c3k

I may have been unclear. The 'schreck only STARTS near there because that's the closest allowed setup location to the DESIRED location. It moves (as I stated) INTO the road on the first turn (by going through the gap) and sets up in the road, hugging the bocage, with a FACE towards the marsh. ^^^ that is the relevant 'schreck info from my upstream post. Womble and I are in total agreement (I think) about where to put it. (bolded for emphasis) Womble's point about TARGET ARMOR arc is excellent. (His other positioning ideas for the 'schreck are also good.) Do NOT try to get into a duel with that 'schreck. Think about the bazooka in The Matrix III fighting the flying robot squids: one shot, then move, or get diced up. Similarly, your 'schreck is an ambush device. One shot, then displace. Reserves: a small unit (even a team) which is unsuppressed and has good morale, can deliver a crippling blow against a worn out attacker if they fire at the right time and place. Womble indicated the classic 2 up and 1 back formation (good on attack and defense). This scales at almost all levels. A platoon would have 2 squads up, 1 back. A company would have 2 platoons up, and one back. In this particular case, your men IN the farmhouse are not protecting it. It's a nice central spot, however. You may consider them your reserve. Do NOT retreat other units towards the farmhouse. That gives Ian safe flanks. Retreat to PROTECT the farmhouse. Units in it will die. Units outside of it can protect it. I don't remember which way is north on the map, hence my use of AHEAD (meaning towards Ian's side of the map) or "wheatfield", "minefield", or "marsh" for orientation. Note how Womble has specific missions for each team based on their weapons? Team "A" of each squad gets auto weapons (mostly). Notice how the teams break up if you use the different split commands. That can be important. You want ambush guys? Use ASSAULT TEAM and take the "A" from that split. Etc. Play with it and you'll see some VERY nuanced (but important!!!) differences. You can sculpt your force into a very task organized unit. MG34/42 teams are murderous. Use them and enjoy the field of crosses they create. (Then move them away. Don't gloat: it's unbecoming. )

Spotting cycle: I give 15-20 second pauses, or more, because that's how long it takes to setup, look around, and put out aimed fire. The 7 second spotting cycle is not, as far as I know, a given. Every unit may have different cycles. Another reason for the pause is to keep them rested. Target arc and scouts: Only if I'm HUNTing and I don't want them to stop due to distant enemies. If they're in good concealment, then yeah, I'll put cover arcs on them so they don't give away their position on long-range potshots. That's my .02. Ian?

Ian, 1) Nice comment upstream about dropping the camera low and examining the map. I do it all the time and find all sorts of interesting terrain folds and possible LOS. 2) Movement paths and screenies: EXACTLY! Staggered delays, hunt segments, scouts in front. Nice. 3) Heavy on your center and right? B-b-b-b-but you didn't listen to ANYTHING we said! 4) Good luck! Since you've already created your turn, does that mean it's too late for MG to change his setup?

^^^ Womble and I crossposted. I've made several edits and PS's to my post, just above his. We make similar points wrt the atg.

