A Canadian Cat

Perfect time to practice. I went back in my fault of saved threads and found this one: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=82927 Which is from the shock force forum but it is the seminal work on the subject and this one: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=98630 Have fun practicing.

Correct the Target Briefly is a 2.0 command.

Yes, I happened to me in a Barkmann game. One of my shrek teams took a shot at the Rhino and scared it away. I backed right through the bocage creating a new whole.

More infantry heading into town.

Given the new plans this is the first orders phase where I can begin to carry the new plan out. Starting with backing 5 Company and support out of the orchard and onto the hill. These orders back all the infantry and heavy weapons into the woods and allocate an equal amount of guns on the edge of each woods. The plan is if the enemy tanks try to go through the woods they will fall victim to the infantry and if they try to go around the woods they will fall victim to the guns. At the farm the Stugs are staying with the infantry but the Panthers are bugging out. I will set the infantry take and get settled in to the farm and then hold that position to prevent the enemy from crossing back across the river and attacking Battalion HQ. The AT guns that I was planning to position over watching the town instead are reassigned to bolster 5 Company and 3 Company’s positions to prevent the enemy from taking the village that is now my Battalion HQ. I am pulling back my last Stug that is directly in the path of the Churchill tanks at the other town entrance. I have Stugs on their flank and rear so there is no need to have this AFV get in front. More infantry stream into town and their supporting Stug moves up to protect them and get a rear shot on those Churchill tanks.

Another shreck team lies in wait. Near the river crossing the infantry are now entering the farm. Starting with the villa. In the orchard 5 Company is getting pressure from a Churchill tank but with nothing that can handle the beast it is time to go.

The tank duel near the town continues. This time with the Panther getting a hit on a Churchill tank that did no visible damage. And an Achilles getting a hit on a Panther killing the tank commander and taking out its main gun. Meanwhile the infantry continue to advance into the town. Over near the other entrance to town the Churchill tanks get too close to the infantry. Unfortunately for the Germans those Churchill tanks are tough. This one takes a shreck hit to the turret again – no visible effect.

Here is the overall position after a little more than 40min. Friendly force symbols in white with defensive positions in blue. Known enemy positions in red. Key terrain is marked in green. It looks good right. My forces have advanced well on two prongs and have held my left flank. One force is entering the Town objective and making reasonable progress. But little white blocks on the map are deceiving. My infantry battalion plus company is in good shape. They have taken few casualties and are in good order. My armour on the other hand is not in good shape. My Assault gun battalion has taken sever losses and has only a handful of operational AFVs probably not even a full company. Even the mighty Panther platoons have been degraded, one tank has been destroyed, one is on the verge of being immobilized and of the remaining two others have lost their main gun. That leaves two fully operational and one limping along. For that I have just barely scratched at my opponent’s Churchill battalion, which is what I think I am facing. Not a good showing. I can continue to push my attack as it stands now and grind for a while more but I think at this point that would lead to failure. Let’s start with the overall picture: At the orchard 5 Company and their supporting assault guns have been holding the Orchard and seen no real opposition until recently. However the number of AFVs have been whittled away over the course of the last 40min. Just one Churchill is threatening the orchard and I do not believe that those forces will be able to repel that Churchill due to the fact that it is backed up by three others and my forces’ mobility is severely restricted in the orchard. After crossing the river, 3 Company has fought their way almost to the farm which is the stepping stone to the rail crossing but they are down to one fully operational Panther, one limping and two Stugs. I do not see how they can punch through and deal with whatever additional enemy forces might be on the objective. At the town objective things have gone better – relatively speaking. 2 and 3 Battery have been severely degraded and there is only one fully operational Panther with 1 and 2 Company now. The infantry can continue to infiltrate the buildings of the town but at some point the will need help to remove enemy tanks. Couple that with the fact that two Churchill tanks have driven out of the town and is threatening 3 Battery an my right flank again. The summary here is I am not going to succeed the way things are going. So here is the new plan: 5 Company and its remaining AFVs will pull back into the forest on the hill. Their job is still the same – protect the flank but in the woods they will be able to hit and disappear and to clear the hill the enemy tanks will have to enter the woods. 5 Company will have a shot at dealing with them then. The battalion AT guns (3 75mm guns) will not be reassigned to support 5 Company by taking up positions around the village and road crossing objective. That way the enemy tanks will not be able to ignore 5 Company and just drive around because that will lead them directly into the AT guns. 3 Company will finish taking the farm but that will be it. The Panthers will be pulled out and sent to the main town objective. Any assault guns that can be spared will also be reassigned to the town. The town objective will be the new focus.

