Tux

Turn 20 Here we go... Juste is executing multiple plans of action now. His three surviving T-34s as well as his SU-152 have reversed to safer positions amongst the trees, possibly with a mind to retreating for the defence of C: The two infantry-type units in the middle are Maxims Area firing at an empty building. Juste's bunched-up troops near A completed the rout of my Jager platoon and then sent two of their number to advance towards the town. As they approached the buildings my HMG 42, the two appropriate ambushing squads and even my reversing Tiger opened devastating close range fire. As the minute draws to a close one SMG squad is broken and crawling back the way he came, whilst a second is about to be engaged at less than 20m range. Neither of my engaging squads take a single casualty from the overwatching SMG fire, so I am more than happy with this initial encounter. The ambushes are now worthless as far as surprise is concerned however, so I will consider adjusting the squads' positions during the next orders phase. My Tiger completes half of the manoeuvre I ordered last turn, and my StuG HQ arrives, ready to provide further HE and AP support to the troops at A. Finally, as my troops in the woods along the Road to C advance cautiously back towards A, a pair of tank sound contacts are detected in Juste's rear area: I have killed two T-34s, and I have three more within LOS of my troops. That makes five, which is just under two platoons. Two more contacts (which I am assuming cannot be SU-152s) don't fit very neatly with those numbers, so my scouts are going to be crucial in the near future. Either way it looks as though Juste is seeking to shore up his defences at A. I may well need a Tiger in support if I choose to advance that way in future.

I am ashamed to admit that I have not yet been able to decide what to do with it. Every time I sit down to try and knock out a post-graduation plan of action I feel guilty because I always have work that needs to be done instead! What did you do once you got yours, Lanzfeld?

you speak of "mass" but later you speak of "gravity" (in context of soft targets like capitals) so i suppose you mean "gravity" above as well.</font>

This may be a stupid question, but is the Pz IVH not better employed by keyholing it so it can take out tanks from the flank as they cross the bridge? Can the IIINs smoke anywhere to help him achieve this?

Lol, I'm afraid you'll have to be patient, my friend; both Juste and I are currently ploughing towards the end of University degrees in History and Aerospace Engineering respectively. CM turns are, as a result, slightly lower on the priority list than they would otherwise find themselves. Don't worry though, Juste is giving us both time; as soon as I get a turn I'll play it and post the report.

Thanks guys, all responses much appreciated. Heinrich, to post images is quite simple: 1. When in game simply pause the action, frame your shot and hit the "Print Screen" button immediately to the right of F12 on your keyboard. 2. Use the Windows button or Alt-Tab to return to your desktop. 3. Open a graphics package of some sort (I use Jasc Paintshop Pro) and paste the image onto the workspace. 4. Save the image as a .jpg file and close it afterwards. 5. Go to http://smg.photobucket.com/ and sign up for a free account. 6. Upload the .jpg to your album. 7. Copy the "IMG Code" underneath the thumbnail in your album. 8. Paste the code into your DAR/ AAR where appropriate. 9. Rinse and repeat. Once you've done it once or twice it becomes very quick and easy, I promise. You can also delete the images from your Hard Drive once they're stored on Photobucket, to save space and avoid getting confused between them.

That's just one of the big lessons I've learnt here; to check that I'm not 'blinding' my own vehicles. The fight isn't quite over yet. I will make sure to post a screenshot of the results when it is.

That's fine; I try not to take anyone's advice here for its own sake, which is why I always send my orders before I post my thought processes about them here. Erm, my flamers are still helping keep possession of the woods on the left of the road to C. I have a plan in hand to race one back into A if Juste's infantry assault and out-run their armoured support, which I'm hoping the StuGs and Tiger will keep at bay. To be fair, only the SU can reliably hurt any of them at all, and even the StuGs only suffer the odd partial penetration by T-34 rounds at ~100m ranges, so the three of them should be enough to ensure my men aren't harassed by too much HE. I had the precise same thought about the units I can see. In fact I think they probably are a single squad set up to look like more - I'm not sure if it's possible to position full squads that close to each other. Rankorian, I like the term 'dinged up', and it describes perfectly what I don't like about the little hits I keep taking. My total casualties so far number 15, of which one has been a sniper, seven have been Jager squad members, four have been platoon HQs and three have been tank commanders. I feel like he's wearing me down by hitting me in important places, even though most of the HQ kills he's made have been flukes. Which is why I want to take some initiative now. I feel I know enough about his force selection and disposition to start pressing him where I think it'll hurt. My troops in the woods near the road are coming back as swiftly as is prudent to clear them of enemy infantry and relocate all of his armour, if it hasn't moved by the time they get there. As soon as the SU is dealt with it will take no more than a single StuG to keep T-34s from supporting an attack on A. I will then be able to launch an attack on C with a reinforced company of men, one StuG, a Tiger and two FPz IIIs. For now, though, my primary focus remains the same as it has been since Turn 10; Namely, the hunting down and destruction of Juste's SU-152.