More detail. The left flank idea: the orange zone behind the marsh is tank-proof. Ish. The marsh will slow Ian down. The men in the zone behind the marsh can slaughter them. If Ian ignores them, then they will be on his rear (oh, the comments I could make ), should he try to ignore them and attack the farm. Take the units around 7 and split half of them over to the left. If he doesn't attack that way? Then the mines should give you time to reposition. Speaking of which...minefields should ALWAYS be covered with fire. His men should stumble upon them, go "boom", then they'll wait as an engineer comes up. Okay...NOW is when you kill his engineers. He'll hate you for that. - light covering forces fire on the units which are maneuvering after hitting the minefield. A heavy covering unit then nails the rescue unit. So, some bolt-action teams put out TARGET against any moving units after the first minefield. (And they can also shoot the guys who triggered the minefield.) The attacker's drill will be to either push through (and take the hits), or pull back, lay down covering fire, then create gaps in the minefield. The suppression fire will cause you to displace your teams. Do so (as I suggested above). Fire for a turn or two, then laterally shift. What can you use for heavy cover fire? Well, you're wasting your HMG way back in point 6. If it's mobile (and it is), use it from the start! Get it up to cover the minefield (but have it hold fire) until after the Ian has committed himself to crossing the minefield. Place it on the right. That will seal off that flank. Funnel Ian into the middle of the map where everyone can join in the fun. (Pink zone behind the minefield for the HMG.) What if his first unit passes through without triggering a mine? Perfect. Let 'em come. (Tight cover arcs.) Choose to either nail the advance guys when you can't stand how close they are, or as soon as a followup unit triggers a mine. Will you lose the minefield fight? Of course. But Ian will have lost time, men, and cohesion. Pull your HMG back when the pressure gets too great. (Do NOT let Ian have time to mortar it. Fire for about 3-4 turns. Maybe 5 if there are juicy targets.) If Ian moves down the road, shift the HMG. If he takes the other flank, shift the HMG. Get that HMG into the fight at the start. By the time it fires at the endgame, well, it's the end of the game. Great job placing the 'schreck where it can't be shot at. They'll survive to surrender after you've lost. Sheesh. What good will a short range anti-tank weapon do at the back of the map? Same critique as your HMG: get 'em up so they can fight when it matters. Where? The mines and wire help make your right "tank proof". Or, at least, you should be able to strip infantry away from tanks on that flank. The ATG has good LOS on the left. (And the marsh also pins Ian's tanks.) That leaves a zone from the road to the edge of the marsh where his tanks can roam. I'd place it in the zone ahead of the farmhouse, next to the road. Their job will be to move across the road and use the bocage as cover. They'll shoot to the left, or up the road (and backup your ATG) if Ian tries a road dash. There's a line of pink, next to a gap in the bocage where a lane enters the field. Put it there. Across the road, on your left, is a similar gap. At game start, move them onto the road, AHEAD of the gap on the left. FACE them towards the left. That should be a nice spot. Plus, the gaps allow him to easily shift left or right as needed. (If it cannot setup in pink, then put it in the orange near the left gap. Then move it to the place I indicated above. (I've advised elsewhere to put some entrenchments in that orange zone. Use it if your need it for the 'schreck setup.) IG looks like a good spot. Your goal is to pin Ian in the open. The IG should do it. If your are clustered, you are easily neutralized. Get some men away from that weapon. (My spread out comment above achieves that.) If Ian comes down blue route 1, then your HMG on the far right of the minefield bocage can easily reposition and flank him (near the ATG) from the road. (Not too near the ATG: once that thing is spotted, it will die.) Similarly with the 'schreck. (Not the reposition, but the flank effect.) Hold fire (if you can) until his tanks pass abeam the 'scheck position. Then nail one and displace. If you're already in the back, you cannot displace. You correctly identify your heavy weapons, then take them out of the initial fight. A bloody nose, then step back. When Ian comes closer, pop him in the nose again. You should not plan to create a defense which stops him. Instead, make him pay for each advance. When he finally gets near the farmhouse, he'll have lost too much combat strength. That's when your counterattack force (about a squad) should have an effect. Ken PS: Why is your ATG limbered? Set it up to fire to the left. If it needs to pivot, then so be it. But a fast mover will get past you if you're sitting there limbered. PPS: units at 2 and 3 are good, but not many will survive to pull back. My advice would be to put an entrench or two at the orange zone back at the end of arrow 2. Have units at 2 initiate the firefight. Keep 3 with a tight cover arc. When Ian moves against 2, then, while they pull back, 3 opens up surprise fire. After 2 are repositioned in the entrenchment, then have 3 pull back. (Split them into teams so one shell won't kill them all.) PPPS: I've advise you to create 2 more entrenchment zones. That will force Ian to think about where to fire his suppressive support. If you have guys all over, then his suppression won't affect some of them. A single stonk of smoke will neuter your entire group 7. PPPPS: Minefields don't need to be totally linear. I'd advise taking 2 or 3 and sticking them over your left. The gap near group 2 looks nice for 1 or 2. Drop another somewhere else. Make him fear the mine. Another idea would be to put some in the pink line between the marsh and the road. (I've looked at the battle (never played it), but I don't remember if you have the freedom to move the mines as I've indicated.) The big linear field will be about as effective if it only has 75% of the mines there. Use the extras to bleed Ian in unexpected places.

