Kanonier Reichmann

Yes, KR--I'm looking forward to it. BTW, have you successfully received your files from TB? I think I'll send you a test email just to make sure we can connect. Looks like Spanish Bombs is having monitor problems, MickOz is away till Oct 27 and Kannonier may not have his files yet. All dressed up for the finals and no one to tangle with? At least for the moment.... :confused: </font>

Thanks for your help guys. In the end I managed to find a zipped version of the flag mod files so I used them instead bit I appreciate your assistance. Regards Jim R.

Hi H. Good luck with your new battles as well! As for Combined Arms (and Spanish Bombs as well as Mick Oz for that matter), I didn't expect anything different. I'm sure our conflicts will all be hard fought right to the end. Edited to include Mick Oz as well. My memory must be going as I had in mind I was only up against 2 opponents. Regards Jim R. [ October 09, 2002, 12:13 AM: Message edited by: Kanonier Reichmann ]

My personal opinion Stixx is as redwold suggested. Simply substitute the 75mm armed Stug III's with Stug IV's and I reckon you'll have alot of happy campers. Otherwise it was an excellent scenario with a great map to boot. Regards Jim R. [ October 08, 2002, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: Kanonier Reichmann ]

I must be psychic! :eek: Regards Jim R.

That email address is correct for me thanks Mike. One thing... how are going to be able to send me the 3 game files? Or will I be Axis for all three. Regards Jim R.

Yes! Regards Jim R.

Is that a Metric grand or an Imperial grand? Just wondering. Regards Jim R.

I have a quick query. I've downloaded a flag mod from the net for CMBB but Windows XP doesn't recognise the format because it has the extension of .rar at the end. Can someone point me in the right direction of what programme I need to run to be able to open this little flag mod? Thanks in advance. Jim R.

We'll take that as an agreement then. Regards Jim R.

Ermmmm...Comet? I believe that particular medium tank design was pretty well regarded by the Brits for its speed, reasonable protection and its killing power with the modified 17 pdr as the main gun. Regards Jim R.

Thanks very much Mike for your incredible persistance in cajoling of players, constant updates and generally forcing of this series into the 2nd round pretty much through your sheer willpower... well done. Thanks also to the scenario designers for their creativity and continued involvement into the 2nd round, I'm sure all the participants have enjoyed the challenges you've presented so far. Finally, thanks to my five opponents during the first round who were always pretty prompt in returning files despite my, at times, tardy turn around times due to real world issues I had at various stages. Your patience was appreciated and I certainly enjoyed the challenges of the battles we fought while I hope you did as well. Regards Jim R.

