voidhawk

SuperTed's Combat Missons Tournament

Silvio and I are at about turn 15 of "Break Through". Much mayhem has already ensued, and much more is about to happen. You'd think we were close to the last turn based on where the action is...

AAR "Crash Landing" (or "Six Flags over Wolfheze") Combatants: voidhawk (that's me) Axis, mortar Allies. The mission: Take control of the map (6VLs!) and repel the Allied glider troops. Initial forces: 1 platoon (green!) rifle, 2 HMG, 2 snipers. Reinforcements: more troops and some SP guns later on. My troops start off in the NE corner of the map - the 6 VLS are arranged roughly in a circle centered on the middle of the map. Mostly open countryside, with some gentle undulations and scattered trees. My initial assessment is that there is no way I have enough troops yet to even begin to think of securing any VLs, especially as my only platoon consists of green troops. I decide to hide them behind a nearby rise (I can't even call it a hill), and set up the HMGs and snipers back in tree areas to cover as much open ground as possible. I observe some enemy troops scurrying around in the distance; too far and fleeting for the HMGs and snipers (I keep the latter hidden anyway for now to wait for better targets) to take on. At this point I'm basically hoping my opponent does not make use of this opportunity to attack my troops, let alone the VLs, as there would not be much I could do about it. After a while a couple more platoons (mostly green); I send 1 platoon off to the left (as seen from my starting corner), and the other to right, both trying to maintain a low profile in the process. Around turn 6 the HMGs start firing at distant targets to the S, SW and W. The effectiveness is unknown, but it should cause the enemy troops to slow down and stay out of the open. I try to sneak one of my center platoon's squads over to the rise to the W of it, in order to see what is over in that corner of the map. It is spotted and comes under mortar fire though, leading to a quick retreat and second thoughts about further scouting - at least until more help arrives. At around turn 8 two more HMGs and another company of (again) mostly green rifle squads arrive. I will try to pair up the new HMGs with the existing two HMGs, or at least close enough to them to share the same HQ units for maximum effectiveness. The new platoons are split evenly one left, one center (as reserves) and one right. This will leave me with 2 platoons in each of those directions, with the original left and right flank ones leading the way. Around turn 12 2 StuH42s arrive (regular, green); as the best LOSs are one the right and left flanks, I send one in each direction to take up position from which they can cover as big an arc as possible and at the same time stay far enough back so as not to have to worry about PIAT teams. Many enemy units are sighted in the SW (the opposite corner from where I started). The terrain will mask their further movements, so I'm going to have to be careful where they end up. No doubt a massed attack is planned (also based on how my opponent handled his infantry in "Long and Short"). Well, now I know where they all went - turn 14 finds multiple (at least 6) enemy squads advancing on the NW VL - just when I have a platoon trying to sneak up to the hill there too. My units are quickly overwhelmed by the massed, short-range firepower the Tommy glider troops bring to bear, and my platoon takes many casualties and break. Did I really see vet. troops there? This could be very tough on my green troops. The enemy now holds 4 out of the 6 VLs. As our previous game ended in a draw, it is vital that I can't let this situation continue! Meanwhile my 2 StuH42s have reached good positions and start shelling enemy troops, which are conveniently clustered together. That, together with the 4 HMGs that are also firing should help put an end to the assault. At this point (turn 16) my left flank consist of 1 StuH42, 2 HMGs, 2 full squads and 1 half squad (and some HQ units and a sharpshooter). I decide to commit my center reserve platoon to the weakened right flank, as there is no action in the center, probably in part because the center of the map is well covered by 2 of the HMGs and the left hand StuH42s. In fact, that StuH is probably better off helping on the right flank, and I speed it off in that direction. Big mistake! It bogs down, and is stuck in a useless positions too. Fortunately it is the regular StuH42, so perhaps if I just leave