General comments? Yeah. All your arrows are running backwards! Dammit, man, where is your counterattack plan?!?!? If Ian always picks a flank, pushes, then rolls you, you should anchor a flank with enough force to make him dilute his attack. Behind area 2 is an orange setup zone. Why not put some entrenchments and some units over there??? Ian would have to take them out before he could flank your farmhouse. Any units withdrawing into the farmhouse are volunteering to enter the kill sack. Fight! Don't run...

That's great!

Gah...thumb typing leads to typos and lack of clarity. More when I'm at a keyboard...

A2 is a horrible. Really. Look at the objective. Look at your start zone. Count the obstacles between you and it via each rout. A3 is easier. A1 is harder. A2 is a killing channel. Were I defending, I'd kiss any attacker who came down the road. If you commit to A3, your flank will be A1. You'll need something along A1 to keep any German defender from maneuvering against your flank as you advance. Vice versa for attacking along A1 and overwatching A3. I'd leave about a squad and half. They can also be considered a reserve. So, A1 with some guards on A3, or A3 with guards on A1... My preference would be a blitz on A1. You'll be on the farmhouse fast. A3? By the time you get abeam the farmhouse, you'll have to pass the near-side road bocage, then the far-side road bocage, in addition to the rest you've already passed. A1 relieves you of that final hurdle. Most attacking forces attenuate as the battle progresses. The last thing you want is to have to scrape up your remnants for another push over the top. Mortars: how much smoke? Stuarts purpose is to destroy enemy infantry. Canister shot, 3 machineguns, fast as an angry lemur (whatever: use your own favorite "fast as" metaphor. ), and you've got 4 of them! Spread out the infantry. Every squad throws out a scout team. Remnants break out into the other two teams. Scouts out! Stuarts move by bounds. 2 back. 2 up. Only 1 moves at a time. Engineers: count on needing 2 demo charges per bocage line to open a hole for your stuarts. Don't go through gaps. Your men will die. Horribly. (My men die well. Yours don't. ) More details later.

Mobility on Defense: This does not mean (necessarily) to withdraw to switch positions. Rather, each unit on the firing line needs to displace. A linear bocage line would give a good example... Defending a bocage line should be done on-line. (Kind of hard to do it any other way.) However, break those squads up! After a turn, move 1/3 of your teams over a few action spots. (Pull back, shift laterally, move forward...with a covered arc.) Sure, it'll reduce your outgoing fire, but you're not doing much. No unit stays and "takes" accurate fire. Your guys are more effective as a threat and suppressing. So, a few teams off the firing line really don't make a difference. (Don't let my men know I just said that.) In exchange, you're keeping the enemy from calling in accurate direct fire. He shoots here...you're there. Likewise, fire one team from the upper floor, then time a lower floor team to take up the fight while the upper floor guys go somewhere else. Leave the attacker looking at a field of "?" markers. No matter how good he is at suppressing, he'll run out of ammo before he hits your MLR. At least, that's the theory.

Womble's analysis of this specific defense is quite good. I'll emphasize a point he made: any forward defenders will die...quickly. It may be worth giving Ian a bloody nose. If he skirts around them (biasing the opposite flank), then they are in a good position. (Just a hope...not a plan.) I would use fake entrenchments (empty ones) to soak off suppressive firepower. NEVER have engaged defenders stay stationary for more than a couple of turns. Attacker's motto: Find, Fix, Flank, eff'em the eff up. If you are firing at him, he's found you. If you stay there, you're fixed. We know what happens next...

Artillery on defense... It cannot destroy the enemy: it can only suppress him. Sure, some of that suppression is due to casualties. If he tries to move while under a bombardment, he will get pinned and lose men. The best action to take (as attacker) depends on the arty. If it's just starting, rush forward and get ahead of it. If you cannot do that, then hunker down and wait for it to pass. While waiting, that force is out of the fight. How do you, the defender, get that to happen? TRP. Buy some TRP's instead of ATG's.