OK, I know, I know, this drags on but once I got started with this AAR I couldn't stop. And you thought War & Peace was long! Head for the Hills AAR by Kanonier Reichmann When I first opened up this scenario I became instantly suspicious due to it being described as an “assault” rather than an “Allied assault”. With the meagre forces at my initial disposal consisting of one ’45 pattern Infantry company, 1 Engineer platoon, 3 75mm Shermans, a pipsqueak 57mm AT gun, 105mm & 81mm spotters, M3 halftrack and a highly useful unarmed Jeep I thought this was a joke! There was not a snowballs chance in hell of assaulting the battlefield with this paltry force and I firmly believed that the game would develop into a trap with a troop of Panthers probably appearing at some stage to decisively turn the battle into an Allied rout. So, with conspiracy theories firmly held I cautiously advanced my three Rifle platoons eastwards on the right flank, under cover of 60mm smoke and the 3 Shermans blasting any patch of woods that looked like possible places for an ambush. The Engineer platoon was held back a bit and more centrally located so that aligned with the patches of woods that partially extended towards the American jump point and to the south west of Serrig. On turn 5 I received overwhelming reinforcements on my far left flank consisting of 2, not 3 but 2 squads with their HQ, a Bazooka team and a flamethrower team. Well, I just knew that this force would be sufficient to overwhelm any German opposition found in its path towards Hill 182…NOT! My initial suspicions of a trap gave way to an absolutely firmly held belief! Luckily, by turn 7 the rest of the Infantry company found its way onto the map as a reinforcement on my left flank but inexplicably, no third squad for my depleted initial reinforcement platoon. At this point I started to consider that perhaps the scenario designer was not about setting up the Allies for a big fall since I now possessed a force that at least had a chance to assault the map with a modicum of confidence. By turn 9 my right flank company had reached positions within the initial patches of woods. One platoon was in the woodline roughly south west of the large patch of scattered trees that marked the beginning of the southern pass through the woods. The 2nd platoon was cautiously making its way through the large wooded area to the north east of the scattered trees while the 3rd platoon was reaching the top of the more centrally located smaller patch of woods that is roughly aligned to the Hill 178 objective area. My losses at this stage were 1 man from an Engineer squad while Tabpub’s scouts consisting of a VS sharpshooter and a Green LMG team had been encountered and destroyed. The unfortunate part from my point of view was that my opponent pretty much knew exactly where my main force was while I knew sweet FA about where his was. I had decided at this point to send my Shermans through the southern pass in the woods as I was hoping Tabpub would not expect that seeing as the bottleneck was mined by daisy-chain mines. Luckily, my forces had spotted these mines fairly early on so I had dispatched one Engineer squad onto the back of a Sherman to be rushed over to the spot where the mines were placed. In the meantime, my infantry company on the left flank was steadily advancing towards the initial woodline to their east for the loss of one man from 1 of the 2 flamethrower teams while dealing with 2 LMG teams with extreme prejudice. Unfortunately, once again Tabpub knew pretty well exactly what I had on that flank and therefore, how best to deal with it as it attempts to drive towards Hill 182. Mind you, at this stage my intention was to use most of this left flank force to swing right into the northern reaches of the town under a smokescreen, once the heights around Hill 178 had been secured for a simultaneous push from the south towards Serrig. I still had no great hopes about securing Hill 182 with what I had on that flank minus any armour support while I would have settled for control of Hill 178 and the town of Serrig to try and secure a minor victory through inflicting greater casualties. On turn 10 was pretty much when it started to get hot and heavy. A platoon of VS SMG’s were waiting to greet my infantry platoon working their way up the more isolated patch of woods and roughly aligned with the Hill 178 objective on the right flank. One American squad was severely dealt with from fires from all 3 VS squads located within the edge of the western most treeline near the heights of Hill 178. Fortunately, my other 2 squads in the platoon were able to give a good account of themselves by punishing one of the VS squads while causing a casualty each in the other 2. While this firefight was going on I was able to advance the 2nd platoon immediately south of the battle further eastward so that it was not far from shooting and on the southern flank of it. The next turn I predicted that the VS wouldn’t hang around due to their nature so I rushed my initial platoon forward into the enemy foxholes while advancing the 2nd platoon towards the fighting from the south. As expected, the VS platoon broke off the engagement but not before I was lucky enough to rush my company HQ forwards to a point where it could fire at a previously unseen enemy VS HQ so that when it ran back to the next large patch of woods formed around the objective, it was gunned down the moment it was on a small patch of open ground between the woods it was exiting and some scattered trees it was about to cross. Also on the same turn, I rethought my strategy with having all 3 Shermans down the right flank so reversed and turned around one of the Shermans to move quickly back towards the centre of the map to provide a 2nd option in attack. By turn 13 I had two platoons located in woods near Hill 178 but separated by a strip of scattered trees from the objective’s woods area. A 2nd firefight had erupted between what seemed like a fresh platoon of VS SMG squads in foxholes located at the edge of the woods east of my position and across from the strip of scattered trees. Luckily I hadn’t rushed my 1st platoon recklessly across the poorer cover of the scattered trees so an exchange of shooting took place between 3 squads of 1st platoon, my Coy. HQ & 1 squad from the 2nd platoon, augmented by a later arriving 30 calibre MG. After 1 turn of exchanging fire it seemed pretty clear that this new group of Volksturm had also had enough, judging by their keenness to vacate their cover and head east. Towards the end of turn 13 I noted a third platoon of unidentified enemy infantry appear to the south east of the firefight in a different tract of woods separated from the objective flag by the previously mentioned