Tiresias

Turn 5 Another huge explosion at the start of the turn signals my plane swooping in and inevitably failing to hit anything. At least, not anything that I can see (which may be very different). Either way, the tank destroyer I spotted a few minutes ago escapes with its life twice this turn, as my pilot decides to strafe the area nearby, seconds after his bombing run falls shy of the M10. His cannon-fire, however, may be aimed more at infantry which is glimpsed by my forward observer between these two events, moving in the direction of the house on the ridge where the action took place last turn. This may be an early sign of the Canadians shifting focus slightly to my left flank, but it's far too early to tell. Anyway, hopefully he hit a few of them as they made their move. Meanwhile, up at the house itself (that's the one where my other f.o. team got knocked out last turn), the MG42 maintains fire on enemy troops who are left cowering on the ground floor. This should impair any artillery spotting that's going on up there, but even if they do try to drop some shells on my MG, we've got another cluster of foxholes positioned just to the left, and they can move there unseen behind a low hill in the space of about a turn. Besides, this is all just a sideshow judging by the current emphasis of the Canadian assault. Overall, there's little movement visible in the centre of the map. This is the right flank and centre at the end of the turn: It's becoming clearer and clearer that most of the enemy force is concentrating to carry out a two-pronged assault; one across the far end of the map, then down my right flank and across the river somewhere around the village; the other immediately to the right of the village. These prongs are likely to converge pretty much where we've mined potential areas for cover and concealment during such an approach. The Tiger is likely to play a critical role knocking out enemy armour. It's tempting to see if he can reverse into the field behind his current hiding place and target some of the enemy tanks moving across the eastern flank, taking advantage of his superior firepower over such a distance. This, however, would disclose his position too soon. He has a great spot just to his right, where he can move into a hull-down position and open fire on enemy infantry converging around the river crossing below the village. I'm hoping that he'll be able to do this, thereby forcing any tanks which are trying to establish a base of fire from the right to move forward and into his path. In an effort to shift the balance my way, I'm shifting the attention of my on-map mortars to the M10 which is being fruitlessly targeted by my plane. I'm hoping that they can drop some shells on top of him and either hit a few of the crew or disable him a bit. The M10 is the biggest threat I've spotted so far in terms of my Tiger's ability to win us control of the battlefield later; if I can knock him out early, it looks (thus far) like we'll just have Shermans to deal with. These deserve respect, but they'll be far less of a threat to my own tank if I play my cards right. Not that I've proven myself particularly good at that to date, of course...

Turn 4 Generally a quiet turn, except for those scout teams (or whatever they are) on my left flank. As anticipated, a few start straying too close to the house containing one of my forward observer teams and my men head for the windows to get a shot at them. They're still on the move, however, when a Canadian soldier opens up with his Bren to devastating effect, resulting in my first casualties of the battle. Moments later, the Canadians storm the house and one of my MG42s covering the left flank sends bullets ripping into the building. I doubt they'll try that again in a hurry without more support. The plane is circling round for another run at the turn's end. My off-map mortars are two minutes away from starting to hit the centre of the battlefield and my on-map mortar team got their ranging shots off this turn. Should be fireworks over the next couple of minutes. I just hope they have some sort of effect.

