Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by IntelWeenie: Did anyone ever play the game called "Ace of Aces"? It was WWI fighter combat played with 2 booklets. Great for trips or during school! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yes, and I think that I still have it somewhere... Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mike_in_texas: Hi all! I first started playing Axis & Allies and Risk (early 80s), then "advanced" to Panzergruppe Guedurian [sp?] by Avalon Hill (I think). After that, it was Squad Leader for many years. Now, of course, it's CM! Mike<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Panzergruppe Guderian was by SPI; it was originally a free game in the magazine Strategy& Tactics, then was put out as a standalone game. I still have my copy. One of the best S&T games ever! I still have the original Squad Leader plus a number of modules, and my son later got ASL and replaced me at pushing two-inch-high stacks of cardboard counters, after I gave up playing SL after losing 3 games in a row to the cat . Henri [This message has been edited by Henri (edited 07-24-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ASL Veteran: Spoilers follow < < < < < < I was playing ‘All or Nothing’ the other night (still am actually), and I have encountered several frustrating ‘features’ of this game (the best WW2 tactical game on the computer ever made). .<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I feel for you; if you are interested, you can read my five-part AAR of this scenario on the Usenet war-historical forum.There are also some comments by me and by others on this forum regarding this scenario.A few comments about your game. The briefing warned you that the wooden bridge would be difficult to take and that it was probably preferable to take the other bridge. What they didn't tell you is that if you just try to waltz across the stone bridge, you will be blasted to kingdom come by half the German army... Yes, you DO get engineers eventually , but they arrive on the wrong side of the river, and they have their own mines to clear before they can become available . I don't believe that normal infantry was normally used to clear minefields of any kind in WW2, due to the possibility of booby traps (I could be wrong). The main problem with this scenario is the need to micro-manage many vehicles on the roads, which is due to the game and not the scenario (see discussions elsewhere). It is normal to have tanks bog down in the soft ground and to throw tracks on the railroad -if it hasn't happened to you yet, say a prayer and expect the worst. At no point before you enter the city whould you harbor the illusion that your troubles are over; you ain't seen nothin' yet! Good luck! Henri [This message has been edited by Henri (edited 07-24-2000).]

This game is totally unrealistic: the British trucks don't drive on the wrong side of the road... Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jonp: All, Can someone tell me the difference between assault, probe, and attack<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> An assault is an all-out attack whose purpose is to dislodge the enemy, to take control of a location or to eliminate the enemy; a probe is an attack whose purpose is to determine the strength of the enemy and/or to find weaknesses in the enemy's line of defence, or to determine the enemy's strength. An attack is a generic term that is the opposite of defence. There can be many variations, for example, an attack on one flank can be a spoiling attack whose purpose is to fix, disrupt or confuse the enemy while the main attack takes place somewhere else. One attacking tactic is the so-called offensive-defensive method, where the attacker grabs an important position, thus forcing the defender to become the attacker (it is easier to defend than to attack).Rommel has written a whole book on infantry attacks, so it is not a trivial matter. Henri

Thegamers web site has an interesting analysis of the "Road to Marseille" CM scenario. In my "second-guessing" mode, here is my own take on fionn's analysis. BTW, did anybody else notice that the overhead map in this article is not the map of the scenario (check out the picture with the side view)? SPOILER ALERT!. . . . . . . . . .. Fionn's analysis is interesting an possibly the best way to win this scenario as the Allies , but where I beg to differ is Fionn's statement that the right-wing assault is the ONLY way to win this scenario . If that were the case, the Germans could twart that by defending only against that avenue of attack. Despite the fact that the left avenue of approach is relatively open, there are a few compensating factors: 1) The center is fairly well covered with woods, which can be used by infantry to support an attack on the left flank, and there are clear terain lanes there to allow fast shifting of tanks from the right to the left; 2) The left flank has three stone walls next to the road, two on the right and one on the left further up, which can be used for cover for infantry and tanks. 3) The left flank is likely to be less defended than the right, since it is so "obvious" that the way to go is to concentrate on the right flank.The scenario is 20 moves, which gives the foot infantry enough time to reach the objective flags or at least to get close enough to make a difference (if you don't make the mistake that I did ). 