scattered trees as it extended over the hill to the east. Their arrival was greeted by return fire from the 2nd squad of my no. 2 platoon located in woods to the west plus their accompanying HQ and 30 cal. MG located on a small patch of rough terrain nearby. Although my squad took a beating by fire from all three enemy squads I could tell that the riposte was also hitting its mark as one enemy squad was down to 2 figures and the other two had both reeled back at least once from hits as far as I could tell. Next turn I tried to flush them out with area fire from a nearby flamethrower but it couldn’t quite reach the tile they were on so I was simply hoping for a scatter into their woods location. It proved fruitless as this enemy platoon were bugging out right from the opening of the turn, no doubt from retreat orders. I was able to pin down one of the retreating units however and reduce it down to 3 men from a 9 man SS squad as I found out towards the end of the turn. By this time I was pretty confidant that Hill 178 would be mine as I was advancing quickly towards it from the west and south west with enemy infantry continually pulling back from dug in locations. In addition, I had my 3rd platoon working its way in a north easterly direction through the forest south of the objective to reach a position behind the flag and attempt to trap any retreating forces that may appear as they head east. As it turned out they were too late on the scene but it was worth a try. Progress on my left flank had been slow but steady to reach a point roughly in line with the roadblock with one platoon close to the northern edge and the other 2 platoons making their way into some forest on top of a hill with a good view of Serrig to the south east. Come turn 14 I planned to move both platoons to a patch of forest below it which formed one side to a twin wire obstacle, constricting movement through a small lightly wooded pass. This is when all hell broke loose with 81 mm mortar shells raining on my relatively concentrated forces as they attempted to sneak through some intervening scattered trees to the woods below. On top of this, 2 unidentified guns opened up, one from the woods in front of Hill 183 to the east and one from across the valley beside the north/south dirt road that links up with the main paved road. Judging by the casualties these guns were causing I guessed they were 88’s since what was once a fully functioning platoon became a quivering mess of panicky squads as they tried to get out of harms way. In the space of 2 turns, one platoon was down to 6 men, another 7 men with the third relatively unscathed at 10 but the real blow was the HQ being reduced to 1 man and therefore this force had suddenly been reduced to a marginally effective unit in a very short space of time. I had also lost a 60mm mortar from 81mm airbursts while an accompanying 6 man Coy. HQ was also down to 4 effectives. To counter this unexpected turn of events I had all of 2 60mm mortars that could get some sort of LOS to the 2 enemy guns. One was located on the high patch of woods where the troops were being pounded to the north east of Serrig but further back into the forest with a very vague LOS to a point only nearby the 88 across the valley by the dirt road. My other 60mm mortar was still near to the western edge of the map placed in woods, with some sort of view of the valley and Hill 182 but under the command of an excellent HQ with stealth, firepower, command & morale bonuses. I opened up with both mortars on each gun not expecting much and lo and behold, the mortar by the map edge scored a direct hit with its 3rd or 4th round silencing the enemy gun near Hill 183. The other mortar in the hills without the direct LOS to its target managed only to land some rounds in the general vicinity of its target but to no great effect. At the same time I was attempting to suppress the roadside located 88 with 30cal. MG fire from a position closer to the edge of the woods from where the mortar was. This turned out to be a good idea as it sufficiently distracted the 88 to retarget it on the next turn (15) so my pinned down infantry squads could try and make the woods located below and hopefully out of harms way from the gunfire. Although my MG paid the ultimate price for its suppression attempt it probably saved more men from my squads than the loss of the 5 man team plus, I was able to knock out this 88 from a lucky explosion nearby to its foxhole towards the end of the turn. Also on this turn, a third 88 opened up from its position closer to Hill 183’s objective flag and higher up than its defunct companion 30 metres away. My squirming troops received further casualties as they crawled their way through scattered trees to the woods below, desperately trying to get out of LOS however my 60mm mortar by the western map edge under the excellent supervision of its accompanying HQ managed to knock it out through direct targeting early into the 16th turn. Despite copping significant casualties to at least 4 squads within 2 platoons (one was down to 5 men from the original 12) I was still relatively happy with the exchange as I felt at the time that all of Tabpub’s major gun assets had been dealt with. The only downside was the fact that I felt there was now a big question mark whether I could use the remnants of these 2 platoons to storm Serrig from the northern approaches so I gradually formed the opinion (after some more turns elapsed) that they really needed to be switched to heading for Hill 182 which I considered much more “doable”. By turn 17 my lone Engineer squad had finally managed to remove one of the two daisy-chain mines to allow my 2 Shermans through the pass unscathed while I scouted ahead with a spare Company HQ to be followed up in due course by the Engineer squad. Hill 178 was showing in my possession with my 2 platoons trying to mop up VS stragglers as they swept through the heights. A couple of VS squads with their accompanying HQ were still able to mete out some punishment from their fall back foxhole positions but in the end, weight of numbers and superior elan of the American squads won the day. It was at the commencement of turn 17 that I received a further rude shock when my trailing Engineer platoon on the right flank (minus 1 squad on mine clearing duties) tried to work its way across to some woods on a slope just to south west of Serrig that links up to the main body of woods located west of the town. A 4th bleedin’ 88 took one of squads under fire and very quickly reduced it to 4 men in no time flat from its position across the valley in woods to the south east of Hill 182, in effect firing across the roofs of the town buildings. Unfortunately that same turn I had decided to move fast my halftrack