A Canadian Cat

The vinyard next to the road turned out pretty well... but the creak behind again shows way too tall trees. I think I will finish my work on the current map. All I have left is micro terrain adjustments and flavour objects. Then I will do a reduced vegetation version and release that too. I quite like the map as it is but I think I want my scenario to use a more realistic version.

I am getting close to finishing my map. Before I start playing with AI plans I will release just the map. However this evening I decided to do a bit of virtual ground truthing and looked a a few views from Google Street View. Ooops I wish I had done that earlier. I miss interpreted the size of the vegetation from the aerial shots. What I took as trees were just bushes and marsh. The bridge over the creak looking down the creek you can see I put trees growing along its banks... but the tallest thing there is tall grass and a few shrubs. The house at the intersection between the high way and the side road... was not a house at all but a very run down barn.

Brilliant idea - putting them out of view of enemy armour is an excellent idea. I hope it pans out for you.

Great idea. I currently only back up data (and test it) but having a rest state for the whole machine sounds good. You could cut a new snap shot periodically too just to keep things up to date

Sad to hear your troubles. Good reminder though. I have a que of non critical stuff ready to backed up. Get to it Ian...

Well it is all relative. If you have lots of points to spend then you can afford to spend a little more on artillery and still get that platoon:-) I have recently been trying out 150mm artillery since I have been disappointed at my success at killing tanks with 105 shells. Those pesky Churchill tanks don't much like getting hit by 150mm shells.

Yeah, this really worries me. I cannot cancel anything and he is running away from the truck. I will see what happens next turn but I might have to get gamey and kill him myself so a whole platoon and a Panther are not tired up waiting for him. If BFC wants any saved games just say the word - I have them all but they are between 32 and 40Mb each.

The Panther hunting that pesky Churchill has not spotted it yet but is very close. Just a slight order adjustment to engage at point blank range. 3 Battery can now totally focus on the approaching Churchills. The platoons are a big mixed up but no one is fussing over that now. I send 3 Platoon to the right to prevent being flanked. One platoons worth of Stugs, made up of elements of 1 and 2 Platoon, move to the centre to engage the Churchills from the tree line. While the rest of 1 and 2 Platoon move down the road rapidly to flank the Churchills. The supporting infantry form 2 Company move to the centre and flank while one squad sweeps the field looking for any survivors.

That Churchill continues to wreak havoc. Another Stug goes down. It has destroyed or dismounted every stug facing it over the last few minutes. The last Stug gets shot... ...and destroyed. That leaves only the two Panthers and the Stugs I was going to use to assault the town left to deal with that Churchill. The way it has been shooting I am very nervous about my odds. As the turn ends the Churchill dispatches one of the dismounted Stugs. I have to settle for destroying armoured cars. At least that is the end of the Armoured Car infiltration. The infantry will sweep the field making sure no crew are left to run around. Meanwhile the approaching Churchills are engaged by the lead elements of 3 Battery. Nothing much happened other than both sides blasting leaves off of some trees. 5 Company's supporting Stugs are not overlooking the Orchard.

I have another example of soldiers separating from their unit and wondering off. I have only experienced this once before in a game and now I have it happening twice in one game - yuck. When I look at the members of 2 Company that are packing up after flank protection duty I notice that one squad seems fully packed up by their icon is dimmed - that's odd: Then I realize why. One of the soldiers in the squad is off in the woods. But this time things are worse. He is running away from the rest of the group and I cannot cancel the move order because the order was to load into a truck and once the load up phase starts you cannot give new orders to your men. Not good.

There is only one Stug left on 1 Company's flank and it now has spotted the Churchill. The nearby panther is repositioning to avoid being hit with out seeing who is hitting it. There are also two abandoned but not destroyed Stugs in the tree line too. 2 Company now joins 1 Company getting ready to approach the town and 2 Battery's HQ Stug is moving up to try to rally the panicked crews and get them back in the battle. 3 Battery try to finish off the interlopers and create a line of defence against the coming Churchill tanks. Back on 5 Company's hill 1 Battery's supporting platoon move forward next to the infantry.

The panther's platoon mate moves to flank the Churchill. On the other side of the battle field 3 Battery is still dealing with those sneaky armoured cars. The armoured cars get some hits but nothing is seriously damaged. The last one has several guns aiming for it at the end of the turn. But things go from bad to worse: Churchills are coming. One Stug spots a distant Churchill but I am sure it is not alone. The Armoured cars were scouting for this troop, or more, of Churchills. 3 Battery needs to clean up their armoured car problem and get organized – quick. Members of 2 Company that were on flank protection duty pack up

The duel with the Churchill continues – with one more Stug ultimately loosing. But before it does it shrugs off some rounds... The Stugs do get in some hits but mostly it the trees that are hit. One solid hit connects but clearly does little damage since... ...the next shot from the Churchill is the fatal blow. Meanwhile the nearby Panther takes more small calibre punishment but no damage.

