witko

AAR-The Long and Short of It. Axis-Witko Allies-Splash (this is really only a partial AAR as it is mostly to respond to some points that Splash brought up in his AAR above. Mine should probably be read after his to get a better picture of things) The map had 3 flags. One in each of our starting locations and a jump ball flag in the middle. It seemed fairly clear to me that the middle flag was the gamebreaker in this scenario. With that in mind i set out moving my troops into position. My general thinking was that if i could turn a scenario built pointwise as a meeting engagement into a scenario where i was defending it would be to my advantage. The only other initial decision i made was to leave one whole platoon back to cover my flag. I know i would have been irritated to no end if my opponent slid down the map side and stole my flag to win. By turn 10 i was a happy camper. I had a good hold on the middle of the map and both flanks were covered. I hadnt seen much of the enemy though he had some guns firing at the buildings. I had taken 4 losses but that seemed a fair price to pay for a better position. Turn 14 and the other guys showed up for the party. A firefight broke out on my right flank and i had a visual on 6 squads. One of my SMG squads in a light building took a pretty good beating as i believe 5 of the 6 squads were firing on it. I had a wirblewind in the area to support that flank and he was doing his job well. Splash has questioned the way i handled the wirblewind. It wasnt that i did not consider whether or not he had PIAT's. My thinking was threefold. 1)I had an infantry screeen between his forces and my vehicle. My experience with AT teams has been that they can be a real momentum swinger but by no means are they automatic. In particular they dont seem to do as well when being fired on. 2) There were buildings, trees, and elevation changes in the area. I was trying to position my wirblewind so that it could support my infantry while limiting how many of his troops could fire at it. 3) At that point it was a risk i considered worth taking. By the time i moved the wirblewind up close i was only interested in inflicting damage and making the clock move. Because of the positions of my other troops i knew it was going to be nearly impossible for him to fight his way back over to the middle flag. Also he never really pressed me anywhere else on the map so i was able to let my other troops collapse towards the center further tightening my hold on the middle. As Splash noted i did lose the wirblewind but it served its purpose. What was really stupid was my impatience with the flamers but sometimes you gotta take your shot... The move towards the 3rd flag was probably a bit brash. But at that point i was fairly certain the middle flag was mine and i was hoping that if he had to worry about his flag he wouldnt have time to rush the middle one. As it turned out i held 2 flags and contested a 3rd. I had so much firepower near the flag that i dont think he would have been able to rush it anyway. While the balance issue is something for people other than me to decide i think where my opponent decided to fight had much more to do with me winning the scenario than my use of any particular unit. When i signed up for this tourney i told ted i was probably more of a strategy gamer than a wargamer. While i dont always know the ins and outs of the different units im pretty good at reading and CMBO does a good job of giving me the info i need. Maybe the way i decided to play this one was bass-ackwords but eventually you gotta stop thinking so much and fight. Since I managed to advance to the next round im standing by my decisions on this one. witko

Hey Ted, i noticed in the scenario name it says give and take-AI. i hope you gave me some artificial brains to help out with the old guys. hopefully they wont all be looking for that yellow brick road outta town. witko

thanks for the kind words hobo. our first two scenarios were crazy intense and in doubt right up until the end. i was more than a little lucky. while i wish you luck in your voyage in cmmc dont forget a certain rematch we planned with the geezers and the young guns. send me the scenario file when youre ready and we'll get going. witko

heya Hobo _quit posting and start plotting your turn! Arghh! I feel like a kid at christmas. I just want to see whats gonna happen next!! I dont know about the rest of you guys but so far my tourney experience has been great. 2 very good opponents and all the scenarios have been filled with tension and the outcome in some sort of doubt right up to the end. witko

