Holien

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

Look there Sgt Lucky Bstrd... When I get back over to Kiwi land I will bring you something special.... H [ September 27, 2002, 07:00 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

K has hit it on the head and if you managed to deploy the 88's well then it certainly gave the Allies a hard time. H

Sorry Tero.... H

Hi, No argument intended and I apologise if my post has been mis-understood. I know that different strokes please different folks. This is a tough one for the Germans, if you lose your guns then the French can rule the roost if you have an agressive player. For me it offered plenty of choices in deployment and force split up. I liked the way I could choose where my forces could deploy for the four different phases of the operation. 1. Ambush 2. Big Hill attack 3. Village assualt 4. Defend base The map design was IMO great as it really gave the engine a great work out and caused you to work hard in understanding the lay of the land. The village on the hill was almost post card material. (Well if you dream a bit). The gullies and hedge lines gave plenty of possibilities for attack and defence. I think White4 would have done better to hide his troops to the last moment and mowed my men down as I tried to breach the hedge line. However, I think the troop quality might have not allowed him to do this? Anyway each to their own, no problem with that. Just offering another view. More the merrier... H

I think a good attacker can not fail to win this one.... But then again I could be wrong... Tero wasted his arty and I base my view on use of the massive arty advantage the Allies get... H

Thanks for letting us now know who to thank... Fire on Mountain.... Best Scenario ever!!! IMO Head for the hills.... Great design and good challenge. Polish Push... Small but perfectly formed... Perhaps could have the Stugs appear behind the Germans rather than on the left flank (Allied View). Perhaps also give the German player some TRP's. Thankyou very much for your time and effort and if you ever make it over to the Banbury / Oxford area of the UK I will buy you a beer.... H [ September 27, 2002, 01:59 PM: Message edited by: Holien ]

Spoiler DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO PLAY THIS GREAT SCENARIO BLIND.... - - - - - - - - - - - Another great game and map. Good challenges for both attacker and defender. I think it favours the attacker as they have more artillery than you can shake a stick at. The only way to win this as the Germans is stay hidden as long as possible and get up close and personal with what little you get... H