A Canadian Cat

Zimmermann's squad does some damage as the enemy infantry start advancing on their flank. The AT gun will put some shells on the road to make it uncomfortable to the enemy infantry to surround 2 Platoon. I also move a fire team into the farm house to cover the street as well.

I cannot believe those three Stuarts are still operating with impunity. Hornung misses his shot and then hits the dirt again. Then Ober recovers and misses his. Those three juicy targets are so close but my men just cannot finish them off. An enemy barrage falls on the area that Penzel's 3 Squad used to be. They make it to the trench safely. Dietzel's team escapes - just barely. They do not make it to the trench though just away from the north road.

With the Churchill tank gone I move some men into the street to provide buddy aid and perhaps recover the Shrek tube. But the tank drives right back. The infantry I was trying to with draw from the field near the farm with are killed or surrender. Minute 0:54 Orders I change which Panther is going to cover the road with the Churchill coming back. One has severe track damage and the other is in perfect working order. Now that it is going to be a duel and not just infantry protection I will send the working tank. With the squad they were trying to rescue gone the platoon HQ will with draw back towards the farm.

It does take quite a lot of time to play and doubly so since I am taking screen shots and writing it all up. Playing is not too bad really. The battle divides up nicely into three main areas (orchard, farm, town) and four main groups of forces where there was action. And now the only real action is around the town with occasional action near the farm. So in the heat of things it was like playing four battles all in one larger context. It is a big job but if you are playing four turns in a sitting then it is not different really.

I think your mortar teams probably do have HE rounds. After your post I checked one of my mortar teams and found the HE rounds were not showing on the left hand amo view. But you can see them on the right hand panel. I would guess that if you split your squads your mortar teams would reveal their HE rounds.

Thanks, things are starting to go sideways though. I really want to cause some serious damage but so far any fire fights have gone the enemy's way. Only the opening moments were successful for my men. I hope that the infantry attacking 2 Platoon's position will find it difficult.

Excellent - welcome the forum Yes, use the target command to check the LOS - same tool. Correct - mostly. Honestly I have never hidden an AFV yet. I sometimes hide soldiers but only when the artillery are coming in and they have no option to get away (or they are in fox holes). If you want your guys to hold thier fire use a cover arch (hold the shift key down to create a circular covered arc) instead. That way they will still see what's coming. 60s turns. No rewind for real time (RT). I just watch the turn over a few times with the camera looking at key areas of the battle field. You need a unit with radios near the mortar teams to keep them in contact. Often their own HQ will have a radio. You can make your own scouts too by splitting off a scout team - look on the admin menu. Let them go a head but not too far ahead. The idea is one they get shot at you want the force they are scouting for return fire. Move them forward for short distances and have them sit still between - even a full minute or more at a time. That will increase their chances of spotting the enemy with out spotting bullets.

One of the Shrek teams gets their act together. No results. Back to hiding. I said Haberfellner's quad was all dead last turn. I was wrong one survived. Then the tank made me right again. 2 Platoon's position at the farm is already under attack. Here is Altner watching for any tanks that come down the roard. A slight tweak to the orders to occupy the trench.

I added the missing pictures...

The good news is you only forget once:)

Things did not go so well when my Shermans arrived. With no infantry they arrived with no idea where the enemy was. When the first turn started they were immediately facing three Stugs that had the drop on them. They did manage to take out one Stug but all five were destroyed in short order. Two in the first minutes and the rest in the following two. Ouch.

Oh, yeah I forgot about those guys. Yes tin can with a BFG on top - good one. They can be effective but are very fragile. For me at this point in the game there were scads of Italians in the forests at the top of the hills and all the Tankettes had sight where the 75s came in. All dead and burning in under 2 minutes.

Oh man. As you saw, those US half tracks are very fragile - and they know it. The reverse to safety at the sight of pretty much anything. Compared to how I did you are kicking ass At this point in my game I had no operational vehicles and no soldiers left at all. The Italians had infantry in the woods on both sides of the road and the tanketts were intact and had the whole entry road covered. Oh, sorry you said "Don't answer that"

No the valley is a death trap. I suppose that if the US gets some high ground they could prevent the guys in the valley from being chewed up from both directions. Now you are talking!

