Bil Hardenberger

The Forty Third Minute Disastrous turn for me... My Pz-IV could not reload and fire in time... it was hit and penetrated twice by ND's Sherman.. As carefully as I checked LOS it wasn't careful enough... I moved my Grille forward a bit in order to engage the Villa.. and unluckily it was spotted by ND's other surviving Sherman.. who fired twice.. missed high once then connected with the second round. Sh*t.... As I close in on the Villa some of the defending troops become visible... this image shows what I have identified so far and the text overlays their locations. I have a really good idea where ND's remaining T30 is located.. looks like it was in the courtyard at the beginning of he turn and moved out down the hill (as indicated) by the end (at least the contact did). Can I go back on vacation please? That was a lot more fun.

By the way, in case anybody is wondering... I am back from my vacation. Waiting on ND to get back into the game. I hope he enjoyed his time off from it. I know I did. Bil

I dont remember saying I thought I was losing. If anything I like my chances right now better than ND's. If I can take care of the Sherman on my right without losing my 2 Pz-IVs then ND will be in serious trouble. Bil

Hey guys. Jet sailed under the Golden Gate bridge. How cool is that?

I've seen both sides miss in this scenario. The misses do seem to effect my vehicles more than ND's, but it doesn't seem to be too one sided. That last miss from 64m was a shocker though. Bil

Dont' miss the exciting PART 1 on the previous page!

The Forty Second Minute - Part 2 Sadly, the Pz-III I had posted on the Hill objective was targeted and hit repeatedly by ND's Sherman that was panzer hunting on my right. ND, YOU BASTARD!!! You think that was sad? Well.. look at this. I successfully get one of my Pz-IV's into veeery short range with a shot into its flank... and wouldn't you know it.. the SOB fires high! I've seen more tanks miss in this particular scenario then I ever have before. Amazing. What I did find very interesting here... is that my tank which was on fast orders, actually stopped to fire this round... could be why it missed. At the end of the turn my tank is frantically reloading while ND's Sherman is rotating his turret! OH SH*T!!! REVERSE!!! REVERSE DAMMIT!!!

The Forty Second Minute - Part 1 Quite an exciting turn. It started with my Grille, which had spotted the Sherman on my left at the end of last turn putting a one-five-oh HEAT into the side of the turret. I saw no crew escape and this baby is now burning on the battlefield. My left should be clear. I worry about the Sherman ND has on the front of the Villa.. but seeing as that thing hasn't moved in a good 4 or 5 turns it must be immobilized. My Pz-IV on the Villa front slope which was hunting the now dead Sherman spots a bazooka team.. guess my tanks in ths area are no surprise to ND eh? Th bazooka never got off a round as my tank quickly neutralized him. Meanwhile my infantry continues to close in on the Villa. Now that my tanks can more safely operate in this area the assault's pace will start to step up a bit.

Steve, strange, my copies have been signed by you, you sign in pink ink right?

Update: I will be on vacation, and probably without internet access, from tomorrow evening through the 24th of September, so no turns will be posted during that time. I am hoping ND will return a file to me tonight so I can get one more post up before I depart. Enjoy the silence.

You might want to head on over to ND's thread and hurry him along... we are all waiting for him to get off his ass and return a file. Bil

Kuderian, I just use the lasso tool... takes a few seconds to isolate the tank.

Kuderian, I take screenshots of the two (or more) images that I want to combine (make sure you don't move the camera between taking these screen grabs)... bring them all into Photoshop as layers... the main layer is 100% transparency, for the semi-transparent overlay images I select the tank or the unit of interest and delete the rest of that layer... this gives me the tank/unit in a different position than the main layer.. I then simply adjust the transparency of this layer (usually around 50%-60%). Save it out as a jpg image and you are ready to post. Hope that helped. Bil

Steve I'd be happy to upload the images from my AAR to a Dropbox folder if you can't see them. Bil

The Forty First Minute I got VERY lucky this turn... I never even saw this bazooka team until it fired and missed. Luckily it was quickly gunned down by my tank and infantry squad. Whew... that was a close one. The Sherman was racing towards the treeline that holds my two tanks when it was hit in the side by the Pz-III I have on the Hill objective. I don't know if there was any damage or casualties but the tank ground to a halt immediately. Next turn I am maneuvering my Pz-IV's against it. Throughout the turn I kept spotting different units from the infantry platoon in the orchard. I can finally put some MG fire on them next turn. What does ND have planned for them? They have been in this position for probably 15 minutes now... One of my Grilles spots and fires a HEAT round at ND's Sherman on the front of the Villa... this time he hits. I would not want to be inside that tank when that round hit. I can't tell if there was any damage but it hit the gun.. one can hope that it is now impotent at least. This Grille is now out of HEAT. Across the map my other Grille spots ND's Sherman on the hill next to the Villa. He will be firing at it (hopefully they are better shots than the other Grille) and I am maneuvering against it with my closest two tanks as indicated in this image. Next turn could either be the beginning of the end for ND, or back to the drawing board for me.