Turn 3 Well, this is getting ridiculous: Another turn and the ME-109 again bombs an unseen target but appears to hit nothing. Has he caused an ounce of damage so far? I reckon he can make two more bombing runs and then he has to strafe whatever he can see. I'm pretty sure that I bought a decent quality unit, so if it proves to be fruitless, I'm sending the pilot straight to the Eastern Front when this is over. The only major development this turn is on the left. The scouts I spotted last turn are being joined by more infantry, and the view outside my forward observation team's window suddenly gets a little uncomfortable. It doesn't look like these Canadians know that their advance is being observed, but that will change if they turn and move towards the house. I suspect that they might, and if so, it's goodbye FO team. This is the group calling in the on-map mortars (there is another FO team positioned elsewhere) and I set them up presuming that I would lose them - and indeed the other team - at some stage. A close encounter like this could actually enable them to do some damage, as one of them has an MP40 and the range is probably to its liking. More importantly, however, if the Canadians enter that house, two MG42s are sitting in foxholes beyond with their sights trained on the building. Although the advance in the centre is moving forward more steadily, the main push appears to be along the rear of the map. Some armour starts to slowly move up in support of the rear advance this turn. This is interesting because a couple of checks with my Tiger suggest that the river is almost impassable for tanks directly in front of my right flank - certainly it's pretty muddy and marshy round there. That means that in all likelihood the enemy are planning to conduct a massive flanking move, coming right across the map, then down the far right, before cutting in sharply to assault the village along the road which approaches it from the right. It's good news for my Tiger, provided that he can adjust into assorted positions to attain fields of fire around the contours and trees that stand in his way. All of this is several turns in the future, however, and like most of my force he's sitting tight for now.

Turn 2 As the Canadians sweep forward, I'm frustrated by the failure of my air support to strafe the columns of infantry which are moving across open terrain, where they would be vulnerable to attack. Admittedly, I bought the aircraft in the express hope of hitting tanks before they could get close to my men, but at the minute the ME-109 pilot doesn't appear to be managing that either. Another bomb is dropped somewhere in the midst of the Canadians' advance this turn, but it's impossible to see whether it hit anything. One thing that doesn't appear is a pall of black smoke from a burning vehicle, which would be a welcome sight (on their side). The explosion is impressive enough, but the infantry push continues unabated. Meanwhile, the off-map mortars have ceased firing and I've ordered a new strike just beyond the ridge, where some of the enemy appear to be amassing. The on-maps, as instructed last turn, will begin firing on the other Canadian push, which is heading across the far end of the map, in a couple of minutes. I've also noticed a few scouts popping up more centrally beyond the ridge, but it looks like the weight of the advance is still against my right flank for the time being. Below I've highlighted the airstrike area (blue), off-maps (green) and added a green circle to show you where the on-map mortars are hoping to hit the enemy forces which have so frustratingly eluded my air support so far. Hopefully between them they will cause some more casualties than we appear to have managed in the first couple of minutes of this battle.

Turn 1 Well, then. So far, not too bad. Seconds into the first turn, the propellors of my air support are heard overhead as the first mortar rounds also start falling to the rear of where I expected the Canadians to be. My prediction, in this regard, seems to have been roughly accurate, men start pouring forwards from the riverbank pretty much as soon as the clock starts ticking and thanks to my hidden forward observers, I can see lots of the action. The direction of approach is a slight surprise, however. It looks as though rather than moving against both flanks, the enemy are sending infantry towards the right. One group, roughly a company strong, is moving across the top of the map and looks to be aiming to execute a hook around the far right. The other group is moving more centrally, and where I expected, along the road that's covered by the ridge. Here are the apparent lines of advance: It's impossible to tell whether the mortar rounds are doing any damage; certainly my FO's see nothing in that area and the top-left corner of the map is soon obscured by smoke. If there was anything in that area, it's probably taken a bit of a hammering. Meanwhile, the ME 109 swoops back in and releases a bomb which lands agonisingly close to what looks like an M10 just forward of where the mortar rounds are landing: Unfortunately for me, it's a near miss. The crew duck down but appear to be unscathed. I hope that the explosion did enough to cause some damage if there were other, unseen units nearby. My immediate concern is that the ME 109 stays in play. It should do on the strength of the orders I've given it, and, if so, the Canadian infantry advancing across the map - right in the aircraft's designated kill-zone - should be ripe for strafing. They're moving in relatively close formations across very open terrain and I think the plane could do some serious damage. With no contacts at the far side of the map, I'm going to order the off-map mortars to cease fire. I'm thinking that they'll be of more use around the orchards, where the Canadian infantry closer to the village appears to be heading. Meanwhile, my other FO team are calling in the on-map mortars to hit the area at the top of the map where the other prong of the Canadian advance appears to be directed. I reckon that if my ME 109 doesn't clear those guys up in the next turn or so, they will reorganise themselves in this vicinity before pushing towards my positions along the right-hand side of the map. The call-in time for the mortars is three minutes; which is about the time we'd expect them to arrive and form up. If they don't get there in time, they'll still be in the aircraft's kill zone, and I can call the mortars off.