Turn 21 has been played: In the opening seconds a significant development occurs; the squad that I had sneaked out of their building cover when the SU began shelling it, and which I had hidden in open ground which I thought was out of LOS to possible enemy positions, take a hail of incoming SMG fire from Soviet infantry adept at judging the muzzle elevation required to arch their bullets into dead ground: After a minute's play two casualties have been suffered and the squad is crawling away from the house. They panicked on 59s so now I can't order them anywhere safe. I'm quite annoyed at all this, lol. On the plus side, these are the culprits: Spot any flaws? What looks like two full platoons within a single 20m square. How I wish I'd purchased a 150mm IG! I'll come back to this re: my orders for Turn 22. My StuG and Tiger are both safely back on the road, or if not very nearly so. When halfway back a sneaky T-34, as heard intermittently over the last few turns, emerges from the woods on my AFVs' right flank. I assume this was an attempt to get a tank behind my Tiger at point blank range. As it is my Tiger spots him first and puts two 88mm shells through his hull front in quick succession. Unfortunately, last turn I decided to replace the 'spotter' squad in the house behind my AFVs with an HQ (for his binoculars). When this unit was 3m away from the house the above T-34 emerged and his hull MGer took out two men in the HQ unit. Yes, again he's hit an HQ unit where it hurts! The HQ should be ok to get to cover next turn though. Elsewhere my StuG HQ begins the 3min race from B to A, and the fire from C ceases completely, allowing my squad to rally and retreat without suffering futher losses. Confusing... Right, orders. I shuffle a couple of HQs near C a bit closer so that they can keep watch on the defences therein. I also order my second platoon in the forest to start sweeping back towards A. I can't decide whether Juste is again providing me with a nice, juicy target in order to set up a trap of some sort; That infantry concentration is insane! I have an HMG 42 which has LOS to the concentration, and he has a combat bonus HQ commanding him who also has LOS, making the HMG a potent weapon at this range. I have two plans of action in my head: First, take the rap from his infantry and lull him into a false sense of security whilst concentrating on winning the armour battle. The danger here is that Juste annihilates my squad and then disperses his men - He may never again present such a juicy target. Second, I could hit those troops with the HMG, hoping to pin them all down, being within 26m of each other as they are. I can simultaneously rush a Tiger around to meet them at 50m range and have 88mm HE landing amongst them within 90s. What could go wrong? He could anticipate this and overwhelm the StuG I have left on the road. I'm sure it has occurred to him that these men may take heavy fire from the Village, and also that I can move my Tiger to engage in short order. I'm not doing it. I've adjusted cover arcs to hit his men as soon as they exit the trees, but I'm not going to snatch at this one. If he is truly making a mistake by grouping them together then he'll do it again. If he doesn't know not to bunch them then I don't want to 'teach him' without making it a very hard lesson indeed, which means more firepower than I can currently bring to bear. Instead I want to grab an iota of initiative in the armour fight. My commander-less StuG is retreating right back to the house which will soon shelter a binocular-equipped HQ to spot for him. My StuG HQ unit is racing to take up position on the far left, as before. My Tiger is going to retreat. A long way. I'm reversing him right out of contact with Juste's forces and I'm then going to have him hunt along the main road through A to re-establish contact from a different angle. With any luck Juste will have ventured forwards and my Tiger will catch several AFVs unawares.

I have just sent my orders for Turn 21. I retreated both my AFVs - the StuG instantly and the Tiger with a 7s delay. He may be lucky enough to get off one more shot, in fact. I have ordered my green StuG HQ tank over to help his subordinate and the Tiger. I chose the HQ because my other StuG will perform better with the morale bonus and shorter command delays. I have ordered him into position near the far left of Village A, to engage the Reds from an angle, so it's probably going to take him 3 minutes+ to arrive... I also withdrew my men from the line of fire in the trees. I felt 'Withdraw' would be catastrophic in its effects, so it'll be 42s before they get it together to retreat. I don't hold out high hopes for there being many left... My other orders are issued with a view to gaining LOS to C for a platoon HQ without his being noticed, and to assembling my second platoon in the forest on the left of the road. Results will be posted presently.

