dungeontiger

1:26 - You win one, you lose one Not too much to talk about. He finally destroyed that immobilized Churchill in the woods which was surrounded by Panthers. I managed, I think, to smoke a Stug along the road near there. I moved it up from the hamlet to engage the Stug that killed my Stuart. I think that was a good move. I decided to leave him here another turn in the hopes of bagging another Stug. I'm just worried he's going to decide to move his Panther(s) to attack. We'll see how that worked out. Here's a shot showing what happened. He sure does seem to have artillery. He keeps trying to convince me that he doesn't. Must be large caliber too. Look at this spotting round near the town: Do I chicken out and retreat or wait it out? I'll wait it out. And I still see shells here: Is this organic artillery or off board? Must be spotting rounds. Must be. These worry me a bit more since they are near my Achilles. I don't want to lose them. I still don't really know where the target area is. I'm going to wait this one out. - Gibson out.

1:27 - Big Shoot Out Open field engagement video. Watch german troops go right up to it then run away. Chruchill is immobilized. What it take shells from Panthers. Watch shells bound off Panthers! I know how he feels. Also note I lose that Stuart on the road by the River. http://youtu.be/sMCZGFkYJe Now watch the same engagement from the perspective of two Chruchills I moved up to provide cover. That was good move. Too bad the 75 mm peashooters can't hurt a Panther from the front. Look at those shells bounce off! Note you can still see that German squad run up to the Churchill then bugger off. http://youtu.be/8LnT5E3pobg Here's a bird's eye of that: I got hurt this turn. Panthers are going to get me. I have to flank them to take them out... Now I want to show the you the finale to the engagement with the Chruchills and the Stugs near the Town. Here's how it started this turn: This is how it ended. I have lost both Chruchills, but I killed a lot of armor! To give you some perspective, this is then end of the turn taken from back far so you can see the objective, my Achilles on overwatch and the recon I sent up [too late]. Here's a slightly different angle that shows the recon better. My forward units are mostly wiped out. The next major engagement, I think, will be at the objectives. - Gibson Out.

Now the action has started and the Churchill is near unstoppable. And for a special treat, I made videos this turn. You need to see it. First the engagement with the Shrek we saw last turn. Things got hot now. He had at least 2 105mm assault guns and 2 Stugs. At the end of it, I believe all four are disabled. One of my Churchills took a shrek hit in the front and had two crewman killed. http://youtu.be/jhZBuLgQtDk The next engagement is the open field with the infantry. My Churchill is immobilized, took many hits and is still alive. However, I pummeled a Panther and it is still moving too. Annoying. The Churchill did manage to kill a shrek team running in the open. Another Panther deeper in the woods took out a scout car. http://youtu.be/Hm5W8ZZMlUU I am now going to have to move up reserves and brace for the real assault. What happened this turn is outside the objectives and is meant to slow him down and disrupt him while I get my defenses adjusted to met where he is attacking for. So for reserves I have (from memory): - 4 scout cars moving up toward town - troop of Churchills moving (this turn) toward railway crossing - troop of Achilles waiting - battalion command group (waiting) Going to be interesting. - Gibson Out

Thank you! Its fun. I think too its going to be fun to read the other side after the game and see what was really happening! In terms of wargames in the future...imagine this caliber of game but on the strategic scale. The game would simulate each tank, each infantry but for entire divisions. That would be amazing. Also, I think too they will have multiple players commanding units. Imagine one player being the 3 star issuing orders to the division while the Colonel takes those orders and issues his orders to the company and so on (well I missed a few formations between division and company obviously but you get that idea). That will be cool!

