GreenAsJade

Have you reported this to me? Apologies if you did and I missed it. H2HH is still supported, I hate the idea that it's not working for somone. I have one mac-related issue that I'm working on right now, should have a fix soon. I don't know if this is the problem you're talking about though. GaJ

Fascinatingly, I went from a slow drive to a superfast SSD, and it appeared to make little difference. I really found that hard to believe and understand. It must be more related to what the program is doing with the data than reading it off the disk!? Putting more mods in moves the place where it gets stuck. GaJ

The End As you can see, SMI held out till the end, despite being surrounded by a horde. Bil snuck one guy in, but did not succeed in taking the final objective. It is funny, upon reflection, how we were talking about this match maybe being like Rocky, and I think we were thinking Rocky II. A big comeback and all that. At least, I was hoping for a win Instead, this match was more like Rocky (I). It's clear to all who the better opponent was, more trained, more skilled etc. And he won on points. But I held out to the end. Adriannnnnn.... GaJ

You could have taken SMI That, afterall, was your mission. Thanks for the game! Cheers, GaJ

Movie 68 Well, we all know what happened next anyhow... this was pretty much the first my M10 saw of the JgPz: I had the choice of pull back or push forwards to the flank. I chose the latter, with Ken's voice ringing in my ears. Unfortunately the darn JgPz has a flexible gun, and it got a bead on the M10 before it could really get an angle happening. Bil also brought the Elefant over the top of Hill 172, just in case. It wasn't needed, though it took out the brave tank crew that had been guarding the top of the hill. Still no significant Bil forces in SMI ... it looks like this will not be conquered by Bil before the end, unless he has a truely massive wave in the next 120 seconds... GaJ.

Here is what it looks like from the M10's position: Here's what the M10 currently sees: Nooooo! The buttoned up JgPz got the jump on the open top opened up M10 ... I guess because the JgPz was stationary, while the M10 is on the move. Well, I guess we all know how this will probably end. Dagnabit! At least my trusty tank crew took out Bil's inf that were trying to press back across the side of Hill 172. Meanwhile, over at SMI, at last the infantry push has started: though it is not strongly supported by HE: I was expecting a lot more fire on the buildings before the inf ran in. Can Bil have run out of shells? That seems unlikely, though I haven't been counting... Last of all, I noticed another really cool little piece of modelling: ... there, in the top front left, you can see the front MG cover closing up! GaJ

When you have only one AFV, I don't think you get to sneak it anywhere: clearly Bil has all eyes on it Movie 67 Dang, this can be a really cruel game! As you know, I had to do something different with the M10 this turn. Since I was expecting Bil to press forwards and take me out as I ran to SMI, I decided to dodge back around and see if I could get a side shot on the tanks doing that. I also had the Hill 172 guys push forwards to see if they could close the tanks up, and defend from a side attack that seemed to be coming... Of course, with 3 tanks, Bil could afford to spare one to counter such a possibility, and this is what he did. He advanced in the predicted way with the Elefant and the Brumbar, and pushed the JgPz around towards the back of Hill 172. There it was met by a hail of small arms fire... The lucky lucky TC somehow managed to dodge the bullet that went into his manhole, and closed up.... yay. But... As my M10 came around the side, that dang JgPz spotted it, instantly! Here is what the view from the JgPz looks like at the moment that it started rotating to face the M10, a couple of seconds before the end of the turn:

Movie 66 ... here's what it looks like after the M10 pulled back: He didn't get as far as I'd liked. In the background you can see Bil's big three facing towards it's previous location behind Hill 172. They actually have their LOS obscured to the run across to SMI at this point, at least for the most part. If the M10 had gotten another 100m further across that gap before the end of the turn, he might have made it. But I'm guessing that this turn Bil will push those big three forwards to make sure they cut that off, now that I've moved. Time to update the plan. Meanwhile, in the bigger picture... As you can see, I'm surrounded and outgunned, but the action really does have a feel of Bil's advance having stalled. I can't quite see why this would be, because I haven't thrown up any major new opposition. It's 6 tanks to my one, and as you can see, I'm surrounded on all sides by infantry... but it's not advancing fast. My MG on the Tame side of town, in a Bil-created ruin there, finally was taken out this turn, but not before repelling a squad of Bil's that tried to make a run for SMI buildings. But I think that he does have at least one squad in the building at the far end of town already. It seems quite remarkable that after over an hour of cautious but unrelenting progress through the minor landmarks on the way to victory, the advance has paused. 4 minutes isn't a lot left to make the final conquest... I'd been hoping to at least take out a tank or two with the infantry anti-tank assets in town, and maybe one with the M10 - it's hard to create these opportunities when they're not coming to offer me the chance GaJ