Kosigan, give me a hull down Pz-IV any day. I've had hull down Pz-IVs pick apart an enemy formation and never get spotted (see my CMBN BETA AAR for an example).

Yeah, I'd prefer a walk over to be honest... but I do enjoy a well fought battle. Win or lose this has been a bitch of a fight, and a shed load of fun.

The Fourtieth Turn ND's Sherman continues its movement towards my Panzers... its coming in at a great angle and my tanks can't get a good LOS into that area. The smoke cleared dramatically this turn, which didn't really work in my favor, as you shall see. My Grille spotted the Sherman on the front of the Villa and fired a HEAT round... this must have just skimmed the top of the Sherman, but alas it missed and hit the building instead. Which cost me big time as one of my Pz-IVs moving up to the Villa was spotted and hit mere seconds later by this same tank. My bad luck strikes again... smoke clearing, my Grille missing by millimeters, and the Sherman not missing was a series of events that could swing the advantage back to ND.

The Thirty Ninth Minute Well it seems to me that ND does not appreciate the position where I have posted my two Pz-IVs on his left... he is scrambling his last remaining Sherman from the ridgeliine and attempting to get position on them. I'll have to prepare a suitable welcoming committee. In this image, 1 - starting position; 2 - right before I lost sight of the tank; and 3 - final FOW icon position at the end of the turn. Not very subtle is it? I have only fired one Grill in the game so far. I was excited when giving orders last turn that I was actually able to target one of the few positions in the Villa I had not been able to previously. This Grille puts his last two HE rounds on target and I hope ND had something really valuable in that wing. It was important to me that this side of the Villa get some attention as this is the side I would like to enter the Villa from. The run on the Hill starts to move slowly forward.. carefully so I don't run into my own artillery. The casualty marker in this image is one of the crew from ND's howitzer that was knocked out at the end of last turn. I am seeing no other enemy infantry teams in the position at all. On the Villa side, my forces continue to sort themselves out and snake up the hill. There are now two tanks in support for the upcoming assault. Before I can start any assault I do need to take care of that pesky Sherman that is still hovering over the ridge from my troops. This turn, you can see that ND actually moved this tank towards my troops a bit... 1 - starting position, and 2 - final position. Who is feeding me the spotting report on this Sherman? Non other than my hull down Pz-IV down the hill that I had kept in position. The smoke is clearing, and that FOW icon is bright from this tank's point of view.. which tells me I possibly could get a solid spot next turn. Wouldn't that be nice?

Enemy Order of Battle - Status Update As promised yesterday, here is what I know about the enemy order of battle (OB). Orange entries indicate suspected but not yet identified units. This is current as of the last turn:

It will show up eventually when they get to it. Bil

boche, the wind is blowing it pretty hard. There is another patch of smoke in the trees on The Hill objective (where ND's Sherman popped smoke) that will pass in front of the Villa in the next few turns so it will still be obscured. By the way guys, I decided to NOT make the move with the Pz-III against ND's Sherman, for two reasons: 1) There are still 35 105mm artillery rounds to fall and I do not want to lose a tank to it, and 2) my original intent for this tank was to support the infantry and I do not want to get distracted from that at this point. I will have to let other assets engage it.

Well I haven't made my orders for the next turn yet and I'm torturing myself over that potential move by the Pz-III. Still haven't decided. . I'll sleep on it.

The Thirty Eighth Minute Right at the end of the turn my Pz-IV from across the map spotted and knocked out the last remaining howitzer. They were brave and efficient but had to go. I'm starting to get nervous by how quickly the smoke seems to be dissipating... suddenly it is very clear right in front of the Villa. On my extreme left my Pz-IV has yet to spot ND's Sherman parked on the hill in front of the Villa... I want this tank to take out the Sherman, but I also want to keep it from getting too far in front of the infantry. I would like them to spot the enemy tank first, then I can maneuver against it.. I'm not even sure it is still on this hillside. Blue circle marks the last known location. So I am going to stop this tank in position, perhaps even pull it back over the edge of the hill a bit.. and screen with my infantry units. While my Pz-IV was engaging ND's pack howitzer his Sherman got a spot on him and fired off a round.. this one was intercepted by the trees as can be seen by the puff in front of my tank. Next turn while the Sherman and Pz-IV duel (I will be pulling my tank back into the trees a bit for added cover) I plan on a risky move... rushing my Pz-III forward in the hopes of getting a side shot on the Sherman. I haven't given the order yet.. so I reserve the right to cancel this maneuver.

Friendly Order of Battle - Status Update While we wait for ND to return the next turn I thought I would revisit my friendly and enemy order of battle (OB) analysis. Here is the friendly unit status as of the end of the last turn: Enemy OB and status (as I know it) will follow later.