There is more than one route into the town that avoids LOS with the gun's current position. I am slightly confused though; he has revealed it very early - at the first infantry unit to appear within LOS, and which is in cover too. I am thinking he is either planning to relocate it to a fall back position in the next couple of turns, or that he has another gun that he is keeping hidden - perhaps in the woods on the extreme left flank, covering the open ground ahead of C from the side. I suppose a third option is that the gun has little to no AT capability, and so he is simply using it as an HE chucker. In any case I bought no mortars, due to the short ranges I expected to be fighting at, so I'll take my time overcoming this obstacle. For now I think I'm going to move a couple of scouts forwards to observe C, and leave the rest well back in cover. Thinking on it even further, the eagerness of his forces to open up on my men could well be a delaying move. What do you reckon the odds are on his having a high-value FO counting down on my scattered tree cover? I do indeed have my two flame tanks covering the woods up to a point ~25m deep. Obviously I can't move them in to engage any deeper, so I am not contesting the forest beyond that. I may move a platoon back along the same flank as I swept on the way up, with the FPz IIIs in support, to give his infantry something to think about and maybe persuade him to try and 'ram' his armour through the gap currently controlled by my StuG and Tiger. I'd leave a platoon back near C to stop the sweeping force from being outflanked. As for the StuG-Tiger team, I still want to move them both back. The reason is there is now a ready-loaded SU-152 somewhere nearby. It may well be shuffling across to engage my men, but I'd be surprised if Juste considers them a greater threat than the existence of my Tiger. Since I only have two buttoned AFVs in the area, both of which are being occupied by T-34s and one of which is still in a state of shock, I am haunted by the idea that the SU could, even now, be levelling its gun at my Tiger without having been spotted in return. I am determined to get off the first shot whenever I engage that bugger, and I can't guarantee that will happen in the current situation. If you remember, the whole idea behind this miniature armoured thrust was to catch out an SU that I knew the location of, and which I knew would be reloading for the next 30s.

Here it is folks, after much dallying. Turn 20 It was a trap. The SU sits still as the turn begins, the crew bashing heads and trapping fingers as they race to reload the monstrous gun that is their friend, their salvation, their raison d'être. 240m away, a second before my StuG moves out, a burst from a nearby DP light machine gun spatters bullets across the superstructure and the commander curses and ducks inside, locking himself in and squinting out of the cupola openings. An instant later the engine revs and the little SPG races forwards to engage the unseen enemy AFV. Behind them, the Tiger rotates slowly to follow, simultaneously delivering a dose of 'same to you' to the exposed Russian infantry squad: It's no use. The DP burst wasn't without effect and no matter how hard he tries the StuG's commander cannot see clearly out of the vehicle's cracked forward vision blocks. A shell whistles in and ricochets off the StuG's front, and a second later another sends splinters and shell fragments spewing in through a tiny hole in the hull. The driver grits his teeth and follows orders, racing into position. Behind them the Tiger's crew are more fortunate, and they catch site of their comrades' tormentors. The big tank grinds to a halt and the heavy 88mm gun levels at a T-34 in the distance: It's no good; the gunner loses his cool as he forces himself to select a single T-34 out of the pack, the fog thickens and swirls momentarily across his sights and he sends his first round skimming agonisingly high above the enemy tank's turret. In the next split second three Soviet tanks open fire. Two rounds crash into the earth around the StuG but the third hits the base of the commander's cupola, hard: Fragments of burning steel and a thick, heavy glass vision block fly back into the cramped cupola. The StuG's gunner hears the partial penetration and nearly loses his concentration as his commander slumps downwards, landing across his shoulders. He doesn't though. As the radio operator leaps to his commander's aid the gunner has sight of a T-34 and is not about to let it escape. For all he knows his dear friend and commander may be dead, and the Reds will pay. As the T-34s crunch into reverse gear the gunner's StuK 40 barks, and a 75mm round rips through a Soviet tank, wrecking its transmission gear and bringing its escape bid to a premature end: As the minute's action draws to a close the Tiger's 88mm speaks once more, to no avail, but its threat alone is enough to buy the StuG's crew a few precious seconds to gather themselves and tend to their wounded commander. Along the road to C, men duck from cover to cover as they attempt to get into position to observe Village C from the nearby scattered trees. Another trap has, however, been set, and it is sprung by the one squad who had been ordered to the very edge of the available cover by the roadside: A hail of fire issues forth from the buildings 150m away, led by a heavy machine gun nest in the top floor of the nearest large house. My Jager squad take cover, gather themselves and return fire, instantly forcing the MG and another unit on the lower floor to seek cover. No sooner have they done so however, than the air hums with the report of a hidden gun and a high velocity shell shrieks low over their heads. The squad instantly hit the dirt, but their platoon HQ isn't so lucky; The errant shell careers through the trees and detonates at their feet, instantly killing two of their number. The remaining pair are brave ('double' brave, if you catch my drift ), and continue to their assigned position without hesitation: The frontline squad scramble to their feet and peer outwards, searching for the gun. They do not have to wait long. A second loud bang echoes through the fog and, even as the second shell fizzes towards them, the squad members note the location of the tell-tale muzzle flash with ruthless efficiency. It comes at a cost however; fully four of them leave it too late to take cover and are eliminated from the fight. For the next 20 seconds the single Jager squad withstand the full fury of C's first line of defenders, at the eventual cost of another man wounded. Turn 20 is over. The trap has been sprung, twice, and I am satisfied with the results: One of my Jager squads has been hit hard and will be withdrawn in the best possible condition during the next minute of play. In return I have identified what I believe to be a 76mm gun position as well as several other units in the surrounding buildings. I am slightly aggravated that Juste's luck has seen two of his most poorly aimed HE shells miss their targets (bothless than 200m away) and continue past to hit one of my HQ units. Perhaps you could argue that I was lucky not to lose any AFVs this turn, but still... One T-34 has been immobilised. It now can, and will, be engaged by the Tiger at my leisure, assuming it isn't finished off by my StuG in the next few seconds. I deem this ample compensation for the loss of my StuG commander, given how badly things could, potentially, have gone this turn. I have completed the relocation of a Jager squad into the building ahead of which my Tiger and StuG were previously positioned. When I pull them back next turn they will be spotted for by these men. After it was last seen on about 5s, contact with the SU was completely lost. I cannot afford to hang around looking for it any longer though, so I am, as I have said, retreating my armour to their old, less precarious position. During the next orders phase I am seriously considering moving a second StuG in to assist on the left flank. The vulnerability of my lone SPG when confronted by four T-34s at once worried me. The only doubts I have concern leaving B so lightly defended. A single StuG would just barely be able to hold B in the face of a light armoured attack. It may turn out to be a simple matter to outflank it however, given two or three units with which to do it.