Blind Mans Bluff AAR Polish:witko German: Toran29 Turn 1-5 Like many others i decided that the darkness and fog would make any confrontation swift and to the point. My plan was to use the terrain to let my units "filter" together into a left and right battlegroup, each consisting of two platoons. Turn 6 The silence was finally shattered on my left flank when my platoon HQ transformed into world-class sprinters and burst ahead of my squads to bridge one of the many clearings in the woods. A shot rang out killing one man and breaking the HQ in the process. Return fire from another squad quickly eliminated the sharpshooter. Turn 8 One of my many mistakes. Trying to recover on my left flank i had one more clearing to bridge. Hoping Toran would be patient after the initial contact i decided to press ahead ordering two squads to run across the field with another already in position to provide support fire if needed. i watched in horror as i lost 32 men on the left flank in one turn. I didnt get much in return for these mens lives either, only managing to spot 4 squads in front of me with no idea if i had managed to do any damage or not. On the right things werent much better. My E-platoon was distracted chasing a "sound" in the woods. D-platoon ran headlong into germans with 14 men falling. one of my overwatch squads was pinned with 6 casulties and my "field-jumper" squad was sandwiched between a mess of germans with only 5 men still able-bodied. Turn 9 On the left things only became worse. I was hoping to take what was left of my force and slide right onto torans flank. Not being very smart i was still thinking i could inflict damage as i moved towards the exit zone. Well, my flankers were outflanked. Two squads had been completely eliminated and of the ones left only a HQ unit was full strength. my men were surrounded with fire pouring in. A bright spot? My crack squad managed to eliminate a german "team". Sigh. On the right i frantically tried to reposition my e-platoon deciding it was better to shoot where i "knew" they were than chase where i thought they were. (something about that bird in the bush thing?). My field-jumper was eliminated but my other squads were holding out well and at least inflicting some damage as well. If only e-platoon could get set-up... Turn 10 Only eight men remain for me on the left. Of those eight 6 are pinned and the other 2 are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The right flank is at a standstill with both sides firing across a 30m field. Im doing my best to manuever for an advantage and im sure Toran is also. Turn 11 My left side is no more. Only 2 men are active and they are broken hiding in the woods. I do have a sharpshooter on that side who basically was only a war correspondent for this engagement. he will flee to the exit zone and bear witness to the massacre that took place in the woods. On the right i lose another squad but manage to take out a squad also. My men see toran bring another squad up to reinforce and we actually are a bit happy as we think his placement of them will allow us to enable a little revenge. Turn 12-15 The germans hunted down the last two men alive on the left. Were it not for the polish sharpshooter this altercation would be like so many others in that it was long ago forgotten. On the right one of my squads develops an "im not gonna go alone" mentality and finishes off 2 german squads before being eliminated. Turn 16-20 Moving towards the exit zone i could only hope Toran lost the way. It was not a good night to be polish and lost in the woods. Axis: 72 casulties (23KIA) 38 men ok score:56 Allies: 105 casulties (22 KIA) 39 men ok score:43 Axis minor victory Aftermath: My favorite thing about CM is you always have that "what-if" feeling. This round for me it's - What if i had been more patient? What if i had left my troops split? What if i had pulled back when first contact was made...that sort of thing. Well played Toran, it was great fun. And a pat on the back to SuperTed for the scenario design. Witko (hopefully ill get an AAR out for MightyMouse when everyone is done. I think it will be more fun since the right team wins that time...

...and THATS how i got toran in mighty mouse. he couldnt get any of his cars to start...heh

the other great thing about this tournament is that since everyone is basically "new" to playing vs. a human everyone "wants" to play... the matches all seem to be moving along at a good pace and im guessing(hoping) that as far as any grumbling goes its been fairly minor. SuperTed has done a great job at keeping things organized and in my case at least has been more than helpful in problem solving. (come to think of it ST, if my first "real" girlfriend had as been as helpful as you she woulda had a lot more fun...heh). all in all the tournament has a good beat and everyone can dance to it....i give it a 98!!

tourney sounds like a great idea!!! (also i needed to post something to see my member #) witko

was wondering if there is a community recognized setting for the ai in quick battles. i just received the game and ive been playing combined arms 700-1000 pt battles (mostly meeting engagements but i just switched to assaults) with computer selecting forces and as many things random as are allowed. ive moved the computer experience? level up but have yet to fiddle with the force percentage numbers. any suggestions? great game!!! witko