Agreed - I cannot tell just by looking at it if it is lit up or not. If I select another unit that I *know* i snot hiding and then switch back I can see the difference then. Now that is a good idea.

I did not - sounds like it would be worth it. I also have not tried the face command on the next turn either. I am part way through trying it with 5s and 20s pauses. The interesting differences is with a pause they stop and take the shot from the same spot each time. 20s pause has resulted in casualties for the AT team a couple of times. Not sure if you can read too much into it yet though I only have four runs through. Once I have six runs I'll report back but even then I do not really think we can make judgments from only six runs. Anyone want to take my 002 turn and run it 94 more times and then then add a 5s pause and run that 94 more times etc.

That does not look right does it. Do we have confirmation from a tester that this is an issue yet? Or is there something we are missing that would explain that this is expected result?

No scenarios work fine for PBEM in 2.0. The work around is for Quick battles. The mistake I made was changing the file name of the QB map. That is *not* the correct thing to do. You have to change the QB map's *title* by loading the QB map in the scenario editor. That is what I would have hoped for but there is no sign that this is going to happen. It looks like the fix is just being rolled into the next patch release. Hopefully it will be soon but don't hold your breath.

One second though if the half track has no current orders and you give the passengers a dismount order and then give the half track move orders I thought the HT will wait for the passengers to disembark and then drive away. Is that just my poor memory?

OK I decided to set this up to test it. The scenario is a single US squad with their platoon HQ and a Sherman vs a single German squad with their HQ. Each squad is split and the Germans have taken up positions in a village while the US soldiers attack supported by the Sherman. You can download the saved game files here: Two turns zipped up. The game "Shrek Tactic USAttack 001.bts" shows the US orders - have a look it if if you want to see how the US tank is going to move. The next turn is the one that matters for this test - "Shrek Tactic USAttack 002.bts". It contains the German orders for the AT tactic we have been discussing. You can load and run this over and over and see what happens. Experiment with different pauses at the way point to see what works best. Play with @agusto's face commands on the next turn to see if they will shoot from the corner of the building. Here are the orders as saved in the 002 turn file. The AT team gets a quick order to the middle of the road and a face command towards where the tank is then a quick order to cover next to the building: I ran this 6 times - detail at the end of this post. The most important thing was that the AT team fired at the tank every time. They missed half the time: Hit half the time: and one notable run they actually stopped after causing the tank crew to bail and disregarded the quick to cover order and stayed in the road to reload and brew the tank up with a second shot. That was a really cool moment: Each picture above is from a different run. You can see that the tube guy is in a slightly different spot on the road each time. Actually is it pretty cool to see them move out and pause to take the shot. I have not tried to add pauses at the road way point but I suspect that would result in a dead AT team. Here are the results of my six runs: Shreck fired a round - hit wheels, immobilized the tank no casualties Shreck fired a round - missed Shreck fired a round - missed Shreck fired a round - penetration, system damage, panic crew (TC killed by small arms) Shreck fired a round - missed Shreck fired two rounds - hit causing two casualties, panic and crew bailed, second shot destroys tank and causes an additional crew casualty

Check out this re-post of something Steve posted on the CMFI forum: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=108176

I send another Stug over to deal with the armoured car and pull back the one engaged with the Churchill. Plus back off some of the half-tracks. 3 Company moves away from the river and into the farm complex. The town assault continues. I want to keep the two Churchill tanks at the other entrance to the town from getting out so I move up a Stug to threaten them from the side.

