Bil Hardenberger

All you can do is place your assets in the best possible positions and then cross your fingers.

The Twenty-Third Minute - Elation and Frustration The Left - so.. GaJ lost at least seven FJ troopers on the left. The survivors ran screaming like little girls back over the ridge. Also GaJ's HMG team took some damage from my Sherman in the center... hopefully that will quiet him for a few turns. My Sherman pulled into its hull down position and immediately spotted a PziIVH sitting fat and happy and ripe for the plucking.... ...unfortunately my Sherman sat in that beautiful hull down position for over 30 seconds without taking a shot.. it cycled between spotting - aiming - firing and never pulled the trigger. Right at the end of the turn the Pz-IV got a spot on my tank and fired just as the turn ended. Of course. Frustrating, no?

Not a strange question at all... ...well I think I have about analyzed his force make up to death so I do believe I have that pretty much is hand. As for what he is up to? Yeah he does have me scratching my head at times... and I am reacting to him rather than making him react to me right now.. but that is primarily due to his tanks.. not sure what he is planning to do with them and I want to set up to take them on from the best possible positions. Until they are dealt with then I can't safely maneuver against his force on my right. To be honest I think he is acting a bit confused... his large force on my left has been pretty inactive, like he is unsure what to do with them.. his force on my right has placed itself in a hollow and hunkered down so that when I get a Sherman on that center ridge it is going to be very uncomfortable for him, but they seem stuck in neutral... his tanks taking that hard left turn seems an odd move.. as if he changed his mind about what to do with them. I could be wrong but he seems afraid to make a move... how close to the nail head am I?

The Twenty-Second Minute Left Side Situation: On the left GaJ is finally starting to move down the slope as can be seen in this graphic. He will fall right into my field of fire very soon. All I want to do with him in this sector is keep him interested so this works for me. I will be cancelling the Sherman movement and bringing it back on line to help attrit his forces on this side of the map. Note that he fired a smoke screen, obviously to blind my Sherman.. which hasn't been sitting there for a couple minutes now. Could he be losing patience with the slow pace of this battle? I hope so, because that usually ends up in recklessness. I wanted to show you where my Listening Posts (LP) are located on the left.. these teams are just over the ridge and are both listening for any engine sounds and also there to keep GaJ from coming over that ridge toward my center and right. Right Side Situation: Well this is interesting... GaJ's armor took a hard left and appear to be driving at full speed possibly for the hill top I have highlighted with the question mark. I think the Sherman that is climbing the center hill might have freaked him out and forced him to reconsider the path he was taking. I know its movement was seen by his troops. If I was going to occupy that hill with my armor I would have come up on it from the back side... then he could have easily taken up hull down positions.. as it stands now he might have his rear and flank towards one of my Shermans as they climb it. I am slightly concerned with what seem to be around three new contacts on the center hill... but those are all on the reverse slope I think.. and also all of his teams that were occupying the center side of this hill ran over the crest to safety over the last two turns. I am going to let his tanks drive for another turn, and my Sherman on this hill will be taking his HMG on my left under fire.. that thing is a pain in my ass.

I've seen more infantry than you might realize... I know that he has more than one platoon on my right.. because I have seen two separate number 1 Squads.. so I figure there is about a Company in that gully... why a Company? Because most people tend to purchase formations... if its more than a Platoon (I say it is) then it must be a Company, or at least two Platoons of infantry... worse case is a Company so that is what I am expecting and preparing to engage. I KNOW he has a Rifle Company and the Weapons Company on my left and I've seen (or heard from) several parts of these two companies.. including several parts of different squads, mortar teams, mortar carriers, MG teams, etc... So... I figure he bought at least two Rifle Companies and one Weapons Company and perhaps a Platoon of tanks.. though where the rest of them might be I have no clue.. but they could only be on my left.. unless he is hiding them on my right. regardless I expect to see at least two more tanks in addition to the two I have sound contacts on. --I think that makes us about equal on infantry.. two Companies each... he has the weapons Company which is an advantage to him... that company contains a lot of firepower. I want to contain them on my left if possible until I can finish with the tanks and infantry on my right.