The frivolity with which I pepper my postings is only done to spice things up. There is some serious work in there. (Thanks for the link, IanL.) MG, there are some trends in your plaintive plea for players to post which can be easily remedied. First, this is not a game. Seriously. If you approach it like a cardboard and hex game, you will not do well. Treat it as a simulation. Expect your men to act like men under fire. They do. (As well as can be done on a computer.) You mention frustration with ATG's. How many first line armies have used them since WWII? Yeah. They don't use them because they suck. They are immobile. Anything that doesn't move, dies. (We'll come back to this.) An ATG will be lucky to get a single kill before it is pinned with HMG's, then destroyed with direct fire HE or mortars. The one critical element to any battle is the terrain over which it is fought. It seems like you need to better analyze the map. If defending, try to put yourself in the attacker's position. Which approach is the most covered? Which offers overwatch? Would the attacker have better long range, or better short range, firepower? How mobile do you think he'll be? Meaning, how long will he transit the various exposed parts? That is the single most important element to setting up a defense. (A -great- example of this is here: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/118353-free-copy-aar-c3k-vs-dms-no-dms/ Notice how DMS totally denied my forces the primary ground I wanted. I had to shift from long-range dominance to shoving across some ground I didn't want to. His smoke was masterful. (Smoke is often more effective for neutralizing than HE.)) Use your ATG's as "remote effect anti-vehicle mines". Set them back, have interleaved fields of fire, but each ATG needs to have a very narrow aperture (a keyhole location). Otherwise, you may as well "bail out" your crews and use them as riflemen. One tank on defense is worth far more than a platoon of ATGs. Mis-setup? Move it! Getting surrounded? Move it! Need a quick spot of firepower? Move it! (See a trend?) One more minor note: a reserve is CRITICAL for successful defense. For a company on defense, I'd keep a half-platoon (with the CO) as a mobile counterattack force. (For a platoon on defense, a minimum of a team, preferably with some good auto weapons. Minimum of a team.) The "soft factors" make a huge difference in unit performance. Leadership, unit cohesion, morale, experience, are more more important (IMO) than a lot of the weapon differences. (What's better, a green US squad with Garands, or an elite British squad with bolt-action Enfields? I rest my case...) I'll talk about movement and sleight of hand later. And attacking. And squad techniques. And artillery.

Screenies!

Great idea!! Just reading your initial post, I can already spot your issue: you must ATTACK! No doubt your losses to IanL are due to your men feeling morose and forlorn. Can you blame them? A tentative commander, with a loose grasp of battle, hoping that somehow hiding behind earthworks like some sort of prey run to ground, will defeat an offensive force is a mistaken commander. Let your men know that you're serious. Nothing better displays that kind of fortitude than a gamey first turn flag rush. Zerg zerg! This should be intersting. We'll need screenshots, maps with big arrows, and pots of coffee. Ken

I find su25 strafing also does a good job of stripping EVERYTHING off my Abrams.

What if the battle lasts longer? And you can get an hq near the broken units and rally them? Then, if they'd evaporated, you'd have lost them. The disappearing surrendered men simulate that they've been captured and escorted back (or just told to march that way). Laying in the open may not be the best behavior. But, you're assuming knowledge of how the endgame will play if you want them to disappear at a certain time. (Or, put an exit zone on the map. I'd think they'd run out, through it, if they get too demoralized.) Ken

That's one of the cleanest looking hulls I think I've ever seen come from Russia. (As in, smooth lines, no angle iron welded on, etc.)

That's an impressive list! Having played v1.03, all I can say is it is VERY good.

It is like a dome...of iron.

You just know that ANY IFV named the "Schwartzkopf" would soon enough have the nickname "zit". Just sayin'...

DRM burdin is, totally, overblown. (IMHO) If you download the game, STORE THE FILE!!!! Really. Grab a thumbdrive or carve a spot on your harddrive. Personally, I always like to have backup media at-hand. But that's me...

Great film! Thank you.

^^^ Yeah, that's why I mentioned it about 6 pages ago! The engine tech is pretty important and seems to be a bit of a leap. (Of faith, perhaps...) If it is a "plug and play" version, then go for it. It'll be interesting to see how well it does in service.

The Mk211 has explosive filler. (That's a simplification...) It is designed to produce high velocity fragments after/during penetration.