Holien

My AAR... Set-up Well this is a really nice map and has loads of atmosphere. A small town off set slightly to my right with large wooded hills on the right and left with a road running through the town. I get plenty of set up room and the attacker is left with few areas not observed by sections of my set up zones. Two set up zones the first is my initial screen with snipers and a few LMG’s. The second is the main defence area with five flags. Two are in the town. One on the right hill and one on the left hill above the town. The last is on a hill quite some distance back slightly off right from the mid line. The defence force can not hope to cover all the main approaches of attack. I have 7 platoons and 6 88mm Vet AA guns with plenty of HE, some wire and AT mines and various LMG’s and Shrecks. I would guess with all this hardware and the promise of a mobile reserve this is going to be a big game and I am going to be under the cosh. I need a solid defence against Tero as he has a good reputation and I need to do double the damage on him. My men are on the whole green or worse with only two platoons of Vet SS and 1 Crack Engineer. One of these is fixed into place some way out of the town and blocking the far rear flag. While I have a TRP I do not have any off board spotters and only two 81mm onboard mortars. This is not good, as I am sure to be bombed to hell and back by the attacker. Well after a long time looking at the map from all angles I decide that I can not hold all the flags and something is going to have to give. My plan is to give up the left flag above the town, as this seems to be the approach he might take. I place the TRP near that flag to give him some hell if he does go that route. My 88mm AA guns are the game winners if I can use them well I stand a chance of stopping him and winning. This means that I have to have some good LOS and the chance for them to survive without being taken out too quickly by arty rounds. These have to be positioned so that they have limited LOS front on and all (but one) are sighted so that they cover the left-hand side of the map with one near the Town woods on the left side of the hill the town rests on. I split the 6 platoons I have control over between the Town hill and the one on the far Right. One SS platoon will hold the Town while the other will act as the central core on the right flank. I hope t be able to control the right flank and then switch reserves to the Town. If the main attack comes on the right then at least I will have a strong force there to meet it and can then bring up the Engineers once they have rested. The left flank and the town are beefed up with wire and HMG teams. I set up the screen force to try and spot what the enemy has and to slow down their advance. Snipers are to the fore and on the far left I position a LMG and the HQ unit. The Reality The first turn I see a ½ track and at least a platoon if not more on the far-left flank. I see nothing on my right. This looks like it will be a left flank push full on. I just hope that I can weather it and my 88mm guns do their duty. I combine my units and next turn will re adjust my defences so they really do face his attack. I just hope he uses his artillery in some Pre Attack bombing on those empty woods. I will start pulling back some snipers before they get over run. Right at least a company coming on my left flank and several vehicles. I pull back another sniper, no point in losing them for nothing. I move my Crack Engineers over to my left flank they have poor FP but they should help shore up that flank. They are still weary but I need to get them over there to rest before the attack hits in two or three turns, maybe longer if I can help it. No movement on my right and clear views in that area. I pull back a LMG to draw fire and reinforce my Main flag, which has no one there at the moment. I just hope my reserves arrive near there. The next couple of turns see me lose a Vet LMG for the loss of two his men. A Conscript Sniper gets popped and I think my Crack Sniper got a T/C. The main thrust is coming on my left flank and it is at least a company if not more. I have nothing in that area to stop him and he drops a turn of 81mm Mortars on some of my likely positions. I just hope he keeps that up, as I want him to waste as much as possible on empty woods. Sooner or later he will twig but at the moment I have him guessing and that is good, as it should waste time. The right flank I consider pulling back a platoon and settle on a Volks squad with the company HQ. Just as well as the gamey so and so does have troops on my right. He exposes a flamer as gun bait and I am surprised that my crack Sniper does not take the bait. Then he pulls out an AT team ahead of the flamer. Hmmm AT and Flamer recon LOL. I would guess he has some engineers there and not much else, time will tell. Well the T/C is not down and out and pops out with his fingers raised in defiance. My Crack Sniper takes another shot and I think misses again. In Return he is spotted and it is a good job I had him plotted to run away which he does. I spot a towed gun on the right flank. On the left flank my sniper takes a pop at an infantry unit and scores a hit and the unit promptly dies. Hmm I wonder what that could have been. ROFL a sniper takes a sniper He He He… My guy then pulls back. I see I have some visitors on that right flank so will not pull back any more men. I continue with moving the engineers and I am now blind on my left flank until he hits the MLR. I prey for reserves soon. What I need most are some Arty Spotters. The next turn my Crack sniper who has taken one of his comes under fire and it is a good job I had him running away. A full squad of GI’s comes charging at his last position… RUN AWAY… As he runs up the hill a spotting round falls into the woods I am about to switch position to. Hmmm I feel he might not survive too long. Nothing seen on my left flank and I can only guess that he is proceeding with caution I expect to see men on the hill in the next few turns. I am very nervous about my strategy and it could have been a bad one, ahh well you make your bed and now I must lie in it. This turn a HMG unit that I was switching into a position to support the expected main line of attack was broken by long distance mg fire from my right flank. This supports my belief that he is using his left flank to support the main attack on the town by coming through the woods up over the hill and down into the town. At least my engineers are now out of sight and should have some time to recover before they are needed. Next few turns see more infantry appear on my right flank and he moves up his MG teams from the wood. I just sit and wait and prey that I have enough to repulse him in the MLR. We are now a ¼ the way through the game, still no sight of any reinforcements. The next major development is the bombarding of the town by some heavy artillery. I would guess 105mm as it does some damage but is not destroying the buildings. Two turns land in the town and this is good news as it is pretty much wasted. He is still scouting the empty woods on my left and I think he is getting confused about what I might have. The real development is on my right flank. He sends up a platoon of two Vets and one Regular squad into my first ambush position. His probe falls between my reduced Volks platoon and the SS Platoon. This helps me as I can bring to bear some impressive firepower. I was a bit worried, as the first turn he seemed to have the upper hand. However, next turn he withdraws the units (or tries) and this causes them to run in the open and back to some scattered trees. Bad news for them as they take some serious losses as they do this. We are now a 1/3 through the turns and he has one Vet squad down to 3 men and they are burying their heads in the dirt. He has a reduced Regular squad, which is also in trouble. They have their heads down and two Vet SS units on top of them. The only squad offering any resistance is in light trees with the HQ unit behind them. They are down to 6 men and I feel they will be being pulled back further next turn. I order my men to take up the advantage and pursue to destroy the platoon. I will need to be careful to ensure that I do not fall into a counter ambush. I think hard about my options and after some consideration I order an attack. I feel that this is the light flank in his attack and that he has much of his forces on the left flank. If I can push down into his support weapons and artillery spotters, I might seriously upset his advance and cause some upset in his overall attack as he tries to counter this push. I have a platoon to act as rearguard if it all goes “Tom Dick”. Also by doing so it might encourage him to push on down to the town with extra haste which will play into my hands. He might think that I have the town lightly defended. The next turn goes reasonably well and I encircle his reduced platoon. One section makes a run for it off into the woods and I spot a Flamer and MG team moving up the hill. By the end of the turn a squad jumps me on my left who causes some casualties on an SS squad that continues to move rather than return fire. I do a quick tally and so far I have lost around 16 men to his 30 plus. On the far-left flank his troops make the crest of the hill and start looking down into town. The town continues to take a mixed 81mm and 105mm barrage and cause an odd casualty. I just hope my green Volks can hold him back. The next turn I plot for my remaining platoon on the right flank to join the battle raging in the woods. I need to bring everything to bear if I am not to be cut down bit by bit. These men have some open ground to cover, which is covered by a Sherman on the opposite hill. I use a couple of the 88’s to provide a smoke screen. This might reveal the guns but I feel that the time is close arriving when I will need to do that and I need to give my green men a bit of cover. I target the flamer with all the FP I can muster and know that there is another one wandering around as well. This could well mean that there are two engineer platoons in the area as well as this reduced platoon. My SS platoon is badly reduced but I order one squad to rush the position where the American HQ squad and two other reduced squads plus flamer is. I hope to get close to the flamer if I can not take it out with my FP. The next turn is vicious and I manage to wipe out the two reduced squads and the HQ unit. The Flamer buys it as well. The MG takes one man and heads for the woods and sets up again. Another American Infantry squad flanks my force in the woods and I reckon I could be up against some engineers. I also have the second flamer amble into sight and they lose one man. By the end of the turn I have a smoke screen to protect my two green Volks squads which are just about to run across the open ground to the woods. My Co HQ was ordered to pick up command of these two units and is blocked by the newly arrived American squad. I just hope I can get him through. A new infantry threat is identified in some woods to the left of the current battle and comes under fire from my 88 near the town on the opposite side of the valley. This could be a third platoon involved in the attack on my right flank. I need to deal with this once I have finished off his troops in the wood, if I can achieve this. My SS squads are ordered to target the flamer and ensure that he is taken out before continuing the battle with the enemy infantry squads. On my left flank things have gone pear shaped as my Volks open up on the Americans on the woods edge. I lose three men and the squad breaks and runs. I have given away my positions for little. The only benefit is that there are at least two American units directly under my TRP and this was targeted by my two 81mm mortars. I hope for a few deaths from tree bursts. On my far left I have a platoon threat against my sniper and HQ unit. I am going to have to pull back. This is wide open and all I have are the two 88’s covering that approach. I just hope that they can hold back any American advance across this exposed valley floor. I know they have at least one vehicle as back up and could have tanks. I need those tanks to show themselves soon. The next turn I open up with another hidden 88 so that is three revealed depending on how well he spots them. One adds (I hope) some more smoke in front of the Sherman but it might disobey as it did last time. The new one is targeted at troops above the town. All the HMG’s are targeted at the revealed infantry, they are in good cover but I hope to dent his attack force so that my SS men in the town stand some chance. I feel that I am going to lose the battle unless I get some good reinforcements to pad out my weak defences. The next few turns are a blur and are covered by the next few paragraphs. The battle on my right flank takes a turn for the worse. My CO HQ is wiped out in return for a measly three of Americans. Only one Volks squad makes it across to the main battle and gets ambushed by an American squad running across to join the battle. The other squad thinks better of crossing after being hit by MG fire from the Sherman. I have to pull him and his HQ squad deeper into the woods to avoid any further trouble. My 88 above the town reduce a squad near that battle and force it to flee. One of the SS squads is wiped out and the other two are down to 3 men and not much ammo. They manage to wipe out and American HQ unit and force a CO HQ unit to flee. The two Volks squads and HQ unit try and finish off the MMG but only get it down to two men before running out of ammo. I order them into HTH range and closer towards the American start line. This and the SS men are going to try and draw the Americans into a pursuit back towards their lines. This will delay their advance and while I might lose my men I might bog down his right flank attack. The alternative is to retreat and I will be in the same position. Good news is that I get a platoon of SS vets in trucks and they are sent to beef up my right flank, as they can not possibly get safely to the town. I also get a 75mm Spotter and he targets the TRP as soon as he jumps out of the truck. I get a 76mm AT gun and Marder II, which are sent towards the large flag, which is just reached by the single Volks squad and Zhreck team. These will fall under command of my Crack CO HQ once he finishes with the Mortars and 88mm under his command. On my far-left flank a Jeep appears with a flamer on it and my sniper forces it to dismount and then takes on a 60mm mortar team. I am spotted and bug out after taking a few shots. This should worry him and force him to spend time clearing those woods. I keep the 88’s on that flank hidden until I see any tanks appear. That or I get numerous Infantry targets in the open. The main battle switches to the trees above the town. The town takes continuos 81mm mortar and perhaps some 105mm or 75mm hits. One of these hits my 88 in those trees and takes him out. Several houses are close to collapse and a HMG and sniper pull out to find another home. My mortars target the TRP and I see a three-man squad representation reduced to two so I am having and effect. My 88’s on the opposite valley are hurting him and I see some more squads reduced. Suddenly against my platoon of Volks on the left middle of the town as you look up the hill come under attack from four platoons marching in close order in the woods. His artillery is now falling all around and I guess he has no clear LOS and is hurting his own troops. I reduce several of the squads and I am hurting him more than he is me. The next turn I target three 88’s on that cluster of men and I hope the HE will work wonders on that close knit target. So far my green Volks are holding up and I have my crack engineers on his flank ready to rush him at the right time. I unhide them so they can pick off any of his troops coming out into the open ground if they break from the 88’s. As yet my 88’s on the opposite side of the valley have been untargeted and I hope I can keep up the volume of fire to stall his attack. If he does get through my SS men and a good leader are pretty much intact in the town, as they have been hidden in their foxholes. At turn 18 I am still just about holding on and I hope that he does not get too much more to throw at me. That or I get more reinforcements. The next turn I manage to get my reduced SS squads and HQ away from his forces on my right flank and move down the hill. My Volks squads are out of ammo and bayonet the 2 men left manning the MMG that had fled me. These squads and the HQ unit move down the hill. He has a choice either to pursue me or risk me getting up to no good behind him and I know what I would do. I might be able to mug some of his troops as he pursues me. I get positive ID on the unit I killed in the woods and it was another HQ unit. This means he has to rely on his CO HQ. The trucks with my new SS men race up the hill to help reinforce this side. On the far left my snipe takes a few pot shots at the mortar and then legs it. I see a couple of Infantry unit’s chase into my woods. Time