I might suggest one of those scenarios to Steve next, I think. Ok, as a minor update Turn 20 has just been played. Unfortunately things have progressed much as one would have expected Steve to make sure they did. His KVs have taken out two of my T-26s after damaging their guns first, and Steve's T-34s got the third. I currently have mortars falling on Steve's nearby infantry, but I no longer have enough well-ordered HMGs to follow it up and force them back. The only intact forces I have are the entrenched platoon on the far left. They should still be able to bloody the noses of Steve's infantry once they get close enough. If there ever was the slightest chance that I might salvage something from this fight, it has evaporated with Steve's (fully expected) reluctance to endanger his armour too near to my lines. I hit the ceasefire button several turns ago, but I don't think it's going to save me from a total defeat here. I've taken all your hints and suggestions on board, and shall remember them next time I fight with the Finns.

I bloody hope not, lol! I've just received and e-mail from Juste who has, it seems, been on holiday for a few days. Assuming we manage to sort out the corrupted file issues an update mey be expected within the next 24 hours.

He is indeed gambling correctly. I tend to believe that he also has a build up of men in the nearby forest. Those are the reasons, as you correctly deduced, that I decided to try and kill the SU rather than withdraw my men through open ground which, I fear, is under close-range observation. I would be vaguely surprised if Juste has close assault trrops ready in the scattered trees towards which my AFVs are moving. It is possible but would have required a move over open ground to reach them, which I would have expected to detect. As for my StuG's TC, my attitude was of the 'all or nothing' variety. I didn't want two blind AFVs to roll into LOS of an SU-152 and not spot it in time to kill the bloody thing. That would have been infinitely frustrating. For that reason he's staying unbuttoned until bullets persuade him otherwise. All we have to do now is wait...

Waiting on Juste's response atm. We have had some problems getting the file he sends to open properly on my PC (see Tech Forum). I have reinstalled the game etc. so hopefully when he sends the file again it'll work.

Ok, thanks Sudo - We'll give it a shot.

Very interesting, thanks!

Cheers Vergeltungswaffe, I thought I was missing a bit.

I'd be interested to know if this works. I'll try it when I get home if no-one else has by then.

