Heavy Drop

Good AAR JonS To restate the obvious - winning or losing definitely helps shape ones overall opinion. Let me ask you, as I ask my opponent, did you have artillery smoke available? If so, do you think it would have helped? I ask because I was being pounded by Rat with large caliber arty and while watching him form up to attack across the open area I kept expecting smoke to screen my fires. It never happened and my Tigers had a minor feeding frenzy.

OK. We now have the go ahead from TB155 to discuss this scenario. - - - - WARNING! Spoiler information follows -------------- - - - - - - - - Another Day AAR Heavy Drop (Axis) vs. Rat (Allied) As the Axis my mission was to delay the Allied advance. To this end I had an under strength infantry company consisting of a mixed bag of Volksgrenadiers and regulars, two HMG42’s, an 81mm spotter, two wooden MG bunkers, and the hope of Tiger tank support. Map: The map was simplistic in its design. It is a simple rural setting with all the subtle terrain features that make for good tactical ground. When I first analyzed it I felt like Buford – this is good ground for what must be done. But unlike Buford, I had no real idea of what was coming up the road. Setup: When I finished studying the terrain and went to setup my scant forces I got my first shocker. They wouldn’t move – what the heck am I doing wrong – why can’t I move any of the units. Bright light. Realization – scenario design. Pissy mood. I can, with some difficulty, accept predetermined deployment in a human vs. human game, but I do expect it to meet my exacting standards. Honestly, I don’t think any of the troops should be placed out of command, and the forward MG bunker had insufficient grazing fire and was exposed. Either provide it with a masked long-range sector of fire or put it far enough back in the trees that it cannot be engaged with long-range direct fires. Courses of Action: Since the initial setup could not be changed the only thing to do was to devise a plan based on the defacto deployment. The Plan: Because I wasn’t sure when, or from where, the half promised Tigers would arrive I decided to delay forward as much as possible. The intent was to defend in sector, make the enemy deploy, and then bound my platoons rearward. All of this was to be done under the cover of constant smoke form my 81mm spotter. I wanted to hold the forward positions long enough to get the Tigers established in a defensive line behind the ridge near the southern (Axis rear) victory location. I believed the ridgeline would be either a D.I.P. (die in place) or winning position. After (hopefully) stopping the Allied advance in front of the ridgeline, I planned to counter attack and retake the northern victory location. The Battle: I seemed to take forever but eventually little stars starting appearing all across the front. It appeared the enemy was advancing with at least two companies abreast. Although I could see that his movement was definitely out flank my left, and maybe my right I decided to hold positions with the exception of relocation the left flank HMG42. His cautious advance and maneuvering served him well as he was ultimately able to close with my squads in good order and with mass. It cost me dearly, but he had unknowingly, as I later appreciated, helped me buy time for the Tigers to arrive. My entire line was on the verge of collapse and the Tigers still had not shown up. Plus, he now had Shermans providing close-in support for his infantry, and his artillery was taken a great toll. Of course the first man routed/broken in the barrage was my 81mm spotter. No smoke to cover my withdrawal. I was literally one cycle from sounding the general retreat when ‘Reinforcements have arrived’ appeared. Joy. I’m not sure why, but up until that moment I expect the Tigers to approach from the south and have a clear route of march to the ridgeline. I was both surprised and a bit perplexed, to see the two of them sitting on the road on my right flank only a few hundred meters from the fighting. Decision time. Commit to the fight or stick to the plan. I decided to stick to the plan and sped them both towards the ridgeline. The pinned, routed, broken, circling like headless chickens, infantry seemed to amuse the attacker and he was engrossed in the sport of wiping them out long enough for the Tigers to make the ridge line unmolested. As each infantry squad shuck off the effects of the beating they had been taking I directed them towards the ridgeline too. The Tigers moved into hull down positions on the ridge and immediately made their presence felt. It really was invigorating to see those babies belching fire and destruction on everything that moved. Actually, not a lot of damage was done initially, one gun hit on a Sherman 76W I think, but it definitely changed the battle from there on out. The enemy appeared to fall back a short distance, regroup and move to flank my ridgeline position both left and right. He also maintained a center position near the forward victory location and continued to bring pain and suffering on my fleeing troops. It was during this period I got my second surprise, another ‘Reinforcements have arrived.’ All right! Where are they? There, two of the most beautiful Tiger tanks ever seen, sitting on the southern road. It’s Whittman! (j/k) And look Ma, a fresh company of tested and bloodied infantry. WOOHOO! I decided the situation called for immediate action so I broke doctrine, split the tank section, and sent one racing to each flank. Both had to take some fairly circuitous routes but arrived their final locations just in time to hunker down and wait for the best moment to strike. The infantry were sent sneaking through the woods to establish platoon size ambushes in the trees along what I believe was to be the most likely attack routes of the enemy infantry. One platoon was sent left (near rear bunker), and the other two to the right. Using the shoot and scoot, the center Tigers kept continuous pressure on the enemy’s advance, torching a couple more Shermans and depleting infantry squads in between tank duels. Meanwhile, the remnants of the lead company had managed to establish a hasty defense in a small wooded area to the southeast of the village and was preventing the enemy from advancing up the middle. When I saw that the enemy was making his move on both flanks I committed the flank Tigers to the fight. It was beautiful. Five more Shermans rolled to a dead stop to quickly to follow with the naked eye. I exaggerate, but it was all over with in just a couple of minutes. Although all his armor now set quietly still, he continued to advance his infantry. I had to make some adjustments to my right most platoons’ positioning but other wise he came as predicted. His infantry dropped like flies on my left and center. His attack on my right made more progress but was soon stopped cold by the platoon I had just repositioned on that flank. It was also on my right that he had a hunter killer team chasing the Tiger. It was kind of humorous. The team must have had extremely low morale because it continued to fire rocket after rocket with no hits. I had already issued orders for the two flank Tigers to rejoin and move into position with the other two in preparation for my counterattack. There was still some sporadic fighting going on between the infantry and then the game ended early. I never got to execute the counter attack. Design Comments: 1. Very good tactical map. 2. Fixed units are ok – but . . . 3. A shorter duration might make the Allied side push harder. It would be a very effective (and easy) method of changing the scenario parameters – if desired by the designer. IMHO 4. This scenario should be advertised as a very good TCP/IP map. My opponent in this game was Jens (aka Rat) who lives in Belgium. We had difficulty in making sufficient headway – only getting to turn 12 – so we planned to finish it at 0730 hours on a Sunday morning using TCP/IP. I had the sun in my eyes. :cool: It was a blast. [ October 03, 2002, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: Heavy Drop ]