4) All the objective flags are on houses on the left flank. Therefore, based on the strategy principle "Hit the enemy where he least expects it", on the geometry principle that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and on the above considerations, I propose an alternate strategy where the main attack is on the left flank. Here it is , which is what I tried in my own game before reading Fionn's analysis(more on my game later). I sent all my Stuart tanks to the right flank and center except for two, which I kept on the left flank in order to support the infantry advance and to attrit the Germans. Two of the tanks sent to the right center, after banging away at some Germans in the woods on the right, veered left and went through the clear ground to support the attack on the left. The main purpose of the attack on the right was to fix the enemy in place and to prevent him from moving to support the defense around the objective flags. The foot infantry Company goes up through the center,using the woods and the two stone walls for cover, and the infantry Company on the left is mounted on halftracks which slowly move up towards the objectives, using machineguns to suppress the Germans shooting at the foot infantry on their right.One of the tanks on the left uses the nearest stone wall to the right of the road for cover and the other leads the halftracks left of the road while staying far enough away from the Germans to avoid Panzerschrecks.The left-wing motorized attack must not move closer until they can be supported by the infantry in the center. In my game, this worked pretty well, except that I made the mistake of sending my foot infantry in the center through a marsh, which delayed them for almost 10 moves so that my attack in the center was uncoordinated and piecemeal. Despite this, I pulled out a draw and inflicted casualties of 2:1 to the Germans.The Stuarts on the right and in the center, along with the British infantry that I did not spot until well into the scenario did a good job of hammering the German hordes on the right, especially when they began to move to their right after they saw an offensive mounting there. If my marsh-bound infantry had arrived earlier, I am convinced that the Germans would have been crushed. As it was, I had not much trouble moving my infantry in the center and posting them behind the stone walls and in the woods from where they could fire at the Germans in the houses and moving from the center.When there was enough support from the center, I moved my tanks and halftracks up the road in a line formation without losing a single vehicle. I disembarked the infantry at the stone wall just in front of the big building on the left side of the road and took the building and the objective there with almost no casualties. The other platoon disembarked near the first house on the right and ran up the road to try to take the second house on the right; unfortunately this was insufficiently supported and they were wiped out.I lost one Stuart when I ran it behind the German positions from the right to the left, hoping to take the objectives from behind -bad idea withour infantry support. In the center, I took more casualties than I would have if my foot infantry had not bogged down, but they did arrive in time to have a major impact, although by that time the heroic British and advance US Platoon had pretty much paid with their blood for preventing any significant German movement to the left. In sum, I believe that the fact that I got a draw despite my marsh problem (which could have been fatal since it was almost half of my infantry) shows that the approach of attacking on the left and in the center with a pinning operation on the right is a feasible strategy. Although I can't be sure, I think that playing it right should lead to a major victory for the Allies, at least against the PO. Comments welcome Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Blackwood: How do you import screen captures to the board? Ron<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I read the FAQ, nd my understanding is that you have to have the picture on a web site to which the url refers . Henri

Although your comments are well thought out, I believe that you would like the game to be something that it is not, a first-person game.The zoom can make it almost that, however. In this game, the player is in the position of a Battalion commander or a Battle Group commander, with additional features of a company commander with a satellite view. As for casualties, it varies a lot as it does in real battles: I have won scenarios with ratios of 4:1 in my favor , and others where almost everyone on the map was killed or wounded . Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MichaelU: Lost 6kgs since I got CM, and believe me I am playing a lot of the game. Must be the stress and tension, and the irregular meals. I can play CM for ages, finish and only then notice that I'm hungry, tired and desperate for the toilet. CM must contain some sort of bodily needs suppressant.