newlife

So while I wait for womble to give his several thousand troops orders, I should get going on describing my setup. First, I give you the overview of the setup zone: Screen Shot 2013-04-29 at 9.30.31 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr I get to setup in town, but can't put any troops in really advanced positions without running them out there turn 1. The setup zone does extend just a tad further than town which will allow for some mines, which I end up taking advantage of. North of town, I can setup along a rock wall that borders an orchard. The problem here is that there is no real place to retreat to. The north west corner of the map is pretty open with just some brush to hide amongst. I do end up defending this wall, but I'll get to that later. South of town the deployment zone curves to the west. As the entire southern valley is pretty open this normally isn't such a great loss. Under my current plan, it does mean my attacking infantry have to leg it a little farther. Yes, I've committed to the attack, and its in this area. It would have been nice to be able to start further east on the farm hill as there is cover there, but oh well. So here's the overall plan: Battleplan.001 by pj olandt, on Flickr 3rd Company defends the town, with 1st Plt. holding the rock wall north of town, 2nd Plt. holding the NE corner of town with 3rd Plt. holding the SE corner of town. The Heavy weapons Plt. holds the monastery with 2 HMGs in the NW corner of town. The mortars are near low rock walls behind the Monastery and will indirect fire. 2nd Company will push forward in the south with 4 tigers to secure the SE ridge. 3rd Plt. will remain in the SW corner of town to serve as a reserve for either company. 2 ATGs and 2 inf guns are sighted to support the advance along with 2nd Co mortars.

Bil just posted in his side that he still needs to fix parts of the map, including Terraces, some foliage, and some hills. Pretty much all the things people have pointed out. Good job Bil. OR STOP READING THE PEANUT GALLERY thread! I'll assume the first alternative.

Good to have you guys back! I like to park my AFVs next to trees. I have an untested hunch that it delays enemy spotting and I've seen shots get broken up by the trees.

A tanks armor doesn't need to match its gun. It needs to match the enemies gun. But when your resources are limited and you can't do anything, what do you put your resources into? A better gun or better armor?

Nice defense so far, GAJ. I'm enjoying the tactical situation.

Nice pics. As regards to using today's maps for vegetation, there has been 70 years of growth of that vegetation, so today's maps are not useful for knowing what it was back then. Any level of cutting back or growing up is possible in that time. Massachusetts was 95% deforested 100 years ago. Now it's mostly forest.

Apparently I'm slow...

Good hunting

Nice quote, I'd forgotten about that movie. Speaking of Tigers, this just seems wrong on so many levels... Screen Shot 2013-04-28 at 10.09.02 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr Womble is still sussing out his attack plans, which is fine by me as I'm still sussing out mine. I've got my purchases mostly planned out. 1 reduced infantry Battalion (2 full companies, 1 heavy company minus the Pioneers) 1 reinforced Heavy Tank Plt. (7 tigers) 2 batteries of 120mm mortars random assortment of TRPs, mines, and foxholes Man those points go quick...

Umm, how's the battle going Bil?

Need to know and all that...

Begone Tempter! I name thee Satan!

We are definately maxing out the points for the map. In one of his emails, Womble requested loose rarity to allow for less used units such as naval artillery. So I countered that we should do a huge attack so that he had the points to actually buy it. His response was that he probably wouldn't spend THAT many points on artillery in a QB, and normally I would agree with him. However, we may have created a perfect storm of conditions that the 6 inch naval guns may not be a bad idea here. If he can level a building with every hit, it won't take long before the town is a smoking pile of ruins and anybody caught in there dazed and confused (more likely just dead). It's also why I'm contemplating an offensive. The southern valley is a near perfect setup for a reverse slope defense. Plenty of cover and positions on my side, a mostly bare ridge on his side. A big, VERY open valley in between where a single 81mm mortar team could decimate large numbers of infantry and tanks would be exposing their flank to at least one, possibly multiple keyholed AT assets. This is my strongest area that I can defend with the least amount of units and those units have multiple places to hide making a prep bombardment either a giant guessing game or a large overuse of rounds covering all possible areas. Hence, its the perfect place to launch an attack from! I can cover my own advance there with just a few assets and take the SE ridge road with Tigers (and support infantry). From there Womble will be challenged to move on the town without exposing his flank to the SE road. If he tries to flank the Tigers on the road, the back-up assets can make that challenging for him. If it gets too hot, they just backup into the valley to regroup. Essentially, I'll exploit the fact that I can more safely use the mostly exposed ridge than he can (due to the superior Tiger Frontal armor). Two Tigers will be left on the North side of town to bolster that side with mobile AT assets.

With that many points on a small map, I expect high point value units. He could buy three battalions (darn an entire brigade!) of infantry, but they would be tripping over themselves. Instead I expect 1 battalion of infantry to take the town, a company of tanks (@20 runners) and the rest in artillery and other support. The artillery is an easy buy with such a clear cut objective and Soooo many points to spend. My only real question is when it will be called in. I'm hoping for turn 1 barrage, but if he's smart he'll do a turn 1 and turn 10 barrage hoping to catch my guys on the move as they fill in the ruins. My deployment zone pretty much follows the edge of town. I'll get a pic of that soon.