it alone it will unbog by itself. I'm going to have to be very careful with the green StuH - moving it as little and slowly as possible, and in such a manner that even if it did get bogged down, that at least it would be pointing in a useful direction. Two turns later the combined defensive fire I've been able to bear on the NW assault is beginning to pay off; the enemy troops halt their advance and some even start heading back behind the hill on which the NW VL is located. The enemy troops advancing through the swamp all the way on the N map edge are particularly badly hit, and almost none survive the murderous HMG fire (with support from the company HQ who is helping the forward HMG team). The enemy still holds that all-important VL though. A summary of where my units are at this point: Right flank: 5 SQ, 2 HMG, 1 StuH42, plus 3 SQ still in reserve Right-center: 2 SQ, 2 HMG, 1 StuH42 (unbogged by now!) Left flank: 3 SQ against 1 enemy platoon in the trees around the SE VL. I haven't talked about my left flank much so far - this is because for one the enemy is not assaulting me here, and also because I just don't have the troops to do any assaulting myself. So, the troops are just shooting at each other from 100m+ range; basically a holding action. At this point in the game I realise that I am not going to win this one on VLs; my opponent seems to have units everywhere, and even though I have some armour I am not likely to rush it forwards to clear out his VLs as they are likely to bog down and/or get shot at with PIATs. Actually losing a StuH42 would be fatal for me, as not only would this score lost of extra points for my opponent, but I would also lose a potent damage-causing weapon. So, I continue to be very careful with those StuH42s. If I can't win on VLs alone (I still hold 2, my opponent holds 4), my plan should be to inflict as much damage (points for me) on my opponent as possible, and at the same time try to neutralise the NW VL (which is where I halted the enemy assault). Hopefully the resulting 3-2 VL disadvantage can be outweighed by higher losses inflicted on my opponent. Fortunately, my opponent continues to cluster his units together (mine are typically spread out to avoid mortar fire), and a new cluster appears on my left flank around turn 20, and is targeted by my left-hand StuH42 which I slowly move forwards a little to get a better LOS. With only 5 turns left in the game, timing is everything and I start leapfrogging entire platoons on my right flank in order to move them forwards towards the NW hill with VL while keeping the enemy busy and/or forcing their heads down. The plan is to leave 2 platoons in a reverse-slope position right by the hill with VL, in case of a new enemy attack, and let the remaining units move on to the hill from the right-hand side. All my squads are now engaging the enemy, and the action is unbelievable! Some units are starting to run low on ammo. Turn 22 finds my right-hand squads almost in their assigned positions, and I am disappointed that no enemy attack occurs, as that would surely have been very costly for the enemy units with almost 2 of my platoons in a perfect reverse-slope defense in trees. The right-hand StuH42, now being without significant targets, slowly heads closer towards the soon-to-be contended (I hope) NW VL to provide last-minute covering fire. The left-hand StuH42 moves further forwards to occupy the SE VL hill, as by now a couple of my center squads have advanced a little in order to make sure PIAT teams can't get too close (one tries, and pays the prices). At turn 24 my right-hand StuH42 reaches the 2nd of my VLs, and starts shooting at whatever it can see. At the NW VL 8 of my squads (not all full at this point, of course) advance on to the VL in a pincer movement from the left and right...will it be enough to at least deny that VL to the enemy though? Turn 25 - fire and mayhem abound around the NW VL, and although many of my units take casualties from the glider troops who are now almost within arm's reach, the enemy appears to sustain more casualties and has some units break. No significant changes occur at the other fronts, mainly because the troops (and even the StuH42s) are essentially out of ammo by now. End result - the NW VL is left contended, and I did manage to inflict substantially more casualties. Score: Axis 55 (64 casualties, 159 OK) - Allies 38 (130 casualties, 103 OK). One more turn and I think that NW VL would have been mine...but it was enough as it was.