Ah ... yeah, nice theory Ken, except that when it got whacked, the Elefant withdrew into the arms of it's supporting JgPz and Brummbar. As well as toying with the idea of pulling the M10 back into SMI, I did also toy with the idea of a "side rush". That is to say, set the covered arc and 90 degrees, and rush at "fast" up alongside the elefant, faster than it can turn. I seriously might have done that if Bil had not supported it with the other two. Yeah ... Ian ... I did pull the M10 back, with covered arc in place to make sure the gun is facing the PzIVh that is probably trying to come around Hill 172 and take it from the rear... GaJ

Movie 65 5 minutes to go for Bil to clear SMI. It's actually looking like he may not manage that. Of course, a lot of routing can happen in 5 minutes, but he's sure taking his time... Meanwhile, a happy snap.... Interestingly, Bil has concentrated his three tanks on my left flank on the M10's position behind Hill 172. This almost has the look of giving the M10 the opportunity to bug out back to SMI, which was out of the question a few turns ago. Bill has brought his centre PzIVh into the left valley: I'm not sure what it's plans are, but it too appears to be no longer blocking the path for the M10 to join it's flock in the last stand... GaJ

Movie 64 Bil is pushing his Elefant towards my M10, with an inf shield at least on the top of the slope. This shield bumped into a tank crew that I had watching out at the crest of Hill 172, but didn't do any harm to those guys. My guys with satchels are on the other side of the Elefant. At SMI, he is shelling the buildings more intensely now. Not many casualties are resulting, since my opposition force there is small and at the rear... GaJ

Actually, I am kind of toying with the idea of a crazy rush at that thing GaJ

Movie 63 Nothing to report. Really, hardly anything on Bil's side moved. In 7 minutes, the cavalry arrives, they will be pleased if SMI is still in friendly hands, that's for sure... GaJ.

Movie 62 It looks like Bil is bringing the Elefant around behind Hill 172 to try to take out my M10. This could be interesting ... there are some guys with a satchel in his path, and the M10 is waiting for him. Bil withdrew his Gun-HT from SMI ... a second bazooka shot hit the weapon mount, but did not perceptible damage before it left. It is taking Bil a curiously long time to take the ultimate objective. I guess he has it timed down to the last minute ... but he must be reasonably confident of just being able to walk in and take it !? I guess he is just diligently loosing as little pixel-life as possible.. GaJ

Movie 61 Bil pushed his assualt team up to the west end of SMI this turn. Again he seems to have armour ahead of infantry, but again I was unable to punish him for this. ... a shot at 80m ... and a miss, from my "intercept the SMI armour" team. (Interestingly, the bloke you see copping the backblast didn't seem to even blink!) Over on the left, bullets have been rattling into the main bunker overlooking the valley for the last couple of turns. It seems they did some damage, though I've never seen this before: ... damaged MG, all the occupants OK! Bil kept all 3 tanks on the same side of Hill 153 this turn - that surprised me. If I'd known he wasn't going to come around the back, I'd have pushed on around Hill 153 myself with the M10, instead of pulling back to look over the approach to SMI. GaJ

A few turns back Bil suggested we stopped ... I had decided before we started that having stopped early last time and read the complaints about that, that I wasn't going to stop this time. I also wanted to see if I could keep him out of SMI, which would have been quite a victory, given the time he's had to get in there. I really regret that dumb move with the Tame M10 ... needlessly messed up that whole plan, darn it. And if wishes were fishes... oh if only had 2 M10s instead of one for each side of the ridge, because it was (is) a shame to be operating each "on its own", yet ... there are two sides of the ridge. Anyhow, there's only 10 turns to go, it doesn't cost anything to finish... GaJ

Hey gang sorry for the delay - it's been a heck of a week, but enough about me. Movie 60 Clearly I'm beat now. I had hoped that with 2 M10s I might have kept Bil out of SMI for 10 more minutes, but this is no longer feasible. I have sound contacts that tell me that Bil has a bunch of inf coming into SMI from the west. I've little to oppose them ... and I can't really occupy much of the buildings due to the Brummbar fire. Ah well... GaJ