Hey Darknight - that's a really interesting review of your battle on this map. I can see what you mean about the road on the left flank. I've just had turn one back from BD and early signs are that he might be playing it slightly differently. One thing I completely agree with is the importance of having eyes on the other side of the ridge to monitor the enemy's movement. I've got my two forward observation teams hidden in positions with excellent LOS on the advance, plus a PHQ further back with a similarly good view of the battlefield. The latter is a handy fallback for calling in the mortars if some of my forward observation teams bite the dust!

Thanks for the comments guys. SBurke - yes, I thought long and hard about the possibility of using TRPs. The slight snag was that I only thought long and hard about them after I had made my unit picks. D'oh! Still learning. That said, I reckon that I can possibly create some effective overlaps between the mortars and airstrikes to cause some damage, particularly in the early stages of the battle, because the Canadians are obviously going to have to cross quite a lot of open ground. Some of my MGs may successfully pin them down a bit as well, opening up opportunities to rain some shells on them in later turns. Darknight_Canuck's assessment of this map is really interesting. If I was attacking on this map, I would seriously think about air assets for similar reasons - the defender's set up area outside the village involves a lot of exposed terrain and the village itself is vulnerable to bombing or bombardment. Interesting that D_C's opponent aimed for the left flank, though. It seems to me that this is the better protected of the two flanks, simply because the ridge bisects this side of the map completely. I reckon my MG42s will be in a good place to cut up any infantry coming over the top there. Totally agree about the importance of having marauding armour sweeping across to the rear.

Curses, you're right. I'm going to have to rethink my WHOLE PLAN...

Unit selection, deployment, and the initial plan ...possibly to be re-entitled "I Am An Idiot" as this battle develops. I'm making some pretty bold decisions with this battle. If they turn out to be the wrong ones, it'll be over in about 10 turns, and there will be a lot of dead Germans to show for it. Fingers crossed. My unit selection is effectively a weakened Panzergrenadier Company. "Weakened", because I've reduced it to two regular platoons, plus a heavy weapons platoon of 4 MG42s and a mortar team. I have, however, supplement both of the regular platoons with another MG42 team, and a Panzerschrek team. Given the wealth of MG42s within the squads themselves, it makes for a lot of machine guns on my side of the battlefield, if I can create effective fields of fire. Here are the riskier decisions: Armoured support is just one tank, although it's a good 'un: In addition, I've purchased two off-map assets: 2 81mm mortars, and an Me-109. And therein lies the essence of the risk, really. Although conditions make this a good map on which to have air support, if my opponent has anti-aircraft assets on the map, or if the Me-109 isn't effective, or if it manages to engineer a friendly fire incident, we're quite possibly toast. Or at least on the way to being toast. Lightly grilled bread, perhaps. Call-in time for my air support is likely to be many minutes and will depend on clear and effective spotting from two forward observation teams I've also bought for the battle. The logic here is that, if I'm right about where the Canadians are starting the battle, we might just be able to hit them really, really hard in the opening turns, thereby severely hampering their advance through relatively open terrain. I don't think those orchards give great cover, and the top of the ridge, or the area on my right flank, also looks pretty exposed. Broadly, my defence therefore breaks down into three overlapping stages: 1.) Off-maps. Staking everything on my presumptions about the Canadians' deployment, I'm going to call in the ME-109 to hit a large area in the centre of the battlefield, just over the ridge from the village itself. Meanwhile, the 81mm mortars will conduct a light bombardment just to the rear of my aircraft's target area, in an effort to flush out units in the Canadian rear and to guarantee some damage. It looks like this: If this in any way succeeds in pinning the Canadians down, I'll use both the on-map and off-map mortars to create as close to a rolling bombardment as I can manage, overlapping with the ME-109's (guesstimated) attack duration. I'm hoping that by the time they reach the village, they will have lost quite a few men and, maybe, some tanks as well. If this goes wrong, the plane will presumably call off its attack in the first minute or two and I'll have to try to use the mortars to pin the enemy down while I call it back in more precisely. Yikes. 2.) Outlying MG's, Tiger, others. If I'm right about the attempted encirclement, or just flanking assaults, I have placed a few MG teams around the flanks of the village in foxholes, from which they should have good, interlinked fields of fire in which to trap the enemy. The tiger will operate in support of this. He's currently hidden (I think) beside some buildings on my side of the village, but can move from here into two hull-down positions which I've checked carefully. His placement emphasises the right flank, where the Canadians have fewer steep slopes to confront and a bit more cover and concealment dotted about the terrain. I think this is where the heaviest assault will come from. 3.) Infantry platoons, supporting MG teams. Once the Canadians reach the village, I hope I'll be able to effect some bitter house-to-house fighting. My MG teams here are stationed in positions where they can also contribute to pinning down advancing enemy infantry during stage 2.) If the Tiger is still in play at this stage, he'll be critical in moving across the rear of the battlefield and taking out any advancing enemy armour or other vehicles. If not, I'll be reliant on those Panzershrecks, and the AT equipment of my regular infantry. One last thing: We've put anti-personnel mines around the right flank of the village in areas where I think the Canadians are most likely to try to find cover or establish bases of fire. Disconcertingly, they seem to come with multi-lingual warning signs: Never mind. Maybe they're French Canadians. Back with more when we've played Turn 1!

