GreenAsJade

Wow. This turn delivered a massive "Holy crap, WTF??" and retaking stock of things. Bil opened fire with his JgPz on the Santa Maria Infante area! At first I just couldn't believe my eyes. He is shelling an HQ unit hidden in a building, never moved, who don't have him spotted, at 1500+m range. How could he have possibly known they were there? Is he just shelling all the buildings? That would be an unbelievable expenditure of rounds... Then, after a subsequent shell (second? third?) hit the bunker that you can see in the middle of the above shot, I realised that he must be firing at that. This led to a lot of zooming around and LOSing, I can tell you. That bunker was supposed to be below the ridgeline of The Spur from Hill 130. Here's what it looks like from in the bunker. Peering through the concrete, you can see that Hill 130 is "completely" obscured by The Spur and the trees on top of it...

I zoomed up on it, those guys, at the time they spotted the Elefant, could see maybe the TC's hat and forehead. After that moment, the Elefant moved further onto Left Tit and tipped away from them, so all they could see was the side. Yeah, I'd have loved that. Though... a plan based on concealment is one that can deliver all sorts of disappointment, is my experience. I'm yet to trust grass more than smoke, which is to say "not at all". GaJ

I haven't given up on this idea yet Those guys were still alive last time I looked (waiting at the moment for next turn). Actually, yes. In contrast to many of the other the things so far suggested that I "should have done", this is one that is simply "yep, darn it, wouldn't have cost much, would have been a great thing to fit in with the strategy I have". GaJ

That's stock cammo with this version ... no mods GaJ

I agree. As I said, no harm done in this instance. GaJ

Remember that Bil is a master of LOS at the best of times, and this is his own map. He knows that nothing can see his Elefant from side on, where it is parked right now. If my MMG and Mortar are slow getting out, they will be blown up by one or two explosions from it's 88... probably not what Bil would call a disaster . It will be more interesting how he manouevers the Elefant further up the road, that is for sure... GaJ

I put Artillery aside completely, because it was too expensive and I had no intel on what Bil's force mix would be. <<< This is the most important point. He might have brought all tanks - then that would be 300pts minumum (81mm) down the drain. That's one or two M10s, depending on the calibre of arty. Plus, it is a blunt weapon. Even if I had a battery of off map 81s (least expensive while still effective), and a TRP on the Tits, I wouldn't open fire right now. Remember that I haven't seen more than one or two men on the tits. I don't know where they are. As far as I can tell, Left Tit might be unoccupied other than the Elefant, and Right Tit has only an HQ that diappeared off the HT that I showed you. That is not enough to warrant an artillery barrage. The HTs are good at manoevering quickly out the way. That is the problem with artillery: you need to know that you will face a force of inf, and be confident that you can steer them into a place where they are grouped up and stalled in place enough for kills to happen. The harrassing fire from the onmap mortar is mostly a slowing and hassling tactic. Last turn it would have made him pay if he had pushed further forwards from Right Tit (if he did do, I didn't see it ... and if he didn't then mission accomplished). I'm disappointed that the MMGs aren't taking down more men (or any??) - if they could have seen some I'm sure they would have done. This was frustrated by either Bil not putting men on the Tits, or me not being able to see them despite having LOS to there. Right now, the things that the MMG fire has achieved is - maybe helped the right wing Sniper sneak away to be a nuisance another day, by making Bil reluctant to come chasing him on my right flank right side of Left Tit, and - forced Bil to bring up a big tank into my view, letting me know where more of his armour its. It's great that I know that the Elefant is in the middle: yet another piece of evidence that I don't face a surprise major flank attack. (Especially my right flank, where I still am rather blind: I have eyes, but can't see anything!!) Please be careful with information you post here: I am not aware of whether Bil has or has not spotted my guys. No harm done at this stage, because I already posted the orders that has them running away. GaJ