"The Long and Short of it", voidhawk (Allies) vs. mortar (Axis) "Is this map for real"? was my first thought at seeing the wide open landscape on my side, and the village with trees on the other side. It was clear that there was no way I was going to be able to even think of getting to the far VL, and even the center VL would be tricky as all there was no cover worth speaking of on my side, and plenty of houses and trees on the other. On top of that the briefing made me believe that German forces could come from the side road [my mistake!], so I was hesitant to advance on my right. And oh yes, all I had was a company of regular infantry deprived of PIATs (!), with another one like that on the way, and a 3" observer and some SP guns promised later. My overall plan was to move into the village on my left flank, and then cut across using the various buildings as cover towards the center VL. At the same time I wanted to defend my own, very exposed VL by positioning Lt Scott's platoon and a Vickers behind it in a hollow, and with Lt Moldur and 3 2" mortars behind a small rise way in the back. I had no intent of moving them from there, especially as they would have to cross miles of open farmland to do so. On my left flank Lt Robinnard and Lt Minton's platoons were to leapfrog each other down the road, heading for small depression to hide in at the point where the road curves to the right. Two more Vickers would take up positions in the small buildings on my left flank. And so it went - a little later Sgt Arrow's Sexton arrived on my left flank - I was hoping his shooting would be as good a his name implied! Sgt Arrow advanced along the road to to support Lts Robinnard and Minton. Once in position, Sgt Arrow started shelling tall buildings that were likely enemy observing places, as there was nothing else to shoot at yet. After another 5 minutes or so the second company (Lts Lamons, Mercier and Myatt) arrived, and they marched down the road right away. Their associated mortars, Company HQ and Vickers took up positions behind a small hill near the bend in the road ready to provide supporting fire. Another Sexton, commanded by Sgt Calyn arrived, and he moved behind the small building all the way back on my left flank, and also started shelling tall buildings. Meanwhile, Lt Robinnard's platoon (one of the forwards ones) had split one squad for forward observation duties, and started to enter the trees on my left flank. Some enemy infantry movement was observed there. Lt Minton's platoon carefully moved into position in depressions in the wheatfields in the center of the map, but still some way from the exposed center VL. With the 3 reinforcement platoons closing in to the frontline, the 3" observer started to drop smoke in that same left-flank area to provide cover for the 4 platoons now advancing there. Sure enough, more enemy infantry was seen there, and Sgt Arrow's Sexton started pounding the grounbd near the observered infantry (who were out of LOS) areas while Lt Robinnard's platoon advanced through the trees and came under fire from what turn out to be SMG squads - nasty! The troops realised that short-range firefights were not the way to go, and tried to pull back a little after taking casualties, but the enemy was seen to be taking casualties too from the massed rifle platoons' and Sexton's fire. Then another Sexton, commanded by Sgt Moon, showed up and raced forward to help Sgt Arrow and the somewhat pinned rifle platoons in the trees. As Sgt Moon neared the trees where some hectic to and fro fighting was going on, a WirbleWind was seen on the small rise in the forward center of the village. Nasty! It is in LOS of my 3" arty observer who promptly tried to drop some shells into its open top, but no such luck. It did force the WirbleWind to button up and shift its position a little though. Another unidentied vehicle was heard further back in the village. The fighting in the my left-flank trees continued, with the 4 platoons now engaged there trying to consolidate their positions and trying to stay as far away from the enemy SMG squads as possible. The enemy infantry seemed to be clustered together, no doubt for mutual support, and this seemed like a nice juicy target for Sgt Moon's Sexton, which maneuvered closer to get some close-range shots in. However, after firing some shells and doing some damage, the Sexton came under fire from some hidden vehicle (probably the one heard earlier), and also by a Panzerschreck team from one of the forward buildings. The Panzerschreck missed, but the vehicle did not, and caused Sgt Arrow and what was left of his crew to abandon their vehicle after being hit a second time. That hurt, losing one of my three only vehicles. Must get that WirbleWind! Around the same time, some enemy infantry was observed on the right flank, heading towards my VL, and they soon came under fire from Sgt Arrow and the assembled 2" mortars hiding behind the small rise near the bend in the road on my left flank. This seemed to put an end to their advance. With the fighting on the left flank now now subsided (mainly because what was left of the German troops had retreated back behind a small rise), my forward platoons there took the opportunity to regroup again and take up strategic positions, including infiltrating one of the buildings, to deny the enemy forces