Lol. I'll select medium. I've a big enough ego that I can slough off too directive comments and the second guessing. I'll be making plenty of mistakes for folks to pick over. The only comments I'll discourage are anything based on info derived from any Womble posts if he starts up a thread. I've a big work weekend so info will trickle in as I find time here and there to unwind by solving an impossible defensive setup (not really impossible). As I'll show in the future picks, while the town provides GREAT cover, the rest of the area (except the farm) provides vey little cover and concealment. Womble has 8900+ points to spend. He can level that town with 3000 points of bombardment and still have more points of units than me. I'll be countering with TRPs and off map artillery plus 7 Tigers. A comparative Pz IV purchase would give me 11 tanks. I'll take fewer tanks that are able to take multiple frontal hits than lots of tanks that can be one shot killed more easily. There are not a lot off ideal ATG positions as the map really needs to be larger to accommodate the open nature of the terrain. I'm even contemplating going on the offensive which will please c3k to no end. More on that later.

This is your best pic yet!

Awesome Good Luck! (Just not more good luck than me)

Greetings, Womble and I have started up a QB and I will be doing a DAR for my side. This will not be a symmetrical DAR so you're stuck with my side of the story. Normally history goes to the victor. Hopefully in my case victory goes to the histor, but we shall see. This is my first DAR and my first time playing Womble. I have no idea what I'm getting myself in to. For those playing along at home, this is a US attack on standard German forces. We're using map 15 which looks quite nice, you all should try it. We bought huge forces (so something like 8900 pts for Womble and 5000+ points for me). Its also a loose rarity buy so we could see some of the less common items like naval gunfire. I don't know if Womble will use 1/5th of his points on the big guns, but its an option. We are not strict historians so our buys will be to win the game, not recreate anything. We will not use rockets per agreement but planes are okay (except neither of us expressed interest in purchasing them so don't expect them) (Womble may still surprise me there) SitRep I will be commanding a huge force of Germans tasked with hold the strategically important Mt. Agnelli and the surrounding area, including a large town that sits at the base of the mountain. I am to hold the town, peak, monastery, and the nearby farm that overlooks the town. Enemy forces are unknown, though we can expect 1-2 Battalions of infantry with 1-2 Companies of Armor and plenty of artillery. Its a lot of force in a very small space. Map Overview: The overhead map shows the Americans coming in from the east. No part of their deployment zone is visible to us at start. The general landscape is a general rise from east to west culminating in the peaks and spurs of Monte Agnelli. Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.18.30 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr There is a sizable and open valley running from the SE corner to the western map edge which separates the farm from the rest of the map. The road coming from the SE corner to town essentially marks what is visible from the farm hill. Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.40.49 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr This is the view of the American setup zone looking from the south so that you can see the hill they will be climbing. Not too bad for them. I don't expect exhaustion to play too big a role. Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.51.06 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr Below is the view from the attackers setup zone. The initial grassy area is out of my view, and then the americans will have the northern orchards, the central orchards, and the ridge-line houses for cover towards the town objective. Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.55.49 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr The most covered approach to town is through the Northern orchard. As you can see in the pic below, the orchard connects into a set of buildings and rock walls. From there you can enter the NE corner of town. This is the most obvious line of attack. Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 4.00.34 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr (This tour will continue a little latter)

So Womble and I will be doing a huge attack on Monte Agnelli (map 15). I'll start a new thread for it!

Test Pic Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 8.18.03 AM by pj olandt, on Flickr

If there are any requests from folks on size, map, or type of battle, let me know. Even if you're not in the AAR. Of course the final decision is up to the people IN the AAR, why not involve more folks.

Bah! Looks like Bil's infantry chased the sniper away.

Hi all, I'm interested in doing an AAR, but my normal PBEM partner is often busy and not always regular in getting back turns. I don't mind this normally, but for an AAR (or really a DAR) it keeps folks waiting. I'm running CM:FI 1.01. If you're interested, let me know and we can work out the details. Pete

I imagine the easiest solution for a fix would be to create a separate camouflaged bunker unit that gets spotted like infantry. So on purchase, the player can buy the bare concrete or the camo bunker. Then they can be priced accordingly and get both perspectives. As is, the current bunker situation is WYSIWYG, the darn thing is bare concrete. Which can be confusing when other things (like unmoved ATGs) are abstracted to have concealment. (Unless you're Gaj)

Ooh! Ooh! So glad we have a penut gallery to let these things out on. Bil just ordered his Elephant to drive up to the left tit. Possibly getting it quite close to the sniper. Its hard to tell, but it looks like its unbottoned. Here's hoping for a TC kill for Gaj's sniper.