to leave by the rear I think. The main battle above the town is not going as well as it could. He hits my Volks platoon mob handed with at least two platoons and another races across the open ground. I cause quite a few casualties and wipe one squad out. In return I lose one full Volks squad and the other two of that platoon break. The HQ unit is still active and will be pulled back. My 88’s fail to deliver the shock I wanted. I guess his units are too close to mine and they refuse to fire into that melee. Next turn I hope my men die quickly so that they will open up. A Sherman who crests a ridgeline engages one of the 88’s. The Sherman let loose with 4 shots and I return fire with 3 rounds. I only have 3 rounds of AP left. I have the Vet crew in command of a +1 Combat HQ. My 4 shot should be before the Sherman lets loose with his next round. I should be on maximum chance and at 600m that Sherman should be on his way out. You have to love this game when it does this to you. My Crack engineers open up on the flanks of the massed Americans and seem to do little. One squad catches a HQ unit and full squad in the open. Rather than hurting them, they take four casualties. That hurt. I am going to have to open up with the two hidden 88’s to help balance that duel. I have heard a tank heading for the gap on the far left and the 88’s should be able to take him on when he appears. My 75mm Spotter runs up the hill and he has about 20 seconds before his rounds start to fall. I think they are going to be off mark but I might get lucky with any units he has hanging back from the main assault. He is also going to move in a position to cover that line of attack directly. My Crack sniper in the town dies and his damn artillery shells are still falling. I am going to have to move my SS men over to the left to cover the approach being taken by the attackers if my 88’s can not stop that attack. The HMG’s continue to harry his attack. I would guess that this is a Battalion attack and so far I have accounted for maybe three (certainly two) platoons on the right flank and four or five on the left. There will be at least three Shermans and should be some ½ tracks. So far I have a good chance of holding him back as his artillery has mostly been wasted and he has had vast quantities of that. If I can hold the attack above the town I stand a chance of getting a draw or victory. If he loses any of his Shermans that will help me stack up some points. I hope his artillery is mostly used up as I could do with moving some troops about now. My fourth shot from my 88 hits home and I breathe a big sigh of relief. That duel was just too much to handle. What amazed me was that at 600m and on my fourth shot I only had a 40% chance of hitting showing on the LOS tool. I guess that the Sherman being hull down helped reduce the hit chance. The right flank sees little movement. I see the platoon used to break my counter attack is still in the area I just left and none of his forces are chasing my men. The single Volks Squad I split and sent running down the hill takes no fire and I might be out of view from his forces. I will send the HQ and other squad down there next turn. The reduced SS platoon (dangerously so) will remain in an Ambush position and hopefully score some small victories on his remaining troops. My trucks with the new guys continue moving up the hill. I hope I can unload before any damn planes appear. The battle above the town continues and two squads assault my platoon of Volks on the right, as you look up the hill. The third one was cut down and these remaining two take a lot of casualties. I think my guys might hold there. I do hear a tank approaching but that will have to come into view of my 88’s and even then my guys are positioned to be out of view behind the trees. The platoon in the middle loses a second squad and the three men of the third squad continue their rout away from the melee. My HQ unit is pulled back and seems to be in good order. His attack there is stalled and at least one unit has broken and is doing a headless run into the open. My HMG’s greet his men and further reduce that squad. The area around his men is clear of mine and my 88’s should start to have an effect if they can get a decent LOS. The 75mm spotter is pretty puffed after his marathon run up the hill and his rounds start falling in the area. I get an odd Tree burst and this helps mess up the attack. On the far-left flank my mortars use all their smoke and it seems wasted as the mortar teams are moved along the ridge out of the blocking laid by the smoke. I am going to have to target those mortars with some 88’s as they could dampen my chance of winning. The sniper takes a few pot shots and causes a mortar team to stop and a squad to return fire. The HQ with it runs behind the wall and makes it to the other section of woods. I think my sniper’s life is at an end as I don’t think he will be so lucky crossing that open ground and there is a squad in the same woods not too far from him. At least he has tied up some of the attacking force on a merry hunt. My crack engineer squad takes another 3 men as casualties before pulling down below the ridgeline. This is from a hidden American squad in front of him. This platoon has a HQ unit, which was targeted by 3 88’s and is now down to 2 men and a tad nervous as is the squad just below him. This American platoon is a bit exposed and should start pulling back if I can apply some more DF on them. The town continues to take artillery fire and takes down a weakened building with no men in it. If Tero loses this game it will be in part down to his poor use of artillery. It really has been wasted and done little. If he had prepped the woods my men were in he would have been in the town drinking at the bars by now. I know he has problems sighting the woods but even un-sighted would have been better than nothing. As it is now, his troops are too close and he can not risk it. With the amount of time he has he could have held back the attack to allowed for this to happen. He has now made comments about the number of guns and that this might win it for me. Bang on the money I have to get leverage from those guns or I am dead meat. Fire on lads, fire on. The next few tuns were taken over the weekend and have merged into the next few paragraphs. On the right flank I ambush a squad of infantry and a suspected HQ unit rushing through the open heading to the town. This was performed by my solitary squad of green Volks well out of command of my HQ, which had to pull back with the other squad out of harms way. I hope to capitalise on this and send my men to get closer but they take DF from the suspected Sherman and a new squad of infantry. They break and run. At least I caused maybe three losses and slowed his progress. The LMG unit helps with the ambush but is also broken by the Sherman. It looks like I have a reduced squad (1 man representation) a near full squad and a HQ on the way from my right to the Town. They have a lot of ground to cover so I have some time yet. The remaining American forces are spotted moving forward led by the CO HQ. This is moving towards my new Vet SS platoon and the Volks HQ with reduced Squad backed up by two Shrecks. If I can get a good ambush this will be enough to stop this thrust and throw it back. Now that I know the CO HQ has moved away from my badly reduced SS platoon I shall move them back to come behind the Americans moving forward. That should help break him quicker. The Reduced Volks Platoon on his baseline continue searching for Arty Spotters to mug. I se that he is redeploying a MG to counter that threat. I hope my men cause enough of a nuisance to disrupt him further. The battle to the right above the town between my Volks platoon and an American platoon is progressing well. I lose two squads but in return I have destroyed one of his, reduced another to one man and the third is down to three men. A flamer that was moving over to support the attack was mown down by my Crack HMG team (now down to three men) and while he has his HQ unit still intact I have two HMG’s pouring 150 FP a turn on the units remaining. The other area of concern is where my other Volks platoon was positioned. Multiple reduced enemy squads now occupy these positions and they are firing on my troops in the Church. I target the area with 75mm Arty and this starts falling. Once I have suppressed his troops there my SS men in the Church will sally forth and cut down any survivors. Well that is the plan. The SS platoon is still intact despite continually arty falling in the area. The last turn I hear an ominous sound and it is bloody big shells coming in. I guess 155mm at least. This has been a field day for American Artillery. 81mm (2 at least) 1 x 105mm and 1 x 155mm would be my guess. If any of this hits I am in the poo. So far I have been lucky. My Crack Engineers squad on the left side of the hill above the Town get taken apart by his Vet Squad and I lose one squad outright. I do however notice that his squad is most probably out of C&C and has his head down. I send the two remaining crack squads and after a volley of satchel charges the American squad hits the dirt but not before killing 4 of my men. I send one squad, which has run out of ammo into HTH range, and the other provides supporting fire. That finishes off that American squad and his platoon on my left has now a 2-man HQ unit and a 5-man squad with another that has broken and is fleeing. I could win that battle if I can get an 88mm on target. Talking of my 88’s. I lose another to accurate 60mm fire and that means I have only three left. One has not been spotted yet and I am keeping him hidden to help out on my far-left flank. The other two are known and one is a good position while the other will only come into it’s own if he gets into the Town. These two guns are under threat from his limited forces on my right flank. His 60mm mortars all seem to be on the left flank and I destroy one of them. The other three come under fire from an 88 towards the end of the latest turn. I just hope to get a good blast to take the two out at the same time. I see another flamer moving up on the left flank and I hope I can deal with him like the three that have been wiped out so far. Bad news for my Marder III. It engages a ½ track and misses. The ½ track has a gun in tow so I target the area with HE in the hope of a knock out. What was just behind it was a TD or Sherman and this gets a good hit on me and puts me out of action. I was using that Marder to plug the gap on the left where he can get vehicles through and behind the town. I had also two 88’s but one of those died from mortar fire. My remaining 88 are hidden and I hope to get a clear shot on his Tank before losing it. The other hope is my AT gun, but that is slowly being pushed up the hill as it bailed from the truck too early. Hmm bad mistake on my part. I should have kept it with the truck longer. I hope I get some more armour before the game is out. Which is about 14 turns to go. My HQ unit and sniper on the far left are playing a game of dodge with maybe a pursuing HQ and Squad? I am pulling them back to a large bit of wood with quite a bit of open ground to reach it. I will make a short stand there before pulling back up the hill. I still have my Crack CO HQ in the area and this will be used to control my Volks squad and Shreck team on the Hill with my main Flag. So far I have given him a bloody nose and I might have done enough to win. If I can top a second tank and stop him getting into the Town it might be enough. His threat to me is on my right flank and I am hoping that my SS Vets can work their magic. He might think I am weak on that side and come charging in, especially after seeing my two units flee from his path. This is of course only valid if I have seen all his attackers. I think I have but if he has any untouched platoons then that will maybe push me over the edge. The next turn I am hit by yet more heavy shells on the town. One grouping of shells takes out two light tall buildings and a small building in one go. Not a problem as I had no men in there and the men in the Church seem to be bearing up ok. My Crack HMG crew left a badly damaged building into one which was not damaged. That new one is set on fire and they have to lug the MG out of the building. They are getting a bit pissed off carrying all that stuff between the two of them. The Americans up the hill from this part of my defence have two one man squads and a HQ unit with a Zooka team. I should be able to hold them off with my HQ unit, two reduced HMG’s and a 5 man Green Volks Squad. The other battle in the woods above the church has seen no movement this turn. The Americans are slowly being reduced and my 75mm Arty must be keeping their heads down. A Vet Engineer squad breaks and runs out into the open to be helped on the way by my HMG crew in the Church. My SS Squad fix bayonets and get ready to rush the woods as the last of the 75mm shells hit. I know there are at least three reduced American squads and a couple of HQ units up there. They should be on the verge of collapse after the two turns of Artillery hitting them. My Crack engineers reduce the American HQ down to one man before pulling back below the crest of the hill. The two squads and the HQ will join the rush on woods with my SS squads. Being hit from two sides should help break what he has left in that section of the woods. I am a bit nervous as a section of woods I have to move through have been hit by maybe 81mm Mortar rounds. One of my 88’s takes out two mortars on the far left flank and I think there is only now one active. This one I think has used quite a few rounds on my other guns. The TD on the far left turns out to be a Sherman and is now on the road and just about to crest into view of my 88 which killed the other Sherman. He has three AP rounds left and I target that section of road with HE so it is on target straight away. The HQ unit commanding that 88 was moved to try and control two but lost control of this key gun. I rush him back into command range, as its Combat bonus might be crucial. The other 88 helped break the Vet Engineers in the wood, and is now switched to two AT teams on the edge of those same woods. The other 88 on my left is still hidden and will remain so until I get better than 26% on the Sherman. I think the next turn will see it open up. My Sniper and HQ unit are now safely in the woods and being pursued by a Battalion HQ and another as yet unknown infantry marker. This confirms my view that I am under a Battalion attack. It is also good news that he has his main HQ so far away from the action and not able to rally his troops. It does mean that there are two CO HQ’s not yet accounted for. Mind you one of those could be the other Infantry unit in those woods. On the right flank I lose my Vet Shreck team and in turn ID a reduced squad, which will now be in command of the CO HQ on that side. This means I should be able to move my reduced SS platoon up behind this attack and help break it when it runs into my fully rested SS platoon. That action should kick off during the next turn. Near his base line my Volks platoon with no ammo (Low) is getting into a position to mug his MG team and hopefully some sodding arty spotters. I guess he might have a surprise for me but I have not run into it yet. His reduced platoon moving from the right to the town makes no further move and I am going to have to be careful with them. I hope the swamp and open ground they have to cover will cause them some grief. The Sherman continues to pound my fleeing LMG and is hidden out of view from my guns. If he only knew how little AP rounds I have he might risk it? I do have some insurance with 2 shreck teams as yet hidden and two in the rubble of the town hiding, if a bit dusty from all the shells falling. I am feeling a bit more confidant that I might pull this off. If I am really lucky I will reduce his moral level to an Auto Surrender level, but that is a pipe dream and I will settle for a draw. I hope that he gets no more men or vehicles as this will upset the plans I have. If I get some tanks that will be a big bonus and surely break him. Hussah! 