The Stug tracking the approaching Churchill gets a key hole shot. And hits. But the Churchill does what they have been doing all throughout this game – shrugs it off and returns fire. The tree saved the Stug but I do not think I can stop the enemy from the orchard. At the other side of the orchard the armoured car is still a threat.

The spotted scouts on the far right flank come under fire from to directions. They route and run. Near the river the lead troops enter the farm and find a tank crew. And take the down. Over by the orchard the intruding scout team runs in the face of the incoming fire.

Assaulting the town continues again at a good pace. Outside the entrance a platoon of infantry supported by a Panther hunt for the Churchill tanks. Meanwhile more of 1 Company enter the town. They encounter their first resistance, a scout team in the building at the bend in the street. The lead squad dispatches them easily. The next platoon enters the town. Trailing members of 2 Company and their supporting Stug keep watch on the flank. On the hill at the other entrance to the town one of the Stugs moves up to keep the Churchill tanks from leaving the artillery kill zone.

A lot of more of the same orders: Starting with that pesky scout team near the orchard. I also reposition another Stug to deal with that armoured car. I need to protect the mortar team. Move more infantry to flank the Churchill and try to get a Shrek team to have a clear LOF to it as well. Now that the Stuart has been dealt with I get 1 Company to reorganize and resume its advance into town. Another scout team has popped up near the other entrance to town. This time I have a Stug crew that has been hiding out in the woods. They have spotted the enemy scouts and are going to attack them from behind. At the same time the Stug will send some supporting HE their way.

Not a bad minute – my men finally dealt with that Stuart that slipped behind them. And it was not the infantry that saved them. It was a Stug. It came out of the trees right in front of the Stuart and wasted no time in dispatching it. Closer to the entrance to town the Churchill tank could not get a show on the Panther but took out its frustrations on some of my infantry. Near the river the Shrek team tried again to hit the enemy Churchill and again failed this time falling short. In the orchard the approaching scout team is now facing a squad and a half track. The approaching armoured car hits the Stug that is hunting it first. The crew panics and bails out even though the Stug is not seriously damaged.

At the other entrance to town, now that the armoured car has been dispatched the Stug will move positions to prevent the Churchill tanks from escaping from the town. I am hoping that the threat from my town assault will make them want to turn and engage the attackers but if the decide not to then I want my forces over here to threaten the flank of the Churchill tanks. I do not think I have enough resources over here to repel and attack by them but I hope I can make it look like a bad option. Chaos still reins due to that Stuart. More soldiers try to get at it from behind and my Stug is getting closer. Near the river my forces manoeuver to flank that Churchill tank. In the orchard I bring up a halftrack to help deal with that annoying scout team And reposition a Stug to get an angle on that armoured car while at the same time trying avoid the guns of the Churchill tanks.

I assume you are talking about a bazooka or Shrek team here. Start by splitting the AT team off from the squad so you have just the two man team. The rest of the squad can distract the tank and improve the odds of your AT team stating alive to complete this process. I would recommend a quick or fast move to a way point that will allow the team to see the target vehicle, possibly add a face command to that way point. Do not add a pause here - you do not want these guys hanging around in the open. Then another fast move to safety. @Erwin posted this as a viable tactic in the past. I have used it since. Here is how it works. The team heads out to the way point that will allow them to spot the target. They briefly regroup. In that time the gunner will spot and acquire the target and take the shot. Then both guys start running for safety. The thing is there are so many out comes that range form dead target and live, safe AT team all the way to very alert and in good order target and a dead AT team plus. To improve you AT team's odds (both of success and to live) start by making sure that the tank is buttoned. Attempt this technique where you have a side or rear shot on the tank. If that is not possible at least distract the tank from the side before your guys head out into harms way. For example other infantry in the area can, from the flank, shoot at the tank. This will ensure the tank is buttoned and encourage it to face the shooters. To make this work give your AT team a pause before they start their initial move so that the tank has time to focus on the other infantry teams. As you can imagine this is *very* dangerous for those other teams so devise an escape plan for them.

Sounds very interesting. Can you comment on how you intend it to by played? By that I mean is it suitable for head to head play? Or should it only be played against the AI as one particular side?

Oh that would be awesome. I am missing your helmets in my CM games right now.