a chance to re-occupy the trees here. This was all well and good, but did not help me get to the center VL at all, as the WirbleWind in the center and the other WirbleWind (identified by now) a little furher back made it all but impossible for my troops to move from the left flank towards the center. This forced my to give up on the original plan to occupy the buildings in the front of the village, and instead start to sneak Lts Minton's and Myatt's platoons (who were hiding on my side of the center VL) further forwards so that they could at least contend the center VL. Up until this point things seemed to be under control - significant enemy infantry causalties had been observed, and although I had lost some infantry and one Sexton, the other two were in good positions (one forward, one back) to supports further pushes by my infanrty. I was hoping that Sgt Calyn's Sexton (the one all the way at the back) might even be able to get a shot at one of the WirbleWind's, as the range was sufficiently long that the WirbleWind may not have been able to penetrate the Sexton's front armour. No such luck though - and worse to come - an Ostwind showed up on my right flank, again heading for my VL! This was really bad news, as its 37mm cannon could demolish a Sexton at all ranges on this map, and its burst-fire mode ensured roughly a 3 to 1 advantage is terms of hitting percentages. On top of that the OstWind started to pound my forward group of Vickers and 2" mortars, who were now no longer fully protected by the small rise they were hiding behind. Sgt Arrow was in a reasonable position to take a shot at the OstWind while it was distracted by the mortars, but after firing one shot (missed) Sgt Arrow prudently backed up out of LOS of the OstWind as its expected response was much less likely to miss. The best Sgt Arrow could do was try to set up in an ambush position to catch the OstWind as it moved further towards my VL, but that plan had to be moderated by the knowledge that the 2 WirbleWinds were not far away just behind some buildings (which I had very deliberately NOT destroyed for that very purpose). The OstWind was still out of LOS of Sgt Calyn's Sexton way in the far left-hand corner, and really was is no position to duel it out with the OstWind anyway because of the afore mentioned hit percentage differences, and so kept on trying to get a bead on the WirbleWinds instead. As the OstWind advanced further, accompanying infantry was observed close to it, and as they all reached a small depression to hide in they came under fire from my 3 2" mortars hiding behind my VL, the Vickers, and Lt Scott's platoon. I took some minor infantry losses, and the OstWind survived everything thrown at it, but the enemy infantry did not seem happy to come under so much fire and appeared to cower in the depression and started to run around in what appeared to be panic. Good! The center WirbleWind had unfortunately become a little more aggressive at this point and started to pound my already depleted left-forward platoons, pinning some squads but not doing too much damage. As the end of the game neared, it was time to do a quick status check: One - there was no way I was going to get to the far VL, despite sending one team rushing over there through the woods (more as a distraction than anything else). Two - with the two WirbleWinds, buildings, and trees on the enemy's side of the center VL, the best I could hope for was to leave that VL neutral - and that meant smoke and the classic end-game rush! I had reserved enough rounds for my 3" observer to do just that, and started counting down towards the smoke (timed for the last full turn). Lts Minton and Myatt started their final advance in earnest now, foregoing the sneaking and hiding for a more direct advance towards the flag. Three - my VL was in serious jeopardy, as without PIATs, and very unfavourable Sextion-OstWind duel chances, that OstWind could just about waltz right over there AND take out at least one Sexton in the process. That would have been disastrous! I instructed all available infantry firepower there to aim at the OstWind, in order to at least button it, and at best shock it, while at the same time playing hide and seek with Sgt Calyn's Sexton who might be able to get a lucky shot off while the OstWind was distracted. So - what happened? Well, my opponent turned out to have his own center VL flag-rush plans, and because of the better cover on his side, arrived there a couple of turns before the smoke started to drop. This caused some problems for my advancing troops, especially as they came within SMG range. Careful support from units further back minimised casualties at this stage though, even though some units panicked and ran away from the action. The OstWind did NOT advance any further, to my immense relief, and also did not hit Sgt Calyn's Sexton (also to my great relief!). Then the smoke came down all around the center VL, my infantry rushed forwards, more enemy infantry rushed forwards, and one of the WirbleWinds rushed right up to the VL too. And so it ended - one VL each, with the center one neutral (if it were not for that WirbleWind, I may have been able to capture that one too as I had more, and healtier, troops there- but who knows!). Final score: Allies (voidhawk) 42, Axis (mortar) 41, and many hours of lost sleep...