He had two tricks planned and I foiled them both (so far). First let's look at that flank with the two Churchills. I knew he was going for me and I knew my recon would not get there fast enough. In the end, maybe a good thing. The Churchill is unstoppable. The first Churchill (the one now up the street) took 2 or 3 hits to the rear. Both were shrugged off but killing the commander was enough to scare him up the road and into the waiting infantry. No additional contacts there but I know the shrek team is there. My orders were to reverse and use the trees as cover, not going past the treeline back into the field with the Stugs. He may die to infantry. The second Churchill, which I had backed up last turn (good thing I think) took some first, lots its commander but got a penetration on the Stug. Let's hope its dead since there is at least one more for it to content with. There might be two there or an infantry squad. No idea right now. This was a nice move for him. I'm just not sure what it accomplishes other than taking out (if successful) two Churchills. It does not help him capture the Town or get past my defenses in it. The second bit of fun was near the Gates of Mordor where I thought he had two Panthers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had a bunch of infantry running in the open. I put my Churchill into the treeline at exactly the right moment. I got a shot off at the Panther and it penetrated but the Panther is still moving. My Churchill manages to shred lots of infantry. He's forced to retreat but still gets another hit into the Panther. That Panther did not fire back (as far as I can see) so I wonder if it is toothless. I also wonder where the second one is. I thought for sure there was a second. My orders were to advance the Churchill back into the treeline and shred someone helpless infantry. I also moved a scout car (on the right edge of teh screen shot) from across the road into the treeline to get line of fire as well. We'll see how that goes. Not real yet since he is not assaulting the objectives (will he ever?) but at least some good action. Gibson Out.

So I was right about the town. My Churchills spotted two infantry squads. One is a Shrek team! Oh no! But it is really odd. My Churchills are down low looking up and there are a ton of trees between the two of us. The range is about 150m. It looks like he fired two shots but the both fell really short. Either aimed poorly or they hit the trees. Check out these screen shots that show the point of view. I can't believe that they even spotted each other. First, here is the bird's eye view so you can see who's who. The Shrek team is selected and identified. The Churchill has no line of site or no line of fire actually to the team. Now look from the tanks POV: Note that the dust is from a shrek rocket, I think. Now look from the infantryman's POV: Do you see a tank? I don't. Who knows what is going on here. In any case, I backed the Churchill up about 10 m just to be sure. If I cannot return fire at him I don't want to wait for him to get a lucky hit. Those rockets hurt! My recon is across the railway gorge and motoring towards the town. Now I believe they are needed more than ever as is evident from the Shrek team. I forgot to mention last turn that it is a troop of 2 White Scout Cars with a Scout Detachment each and a command Damlier. On the Railway Crossing front, no more activity. One more shell landed in about the same place and did nothing. Near the Gates or Mordor, nothing else has been spotted (which worried me too) along the road. I'm advancing a couple of scout cars after having retreating them. I hate not knowing what is coming. The Churchill across that field, the one that was face to face with a Panther (remember him) is still in that heavy tree line and sees two Panthers in the field on the other side. Not sure what to do about those two. Things are heating up and we are only 30 minutes in. Gibson Out.

LOL! I'm afraid. I'm very afraid....

...but I'm getting nervous. More on that later. First, near the Railway Crossing I am seeing artillery! Again! It looks like a spotting round. This image shows it falling: Its not a small caliber either. Have a look at this dirt blossom: This might explain why he has not been advancing. He's waiting for his artillery to fall. What to do? Do I retreat all the armor to safety? Do I even know where the target is? I'm just going to hang tight and hope for the best. Artillery has proven impotent against armor in my opinion. Thankfully I have no skins to worry about. :-) Ian claims he has no more rain and that this is just organic artillery. Not sure I agree. We'll see in a couple of turns. An interesting exchange took place in the same area. He's had a Stug sitting there that moves in and out of LOS. Well actually it does not move. Its either the smoke or the rain that shields it. Cool thing is my Daimler got a 40mm shell in an opening and then a Partial Penetrating hit. That suckers dead now! Ian tells me that the tank was abandoned a while ago which would explain why it has not returned fire and shredded the Daimler. The Churchill spooked the crew and they bailed. Now the have no tank. HeHe. Here's an image of the first hit: Now I'm worried about the Town and the two Churchills I left there. I have not seen much in that area for a while so I'm afraid he might be flanking me with armor or infantry. I'm getting REALLY nervous. Time to move a recon unit out of reserve. I should have been moving them up long ago. They are at least 3 to 5 minutes out. Let's hope I can get there before the Churchills get hurt. I was going to stitch together some images to show you where the reserves are. But let's just say they are in my start area on the other side of the railway gorge. Its going to take a while. Gibson out.

Interesting points. Part of this has been to see how mighty the mighty Churchill really is so in a way its an experiment. Also, given the way my opponent is proceeding it can hardly be considered a maneuver fight. I must say that the Churchill has performed better than I expected against Stugs. I usually play the Axis side and love the profile and tough / sloped front armor. Question: What other choices do the Brits have besides infantry tanks? The only real choice would be the Firefly I think. I don't give Cromwells much more credit than Stuarts for engaging the big cats. Stephen.