The map OK, so, it's April 1944 and my intrepid Germans have been tasked with defending a village from a pending Canadian attack. The village itself is well protected, as it sits above a bend in a shallow river and nestles against a high ridge on the side from which we're expecting the Canadians to advance. Here's an overhead view of the map, with my setup zone marked in red, on which I've made some annotations which I'll explain in a mo: Two things strike me about the map at first glance. Firstly, that a frontal assault on the village would be pretty nuts. If the Canadians were going to do that, they'd have to advance across this: And then come down this: There's a superb opportunity for an extensive reverse-slope defence on my side there, and I don't think they'll risk it. Instead, I'm anticipating an attempted encirclement. Which brings me to the second interesting thing about this map, which is the extent of my setup zone. As you can see, I control a large portion of the right flank; so much so that I can only imagine that the Canadians are going to move in strength from the top left corner (marked with the green circle). From there, I would expect them to advance against my left flank, and along a protected road, through some outlying farm buildings on the right. In both cases, they'll be moving through orchards on their side of the map during the first turn or two. I've marked the expected lines of advance with the green arrows. It's possible that I've got this very, very wrong. Roughly top centre of the map, you might be able to pick out a farmhouse and some trees across the river. It's possible that the Canadians may attack from here instead, but I think that's less likely - their advance would be more exposed and slowed by the river. An attack from the top-left corner offers more concealment in the opening stages of this battle, plus puts a portion of their force across the river before the game has even started. I'm staking a lot on this assumption about where the Canadians are coming from, as you'll see. I'll submit another post in a minute outlining my unit deployment and plan, so that those of you who want to follow this can do so in bite-sized chunks!

Hello everyone. After a hiatus of some months, I've started a new PBEM game with BigDork - a name which by now strikes fear into the hearts of all my pixeltroops after complete batterings in my two earlier encounters. This battle should be no different, because he's proven much more capable than I, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. Just a reminder to veteran CM-players that I'm a relatively inexperienced player myself, so if you're looking for deft tactical manoeuvring, best look somewhere else! This should be a good AAR on the comedy front, however. Setup to follow; happy reading!

Crikey. That would make my day. And specifically my train journey.