Yeah, ignore that graphic... there are several errors in it.

John, what's the deal with my Stuarts? They are both independantly purchased and neither is an HQ unit. I would be first in line behind you to increase the fidelity of the modeling of comms capabilities in the CM series but for all intents and purposes the present system is passable. So what is your complaint again? This is a QB and as such unless certain rules are laid out ahead of time then half the fun of them is purchasing your force and seeing how it fares. Enforcing rules that are legitimate for a scenario or campaign can really be thrown out the window as far as I'm concerned as that is hardly the point in a QB. It is strictly a test of skill. Sorry if this post seems scattered I'm typing this on my phone in the airport.

It was abandoned. I'm sure it was non recoverable.

Post it here too if you would be so kind.

I think that both of us have used terrain masking to maneuver.. I can catch glimpses of his forces, and I'm sure he has glimpses of mine. So yes I think there is enough cover to maneuver.. what's hard is to maneuver without giving your intentions away. Bil

Yeah I think you are right because they are finished and the gun is still sitting there. I was at least hoping for them to scavenge some ammo.. but alas that too was a bust. Bil

The Twenty-First Minute GaJ is starting to commit more and more firepower to this battle. I am calling off my probe on the left as I think it has done as much as it can do right now and GaJ is starting to be able to interdict me without my troops being able to spot his. So back behind my mountain we go. GaJ has started to withdraw the forces he had on the center ridge line as my teams start to close in. He has an HMG on my left on the back side of the mountain that is in a ridiculously good position.. I have had to cancel several movement orders and withdraw a few other teams that were falling within its line of fire including several that were climbing this ridge. MGs in this game now are simply brutal. This composite image show the tracks of the two panzers that I have sound contacts on. If there are more then he is keeping them very quiet. This image shows how the contacts for the two panzers moved during this turn. They are moving very slowly.. almost as if they are on hunt orders. With this current information I think their most likely target (Option A) is the ridge that separates his tanks from my troops. Option B is a possibility as that would allow him to attack my center force.. Option C is the last and I think least likely path... I doubt he would move towards his troops on my right in the gully... what would that get him? How am I responding to them you might ask? Well, I am pre-positioning a Stuart and 3 or so teams armed with PIATs in positions that should be able to attack the panzers especially if they are heading to the ridge... don't let that little gun fool you.. the Stuart can cause some pain and it fires so damned fast.. anything the size of a STuG or Pz-IV could be in trouble (could be especially if I can hit them in the flank).. anything larger.. JgdPz IVs etc. then I could be in trouble. I am also taking a HUGE gamble and rolling the dice with my Shermans. They will all be shifting to the right and taking up hull down positions in order to attack the panzers no matter where they pop up. One will be in place next turn.. the second and third will require another couple of minutes probably. The Sherman in the center (left most arrow) is on Hunt orders just in case GaJ brings his tanks over that center hill... if he has tanks on my left then he will be able to hurt me with them.. I am comfortable with this decision.. so why are my palms sweating? But I do have a lot of ears on my left... one team is almost in the rear of the opening of that bowl he is sitting in.. still no sounds of armor (sorry I'm British for this scenario.. armour), engines, anything... I should have some warning if something tracked starts to move there.

I believe that's a necessary inconvenient abstraction because of the nature of the 3D terrain.. it is not as subtle as it would be in reality, thus some shortcuts have to be taken. I don't know.. I'm fine with it as is, but I'm sure there could be some improvement. Bil

Thanks Ken. I probably have third of my force out front as early warning trip wires and for intelligence gathering.