1st shot hit and wipe out of the Sherman. The gun is a beauty and has helped secure my left flank. The tank is a burning wreck and my gun then engages the remaining mortar, which is now laying rounds down on it. I hope that next turn that mortar will be history. I think that is the mortar team, which put paid to two guns already so it should be low on ammo. The far left not much else happens, his Battalion HQ is out in the open and my sniper has 3 rounds left to try and dissuade it from coming closer. His Vet HQ and reduced squad make no move forward and my Crack Engineers bayonet some engineers found in the woods above the church. That is another of his squads gone for good and a bit more of morale hit. My SS squad don’t fair as well and lose a few men in the rush up the hill from the Church. They do however reduce the Engineer squad down to one man and next turn should see him being finished off. The zooka teams at the edge of the woods are not too happy as my other 88 gives them a few close rounds. It looks like they will be bugging out soon. On the battle to the front of the town things are a bit more dangerous. While he does not have much strength left to charge me with his two men and HQ unit I see three-infantry markers race towards my BarbWire line. If this is indeed a fresh platoon, or two squads and a Co HQ then I have some trouble. They will either have to go through the barb wire or cover some open ground and I hope my two LMG'’ and reduced squad and lone HMG can halt there advance. There is a wall for them to cross as well so I stand some chance of stopping them. My Volks platoon on his base line get closer to his MG and two unknown Inf Markers. These could well be spotters and this is a bit of a gamble but worth it if this is the case. Next turn should see my men close to bayonet range. I hope to get in some quick hits. My reduced SS platoon continues their move towards and behind his advancing CO HQ and supporting Infantry. I will start running soon as I now know he has most of his men forward. This is because the last unknown marker popped up in front of one of my SS squads. I kill one of the men and next turn I have over 200 FP vs. his 130. I also move the rest of my squads into range and hope to bring some devastating fire on this squad. This is going to be a tough fight but I hope I have the edge on him, if not a hole will appear in my right flank. With 12 turns to go I can not afford any holes at the moment. He is relying on this flank to silence my guns so he can bring in his remaining tank. I need to keep this out of his reach. He has three squads all reduced and I have three at full strength. The next turn I order my Crack Engineers to continue sorting out his men in the woods above the Church. My SS platoon is now a bit battered and will be positioned around the church to deal with anyone who breaks through. That SS HQ has some good bonuses and he is my lynch pin. My CO HQ near my hidden 88 is sent forward to the town while the hidden 88 targets some ground near where the American light gun was last spotted. With some good shots I should put it out of action and might even tag the ½ track there as well. The gun then can start weighing into his infantry on the left flank and help close down that avenue of approach from him. The key battles are this new threat for the town and the right flank. My AT gun is still being pushed up the hill and I have made a big mistake pushing that through the woods. With luck it will not matter but it is a point to note for future games. The CO HQ near my star 88 is ordered upto help in the battle of the right flank. The next turn on the far-left flank my sniper misses all three times at a target out in the open what a waste. My HQ unit is ordered to sneak and hide and ignores an opportunity of nailing a CO HQ that charges across the open ground to it, what a waste. I think I am going to be hard pushed to hold off the 8 and 6 man units with my 3 man Vet Platoon HQ. I order my Crack CO HQ, which was making for town back to the left flank. I order the Volks squad down from the hills to join him. My 88 opens up from its hidden position and scores a hit on the “light gun” and takes it out. The mortar going for my star gun is taken out as well. One of the Zooka teams is wiped out and the other breaks and runs with one man left. The action in the woods above the church does not go as well as expected. I finish off his Engineer unit but take a few casualties, while a 5-man squad in a foxhole reduces one of my crack engineers down to one man. My Crack HQ unit reduces a Vet HQ down to one man and if he loses this unit next go that might break the other units near by? The other Crack engineer unit is in a foxhole with 6 Americans who seem to have their heads down. Next turn I hope I can finish these men off and toss my two satchel charges over to any remaining yanks. I guess my arty did not cause as much damage as I wanted. The SS unit pulls back to the church and yet more large artillery rounds fall. Surely this is his last turn of artillery. It does a bit of damage but I still have a chance of holding the town. The battle in the other woods achieves little and I ID a full squad of new men at the edge of my Barbwire. I would guess two squads and a CO HQ, but maybe it is a full platoon. If so I will lose my remaining units at the front of the town. I expect a rush next turn if he has used up his artillery. The Sherman has moved forward but is not in LOS of my guns. He is in range of a Shreck but at extreme range I shall hold off until I get at least 30% or I am desperate. My Volks men charge the MG at his baseline and discover three mortar crews and the MG. I think I will lose that duel as my men have their heads down. Ahh well that was a gamble and it has cost me a few points. His force of two squads (1 reduced) and a HQ unit move through the lower woods and force my broken Volks squad further back. The ambush in the high woods on the right flank goes well and I reduce one squad down to one man and wipe another out. He has two squads left and a CO HQ unit. This is up against three SS squads and a Volks squad. If I play my cards right I should finish these off and be able to move down to the lower woods. I have my reduced SS platoon about two turns behind these Americans and I order them to run so that I can finish that duel quickly. The assessment is still good and baring any new Americans I have a good grasp on this game. If I can pop his last Sherman he will surely give up and go home? The weekend roles the next few turn into the next few paragraphs. The ambush on my right flank is an outstanding success. I lose maybe three men and wipe out his CO HQ, a MMG, and the remaining two 12 men squads. This is done in a few turns and is because he has his men disjointed from one another where as my men are working in a close unit and hence over power him quickly one by one. My reduced SS platoon plays their role by mopping up his survivors from behind. These men are now sent down the hill to deal with the reduced platoon moving towards my 88. This reduced American platoon has dealt with my broken Volks squad and seems to be halted while some heavy artillery falls just ahead of them on and near my star 88. This continued use of artillery is astounding the amount he has been given is staggering and it has on the whole been totally wasted. The small action at his base line with my reduced Volks platoon goes badly and my men are wiped out. If they had ammo then it might have gone better. They were also green quality and broke fairly quickly. I perhaps should not have done that but I justify it as a heroic commander leading foolhardy men. . In reality it will have cost me few points and if it has distracted his forces then it will have helped. On the far left flank my Vet HQ is taken out by the Battalion HQ and CO HQ. These are now somewhere in the wood and might be on the way to my left most 88. If so I have a crack CO HQ and some reinforcements on the way. It is at this stage that I am glad to have split off one squad from my right flank and moved it back to the main VL. With these men and the CO HQ I should be able to hold him and maybe even wipe him out. I send the crew of a knocked out 88 down there. 6 Vets with 15 rounds of pistol ammo will help out number him. The battle above the church in the woods swings my way and I manage to capture two MMG crews (1 man each) and wipe out all the remaining squads and HQ units. I have a 3 man Crack squad with 4 man Crack HQ with no ammo who will hunt down the remaining American Vet HQ unit which is down to one man. I have a 4 man Volks HQ and a reduced Volks squad; these will push up over the hill and retake my lost flag at the top of the hill. I see he has moved some crew units up that way, I hope to mop them up as well. His men in the woods to the left of my barbwire are still hunkered down and not pressing the attack. Artillery is still falling in the town and he still has some large calibre shells hitting and wiping buildings out and not a lot else. The men on the right of the barbwire take a treeburst from the last round of my 75mm spotter. I think this has reduced one squad by a few men. He has three in the woods and then lo and behold another squad pops up in a wooden building inside the Town. I had not seen him enter the Town and it certainly made me sit up when he appeared. This would lead me to believe that he has a fresh platoon and the HQ unit is in the woods. Well he did have a fresh platoon as my start 88 still has HE and managed in one turn to reduce the building he was in to rubble and his 3 man marker shows as 1 man and it is running away at speed from the Town. I have the edge of the wood where he will have to run out marked with an ambush marker and the men in the church are all set waiting for his last rush. The tank helped by his stealth infantry squad spot my green Zhreck team hidden in their foxhole. After a few rounds of HE my men have had enough and leave. I still have a hidden Zhreck in a building in the town and a Vet unit on the edge as yet unspotted. If the tank moves a bit closer I should get some good odds on him. At this rate I could get moral auto surrender especially if he loses his last tank. The next few turns not a lot happens as the action is dying down and there is less than ten turns left. I finish off his Vet HQ in the woods above the church and my Volks platoon run into his pistol armed mortar teams near the small flag on that hill. 155mm rounds continue to fall in the Town and finally put the panic on my men at the front. I also notice that the Sherman has thrown a track and is now stuck in position. This is good news, as it will surely put the dampers on any attack. His platoon at the wire stay put and is waiting for the 155 to finish. I am continually staggered at the amount of rounds he has got and how he has wasted them. His BHQ and CHQ make a mad rush towards my 88 on the far left. I guess he did not realise I had men covering that gun. He runs right across my Crack HQ and Volks squad plus a LMG. His CHQ is wiped out and the BHQ is down to one man. I was told that these units had ignored or lost orders and it would have been perhaps best that they had stayed put. On the right flank I use the last few smoke rounds from my 88’s to try and hide the forth-coming battle between my fresh SS platoon and his remaining men. This might not be necessary as he rushes his men across the open into some woods closer to my middle 88. These woods seem to be outside his protective cover of the Sherman. I see another Infantry marker (maybe a straight HQ) heading towards the Town. It is a tad unfortunate that he is on a path to run over my hidden Zhreck man. The battle is in decline now and his main force is a badly reduced platoon in the woods near my 88. I estimate this to be maybe a 10-man squad, a HQ squad and a 4-man squad. At the front of the Town I estimate he has a HQ unit with an 8-man squad and maybe a full 12-man squad as well. I notice that a 2-man squad has recovered and is being raced up the hill towards the small flag above the Town. He seems to have not spotted my lone Zhreck, which is moving around the rear of the Sherman. The SS platoon near my 88’s will finish off his platoon there and then head back for his rear line units. My SS platoon in the Town while damaged still has plenty of ammo and is TRP’d onto where his platoon will run into the open to get into the Town. My Crack engineers (4 man HQ, and 3 man squad) will move up the hill to help deal with those pesky mortar crews with pistols. If they have no HQ then they should break. I hope my 4 man Volks HQ and 4 man Squad can hold them off until my Engineers get up there. The engineers still have two satchel charges. If I get any more reinforcements then that will be a welcome bonus. The next turn his BHQ is wiped out and my men there are sent over to the Town. The Crack Engineers sent up the hill help deal with the three-crew units and they start to break. It is a tad unfortunate that one of my engineers takes a bullet and he happened to have both satchel charges with him. I have enough men up there to finish him off. He has no HQ unit (visible) and he should start running up against my two HQ units and remaining men. Down in the Town the long waited push into it has started. His reduced platoon makes a run through the wire. This is fatal as the wire is in sight of my men in the Church and the HMG’s and SS men open up on the three units. Within a turn he loses the HQ unit and the other two are down to less than 4 men each, stuck in the wire. The other Americans in the woods move closer but again there are few of them and my men at the front of the Town keep their heads down. A Zhreck man at the rear is stalking the Sherman. He panics as several 88 rounds over shoot a MMG team and land in his section of the woods. I guess he will not be taking out the Sherman. An American HQ unit running towards the Town passes my Zhreck team hidden in the valley. He then starts taking 6% shots on the Sherman who spots him and responds with HE. I have to pull him out next turn and he has one round left. Bugger I guess he will not be taking out the Sherman. I have a full team in the Town and he will have to start moving forward. On the right flank the reduce platoon of Americans wrong foots my SS men and moves to another section of woods. I can not rush him as there is too much open ground and the Sherman covers it. I pull the SS men back the long way through some woods to try and get in front of the Americans. As a holding measure my CO HQ is in front and I rush him into HTH range. He loses two men in the process but ID’s an American unit with just one rifleman. The other unit will be a HQ and the third must have in the region of 10 men left. If my HQ can hold them for a few turns the SS men will finish them off. He must be close to auto surrender as my morale is 44% and he has suffered far worse than I have. For the competition he really should be trying to minimise losses and all he is doing is giving me more points. His artillery has finally stopped and my ears have stopped ringing. Time to move my SS men out of the Church. The next turn the two units left in the wire break and run back through the wire. The HQ unit on the right flank enters a light building, which is promptly dropped by my 88 and AT gun. My defenders then finish off the HQ unit. The units in the woods near the wire lost a couple of AT teams and a new MG showed up. These will be wiped out by my SS platoon, which has now moved forward out of the church. On the right flank I see that he is moving his mortars forward towards the Town. His final threat is dealt with quickly and he loses another HQ unit and squad while the remaining squad of 12 men is cut down to 4 and pulls out of the woods for his rear lines. Some of my SS men give chase, while others head for the Town. My Zhreck team lets loose its last shot and misses while the green team in the town gets into a decent position to let loose. They have a 26% chance of a hit. So maybe the tank is soon to be doomed. My team at the rear of the tank recovers from the 88 rounds but is removed by a tank crew in the area before he can get into position. On the hill above the Town a futile game of cat and mouse is being played. Tero is using his crews to try and dispute the flag. My men without ammo are trying to get them to break and run. My Crack HQ and intact Volks squad are sent running up the hill to try and short that situation out. I get some e-mail saying that he is working to greater plan. I can see no advantage to this unless he does manage to dispute a flag. However this in my opinion is outweighed by the chance that he will trip an auto surrender which will cost him more than he can gain by disputing a small flag. My moral is now 40% and there are two turns left. This will be a victory for me but by how much depends on if I can trip a surrender or he manages to get a disputed flag or two. Of course he might have sneaked some men close to a flag but I will have to live with that. The penultimate turn finally brought the game to an end. My Zhreck team in the woods near the wire managed to top the stranded Sherman. It took 3 shots but finally it cooked off. The flag above the Town I finally managed to get my Crack CO HQ up there with the Volks squad with ammo this put paid to his game of crew dispute. My SS platoon from the Church came behind the MG and mopped up what was left attacking the town while the other SS troops moved in to finish off the mortar teams running towards the Town. The final result saw all the remaining Americans throw up their hands and walk my way saying “Don’t Shoot, Don’t Shoot”. It would have been far better for them to have walked off the map quite a few turns ago. Result a Major victory to the Germans. Allied .......vs .....Germans 388 (86)................208 (51) 69 Captured 6 Mortars 1 Gun...................3 Guns 5 Vehicles..............1 Vehicle Men OK 0.......................140 Score 27......................72

