Glubokii Boy

Merry Christmas !...And thanks for another nice update... Your armour is still fairly spread out...Bil might not risk comming over that ridge again but once you decide to advance to engage him will you keep them seperated or will you move them forward in a tight group... Both have there advantages i think... - Keeping them seperated will cover a larger area but risk each tank to be targeted by mulitple enemy tanks (TDs) while on their own. - Moving them closer togehter will allow them to better support each other but you will be advancing on a very narrow front...Allowing Bil more freedom of manuver... Whatever you decise...I think it will be a tricky buisness ones you crest those rigdes...He will most likely be waiting on the revers slope with a decent amount of armour... As i understand it you have identified 5 enemy tanks, TDs withdrawing to the other side...There might be more...or perhaps some AT-guns... Will the terrain allow you some nice places to advance without having to crest any ridges ? That would be rather good...

You would have worked wounders back in the days as a political officer on the russian front... What an insperational speach !

My, my...In your previous report things looked really good...But now... Two Panthers and that JagdTiger identified and possibly more enemy armour still unspotted... Will these losses force you to adopt a more defensive (passive) tactic or do you still feel that you can maintain the initiativ and be agressive ? Do you attribute the missed shots to low experince levels of the crews or simply bad luck ?

One of those weird LOS/LOF situations that is hopelessly difficult to predict...Very frustrating indeed !

I agree...It looks really cool ! The veihcles over all seems to have more of a wheatered look to them right out of the box this time...

To bad about the missed shot with the Panther...A kill there would have been sweet ! You seemes to have timed the advance of Big Kitty fairly well...I'm sure that enemy tankdestroyer will think twice about moving forward again... But...if it does... Do you think it will be able to hurt Kitty...From the front...If it gets the first shot of...? The distance is quite short...

! The life as a commander is a lonely one...It's hard making friends...Especially among those Sherman guys...A strange bunch ! But honestly... I don't think a Sherman advance to that location would be a suicide mission...Atleast by the looks of it...They have a fairly covered approach to that location... and unless Baneman have some hidden AT assets already in place to engage the approaching Shermans it is him that will need to move into possition while under observation of enemy guns....(after the Shermans have arrived) Atleast that was my thinking !

EVENT 1: The Shermans from Team Pain are on the move!! See if you can predict where they are headed and what their mission will be EVENT 2: The remaining three Hellcats (those not near KT1) are on the move!! See if you can predict where they are headed and what their mission will be! Although you have provided good pictures (both close-in and the map) it is a bit difficult to see all the finer details of the lay of the land but my guess would be that you plan to move team pain to the area around the VL in Coburn.. Getting some armour here will make it difficult for Baneman to advance his infantry, currently grouping in the wooded area further north into Coburn i think... This will in turn more or less force Baneman to commit his armour...Revealing their possitions... If this is the plan though i'm not sure why you decided to use Pain and not Punishment that 'had' that flank... Regarding the Hellcats... I honestly don't know I think you have them deployed just fine where they are (atleast the most forward ones)... It would undoubtedly be a gutsy move to advance them even further to try and catch Baneman of guard somewhere up ahead... But in my oppinion it is not you that needs to advance..It is Baneman. Baneman has atleast on JagdTiger somewhere back there in ambush possitions...Why risk loosing any armour by pushing forward more then neccesary ? If you remaine in place you will se him comming and he will need a sizable armoured force to be able to push past the reverse slope hellcats... I think you have your left fairly secure as is... But thats just me...You are without a doubt more agreesive then i am...

If he had greater intel on Bils forces i think that is what he would do...Concentrate all his armour on a single target (few targets) but unfortunatelly i think Baneman runs a high risk of lossing one or all of his Panthers before he realizes Bils armour heavy force... Bils on the move...! The fog of war will most likely lift for Baneman shortely...But will he be able to handle whats comming ?

After understanding how these VLs work (i think )... I have to say that this is actually a VERY GOOD use of the VLs It will give the attacker two very distinctly different options how to approach this mission... 1. Slug it out on a broad front and try to capture one phaseline after the other (the entire phaseline) - to get the points for it -...and thereby evening out the score or 2. Concentrate his forces in a narrow attack (left-, right flank) to try and penetrate as deep as possible into the defenders possition...As Vanir pointed out all the attacker (baneman) needs to do if he chooses this alternative will be to capture ONE of the locations in each phaseline to deny Bil the points for the entire phaseline... If Baneman manages to reach every phaseline in such a manner Bil will be left with ZERO points. (all this whitout haveing to bother about the center and opposing flank...) This could end up as a desperate fight to gane sole possetion of a single VL anywhere on the map (if both players are left with zero points when the timer starts to run out...) I like it !