Found him Like you said the icon is located by a weighted average of the team members location. So with four men together near the town and the icon over the orchard the missing guy must be... Way up on the hill with 5 Company. How he managed to get there I have no idea. He does seem to be walking to return to his team but he is already tired so I might have to cancel that move order and let him rest.

Don't help him! He is kicking my ass with those carriers:) BTW why do you want to remove the bren gun? They are doing a fine job in the carriers?

Yes, and I do not think I have spent enough resources or time on recon.

Yeah you gotta love trees - can't live with them can't live without them.

I have been watching his channel for a while now. Quite entertaining. But do take what you see with a grain of salt. OK a whole salt shaker. He is not above adding additional humph to explosions. So, laugh till you cry but do not base you idea of reality on what you see on his channel.

A couple of turns ago I noticed an icon for one of my squads (part of 3 Company setup in the orchard next to the village bridge objective) was in a funny place. This turn I looked into it. I split the teams and found that the team lead for one of the teams is way off by himself. And I cannot even find him! Below I have them selected and you can see the movement way point I have set. I am also hovering the mouse over the MP40 carrying team leader and he is nowhere to be seen. Does anyone have any techniques for finding lost guys like this?

Heubaum orders his Stugs from 2 Battery that are engaged with the now hidden Churchill to fire HE at the treeline near the corner of the field. He reports that he hopes the HE will kick up some dust and cause a distraction while the Panthers try to flank its position. He does not want to use smoke so the view stays clear for the Panthers. One of the Panthers takes a bit of a risk and attempts to flank the Churchill by hiding on the opposite side of the nearby rise. Meanwhile more of 2 Platoon 1 Company move into position to assault the town. The highlighted Stug has been doing an admiral job of covering them from its hull down position in the a low point in the field. Now that the convoy of 1 and 2 Company along with 2 Battery has passed it is time to pack up and rejoin the main force. Members of 5 Company begin to move into the orchard supported by Stugs on both of their flanks. The situation for 3 Battery is still messy. The Stugs shift position trying to get eyes on the open ground the armoured cars used to slip into their lines. Meanwhile the trailing platoon skips driving in convoy and instead heads across country as fast as possible in attack formation.

I recorded a video of the armoured cars vs 3 Battery: http://youtu.be/iuK3X-gteDE It is uploading now and should be ready for viewing 15min from this post...

Turns out it is blue on blue. Watching this action is very difficult the confusion is clearly evident and I am unable to help. The good news is as the mad minute draws to a close there are several burning wrecks and none of them are Carius's Stugs it is a minor miracle that there were only four casualties and one Kübelwagen lost. The trouble is – it is not over yet. There are still at least two active armoured cars around and one is right back in the middle of 1 and 2 platoon again. Here is a higher view picture as you can see there are smoke columns but there are also at least two active armoured cars and a contact. Meanwhile on the other side of the map the infantry of 5 Company spot a Churchill moving towards their position. No sign of the Stuart but clearly more dangerous stuff is coming their way.

But this Stug's work is not done there are more armoured cars to the left. They are everywhere. 3 Battery has real problems. An enemy armoured car has driven right into the middle of their position. The limited reports that I revived from Carius indicated a lot of confusion. Clearly mistakes were made that allowed the armoured car to get past the Stugs that were covering the fields on both sides of the road. The reports indicate that our casualties were minimal but the enemy lost three armoured cars. But it is no over yet there are more of them still between 1 and 2 platoon. You can see two Stugs below and an Kübelwagen and behind it the Humber armoured car. Thankfully the Stug is able to dispatch it before it causes any casualties. The trouble is there are more of them coming. And Staghounds are more dangerous than Humbers. Confusion reigns. My first infantry casualties comes from this rather big exposition. Where did that come from? That looks like a bigger calibre than 37mm.

Well there were tears this turn that's for sure. 2 Battery reported being under fire from a Churchill tank that none of them managed to return fire upon. 2 Battery lost two Stugs this turn. On top of that they also came under fire from armoured cars in the other direction. They did manage to destroy one Armoured car but the Churchill is positioned perfectly and none of the surviving Stugs had a clear view of the enemy tank let alone have a LOF to its location. Taking fire from the Churchill: Spotted armoured cars. At least 2 Battery got one of them. The Panther with 2 Battery comes under 37mm fire. No damage but they have no idea where the shot came from. Time to back out of there and try to find that Churchill. On the other side of the treeline 2 Platoon from 2 Battery comes under fire from the Stuart tank spotted last turn. The Stuart gets the first shot. But it is its last.

Last night when I was finalizing my write up for last turn I noticed I have made a mistake. I mixed up 1 Battery and 2 Battery in my most recent posts and tactical diagrams. I can fix the diagrams but it is too late for the posts. Just remember: Hofmeister's 1 Battery is supporting 5 Company on the forested hill between the two river crossings while Heubaum's 2 Batter is supporting 1 and 2 Company's approach to the town.