Treeburst155 I volunteer for the second round. All games finished - finally. May I have a scoresheet please.

Treeburst155 Still no response from Rat. All emails sent him are coming back undeliverable. I included you on my last attempt so you should now have the latest game file. Your call. Do what you've got to do. Also, I am definitely available, eager and willing, for second round play if needed. Besides, Jeb may need another easy victory.

Jens aka Rat My emails to you keeps coming back as undeliverable and has the following error message attached: The message that you sent was undeliverable to the following: jensrat@hotmail.com (552 Requested action not taken: exceeded storage allocation) Maybe your mailbox is full? :confused: I will continue to try until I hear from you either here or via email.

I too received such emails. The first one I received was from Redeker. I sent him a query as to why he sent me an executable file and he responded with - "... don't download it!" I'm off to get the recommended worm scan now. Thanks for all the info/advice.

BigX Rat I'm in Canada for the next two weeks (Toronto). Please send / resend any turns that I haven't responded to to either/both of the following email addresses: rogert@cccgroupinc.com rctravis@aol.com I'll let you know when things are back to normal. Thanks for you patience. Roger out

Treeburst155 I have seen 2 movies in my game with GeneralSV. Seven files total I think. I would have no problems continuing or starting over with his replacement.

Treeburst155, Haven't heard from GeneralSV in a while . . . again. We have swapped only 8 files since the beginning of the tourney. At this rate we will not finish before March 2003. Sarcasm is an ugly thing.

I'm back! Had a glorious Independence Day vacation. Spent a couple of days in New Orleans (getting my mind right before heading to the big party in Alabama ). One of those days was dedicated totally to the National D-Day museum there. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend you take the time and do so. Had mail waiting for me from Redeker and EasyV, both of which have been returned. I haven't heard from GeneralSV for almost a month now, anyone else receiving mail from him? :confused:

Treeburst155 I've finished my games with Jeb and Cuzn', about mid-point with EasyV, and of course just getting started good with Redeker. I haven't heard from GeneralSV since he sent me his setup.

Tourney 3 Section 2 -- has anyone heard from GeneralSV lately? :confused:

2/3 FYI I received an email from GeneralSV. He has been over burdened with school work but states he should be with us shortly.

First I want to thank TB and the B&T gang for some really incredible efforts and hard work! Mega Kudos. I wanted to know if anyone in 2/3 had heard from GeneralSV. He's the only one I've yet to make contact with.