Good point !

It looks like you will be able to get into good hull-down possitions against anything he tries to move around the L-shaped woods without exposing thoose hellcats to the front... Good possition !

This was my initial impression of this but today it struck me... Are these by any chans touch objectives ? And if so...Are one phaseline one objective... If that had been the case this would have seriously simplefied Banemans situation i think... Kind of this being a pure pentration mission with no requirements to secure the ground for supply purposes and such (that would follow-on forces handle)... But being the way things are...Baneman will need to clear ALL seperate sections of the phaselines completally to achive any point for them... Clearing 3 out of 4 sections of a certain phaseline will give him no points what so ever... Is this correct...? If so...Baneman will have quite a task infront of him...

Hello... I forgott to ask earlier... What kind of objectives are they ? Touch ?, Occupy ? Are each phaseline 3 - 4 seperate objective locations or are each phaseline one single objective ?

For the moment...things are looking good ! Your advancing troops are reaching their initial objectives and the overwatch is in place. Good start ! But i wounder...What are those tricky americans up to ? You may not have Bils graphical skills...but this is a very well presented AAR (beatiful pictures and well described, easy to follow intentions) Top marks !

Ahh, Big Kitty ! I know her personally...she is one mean old lady. Thanks !

Ok...Probably wise Thanks for the answer...

Let the battle commence Do you have a specific plan of how you intend to move 'Big Kitty' forward (a number of succsesive overwatch possitions already choosen) to support your attack or will it be kept back and react to Bils actions ? Low level screenshot facing the enemy from your current support possitions when it comes to 'Big Kitty' would be cool...(continually updated ones you move it) Thanks...And Good luck !

Another and perhaps a bit different way to get some information and feeling about this campaign could be to buy Command Ops - Battle of the Bulge..................From Panther games If this game still is up for purchase that is... Perhaps not the most indepth source of information but besides being a good game it will provide you with an excellent way to examine the OOBs of both sides at different stages of the campaign and also have some fairly correct maps i think...

Personally... i hope that this 'bogging feature' is not overdone i this game... - In such a way that the armoured movements will be restricted primarely to a few roads Maybe this is historically the most correct way but i would prefer to see that tanks will be able to move crosscountry at a carful pace without regularely getting stuck within a turn or two... Hopefully BFC have found a good balance...

I agree with this...especially at the start of the battle when Bil does not know (suspect) that these Panthers are pretty much all Banemans got when it comes to armour...(i know...the Tiger also...) Support one area of the map... They will probably have a better chans if they stick together... Before Bil gets more intel he will probably think that there are atlest one more tank group out there somewhere and be careful to move all his tanks to engage these 3... 3 panthers fighting together packs quite a punch and might very well be able to do well aginst Bils 'isolated' (spread out) battlegroups.

I think that Baneman will need to be very agressive with his JagdTiger...To even out the numbers. If this succedes and he manages to seriously reduce Bils armour superiorety he will instead be in a very good possition. Much hangs on the performance of this beast !

If Banemans infantry where opposed primarely by enemy footsoldiers this would most likely work i think...but this will not be the case in this game it seems. His infantry support veichles will have to go up against enemy armour...tricky ! Sure...rapid firering autocannons might be able to scare and force one enemy tank to withdraw but these halftracks will most likely face more then one enemy tank at a time... I think Baneman will need to be very careful how he advances these halftracks...he might be able to find good keyholed possitions for them that will allow him to support his infantry but it will be...tricky...i think. With his limited ammount of tanks avaliable...each tank-loss will be felt very hard for Baneman i'm sure...He can't really afford to lose any. It will be intresting to se though if this infantry heavy attackforce will be able to gain much ground here...

I think it will be difficult for Baneman to lead with his infantry...In covered terrain...fine ! but he will have to get out into the open to claim many of the VL it looks like. With so few tanks i guess he will be very carfull with them...making it a bit difficult to support his most forward infantry units... Without proper support i think his infantry will have a hard time advancing that final distance to the VLs when being opposed by numorus enemy tanks (even if he has alot of troops)...But as Pak40 pointed out the hellcats and jacksons might not have much HE wich might help Baneman some (but they do have machineguns, don't they ?) But with skilled infantry tactics...he might supprise me

As i see this... If Bil can get some decent intel on Banemans forces the only thing he will need to do will be to group his armour together in a few groups out of line of fire from the jagdtiger and then wait...Even if he splits his armour into 3 groups or something like that he will still be able to engage Banemans Panters - many on few - and most likely knock those out...With only the Tiger left to support his infantry...he will be in an hopeless situation imo...