A Canadian Cat

My only worry is the wind - it is a nastly day and the smoke from the mortars dissipated as it formed. As Stephen said to me when I was complaining about it over coffee this morning "you picked the weather", so, I have no right to complain. Thank you. Amazingly tough. I am going to have to treat them like I would Panthers.

If I break a 1000 I'll do that. Actually come to think of it I might do that sooner than 1000.

Well I *am* at 170 screen shots already. I am so glad I used 001 as my first number. But my screen shot directory will become a organizational night mare if I hit 1000 screen shots.

I have a pretty mediocre machine but I upgraded my video card to a Radeon HD 6770 with 1Gb memory recently. Makes playing the game much nicer. My machine really will not support a faster card.

5 Company continue to clear the Orchard. The plan is for them to hold their position for now. At some point they will press for the rail crossing but for now they will serve as flanking protection to the rest of the force. The Recon Half Track that has been firing on that Stuart will change places with a Stug hopefully the Stug will get a bit more traction against the Stuart. The platoon from 2 Company and the Panther on guard duty have moved off to rejoin the group making their way towards the town.

Clearly the right thing to do is hit them from the side because hitting them from the front is just not working. The good news is 3 Platoon is setup to do just that... I need to keep the pressure on those Churchills so they do not swing around. So moving up on the left side too. Here is a view of my approach to the town. As you can see they can make it all the way to the buildings with cover. Those movement lines are for the armour support – which is a little behind. Over on my left where the super Churchill did so well against me I am having the Panther's reposition to face the Churchills. I know the front armour of the Panther can handle the Churchill's 75mm guns and all I really need is to prevent those Churchills from interfering with my assault on the town. The plan to take the bridge had been decided: Forget the mortar smoke I'll get Stugs to do it. These two Stugs have multiple smoke targeting points across the river. The wind will push the smoke across the opposite end of the bridge. After the smoke starts the Panthers and the infantry that are ready to go will storm across the bridge. Once across the AFVs can face the Staghound and there will be precious little its 40mm gun will be able to do. That is the plan anyway.

Here is the first two of many Stugs about 2min behind them. Meanwhile on my right flank 3 Battery is still doing well against the Churchills. But “well” is a relative term. Unlike earlier when a single Churchill KO'ed six Stugs this time the Stugs have KO'ed a Churchill but there are still two of them alive and well and two Stugs have lost their main guns. On top of that the battery put 18 rounds on target against one Churchill even scoring two penetrating hits and the damn thing is still running. This is not good. This hit took out the Stug's gun. Here is the view from the right where three Stugs are approaching the side of the Churchills. Towards the end of the turn the field looks like below. The two stugs on the left have no working main gun and the Churchill in the centre with the hit text showing is the one that was hit 18 times this turn. Here is what 18 hits looks like. Early in the turn the Churchill did manage to hit two Stugs and fire some MG rounds at some of my infantry. Here is the video version: The problem is that if every Churchill takes six to eight Stugs to kill I am pretty sure I will run out of Stugs before my opponent runs out of Churchills. He could easily have 18 to 24 Churchill tanks.

5 Company's recon half track tries to nail that Stuart again. Again to no effect. I'll have to get one of the Stugs to take the half track's place next turn. One of the Stugs with 5 Company does manage to destroy another armoured car. The AFVs supporting 3 Company approach the bridge. The smoke shells from the 81mm mortar team land way off the mark. Instead of landing in front of where the Staghound is hiding so the wind can blow the smoke across the opposite side of the bridge the rounds land in the field 50m away. I have to come up with a different plan now. I do not want to just rush the bridge because that Staghound can easily immobilize any of my AFVs and certainly it would not be healthy for the infantry either. The lead elements of 3 Company approach the barn just on my side of the bridge. The will likely act as a fire base for the rest of their platoon to leap frog across the bridge next turn or the turn after depending on what I decide to do about smoke. Dungeon Tiger keeps telling me I will never take the town from him. I do not think he understands what a German Infantry company can do fighting in an urban setting. Nore do I think he sees how well covered my approach to the town is. 1 Company will be able to transition from woods to buildings with very little exposure. Here are the lead elements waiting in the woods for their armoured support to catch up.

I have yet to see that. What happens to me is, my guys who are hiding just die as they are shot at close range. Mind you I stopped doing this about the third time it happened so perhaps it works 25% of the time?

Thanks, I am in the middle of watching the latest turn now and the smoke has totally missed the mark so I have some deciding to do on how to cross that bridge.

He he, I have to admit I told him about it - I do not really consider this episode as part of the game. It is a bug.

My Panther that I sent to kill my own solider failed in its task – the runner had moved pass the tree line when the Panther started shooting. However he ran headlong past a Staghound Armoured Car and right into the water, where the Staghound shot him as he was reaching neck deep. Crazy! But thanks because now the rest of his squad can finish loading their truck.