The Twentieth Minute My repositioned units started to pay off as I have identified the locations for at least two squads, the Panzerschreck and the recon team I had spotted several minutes ago but had lost contact with. On the flank of my right flank force I have several recon teams as can be seen in this image: That isn't as important as what they hear coming from beyond the ridge directly in front of them: Well finally I have a clue as to where GaJ's armor is located... interesting that its been on the right the entire time.. why keep it back so long? This is also making me wonder if my analysis on turn 13 is indeed correct... I still think I was in the ball park. I suppose the fact that there is armor on my right doesn't necessarily mean there isn't armor on my left as well... he is being very shy with it I must say. I think that's about to change however as I watched the sound contacts move ever closer to the ridge separating his troops from mine. I believe he is going to try to take up hull down positions on that ridge and interdict my force that is working its way around the big hill. I have stopped all forward movement in this sector (except for my teams armed with PIATs) until I can be sure just what he is up to.

The Nineteenth Minute It is getting interesting on my left... a few more light mortar rounds fall taking out the last member of my forward team.. the second team who was nearby was pinned by that fire and did not execute the movement orders I gave them.. ...however I think this worked out for me.. GaJ did indeed attempt to pursue my teams and he ran into a wall of lead.. here is the scene, first from my perspective, then from his: This team also took under fire a light machine gunner from the enemy squad, and the light mortar. If nothing else this little probe might be keeping him from reorienting his force towards my right... I want them interested in holding this ground. In another few turns I will be sending forward two more squads from this platoon to see how much trouble they can cause. Hopefully this should be timed with my attack on the right going in. I am very impressed by the amount of lead these para teams can throw out. In my center GaJ's light mortar took my forward recce team under fire again.. no casualties and now I know where he is and am closing in. The MG Section HQ is performing medic durties on the fallen HMG team.. hopefully they will gather up some ammo and the gun.. not sure if they will take the gun, but its worth a shot. Before I launch my attack on my right I want to get eyes on the gully where GaJ has placed this force. I haven't seen any movement for a few turns now so suspect he is either creeping carefully around the base of the hill or has gone to ground and is waiting for me. I should have answers in a turn or two. Here are my current orders reflecting the fact that I need to re-position some to get better intel before coming over the top of that hill blindly.

The Eighteenth Minute On my left my probe runs into a little difficulty with a light mortar after taking out another member of the forward enemy squad. I lose two paras in this exchange... I guess you could say I got his attention... but it's now time to head back down the slope and see if he pursues... I doubt it, but it could happen. Well, it looks like 5 Rifle Co. HQ is back and up to its old tricks... I believe this team is spotting for another artillery strike as another spotting round hit in my rear area this turn... what could be its targets? Well. from that vantage point, I think it can really be one of two points.. either he is gunning to knock out the recon team I have on this knoll that overlooks the area on my right and also can look onto the backside of his 5th and 8th Company's positions... ...or he could be gunning for my Shermans... I doubt he could be going for my forces massing against his on my right.. I don't think he has eyes on that area of the battlefield. I'd be really surprised if he does. Regardless, everybody on a ridge who has been there for more than a few turns is displacing this next turn. They will reorient and we'll see where this little present is slated to land.

John, each para section (squad) has a sniper. I stripped out all individual snipers and AT teams.

The Seventeenth Minute On my left my forward recce team on hunt orders spotted a few members of an enemy squad: I don't think they ever saw what hit them: Also identified on my left was this mortar team.. obviously part of the Weapons Company. They are located right next to where the Weapons Co. HQ element had been sighted. On my right (I keep getting my right and left mixed up in this game for some reason) it is clear to me that GaJ is moving his diversion force down into the gulley at the back of that center hill. So far I have seen at least two Rifle Squads (not broken down into teams), a Panzer Schreck team, and a light mortar team moving the indicated direction. I'm sure there were more. With this information and with most of my force now in place I am planning the following movement.. Hold in the gulley with four teams and one Stuart... attack around and over the hill with everything else I can muster (will probably take a few turns to set up.. but that's okay.. it'll give him a few more turns to drive into the noose). note: the Sherman will be rushing through the gap and joining the attack as soon as I can confirm (I suspect it is) the gap is clear of enemy AT teams. I might also pull over one more Sherman (I displaced him last turn to redeploy him as he'd been in place too long) to bring a bit more firepower to bear. next several turns should be fun!