along the open heights to the south west of the town roughly where the Engineers were, with the intention of moving it through the scattered trees pass that allowed access to Hill 178 but not much further. Naturally, this halftrack did not last long but it did provide some useful information before dying. A 5th “gun” revealed itself from across the valley as well but some 40 metres or so south east of the previously revealed gun, in order to nail my halftrack. With this new information I was finally able to use my puny 57mm AT gun to good effect. It had been sitting around in a patch of woods south of the main paved road ever since the beginning of the scenario (awaiting the troop of Panthers perhaps?) and now it had an opportunity to target a spot right alongside the first revealed 88 but not quite able to directly target it. By about the seventh round of continuous harassment in the one turn from 57mm explosions the gun crew were finally driven from its position. I was somewhat chuffed as I felt there was no way that particular asset was ever going to prove useful but it just shows how wrong you can be. Unfortunately for me however, I had absolutely nothing that could take out the 5th probable 88 gun across the valley except for my 105mm spotter that had been accompanying the Engineer platoon. Praying all the time that it hadn’t been ID’d as it moved into the woods above Serrig to the south west I commenced targeting the woods where the offending gun was located. However, I had a 2 minute time delay before effective fire could be brought to bear. In the meantime a VS Panzerschreck team had appeared close by the spotter but on the other side of a crest with a 30cal. MG I had moved just before in between both units. It became almost a comedy for the next 3 turns or so when my 30cal. under the command influence of the Engineer HQ with a firepower bonus blasted away at the Panzerschreck team from about 30 metres away. Due to the closeness of the enemy the MG crew were furiously hammering away at the team with rapid bursts but all to no effect! Finally, after 3 turns had elapsed with a gun jam in between the enemy team was finally eliminated but in the process the 30 cal. only had about 6 bursts of ammo left from a virtual full load to start with. Turn 17 also saw my first engagement with enemy infantry on my left flank as my full strength third platoon cautiously made its way towards Hill 182. On reaching the western edge of the wooded area that covers the hill, one squad came under enemy fire from a VS SMG squad. My other 2 squads were out of position to the south of this firefight so I quickly had to relocate them, one to head north east into the woods on the hill and the other to make a beeline north and then hook up to the east in a flanking attempt. This worked fine in a fashion when I saw the VS squad turn tail from its entrenched position as well as a 2nd squad alongside it that I didn’t even know about but was no doubt waiting in ambush. Unfortunately I let the blood rush to my head and charged my squad that attempted the left hook towards the recently vacated foxhole, thinking to exploit the situation. Sure enough, he ran slap bang into an ambush on his left and closer to the northern map edge. Although making the foxhole position, the squad had been reduced to 4 effectives from its previous complement of 11. This left me with only 2 decent squads, the untouched HQ & a flamethrower to tackle this position against god knows how big an enemy force. Due to my desperation I decided to also throw in a 5 man crew that was once my 60mm mortar before having its tubes blown away from an earlier 81mm airburst. I was hoping that Tabpub would think that it’s a full blown infantry squad and consider discretion the better part of valour by withdrawing. One final ace up my sleeve was my lone Sherman over on the other side of the valley but in a nice hull down position in heights to the south west of Serrig. I ordered it to area target any troop concentrations seen on the heights of Hill 182, which it did to fairly good effect. In order to start to wrap up this AAR the bottom line from this engagement around Hill 182 was that 2 platoons of Volksturm were pretty much wiped out for the total loss of 1 squad and about 8 men between the remaining 2 squads. The flamethrower helped out by panicking a couple of enemy squads with a withering burst of flame to allow my 2 ammo depleted squads, HQ and crew team to mop up the remnants of the enemy force. By turn 19 or thereabouts my 105mm artillery had managed to hit their mark and take out the 5th 88 across the valley while my two platoons around Hill 178 completed their mopping up of the two VS platoons with the third platoon working its way to the east of the hill into a separate patch of woods. Now was the time to attempt a sweep from the heights above the town while simultaneously attacking form the west with a newly arrived Engineer platoon complete with a 155mm spotter. By turn 24 or so my reinforcing Engineer platoon had made their way into the woods west of the town while the remainder of my infantry company in and around Hill 178 had made their way down the woods line to the east of the flag with 2 platoons in one section of woods roughly south of the Church while the third relatively untouched and underutilised platoon was further east in an area of woods on the eastern face of the hill close to a largish patch of scattered trees. Fierce resistance was met by a full platoon of infantry in woods immediately to the south of the church with one squad gunned down from multiple fires. While this was going on a 2nd platoon of enemy infantry had formed a fire line in woods further east of Hill 178 but lower down the eastern face of the hill. In order to reach their position would require crossing open ground so my 2 platoons in the woods above simply had to slug it out with these 2 forces. What certainly didn’t help my cause was the arrival of enemy mortar fire onto my position in the woods with numerous airbursts either wounding or pinning a number of men. To complicate things even further, a 6th bloody great “gun” (no doubt an 88) began to shell a squad from my third platoon located to the east of the intense firefight and ready to jump off into some scattered trees to sweep up the left flank of the enemy forces. By the end of the turn one of my previously fully intact squads was reduced to 5 viable men in a broken state. More good fortune befell me however as that very same turn I had finally brought my 2 Shermans all the way through the southern gap and placed them in hull down positions in a patch of scattered trees just before the north/south dirt road. From their vantage point, one of the Shermans almost (thank god) had a LOS