3 Company is taking up positions ready to cross the bridge. Griess is getting his men in position at the edge of the town. One of his mortar teams is going to throw some smoke on the other side of the bridge. As the smoke screen falls one platoon from Hofmeister's 1 Battery and the Panther will cover the bridge for the infantry to cross. 1 Battery assault guns will move to the tree line as the smoke comes down. Meanwhile 5 Company will continue its move through the orchard. On their left they have a an Armoured Car and on their right they have a Stuart. Off in the distance there is a Churchill. The plan is to have them occupy the orchard and protect my left frank while they wait for the time to assault the furthest village. 3 Battery continues its enveloping of the Churchills. The left flank will consolidate its position with infantry moving up to get eyes further forward and to spot any threats trying to flank the assault guns. The right flank will move up rapidly to try to get guns on the Churchills and the centre are moving forward to the edge of a hump in the field to keep their guns on the Churchills which have backed off a big. The will be hull down in the centre. The panther's dealing with the single Churchill are backing off to a safer position.

3 Battery exchanged fire with the Churchills they are trying to surround but no damage was done and by the end of the turn there was so much smoke and dust that no one was shooting any more. Time to manoeuvre. The smoke from the fire fight between 3 Battery and the Churchills. The Panther in the centre of the map that ran single handed-ly into the flank of the Churchill that shredded 2 Battery ended the turn with no contacts backing up. Since there was no picture from last turn here is how the turn started for that Panther. And they backed up more and ended up here: Meanwhile Griess's 3 Company has taken the village and is getting into position to cross the bridge. The recon 20mm half track of 5 Company spots a Stuart and opens up. The Sutart is lucky and seems to suffer no ill effects.

I am using FRAP to record too. Is it the recording stage that is laggy? My game settings are better for models and best for textures and that is pertty much pushing it for our Epic battle. I can get 14 to 18 fps. In smaller games higher. I an not as rich as you so I use power director instead of premier.

I am in the middle of playing it now - as the Germans. It has been loads of fun so far. My opponent is making it a very tough slog. I can comment more when we are done.

Well done getting that MG team away from the barrage.

Need a screen shot or five:) please

Yeah I hear you. Truth is if you looked at any of the buildings they would not really look the same. And you would have the same comment. I built them and positioned them to fit the lot and fields I had created.

The vineyard next to the road turned out pretty well... but and now the creek looks good too.

All done - the map that is. I will be posting the map to the repository later today or tomorrow morning. The bridge over the creak looking down the creek... real life. The barn at the intersection between the high way and the side road... real life (I kept a few randomish trees but not necessarily where the real ones are).

Since the flanking Panther flushed out another Churchill and it presented its flank to the location where I lost all those Stugs I have moved another Stug in to take advantage of that juicy target. Elements of 5 Company press forward through the forest into the orchard beyond. 3 Battery continues to try to envelop the Churchills they have met. The centre Stugs are moving out of their treeline because they no longer have LOS to the enemy. The have moved up only just far enough to take up hull down positions on my side of the crest of the hill in the middle of the field while the other two platoons continue their flanking manoeuvres. Having seen no enemy artillery falling 3 Company moves take the village in preparation for assaulting the bridge and beginning a river crossing. I also issued orders to pack up my temporary command post in the small farm to move us all to the village.

Over on the left flank 5 Company is not beginning to move into the Orchard and they discover – you guessed it an armoured car driving towards them. The nearest squad engaged and manages to take out the car commander just as the turn ends. 5 Company has almost finished convoying to the hill on the left flank. The HQ half track is last to make the final leg of the trip through the depression and up to the top of the hill. This is also the turn that artillery starts falling. If you remember Osterhaus, the FO, setup three preplanned missions. One across the field form the base of the hill where 5 Company is deploying to support them moving into position to threaten the far rail bridge and village objective. You can see the shells landing in the picture above of 5 Company and the armoured card in the orchard. The other mission was harassing fire on the village itself. The third mission was the ridge line overlooking the main town objective. Just as the shells started landing on the ridge line one of the Panthers spotted and engaged an Achilles tank destroyer scoring another very important kill as the turn ended (sadly the Achilles did KO my Stug that was covering 1 Company's move from treeline to treeline before it died). Those Achilles are nasty foes and can slice and dice panthers like they are not even there. Taking one of them out is a good thing but I am sure there are more. I do hope they are on that ridge under that barrage.

The flanking panther going after those Churchills was a bad idea. I don't really know what I was thinking when I cooked it up. Did I think that Churchill was alone. Crazy. I forgot to take pictures but here is what happened. The Panther moved through the woods to engage the Churchill at point blank range. But it never got there. As the Panther got close a second Churchill broke cover and moved towards to Panther in front of the Churchill it was hunting. MG fire killed the Panther commander and the Panther popped smoke and reversed. A nearby tree (the Panther was in the forest – that part was smart at least) blocked a round from this new enemy. 3 Battery on my far right flank moved in a coordinated way to take on their new foe – a troop or more of Churchill tanks. The Stugs in the centre engaged the Churchills from the cover of the tree line. Meanwhile another platoon moved left and flanked the Churchill's position. The two Stugs on point fired several rounds... And got a kill. 3 Battery gets the all important first real kill of the game (if my opponent had only armoured cars and Stuart tanks this would not be much of a fight) and it shows that Stugs can actually kill Churchills. Here is what the right flank looks like a the end of the turn. You can see a platoon of Stugs have flanked the Churchills to the left and a platoon is moving to flank them on the right. I can see one troop worth of Churchills here but there are also three additional unidentified contacts. So it could be as much as two troops.

Yes, that is my plan. Actually I think I will finish my micro elevation work and place flavour objects and then save the big tree version before doing as you suggest. Thanks, I actually had fun making it. And I learned a lot - ending with "do a virtual ground truthing session first"