Turn 54 Well, there we go, it's all over. In the final 60 seconds, my mean really do start to rout and before the ceasefire can take effect, large numbers are lost to the Priest and the advancing infantry. The final scorecard looks like this: (Keen observers may note that I've pinched this last image from BigDork's thread! We finished yesterday and agreed to allow the reading of each other's AARs, which was just as well as I forgot to upload my pic of the results and am now writing from a different computer. D'oh!) Like BD, I'm going to check out the other AAR in depth before doing a proper post-mortem. However, after my initial disappointment at having folded, I was absolutely staggered by the superiority in American numbers. Given the extent to which morale appeared to break during the American advance up the hill, I presume that my opponent opted for a lower grade of troops than I did. Given the size of his force, I'm not quite as disconsolate as I might otherwise have been. We clung on quite admirably for an awfully long time under the circumstances. If I'd set a more stringent time limit, I suspect that I might have been able to hold the ridge. Plaudits should go to BD nevertheless for another sterling effort. I have learned a lot about CM (again) in this confrontation and really enjoyed the fight. I think parts of this encounter - particularly the opening phase and the ill-fated advance of 3rd platoon on my left flank - really showed CM at its best. As I say I'll come back with some closing thoughts in the near future. In the meantime, a big thank-you to everyone who's been reading, and commenting, on this thread on both fora. Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I would really welcome feedback as I strive to become a better player.

Turns 52 & 53 As 2nd squad start to crack, disaster strikes. The Priest, which had rolled back down the hill a few minutes ago after some deft machine-gunning on my part, re-emerges. This time the Americans have got it into a better position and instead of using the MG on the turret are firing from the main gun. We can barely sight it and, with casualties mounting, AT grenades are in any case thin on the ground. Were 2nd squad in a better state I might be able to move round the side of it and try and gun down the crew somehow, but there is no such option. With my men trying desperately to find better cover as their morale sags, the Priest opens fire with devastating effect. 1st squad are unable to make progress on the right, as the Co. HQ continue to seek out the enemy HQ team which remains elusive in the undergrowth and refuses to come unstuck. Two men are lost as we try to flush them out - moving too quickly as the American push on the left means that we are desperately short of time. Worse, a lone gunman on the ridge has positioned himself close to the central windmill and is picking off the men of 3rd squad, who are unsure whether to fire or attempt to help their fallen comrades and, if possible, grab their MG34s. Sensing that the game might be up, the Americans launch a final push. Supported by the Priest, huge numbers of infantry start to appear on the far left flank, far more than the near-to-routing men of 2nd squad can take on despite the efforts of the platoon HQ. We lose several more men as the superiority in numbers of the US forces finally starts to tell. Here are the heroic PHQ team in question. They're facing withering fire all over the place, though and more men fall as the seconds tick by. As the turn reaches its end, I have only 16 left. Of the 16, at least five are breaking and out of control. 3rd squad are periodically giving up and then trying to reorganise themselves as more Americans appear on the top of the hill. There's no time for the Co. HQ to pick up the bogged-down members of 2nd and try to launch a counterattack on the right and the Americans are far too numerous. More than anything, we have little to no chance of stopping the Priest. Finally overwhelmed, I've decided to ask for a ceasefire.

Hello all. After weeks of delay, caused by a combination of hurricanes, illness and work commitments, BD and I have finally got our act together and found time to play through the last few turns of this contest. Here we go... Turns 49 - 51 As first squad attempt to make their flanking move on the right, to the left, the enemy Priest - which has been threatening to move up the hillside for some time now - rolls into view. It doesn't come that close, keeping itself in a position where only the machine-gunner in the turret can actually fire on my men. This, however, is enough to put 2nd squad into a state of considerable disarray. For the first time my troops on the hilltop threaten to break in large numbers. They are held in check by the steadying presence of nearby officers, and the MG teams are ordered to target the Priest in particular to see if we can hit that gunner. A few moments later we succeed, and the vehicle retreats again below the brow of the hill. Meanwhile on the right, 1st squad has begun its flanking move with the support of the Co. HQ, but this does not go as smoothly as I had hoped. The first part of the advance goes well enough, with one team removing what appears to be the last of the HQ team. But I'm mistaken in this judgement - as they move off again they come under fire and lose two men, which I can ill afford. I have moved the Co. HQ in closer to deal with this threat. The rest of 1st squad loops round the ridge unhindered, but as it approaches the crest, it comes under heavy American fire. More men are lost in this encounter and the remaining handful cower in whatever vegetation lies to hand. Within a turn they are stuck just behind the top of the ridge. The Americans would be unwise to advance on this position as they are flanked on two sides up there. But with few resources to push ahead, my attempt to break out from the hilltop looks to be stalling. This will almost certainly now be a fight to the death.