Not at this stage, in a big way. I already have scattered defences in the mid-field that are hoping for concealment, so if the grass works well for them its a bonus. I have some sneaking around planned to maybe take out TCs with the snipers up the front, and maybe get some satchels into range of tanks if they come up the middle at all off centre of the road... we'll see. One thing I've learned in the past is that concealment is one of those things that works for the enemy but not for the friendlies. Smoke is an especially fickle friend ... we'll see how gras treats me.. GaJ

I decided to fire on the KW man using the snipers that spotted the Elefant. They are in the grass, and can't see the Elefant's TC, due to the angle of the Elefant on Left Tit. (In fact, right now, they can't see the Elefant at all, they'd have to back track, but you can probably see how the TC is protected from them in the picture above). Ideally, they can either take down KW-man, or at least slow him up for a bit, without giving away anything about what is waiting up on Sunken Rd. At the moment, I'm not aware of anything that can see these Snipers at all - they may have been spotted while they ran to their current position (for example, by the Elefant), but I can't see anything right now that can see them. They are tired, but have a clear blue line to KW man, at 250m. GaJ

In other news, Bil's harrassing fire behind Hill 172 continues. This is quite interesting stuff when you think about it. If he's harrassing back there, then he thinks that this is a good place for me to be. I've looked at the options of what to do behind those hills, and I can't see any reason why I'd have stuff behind there. That whole face of the ridge to the VL is exposed to Hill 130 where he rightly has the JgPz and Brummbar! However, it is having some effect on my tactical options. He's showing me that he can put HE back there wherever he likes. This makes me even more cautious about moving the M10s around ... he only needs a sound contact from back there to start zooming those big bangs in on the open tops... not good, now that the time is approaching for manouevering to respond to the press up the centre. Last of all, the poor bugger from the left Kubelwagon has showed up, making his way carefully up a path towards the VL Spur - Sunken Road: Who would be this guy, eh? If I were him, I'd certainly be walking in the long grass, not following the path! GaJ

It is clearly definitely time for the MMG and Mortar over on Hill 190, on my right spur, to bug out, so that's what they will be doing. This turn, the mortar landed some fire in the vicinity of Bil's Right Tit HTs, but I couldn't see if it was effective. The grass played a role again this turn... have a look at this sequence: 1: HQ in HT: 2: HQ out of HT: 3: HQ disappears! I know I keep going on about this, but it seems quite a significant factor in how things are unfolding. Where I was expecting to be firing upon inf that are securing the Tits, instead I'm firing blind and guessing. At this stage of the game, it seems to be in Bil's favour. I can only hope that he has equal trouble finding me, as I'm trying to defend and hold fast!

Great scene. Rocky & Adrian - one of cinema's best couples, heaps underrated. As to the truth ... I've faced my fears already, I'm out here in the ring doing battle. If I loose, it will be with no excuses, no fear ... and I can live with that. Which takes us back to the battle. That all depends on which side of the map you're sitting on. To me it seems like he has an age! While 20% on the Tits may be no big problem for Bil, at least it's more than nothing. If he had chosen a flanking attack, he'd be well past the middle of the map by now. This turn... I spotted me an Elefant! These guys are trotting up the spur from the outcrop where they were watching the Brumbar (that backed off) to see what they could see on Right Tit. Instead, while they were moving, they briefly laid eyes on this beast as it parked on Left Tit.

I want one of these! The Padre did a good job of reminding us that ANZAC Day us not a celebration of war, but a time for thankful rememberance - thankful to those who gave so we have what we have, and thankful and prayerful that we do not have go to war again. Normal service will resume shortly... GaJ

I thought you might like to see these recent additions to the memorabilia at the RSL...