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> When you have bullets whizzing avbout your ears , your bodily functions either take action immediately without waiting for further orders or put themselves on "reserve" for the duration Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fionn: That's not a bad idea.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It's a good idea only if one believes that a committee can design something better than one competent individual <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>It'd be like some chess demonstrations I've been at where one player ( the demonstrator) will play a number of games at once ( based on the same setup/scenario). Each board he will play will have a team of 6 people discussing the moves to be taken.,<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> All the simulataneous chess matches I have seen (with players like World Chanmpions Fischer and Petrosian and other top-class players like Spasski and Larsen) play against about 50 individuals, all of them playing their own game. Once I was playing in a simultaneous against Bent Larsen, who was considered one of the three or four best players in the World; he was walking around the tables arranged in a square, moving pieces without stopping. At one point, I made an aggressive move, and when Larsen reached my game, he stopped for about ten seconds . A big crowd gathered, my morale shot up :I have him worried". When he came around the next time, I made my move, and he made his without stopping. Gulp I was the first player to lose his game . Moral of the story: when playing against a player like of that caliber in a simultaneous match, try not to get noticed too early! Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wayne: Got beat in Aachen playing as the Americans with the German AI set at 25% advantage. Try Col Klotz's "Bitche Salient" scenario as Americans. It's a kick. Wayne.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I barely pulled out a draw in "Road to Marseille" last night after I made the mistake of sending my infantry through a marsh, which took them about half the scenario to get through Henri Look ma, no spoilers!...No my son, you mentioned that there is infantry, and knowledge that there is infantry in the scenario could give a player an unfair advantage!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rommel22: Ethical or not who cares, those bastards try to kill my men. More point, who cares, kill is a kill. I don't need prisoners eating my troops food. It's always fun to line the captured and spray them with some machine gun fire.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Have you thought about joining the Serbian army? ...Anyway I hope you're playing the Alies, because as you know, some Axis soldiers were hanged after the war for doing just that. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phoenix: Everytime I load one of these the game freezes. What's the deal? Yes, I'm on 1.01 <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It has something to do with Netscape; I couldn`t get the scenarios to work until I downloaded them with Explorer Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Airborne: This great game is unplayable--here's why. I simply can't find enough time to spend on it. I've got a 2.5 year old and a 2 week old. Plus, I keep finding myself jumping online to check out this message board--afraid I might miss something. I've had the game over a week now and have only finished 1 scenario. Ahhhhhhhhhgh!!!!! -------Chris<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If you think that`s bad, I just got a cable modem last week, and I haven`t done anything but surf and play CM Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Andy A: The old AH Gettysburg was responsible for starting a passion that has consumed large parts of my life,back in 74.Along with the original AH Battle of the Bulge and such classics as Tobruk and of course SL my youth just evaporated............ Ah, Halycon days...... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually, I think I bought Gettysburg in the early 60`s, sometime before Blitzkrieg, that I bought in 1967. Then came Afrika Korps, and The Russian Campaign, the best wargame of all time (according to a poll on some site that I can`t remember), and much later, Panzer Blitz and Squad Leader and ASL and many others. I have a whole shelf of cardboard games and a big pile of games and magazines from Strategy & Tactics. I have a whole bunch of AARs I typed from my games with The Russian Campaign, I even submitted one to Fire and Movement (but they didn`tpublish it...). When I was living in California, there was Hobby Shop at the San antonio shopping Center in Palo Alto that had every wargame ever published, I wonder if it still exists. When I went there, I was lke a kid in a candy store. Ah, the good old days ... True, these were the days when I had the Commodore Pet ... Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by istari: Are there files accessible where one can look at the data for AFVs (the kind that appears in the popup box -- armor, hp/ton, etc.). I'd love to be able to compare the differences between the M4A1,A3,A3(W), etc. directly.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If you have West Front, there is a lot of data in the manual and in the game. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Von Brizee: I got my ass handed to me the first time I played that as the Germans.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I may have been a bit lucky in getting all the US tanks without losing any of my own, especially when the AT gun bounced three shells in a row off my Hetzer (or was it the Panther?). I think that getting control of the central hill is the key to this scenario; if I had not been able to shift my forces on top of that hill to support the rightmost hill just in time, I am afraid that I could not have held it . I may have been a bit lucky with my mortar too , although FOW prevented me from seeing exactly how much damage I was doing to the enemy. I also think that the US deploymentfor this battle was far from optimum, but of course they were in the process of leaving, so...If I were playing the US, I would hide a tank and some infantry just behind the central hill, making sure that they are well supported from the flanks. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Heinz 25th PzReg: Why dont you take some screenshots of your battles, and send me the AAR. I will then put it up on my new CM AAR page. I am sure your AAR`s will be even more entertaining if we could see some screenshots of the action. Head over to my page and check out the new instructions:<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I`ll see if I can salvage some screenshots. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by patboivin: I'm sure it goes both ways, I'm sure the Quebec government "forgot" to allocate all the funds for anglophone schools.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> As an Acadian living in Quebec, I recognize that 1) You are a true Acadian, one who has learned that the way to get ahead in Acadia is to lie low; 2) You don`t know Anglo-Quebec politics if you think that the Quebec Government could get away with cheating the English "minority" out of federal money. The flaw in your idea is in forgetting that the English minority in Quebec is actually part of the English-speaking majority. how long do you think that the Quebec Government could continue to ignore the constitutional obligation to have English schools in Quebec as Ontario and other provinces are still doing even today? Sans rancune, Henri

I tried to run them at varioius resolutons, and they still won`t run . Could it be because Imy computer is set for 32-bit color? The only difference I can see is that usually scenarios I download are zipped whereas yours are not.. :cnofused: I`m using Netscape to download the scenarios, and I have to use the "save link" command todownload; if I press the download button, it writes gibberish to the screen instead of downloading. Maybe I`ll try downloading them with Explorer, which is also on y disk... (a few minutes later...) OK, I sucessfully downloaded teh scenarios using Microsoft Explorer and opened one , so the problem is clearly related to something related to netscape 4.7 . Henri [This message has been edited by Henri (edited 07-22-2000).]

You may be right, but you may be reading too much into the game; my understanding is that whatever you call them, the labels are simply arbitrary names to designate four different levels of proficiency, which can be further enhanced by the presence of a proficient leader. If this were intended to be a simulation, your points might be valid if debatable, but although it CAN be a pretty good simulation, it is still only a game. And what a game... Besides, is not clear to me how attempting to make the game fit the labels would improve it Comments welcome. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wild Bill Wilder: Thank Henri! Very, very nice AAR! I felt like I was reading an actual battle. You're quite the writer!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Thanks , I have almost as much fun writing them up as playing them; contrary to my usual habit, I wrote this one as I played it, so except for a few additions, when I wrote one part, I didn`t know what was going to happen next. Maybe some day I`ll write one up as a short story;it might be fun to write one up in the Tom Clancy style ("...the Tiger I traversed its turret left at a steady 5 degrees per second, and shot an 88 mm shell at a velocity 695 meters per second, which dropped at a rate of 32 feet per second each second, and struck the 100mm-thick and 20-degree sloped armor of the Sherman..." -but that is a bit like work :eek . Or maybe like a John Wayne movie: `...Major John Wayne motioned to Captain Woody Allen to come over, as he stood among the whistling bullets and crashing mortar shrapnel: "C`mere, Woody...look, I suspect that there are Germans in this area", he drawled, "but we better beat the crap outta them, cause we don`t have the chance to fight outnumbered too often!" Woody gulped:"Major, maybe we could wait for reinforcements -and I saw some young juicy little girls in the town...". Major Wayne`s eyes became slits and his mouth tightened:"C`mon, how are we going to make popular american war movies if we always fight with artillery and bombers? You can play with little girls in the next town. All right, let`s go!", Wayne yelled, as he led the way into the battle. Your scenarios are really great fun to play. Henri [This message has been edited by Henri (edited 07-22-2000).]

