Tux

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.

Funny how, even with Weather Effects on 'Extreme', visibility actually appears quite good. It's certainly more than 200m anyway! It would add quite a bit to the atmosphere, I think, if they had represented a real 'pea-souper' graphically for these sorts of scenarios.

Ok folks, Turn 16: My StuG has arrived 'on the Tiger's shoulder' and its commander has his binoculars on the edges of the fog 200m ahead: I took this one too; firstly because I didn't realise how big a StuG was compared to a Tiger, having alway thought of them as kinda small and cute, and secondly because I thought it was quite picturesque with the wheatfield in the background. I think once the sun has burnt off the fog this is going to be a stunning piece of landscape: My advance along the road is still going smoothly. The enemy sniper made a bastard of himself once more by pot-shotting the Platoon HQ to the right of the road, but on 54s he was spotted and promptly silenced by the squad nearest his patch of trees. My orders take the second central platoon to the edge of the scattered trees whilst my platoon on the other side of the road secures the flank: I am considering, once this platoon has reached the scattered trees, moving the platoon that is in overwatch behind them to the area of forest to the left of the road. Their commander has a double stealth bonus and a morale bonus, so I may be able to use them to go tank hunting, should I judge it necessary/ beneficial. I would also then be able to use my FPz IIIs and their accompanying platoon (with double morale bonus HQ) to assault across the open ground towards C.

All good points again, thanks. I didn't know about the effectiveness of the 40mm AAA, so I'll definitely bear that in mind in future. Most of the other suggestions, even though they're perfectly good and valid, would rely on my having known the terrain beforehand I think. I think I might suggest we use pre-made maps more often to Steve. I know he'll be all for it; it's me who insisted on more random maps. It's just a shame that occasionally someone geets completely screwed over by the terrain.

Rankorian, yes, you are absolutely correct and you have perfectly deduced the reason for my reluctance to put a full or half squad in the forest where my sniper was. One further incentive for using a single sniper (apart from the possibility of remaining undetected at such close range) was that he was able to take a short range shot at an enemy TC, which a squad would have been less able to make the most of. I briefly considered buying a Panzerschreck during the force selection, and he would have been potentially even more useful from such a position, for obvious reasons, but I deemed them too expensive at worthwhile experience levels. Had I had the points to buy a further company of men it would have solved a lot of my problems, since I would have been able to keep a whole platooon at B rather than a single green squad, another platoon in the body of my main effort in the centre and then I could have split my remaining platoon up into various scouting units, such as the one you describe. With this in mind I think I also toyed with the option of buying a green Jager battalion rather than two reg companies, but I absolutely abhor using crap troops, so I couldn't bring myself to, lol. As for the chess analogy, again you are right. I am comfortable as I am, with him 'looking for angles' on my Tiger, but basically still looking to attack. I am also fairly confident that he has built up a lot of men in the forest nearest Village A, but I am just as confident that they can be held off for a fair while - at least long enough to maybe make him think twice about attempting it without AFV support, at which point he is back to the problem posed by my Tiger and StuG, etc and so forth. Anyhow, I am nervous about pushing too hard in the centre. I think if I did I could probably make considerable progress quite quickly, but if I made it look too strong I am actually terrified that he would withdraw half of his armour, including his SU-152, and blow the bejeezus out of my troops as they attacked C. My Tiger would then be unable to help without exposing itself to all sorts of flank and rear shots from any tanks that stayed behind and weasled its way towards the road. To both of you, I am currently looking to consolidate my Tiger's position with the StuG (and his TC). I think they are then very strong where they are, as far as blunting his attack goes. Apart from that I'm going to move my force in the centre into position to attack C on demand, although always taking my time and allowing him to attack first if he so wishes. Somehow though I may soon be looking to move a squad into the trees between the road and his armour, if not just to watch where they are then to possibly attempt a close-assault operation or two. Unfortunately I am convinced Juste will have a platoon maintaining a safe perimeter around them. Ahh, I love this sort of thing, lol.