The Sixteenth Minute Well the artillery did indeed take out the last man from that HMG team. Maybe I can salvage the gun, I'll have to see. I am going to step up the pace some as I do not want to get caught in a position like that again. On my right the enemy units seem to be pushing more and more behind the hill that is centered on this flank. Including a PzSchrek and a few full squads. GaJ also has a team that appears to be trying to sneak around the rim of the map on the far right.. tank hunting? My assault force is almost fully formed and many will be going over the top next turn.. I don't expect too many fireworks as I don't think GaJ has many eyes on the ridge that I have been maneuvering behind. By the way after some thinking I have determined that the two rounds that I thought were spotting rounds in the center were actually from the light mortar that I saw skeedadeling a few turns back.. so no artillery mission on my center as far as I can tell right now. But those enemy troops on my left have to be doing something.. he can't just have them sitting there can he?

The Fifteenth Minute Okay, I learned a lessson... that is to trust your instincts.. remember a few turns ago where I said that the Rifle Co. HQ was probably calling for fire on my center recon squad or possibly the ridge where my HMG (on my right) was setup? Well I did nothing about that HMG team.. I should have re-positioned it.. it had been sitting in that position for too long anyway. I think I lulled myself into a false sense of security. So the spotting round that fell into my rear area was indeed a far astray round.. for the artillery mission itself (medium sized shells) was dead on target. So on target that I suspect I am sitting on a TRP. TRPs are cheap enough that GaJ could have the ridges and hills peppered with them. Smart guy if that's the case, if not then damned good shooting and my hats off to that battery. Anyway it seems that GaJ has some teeth after all... good for him. The damage? Two casualties so far... the leader is the only survivor.. if he can run from the impact area he can save 1300 rounds of ammo.. and after it stops go back and get the gun. If not, well then I have another HMG team coming onto the line very soon. I'll just make sure I don't keep him in one place for too long. By the way.. these are my first casualties in this battle.

The Fourteenth Minute Really starting to heat up now to a slow boil... This spotting round hit in my rear area just missing the truck with two HQ units and an HMG team. That is either one way off target spotting round, or he has TRPs in my back area. This is exactly what I was talking about earlier when I stated I didn't like firing artillery blind. You never know if you are going to hit anything.. and chances are, like this salvo, it will fall on empty ground. In the center there was another round impact near my forward team.. this is definitely another spotting round. Again... other than this team, nothing else is really close to where this fire mission will impact. Also.. the HQ team I spotted last turn (5 Rifle Co.) ran behind the ridge at the beginning of the turn. The red arrow shows the direction this round came from. The weapons co. HQ in the saddle lost its radio man as he stuck his head above the parapet once too often... (killed by tank MG fire - blue circle) By the way.. I counted at least 3 casualties for GaJ this turn. There was a lot of confused/confusing activity in the center on the hill that looked to me like flank security for what I am now calling GaJ's diversion force... one team was running away from my right (an infantry team of 2 men) and lost a man to the sniper in my forward recce team (blue circle, red circle indicates where the FJ soldier fell). The other team, a light mortar, was running back over the ridge towards the diversion force. This composite image shows all of the activity I am now seeing from two separate vantage points in the center-right of the map. They seem awfully isolated to me. Elsewhere, my forces continue to reorient and occupy their jump off positions.