ANZAC Day ... a brief intermission Sorry for the slight delay in the usual pace of the game. On ANZAC day we run a sleepover at the Scout Hall, and take the Scouts to the Dawn Service, then on to the "reception" at the local Returned Servicemens League club. Not a lot of sleep had for the leaders

The force on Right Tit has finally come into view of the Left Flank MMG - at least, one HT has. The MMG can't tell if there are passengers on board: perhaps not, but he's been ordered to open fire anyhow. Nothing else exciting to report. The Brummbar on Hill 130 pulled back, the JgPz is still there, and harrassing fire continues to land in my rear quarters, behind Hill 172. We're 20% through the allotted time, and the Tits are still not really secure for Bil. This is better than I might have hoped for. (Imagine if I'd put the men up on the Tits in the foxholes instead of off to the side: they'd be dead and Bil would be moving on by now!) However, I think that with the forwards rush of HTs over Right Tit, I can now expect the next phase: probing the main road to the Spur - to commence. GaJ

Well, you can't catch Bil out His HT's under mortar fire this time moved forwards instead of back: On the upside of this - it took almost a minute for the mortar to adjust aim, so only one round was wasted. At the same time, a full size tank started making an approach to Left Tit. This of course must be the guy that will silence my right flank fire. I toyed with the idea of letting those forward right flank dudes bug out this turn, but in the end decided that they should make hay while the sun shines. So the mortar is continuing to harrass the Right Tit HTs and the MMG is continuing to shoot blind at Left Tit - this turn with the aim of making it hard for Bil to chase my Sniper who's trying to get away.

Yeah - it might have been easier for the real defense to put an ATG where I did ... and the real defence was done at night as well Still, the fact remains that it was a goofy place to put the ATG, so the less said about it now the better! GaJ

Yay. I'm not sure how often I'll have the opportunity to cheer, so I might as well make the most of it. Moving the Sniper up to take a look at the Tits paid off. What they found was: - There really do appear to be men on Left Tit. At least, it sure sounds like it. There are two sound contacts right in the area at the end of the barbed wire that my MMG has been firing into. Amazingly, I _still_ can't see them: if they are there, they must have their heads down! Further evidence that they are really there is that some smoke popped out: you can see it as it's blowing away in the wind in that picture. It sure looks like troop-popped smoke. - There are targets underneath my mortar fire (top left of the picture above). Yay. As another example of how fickle the LOS is, here's what it looks like from the Mortar's point of view: You can see that they can see the end of the wire on Right Tit, but they haven't spotted the HT or the man that lept out of it, which you can see that the Sniper can see. Zooming in from the mortar location, both the HT and the man are obscured by bushes. Here's what the current battle zone looks like: There are actually 3 more rounds in the air from the mortar heading for the current target. That's probably as many as can do any harm, because those targets will likely be heading out of there as fast as they can. Last time Bil's HTs were near a mortar round, he backed them up 100m or so. So I'm going to adjust the mortar backwards as far as I can see, which might be just enough to catch him if that's what he does. Seems worth a shot. (An alternative would be to bug-out both the Mortar and the MMG right now. I need to be ready to run soon, but I couldn't resist another turn of firing while nothing is shooting back ) Nothing else significant to report - another harrassment shell fell in my back zone, it sounded bigger this time. Maybe it's even spotting for a major bombardment of Hill 172. Not much point in trying to out guess this: it could be anything. GaJ

Upon closer inspection, its clearer what has happened: Bil has pulled off the Left Tit in anticipation of counter strike - probably expecting a barrage following the single mortar round I landed in that area last turn. All the HTs in that area reversed out. He pushed up towards Right Tit instead. I wonder what he will make of the mortar rounds that landed there this turn - will he think "oh, barrage adjustment", or "pah - this is just a single mortar tube harrassing me". Either way, this remains all good: he's spending more time here. The sniper is surveying an abandoned VL... In other news, Bil continues to send harrasing mortar fire into the Left Approach Valley .. he must have a TRP for that purpose! If he keeps going, I can work out the diameter of harrasing fire circle, and stay clear of that TRPed zone And of course, the ATG died. I can see the two tanks on Hill 130 continuing to adjust their postions, but nothing else significant to report. I have to conclude that the bulk of Bil's force remain in the invisible zone close in to the Tits. It's interesting that I still haven't spotted the KW scout. Either he is moving stealthily through the grass, which is providing fantastic concealment even while he's moving, or he simply jumped out of the car then settled down motionless, to remain unspotted. GaJ

I had a brief chance to look at the next movie this morning (how could I resist? ) Remarkably, it really does appear as if there are no men on Left Tit. My sniper has climbed up to peek, and sees nothing. Wow. Maybe I have successfully defended Left Tit by not being there If Bil has truly passed right by, that would be pretty funny. But of course he hasn't... HT sounds are still around the place, so it's a matter of "what is he leaving to keep claim on the VL, and where is that thing?". I am thinking of sneaking the sniper back down out of harms way and letting trouble pass by before going for another look. Similarly, on Right Tit - plenty of eyes on it, but nothing to see! More later...