The following contains a LOT of spoilers, but if you`re like me, you don`t give a damm and you`re going to read it anyway. Great scenario . I played as the Germans. My forces were deployed in column on the two roads on the East and West sides of the map. The rightmost column consisted of five halftracks loaded with a Panzergrenadier platoon. The other column was a mix of two Pumas, a Hetzer, a Panther, a halftrack and a platoon of foot infantry. the column was headed by a Puma followed by the Panther, and was bolstered by two MGs and an 81 mm mortar. About 1/2 km behind them was a column containing some Fallschrimjager infantry mounted on a halftrack and on two StuH42s, along with some foot infantry. The town to the North was hidden by three big hills; the western road went straightN towards a big hill, then swerved right and headed towards the town between the two big hills.The Eastern road headed NW, passed to the South of the rightmost hill, then turned right and passed between the two hills as it headed into town. My plan was to use the first Puma as a recon to spot the enemy resistance by going fast up and back down the road, its speed hopefully making him difficult to hit . In the meantime, the rest of the column would follow slowly behind while the platoon of foot infantry headed for the central hill. This column could either blast away at any enemies on the leftmost hill or support an assault by my infantry on the central hill. On the right, my halftracks would advance but disembark their infantry before the bend in the road so that the infantry could go after the rightmost Hill. If I could take both the central hill and the rightmost one, I would have a clear view into town. But I had not paid any attention to the fact that there was no objective in the town, the objective being to take the three hills . A light snow fell in the quiet afternoon as the Puma led by green Unt. Kubler revved his engine and lurched forward towards the bend in the road to the North, and the foot infantry to his right marched towards the central hill through the wooded terrain. He spun around the bend and saw the town in front of him, but no enemies; "no enemies visible", he radioed back as he ordered the driver to quickly turn around and raced back around the corner. Just then, an explosion split the silence and earth flew into Kubler`s face from an explosion a few meters away. The Puma lurched, and the green Kubler thought that the vehicle had been hit. "We`re hit! Abandon vehicle...", he yelled, and the crew piled out even before the Puma came to a stop. Unt. Claus in the Panther G following behind couldn`t believe his eyes: "Stinking cowards!`, he yelled, "no wonder we`re losing the war!" Grizzled regular Lt German, commander of the foot platoon headed towards the central hill, heard the explosion and saw a flash of light from the top of the leftmost hill; he quickly made arm signals to the vehicles on the road and yelled to Obg. Purps and his MG42 squad to veer left and to put the top of the hill under fire to suppress the mortar that he suspected. Behind him on the road, the 81 mm mortar crew debarked from their haltrack to participate in the fight. I ordered Unt. Streich, commander of the second Puma and experienced regular soldier, to repeat the recon attempt of the first Puma, since the offending mortar was now being suppressed by machinegun and mortar fire, as well as by the tanks on the road. He gunned the Puma which leapt forward and screeched around the bend, where Strech felt his eyes bugging out as he spotted two Shermans directly on the road ahead of him and what looked like an AT gun behind a stone wall at the edge of town. "T...TT...TURN AROUND!...", he yelled at the driver. He composed himself and realized that if he could turn around and head around the bend fast enough, the surprised Americans might not have time to react. The gears ground and the engine whined as the Puma quickly turned around and Streich watched the cannon of the nearest Sherman traverse in slow motion in his direction. "We`re going to make it", he thought, as he mentally calculated the time it wuld take for the tank to line up his Puma before it reached the bend. But he had forgotten the second Sherman, which already had its cannon in his direction, and which put a hole in the Puma with the first shot from its 75 mm medium velocity cannon. Streich and his Puma crew jumped out of the disabled vehicle and ran for cover as they were raked by machinegun fire from the nearby Americans. While Unt. Grosspietch in the Hetzer used his few HE rounds to suppress whatever was on the hill, Unt. Claus in the Panther G hunted forward up the