Highlander

I have seen this happen to me before where I had a bogged down Sherman in a duel with a light gun. The LOS was traced through two sides of a house. The light gun kept hitting my Sherman, and my return first kept hitting the house. Eventually I destroyed the house (causing much unhappiness to the squad I had within!) and then the gun. I looked at it more closely later and the LOS seemed to go through a window on each side of the house. Also if it was a small house, a high velocity AP round could possibly punch through it to a target on the other side. Scott

The "bogging problem" is one of the reasons this scenario is so tough. You either line up and go down the road (and get picked off one by one), or try for off road and count on the fact that you will likely bog down several Shermans (at least). THere were a few threads earlier which discussed bogging and the concensus was that speed does matter - going fast increases your chances. Scott

I played this as the Americans in a PBEM. Result was a draw, but I was on the short end percentage wise. I had 4 or 5 tanks bog down, which likely cost me the battle. Advancing with the SHermans on Fast Move will likely bog the majority of them. You will lose alot of tanks to German fire, that's hard to avoid, but you must protect you infantry, if you lose all your infantry, you have no chance of winning. Scott

The biggest problem I have with the ME's is the knowledge that no opposing units start on your side of the map. If the terrain is rather open, this facilitates the rush, especially if you feel your opponent has better (more protected) approaches to the key areas than you do. I like the idea of varied edge setups, so you can never be exactly sure from which direction your opponent is approaching. Scott

One more from the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Oregon to be exact. Although at the moment I am in Malaysia on buisness and cannot play CM! Only 1 more week to go though. Scott

I started playing SL in the early 80's. Bought all the original modules. Played some ASL through early 90's, but haven't played in about 8 years or so. Scott

Well Lewis, at least you can come back after the interviews and play CM then. I leave for a business trip to Malaysia on Saturday for 3 weeks. The laptop is NT, so I will have to somehow suffer through and persevere. Scott

Wild Bill, But if your orders imply that you are suppose to do both (exit and hold the way open for follow on troops), this leads to the dilemma. I will know better next time, and hopefully will thus avoid being horribly crushed. Scott

I PBEMed this scenario vs a friend double-blind. I was the Germans. My plan was to use the two platoons on the left to envelop the center hill, with the Pumas, Panther, and Hetzer in support, and use the right flank platoon reinforced by the Stugs and their accompanying engineers to take the right flank hill. After securing the center hill, I could advance on the left flank hill if the situation permitted. I had my Puma's scouting the left road, and lost both to the TD and Shermans. My lead platoon on the left moved up the center and around to the right to assult the center hill from the right side. My follow on platoon moved across the left road and moved through the woods along and up to the left hand side of the center hill. My armour traded shots with a MG on the left hill, and I got my Panther up to where the road turned to head towards town, and took out the M10. On the right side I moved the full platoon to assult the eastern (rightmost) hill from the right side, and the engineer platoon (2 squads) towards the hill from straight on S-N line. My Stugs provided some support, but I got careless with them, and moved them up the road to where they could see the town, and the Shermans took both of them out. On the center hill I charged my lead platoon up the hill and sheltered in the trees on the S side of the hill. I was suprised to find no defenses there. However about 1 minute later, an artillery barrage came down and killed aprox 20 men in one minute. One partial squad remanent with the 1 survivor of the platoon HQ crawled up on top of the hill and sheltered in a crater. The other partial surviving squad broke and fled the other direction. My follow up platoon advanced and positioned itself on the left side of the center hill, and started coming under fire from infantry to the North of the road and on the left hill. Suddenly, a full platoon or more of infantry charged across the road at the center hill, and overran the remants of my lead platoon. My platoon deployed on the left side of the hill got into a firefight with them, but they had support from another platoon on the left hill and I was getting the tougher end of the deal, as the Shermans were also providing fire support from the town. Over on the right, my two pronged attack came off almost perfectly, though he was aware of it, he wasn't prepared for how swift it was, and I was able to catch his platoon guarding the hill spread out, and wiped them out with light casulties on my part. I attempted to reorganize my troops and move some of the down the hill into town, but mg and tank fire pinned them down before they started the moves. In the center what was left of my follow up platoon was able to clear some of the counterattacking troops of the center hill but not all. During the last two turns, I moved both the Hetzer and Panther up to the bend in the road to engage the Shermans, and on the last turn they took both Shermans out. Final score was something like 45 to 42 a draw. I held the right hill, he held the left, and the center hill was still in contention.