Nice work on the AAR. You started this just after I started playing this scenario so I was not reading it so as not to spoil the action. You are already doing better than I was and those tanks are nothing to dis when you don't have any armour of your own. True, Shermans eat those for breakfast but they eat half tracks just as easily. I started out with very similar goals - take the buildings and then the first bridge with the first platoon and build from there. I did not try for the woods on the left but other than that pretty similar. For me the scenario went like this: first platoon started taking casualties immediately but dealt some back too. They secured the buildings and began to work towards the bridge but they were taking heavy casualties form he tanketts. By the time reinforcements arrived things were going badly. The first platoon were very beaten up and unable to advance on the bridge or hold the buildings. During the next two minutes the remaining men from the first platoon were all casualties except a couple of teams that were providing fire support from the trees near the start. And, the entire second platoon - to a man were all taken out in less than two minutes. I had no men left at all before the third platoon arrived. None. Third platoon arrived and I got them to hunker down near the start and try to stay alive for the Shermans to arrive. It did not happen. All infantry were casualties before the first tanks arrived. With the arrival of the Shermans I was able to get back in the fight but with no infantry at all I was not optimistic. They tried to take the first bridge and did manage to chew up those tanketts but then the Stugs showed up. All Shermans were destroyed before the second set of tanks arrived and the second set did not last very long either. Total blood bath and I made no progress at all. Wow! Of course I was playing against my toughest opponent, who regularly kicks my ass. This scenario is a very scary ambush that the Italian player can press home to vicious effect. I do not think that the US has any chance if the Italian player is aggressive right out of the gate. I'll keep reading but you clearly already did better than I did. Well done.

^^^^^ Using lower quality graphics helps the performance of the game. This improvement is especially noticeable when you are playing a game that taxes your machine. I mentioned it because I had not been taking advantage of doing that. Monty's Butcher was very difficult to actually play because on my machine it would studder and stop and take holidays drop to the desktop and back. Then I dropped my graphics quality two steps and it runs very smoothly. True, it does not look as good but I can issue orders again without spending 60% of my time waiting for the machine to return control back to me. Yes, I need a new machine. I almost had the head accountant (wife) on board but at the last minute she pulled the plug:D In your case dropping the graphics quality would mean you can get the same performance while using a larger area of city than you can with higher quality grphics and the game will play just as smoothly.

^^^^ Nice one Somebody likes Tiger tanks

Have you considered dropping the graphics qualities back for larger or more dense maps? I mostly play with 3D Model Quality and 3D Texture Quality set to Better but for large maps (such as the 20 000 point quick battle and Monty's Butchers) I drop them back some times as far as Balanced. Clearly this is a compromise but if it means being able to fight the battles you want it is worth it.

Could be it is Beta after all. Bill did say that there were plans for an AAR based in a more urban setting. I am looking forward to that.

I interpreted the OP's opening remarks in a broad sense including all aspects of the effectiveness of an army. Certainly its equipment and training are important but I think that WWII showed everyone - again - that those things are not enough. Your army also needs an efficient replacement mechanism, intelligence gathering and analysis. Your politicians need to support the top level generals who must make good strategic decisions. Your military industrial complex needs access to resources and an ability to keep your army supplied and advance your fighting equipment at the same time. All of that needs to come together to make an effective army. Sure we could have a mano a mano pissing contest and you might even be right but it does not matter in the larger picture. If those better soldiers don't get fed, resupplied and have casualties replaced the advantage is lost. If the upper leadership is not properly assessing the strategic situation and using their soldiers for the wrong tasks the advantage is lost. Indeed truly remarkable. All armies suffer losses and defeats I get that alone is not a mark of a failure. In fact as you said it can be quite an accomplishment. The trouble is again it does not matter how well you manage while you are loosing ground, or gaining grown, on a particular day, month or even year. The army's effectiveness is the sum total of *all* its actions and assets right up to the top politician in charge.

Here you can see members of 2 and 3 company moving into positions further into town. With the elimination of the Stuart and one Churchill tank and the beating back of another Churchill and the Achilles my men will begin to move house to house to find other targets for the supporting Panthers to engage. I should get eyes on any attempt to engage the Panthers long before they are in danger. My men will be looking to eliminate any enemy scouts and find the enemy tanks. If I can blind my enemy and get eyes on his tanks I may have a chance to start evening the score. I am pretty sure that Churchill tank in the field is immobilized. The goal here is to ignore it if that is the case. My platoon HQ is moving forward to get command of some shaken men so they can get back to safety. Problems Update: Well I should have called off the hit on this idiot since he was heading back. One of the Churchill tanks that pinned 5 co in the orchard takes out my wondering squad member. The last half track is on its way now. I totally forgot to cancel the AT gun’s move order – oops.

Horror of horrors! The Churchill backed up right past where my teams were supposed to assault it from behind. I watched expecting the worst but instead the tank fired on them while they were still in the building and they did *not* jump out into the road to get gunned down. My soldiers did the right thing and they only lost one to the MG of the tank as it backed away out of site. Here it is disappearing around the corner. Note the enemy scout running forward. Somehow he managed to avoid getting hit and disappeared into the low building across the street. Members of 5 Company on their way to help take the town.

LOL Brilliant

Well actually there are infantry teams around (and really close) even a Shrek team made a short appearance.

^^^^^^ ? can you elaborate on that ?