road, peering at the top of the hill through the light snow and trying to get a vew of the US tanks around the bend. Suddenly he saw it: "A Sherman! On the hill ahead!", he shouted to the gunner. "Traverse up, fire, fire!..." The gunner raised the gun just a bit and fired. The 76 mm high velocity shell hit the Sherman on top of the hill dead on, there was no explosion, but the Sherman`s crew piled out. Jawohl! so much for the leftmost hill, he thought optimistically... Unt. Kubler, near his abandoned Puma and with a perfect view of the town from his location at the bend in the raod, saw the two US tanks move into the woods towards the central hill and reported it with hand signals. Oh boy, in this soft ground and in wqooded terrain, there is a strong possibility that at least one if not both of those tanks will bog down before they get very far, I thought (I was wrong), as I made a mental note to remember their locations. In the meantiome, the halftracks on the other road far to the right had reached their phase lines and had debarked their infantry, who were now headed through the woods towards the Eastern hill. No enemies had been spotted here, so I ordered one halftrack to reconnoiter up the road, hoping that it would have better luck than the Pumas. My main problem at this time was that most of my infantry on the left flank were far behind my tanks, which could be dangerous if I met some AT guns. My best bet at this point was to lead with the Hetzer while my infantry in the center finished climbing to the top of the central hill. I ordered the 81 mm mortar observer Lt Hens to bring down a few mortar rounds in the vicinity of the stone wall where I thought the AT gun was, while the Panther let the Hetzer pass it and the other tanks in the column caught up. As the Hetzer approached the bend in the road,it caught sight of the AT gun behind the stone wall and opend fire on it; the gun returned the favor, but both missed -that mortar had better start droppin shells soon... Green Unt. Hunstedt`s StuH42 shelled the leftmost hill as he passed the Panther, in case some infantry was still on the hill. To the right, Lt. Neumann`s infantry headed towards the hill in a dispersed formation, while his Panzerschreck crossed the road at the bend and headed for some woods at the base of the central hill. Just as they got across the road, one of the Shermans appeared behind the central hill. The halftrack had just rounded the bend, and he spotted the Sherman as well as another one coming out from behind some houses in the town. He continued forward, then decided that it was enough, and he turned around. Once more, he succeeded in surprising the closest Sherman, but the one coming from behind the houses killed him just as he had finished turning around . The other halftracks quickly backed out of sight down the road. I ordered Neumann`s infantry to hide, as well as the panzerschreck, except for the infantry squad on the right flank, which had no chance of being spotted by the tanks. I was hoping that the tanks would come down the road where the Pzschreck could bushwack them, but instead they headed back towards the AT gun, who was exchanging fire with Grosspietch`s Hetzer. I ordered Claus to move his Panther off the road and head for the AT gun. The two Shermans reappeared and moved left by the AT gun as Claus tried desperately to get a bead, while the AT gun, which I guessed to be a 37 mm or a 50 mm, clanged two shells off his tank. The leading StuH42 had continued to shell the top of the Western mountain as he moved forward to the Hetzer, and he soon forced an infantry unit on the hill next to the flag to get up and run for cover. The Panther locked onto one of the Shermans while the Hetzer continued to shell the AT gun; Claus sent a high-velocity shell through the side of the Sherman with the first shot, and a few secnods later, the Hetzer destroyed the AT gun. YAA-WOHLLL!... The second Sherman turned back behind the central mountain while five tanks and a couple of halftracks turned their full attention to the infantry on the left hill, who were also being targeted by German`s squad on the central hill. A machinegun near the destroyed tank began to stutter at the infantry that had just dismounted fromthe StuH42s and other nearby vehicles, worried by the shells from the AT gun that had been bouncing off the Hetzer and the Panther. As the Sherman appeared back to the infantry East of the central hill, I ordered them to hit the dirt once more, while I got the halftracks off the road and sent them North between the trees to support a later infantry offensive there. The green Panzerschreck on the side of the central hill got the