You're right about the calibres, of course. The L/70 does represent the length of the barrel, but in terms of 'calibres' or multiples of the diameter of the shell. In general, then longer the barrel the higher the muzzle velocity of the shell since the shell spends all of its time in the barrel accelerating under the force of the expanding gases behind it. The german 75 L/24 will therefore have a lower muzzle velocity than the L/48, which is out-matched by the 75 L/70 found on the Panther, etc. As far as I know KwK 42 and PaK 41 are the guns' designations. I think the '41' and '42' may represent the year they were first built, but I don't know that for sure. Either way KwK stands for Kampfwagenkanone ('Combat Vehicle Cannon') and PaK, I think, just stands for Panzerkanone ('Anti-tan Gun'). someone will be along shortly to put me right on any mistakes and help you out more.

Thanks for the report Leprechaun - was an entertaining read and you seem to have fought very well. Congrats!

Hi all. Can anyone help solve this problem I’m having with a PBEM file? Each time I double click it in the list of email files I get the ‘no’ sound from the computer – the same sound as if I put the wrong password into a working file. This happened once before against the same opponent and when he re-saved his turn the next file worked. This time though he has resaved the turn once and it still doesn’t work. Any ideas?

Well, I appreciate the responses and I have to say I may well be playing naiively here. JK and Heinrich's posts above are not making me feel any better about the orders I just gave my men... Turn 18 was disrupted after 10s by a 152 shell crashing into the ground just short of one of my houses. The SU has crept almost into LOS and is Area Firing at the ground just short of the building, causing the squad inside to switch to 'Cautious'. Nothing else worthy of note happens. I thought long and hard about this one, but reading those posts above, everybody is strongly recommending I don't do what I just did. I timed the SU and he takes 40 seconds, almost on the dot, to reload and fire each round. The second round he fired was let loose on 54s, and so I judge that I have circa 30s until he is able to return fire. I have (eventually) decided that I want to kill the SU, and I may not get to time my attack on it so cleanly next time. With this in mind both my StuG and my Tiger are motoring forwards a few metres to gain LOS and take out the SU: Jeez, the more I think about this the worse I feel about the turn I am about to receive... Anyway, my StuG is moving Fast to race through LOS to the sound contact which I detected a couple of turns back rotating towards my Tiger, and then switching to Hunt to break into LOS of the SU. My Tiger is hunting all the way, behind the StuG, so hopefully any enemy threats will be spotted by the StuG a second or two before the Tiger arrives. I have a full squad moving into the house behind my AFVs to help with spotting when I pull them back next turn, and the squad whose building is looking decidedly shaky on it foundations is sneaking out to wait until they can re-occupy the rubble, or else take up position elsewhere. Any number of things could go wrong if this is a trap, but I'm hoping boldness is going to pay off. For the record, I now positively believe that this is a trap - my crews' fates are in their own hands. My Tiger may just be durable enough to survive a first hit from a T-34, but my StuG has his wits and nothing else to rely on now. Elsewhere I have reached the same conclusion as everyone else appears to have: The attack is on hold. I am moving another squad over to the left to help shore up that forest, but I'm not going to push forwards yet. I don't think the sound contact was an accident either. So, bold and brilliant or rash and naiive? Either way wish me luck!

Turn 17 arrives and is played. Something bizarre happens in the opening seconds of the turn; my StuG commander spots infantry sauntering through the trees 80m away to the right! My Tiger has a blue cover arc and StuGs always seem reluctant to engage infantry of their own accord, so the contact disappears unmolested: Next turn I think I may remove the Tiger's arc to allow him to punish Juste for such carelessly un-stealthy troop movements. On the Road to C, you may have noticed I had a single squad assigned to advance across the road on the way to tree cover. Well, as they did so a solitary burst of SMG fire spattered into the earth around their feet: The bullets had no effect whatsoever, other than to provide me with this pretty darned conclusive sound contact a few seconds later: I will now consider the nearest house to the right of the road at C to be occupied. The gunfire that came from it sounded for all the world like PPSh fire, so the unit that occupies that building is either: 1) A squad/ half-squad/ HQ of normal rifle infantry (with at least one SMG amongst them). 2) A squad/ half-squad/ HQ of SMG infantry. 3) A Tank Hunter team. None of them pose a threat yet, of course. In due course I may use my FPz IIIs to spearhead the assault, torching buildings and risking ATG fire from the flank as they go. If I did that I could either leech another StuG from Hamlet B (by which time I would have to be confident that B wasn't going to be seriously assaulted) and use it to cover the assault from armoured interference, or I could use it to back up my other StuG near A and take my Tiger up to join the assault... At the moment the latter course of action is ticking the most boxes for me.