Hi, Finally getting some time on the home PC and here is the AAR for those interested... H Set-up I spent a long time looking at the map and trying to assess the best approach to my assault. This is a short game and the ability to assault the main French village Z and secondary flag at Village Y are not really an option. This leaves the Hill and Village Lucio which are the main targets. If these are taken and held then the Germans will have a Major flag and two Minor vs. the French one Major and one Minor. So the main plan must be to take the two minor flags and hold them. There is a bit of spice with the convoy Ambush and I did consider ignoring that but it might mean missing out on some free points so that becomes the third part of the plan. Now down to force allocation. The defence of the Major flag is currently performed by a platoon of greisbergs and a top leader with some good bonuses. These men can be moved to any of the set-up zones or are fixed in place on the VL. I took the whole platoon and placed them in position to attack the village. The Intelligence about the village suggests at least two platoons of defenders and the current attack force is only three. By adding the mountain men that should help ensure I take that village. The platoon in the Ambush position is reduced by a section, which is split. One half is tasked with holding the main German VL and the other half allocated to a company HQ. The Ambush position is set-up so that the remaining two squads are split and a HMG added with a Shreck. This will allow more targets to be engaged at lower FP, but if the Intel is right it will be multiple trucks and I want to blow those wheels ASAP and using multiple units should work better. That is the plan and it could well fail, as it might be better to concentrate FP. However, I want to give the impression that there is a large force down in the valley so that I can draw off some of the Allied resources. If I have any forces left after the ambush then they will move along the valley floor to provide support on the attack on the hill. I also position a Mortar out of sight and a spotter HQ on the ridgeline above the road. I spend some time sighting them so that the mortar can provide smoke and HE support to the ambush force. This leaves the force to attack the hill. Now the Intelligence indicates that this is the least defended location and it is certainly the most exposed. I decide to use the remaining two platoons. The Company HQ is switched with the platoon HQ that is used to control a Mortar and two Vet HMG’s. The bonus he has should help beef up the support elements and ensure any defenders on the hill are suppressed before the attack by the lesser skilled Company HQ. These units will launch their attack along the ridge from the wooded hill to the left of the hill X. This leaves the sighting of the guns. Now this is critical as I need these resources to last long enough to do some damage to the defenders. I position the 75mm Infantry gun on the top ridge in a position where it can not be seen directly from the French lines. This will not protect it from Arty but at least any tanks can not DF it. The second arty gun is placed down the long valley on my right. Again this has direct LOS to the hill and some of its rear but no LOS to potential Tank positions on the French side. The final gun is placed on the small wooded hill from which I will launch the attack on Hill X. The plan is simple 1. Ambush the vehicles and try and get as many VP’s from that as possible and then disengage and distract the French from the main attack. 2. Three DF Guns and two HMG’s and an 81mm Mortar will support the attack on the hill. The land will be held by two platoons using the reverse slope and smoke to hide from any DF brought down on them. 3. The village will be assaulted by four platoons and supported by two DF guns with 120mm mortar support if any of the French forces are spotted out in the open. Two platoons will remain hidden in the trees to the right of the village and two will attempt to draw fire on their approach. The Bocage is a pain and depending on if anyone opens up it might be avoided and the low hedges used instead. Of course all of this is based on the intelligence given in the briefing and we all know that can be a tad faulty so I might have to change my plans. But one has to start with a plan and this was it. I also looked at what I could do to attack the main French VL but discarded this after reading the briefing and looking at the map. Turns 1 to 5 Well the first turn showed up two French MMG’s on the forward slope of the hill. Not good positions for them as my DF guns prove. I just hope the rest of his forces are on the front slopes, but somehow I doubt it. No signs of activity from the village, I hope they open up early as I need to locate the defences for my DF guns to hit. An 81mm Mortar round lands too close for comfort near my 81mm Mortar on the ridgeline. I just hope I have not been spotted and this is just the French ranging their mortars to see how fast the response times are. No sign of the convoy just yet, and from what has been posted on the forum I guess that might be turn 7. Well the next few turns saw the French opening fire from the Hill with two MMG’s. These were targeted by the 105mm and 75mm guns. I know I am going to get some mortar fire back but I hope the position of the guns will give them some small protection. The 105mm on the small hill from which I launched my infantry will remain quiet unless a tank appears or I am in desperate need of additional DF onto the hill. The mortars will remain silent unless I have something I really need to use them against. Well the 75mm Inf gun is pinned by some 60mm mortar fire, which is landing too close for comfort. 81mm Mortar rounds were switched to the hill from which my Infantry launched their attack and then switched again once he saw how much infantry was attacking. This has done little damage. The 105mm hidden down the long valley was engaged by a light gun on the top of the hill, it got off maybe two shots before a 105mm round forced the crew to leave. God that light gun was in plain view yet my men did not see it until it opened fire. I hope there are no more surprises like that. The hill has shown three new infantry units rush to the aid of the MMG’s which have taken too much fire and one broke. Two men with 50 cal as I got closer were the unit that broke. The other is keeping its head down and so far the infantry approaching the hill have only taken one causality. My rockets hit the open plain on the right of the main French village on the other side of the valley. I don’t think I have done any major damage but maybe a TC killed or a damaged track, who knows? I see two French platoons running down the mountain to try and come to the aid of the hill. I switch the rocket fire into an area out of sight and hope I get lucky with a rocket on the exposed men. My main 81mm spotter and a single 81mm Mortar target the platoon from the woods. I hope to slow it down or damage it slightly. The 81mm Mortar manages to get one unit to break. I open up with the HMG on the ridge, which was fixed, and I wanted to move it, as it will die quickly. If it can slow down that platoon or cause them to stop in the area where the main 81 rounds will land will be worth it’s loss. Also I might attract some more fire which will allow me to ID some more rocket targets. Meanwhile back at the village my 1st platoon has lost 4 men in it’s pretend run to the village. This did the trick and the two French platoons in the village opened up. His infantry seem to be all on the 2nd floor of the houses so they can see over the bocage. Good news for me as the next turn I open up with the two 75mm guns. I cause one French squad to break and others to keep their heads down. My arty kills a unit which has broken and maybe more. The 75mms take some 60mm arty rounds and lose a man or two. Smoke rounds start falling which could well mean the 60mms are out of ammo. Excellent news as all my guns are still alive at the moment. My two hidden platoons close to the village start there mad scramble up the hill after several turns of suppressive fire. I just hope I can get up there before they recover. I see a tank has made it from the main village over to here. I have some 100m Faust’s and I hope the luck to hit once I get in range. I need to clear this village in the next two turns before my SS men arrive and are slaughtered on the road. End of turn five and 1/5th the way through the game I have lost 1 man on the attack on Hill 249, for the loss of two 50 Cals (both lost 3 men and in retreat) a light gun and a half squad down to two men. White4 seems to be pulling back his forward defences and I would guess I will be getting some HE landing on the hill soon. I will spread my men out and attempt to push his remaining forces off the hill. My 105mm RL is in battle with two targets that have rushed up the road on the right of Hill 249. One is I’d as a Sherman and the other as a ½ track but the Sherman is only firing MMG rounds so I think it could be a ½ track, time will tell. The two platoons trying to reinforce Hill 249 one is now out of sight and the other has fallen prey to my attempt to slow it down. Three squads broke under HMG and mortar fire and turned back, leaving two to continue. I target the area with 81mm mortar rounds to encourage them to run back up the hill. I just hope the HQ is with them. The rockets will be coming down soon and I can not get a good LOS and just hope the scatter is a good one and hits the other platoon. No convoy yet and the ridge line HMG is ordered to pull back as it will be targeted this turn by the tanks on the opposing ridge line. My attack on Lucio (by turn 5) is going well and I have only lost a total of 7 men. 4 of these from the split decoy squad, which is now ordered to reform before continuing the attack. Targeting the Heavy building behind the low hedge has helped my main assault. This held a hidden squad, which would have mown down my first squad as it crested the hill. As it is the 105mm RL has forced it to retreat just as my first mountain men and 300 plus (at 40 metres) FP wades through the hedge. That corner has two functioning MG’s which could be 50 Cals. I just hope the following turn my 105mm and HMG mane to keep their heads down as the rest of my weary troops crest the ridge. The main threats now are the possible Sherman and ½ track that have arrived in the vicinity of Lucio. I need to get my squads in faust range ASAP and take them out quickly as they will murder any of my troops appearing on the road there. Run boys Run…. His forces in the village seem to have been halved as I have counted at least three squads leaving the buildings in disorder and I know I have wiped one unit out totally. My 120mm Mortar spotter is now running to a new spot to help support the attack on hill 249. His 81mm Mortar spotter seems to be now targeting my attack on Lucio and I think he will be too late as my men are all now fairly close to village and should be safe from the rounds. Turns 6 to 10 Turn 6 sees my two attacks falter as artillery lands on Hill 249 and my men dive for cover. A French gun opens up from the opposite side of the valley and a half squad of mine in a foxhole on the top takes too much and loses four men and breaks. The second platoon shelter at the bottom of the hill just outside the fall of the shells. The vehicle I’d as a Sherman is knocked out and I later discover it is a Sherman, with a Green crew. Was lucky in that long distance duel and the ½ track pulls back, if it is a ½ track. During these next few turn’s things really heat up. The convoy arrives and I am surprised at how big it is. At least two platoons of Infantry, if not three. Certainly there are three Green HQ units. A couple of armoured cars and several jeeps. It was good to position my mortar team in sight of the road (well the HQ was). As this caused a roadblock by taking out a truck and immobilising a ½ track. The infantry in these vehicles jump out and run for it taking an Odd causality. A dead jeep further enhances the roadblock. About two minutes into the ambush the French have lost 5 trucks, 2 ½ tracks and two Jeeps. One Armoured car turns out to be a White A/C and I think he has lost the crewman manning the MMG. A M20 escapes with two ½ tracks and a Truck. Just as they are fleeing the truck and a ½ track get hit by a rocket explosion causing some serious damage. I lose the Shreck team and a couple of men. The French HQ units don’t make it past but I think there might have been an Arty spotter who did make it through. This is because the remaining ½ track is driven upto the main village and I presume that is where the spotter will camp out calling hell upon my men. I try and target my 81mm spotter on the spot in the hope I can tag the man as he gets out of the ½ track. The big gun was destroyed in this period by my 75Inf gun. I won the duel as my 81mm Mortar team kept their heads down giving me enough time to finish the job off. Hill 249 remains contested and I will wait a bit longer before having a final go at it. I will save enough rounds to smoke it on the last few turns and then send my boys in. It is too exposed to try and take it right now unless I can neutralise the tank on the other side of the valley. This does not appear to have moved so I hoping that a rocket tagged a track? The main rocket attack went in and as it was the other side of the hill I am not sure what effect it had. I know a truck and ½ track, I am just hoping that the two platoons that made it down from the main village were also hurt. The attack on the village is not going as fast as I wished for. The Sherman has been missed by one faust attack and has held up my advance. It has set fire to one building and destroyed another. Fortunately I managed to vacate my men and I have suffered light casualties. It is a good job had my capable Co HQ there as he is commanding two platoons until my spare HQ makes it down the mountain. The other HQ was the major causality during this period. I have lost a 75mm Inf. gun to mortar fire and the 75mm RCL is down to two men but still helping the assault. The attack is now split with three platoons going through the houses on the left away from the tank and the remaining platoon going across the middle. That platoon did manage to take out a ½ track with a close range faust attack. The updated plan is to contest the flag on the hill and win the one in the village. I must hold onto my flag at all costs and this is only held by ½ a squad. On turn 9 White4 rushes two ½ tracks along the road towards my village. This is the time to open up with my hidden 105mm RL. I had positioned this in case he did anything like this. The ½ tracks have no Inf. on board so as long as I can take them out I should be safe. My other 105mm is taking on the second ½ track and the 75mm Inf. gun is helping out as well. I get the two HMG’s to lend their weight of fire to try and button them so they can not ID my new gun. The shreck team (1 man, his mate took some damn rocket shrapnel) is close at hand and I will hold him back as he only has two rounds to hand. The reduced platoon at the Ambush will try and mop up some extra points by taking out the immobile ½ track and the White A/C then hunting down any crew left over. I have a team in Panic and I hope they pull themselves together soon. The two HMG’s involved in the attack need some maintenance lessons as they both jammed at critical moments and did not do the damage I expected from them. One let a MG Jeep past which should really have been mincemeat. Turns 11 to 15 These turns saw the assault on the village force the Sherman to depart as the French Infantry resistance was eliminated. It became costly as a few buildings were destroyed and I would guess 105mm Artillery came into play. My Company HQ broke, as did a couple of squads. I now have to ensure that a French counter attack does not retake the village. I will also have to guard against a tank or ½ track rush on the last few turns to throw the flag into contest. This should be