Mea culpa - well, partly. We were postponed during Hurricane Sandy as my opponent was out of action for a few days! Since then I've been quite busy. Should have the last few turns for you guys in the next few days. Sorry to keep you waiting. Thanks for asking. It's nice to know there are people out there who are interested in the AAR!

Yeah, we might have a decent shot overall. I reckon I can hit the Priest from two positions at once if it comes over the summit to our left, though it's difficult to gauge given its relative height, etc. That must give me a reasonable chance.

Valhalla, huh? Time to call in the reinforcements... http://www.thisoldtoy.com/new-images/images-ok/7000s-plus/76000-77999/fp77007-viking-fury.JPG

Awesome, thank-you John. My more cursory research (hello, Wikipedia) had suggested 2" armour in general. A grenade chucked over the top and into the compartment would work just as well! Hopefully I'll get a decent crack at it if necessary.

Ah, yes, of course. It may have to come to that!

Thanks guys. Not sure how my AT grenades will stand up to the Priest should it emerge over the ridge on the left. That could be pretty decisive.

Turns 47 & 48 After a huge amount of thought on what to do next, I've come up with the closest thing I can offer to a workable plan using what limited resources remain. The bottom line is that sitting behind the ridge, passively awaiting a decision from the enemy about how best to attack us, is unlikely to do me any favours. Clearly the biggest threat is coming from our left, and here I think we should sit tight and try to hold the line. 1 Plt's 2nd squad, to the rear of our position, have 2 MG34s and several supporting troops trained on the wall behind the damaged windmill, which is where any approaching infantry is likely to appear. They also have AT grenades to cope with the potential approach of the Priest. Straight ahead 3rd squad are still licking their wounds but have fended off the Americans coming over the top of the ridge and should be able to do the same again, given their brittle morale. In short, the enemy are weakest to my right, where they seem to have an HQ team and possibly one other, but little else. I am almost certain these guys were trying to creep round to get LOS on my position and arrange a mortar bombardment. At the start of turn 47 I see some ominous spotting going on. The relatively unscathed 1st squad are therefore going to try to eliminate this team, supported by our nearby Co. HQ, and then move round the hill to attack the brittle American teams in the centre from their left flank. This pic shows the basic plan. One team from 1st squad will move against the enemy HQ team with the Co. HQ providing suppressing fire as indicated by the dotted line. Seconds later, 1st squad's other two teams will begin a manoeuvre around the base of the ridge, which will allow them to further pin down the enemy HQ team, but then move round the flank of the central American teams that currently appear to be trying to attack by coming between the windmills. They're not going to move too fast, in case there are more Americans in their path, but they will move steadily. Once they have LOS on the Americans' flank, the MG34 will open up and hopefully force those men to panic and run. That will release 3rd squad, in the centre, to cope with an attack on the left. 1st squad's rough firing position in this regard is indicated with the dotted line. The next turn I begin to put this plan into effect. There is no sign of spotting rounds so far, although some indication that the Priest may be moving up the hill from the left. There is some steady firing on this flank, where more American infantry has appeared behind the wall. My MG34 teams from 2nd squad are doing a good job of forcing them to keep their heads down and they are also inflicting one or two casualties in the process. 1st squad and my Co. HQ successfully pin down the enemy HQ team on the right and a few moments later they are running for cover. Frustratingly, we don't seem to have taken them out yet, but it's enough suppression for me to start my flanking move. Within a few seconds, the forward team from 1st squad are close enough to start hurling their potato mashers in the HQ unit's general direction. As the other two teams start to move around them, there are no indications of other Americans amassing on my right. I am optimistic of surrounding this platoon HQ and perhaps forcing it to surrender. Hopefully this has disrupted any mortar attack before they had chance to call it in. Turn 48 ends with another attempted push through the centre. 3rd squad's efforts to recover their MG's are thwarted by the sight of GI's creeping past the central windmill. My men open fire and successfully send the attacking Americans running again. I don't think that they are in decent shape up there, so if I can get the men from 1st squad round fast enough and unopposed, I might just have a chance of pushing them out completely. Overall, my prospects of succeeding in this battle are still faint, but we are at least giving them a decent fight.