Is there a specific formula in calculations for victory when it comes to exiting troops vs holding a victory area? Or does it set by the scenario designer? If all of your troops are eligible for points upon exit (and cost you points if you don't exit) and their are also victory flags present - what is a flag's relative worth? Scott

An immobilized Sherman in a duel vs a 20mm gun. They were 200m or so apart, and the LOS passed through a door and window of a house. The gun kept firing away, shells passing through the house, and bouncing off my Sherman. The Sherman returned fire with HE but could not thread the window/door needle, so the rounds kept exploding against the house. This kept up for close to 2 minutes, until the house blew apart. Unfortuneately one of my infantry squads was trying to use the house as cover! Once the house was gone, the Sherman knocked out the gun with it's next shot.

To finish up with my game report, as suspected, I ended up on the low side of a draw 52 to 48. I held the center and right objective flag, and the Germans held the left flag. Another turn or two could have made the differance, as the Germans had nothing but a few vehicle crews on the left side, and very little else left at all (one remaining TD with a damaged gun). All in all a good tight game, but those ground conditions are enough to make you scream.

I just finished a double blind PBEM of this scenario. However, I am waiting for the results file back tonight to see the final score. I suspect a draw with myself (Americans) on the low point side, although given my casulty levels I wouldn't be suprised if the Germans get a minor victory. My plan was as follows: 2 76 and a 75 Sherman moving wide left, 4 Shermans(1 76) with the 2 squad platoon moving wide right, and the rest advancing up the middle towards the town square. I lost a 75 Sherman and the 105 Sherman in the middle field early on. On the left, 1 of the 76's bogged down before it had gone 50m. The two 76's quickly spotted a Stug and a Panther and took both out. I send the 75 Sherman heading for the road on the far left. It was forced to button up (probably by an MG bunker, which it took out), but then got hit 3 times by the gun (which it never saw) - gun hit, track hit, kill. By now terrified of bogging I advanced the remaining mobile 76 to the end of the center-left road. A few turns later a Panther showed up on the other end of that road, and took out both of the 76's. Thus ended my left flank. On the right, my 76 got bogged quickly (every bog down I had resulted in immobilization) towards the rear of the map, out of sight of anything, and sat the rest of the game out. Of my three other Shermans, 1 made it halfway across the plain before bogging, a 2nd made it to the edge of the scattered trees, and was taken out by a Stug, and the third was within 20m of the road when it bogged down. It then got into a fight with a light gun (see my topic on tank vs AT gun through house) which it finally took out by blowing up the intervening house (with my infanty squad inside!) This bogged Sherman eventually took out the Stug also and fell later to the reinforcing German tanks. My infantry on this side made it to the edge of town, and occupied 1 large building and the victory building, but was too shot up to proceed any further. In the center I had two tanks immobilized I believe by artillery fire, and the others advanced behind the infantry up the line of houses along the road. The infantry fought its way up to the square, but the pillbox got a tank or two, and the Panther had now positioned itself to take a few out too. I tried an end around with my last mobile 76 Sherman, and one 75 Sherman. The 75 finally got the Panther as it was repositioning. I started to send my reinforcements up the road and peeled a few off towards the right, of which one died from a TD, and the other retreated. In the center both my two tanks which had flanked the square got taken out in the same turn by a TD (those things are really hard to kill - must have clanged a dozen shots off of them). I finally got it with my last mobile Sherman on the last turn. By this time I had gotten a squad and a half into the church, and one with explosives was able to take out the pillbox (I expended most of my artillery on the pillbox to no avail) At end game I had one mobile Sherman, 4 immobilzed Shermans, and maybe about 30 infantry left not including crews. Will post the score when I get it. A real tough one for the Americans with the soft ground and little infantry. Scott

So, I reviewed the videos closely. The LOS went through the corner of the house, via a door and a window. Considering all the other terrain, I'm still amazed their was an LOS at all. Since the gun was shooting AP probably, it's shells went through whereas my HE fire exploded against the house. Scott

If I get a chance tonight, I'll try and review the videos extremely closely to determine if there were windows, etc, or for other possibilities. Will post any findings. Scott