Sytass

*looks at his box* The second, fortunately.

Thanks for the great input, everyone. I'm relatively sure that my morale during the engagement was not that bad, most squads were at "OK", some were "CAUTIOUS" a few pinned and one ore two in panic. Ammo might well be an issue as I delivered heavy support fire for the advancing troops who then in turn gave heavy support fire. As for the cease fires, it seems the AI doesn't always accept, at least not immediately. I was playing another QB with Volkssturm defending against a Soviet assault. The Russians bled out in my defenses (altough I did lose quite some men, too), and their armor fell prey to my Panzerschrecks. Not sure if there weren't more troops to come I asked for a ceasy fire at turn 25 (of 30+). At that point I still held (barely) onto 4 of 5 objectives, and it was more or less a matter of time till they'd fall. I asked for a ceasefire to preserve a win, but the AI didn't accept, instead we played till turn 33 (tactical victory for Germany ). I assume that morale/overall situation plays a role in the AI accepting the ceasefire?

Have to second that. Vision from within the tank was very limited, at best the commander and maybe the driver had some prisms around them to get an idea of what was going on around them, but it's been near impossible to navigate, leave alone coordinate action over a greater distance. Try the WW2 tanker sim Panzer Elite and compare buttoning up to commanding while looking out of the turret - great difference.

You could be right on that - at least I know I didn't call for a cease fire. Of course the auto save has been overwritten by my next game, so there's no way for me to check. Guess I'll have to keep my eyes on that next time.

Also, variable scenario length can be to one's disadvantage at times. I was doing a QB in summer '43 with SS infantry advancing through thick woods, pushing back the Soviets thoroughly, taking position after position. Then, when their main resistance as broken, they called for a cease fire on turn 20 (of a set 25) turning the battle into a draw... Two turns more and they would have lost the last of two objectives. I had taken minimal losses whereas they had suffered dearly from my MG42's and arty. Their troops were shattered, panicked or eliminated (they never used their armored cars, though).