True - I too have put ATGs in craters to apparent advantage. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to buy any craters. On the original question - the other problem of putting a trench there, even if it helped the gun, is that it would have likely got shelled immediately. I would have to have to have bought enough trenches to have enough fake ones to make this prohibitive, which would not have been worth the cost. I'm quite happy with the diagnosis of "doh, don't put guns on the front line facing forwards, you already knew that was a bad idea when you did it!". ATGs belong in keyholes with side facing opportunities. Of course, I really did not expect to get spotted until I fired, so that was a lesson, and makes my original mistaken placement more understandable. GaJ

Yep I think there were two real loses. 1) Putting it there in the first place. 2) Not testing whether it would punch a back-sloped JgPz at that range before deciding not to fire. At the moment, no-one knows whether I was right or not... if I had tested, then we'd all know. I might go do it, if I have a quiet moment. GaJ

As far as I know, you can't entrench guns to any benefit in CMx2. I did some tests firing 75mm at guns in and not in foxholes myself - they appear to offer no protection to ATGs. I asked around, and the response I got was that it's the same with trenches. GaJ

I deliberated "scouts-with-Tommy-guns or snipers?" for the Tits, for sure. However, I thought that there was no point in putting anyone at all on the Tits, to defend them. I expected anyone sitting up on the Tits to be whacked by arty or direct fire 155s. And indeed we've seen that Bil was ready to do exactly this: he had the Brumbar lined up covering Right Tit, and presumably something equally big on the centre left (where I have a sound contact for a big tank). I honestly don't think that a "modest force" of such thing would have been a PITA to Bil, at all. I strongly doubt whether Bil would have let any force sitting on the Tits get a look at or more than a single shot at his scouts that approached them. It might or might not have created more delay than the empty Tits did, but the result would have been worse: more casualties to me, for minimal casualties to Bil. That's why I instead chose the minimum unit to put as lookouts there - with a chance of pinging a TC if luck went my way, but otherwise basically zero-loss on my side for the same outcome: Bill spent some time taking the Tits. If it takes him another couple of minutes to finish up with them, then that will be 20% of his whole time budget spent finding out absolutely nothing about my defenses, and inflicting zero damage (other than the ATG silliness, my own fault). A good deal, I think. It is certainly true that it would be nice right now if the snipers creeping up to look at who's there on Left Tit were a Tommy wielding bunch of scouts instead, but I most certainly wasn't expecting to have to take this look-see to find out what's going on up there: that's been the biggest surprise so far: the way that inf is invisible in the grass it seems! It was really remarkable how that KW driver-scout disappeared as he stepped out of the KW, and I honestly can't believe that there aren't inf there somewhere in the LOS of the MMG/Mortars, who can see the whole of my side of Left Tit, and over onto Right Tit as well! I just hope this awesome concealment works as well for my hiding defenders as it appears to be doing for the attackers! Thanks for the question - "to defend the Tits or not (and how)?" is certainly one of the big dilemmas that this scenario threw up... GaJ Edit: Note - there were actually two questions. One was "do I think I should have put scouts with Tommy guns in foxholes on the Tits?". The answer to this is "no". The other was "would I have been better with scouts than Snipers, in the role that I used those units for, as lookouts and opportunistic harrasers?". Yes, it seems clear I would have been better off with a Scout behind each Tit instead of a Sniper. It's turning out that the flanks are too far away for the Snipers to take pot shots at - I could have worked that out - wheras it would be nice to be able to hassle Bil now with Tommy guns in a blaze of glory for each unit, before death, that's for sure.