A Canadian Cat
-
Posts
16,500 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
55
Posts posted by A Canadian Cat
-
-
A few shots were fired this turn – by my side. Most of the turn was still moving into position to begin searching for first contact. On my left flank here is the lead positions of 1 Battery. 5 Company's recon Half tracks successfully extracted them selves and have been replaced by Stugs.
Near by 3 Company is deploying into the Orchard.
-
Hey I like that sound mod:). It is "Mike's Vehicles of War Sound Mod".
-
While plotting the moves for this turn I took some video of the convoys in action. Here are some thoughts on convoy management:
3 Battery moving with no issues
Traffic is clogging up near the bridge
Managing the traffic flow over the bridge
Managing 5 Company's convoy
-
Across the bridge 2 Battery and the first elements of 1 Company arrive at the tree line that will become their jumping off point for an assault on the main town.
-
1 Platoon from 3 Company fans out to secure the Orchard while the rest of 3 Company arrive. Their trucks will stay in the cover of the Orchard while the company deploys into the Village.
The convoy over the bridge has bunched up. I give pause orders down the line to spread the vehicles back out. By the time I was up to the corner the pause time was already at 1:15 so no new vehicles will be added to the convoy this turn. It is taking longer for each vehicle to cross the bridge than expected. I will just have to take that into account when I setup the pauses for the vehicles.
North of the Village elements of 1 Battery take positions in the orchard to cover the bridge. The plan is that once the Orchard surrounding the village are secure we can move to create a bridge head over the river. Also we agreed that we would allow preplanned bombardment but only after 10 minutes. So I am in no rush to just move directly onto the objective just yet.
Meanwhile to the West of the Village 5 Company is moving in convoy along the road to take the high ground North of the Village in preparation of an eventual assault on the Norther Village with the rail crossing. I add two platoons to the end of the convoy.
5 Company's recon half tracks spotted Churchills so it is time for them to get out of the line of fire and move Stugs up to take their place. Hopefully the Stugs will engage the Churchills.
-
First shot fired! One of my Panthers following up 1 Battery and 5 Company spots a Churchill on a hill across the valley. I forgot to look at how far it is but the shot was high and sailed right off the map. The Panthers are waiting on the tree line just south of the Village near the road bridge waiting for the assault guns to take up positions in the orchard beyond the Village.
3 Company disembark from their transports in the Orchard just south of the Village near the Road Bridge. The plan is for them to leave their trucks under cover in the Orchard and then advance into the village securing it and then being a river crossing to secure a bridge head as well. The first platoon will secure the Orchard and obverse the Village while the rest of the company arrives.
-
Excellent concept and execution. Huge seems too small for me now, so this idea is perfect for me.
I am glad you like the idea. I do hope others will try this concept out too. That's what the instructions referenced in the first post are for.
I do hope you have ammo'd up from all those soft vehicles before putting them in harm's way.
It can suck to see thousands of rounds go up with a truck from a random HMG burst. Better to waddle after a long ride than run and use up all your ammo.Yes, I failed to mention that. The first thing I did was give each squad a additional 1000 rounds of 7.92 and 100-200 additional rounds of 9mm. Snipers too (each company has a sniper team attached to a platoon). Note that I have no intention of putting trucks in harms way. They will be well back from the fighting and only move up when I need to move a long way again. They each still have lots and lots of amo available. In addition for 5 Company I made sure that each Pazer Fuast was acquired by a squad.
-
There is many aspects to think about, this is good. But while these units need to regroup, there should be more going on.
Example. I attack with my units in depth. So a company might have one or two platoons forward. when the forward unit gets to the conditions mentioned here, then I pull the reserve platoon forward to keep constant pressure on the enemy, they push the attack as I regroup the other units.
<snip>
Absolutely - I was just focusing on the platoon level and pacing their advance. The ideal is, as you said, while one unit is regrouping (they are often still in a supporting position offering a fire base for example) you have others that are on the move. You time the way you advance to allow this - just as @slysniper said. However it does not always work as planned. I have one fight going on now where, as the attacker I decided to attack on two flanks and "ignore" the centre. I am not really ignoring it. One flank is moving really well my platoons are bounding along their route and have rolled up one line of defense in the centre and are working on the next one - from their flank. Just as @slysniper suggested that company is putting constant pressure on because one or two platoons are always moving while the other one or two are regrouping. This is "going well".