easy, as any vehicle will have to come up the steep road and should be subject to faust (100Mtr) attack of which I have plenty at the moment. The ½ track attack on my town is dealt with swiftly and he was a bit surprised at the new gun I opened up with. The crew scramble out of the burning vehicles to be finished off by my HMG’s and Company HQ. My 81mm Mortar with its last few rounds manages to take out a light gun on the other side of the valley. A well-endowed HQ commanded it, and that surely helped. It just has smoke rounds left, which will be used towards the end to help protect my troops contesting the hill flag. Artillery (60mm) starts falling near my newly discovered 105mm gun and kills a few crewmembers I just hope it can survive. My 75mm Infantry gun engages a MG on the other side of the valley but uses it smoke instead of HE. Damn the crew I wanted that on the hill. I fire off what is left to help cover a false rush and try and get White4 to expend some more HE on the hill. The presumed spotter gets out of the ½ track and into the main French town. I can expect some more shells soon once he gets set up. Damn. The possible tank on the opposite side of the valley is positively identified as a Sherman 76 and seems stuck. I just hope that is the case. White4 explains that the other vehicle I can see is a ½ track that was placed behind a wall it can not pass and is therefore trapped. Great news if a tad funny. It means that it is a ½ track and I now only have to worry about two Shermans. I can see another platoon of troops moving down the village to help beef up his counter attack on the hill or village. I just hope I can contest the hill and will not make any rash moves. My Ambush force takes out the remaining two vehicles, the ½ track and white A/C. then set to work on mopping up. However this is set back slightly by artillery killing 3 men of the HQ unit and sending one squad into sheer panic. I am glad that he is using his artillery here rather than on the more important flag locations. At this stage it shows me with a 65% margin and this is with the Hill Flag in his control and the main French town. His smaller town shows contested but even with that I should be ahead at the moment. Hmm next few turns are not good. His men finally depart the village and I get hammered with 105mm artillery. My Company HQ is down to one man and most platoons are now seriously under strength. The only good news is that he does not look strong enough to make a serious counter attack to take it back. The Sherman is moving back to support his attack on the hill and leaves the MG Jeep and A/C to help keep me in the village. I just hope my SS men do not appear in front of these MG’s. The Ambush position is hit by artillery for three turns and I am down to one man in the HQ unit and one squad down to 5 men and broken running for the hills. While the other is down to 7 men and in good order. The Vet HMG is still dishing out fire and stopping his men from re grouping. I will try and recover the broken squad and the other is sent on a hunt and destroy broken squad mission. The serious problem is now the hill. He has finally brought up the two platoons from the other side of the valley. I am hoping they are tired and that they would be in view of my 120mm spotter. The spotter can not see them and I have to switch the 81mm spotter from taking out the A/C and Jeep to helping stem the attack on the hill. His 1-minute delay is too long. My HMG’s are in the process of moving and I am caught on the hop. I hope that he does not have too much artillery left. I suspect he has at least 1 spotter and a full load. I shall try and smoke his suspected position. If he can get past my two platoon and into my main flag location then I could lose this game. His reinforcements are regulars and that is going to hurt. This is going to be crucial. He knows too much about my positions from the two crew units from the ½ tracks. My Company HQ will have them dead or captured this next turn. The next turn is the turn of horror and possibly my demise. Up until this point I had a strong grasp on victory and all was going to plan. Last turn I had heard a plane fly over. This turn it struck. Two 500-lbs. bombs close to my reserve platoon hidden behind the hill. They were at full strength and after the bombs fell the only survivor was a single man from the platoon HQ. That is 33 men dead and gone in one second. I have never ever seen this before and I do not want to see it again. This has screwed my plan to hold my VL and contest the hill. I will be bloody lucky to contest my town if he does what I think he is going to do. He has pulled out of the village and looks like he is not going to contest it. The tank, MG Jeep and A/C have pulled back. They look like they will rush my Town and support his attack on it. He has a reduced platoon and two fresh one of which is a Regular. I have a reduced platoon two HMG’s and my 81mm spotter and 24 rounds left in my 120mm spotter. There are ten turns left and I can not get any reinforcements back to the town fast enough. I do have 2 rounds of HE in the 75mm Inf. gun and several rounds of AP. The 105mm is down to 3 crew and will be overwhelmed by DF from the Sherman, A/C and MG Jeep. I try to move it to a better firing position. The other 105mm is in a position to engage any French Inf. making a rush for the town but that will be a limited attempt. I have a single man with a single round of Shreck ammo in an ambush position on the road. I am in the poo. I target the build up point of the French Inf. with my 81mm Spotter he has over a 100 rounds and it should do some damage to the exposed men. I hope it is enough. The two HMG’s I hope will be able to stop the Infantry trying to charge my hill. They are a bit exposed and I prey that with my HQ bonus they will cause his infantry to lose heart. This is going to be touch and go. I just hope that plane comes back and strafe his infantry. As for the village it is still taking heavy artillery fire and my men are down to half squads. I do get this turn the SS with a 20mm and Jeep. Ohhh Woppyyy Dooo. I need a tank not something that will be wiped out in seconds. I get two platoons of SS and two HMG’s. That means the village will stay mine. I will advance up the road with a platoon either side to try and mop up his survivors and try and get his tank back this way. Ohhh Joy. My only hope is that I am doing better than the other German players are. It seems it was a big mistake taking that extra platoon from the Town and placing it with the three attacking the village. If that plane had not struck I would have been in a healthy position to repel him. Turns 16 to 20 Well the next few turns make me feel a little bit more relaxed. My 81mm Mortar rounds get a few airbusts and I hope that dissuades the bulk of his Infantry to remain put. He sends a platoon to take my HMG’s and lone HQ unit. They look like they will be getting some 81mm Mortar Treatment. I try and put down a smoke cover between the suspected spotter in the main French town and that wooded hill. I switch my 81mm Spotter to fire in his attack area. Those men are n the open and I hope to slow it down or break it up. I also get some more reinforcements. I was promised two turns of rockets and the second turn has just arrived. I target the hill and will have to bug my infantry out of there the turn before it arrives, even then I could still be hit as I am too close. Not sure what best to do on that gamble or not? My reduced ambush platoon regains order and the single man in the HQ unit leads them back up the mountain to my main town and I hope I get there in time. The Sherman and some lucky MG bursts reduce my SS force but they at least have the attention of that tank and I hope he is thinking twice about pulling it out to attack my town. They hunt down what scattered troops he has left. The 20mm makes it into the village. The damn JABO has not seen him yet, so I have some luck. It does however spot the 105mm RCL in the trees and kills a crewman. Right the current plan is to hold on for dear life and pull back my platoon at the base of the hill and defend the town. I am shifting the 75mm RCL to help defend and the 105mm with two crewmen are also slowly being moved. I prey that my HMG’s can hold the line backed up with the 81mm spotter until I can get those 210mm rockets in that area and then prey he is in the open running when they fall. Right the next turn sees the JABO take out my Jeep. Not a lot else happened. I have my men up and run away from any chance of the rockets hitting them and they should land in 30 seconds. I keep re-targetting the 120mm spotter in front of the two HMG’s that are keeping a reduced platoon at bay. I have LOS to an area that I expect them to move into and I need the last 24 rounds to stop them or slow them. The 81mm Spotter has around 70 rounds left and he is waiting for the push on the hill. He might be able to slow that charge down. My men coming from the ambush are slowly climbing the mountain. One squad breaks and I might not get it back under control. The HQ seems to be OK but with one man left it is touch and go. I continue with my SS to clear up near the village and take up positions either side of the main road. White4 has now brought the second Sherman down to the road to defend down there or in readiness for a last minute rush upto my flag. I have 64% victory and I hope I can keep that. Right the next turn sees the sod charge my HMG's and smoke them. This is just as my 210mm rockets start to fall. None hit the main group but it might have caused them to go to ground. Also his squads charge the hill and take up positions near where my platoon had been. Of course it will be sods law that no rockets hit that area and I have been too cautious. Hey ho that is the way it goes. I have 20 rockets left and I hope for some better hits. This is not to say that the have done no damage. An area of brush on the hilltop is set alight and I think a reduced squad is wiped out. There might be more damage I have not seen. The 120 will target the platoon near my HMG’s as they are now in sight and I will open up with what HE I have left in my Guns that can be brought to bear. 5 turns left this will be close. The 81mm mortar is on target and that will help sap his green men morale. The only bits to worry about is those tanks and if my guns can keep them away from my main flag. Turns 20 to 25 Well the next few turns happen in the course of one night and so are all jumbled into the next few paragraphs. My rockets hit and seem to have halted his assault with the two platoons on the hill. I also suffered some bad luck with an air burst right above my group of remaining mountain men hidden (I had hoped) outside the fall pattern. This wiped out the Company HQ and reduced the two squads down to 3 men left each. I am gutted. The reduced squad that I left in the supposed fall pattern was unscathed. The platoon rush on my two HMG’s is halted and one squad gets mown down. His platoon HQ breaks and retreats with one man left in it. The remaining French squad is pinned and down to 4 or 5 men. I target the hill with the remaining 120mm mortar rounds and the 81mm Spotter helps break up the attack. I order the reduced squad, which was untouched by the rockets, to chase down his attacking units. They take out a unit, which could have been a HQ. He has at least three platoons in retreat and I have to ensure it stays that way over the next few turns. The lone HMG in the ambush position does a sterling defence and holds off two squads and a HQ charging its position. The French HQ unit makes it next to my HMG but is mown down and this breaks the remaining two squads which are left hanging in the open. The stats for the HMG is over 15 men killed so far and several vehicles nobbled. His earlier jamming incident is going to be swept under the carpet. My men on the right defending the village continue to mop up his remaining survivors and chase them down in the woods. This seems to keep the two Shermans on the main road. Excellent news as this is where I want them. One seems to be out of HE and the other should be soon. I send a squad and a HQ on a tank hunting expedition through the woods. White4 seems to be planning an attack as he has loaded up a squad in his last ½ track and tries to load up men into the truck. A HMG puts paid to the truck and the Jeep but a HQ unit mounts the remaining A/C. The ½ track moves down to where the tanks are. This is again good news, as he can not get near my main flag in the remaining two turns and seems to be heading for the village. I think he feels that he has good control on the hill, (NOT) and that he is going to contest the village small flag. Well so be it… On that road I have two HMG’s a Shreck and several squads with 100m Fausts. I hope my luck will keep him at bay. A new road ambush is sent up. Two turns to go. I need to contest the hill and keep the village if I can do that it appears I will get a victory. If I had not lost my men to that plane and the rockets I would be walking this. The penultimate turn see the Shermans and ½ track advance further down the road and they are joined by a HQ unit riding the A/C. The infantry in the ½ track jump out into the woods next to the Shermans on the left hand side. This is the same wood that I have my SS HQ unit with two squads and three fausts. The end of the turn sees one of my squad’s target a Sherman at 45m. The HQ has a plus 2 combat bonus and morale bonus. I hope this bodes well for the last turn. The Shermans are using up their AP rounds on the area where I have a platoon hidden away targeting an ambush point. My 20mm gun has forced one of his MG units to break and run. I also finish off two of his mortar squads. Had hoped they would surrender but they went down fighting. Apart from the vehicles there does not seem to be any threat on my hold of the village. The Zhrek team is tired but with luck might pop anyone brave enough rushing down that road. At the Hill his units continue their retreat baring a green squad which was rushed forward to plug the hole. This unit takes out a couple of my men and turns my unit into panic. In return I see a hail of fire come down on him and surely he will be breaking too. His unit on the hill itself either breaks or is ordered down to help with the threat at the base. What he does not realise is as he is going down I have two reduced units rush the hill and jump in the foxholes behind the wall. I hope they can hold out for one turn. The hill will be contested or mine. The HQ unit continues his mad dash up the hill to bring order to those three leaderless units. In the ambush position the HMG continues to take pot shots at the fleeing squads while the two HMG’s on the wooded hill hold off the remaining 1 man French HQ and a badly reduced squad. One turn to go and baring a disaster I hope to sneak a victory on this. Well, no surprises on the last turn. I take a pot shot at a Sherman and miss but my men on the hill stay put and it is contested. The Shermans and half-tracks keep me at bay and I get a comment from White4 saying he thinks he has only scratched my forces. If he only knew… The final score is 61 points to 36. Men of the match must go to the three men left manning the HMG on the ambush position. They have a reported tally of 18 infantry and 2 ½ tracks. I am not sure what good my rockets did, I certainly know what bad!!! In hindsight the decision to beef up the village attack might have been wrong and that extra platoon would have helped ensure victory on the hill. I think apart from that I have had a good game and the loss of only one gun and one mortar (hit while retiring) is a testimony to this. On the other hand White4 had a tough time trying to control Green troops and dealing with an ambush he did not expect. A great game, and a great map. H Result A minor victory for the Germans German .................Allied 208 (46)...............291 (78) 1 Mortars...............3 Mortars 1 Gun...................3 Gun 1 Vehicle...............18 Vehicles Men OK 213.....................278 Score 61......................36