buttoned Sherman in his sights, but as he stood to fire, he was fired upon by four or five infantry units West of the town; he panicked and fired, but missed the tank by about ten meters . Then, out of command of his HQ, he routed and ran like hell towards the West, as bullets threw up the dirt all around him. The Sherman turned around and headed West again, where my tanks and infantry were shooting everything they had at the infantry that had appeared, which included a machinegun. I shifted the mortar fire to the machinegun, and ordered the Hetzer to hunt forward while the Panther covered him and the StuH42 pulled up behind and the other StuH42 fired shells at the survivors on top of the left hill. The Sherman appeared 300 m in front of the Hetzer, who rammed a shot from his 75 mm gun through the side armor of the Sherman, who exploded in a ball of flame. Now there appeared to be no tanks left on the US side. I ordered my tanks on the West road to move gingerly towards the town. A number of unidentified US units were visible on or near the West hill, and it became apparent that my expectation that the main enemy defence would be in the town was wrong: the main US infantry force was around the West hill -or so I thought... Lt. Hacker`s platoon advanced in the forested terrain East of the right road, without any opposition from the hill in front of them, but they were caught in some crossfire from the western hill area, from where US units were moving to the center. My tanks and mortars on the left, as well as German`s infantry in the center fired everything they had as more and more enemies appeared near the Western hill. Hacker and German now controlled the central hill, and I realized that I had made a mistake by orienting Lt. Heubaum`s rearmost platoon towards the center, since it became clear that the big fight would be for the Western hill, and I had no infantry West of the left road . So I ordered Heubaum to move to the left and to cross the road towards the wooded terrain from where they could approach the hill. I hoped that my tanks and halftracks and the infantry in the center could suppress the enemy enough to allow Heubaum and his men to cross the wide clear terrain safely. A few US units near where the AT gun had been were identified as possible bazooka units; so I shifted the mortar fire to the area, where an enemy MG was also spraying my infantry on the hill with lead. Mortar shells exploded all around, but it was difficult to see what damage if any was being caused. Then a US bazooka stood up and fired two rockets in a row at my Panther from about 300 m away, fortunately missing both times while machinegun bullets peppered the ground around him and mortar rounds threw up geysers of dirt; HE round from the Panther finally forced him to get down . The Hetzer, out of HE ammo and with no enemy armor in sight, decided to throw some smoke in the center . To my great relief, Lt. Heubaum and his men made it across the road safely and were now in a position to advance to the Western hill through covered terrain. As one of my StuH42 tanks advanced, a US bazooka took two potshots at it and missed both times, again probably because it was disturbed by the hail of lead from my tanks, halftracks, mortar and infantry all around it. I was running low on mortar rounds, but the concentration of US infantry, MG, mortar and bazooka near the destroyed AT gun was too good to miss. The ground erupted in showers of dirt and smoke, and the US units there were pounded into the dust. Some were seen running for the rear, while others hit the dirt. On the other side, I now controlled the Eastern hill, and the infantry there was blasting away at the US soldiers in the center and in the town, supported by the halftracks, one of whom was on the side of the hill while the other two were on or near the road advancing on the town and raking the US troops in the center with machineguns. As the halftracks advanced, the one on the road saw what appeared to be a couple of infantry units on the road in the town; the halftrack suddenly exploded into flames , which indicated that one of them was a bazooka team. But it was almost 400 m away, which seems a bit far, so maybe the halftrack was hit by a mortar round... Some of my units were running low on ammo, but I had the impression that a determined push up the Western hill would give me control of all three objectives . But now I noticed that the US were preparing to contest the Eastern hill with at least one platoon from the town. I ordered one halftrack and one squad to the top of the hill while the remaining halftrack on the road exchanged fire with the enemies in the town. Suddenly