Yes, it takes a real "leap of faith" to cross it.

In case anybody was wondering about the bridge, I received this clarification from my Dad: "It is the (later rebuilt) railway bridge that was blown up more or less in the first para's faces! The traffic bridge, now called the Frost bridge is invisible and more to the left in the far distance." So there you have it.

My Dad sent me these pictures of the Oosterbeek area in the Netherlands, i.e. just north of the river Rhine and west of Arnhem, taken on a "light fog" spring day. Thought you might like to see them too as they provide quite a good impression of the type of landscape there. The first picture shows the view from the north bank of the river, looking towards Arnhem - note the bridge in the background! This area is called the Westerbouwing, and you can just imagine the difficulty of a river crossing here. The second picture shows typical countryside - small fields, rows of trees, slight undulations.

Why - did I win some kind of prize?

I've been kind of busy lately, but plan to write some AARs for L&S and CL. In the meantime, I'm, learning as much about Silvio as possible

Mortar and I have 2 turns left in Crash Landing, and if anything, the fighting seems to be getting more intense! I'm down on the flag count right now, but...

Mortar and I are in a similar situation; after a draw in L&S, we are now in the final couple of turns of "Crash Landing", and it looks like it will be close again. Ironically, our game seems to be slowing down more as we get closer to the end; kind of like approaching the speed of light! Let's hope we will actually get here, unlike the above example. But, I'm rambling; too much stress from Crash Landing.

Well, I copied over the original font files, but it did not make any difference, so this is beginning to look like a driver issue. I'll update my drivers right after the next time I do a full system backup. I guess what I was really hoping to hear was "yes, I used to see that too, but I did XXX and that fixed the problem" - that is why I included the images. I do run with FSAA enabled; the graphics are just too "sparklyy" without it. Thanks for all the suggestion so far!

Thanks for the response; I found the appropriate article, with the following quote from Deanco himself: I had already applied this fix quite a while ago though. Note that it is not just the landscape marker text that is corrupted - also the info screen and detailed hit and unit info etc.

Are these examples of the classic NVIDIA corrupted text problem? I am running W98 with a GeForce II, so it is not the Windows 2000/XP issue. Yes, I'm still using the "old" 6.5 drivers, as I have not seen conclusive proof anywhere that the latest drivers (there are always more latest drivers) actually fix the problem, and I am hesitant to upgrade the drivers as everything else is totally stable. This text problem seems to occur more frequently in large games or with lots of smoke. Escaping to the desktop and then going back does not resolve the issue; only exiting the program and re-starting does. I have never seen the corrupted text in the scenario selection or briefing screens, so it is probably not the same problem. Note that even the text in the "menu bar" is corrupted.

Big Dog, where do you keep your list? Thanks!

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree a little bit here - as great as the Scenario Depot is (and it is great), its "Top 10 PBEM" lists are skewed by single reviewers who score "10" for PBEM, usually not even having played that scenario as PBEM. That really bugs me, as it makes the Top 10 list effectively useless. Come on folks, use the "0" score for replayability and/or AI/PBEM if you have not played it that way - it will not adversely affect the average score. Keith has indicated it is too CPU-intensive to generate more useful (my words) Top 10 lists, e.g. by only considering scenarios with more than (say) 3 reviews - kind of like Big Dog's lists, but in real time. So yes - I end up doing what the original poster complains about, having to look through pretty much all battles to find a good one. My plug for a great PBEM: "A Second Job - Vossenack". [ April 25, 2002, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: voidhawk ]