Hi My AAR for The Push.... Set-up This map is a small affair with the town close to the start line for my troops. I have two platoons and an Engineer platoon of two sections and a flamer. A 4.2” spotter and the Company HQ with a couple of Vickers. For support I have three Cromwells one of which sports the nifty 90mm building leveller. The choice of approach is either down the road on the left flank and wheel right into the town or across the damp fields on the right and through the bocage. Choices choices… Well considering the 18-limit time frame and the fact that I get two TRP’s I go for down the road approach. After careful study I put one platoon on the left with it’s two Vet sections split to do the recon work. The other platoon with one team split is on the right of the road and both will use the gaps in the bocage. The Engineer section will be the reserves and the green Cromwell on the far-left flank with the two others just in sight of the Church but out of LOS for anything else. The church will be levelled, as it is the strongest point for the defenders in this section. One TRP will be placed over the crossroads, which with its light trees is a great place for an AT gun or defenders to protect either flag. The other TRP is placed just on the edge of the main wood line on the rear hill in LOS of the road entrance. That has a good LOS to the road and is a spot where I would place an AT gun. I just hope Redwolf is like me. The plan is to advance to contact on the left flank taking and securing the first flag and if strong enough swinging to the right to take the second flag. The likely spots for resistance will be hit with 4.2” fire and the spotter should be able to bring in quick fire. LOS is poor and I ensure that the spotter is linked to a HQ with stealh abilities. The two 2” mortars are linked to the HQ with good command and combat bonuses. I expect a static defence witb AT guns and Shrecks and maybe a tank as a surprise. If after the fight for the 1st flag feel it is a set up then I will hold back and settle for a draw if I can achieve it. I know form the forum that Redwolf knows his stuff and I can expect a tough game. I just need to keep it simple and over power him before he can react to the simle thrust and gather his reserves. The Reality Well the first turn saw my men advance to the edge of the town. The Church took serious pounding and the woods took some airbursts. No men were lost but I had ID a roadblock and some infantry scurrying in the open behind it. Second turn all hell opened up. A team running for the cover of a stone building ran over a minefield leaving one man behind. A German HMG opened fire and caused several deaths. This HMG was suppressed by the 4.2” mortar spotter who switched target to the crossroad TRP. Good news is that location has several German Infantry teams dug in. I hope the 4.2” next turn will do wonders. The far flank the gap between the Bocage and board edge is targeted by an 81mm German mortar. Would guess a TRP and an on board mortar team. This and a hidden Motorised German squad cut down the two split squads and lose 3 men in return. My Green Cromwell rushes up to the edge of the gap in the bocage on the left and I move everything forward. In a bit of a quandary with that damn mortar, either to continue with the engineer platoon through the gap or halt for a turn and lose the half squads being ripped by the German squad. The other issue is when to move the tanks forward on the road and going on Fionns maximum that if you have something and are scared of losing it you negate it’s effectiveness (or words to that effect). I will therefore press on and hope that the AT Guns and Shrecks miss. I hope there are not to many other minefields and that my ½ squad can keep that HMG busy while the 4.2” sorts out the crossroads. The 2” mortars will try and suppress the squad on my left so I can finish him off, if he does not bug out? This turn is frantic. The HMG is brought down to two men. The solitary Motorised Inf Squad is forced out of their foxhole and mown down as they retreat. I manage to get my squads into buildings on the right and close to the crossroads. The 4.2” spotter showed a 22-second delay on the TRP but took close to a minute. Bugger. This next turn should see those Germans there suppressed, as there will be a full minute on them. I guess that Wolfie will have seen the two rounds that have fallen and know what is going to hit him. If he bugs out it should catch him in the open. He is left with a tough choice. I have some units close by but they are in a heavy building which was left empty and that should help them. The crossroads have more German squads there than I expected. Last turn I spotted what I guess to be the HQ and a single Squad. This turn two more Squads appear one of them a Green unit. My Green T/C in the Cromwell on the left takes a bit of shrapnel and the tank buttons. The mortar rounds are shifted to my men attacking the lone German squad. I am lucky and it does little. I do now have a fix on their position behind a two floor building that my tanks have LOS and were ordered to target. I know from past experience that mortars can easily be knocked out by falling rubble and this is what I shall aim to do next turn. No more minefields have been spotted and my men seem to be in good order. The 2” mortar teams are moving up as are the Vickers. Must keep up the pressure and get in quickly before he can shift his reserves from the other approaches. I might have found a Shreck team hidden behind the Church and there is a unit firing at me from a Heavy building on my right. I would guess the lone, now dead German squad would have some buddies nearby too. It was a HQ unit behind the church, which is now dead. The HMG unit is down to one man and will soon be dead or will have his hands in the air. The building hiding the mortar unit falls down and there are two foxholes behind it. I would guess two mortars are now out of use as I see two crew units in the vicinity. I target a Heavy building, which is likely to have a unit in it, and "lo and behold" that turn a unit decides to leave the building and seems a tad bothered. My forces move around the left edge of the town and one flag is showing as mine. At the crossroads there are several empty foxholes and I would guess the ½ squad-digging trick. There seems to be a HQ unit, which is on the verge of cracking and two green squads. One of which is doing the headless chicken routine and is down to 5 men as it jumps in and out of the foxhole depending on the mood of the AI. The remaining squad seems to be in good order and is not yet identified. I have a green squad in a heavy building that took a few 4.2” hits and they are now in panic mode. They should recover quickly as the HQ has some hearts as one of its bonuses. There is a healthy squad of Germans behind the crossroads moving up I would think he would keep them back based upon the 4.2” arriving. In the two stories buildings to my right there are two infantry markers harrying me. I target the HQ foxhole with my green tank on the far left that can just see the edge. I lift the 4.2” and bring it back down a bit further. That should give my Green squad a chance to regain composure. Should start landing in around 50 Secs. My men on the far left are sent in a wide arc looking for guns and any stragglers as I bring them around towards the next flag. I need to ensure that I can bring my tanks forward safely. I have a my squads in the middle move up to ruins and engage the Crossroads while those on the right hold position and finish off the HMG by occupying the foxhole. I await my reserves and hope that he has not sent any AT units through the bocage into my rear. I should be safe for another turn and then will move the tanks forward to support my Infantry. The loss of a tank might throw victory into doubt and I need to ensure that I am not being set up. Well the next turn sees his men around the crossroad panic and flee. The HQ unit is destroyed by fire from my Green Cromwell and that seems to seal the fate of the remaining squads. As they up and run they pass through the 4.2” fire, which is plotted at the rear of them and this causes even more casualties on the units. The HMG last man dies as my Polish occupy his foxhole and there does not seem to be any serious resistance to my front now. On the left I have a squad of Engineers moving along the edge of the far woods looking for AT guns and none are found. They help ensure that his retreating units continue there run. I discover the knocked out 81mm mortars and catch one of the crews. In a wooden building I knock out an At team and another HQ unit. At the start of the next turn I am shocked by the appearance of a Vet and Regular Stug III on the road on my left flank. This is potentially bad news but on closer examination I think it is bad news for Redwolf and I bet he is cursing big time. Anyway I can target near the lead Stug with HE from my green Cromwell and plot for him to move into LOS. That should help button the T/C and help ensure it targets it as soon as I get LOS. I have a Piat Team on that edge and order it to run into a wooden building right next to the Stug. He should be able to do that without being seen and at that range should get a decent shot on them. The other Piat team is within range, but down to one man so order him into a building a bit closer to take some shots. I order the two Vickers to open up on them to ensure those T/C’s shut there hatches and also a 2” mortar. With the platoon on the right I order them forward to take over the foxholes around the crossroads, the green squad has regained composure and will push forward as well. The Squad in the middle will push forward along the line with my right flank, while the units on the left will get out of the way of the Stug’s and try and cut off the retreat lines. I might have to bring them back if any Infantry show up on my left. The two Cromwell’s on the road are now rushed forward to help engage the Stug’s and the remaining Infantry I hope I have cleared the area of AT guns and teams. Well the next turn is frantic and on the left flank the Vet Stug falls prey finally to my Green Cromwell. My Flamer team crosses the road but come under fire from the Stug's. His Infantry line continues to retreat and I engage a MG team in one of the heavy buildings on the right. At that close range my squad should have the upper hand. Some of his infantry flee past my squad in the woods and I will have to chase them to ensure they either flee the map or put their hands up. So far there seems to be only one viable squad left for him. I know that there must be more around or near that last flag. His last Stug is being targeted by two Cromwell’s and the two piat teams. I do not old out much chance for it on the next turn. If it were me, I would be retreating off the map. The next few turns continue at a frantic pace. I learn to my dismay that I have not cleared the area of AT weapons and my Support tank with the useful 95mm takes three hits. The first bounces the second kills a crewmember and takes the track off while the final shot brews her. The consolation is that the Stug dies. I discover the AT gun and it’s crew, well the remaining chap throws up his arms as my men jump into his foxhole. His forces around the second flag break and run. Several squads flee off the map edge and the two HMG’s in the stone building are brought down to a single man each and are marched off to the rear. On my left flank a platoon of Germans appear along the road just after the Stugs were killed. They come under fire from my limited forces on the left and I manage to get a 5-man squad into a stone house. This slows down his assault on that side long enough for me to get the 4.2” spotter into view and calling down HE. In the mean time I get my extra platoon and two new tanks that bring up the Piat and Mortar team. They are rushed to the left flank to beef up the Co HQ who with the two badly reduced squads is holding off the new attack. The Germans have an AT team in range of the Green Cromwell and I try and pull him back out of harms way. On my right flank I spread out in the buildings to sweep the area clean of any remaining Germans lurking in that region. The next turn is crucial as the 4.2” has 6 seconds before it starts falling on his new platoon and with all his losses so far his men could be close to surrendering. I just need that German AT team to miss and be taken out. There was no next turn. I received the file and opened it and was shown the surrender screen. I think I must have forced the morale down to a low level, as I do not believe that Redwolf would have hit the surrender button based on the nature of the competition. I can imagine that he is slightly miffed. Well I am not sure that I would have done any better in the game as the Germans. He was unlucky that I had my TRP over his main centre of resistance and once that had fallen I exploited him quickly and harshly. I used a Vet squad to ensure that broken units left the map and I had enough men on the flank to cover the arrival of his reinforcements. If I had not been as aggressive it could have gone very differently. Or if I had attacked on the right flank away from his reserve entry points then again it might have been a lot harder. As it was, good combined arms and fast follow up won the day and kept him off edge. Result A Total victory for the Polish Allied..................German 41 (8)..................115 (23) ........................26 Captured ........................2 Mortars ........................1 Gun 1 Vehicle...............2 Vehicles Men OK 144................... 15 Score 84......................16