to this 6th 88 located in woods on the raised approaches to Hill 183. The following turn I was able to area target the Sherman to a spot just short of the 88’s foxhole and by the end of the turn this nasty piece of work was history. Turn 25 saw the strong enemy force in platoon strength retire from its woods to the south of the Church back into the Church building itself and probably just as well since my 105mm spotter had plotted fire to rain down on them if they hadn’t moved from their position. As it happened, the initial fall of shot did manage to catch a couple of his squads as they exited the woods just near the end of the turn so I wasn’t too unhappy about that. While this platoon withdrew from its positions, the other more beaten up platoon to its left also beat a hasty retreat across the road and towards a patch of woods located low in the valley before the approached to Hill 183. By turn 26 I was rushing the remains of my two platoons from Hill 178 to the woods recently vacated by the enemy to the south of the Church while advancing the 2 good squads from the third platoon into the same patch of woods but from the eastern side of the hill, all done under some withering fire from 2 HMG positions located around Hill 183 that I could never pin down their exact location as all I ever saw were sound contacts. The 105mm F.O. was pounding the Church n order to keep the occupants heads down and to try and cause enough damage to the structure to cause a collapse. While this was going on my Engineer platoon from the west were making good progress into the town from that direction, meeting only light opposition from a couple of LMG teams that were probably low on ammo. A Panzerschreck team was thankfully revealed in its ambush position behind a wall and quickly dispatched before my 1 Sherman there rounded the woods to enter Serrig while hugging the western woodline. More artillery rained down on the beaten up remains of my company to the south of the Church with further casualties and pinning alike. The only compensation was the knowledge that the enemy platoon trapped in the Church would not be happy with all the artillery raining down around them with the building steadily weakening with each salvo. On my left flank I had managed to clear away all the Volksturn around Hill 182 but still had to reach the objective behind it. When I switched the 2 platoons that had been shot up by the 88’s earlier on towards the minor objective on its flank I had encountered a third enemy platoon laying in ambush in the woods to the south west of the flag. This platoon quickly withdrew after the initial firefight but not before I was able to pin down one squad before it bugged out and identified it as a veteran SS rifle squad with 3 casualties. Turn 30 saw my Engineers reaching the eastern outskirts of the town with the enemy Pioneer platoon (as I later discovered) having vacated the Church the turn before due to its imminent collapse. These poor sods were now caught in the open with 105mm artillery raining down on their heads, being fired at from the heights to the south with a Sherman taking pot shots at them from the west as it moved through Serrif accompanied by the Engineers. My other 2 Shermans on the southern edge of the map had meanwhile dealt with a Marder that had appeared on the southern approaches to Hill 183 as it seemed to be attempting to reach a position to fire on my Shermans. Due to the 2 to 1 ratio I was able to deal the killing blow with the first shot from my 2nd Sherman but not before the Marder had managed a track hit with its first shot at my lead Sherman. The remaining mobile Sherman I had left out of the two I then moved quickly along the north/south dirt road to a position almost beside the knocked out 88 that lay by the road. Nearby was the sole engineer squad that had cleared the minefield but was now at a bit of a loose end due to not =being close enough to the town fight. It was at this point that I thought what the hell, I might as well make a play for the major objective as I still had two mobile tanks with almost full strength squads alongside. I loaded 1 engineer squad on the back of each tank 7 charged towards Hill 183 at full pelt while the nearest company HQ was directed to hoof it by foot across the valley accompanied by an assortment of shot up, low ammo’d squads with assorted HQ’s. I felt reasonably confident there wouldn’t be much left on the hill as I had been bombarding it pretty relentlessly with 155mm artillery from my late arriving F.O. that I was sure would be hurting anything up there yet strangely, it never seemed to be effective enough to silence the two impossible to spot HMG’s somewhere up there. In the meantime, my push towards the small objective behind Hill 182 had hit a snag, there was far more infantry around the objective than I anticipated and all I had was an reduced 2 squad and ammoless platoon moving up along the far left flank, a reduced 2 squad platoon coming from the west and the 88 shellshocked platoon at about two thirds strength coming at it from the south west. I did still have my 2 flamethrowers in the vicinity but both were down to 1 man and therefore extremely fragile. An initial push to the objective directly from the west was easily repulsed with the loss of the remanants of 1 squad, one of the flamethrowers and the second squad reduced to half strangth. I foolishly kept my pitiful platoon on the far left flank in the vicinity of the objective where Tabpub, realising they would be desperately short of ammo, charged at them with a full strength platoon of SS to send them packing with large loss of life. After this setback I realised that al I could hope for was to contest this objective by manouevering my shellshocked platoon to the south east into a position where it could gain LOS to the objective. This I managed to obtain right at the end and with my last flamethrower with his final 2 shots able to flame an area just to the north west of the objective which was enough to cause one of the SS squads to break while the other 4 or so squads I the vicinity were being pinned down by the remains of my 105mm salvo’s. To finish up, I was able to get both my Shermans as close as possible to the large objective with one of the Engineer squads able to debark onto the rough terrain below the flag with its fellow squad somewhat shot up as it debarked into woods south of the rough terrain in order to provide some sort of covering fire. Overall, it was an Allied Tactical Victory with both Hill 182 and Hill 183 objectives in dispute and the remainder under American control .....and still no sign of any Panthers either! Regards Jim R. [ October 05, 2002, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: Kanonier Reichmann ]