The Thirteenth Turn There comes a time in most every battle where a cloud is suddenly lifted from my eyes and I can suddenly see with clarity the situation from the other side. This has happened with me on turn 13 (how lucky). There is usually one event that makes all of the data that I have collected become suddenly clear and I can begin to connect the dots. The event in this game was this sighting... ...on my left there is another Company HQ team.. radio intercepts tell me that this HQ team belongs to a Rifle Company.. the other sighted last turn was a Weapons Company. They are numbered 5 Rifle Company and 8 Weapons Company... Side bar: sorry I can't help that the intel in the game is so specific, I will of course take advantage of whatever information the game gives me and place it under "radio intercept" or other intelligence information. This is not entirely unrealistic by the way.. as an Intel analyst I could often identify an enemy unit down to the Company or platoon simply from listening to their radio chatter. ...There are few reasons to place an HQ unit in an overwatch position like these two.. one of which is to call in artillery. I do believe that is what these two HQ teams are in fact doing. The weapons company HQ team I believe is calling artillery in on my Shermans and the rifle company HQ team is most likely calling artillery in on my center force or perhaps on the ridge my HMG team on the right is placed behind... I know the Shermans must be causing him fits.. the center recon squad was spotted last turn.. and I doubt he has spotted very much else other than this, thus I suspect he thinks I am moving my main force into the center. What do I know from all of this? Because of the numbering of the companies I know that he bought "something else" before he bought his FJs.. otherwise they would be numbered 1-4, instead they are numbered 5-8... what was the "something else"? Armor I suspect... though I have not seen a hint of it yet, so I don't know how much he has on hand. I also suspect that his original intent was to force at least two full companies on my left, but this was stymied by the presence of my Shermans... can his armor be in the bowl behind those two peaks on my left? Perhaps... but why hasn't he used it to try to dislodge my Shermans? I don't know.. maybe he is waiting for an artillery strike to arrive then he plans on engaging them while they are dodging artillery shells. That would explain the two Company HQ units... So maybe he has at least two FJ Companies (at least one Rifle) and possibly some armor on my left... ...I really like thinking he has them on my left, for if he had armor on my right I think I would have seen them by now.. as that flank is far weaker.. but then again maybe he doesn't know exactly what kind of armor I have there? If he knew they were Stuarts would he be more aggressive? Maybe.. but in our last game I took out a STuG of his with a Stuart from the front and he might have more respect for them than is warranted given the range my tanks are from his force.... ...sorry, I'm thinking aloud here as I type... no.. I think his right side force is a DIVERSION. .that's right a diversion, of from a Platoon to a Company in size. That would explain how active they have been with recon teams running over the tops of the ridges and then taking cover.. he is trying to hold my attention here. Clever. Well, he has my attention. Okay I am going to do a full court press.. less press on my left than a probe though.. I want to keep his attention on my left, so will be pushing two of my forward squad's teams as deep as they can go.. overwatching here will be one Sherman, an HMG team, and the squad's Bren team. I want to convince him that I am attacking in the center.. so I have the rest of 2 Platoon entering the valley and acting aggressively... they will soak up some artillery for sure.. but I plan to keep them spread out to keep any casualties to a minimum. I WANT him to think the center is my goal, so I am also sending a Sherman into the valley to help drive home this thought in his mind. I want to give him a lot to think about in the center. However, the hammer is going to fall on his diversion force on my right... I am sending the kitchen sink at him here... both Stuarts, as much infantry as I can pull together, more than a Company worth for sure, and the Sherman going into the center will also join this attack after a turn or two... So, what do you think, am I mad?

The Twelfth Minute On my left one of my Shermans gets another recon team in its sights... With these results... Keep sending them over GaJ. My center Sherman has been in position for way too long.. time to re-position it. In the center it appears like my lead team was fired on by either a PzShrek or a small mortar... I believe it must have come from the ridge I have outlined in red... hard to tell.. I need to investigate. Towards the end of the turn 2 Platoon's HQ (HQ unit for the squad reconing the center) spotted this enemy HQ unit on the saddle. Calling for artillery perhaps? Well I'll send a 75 his way as a form a greeting. On my right a few new UI contacts popped up... so he is on the move on this flank, strangely moving over the hills still... he'd be better served to use the valleys that encircle those ridges.. unless he is intent on gaining one of the heights.