the top of that same ridge is a US team... I find it very interesting that this is an ATG ammo bearer team. Must have had a huge ass round strapped to their backs. But this confirms an ATG is indeed in this area.. whether its the same ATG that put several rounds into my Elefant I cannot say. This team appears to be hunting my left side scout, GaJ has been shelling the Right Tit for a few turns now. I have received no casualties from this fire and am happy to let him expend that precious ammo. Its interesting to me that the Left Tit has received no incoming fire at all. The Right Tit Sniper is finally hunted down and executed. The second UI infantry icon disappeared with this team's death. Interesting. The enemy sniper team was pinned by one team and hunted down by the other. Finally the M10 in Tame backs up even further into what looks like a good hull down position with a good view of the heights leading to Hill 109. Well I have a lot of smoke hopefully coming in next turn... fingers crossed that it actually develops.

I viewed the next turn before I left for work.. sorry not enough time to make a proper report this morning. I will get to that as soon as I get home tonight. GaJ is pulling his M10 out of Tame completely, it moves back towards S.Maria Infante in this next turn... why? Is he expecting a push up the center? Getting worried that I have eyes on that area with my mortars and tanks (I do)? Regardless this gives me an opportunity and I am going to push hard to capture the S-Ridge in the next several turns... and will be doing some major reorienting of my force. That M10 has made me kind of skittish, but with it out of the way for now I can hopefully make a grab for Hill 109 and the S Ridge. If it decides to come back in to overwatch this area I plan on having my Panzer Platoon in position to interdict it. This move is going to get a lot of support, both the Brummbar that is in the center and the Elefant will be moving into support by fire positions. Should be exciting, so stay tuned! This bears repeating:p

Why would I? This is real world terrain built from a topo map, not a map I created out of my head with secrets embedded behind every hill. Because I created the map (which is not really completed at this stage, no terraces, the buildings are not all in place, no fences, walls, etc., the foliage needs thinning out in some areas and there is one area where the elevation is slightly off) does not give me more control over how to read the terrain features, other than to say that I lived with it longer and probably examined the topo map more because I had to in order to create it. But if GaJ did a thorough terrain analysis, which it seems like he probably did, then he would know as much about this map as I. Bil

He does indeed... plus with the positioning of his tanks he could easily reinforce one side or the other as required. I am especially aware of that fact as I maneuver. To this point I am not really impressed with the Brummbar.. its accuracy seems poor, the damned thing keeps refusing to fire smoke... it does not have a bow mounted MG. I need clear targets before these weapons will come into their own.

The Twenty-First Minute GaJ is getting clairvoyant or I am telegraphing my intentions too clearly... he moved his Tame M10 back from its forward exposed position to a position a back close to his bunker. From here he should have a position that is masked from my armor but able to clearly overwatch my 2d platoon as they approach Hill 109. I will not be going over the top until I get some obscuration on the Tame M10.. which should go in next turn. The two 2d Platoon halftracks will be dropping off their cargo next turn now that they are very close to the reverse slope of the ridge leading to Hill 109. I lose my right side recon this turn to I think what must have been sniper fire. Possibly from the little spur where I have my sniper hunt going on? I know one of these enemy teams had been firing on this lone soldier for a while.. perhaps the UI infantry contact is a sniper as well and finally got his aim right? I don't think it was the team that I know was a sniper as the soldier with the scope is lying dead or mortally wounded beneath a tree. Anyway, this is what I know for the right side as seen from Hill 130: --MMG Team in the sunken road foxholes --Sniper near my destroyed halftracks --Sniper close to the Right Tit objective - marksman dead or mortally wounded --UI Team close to the Right Tit.. not yet spotted clearly. Possibly another sniper team.

Well I am almost home. Hope to have the next turn report up tonight. So what did I miss?

Hey guys, I'll be away from this afternoon until Sunday evening... I'm taking a little (much needed) vacation and will not have my computer and likely will not have cell service for the majority off that time. So no further updates until after that I'm afraid.

The Twentieth Minute The hunt for the Right Tit Sniper continues... at least one member of the team falls to my suppression fire this turn. My teams are slowly closing in. I'll feel a lot more secure once those two teams have been dealt with. Even though the smoke screen did not develop as I had planned (the Brummbar failed to fire at all, and the mortar screen was way off target) 2d Platoon continues to push towards the objective. They should be masked from the M10 in Tame and they are definitely masked from the ATG (or whatever it was) that fired on the Elefant last turn. GaJ has repositioned his M10 in order to get a better view of the happenings in the left side valley and Hill 109 in particular.. this might be a bad move for him... we shall discover in the next turn or so. Here is the turn 20 SITMAP... progress is slow but steady. I am uncovering a new enemy contact at least once per turn.. this turn I received two.. a sniper near where my halftracks bought the farm and a UI infantry unit obviously hunting for my left side recon... he is moving right into the teeth of my 2d Platoon's advance. Note how far my right side recon has moved. he is maneuvering around the hill to try and get a peek on the backside. I am starting to really see the rear of the map defense that GaJ has set up... he has a passive interdicting type of defense going on.. it appears like the approaches are lightly guarded and his real combat power is set to deny me the approaches and to defend the high value objectives of Tame and S. Maria Infante.