Movie 59 Well, what a bitter pill. Obviously somehow Bil had eyes on my M10 on the left rear slope of Hill 172, though I can't tell where from. Bil rushed his JzPz out of sight of my M10 before the M10 could spot it, and the Brummbar started area firing. The Brummbar's area fire denied the M10 a spot on the Brummbar itself, so that whole maneuver delivered nothing. Meanwhile, over near Tame, Bil caught me completely by surprise by rushing his Brumbar on that side forwards. This was a complete bummer, because over there my other M10 was maneuvering to try to get the jump on Bil's PzIVh coming around the back. This maneuver took it right into the sights of the rushing forward Brummbar, and that was the end of that. I really had thought that the Brummbar was either part of the group coming around the back, or staying back to keep shelling SMI. What a downer! GaJ

Movie 58, 0:13-0:12 Another action packed turn. By far the most nailbiting thing to report is a dash around the left that I made with my M10. I realised that from halfway up the back of the slope of Hill 172, there's actually a view to the top of Hill 153, where Bil is operating his Brummbar and JgPz. If I could get there in time, and unmolested by the infantry that was infesting Hill 172, then I'd have a chance at a side or even a rear shot. So I wizzed around, while bringing my own Hill 172 infantry over to try to help cover. These inf guys took out what is hopefully the last of Bil's men on Hill 172. My goodness, what a view my M10 has, from the place where he arrived in the closing second of the turn: In case it's not clear, this is a view of the side of the JgPz and behind it the side of the Brummbar. There's only one problem with this picture. It's not what the M10 is currently seeing: he hasn't spotted these tanks yet (to be fair, he only just arrived at this spot). Here is what the view looks like from over the lip of the M10 turret, with trees in the picture: As you can see the M10 is not selected. As the next turn proceeds, it will be an agonising wait to see how long he takes to make out the tanks from the trees! This was not the only JgPz action this turn ... at the commencement of the turn, there was this: This is the JzPz coming under fire from the MG bunker across the valley. Sadly, although there was a penetration, there were no red crosses. The JgPz appeared to be unaffected - it went on to fire at my nearby HMG that's been holding out on the side of Hill 153, before reversing back into view of my M10. I was really pleased to see the MG bunker target the JgPz of it's own accord: it had been given area fire orders a bit further back at Bil's Hill 153 infantry, and it interrupted that process to take this shot! The Brummbar finished of my HMG, and Bil has brought infantry forwards supporting these two tanks. I guess this means that the odds of my bazooka, hiding just a bit further down the slope, getting a go at a tank are fading. Still, he and his accompanying Tommy gun bearing friends will hold out here to the end ... it's all helping to stop Bil making it to the ultimate objective in time. Over on the right hand side, it seems that Bil has calculated that he can't get his forces up from Tame direct to SMI while I have the M10 covering that route from rear of the map. So he has sent two tanks off back around the far side of Tame with an apparent mission to come up the back of the map and remove this obstacle. I don't know if he knows that I know ... I actually have an HQ unit that got stranded near Tame now hiding out down there (you can see on the map above): this is helping me keep tabs on this kind of change of tack from Bil. GaJ

(BTW, I'm waiting for the turn from Bil at the moment...)

Pah, I've had three HT's that I foolishly had in a line all taken out by a single shell!! GaJ

Over in Tame, Bil is also shelling SMI, and starting to push his infantry forwards up the hill. He also dropped some shells where my M10 was a turn or two ago. GaJ

And now fast forwards back again a few minutes to: Movie 57, 0:14-0:13 On the left, Bil's push towards SMI via Hill 172 has been paused for the moment. One of his squads popped their head up for another look, only to go crawling back down again... Bil's Elefant and centre PzIVh made a largely futile effort to shell my guys on Hill 172 - they were not affected, having made it to the other side of the hill. On Hill 153, Bill has pushed both the Brummbar and JgPz back into action, firing on SMI and the forces in the valley. The Bummbar took out a mortar unit that had got itself stuck (exhausted from panic) on my side of Hill 153.

Here they are, dug up from a WWII archive, exclusive pictures of the glorious moment that GaJ's M10 returns fire on the enemy PzIVh that took out his AAT... You little beuooooty! GaJ

LOL - this is war, man, there's no time for exuberance GaJ