Hi Redwolf, I thought the Germans got more armour than necessary and that might have been due to the nature of the ground? It would be interesting hearing how the designer made his decision on the amount of armour. H

You are an Artist.... Nice AAR... H

Hi, A stupid question... But will the program take care of the reults where a flag was contested and split the remaining points between the two players? H

Hi JK if I had been a German TC I would have loved the ground, as it was I did not. My AAR Set-up Not much of a map two Flags one of which is quite a distance back. There is a slight rise up and a splattering of woods either side. The first flag is in a large section of woods which runs left to right. I have a basic Infantry company and a 105mm Arty spotter. I choose to use the right third of the map to launch a two up one back assault. The three mortars will be assigned to one HQ for close support while the MMG and 50 Cal with the Company HQ will anchor the left flank. The unassigned HQ (poor bonuses) will be used to scout on that flank. If any game is going to be a set up this is it. It has the hallmarks of being too bland to be real. Anyway lets see what I can do with what I have. A simple plan which I will change as and when new things turn up. I split a couple of squads on the two up platoons to do the first recon work. These sprint off to the first set of trees. These will be supported by their comrades and then replaced in a turn. I target the far woods with my 105mm man and get the MG’s ready. The first turn I spot a couple of Infantry markers making for the other side of the woods on my right side. One turns out to be a HMG crew. This means that he either did not have access to set up there or he has goofed. Either way the next turn all caution to the wind and full speed ahead. Next turn I now find that he did get a set up near the first flag. Must be a platoon there. Some of my rounds from the 105mm fell the turn before and he bugs his men out of the area after only one turn of firing. This is a bad move on his behalf and he IMO should have held is fire longer and got a better effect. I think my approach on the right has upset his plans and he is bugging out to a better defence line. Hmm cancel that view I send the lone HQ running upto the edge of the woods and he does not bug out but sends a Company HQ and two half squads to finish me off. He is out of his foxholes and further forward than he should be. That has cost me 4 men but might cost him more as I have some 105mm falling in that area the next turn.  On the far right he is bugging out with several squads and runs back to the next tree line. Hmmm what is up with this chap. It could be a lure, or is he just a bit disorganised with what he is trying to do. Near the first flag some squads have moved back and are now deeper into the woods. I have the last platoon of mine a tad exposed as they run forward I hope they dodge the SMG fire. So far he seems to only have SMG squads which are going to hurt at close range so I must try and fight them at 50m plus. My three platoons are a bit disorganised by their quick run forward this next turn will see me co-ordinate them on the identified defenders. I will attempt to bag that Company HQ and his two squads in return for my 4 man HQ unit. Hussah I get four Shermans and one a 76mm. I can expect German armour and they are all in sight of his ill fated (I hope) Company HQ. All four target the HQ and three peel off and fast move behind my three platoons. The last one remains near the road to help provide cross fire if he can stay out of trouble. I order the mortars to target the HQ for 30 seconds and then up sticks and advance forward, I am going to need there fire power further forward and this needs to be done ASAP. I split a squad to scout out some more woods for AT guns and concentrate two platoons nearer the first flag. This game is not going to be won on flags; I have a feeling it is going to get a lot bigger than just “another day”. Well the Company HQ loses one man. The other two units escape the noose and I see more retreating Germans. I would guess this is a meeting engagement where the Germans start with less then get beefed up really quickly with reinforcements. If that is the case I need to press on quickly and try and force my early advantage. This would explain why he is not standing and fighting and constantly moving back. Also if he has just SMG troops then he will be trying to get me to engage at 40 meters or less. I must try and avoid that. The three tanks move up on the right flank and I move everyone forward. The 105mm spotter has done little so I cancel his fire until I can get into a good spot to call down on his fixed forces. His Company HQ has been pinned and I send over a 12-man squad to try and finish him off. I am waiting for his tanks to show. Well I was suckered big time and paid the price. 81mm Airbursts in the woods and some tanks (not ID but sound) reduced me by 20 men for 6 of his. His Co HQ still lives and while I still have all my tanks I think the designer might be setting me up. I can not get an angle on the men in his section of the woods and will have to think hard about how to rescue this. To top it all England are out of the world cup. The next turn I manage to extract a platoon out of the woods and the main area of artillery impact. One of these squads runs to an apparently empty foxhole. A short firefight later I lose two men to 6 of his and he has one man left in the hole. He will be buried in it next turn. As this is going on the Germans near the first small flag are pulled back and my platoon in the wood left with no one to fight. On the far right flank the promised firefight fails to happen and I see two full squads and maybe a HQ run out of the woods and head across the open fields. If I can get my squads into a good LOS his men are a tad exposed with a lot of ground to cover before the next patch of trees. Of course by my men moving to the edge of the woods I put myself in LOS of his tanks. That could be his plan but I will spread my force out and take it on the chin. On my far-left flank I see some infantry running towards me. I am not sure what he is up to but I have enough at the moment to deal with him. My tanks have no clear targets and I order them into flanking positions on his tanks. Two are sent to the far left and one over to the right. The 76mm tank is left in a central position. I still do not have a good handle on what I am up against but it is at least two platoons and a couple of tanks. I just hope there is not more. The right flank is peppered with smoke from the two German tanks on the left. This covers the retreat of the German squads and I only manage to reduce one down to three men. The others seem to get off Scot-free. In the middle the Germans are pulling back and I spy the Co HQ with two men in the open, my men miss their opportunity and he escapes into the woods. On the far left I spot a German spotter and several units start pulling back from my advance. The Next turn I order some split squads to chase down the retreating Germans on my far right. I order a mortar team to lay down smoke and get the Shermans into a supporting position. I time the rest of the squads to follow just at the start of the next turn. A good job as one ½ squad turns back under intense fire from the German tanks and the mortar ignores my request for smoke. The other squad nearly makes it across but loses all 6 men before making cover. I am going to have to ensure that I get some smoke down and those damn mortars better play ball next time. In the middle the Germans continue pulling back beyond the flag. On the far right I see more infantry and a damn MG bunker appears. I can see some of his troops making a stand and I will have to spend time working out a good line of approach. I receive a platoon of Infantry followed by four more Shermans with the lead being a 76mm. With this in mind I can expect a heavy tank from the German side. So far his two tanks are maybe a Panther and a Tiger, but that is just a guess from my men and I need more information on that. The current assessment of the game is that it is likely to be a meeting engagement. The two flags are small and the second flag is a considerable distance back. So far I have lost more in taking this one flag than I have done to him. If this is the true basis of the game I need to pick off some more of his men and tanks while losing fewer of mine. I will now be looking at the map to see how I can gain leverage on him. The next turn sees my squads on the left flank come under 81mm Mortar fire. That damn spotter is still causing trouble and I will have to nail him soon. Mind you he might only have another turn of fire left. The rounds do little but do force my men to ground. The wooden MG bunker does little and next turn I hope my Shermans will take it out. His tanks still have not been ID and they could be anything. From the way he is using them I guess they actually might be Tigers. My right flank is gearing up for a rush once I get smoke down and my middle is just nearing the edge of the trees to try and spot what is across the way to the next band of trees. I have a good spread of Shermans and hope I can get some side shots at those tanks if they prove to be Tigers or Panthers. The plan is to get my reduced platoon across on the far right and see what I can exploit there. In the middle I shall hold and use the mortars to harry him. On the far left I have the best of my forces and will attempt to gain control of the swath of woods I am now in and then push forward once I have control. This will force his tanks to either pull back or present flank shots to me. I hope for the latter. The rush on the right flank is a bit of a farce. The smoke does not do a great job and he had re-deployed his reduced platoon into the area I was running into. My Sherman manages to get some of his heads down but I do not have much left to take him on next turn. I at least know where he is now and the two Shermans covering the advance should be able to pan his defenders and I might just win through. On the left flank the MG bunker falls prey to a lucky long-range zooka shot, not much else happens. I do however ID the two German tanks as Tigers and this will now help with my 76mm Shermans in using the right ammo. I have to exploit his (or apparent) lack of Tanks. He does not appear to have much but he is doing a good job of slowly reducing my infantry and scoring points. I need to wipe those two Tigers to boost my points and I have enough Shermans to be able to do that once I get a handle of what he might have hidden behind those beasts. The platoon on the right make a run covered by smoke across to the trees. He has guessed right and has his infantry waiting for me. I lose a lot of men and one squad breaks and runs back. My Shermans do little and seem reluctant to use their HE on the newly acquired Germans. On the left flank I see more German units pulling back and I send my Infantry out into the woods to clear any AT weapons before my tanks can advance. I manage to drop some 105 rounds near the Tigers but it does little and only causes the T/C’s to button. My mortar team manages to upset a German HMG team and another team is seen pulling back. I decide that next turn I need to help my platoon out on the left as it will be wiped out unless I can get my tanks over there. With more smoke I send the two Shermans on the right flank at fast speed over to the woods. I hope the Tigers do not get lucky and that speed and smoke will win through. On the Left I move the Shermans into better position for side shots on the Tigers who are in a central position on the map. What I really want to do is send my tanks forward all along the front but just one hidden AT gun will ruin my day and I need to move my infantry up first. Well the next two turns are bad and the Germans consolidate their hold on victory. I lose a tank on the right flank as it rushes forward to an excellent shot from one of the Tigers. The other tank makes it through and his remaining Germans get up and leave. As they are doing this I wipe out one of his squads and the other breaks and takes cover in trees nearby. I presume his HQ squad is the one that does make it back to the tree line he was heading for. If this is the case his broken squad is now in trouble and my remaining men on that flank should have a chance to finish him off with the remaining Sherman. On the Left my 76mm Sherman bounces a shot and has a 96% chance of a hit next shot. Well he misses the next shot and is taken out by a return shot from the Tiger. Luckily the other Sherman manages to escape the wrath of the two Tigers by driving forward into cover. He hits a Tiger and the round bounces. The Infantry probes forward and find nothing in the woods to the left of the MMG Bunker. I send two split squads running forward to the next woods. Again I get ambushed and one squad breaks and the other loses 5 men. I am doing badly and the only way to get a draw at this rate is to dent those two Tigers. I move my Co HQ over to the right flank. My 105 spotter is in the central woods and should be able to target the newly acquired Germans who have put down my two split squads. His Tigers are pulling back and the country ahead is better tank country for him. I have a feeling that this is all he has and I should gamble with some bold armour moves. I now only have one Sherman able to dent him front on. I need to be more careful and come up with a solid plan to defeat him. Easier said than done. The next turn I see another tank in the distance. I guess a newly arrived Tiger and perhaps some Infantry as well. He pulls his Tigers further back and this is exactly what he should be doing as I have no chance of getting side shots at the moment. On my right flank my HQ unit gets into the woods with the broken (presumed) SMG squad. This squad makes a break towards its HQ unit, which has turned to fight. My Sherman engages briefly and it is on this flank that I spot the new “Tiger”. My Co HQ is not too far off and this platoon is down to maybe 8 men in total. My Zooka Team in the middle nearly makes it across the open field. However an 88 HE round lands nearby he breaks and does the chicken run back the way he came right in front of the Tiger Dohhhh. My Mortar team engages a HMG which was being pulled back. That unit retreats back into the woods and I would guess they are not happy. On the left flank my remaining man puts up a brave fight but soon dies and the SMG squad takes a lot of fire from my support units. At the end of the turn two full squads and their HQ unit arrive and take 3 casualties in the process. This should be enough to wipe out the presumed HQ unit and reduced SMG squad. On the far left nothing is seen but I know there must be a couple of SMG squads over there. I know the 81mm Spotter is there and I hope he has run out of ammo. My Shermans on the far left edge forward while the one near the bunker uses its MG’s on the SMG squad in front of them. On the right my 76mm Sherman attempts to get LOS through the woods while his buddy is sent over to the far right to join the lone Sherman there. In that mad drive he gets targeted by the Tigers and manages to avoid the AP of death. Hmm with the new Tiger and perhaps more infantry I am going to be in trouble. I think I am due some more tanks and I hope these will have a 76mm amongst them. If not I will need to do some fancy driving to make any headway. The next few paragraphs (well maybe pages) cover the events of the weekend of the 3rd August as we really crank out the turns. The left flank I uncover the two SMG squads and lose several men in the process. My Shermans on the far left help out and these two squads are soon over come as is the Co HQ that I had previously whittled down to one man. His two Tigers on this side move further back and do a good job of covering the road. My two squads and HQ manage to over run the lone SMG squad previously mentioned and a HQ unit also gets gunned down before it can flee. The arty spotter is seen legging it back towards the Tigers and avoids all shots at it. The HMG is then the next to be over run and is brought down to one man and then hands up routine. Meanwhile on the right flank my reduced platoon and Co HQ are sent to wipe out the reduced platoon of Germans on the far right. During this process his squad rallies and turns on my reduced pursuers and I spot the fourth Tiger of the Zug. Bugger I have an uphill struggle. While engaging this presumed last German platoon my reduced platoon gets bush whacked by a newly arrived German SMG platoon. These guys rip into my CO HQ and Zooka team. I am dead meat and I call down an arty barrage. This dents his troops but does not stop them charging over to my MMG and getting wiping out my HQ and MMG unit. My last squad breaks and will die soon as does the 5 men from the mortar team in the same woods. While this action is happening I send one of the Shermans on a mad rush down the road and into the rear of the German lines. It nearly makes it but the smoke cover I have laid and the good German shooting puts paid to this attempt. I am now down three tanks. On the left flank my men advance fast and hard to get close to the Tigers. This forces them back and I send the Sherman which is a tad too close to the newly discovered SMG squads down the road of death to follow his colleague. I perhaps should have stayed to try and bat off the SMG platoon but I need to kill Tigers and time is running out. Anyway this Sherman does make it down to the small flag by the road at the back of the German positions. He buttons as some infantry near the flag open up on him. This is useful intelligence as I had hoped that he was out of infantry. I also discover a Crack HMG bunker (wooden) which helps keeps my men heads down. This gets taken by one of the Shermans on the far left as they move up to harry the left Tigers. I had told the Sherman to use smoke but as per usual the T/C goes for live targets rather than obeying me. My 76 mm tank on the right flank does sod all and is now down to just 10 rounds and is the only defence I have for the SMG platoon that has just wiped out my right flank. He has a 3-man squad and 4-man squad with a full HQ unit. I just hope my Sherman can keep him at bay and harry the two right Tigers. One of these Tigers is being pulled back to deal with my Sherman in his rear. On the Left as I push forward to harry his two Tigers my Zooka team manages to hit one of the Tigers to no effect. I am now down to two rounds for that team and smoke is blocking the Tigers and allowing me to get closer. I send two of the Shermans forward to keep him under pressure. I send the third down the road of death to make another rear run. Bang a Tiger on the right flank takes him out as he passing between two buildings. Bugger my luck is crap and I need two dead Tigers at least to stand any chance of a draw. As the weekend draws to an end I have a Sherman behind his lines and heading for rear shots on the two left Tigers. He is pulling these back through a small opening in the woods. He is reversing and I might get some side shots on them through the trees. He has pulled one of the Tigers back on the right flank and has a reduced platoon two or three turns away from my small flag. I will use my lone 76mm Sherman to fend them off and hope for a lucky shot on the right flank. In the middle I have a reduced platoon two turns away from the flag at his rear. He appears to have a lone squad in that area and I hope that it is there as a final rear guard. If it is a full platoon I will not be able to take the flag and maybe only contest it. On the right in front of the two Tigers I have two Shermans and a platoon of infantry with some rifle grenades. Should be able to keep his T/C’s heads down and with the Zooka team be able to pop those tanks. He is running out of places to go. My hope and aim is to get a draw by popping the two Tigers and taking the last flag. However, if I get some bad luck and miss-time my Sherman rush I will go from a 60% (G) vs 40% result to a major loss or total. I am not going to back off I have 6 turns left and will see what the god of war brings my way. Famous last words…. I am going to run away…. The turn I have just seen crushes me. He has more infantry and someone puts a rocket through my Sherman in his rear. That is not before the T/C takes a bullet in the head. With this tank gone all hope goes. One of the Shermans moving to the front of the two tigers takes a round to its gun and it is now out of operation. Next turn it will be dead The remaining Sherman will be lucky to get out alive. His newly discovered infantry mows down my Infantry and I will lose another platoon. My Zooka team hit a second time and again fails to do any damage to the Tiger. Ohhh what luck. The Zooka team is then wiped out by HE before it can fire it’s last round. On the right his two Tigers swing over to engage my two platoons moving up to the last flag. I spot more infantry in that region and I am up against another platoon. I will be lucky to walk away with any infantry at this rate and could well have an auto surrender situation on my hands. I have seriously under estimated the imbalance in this scenario and can only hope others have as well. My lone 76mm Sherman at the rear will have to be lucky to get a side hit on his two Tigers to restore any chance of reducing his point’s margin. The game is a set up and I should have gone with my original thoughts. I had tricked myself into believing that I could get a draw and that was on the basis of him not having too much more. The wrong assessment and hence the serious poo I am in. Four turns left and I need to try and minimise the loss. Mind you there is not much I can minimise now as I have lost most of my units.  Bugger Bugger Bugger. Next turn offers some small comfort as my 105mm rounds land in the woods near the rear flag. His platoon there is reduced quite badly and looks like it has just broken. My platoon there is a bit shaky but should have enough to carry the flag. With three turns left and some trees to hide in they might even hold it? (Yeah in my dreams….) On the left flank I lose the remaining two Shermans. My luck continues to fail and the delay on pulling back and the accuracy of the Tiger at short range haunt me. The platoon on that side is down to about 6 men and running back under fire. My platoon in the middle try to run to the woods with the rear flag. There is too much open ground and the Tigers on the right are now in line to stop that attempt. My men break and flee back. The platoon on the far right (well the 5 men left) is still broken but at least his platoon has not yet pushed forward and wiped me out. The remaining Sherman 76 at the rear wastes another round of AP and is now down to 9 shots. I just hope there is too much distance for him to cover to regain the first flag and that the other flag will stay mine if I manage to defeat his remaining infantry running over to it. The woods should hide my men from his tanks and the Tigers are not known for their turn of speed on grass. This is of course if Auto Surrender does not cut in. Well the final few turns do not see me collapse although the damage is already done. I manage to contest the flag and do some damage to his platoon in that area. His Tigers continue to pound me and my platoon on the far left is wiped out. Not A Good Day. Result a Major victory to the Germans. Allied vs Germans 183 (52).................98 (27) 2 Mortars.................1 Captured 7 Vehicles................2 Pillboxes Men OK 66....................... 99 Score 26....................... 70 The game was a set-up. The terrain was poor for the Allied attacker and I played into it. I could have won if I had been smarter but I would have needed luck and been braver at the beginning and less rash at the end. My opponents (I had two during the game) played well and used the long-range effectiveness of the Tigers well. I lost too many points in taking the first flag and continued gambling in the hope that I would re-coup my losses. My gambles failed and this was a big loss, which could well knock me out of the tourney. Not a game or map that I am fond of and the worse scenario of the pack. I am sure others enjoyed it but I am afraid this is one for me to forget. I will however try and learn some lessons from it. Now off to work... H

Interesing point in the AAR of Frunze... If the 1st 2 Tigers had been moved to a central position at the X roads, as mentioned by Frunze they are toast to a good Allied player. If they stay with there backs up against the trees and on the slight rise / hill on the German right behind the left to right road they have great LOS and can stop an attack dead. The only way they will lose there is if the Allied player gets lucky with a 76mm long shot (not good odds vs the 88 long range) or smoke is used to get them closer. Even then a Sherman rush has to be preformed well, very well.... H

Good news... Pity I ordered it yesterday from the US as I lost my nerve in waiting for the UK release... Ahh well another two weeks to wait... H

Damn you CA... And God Bless Australians.... CA you hit the nail on the head and it was what i should have done in hindsight. I knew this at the time as you will see in the AAR. However I was chancing my arm in trying to claw back my lost points. In the end I just lost more and more points. My gamble failed and I paid the price. It will be intersting to see if it has cost me the chance of some great wine... H P.s. KR I hope plenty of other German players spanked the Allies as it will help minimise my defeat. That or people fail to write AAR's.

My morale nearly broke at one time (personal) and that was when I realised that I had wasted all the TRP's through extremely poor placement. As with JK the delay on the 150m spotter was crap. I was lucky that my opponent decided that he would move his troops into trying to oust me. I had my Arty spotter up close. (keep them close or they are wasted. ) This meant he walked into a trap and was hammered. After a few turns of this 150 falling on him he thought the situation was a no hoper and bugged out. Lucky for me... H

Hi Heavy D, If that was posed at me? Here is the response. If not please ignore... Smoke was used by me to try and mask the movement of my Shermans. At times this failed and I got popped. I managed to get my men to the 2nd flag and contest it. I managed to flank the Tigers. I even had a Sherman behind them at one stage. I did not manage to get a kill and Cpl played well and saw me off. My view on the all the games is always thought through no matter if I win or lose. I look at the angles and what each side got and try and come up with a fair - balanced view on it. E.G. I hammered Tero in Head for the Hills. My assement is that the game is balanced in favour of the Allies. I played as the Germans. As always with any game people see things differently and that makes it fun. All I offer is my view which is just that and something for debate and discussion. Your question about arty is relevant in that the Americans only get a 105 spotter. To use smoke with this guy goes against the grain. I used the Shermans smoke. Perhaps I should have used 105? Also I used the 60mm smoke. Hmmm not much good that. Anyway it will be good to see how the Americans won it and what the German players did in those situations. H

Hi, I will post my AAR later today. When "Sgt Lucky Bstrd" wakes up I expect him to be in here cawing. He tanned my behind and this is the one game I lost the tourney on if I ever stood a chance. Anyway as said before this is the weakest looking map / feel of the whole tourney. It IMO favours the German defender and the Tigers. If there was one set-up game this was it. Or was I just crap? Anyway while the map was not hot the game play was good and myself and the Cpl had fun. We replayed it with similar results as me Germans and him Allied. If you use the Tigers well there is little chance of the Allies getting accross the second swathe of open land between the first flag and the second flag. Because of the flags being small ones this really favours the defender as if you lose too much in taking the flags you have gained nothing. So the Germans sole aim should be to extract maximum deaths and hold the second flag. Tghe ideal spot for the 1st two Tigers is near where they appear back up against the woods and on the slight rise. From there they have a good cover of the whole map and present there front armour to any attacker. Unless the 1st 76mm gets lucky this position locks down play. The 2nd pair of Tigers can take up a great position on the ridge near the second flag where the road passes by it. Again front armour, no flank shots and a tough game for the attacker. As always with these games if the German player uses the Tigers poorly and pushes them forward the German player is dust as the Shermans can mop up the German Infantry easily. Looking at the scores for the game there have been some good successes with the Allied players and I want to see how these were achieved. Please post soon... H P.s. Come on Cpl start your teasing.... (wake up)