[Guess I never did post my Rabbit's Foot AAR - well, here it is then! Sorry about the mixed formatting, but life is too short to remove all those CR/LFs...] Well, that game played out quite differently from how I thought it was going to play out. My briefing led me to believe that I had to clear the woods flanking the road of enemy troops, in order to create safe route for my panzers, which would come later. And oh, yes, I had to capture the bridge too. One look at the map showed I had a looong way to go in order to get there. I split up some squads to act as scouts in the woods, and sure enough, they spotted some "infantry?" right away. Although those enemy squads (or half-squads, I assumed) seemd to be heading back right away, it put me in a cautious frame of mind and I took some care to sweep the woods, which all took time. At this point I really only had enough troops (a platoon, a couple of MGs and a couple of green (!) arty observers) to do just that, and I really didn't have much of a plan other than to send 1 platoon left, 1 in the middle, and 1 right. Somewhere around this time I received 2 platoons of very mixed quality troops in trucks instead of the much hoped for panzers. My plan solidified - use the 81mm arty observer to drop smoke at the end of the road next to the orchard, as that was really the only way in for the trucks, and the slight wooded rise would be an sure ambush location. At the same time the center platoon would clear the orchard to make sure the trucks wouldn't get fired on from the bocage perimeter. My left platoon sneeked through the woods overlooking the road on the left, to make sure the coast was clear for the 81mm. And so it went - the 81mm started it long countdown to drop smoke, a couple of squads on the left advanced towards the wooded rise to see if they could draw any fire to give away an ambush, and my center platoon made its way across the surprisingly undefended orchard - not even any fire from the house in the corner. The right platoon made slow progress around the right of the orchard through the woods and pines, pulling a 75mm arty observer in tow. All went pretty much according to plan - the smoke dropped nice and thick, the first platoon's worth of trucks arrived just in time, and the troops disembarked without too much trouble. Flushed with this success I got a little greedy and moved the smoke's target to the center of the village, ready for the 2ns platoon's worth of trucks to rush in. This is where things sdtarted to fall apart. As the 81mm somke point was now out of LOS, the smoke landed wide and far apart and didn't really hide the by now committed trucks at all. The troops from the first wave were still trying to occupy safe places (woods, nearby buildings) and were not of much use to cover the second wave. To compound these problems, I forgot to plot movement orders for the embarked troops ready for them to move as soon as the trucks stopped. This turned out to be a fatal combination. Not only did the 2nd wave come under heavy fire (including bazookas), but the troops just sat there and got shot at. It was painful to watch, especially one truck that was carrying a squad and a flame thrower, which was hit in some manner and caused all 3 to be destroyed in a fire mess. I never even found the eliminated flame thrower... Some troops managed to get off the troops, but were either detsroyed on entering enemy-occupied buildings, or were panicked intorunning away. Around this time my right-hand platoon walked right into a nasty ambush, and as well as breaking a squad almost eliminated its HQ unit...this caused me to re-consider the right-hand advance and I pulled back to sve the HQ and the broken unit. I was surprised that my left-hand advance through the woods towards the church was not ambushed in a similar manner, although even so I sneeked through those woods with great care in order not to be surprised as badly. At this point we were around turn 20 out of 30 - and I wasn't even close to capturing a single objective, and had suffered more casualties than I would have liked to in the process. The left-hand advance had reached the woods around the church, only to find it well defended both from inside the church, and from just inside the stone wall surrounding it. My troops began taking casualties almost right away. In the center my troops had a hard time advancing too, as the enemy had some nasty MGs behind the stone wall running through the village, and plenty of troops in various buildings. Basically, things were not going well, and I was quite concerned I was not going to be able to capture *any* VLs at all. The future was bleak indeed; I needed a change of tactic here. I decided to try and concentrate my troop's fire on just a couple of targets at a time, rather than having my troops fire at a variety of targets and not do much damage in the process. I also had to take great care of my green troops, keeping themin close command radius and not exposing them to enemy fire too much. I also reinforced my assault on the church. To my great surprise the enemy troops in the church started to withdraw - and my troops soon took up positions inside the church (and the crucial top floor, to shoot over those stone walls). The remaining troops on that flank were sent further along in the woods in order to take up a flanking position to be able to provide some cross-fire one the enemy troops, and get closer to the bridge. Meanwhile, slow progress was made in the center, with the 2 HMGs now providing covering fire for house-to-house advances and fighting. On my right front the troops had all recovered, and were no attempting to flank the center road from the right. The enemy MGs proved quite durable, as they kept hiding behind their stone walls, and slowed down my advance right up until the very last turn, when I was finally able to eliminate both of them with intense cross-fire. Anway, I'm getting ahead of myself! The last 10 turns or so were non-stop actions, with firefights breaking out everywhere. I saw enemy troops retreating from the right-hand VL, and I started to sneak troops through the woods around it and towards it, and finally rushing some troops to the small building around the VL right at the very end. My 75mm obs was still counting down for droping HE in the back of the village - would it come in time? The final story played out near the bridge. I sent a half-squad scouting ahead and finally rushing in to the small building on the wood side near the bridge. Surprisingly, they came under bazooka fire on thw way there! A remnant of 3 men made it into the small building, only to lose 1 right away (from where?) and then come face to face with the bazooka team. Amazingly, the bazooka team wiped out the half-squad, which even had an SMG! Finally my 75mm HE started to fall, and seemed to cause some chaos to the various troops milling around in the trees behind the village. I sent a vet squad and HQ unit in towards the bridge in a last-minute rush, as it looked like some enemy troops were also advancing on this as-yet undecided large VL. I took firm control of the right-hand VL in the last turn too. Still no sign of the panzers.

Hey, I see you are using my Annotated Textures; the lower front hull still needs replacing voidhawk