On the other flank they met a real stubborn resistance. The company at the pointy end has just overrun their main strong point and are in need of a slower pace. Normally my second company would be right there ready to go. But my attack time table was thrown off by enemy artillery. My following company is getting tired trying to catchup. I have no choice but to slow the whole thing down for a time. Again taking my ques from my men. This is "not going well".
This is where patience comes in. My lead company does not have to move out before the second company gets there I can wait to do it properly. There are still plenty of targets to shoot at and I can see a possible counter attack in the works. With any luck the defender will not notice much of a slow down at all. Or they might even mistake if for a loss of momentum and strike with a counter attack just when my fresh company arrives. Patience sometimes has other dividends.
-
The schemes describing a head on assault would be my plan B. Plan A would be to maneuver into the nearby buildings and try to flank their position. If possible, time it so that the flanking team gets eyes on the enemy behind the building and has been firing for a time and then storm the building.
Which plan I pick would depend on how much back up your enemy has. In other words is it safe to find a place to flank them from or not.
-
One thing I have been doing lately is getting my pacing ques from my own men. Once a platoon has moved or assaulted into their latest position I have a look at their status, Tired, Tiring, Ready etc. I'll give the whole unit a breather letting each squad get back to Ready (unless something urgent comes up of course). During that time I can reorganize their formation and split / not split choices. Perhaps split of a scout team from the first squad to recover to start to get ready for the next step in the plan. Seems to be working pretty well.
-
Also if the enemy surrenders you are credited with any occupy VLs.
-
<snip>I will run tests and see how often the 20mm pops the engine deck of a Sherman. I've found planes to be devastating in the open terrain so far but this is very anecdotal.
I would be interested in hearing your test results. I have only had the one experience and I really don't know what caliber my Sherman was being hit with. In my case I was actually giggling to myself after the third strafing run. It would be good to know if I was just lucky - or not.
-
Yes, it's annoying when it happens and you have just destroyed a mass of complex moves for a battalion. But, it's a noob error and with experience one learns to not make stoopid moves - at least I can't recall the last time I did it.
Hehe I just keep doing it - to my self:)
When it happens to me is when I am looking from level 3 or 4 at a section of the battle field I often select a whole platoon to get a better idea of their relative potions to each other - and other platoons. Then when I want to actually issue move orders to a section or team I zoom down to level 2 and close to the unit. That's when I forget that I have the whole platoon selected.
My new SOP is to click into open space to deselect everything and then select the unit again before I plot any moves. So far so good.
-
Awesome. I have a few UI mods but the animated text mod is one that I feel makes the game easier to follow rather than just making it look nicer.
-
I feel this is a good opportunity to point out that officers in the modern era make an effort *to* look just like the private near by. I have no knowledge of WWII but I have talked to my Dad (Infantry officer up to Battalion 2IC in the 60s and 70s). On many an occation he wore a helmet and not his barett and carried an assault rifle not an SMG all because he wanted to *not* stand out.
Did officers - working close to the front obviously - in WWII make a similar effort? Or not? I am curious?
-
I think using airpower w/o any means of defending against it is every bit as gamey, if not worse, than using Tigers. Why? Tigers have to work within ground level LOS constraints, where the airpower has no such restrictions.
While I do not have a lot of experience with air power - I have only tested it and had it used against me once. It is not really that effective against tanks. Of course if the big 200+Kg shell hits a tank - even a Tiger say good by. The trouble is they miss way more often than they hit. When I had an air strike used against me: sure one shell destroyed to HTs and half a squad hiding in the building it hit. But then the thing straffed a buttoned tank several times and missed the infantry that were in the open (the first time:-). After that it proceeded to strafe his infantry and honestly I think it took out more of his guys than mine.
If I had air strikes available and the other guy had a Tiger I would *not* be dancing in the streets I would be looking for additional ways to deal with the Tiger cause the air strike is a long shot - just like the other options:)
-
I lost 2 tigers to damned PBI
Who or what is a PBI?
-
I count 13 Tigers - so that's 4 unaccounted for on the Island. Correct?
-
That looks like a Russian SMG. Am I missing something or miss identifying his weapon. Enlighten me please.
-
I do give Tiresias a lot of credit for fighting on after the loss of his tanks. Before we started we agreed we would call it a any time if it got no fun for someone. I would have not blamed him at all for wanting to cease fire then. Glad we kept going though. Hopefully he picked up a bit more experience because of it.