Hi, Nice AAR. Mine is missing the scores at the end. I will edit it when at home later today. Set-up The map is not one of my favourites in the tourney, a tad bland and does not convey the feeling of St Mere Eglise. I am lucky enough to have travelled some of Normandy and there is something missing in the map. Anyway that negative comment aside a map alone does not make a game and I have an interesting challenge to hand. I am equipped with 5 Stug III’s and a couple of StuH42’s. There are also three ½ tracks and 7 platoons of Infantry of mixed calibre. I decide to risk right flank all or nothing approach. It is very risky as the ground is wet and I have a lot of ground to cover before hitting roads again. I decide on this approach, as it should throw the defender off balance if he has relied on me using the roads. In fact once the game starts the defender comments on bogging in vehicles and I hope he has gone along with that view. I also prey to my god of luck for minimal bogs. On the Left flank I leave one reduced platoon to defend the woods. They will not move and try and lure any defenders into an ambush. Down the road I will move another reduced platoon (2 squads) and gently probe his defences. I will withdraw if any heavy contact is made. This force is to help protect my flank and keep the defender guessing. The visibility is poor and part of the reason for my approach is that I do not want too many close gunfights in woods. The American Airborne have a great FP and their superior morale and training will decimate my men. By advancing in the open I will stand a better chance of spotting him sooner and on a broad front stand a chance of reaching cover of the buildings. I use the TRP’s to target areas where he might station forward defences, which might try and stop me getting into the town. The right flank I hold back the vehicles out of sight in case he gets any forward OP’s or AT guns. I send a screen ahead to clear any hiding places. Followed by my main strike force of 5 platoons. My battle winners are the two platoons of Sturmgruppe some of whom are crack. To win this I need to over power his infantry en-mass and I will have to risk the wrath of his artillery and any TRP’s I stumble on. With the infantry spearheading the assault I intend to take the two small flags on the right and then push onto the main crossroads and the big flag. The Reality The first few turns go without any encounters. My men push forward and clear the woods and scattered trees. My tanks start moving forward and of course start to bog. The first unit with a thrown track is a ½ track and the passengers jump out and start walking. On the left an American ½ squad is sent forward to probe my lines. He is spotted by my troops near the road and they open up on him. I hope he sends some men through the woods as I have a surprise for him. This gives me an indication about the player. He is either restless or used to a fluid game and is seeking an opportunity to flank me. This should prove interesting, as I might be able to draw him into some ambushes. The fourth turn in I get two new platoons and a CO HQ near the road to the rear. These will be useful and I move them up the road to counter any advances he makes in that area. I have a lot of infantry at my command and this could indicate he has a lot as well, or that it is a walk over game and he is in trouble. Who knows? And when I see him I shall ask him. The next few turns I realise the full enormity of my task and the failure of tanks on muddy ground. I lose two stugs and a ½ track to the mud and a ½ track to mortar fire. I still do not have my Stugs in view of his men yet and I start using the move fast command. On the right flank I lose a full squad and a ½ squad to an ambush as I try to move into the buildings. My following forces pull back. The whole edge of the town has Americans in the buildings. The one area that does not is just to the right of the road running into the town. I send my Stum Grp into the heavy building which is empty. This is the crack I need from which I can divide his defences. I move all units into this direction so that I can gain an ascendency in fire power. I only wish I had placed my TRP’s in better positions. In this area I ID a light AT gun which will be a 57mm. He also has at least a platoon in this area and some of them are not yet in the cover of buildings. This will be his down fall if he does not get into better cover. On my left flank he probes my defences as I have not sent any men forward. My two green squads get chewed to bits by two squads of American Paras and I need to pull them out. If I did not have two platoons of troops moving into that area I would be very worried about zooka teams sneaking up on my stuck Stugs. So far I am doing badly and he is on target to repluse me. My gamble on stuck Stugs is failing and my placement of TRP’s is poor to say the least. My opponent is an aggressive player and if he is not careful I will catch him out by getting him too confident. I have not lost the game but at this stage I need to start getting some victories. I need my men in Heavy buildings and I need to isolate his defences. I have lost in the region of 20 to 25 men for maybe 5 of his. The left flank I shall try and pull back and ambush his squads. This should then leave this flank open. In the middle I shall try and push my troops through his center and split his forces. My Arty is being slow to respond and my 150mm is a game winner but I need to be on target and this is going to be hard to achieve. My 81mm spotter is a minute away from ruining the American mortars spotted just behind some heavy buildings. The next turn I thank the god of war that no more vehicles bog and they make slow progress towards the town. 18 turns to go and I am miles away from any flags. My men rush into the heavy building and try to supress the AT gun which is attempting to knock down the building, but to no avail. A 150 round lands near his gathered troops and I hope he does not take it as a sign to bug out. I have 59seconds to go before the full effect lands near him. My spotter shifts fire closer to his platoon clustered in the light woods. Please stay there just a bit longer. He fails to move his men into the cover of the nearby buildings. On the left flank I manage to extract my two reduced green squads. They are both unhappy but at least they are not all dead. I see some more infantry moving in that area and I would guess he has a platoon moving my way. I hope that he is eager to push on and will run into my two platoons. However, he will certainly know that I have rushed one platoon there and could well know that I have two in the woods. The next turn will see if he is too eager or a sensible player. If he sits still that will cause me more of a problem. On the far right my squads are pulled back from the frey and I hope that he starts moving his men over to the main action. The ones that I pulled away I start sneaking them towards the main action. I hope that this will confuse him and he will lose track of where they really are. My 81mm spotter starts dropping rounds on the mortars and does not appear to have knocked them out. He is using smoke and I would guess is now out of ammo. He is moving some more forces to the main thrust and I will continue dropping rounds in that area as there are some light buildings and the rounds will have some limited effect. My Tanks continue their slow progress forward. It will be maybe another turn before they are in sight. I hear some truck sounds and can only guess he has a jeep or two to move his men around with. I lose yet more men and I can only hope that my 150 shells will start to even the score up. I will be ready to rush into the void (if one is created) and then exploit this towards the main flag. The next few pages cover a blistering number of turns done during the weekend and I make no attempt to note what turn the action happens. Well on the left flank he charges after my fleeing green squads and runs into my two platoons. After a couple of turns he losses the melee and a whole Para platoon is lying in a heap with the last two men being hunted down in the woods. One of the squads was Elite and this with the Crack HQ has to hurt. I now send my remaining men, (I took quite a few losses) down the left flank which I guess is now wide open. This is going to cause him serious problems if he has no reserve. While this melee is being played out my two squads and HQ unit near the road move forward into the woods to sneak a look into the town. He has no troops there but my men are seen and a couple of light mortars open up on me. I move the men out of harms way and hide biding my time. In the middle I have my men occupy the large heavy building and use this as a firebase. He sees this as a big threat and moves men from the left and right and middle to try and contain me. This is great as his men are out in the open and light buildings. My 150 rounds start falling on his men on the left and after a few turns he bugs out. This coincides with my gains in the woods and I guess he is rushing them back to plug the gap. His men in the two heavy buildings in front come under fire from my Sturm groups and a vicious battle is fought. I manage to switch my 150 spotter to these two buildings and again I am sure he is not too happy with these rounds landing near by. I manage to get my Stugs up into view and they lend their weight of fire on these defenders. My reserve platoons move forward into the void on the left and pursue the men that left the light buildings. I move into the buildings running down the main road into the town. He has left these defended by a CO HQ and a platoon HQ. These are no match for my 13 man Sturm group and soon succumb. On the far left my men push forward and over run a 3-man MMG squad and a HQ unit that had been sent over to help them out. I soon see why he had done this as I come upon a jeep and 57mm AT gun trying to flee my men. He nearly makes it but a manage to pop the jeeps wheels and the gun soon falls prey. On the far left he has nothing to stop me. I hear some noises to my right and I soon discover he has three squads out in the lightwoods. My two green squads and Crack Co HQ engage these, which have recovered from their fight against the Paras in the woods. I also have a reduced platoon behind him and this helps dent a few men. I do not understand why he is not using the Heavy building. My two squad platoon near the road moves forward and takes out a lone MMG squad. These 3 men squads are easy to take out if they have no support. I move this platoon into the stone building behind his platoon in the light trees. As I do this he pulls his squads back into the building and I will lose one squad that I sent into the building at the same time. While this is a pain I do get a positive ID on what he has in there and I see a HQ unit and two reduced squads. This will help me deal with this platoon. Meanwhile on the far left I send forward my remaining squads on a long and wide arc to come behind any defenders at the main flag at the crossroads. On the far right things go quiet and I get an ID that shows that he has pulled out some of the squads from the front line of the buildings. It is now time to move my reduced platoon on the far right and cause him more trouble. This platoon (1 full squad and a ½ squad with HQ unit) occupiers a Heavy building with no resistance. There is a MMG unit across the road from them and a potential infantry unit a few houses down on the same side as them. I send the ½ squad across the road and with support from the full squad they take out the MMG. Meanwhile I send forward my HMG units, which have been providing support, and the HQ unit. These engage the lone infantry unit in the houses on the front row. This unit is soon over come and turns out to be a 4 man HQ unit. He has robbed this defence line of all infantry squads to try and plug the middle. Excellent I continue to move along the row of houses to ensure that they are clear. I see a Zooka man scurrying back towards his rear and come across another MMG unit. This is reduced to one man and surrenders. The main action is now in the centre and over the course of a few turns his resistance breaks and he pulls his men back to the Church. This is now in sight of my Stuhs and is levelled. I also mange to drop some 150 rounds around his fleeing men and I see a HQ fall. I have been lucky so far and managed to get two Stugs onto the roads and both Stuhs are still running and not too far from the roads. I have a ½ track knocked out and two in mud accompanied by three other Stugs. As long as he does not get any Zooka teams behind me I am happy to trade the stuck Stugs for the progress so far. A 150mm round knocked out the 57-mm AT gun at the centre of the action and I discover that I also knocked out a Jeep as well. As I push my men forward after his retreating Americans I see another AT gun which has fallen prey to my Artillery and I am pleased that the Green spotter is doing so well. He is moved forward to help keep the pressure up and has a minute delay as long as I keep it within the re-calc range and can see the location. My men moving up the main street encounter a MMG unit and a CO HQ and these are soon over come. I see sightings in the distance of units being pulled back beyond the main flag. I have a feeling that he is bugging out en masse and will venture my units forward at a faster rate. I will also detach some Sturm units to deal with his platoon that is cut off. He is either weaker than I expected or thinks I am stronger and that he can not delay me enough to help his cause. If he does bug off the map then the platoon left behind could be captured and this will help my VP total no end. This is going far better than I had expected after the first contact which saw me lose so many men for so little. The 150 spotter has helped no end and my opponent’s lack of use of Heavy cover has helped me sap his units. Before I see the next turn I get intelligence that Frunze is far from happy with this game and it helps confirm that he might be in a bug out mode to try and minimise points loss. This IMO is a bad move as if he can contest some flags or make a final stand in the last few turns this will serve him better than retreating everything and causing Auto surrender. Anyway I await the next turn. The next turn and the rest that follow show that Frunze is bugging out big time and exiting units from the map as fast as possible. The platoon on my left flank is run off the side of the map when they could have done some serious damage to my depleted units in that area. To his front I had a single man in the CO HQ and a 3 and 4 man Green Squad. In the building next to him was a 6 man green squad and a HQ unit which would have been mincemeat if he had knocked on the door. The Regular unit that was in the same building as him was spared as his men ran out and one guy in the unit thanked his lucky stars and cursed his commander for sending him into a hornet’s nest. Around the crossroads with the Major flag only his slow moving units remained (2 Zooka Teams, and 2 MMG’s) and these were soon throwing up their hands. I captured four men in that area. On the right a 50 Cal machine gun tried to get away but with the weight of the weapon stood no chance and was soon wiped out. The final turns of the game offered no challenge as his men were running off the map. I await the end of the game to see why he did this and what he really had left. I know he could have made a stand with one platoon and I have a feeling he had at least two others and this if handled well might have made the difference. I think the 150mm artillery and the loss of his platoon on the left flank broke his personal morale and this won the day. Just waiting to see by how many points. The final turn I get to see the map and he has no units left on it and I have all the flags and a tactical victory. Result a Tactical victory to the Germans. Germans Allied 182 (56) 206 (58) 1 Mortars 5 Captured 3 Guns 1 Vehicles 1 Vehicle Men OK 265 122 Score 69 31 I have cut and pasted the actual AAR here and the results. The AAR is written turn by turn and tries and shows my thought process... H [ October 04, 2002, 03:32 AM: Message edited by: Holien ]

IMO - Another Day = GREAT TIGER Terrain. H

Hi James... You are on the bottom of my list for things to do... I have not played one game of CM since our last game / the finish of the tourney. Each night Debbie has me doing things on the house. I am storing credit for the new game... I have just contacted an old friend in NY state and if they give me the go ahead I shall be ordering a double pack from the states. I need an extra copy to give to my godson who wants to beat up on me. As for our game, I have not forgotten about it and I do intend on doing the set-up. In fact I shall do it tonight. Honest... H

You are a saint.... H

TB sorry to be a pain, but could you perhaps confirm who has (or has not, if it is easier) sent you AAR's. As points ride on them, we nee to make sure you have them. Thanks alot and I guess I shall be logging on, on Sunday to see who gets to play for the wine... Maybe I will be second time lucky... Either way I look forward to the next set of games.. Cheers H

Hi White4... Good point about the defence of the village. I guess that approach was a valid one if you did not know I had some guns to help support the attack. I think the key to my gun survival until they ran out of ammo was the placement. I took several hours of thought to place them and ensure that it was not an easy shoot back at me. I think that was bourne out by their survival. That air support was the worst experience of it I have ever had. To lose a whole platoon to two bombs at such a key stage was devastating. I was lucky that I held you off on your push to my Major flag. The 1/2 track and tank rush had me panicking and I was pleased that I had placed my guns well to stop you in your tracks. If you had got through I had sod all there to defend the place and you could have walked right in. A great game and I think we had equal amounts of luck. H

Hi Tero, I understand your point of view on the Arty spotters... However if you took that view with the rest of your forces you would not ever engage in battles. If you do not risk things you can not gain. Also with plenty of woods and cover you surely could have moved those spotters forward a tad. If you had a spotter on the hill above the town it would have been a different story. Also if you used the large stuff on my forces in the woods that would have helped you big time. Yes my 88's were the key to my (the Germans) Defence as it was all we were given. It just seemed to me that most of your shells fell on empty ground and that to me is a waste of a precious resource. Good for me Anyway when we get CMBB in the UK I will enjoy playing against you. H

Good going CDIC... I look forward to our first game... Which is liable to be next year... Should I continue waiting or order via an American friend? H

To certain people who like shouting down others. I love the empathy being shown here... Just goes to show some people have no regard for others not in the same situation as them. H P.s. I am waiting for the CDV version but that might change and will be paying my cash straight to BTS and a postman if this delay continues.

CA... Interesting... I choose to defend the Town and the Hill on the right. The hill above the town was undefended. The 88's allowed me to support the defence in the town from a distance. If the Allied player walked into the town with a few men he can get the flags for little damage to himself. Well that was the way I saw it... As always it all depends on your opponent and how they play it.... H

Good job you only joined 1/2 way through... For me anyway... I am sure you will do well Another day? H

Sorry Wolfie.. As for Sgt Lucky Bstrd... H