Hang on! Either my memory is going or I'd bet my left one that both those bunkers were locked down tight with no ability to re-position them apart from their facing. Am I imagining things here? Regards Jim R. [ October 03, 2002, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: Kanonier Reichmann ]

Firstly, my apologies for what is probably a very confusing AAR but I found this very difficult to write without any significant named landmarks. In the end your head will probably be swimming with all the references to compass positions but all I can say is, I did my best! AAR on “Another Day” A rather interesting challenge is presented with this scenario. It was clear to me from the outset that the map was designed for tank manouevre, utilising whatever terrain was around to each side’s best advantage. This suspicion of mine was further reinforced by the lack of any meaningful objective flags so clearly, there was not to be any great emphasis on capturing terrain as such. The battle started out with my reduced Volksgrenadier Company lying in ambush within 3 main woods areas. The V.G. Rifle platoon (2 squads) were all located in the smallish area of woods south of the east/west road and set a bit back from the two main areas of woods to its south and north. My second platoon (consisting of only 2 SMG squads) were placed in the central woods area to the left and right of the east/west road with vague lines of sight to the open area in front of them to the west. Much to my disgust there was no ability to relocate the 2 HMG teams further back on the map where they could use their ranged fire to best effect since they were padlocked. The final V.G. SMG platoon (once again, only 2 squads) was located in the largish area of woods to the right of the map (from the German perspective). As soon as turn 1 commenced I immediately moved one of my HMG teams further back on the map towards a single tile of woods on my far left flank in order to be able to spot any enemy units that may try and sneak down my southern flank. Then it became a waiting game to see what would be thrown at my meagre initial force. It didn’t take long (turn 4) for first contact to be made when a crappy 4 man H.Q. squad carried out their scouting role to perfection by wandering into the central body of woods (just to the left of the east/west road) into the arms of my waiting SMG squad. It took just under a turn to gun them down but in the process, they provided useful information to Warhammer and they still managed to take down one of my guys in the squad as well. Shortly thereafter the flood arrived with Bazooka teams, running Yankee half squads, medium mg teams and the like all surging forward into the centrally located woods and woods located to the north of the map. My waiting SMG squads were able to inflict some pain on the right most attack as a half squad and 50 cal. MG was caught in the open attempting to cross from one patch of woods to another and was promptly gunned down. While this was going on I was furiously bombarding with 81mm mortar fire, the central woods area to the right of the east/west road as I had previously seen some generic infantry markers appear just before entering the initial woods tree line. I felt it best to simply continue the fire in that general area until out of shells from the FO as it was uncomfortably close to the enemy in order to get some sort of line of sight to the general vicinity of the tree line. Meanwhile, the 2 centrally located SMG squads were not faring all that well as one squad was suddenly confronted by 3 infantry? contacts all at once. The squad was able to fire and hopefully inflict some casualties but I couldn’t be sure due to lack of intelligence. In the meantime my guys lost 3 men from the 8 man squad. While this little firefight was going on a reduced squad had charged around to the right and behind my engaged squad, across an open area and into woods behind their position, basically smack bang into my repositioning platoon HQ. After a few bursts from the HQ, this must have panicked the enemy squad as it then charged out of the forest and onto the east/west road. From this position it was promptly gunned down by the remains of my HQ (down to 2 men) and the 2nd SMG squad that had worked its way through the woods to the south of the main road, back to support their fellow platoon comrades. At roughly the same time my left flank was also engaged in a firefight with 2 American squads which had tried to work their way down my left flank through the wooded area there. My 2 Rifle squads & HQ were able to virtually wipe out 1 squad as it was caught in the open trying to cross to the next patch of woods, however the 2nd one did manage to reach its destination and get to woods roughly south east of my position and behind it. At the same time a Sherman appeared roughly half way through the turn and some 80 metres away with a direct line of sight to my HQ and Rifle squad. It managed to reduce my previously untouched Rifle squad to 4 men plus they became pinned in the process. How I wished at this stage of the battle that the scenario designer had provided my force with at least a couple of Panzerschreck teams to start with but it was not gonna happen! By roughly turns 8 to 10 my 2 Rifle platoons on my left flank and the 2 SMG platoons in the central woods were being overwhelmed by weight of numbers and Shermans appearing from all directions. My entire V.G. Rifle platoon was obliterated by around turn 12 from multiple fires from at least 3 to 4 squads plus 2 Shermans lending assistance while my centrally located SMG squads were also overwhelmed by squads appearing mainly from the west and north of their positions. The one bright spot was that my 2 remaining SMG squads and HQ were doing a sterling job of gunning down enemy squads that appeared in their sights as they attempted to flank their position through the northern edge of the right most forest. Full squads were being reduced to half squads while my 2 SMG platoons had only taken 1 casualty each although the HQ was looking a bit fragile with only 2 men left. While all this was going on I had been moving my 2 Tiger I reinforcements along the north/south road and then roughly west to sit behind a band of woods to the east of the main body of forest located on my right flank where my 2 SMG squads were inflicting pain on the enemy. I had already identified by now at least 6 enemy tanks either directly or via sound contacts so I had no intention of placing my only 2 AFV assets in areas where there were multiple lines of sight to their position. I decided it best to relocate my Tigers when heavy artillery started falling around their position so I reversed both units into positions roughly behind the next band of woods east of their initial position. By now my 2nd lot of reinforcements had arrived consisting of a full V.G. company which I promptly deployed roughly two thirds to the south of the east/west road and one third (SMG platoon) to the north of the road. The southern force were to run towards the main body of woods located east of the north/south road and set up ambush locations using an SMG platoon augmented by 1 Rifle squad commanded by the Company HQ. This left the depleted Rifle platoon to take up positions in a patch of woods just north of the rear most MG bunker. This bunker had long since been destroyed by a Sherman from approx. 