the crew of that halftrack on the road abandoned it and ran for cover, due to some unclear reason. Now I had only one halftrack and one low-on-ammo MG to hold the right hill with Neumann`s platoon . As the halftrack climbed up the hill, the squad on the hill was fired upon and had to hit the dirt; when the halftrack arrived to the top, it began to plug away at the enemy infantry, and one of them seemed to break and run. But now mortar rounds began to fall, and one of them hit the halftrack; at the same time, the squad decided that it had enough and routed from its positon, leaving the top of the hill undefended, and now I had only two out-of position squads and a MG with low ammo to hold off the attackers . I decided to take a chance on bringing some armor in support. I ordered one StuH42 up the side of the central hill from where I hoped it could support the Eastern hill, and shifted some of German`s infantry on top of the central hill to the right. Two American squads decided to make a run for the Eastern hill across the open terrain to the NW of the hill, but they were spotted by one of German`s squad on the central hill, who made them eat a bit of lead, causing them to have second thoughts. It now became clear that the town contained a whole company of US infantry, and they were intent on taking back the Eastern hill, occupied by the two remaining squads of Neumann . The squad that replaced the routed one was veteran, and to my relief, despite being fired upon by four infantry and some near-hits by a mortar, they held their ground. But now one of my StuH42s had maneuvered to the North flank of the central hill and began to fire on the americans trying to reach the hill through the clear terrain. At least four US infantry units headed for the hill before they were dissuaded by the heavy fire.I maneuvered the Panther to a point just above the StuH42 on the North flank of the central hill, from where it could support the Eastern hill. in the meantime, Heubaum`s platoon took the Western hill without taking any casualties, thanks to support from the center and the heavy tree cover . A remaining US infantry platoon on top of the hill was overrun by Heubaum`s three squads and annihilated when they made the mistake of running away instead of surrendering. Now I had two tanks on the central hill as well as Hacker`s platoon, all of which had an unobstructed view of the clear terrain where the US company was attempting to assault the Eastern hill. Neumann`s veterans held the hill despite being hit with everything the Americans could throw at them while Hacker`s men and the tanks blasted away at their tormentors. The game ended with a German Major victory , the Germans having taken 24 casualties to the americans`91. I was fortunate in being able to get rid of all the US armor early in the game without losing any of my armor. This scenario shows the importance of holding the high ground, because I could not have held the Eastern hill with a single platoon against a whole company of enemy infantry without support from the central hill, which also played a major role in suppressing the US infantry on the Western hill and in the town. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Col. Klotz: Now there are not just maps on the site, but scenarios as well. Three SL/ASL scenarios submitted yesterday are up for some fighting, real good ones as well. Even more are on the way. Two Squad Leader classics: # 7 "The Bitche Salient" # 8 "Buchholz Station"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> There is something wrong: when I try to start up those scenarios, my computer locks up and I have to kill the program with ctl-alt-delete. Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am running them at 1280x1078 resolution? I don`thave problems with otehr scenarios. Anybody else try those scenarios? I downloaded them twice with the same result. Henri

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fionn: If people want I ( and possible others) can also analyse their games and give a critique etc ( but that's up to the players who submit AARs. If they ask for it I and others ( quite qualified and expert gamers) will do it. If they don't then we won't.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Feel free to do it for any of the AARs I have posted at various sites if the spirit so moves you; after all, I have not been shy about doing it myself without permission for your own games as well as those of others. and I don`t mind being contradicted , as long as it is done politely (if one wants to be in the kitchen, he should be able to take the heat . This applies to anybody else reading this too . Henri