AAR for Nothing Fancy - Axis. [Excerpts from an email I sent to my opponent, Bobbaro, after the battle was over] This game was quite different from the first one. First, the artificial looking map, that was even symmetrical. Then the scarcity of forces - at least initially, considering the size of the map. And then finally the weird setup zones,squashed in the corners with a little more leeway for the 105mm guns.I started with a company of plain infantry, and 4 (5?) StuGs (one of which was a 105mm). My strategy, based in part on the outcome of the first game, was to go for only 2 of the 4 VLs in a big way, as I simply didn't have enough forces to do much more than that anyway. The briefing was kind of non-committal about the reinforcements, so I didn't plan for them. I decided to go for my right 2 VLs, as they had better road access.I setup my 2 105mms in the woods, with a view right across the middle of the map. Next to my right-hand one were all my mortars,with an HQ unit in the tree line to provide LOS to the tree lineof the central ridge. HMGs were also setup at the front of the woods tree line, with a similar view. The latter never played a part in the game as it turned out.My infantry was all hidden in the woods, spread out a little to avoid possible incoming arty fire. One platoon was to head for the central road, and the other 2 to the road on my right-hand side. Between then the goal was to enter the woods areas next to the VLs; the latter were too exposed to take over right away. The purpose of these troops was to sneak up to the other side of the woods, and then provide some intel as to what was happening on the other side of the ridge, as for sure I could not see anything there at all.I decided to keep the StuGs hull down at the ridge near my setup zone in order to provide some more spotting and also to harass any units crossing your ridge near your setup zone. OK, then onto the game! Right away I fired both 105mms blind into the equivalent areas they were in, but on the other side. Simultaneously I started dropping some arty around the same area, as I thought troops might be hidden there. My infantry started moving out, and after a turn or so I sighted some tanks along your setup area ridge line, and some shots were exchanged. I managed to get one "M4?", but your shots seemed very quick and accurate for "M4?"s; one hit a StuG but bounced off.I was quite concerned you had some M10s and/or veteran M4s out there, and decided to pull back the StuGs as they were not going to win that battle (how did I know that? I tried in a test scenario Around this time a platoon a Pnz IVs showed up - most welcome at this point. I rushed them out to support the infantry as soon as possible, setting them up to cover the central and right hand roads crossing the central ridge. Not a lot happened during this middle portion of the game, with very few actual unit sightings. It certainly seemed you were not going to advance to your left-hand side, which was fine with me! At some point more Pnz IV reinforcements showed up - I was concerned about the many tank sighting near your setup area (still thinking there were 76mm or 3" guns out there) and use my StuGs and mortars to provide a nice smokescreen for the Pnz IVs to cross over my setup area ridge and move towards my right-hand 2 VLs.I was somewhat puzzled by your rolling barrage on your right-hand side;it seemed to start in empty fields, were there clearly weren't any of my units. Just to make your life a little more difficult, I decided to drop some arty (blindly) behind your rolling barrage, suspecting that that is where your troops were. I have no idea how much damage(if any) that did, but perhaps made you think that I could see whatyou were doing, and perhaps slowed you down? Towards the end of the game I set up a StuG 75mm and 105mm to cover the road on my left-hand side, i.e. the area where you were advancing, just to possibly slow you down a bit. I sent an HMG along with the StuG 75mm. Unfortunately for me, you had a 105mm set up with LOS to the building the HMG squad entered, and that was pretty much it for them...The StuG 75mm took out an M4 coming out of the woods, but later succumbed to enemy fire itself. Meanwhile, my Pnz IVs and StuGs had been set up to cover the VLs I suspected you would go for, and also all the roads.This worked out, as the German 75mm guns are just that much more accurate than the standard M4's 75mm, and I ended up taking out an M4 in every one of the last 4 turns of the game or so. As I still really hadn't seen any of your infantry at this point, I decided to fire arty, 105mm and mortars blindly into the tree lines near "your" VLs.This also probably did not have much effect, but may have slowed you down too. If nothing else, it prevented your units from sneaking up to the edge of the woods and observing my units.And so it played out pretty much as I expected - 2 VLs for me, 2 VLs foryou. The final score [67-33] reflects the higher casualties (mostly tanks) on your side - think in part because of the better German guns, but also because I moved my tanks up quickly and set them up in good ambush positions. voidhawk

..and the perfect opponent (from a previous thread along the same lines)...

Just a minor criticism: the contours of the damaged buildings are a little to "jagged", which make them look like pieces of glass. The contours would look better if they had mostly horizontal and vertical lines to them, i.e. following the lines of the bricks and beams etc.

St. Joost (Cold Crocodiles) - yep, that is the real name! From the Scenario Depot.

Such a list used to be on Manx's Combat Missions web site, but I have not been able to access that site lately :-( Shameless plug - see for yourself what bmps make up what vehicle textures at Voidhawk's Annotated Textures for CM:BO web page.

I can't access the site properly from Netscape (on various platforms) either; have to use Internet Exploder. I'd say blame Microsoft for not using standard Java/HTML features. voidhawk

Don't forget, what is actually being sold is NOT the photo itself, but a copy made on a colour (why colour?) Xerox copier.