800 metres away which had immediately spotted it on first gaining LOS to the area despite the bunker allegedly hiding. Same went for my forward most MG bunker but at least it had managed to loose of a few shots first before dying ingloriously. The remaining SMG platoon were to set up ambush positions in the main body of woods north of the east/west road and roughly in line with the rear most MG bunker, for the expected rush by the American infantry to capture the remaining objective flag. Turns 14 to 17 were relatively uneventful apart from the fleeing remnants of my initial force being gunned down as they attempted to retreat from their forward positions. On turn 14 (from memory) my 2nd batch of 2 Tiger I’s appeared whereupon I decided to split them up. One was to move fast to the north west to reach the gap between the map edge and the main forest body north of the east/west road, then achieve a hull down position facing west. The other was to move fast to the south west to reach a point roughly alongside my rear most knocked out bunker, and achieve hull down status facing roughly north west. Meanwhile, my forward most Tigers were decidedly too far forward for my liking so I had been continually reversing them to positions roughly in line with the north/south road and over towards my right flank to face the oncoming hordes of Shermans. On turn 18 I got a bit lucky with one of my forward Tigers which had worked its way around the south eastern corner of the woods on my far right flank right alongside the north/south road. It was able to draw a bead on a Sherman 75 that was going for a charge down the northern edge of the same forest and killed it with the first shot from around 75 metres away. That very same turn, my later arriving reinforcing Tiger hunting up the ridge alongside the rear most bunker managed to obtain a line of sight to another Sherman 75 roughly south of my forward KO'd bunker and behind a band of woods. First shot missed, second shot was a gun hit and the third shot found its mark as the target furiously tried to reverse away and lay down smoke, but all too late. Turn 20 was to become the turning point in the game. It began with one of my forward Tigers on the extreme right flank located just north of the previously mentioned woods nearest the north/south road and roughly 15 metres west of the road. I knew there was a 76mm armed Sherman roughly south west of his position out of LOS on the other side of the woods but only about 50 metres away. I knew this because we had traded shots at each other the previous turn with two of my shots missing at that approximate distance while the 2nd 76mm shot hit the front of the Tiger's turret but luckily ricocheted away. A second 75mm armed Sherman was also just west of my position close to its 76mm armed partner but with no line of sight due to intervening woods. I knew that Warhammer’s plan would be to simultaneously charge down both flanks of my Tiger either side of the east/west running body of woods. One thing I was hoping he didn't know about was my late arriving hull down reinforcement Tiger located further east that I had rushed to the gap east of the north/south road on my right flank. My other more centrally located forward Tiger also had a bead on the 76mm Sherman as it was working its way down the southern side of the east/west woods but it was awfully exposed in its position in a small dip in open ground just east of the north/south road. The turn did not start well when my more central forward Tiger with a bead already on the 76mm Sherman missed from about 100 metres away while the return fire soon after hit its mark first shot and I was minus one Tiger. At the same time I had hunted my 2nd forward Tiger on the extreme right flank in a southerly direction, straight towards the intervening woods in order to achieve a rear shot on that offending Sherman 76 through the foliage at around 50 metres distance. I was praying that my covering Tiger to the east would protect it from the 75mm Sherman that was bound to charge east past the rear of my hunting Tiger as it attempted to take out its immediate protagonist. Sure enough, my hunting Tiger managed to line up the 76mm Sherman that had just destroyed his comrade in arms, for a first shot kill through the woods hitting the rear of the tank. Meanwhile, right on cue the 75mm Sherman began its charge to outflank me to the north but it didn’t count on my hull-down Tiger further back which managed a hit at around 200 metres for a non lethal gun kill. The Sherman continued its eastern bound charge as it was now out of sight of its protagonist due to 2 clumps of intervening woods tiles but then came into view of my recently victorious Tiger at around 30 metres! It could do nothing of course because of the gun kill while the turret on my Tiger slowly wheeled around to hit the Sherman in the rear as it sped past from spitting distance range. To further improve my day on this particular turn, a 2nd 76mm armed Sherman had appeared a little south of its now defunct comrade and heading fast in a easterly direction, crossing the north/south roadway. Luckily for me my remaining Tiger located alongside the rear bunker had hunted forward along the plateau it was sited on and was able to achieve line of sight to this 2nd potential Tiger killer Sherman. First shot from about 400 metres away found its mark and the two main threats to my remaining Tigers had just been removed in the one turn. From there on in I felt a bit sorry for Warhammer because I was pretty certain he only had 75mm armed Shermans for his remaining 3 tanks which would make it very difficult for him to make much headway against my equal number of Tigers, provided I was careful with not getting too close to his Bazooka teams for flank shots. I knew that he had already lost 2 Zook teams so I was counting on him only having a third to worry about. From this point on I simply progressively hunted my Tigers slowly westwards while my late arriving Volksgrenadier Company worked its way forward as well, but ahead of the rear most 2 Tigers to the east. My forward located Tiger was able to move up with some confidence towards the northern loctaed large body of woods situated on the large ridge closest to the American jump off point. The reason for this confidence was that I still had the remnants of an SMG squad (3 men left) hiding in the middle of the woods along with its single man HQ. Warhammer had been in a rush to keep his men moving ever eastwards during turns 14 to 20 or so and had not managed to clear this area completely. Therefore, this pitiful remnant was able to spot for any potential Bazooka teams as my Tiger moved forward. This Tiger was able to reach a point just east of this large wooded area and facing south to trap the 3 remaining Shermans that were trying to avoid my 2 steadily advancing eastern located Tigers. These "Ronsons" were hiding behind the large body of scattered trees and assorted buildings near the junction of the 2 roads. Inevitably, the over matched Shermans were picked off by my 3 Tigers with each able to claim one kill although one was probably a bit lucky on the part of my most enfilading Tiger. The last Sherman was charging flat strap in an easterly direction along the road to escape the tightening net when my southern facing Tiger was able to just squeeze the one shot off in time as it crossed its path from around 300 metres away before disappearing into the heavily wooded pass. It reached the pass but unfortunately for my opponent, somewhat worse for wear. By turn 28 my forces were mopping up the remains of Warhammer's, with his last shot at knocking off one of my Tigers snuffed out by my heroic 3 man SMG squad that had managed to survive the whole game. Right at the end this motley remnant was able to kill his last remaining Bazooka team in hand to hand combat at very close range with no ammo remaining. After that tussle, the game auto-surrendered with an Axis Major Victory and the score at 80 to 20. Overall, I would have to agree with Holien on the observation that the scenario clearly favours the Germans, provided one is careful with the precious Tigers. I was a tad lucky to get away with the victory I did because I almost left my initial 2 Tigers high and dry, too far forward and exposed but managed to extricate one of them through a bit of good fortune. From my point of view it was a tense and enjoyable game but I can appreciate that Warhammer may not agree due to the overmatching of the Tigers against 75mm armed Shermans on a fairly narrow map. Regards Jim R.