+1 to that. Trying to figure a way out of a tough spot is where learning really kicks in to high gear. At some point though throwing in the towel is a good idea. Well done and nice AAR too!
-
This whole discussion got me thinking... I used to play a hundreds of CMx1 games as TCP/IP. I would hang out at the CMHQ chat and stalk new prey. I had all the optimal force buys thought out for all different time periods. <snip>
Now, I don't think I've ever done the same thing in CMx2. I always buy the rarer and more obscure stuff that just isn't so good. Halftracks with 37mm pop guns, Stugs in the bocage, Panzer IVs and now IIIs. Infantry guns on the offense.<snip>
Hummm I wonder if the n00bs you were beating were just more mature - it sounds like you have turned into one.
Oh that sounded like an insult - not my intention. What I mean is, you have grown up and want grown up fun not just to smash the other guy in the face over and over. Which you clearly thought was fun when you were 15:DYou said it yourself. Tigers can bog or suffer damage. <snip>Having Tigers doesn't guarantee victory,but gives you a very,very nice edge. <snip>
Yeah, they are tough to deal with. I have faced tigers several times - mostly in ladder games. As long as I do not face them every game I am OK with that - I like the challenge. At least in CMBN you have options that can deal with them (M10, Achillies, Firefly, 76 Shermans). Even with all that they are still a real challenge. I am not sure in CMFI how I'll feel facing a Tiger. I am glad you brought it up.
I have a game going right now where it was 2 Tigers and 2 PzIVs vs 5 Shermans (2 76mm) and 2 M10s. Not a match up I would like to bet on. So far I am not doing too badly but the number of threats I have left is dropping...
On the flip side I had one ladder game where I KO'ed one of the guys 2 Tigers at the cost of 7 Sermans (I took various other tanks of his down too) and my opponent Rage quite complaining that CMBN was broken because everyone was buying too much armor (I had a battalion of infantry too BTW). I had to laugh at that considering I was down to only three Shermans and a couple of M10s I was feeling like there was no way I could get that other Tiger before being picked apart.
I have only bought Tigers once - 14 Royal Tigers for one battle. Yes, it was a huge battle - the dry run for the 20 000 point battle I am writing my DAR for. BORING, I'll say it again BORING. The only downside of those guys was there were bridges they could not cross and streets they could not go down. Other than that there were unstoppable. I lost one to an Achilles but absolutely shredded my opponent's Churchills. It was like they weren't even there.
-
I was going to request that you use the toggle for lighter night as I can't see anything in your screenshots. (But, that's only in CMFI until the upgrade lol.)
LOL I was thinking that while I watched my turns. It is just after dawn so the light will get better as the game goes on.
-
And with that post I am almost up to date. I played a turn this morning but I have not written it up yet or processed the images. Since I am off work today I was able to catch up. With a little luck I can get to that turn tonight. If not it will be tomorrow morning.
-
First contact. One of 5 Company's 75mm gun Hts spots a Churchill on the other side of the valley. The recon 250/9 spots a second Churchill near by.
The lead members of 1 Battery arrive at the Orchard near the first river crossing.
3 Company's first platoon arrives in the Orchard on the other side of the village.
Minute 1:57 Orders:
I give fine tuning orders to 3 platoon of 1 Battery to take up positions in the Orchard to cover the approaches to the village with the road bridge crossing.
Since the recon 250/9 is no match for a Churchill I back the half track off and an assault gun takes his place. With any luck the StugIII will spot the Churchill too.
What I don't show is that the group of 5 Company Half Tracks in the field waiting to move out. One of them has spotted a Churchill so they all have to move. I give all 12 of them orders that takes the lead vehicles into the tress and the rest up close to the tree line. Hopefully that will be enough to break contact with the Churchill - if it has spotted them. Not a gamble I am willing to take.
It can suck to see thousands of rounds go up with a truck from a random HMG burst. Better to waddle after a long ride than run and use up all your ammo.
Axis Side - 20 000 point Quick Battle DAR
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Posted
One of the Stugs from 1 Battery spots a Churchill tank on the other side of the valley (one of the Churchill tanks originally spotted by the Recon Half tracks and the Panther). Fires:
And Hits:
Mean while the Panther also fires at the same Churchill.
And hits...
I counted five hits on that Churchill tank's turret. No penetrations and the enemy tank moves out of view.
1 Company begins to deploy into the tree line near the town.