GreenAsJade

Here's the general plan: Given no clue about where he'll approach or set up, and the diagnosis that the whole left hand side of the map is tough to defend... 1) Scout up the left hand side, because he may like the look of the valley on our side of MonteP. This could be a bit of a feint too, though he's unlikely to be distracted by it. This is 6 Company(-). I tossed up sending only one platoon on this mission, but ended up hoping that a bit more force there might be good hassle value to hinder him with. It's mission will be a success if we find out whether or not he's got substantial force over there, and a bonus if they help stop him set up around the saddle with the ruin. 2) Make a stronghold behind MonteG and Point 502. This is the Weapons Company 3) Try to deal with his own reverse slope strongholds by going through the small gap up the right flank. 4) Have Battalion HQ watching over MonteP and through to the Point 532 ridge. Some wombat back at base sent along a Batallion level on map mortar, so they might as well stay with Battalion HQ at the back right. I guess Gen Bil will be ready to shell this lookout position, but we might as well use it till that happens. Turn sent. (I really like Vin's icons, but dang it's confusing that the Green Devils have red icons and (you will see) the Red Devils have green icons. Vin... what were you thinking!? )

OK, so here's the scenario... (Completely fictitious, as you already know... don't read on if you are offended by fake history for atmosphere's sake!!) The Allies have landed at Anzio! Our intel is that a new outstanding commander, General Bil Hard-Arse Lucas (*), has ordered an immediate push inland to strike behind our defensive lines at Cassino! Already the forward elements of Battalion of Red Devils is making it's way west through the hills towards Frosinone. Your orders are to interdict immediately - they must be stopped. You have most of a Battalion of our best (**) Fallschirmjaeger at your disposal, and the Batallion level 81mms are already calculating their support missions. It's up to you now. (* Historically, IIUC, General Lucas refused this mission) (** they always say that) Well, as I read this dispatch, the sun came out over the Frosinone hills, and suddenly it didn't look as dreary as I feared last night... Nothing like a bit of sun to lift the spirits...

OK, the first real turn - where I have to do the setup - has arrived from Bil. It's 1am here, so I'm not setting up right now But the Green Devils have arrived in the target zone... More soon, time to dream of plans... GaJ

Big LOL. In between my post and yours, this thread went from being behind to being ahead. While what you say is true (and this is why I leaped for playing Axis I'm definitely the underdog (yelp!) ) I think that the thread-view rate will ultimately be determined by which player is most chatty, not which force they are playing I think it will be BIG WIN for me if I have a single man left after 1.5 hours of fighting!!! I've only ever played one other scenario this long, "CW The Mace". Absolutely top scenario, but it had a whole bunch of reinforcements 2/3rds of the way though, and HTs for resupply. Thinks. Darn! I should have brought a truck!!!! Doh! The things you think of _after_ you hit send on the force selection!!! GaJ

This one would appear to be the exception to the rule Right now for this one, the ratio swings back and forth depending on which one got a post in last. I think that the Allied one will leap ahead once Bil gets force selection & setup going. (I saw that he picked up the file from my Dropbox last night my time). Unless we keep chatting here while he's doing it I'll just have to make good use of the extra 81mm that this omission allowed me to buy, eh? GaJ

If you'd seen how he whupped me last time, you'd know that he doesn't need a sneak peak at my forces GaJ

I see. Well, I have no suspicion that Bil's looking in here, but for clarification for you dear readers, my intention was that this selection screen shows you everything about my selection. I have opened up one example of each unit in the Para Battalion that I have, so you can see what the details are, and I have left closed the rest. You can see which platoons of which company I left in and out. If I had clicked on every plus, it would have run over one screen. So you can see that I have 1 Para Battalion with 1 and a bit rifle companies plus 1 weapons company . I have one full company (5 company), which you can see consists of 3 platoons of FJs, each of which has a shek, a mortar and 3 squads. 6 Company is depleted, having only 2 platoons, and 7 Company is out. 8 Company, the weapons company, is stripped right back. It has only one of the HMG platoons, plus a couple of individual Medium Mortars added. (Whoa, darn it, I meant to bring a couple more HMGs oops!). There are a couple of PzIVH's assigned to the Battalion, and a couple of Mortar Sections, one of which is opened up to show that these contain 81mm off map mortars. My Kimono is open! GaJ

Hmmm - what does that mean "cloak and dagger selection"?