A beautifully written AAR Jon S. Thanks for taking the time and effort for writing such a coherent and easily understood description of the battle. You're shaming me to ensure I try and put something together that is at least intelligible on this particular scenario. Regards Jim R.

Bloody hell! And there you were tabpub thinking it was our game that was holding up the works. To think, all that stress I could have avoided if I hadn't listened to your nagging. Regards Jim R.

What does RA stand for? Registered Antipodean? Regards Jim R.

That reminded me H. In my game I had an imposing defence of the German main flag consisting of a previously broken crew of 5 men. Still, at least they had some pistol ammo! Regards Jim R.

Not in N.Z. it isn't! They have their own weird way of pronouncing it. Regards Jim R.

All ah cun say is....LOOKSURY! Regards Jim R.

So much for the mule train eh Speedy? BTW, mine arrived today as well. Looks like Sth. Oz. received them in bulk all on the same day since a mate of mine in Adelaide also received his today on the front doorstep. No time to talk... must check out new time vortex software. Regards Jim R.

Yes, the views expressed by a certain 2 previous individuals basically along the lines of I've got my copy Jack so the rest of you can whistle Dixie smells just a tad of smugness in the extreme. Unbelievable! Regards Jim R.

This was a fascinating scenario that presented all sort of challenges, especially the setup. I decided to pretty much use the force split up the Germans were dealt in terms of where they should be placed but obviously tinkered a bit with the placements. One big dissappointment for me was that the two Volksgrenadier platoons that I placed at the foot of the hill to Lucio were spotted right from the outset by a lone scouting Bazooka team and so my element of surprise was gone right from the outset. Due to this situation I probably panicked a bit and decided to try and take on Lucio without the element of surprise, since the briefing suggested it would be wise to do so before the Panzergrenadier re-inforcements arrived. BIG MISTAKE! They ended up getting slaughtered as the defending French troops were masterfully held back from firing too soon (no doubt through judicious use of ambush markers) and the full two platoons were basically slaughtered for no figgin result! In my defence, I felt I had to move when I did as I could see a platoons worth of halftracks laden with troops coming from Castelano (sp?) and heading towards Lucio full bore so I thought now or never. The problem was the complete lack of supporting fire from ny gun assets as I felt I had to keep them hidden from likely mortar positions from across the valley. When the 76mm armed Sherman also decided to appear into the scattered trees to the right of Lucio (from my perspective) I was able to finally open up with the 75mm RCL and the 75mm Inf. Gun to take it out. still, I thought it a very poor trade for the loss of basically 2 whole platoons worth of smg armed troops. Things started to pick up on my left flank when I was also able to remove Jeff Wilder's pesky 75mm armed Sherman situated on the hill above the "ambush zone" on the turn his re-inforcements arrived. I had held back a 105mm RCL in ambush just waiting for the re-inforcements we just knew were going to rock up at one stage or another, with the view to unmask it on the relavent turn to take out the Sherman and prevent it from interdicting my ambush too much. It achieved that part but not much else since it was promptly destroyed by the third remaining Sherman that had been judiciously placed well back in scattered trees half way up the hill and behind Castelano. Well out of range of any of my RCL's! The ambush went well with 2 Trucks, 2 Halftracks, all 3 Jeeps and the 2 supporting light AFV's destroyed. Funnily enough, my Rocket spotter had a hand in this destruction by luckily dropping some of its load into the general area without hitting my 2 squads and Panzerschrecks there in the woods yet being responsible for taking out 2 jeeps and a halftrack from memory. Blind luck I'd suggest as it was always a risky proposition from my point of view. From there on in I basically had to bide my time until the re-inforcing Pzgrenadiers arrived and hope it would be sufficient to take on Lucio. I had decided from the outset not to tackle the central hill with my company of Gebirgsjagers until the last 8 turns or so, hoping that all my opponents artillery would be used up by then. The plan kind of worked although the arrival of the TWO (I'm pretty sure, it sure seemed like the equivalent of two) fighter bombers messed me up a bit in terms of blasting my Pzgrenadier re-inforcements on the very turn they arrived as well as continually stafing my Gebirgsjagers as they made their approach to the hill, luckily minus their bombload though. As it turned out, my Pzgrenadiers were able to mostly climb the hill into Lucio without too many casualties due to the working over I had been giving to the town with my 75mm & 105mm RCL's (the 105mm RCL was doing it from my far left flank on top of the mountain, approximately 1 km away). The timing of the twin assault onto the 2 small objective flags worked out in my favour in the end, probably more by good luck than good management, and I was able to secure them both on the last turn with most of the French troops in the area either panicked or routed from the vicinity. It ended up being a tactical victory to the Germans, but only just. From my perspective, I found the game both intensely frustrating and yet somehow alluring to the point where you just had to catch the next turn a.s.a.p. I seemed to go from one low to a high then to another low etc, almost turn by turn. I certainly thoroughly commend the scenario designer for making such a challenging and intensive scenario with the obvious effort put into the map design well appreciated. Regards Jim R.

I have to agree with you there tabpub. I was incredibly lucky with my 60mm mortar fire against your 88's. I counted 3 88's taken out by my puny mortars (with virtually no casualties to your crews I gather) while the other 3 88's were taken out by firstly, my 57mm AT gun!!, a Sherman I luckily halted just short of a direct line of sight to your gun and thirdly, a 155mm airburst. Although they certainly did chew up my infantry and especially my initial platoon of Engineers, I was happy with the trade-off in the end. My plan was to basically secure the heights to the right and left of the town and once done, then hit the built up area from both flanks. I felt the main objective area was too far away to worry about and I would have settled for the minor flags only. My plan had to quickly be changed when I lost too much infantry on my left flank (to those 2 initial 88's of yours) and I decided to then settle for simply attempting to capture the objective area on the left hand heights. I was able to capture the right hand heights without too many losses except ammo was starting to run a bit low for some of my troops. When the re-inforcing Engineer platoon and 155mm Arty Spotter arrived this simply made my task easier to hit the town from not only the heights on the right but also down the middle. Once I had secured the town I felt, bugger it! I'll have a shot at the main objective as well since there seemed to be a hell of alot of resistance on my left flank and I was definitely struggling to make much headway on that small objective flag. I loaded two almost untouched infantry squads onto my 2 remaining mobile Shermans and charged up the hill along with whatever able bodied troops I had left, on foot. Despite your remaining infantry certainly chewing up one of my two mounted squads, the other one was able to get close enough to the objective, along with a fairly exhausted Company HQ, to cause it to be classified as contested at the end. I was very lucky with that last minute charge and I'd have to agree, my artillery spotters were amazingly accurate in putting down fire onto reasonably tight areas without causing damage to my nearby troops. It was just one of those days out I think. Regards Jim R.