Hi everyone. Thanks for the posts! Yes, I think in answer to c3k's point I'm going to have to make some sort of aggressive move if I don't want to passively sit there and wait for mortar rounds to drop. The question is, how with so few men? I think I may have come up with a solution. Back as soon as I can with more on this from the next turn.

Turn 46 Seconds after the end of the mortar barrage my men are attacked from three sides at once. American infantry appears on the ridge at the windmills, to our left, arriving from the road junction and - most surprisingly - on our right, having made its way round the hill altogether. What's more surprising still is the fact that despite having been subjected to a ferocious pounding moments earlier, 1 Plt are still up for the fight, at least for now. As the first Americans appear the men of the forward-most squad open fire, immediately causing a couple of casualties and sending men scattering for cover. These are the guys who we fought earlier as they made their way up through the treeline, and it's clear once again that their morale is pretty low. They were probably also hit by our mortars about 45 minutes ago; after that and a gruelling fight up the slopes, it wouldn't surprise me if they were close to cracking completely. The Americans probably have most strength on our left flank, which is the direction of the road junction. Fortunately, my teams to the rear, who are covering a possible advance from this direction, didn't lose their MG34s during the mortar bombardment. As the enemy make for the damaged windmill they find themselves under fire and are forced back behind a nearby wall, save for a couple of guys who are dangerously exposed in the open as the turn concludes. With this first attempted assault pretty much reversed, the minute ends with contacts surrounding my position. Somehow a small group of American troops have managed to sneak up on the right flank, close to my Co. HQ and another MG34 team. I've got their position covered - what worries me is that this a platoon HQ and therefore presumably accompanied by a radio operator capable of calling in more mortar fire from above. Hopefully they weren't expecting us to be positioned on this flank at all and will be taken out pretty quickly. As some members of 1 Plt continue to fire on any Americans who appear, particularly on the left, others use a brief gap in the action to tend to the wounded and recover those vital MGs from the remains of fellow team members. It's imperative that this happens as fast as possible. The forward teams have done a good job but may be in action again any second. Overall, it's been a more successful turn than I had dared hope. At least three Americans have been taken out at a cost of no casualties on my side. It's some small revenge for what happened earlier and 1 Plt have been impressively calm and composed under intense fire. But if they are to save our position at the windmills - which still seems unlikely at this stage - then they are going to have to keep this up for considerably longer. As for the Americans, this turn will have signalled that a straightforward infantry attack may not be enough if they want to bring this battle to a close. My assessment, on the strength of what's happened so far, is that they can now choose all or some of three options: First, they could move on the junction in greater numbers and try to use the full weight of whatever infantry they have at their disposal to seize the windmills. Second, they could send in the Priest. Or, third, they could call in more mortar fire - presuming they have some left. The last option seems the most likely. Many of my teams have AT grenades and at close range the Priest could cause damage, but might also find the going pretty tough. And the American infantry seems pretty demoralised in places. Assuming that they do therefore go for another artillery attack, it's essential that I get rid of that Platoon HQ on my right. In addition, I'll need to watch for any sudden withdrawal by the enemy, which would signal incoming artillery fire. The problem, positioned as we are with our backs to the wall, is that there is nowhere to run to get out of the way of an artillery strike, except forwards.

Wow, thanks for the encouragement everybody! I agree: It's not quite over yet. I'll see what I can do. Haven't had chance to do the next turn but more will follow shortly...