SPOILER I played this one last year too, as German. I had a single Pionier platoon in the factory which kept all Russian attacks out until the end of the game by staying well back and using demo charges. My opponent commented that the quality of troops wasn't enough, since they just broke and ran out again each time they entered the factory and got shot at. He lost a T-34 and several ACs to my artillery strike and my tanks and 37mm gun got all the BTs. Towards the end of the game he tried to rush the village flag with his remaining T-34s, but I ran out to meet them with multiple infantry squads and finished them all by close assault. If I were Russian I'd skirt past the factory with my infantry, letting my tanks gun at anything that fired from within it. The infantry would also have to find and silence the german 37mm, otherwise it could seriously hurt the Russian armour. Once the german panzers arrive just run you T-34s forwards in a small group and level any buildings they try and hide behind. The panzers don't have the whack to take on multiple T-34s at once, and once they're gone the defending infantry shouldn't be able to hold out too long on their own.

Turn 14 highlights the anxiety that having no TC in your Tiger can bring. For second after long second this sound contact moves 'to the edge of the trees' and then rotates until it is pointing at my (oblivious) Tiger. During the time it takes to rotate on the spot I convince myself that Juste has managed to jam a second SU-152, perhaps by buying both at conscript level, and is stalking my blind Tiger. As the contact finishes rotating, I wince and wait for a dustbin-sized shell to crash through my tank and reduce it to a smoldering wreck... but nothing happens. I now think it is an AFV setting up in an ambush position in case my Tiger pulls forwards. In any case, my StuG has all but arrived in position, and will be available to spot for and otherwise support my Tiger within the next half-minute: My advance towards C is going quietly. No further contact has been made except for the fact that my squads now occasionally take cover under side arm fire from the sniper I know to be nearby. This means I am within 100m or so, and so I still believe him to be amongst the scattered trees to my platoon's right: I have also initiated the advance across the open ground on the other side of the road:

During Turn 13 all of Juste's armour withdrew to positions out of LOS of my Tiger. The SU-152 was spotted halfway through the minute still buttoned up, so I am assuming for now that my heroic scout managed to kill its commander before he died. Either way all of his armour is pretty much unassailable now, thanks to tree cover and his ability to keyhole it all in ambush positions. The SU, for one, is in such a position as to make it suicidal for my Tiger to attmept to hunt it. The plus side is that none of his AFVs can obtain LOS to Village A without being seen by my Tiger, so the men in the village are, for now, safe. A single regular StuG is barrelling his way along the road between B and A as the minute ends. My orders are minimal; I leave the Tiger in place for a minute whilst my StuG is in transit, and otherwise merely continue the advance towards C. [ April 06, 2008, 05:52 AM: Message edited by: Tux ]

Ok, we just sorted and played Turn 12. On 5 seconds my sharpshooter takes a shot at the SU commander. I hear him say something as he buttons - do TCs ever 'say' anything if they've not been hit? Does the voice I heard mean he is out of action? Anyway, the 152 gun stays silent for the duration of the minute, thankfully. Unfortunately, so does my 88. Hochstadter's shot revealed his position to the enemy and he was instantly cut up by a hail of squad, HMG and tank MG fire. Not only is this a sad loss for my forces, but the loss of his spotting abilities meant it took until the last seconds for my Tiger to spot any enemy armour. As the turn ends, two T-34s are spotted reversing out of LOS. Now I'm quite annoyed. I've lost the advantage gained by reducing the SU to 'shocked' status, and his tanks have ahd a chance to withdraw and hide from my Tiger without suffering losses. God, I ache for a healthy TC in situations like this. Next turn I badly need to get someone to spot for him. My force creeping towards C suffered a single sniper shot during the turn, but without taking any casualties. I'm pretty sure the sniper is in the scattered trees a few metres away next to the road, and that he is trying to score some kills before he withdraws. As for my StuGs, I may bring one over to support my Tiger, I think. I need some spotting ability and the 80mm armour should be ok against the T-34s. It will have to sit next to the heavy tank though - flanking the enemy AFVs in their current position is not a feasible option.

@ Yushal, sure, feel free to drop me a setup at some point. I might not be able to reply immediately, but I'll certainly play you when I get the chance. I generally like games below about 1500pts, and don't expect an expert opponent. @ Louie the Toad, I think Boots & Tracks does a few, as well as the Scenario Depot, but others here will be better able to answer that than me.