OK. So threw out the idea of the whole left flank. That plateau looks like a killing field. Now I have a new plan. A. Create a nice safe zone on my side of MonteG and Point 502. B. Take the battle to him, by pressing right up the right flank. I "have this thing" about that ridge that he has, P253, I feel like it had to be taken off him. So I will see if I can get in around the right hand side... Here's the force: (squished to 1000px as requested) I activated the Battalion of Airborne Inf FJs, as required, and pared it down to 1500pts, again as required. Then I added a bunch of 81mm artillery and TRPs, because I'm going to need to bomb behind that ridge I want to take, and probably have some left over for squabbiling about possession of the left side of the map later. Then I though I need some tanks in case he brings some. At first I thought a Stu42 for blowing up inf plus 2 Marder IIIMs for anti tank, but those thin Marders make me nervous. So I plumbed for 2 general purpose PzIVH's instead. It's in Bil's hands now... get thee over to his thread, and plague him mercilessly if he hesitates for a moment in force selection and setup GaJ

Ok - I know you all want some fighting now, already But we're in the "rush slowly" part of things... I'm still wrangling with an idea for a plan. One thing that's for sure: the VL's are pretty indefensible for any amount of time. Any force sitting on those is a sitting duck. Except for Bil's P523 ridge, which is a doozy of a reverse slope. So I'm thinking I just have to find him and kill him That plateau that I have, which is a nice run to the left VLs, is also a death trap from an exposure point of view. I'm starting to think of a plan that is "press up the left side and see if I can get into the back corner, by suprise". I've also learned two other things: 1) My force (is required to) contain 1500 points of Airborne Infantry units. 2) The duration is to be 1.5 hours (!!) So we're not having a "tanks slug it out from the ridgelines" battle, rather a combined arms dance. Hmmm.... hafta go to the office now. Maybe a plan will emerge there :) GaJ

No, it's a QB, so it doesn't say anything at all. The map maker might step in and share some background, if there is some... GaJ

An interesting feature of the left hand side of the map is that it's more of a plateau or extended ridgeline ... leading out of my back left pocket. In this image we see that from my left hand corner, a flat ridge is leading towards the two left middle VLs: and here's what it looks like at P509: This has to be some use. I get a high road into these VLs, while he has to climb into them. Well. Now I've shared all this with you, do I get to phone a friend for hints on what to buy and game plan???? GaJ

First, I have an awesome peak on my back right corner: The only downside of this is that there is no concealment on top. But this has to be useful for something, nonetheless.

It's worth a look behind oppo lines at this point: Basically - he can run up that hill and set up on that massive VL ridge, and rest. That's his advantage. But I do have some counter-advantages...

Wizzing over to look from Point 502, the highest point on the map: ... it's clear that the right hand side of this map is a problem of "conquer a mountain, and then the one behind it where the oppo is". We can see Monte Garabinesa and the oppo's ridge Point 523.

Sitting in the middle of my setup zone, we can look out to the right and see the massive peaks that are the objectives on the right... Right now I'm thinking "I better be bringing some transport to get up those hills". I don't actually know, at this point, how long the QB is (I've asked my oppo ... one of the little things the BFC might want to give us later: info at force selection time about the scenario parameters That will determine a lot about what I can and can't do with infantry in this map.

I hope this is not too big for everyone - if it is, let me know I'll shrink it or something (is there some crafty way I can write the size in the First, here is my setup: http://gregories.net/images/MySetup.jpg' alt='MySetup.jpg'> As you can see, mostly, I'm in a valley looking up to the objective zones, but on my left and right flanks I have high spots...

Of course, before I can select any units I need a plan. So I've been spending my evening looking at the map. Here is what I can see. First a top view of the map, for reference. I have labelled with arrows the viewpoints of the following shots.

A little while back The BFC First Second Programmer twisted my arm to do some Beta testing of CMx2, because he found out I just acquired retina Mac Book Pro - there wasn't one of those in the testing lineup. One of the first things that happened to me is I got fully whupped by this "Bill Hardenberger" chararacter, testing a scenario under CMBN 2.01 (Seven Winds). Being a sucker for punishment, here I am paired off against Bill again... in a grudge match you might say! We're about to play out for your merriment a Medium QB on the Gustav Line. Due to "where things are at" there are some limitations about what can be included in battle: for example, snow is apparently not quite ready for prime-time, and there are some limitations on weapon selection. If I understand correctly, it's going to be Green Devils vs Red Devils. I get the Fallschirmjäger, yay I better go take a look at my force selection options ... more soon. GaJ

Me too!! CMFI 1.02 ... bring it on!

There are answers to each of these "why not" questions - perfectly good answers. Different answers suit each person differently. It's arrogant twats who think that their answer is the only one who end up hunting forums for H2H opponents, because they get kicked out of clubs. GaJ

Back in the day, it always used to block sight, didn't it? CMx1 at least. I wonder why it doesn't any more. Is it the case that it always doesn't? Or are there some piles of rubble that do? GaJ

Yeah, Rake, you got it - those as the changes that I think need to be made too. The mistake about hide is probably my fault (!). A while back I was thinking we could do with an updated alternate_hotkeys, because around CMBN 2.0 time it got a bit messed up I think. I submitted one to BFC, but embarassingly it had the mistakes you mention in it (U is supposed to be on hide and Z and X were swapped). I never heard back from them that they were interested in the submission I made ... it seems that they were though! Just goes to show: they are listening I should have sent the fixed one, when I realised my mistake :%) "It was always that way in CMx1" That's a great idea. GaJ

I reckon in this case, join a gaming club. GaJ