Not sure exactly what he is doing. He seems to be stalled, or not attacking, at the Railway Crossing. Could be that he is going to use this forces moving out of the Black Gate to attack the flank. Either way I am prepared. He is moving some units around and forming up an attack on the Town but it is taking him a while. A Stug nailed my last scout there. I am moving a Churchill troop in reserve to bolster that flank now that I know his infantry there is supported by armor: Now I am wishing I had more eyes on his position. I'm worried about what is forming up on the town. Next turn I may consider sending a scout car or Stuart to see a bit more, however, this game has re enforced with me how effect infantry is at seeing / hearing armor and not being seen. Oh well, next time more scout detachments or snipers even.

Very quiet again. Still not much at all. Sadly though, the Stuart I advanced a bit to intercept his infantry as they come out of the woods got nailed. Not sure if it was a Panther or something else. Clearly he was more exposed than I wanted. He took a pot shot and bounced a shell of the back of a Panther and then took a shell and died: Now the stuff pouring out of the black gate is more than I expected. Have a look at this: Note the Scout. He's just one guy left with a Sten gun. After a few seconds of valiantly returning fire, he too bought the farm. I'm really seeing the value of scout detachments here. I purchased a few with whatever points I had left over not thinking they would not make much of a difference in a game of this size. However, those 3 man teams have been able to get close and really show me what is going on - more so than the armored cars. I'm impressed. I will take more scout teams in the future. I guess they are like the German Tank Hunter teams from the old CMBB. They don't look like much but they can sure make a difference. I've told Ian I've got this game wrapped up and he does not have a chance - part of the psychological meta-game thing we do (rarely works). He told me that he is going to 'truck rush' me. LOL. I want to see that.

Not much happening again. He's nervous. That's the way I like it. Eventually he's going to make a mistake. So far I am very proud of my units and their performance and my plan. This just might be the best game I've ever had against Ian (now I'm risking the wrath of the gods...oh Athena and Ares please forgive me!). The only thing to note is that I can now see mostly infantry coming out of the Road Crossing. See image for details. Time to show that infantry suck on attack and pulverize them with MGs and large caliber guns. Well see what happens next turn. - Gibson Out.

Not much happening this turn. He's either really cautious or really chicken. Actually, I think its both. On the Railway Crossing side I see no advance and little movement. What is he waiting for? However, I saw a number of secondary explosions from a hidden wreck in the orchard. It must be 105mm shells cooking off from an assault gun of some sort. His rain of useless artillery is continuing on the Railway Crossing objective. So far he's managed to kill a jeep. Fortunately I had positioned my units just outside the objective. If he had used a much wider impact area he might have taken out a few Achilles or at least forced me to change position. His wave of Panthers the came out of Road Crossing objective are holding back. However, I see two Panthers that are trying to flank the Churchill I sent forward to observe. I'm now pulling him back in reverse to go back into the cover of heavy trees near the Churchill that was immobilized and finally died. Near the town, I still do not see what is shooting at my 3 Churchills. One of the Churchills got spooked and broke the line moving in reverse to cover. I decided to fast move him into the town. If he is rattled, I don't want him on that position. Also, maybe he will think there are no others there since I am moving one away and still be able to spring the trap. No time for screenshots or videos this turn. Apologies. But really there is not much to see. - Gibson Out.

The Achilles destroyed that Stug! Yippie! Its a smoking hulk now. In the image below you can see it starting to smoke. Also in the image below you can see one of my scout detachments getting nailed bad. Two casualties out of a three man unit. They did there job and notified me of infantry and hopefully slowed him up a bit. I am advancing a recon car to interdict. I just need to stay out of faust range and hope he does not have any armor with these guys. The big surprise was at the end of the turn. He got eyes on my three Churchills laying in wait. I don't know yet what shot at me I just hope its not a Panther. Turret hit with no effect on the Churchill. You can see that in the image below. I was hoping to use those 3 Churchills to attack his assault from the rear. Not likely to happen now. Oh well. - Gibson Out.

Sadly he finally nailed that Churchill in the tree line that was immobilized. Will be interesting to see how many kills that Churchill got at the end of the game. Damn Panther took him out too. I suppose my initial success in this game has been because he did not lead with his Panthers. Now that I've seen a number of them, things could be vastly different. My Achilles on overwatch are well positioned. I've hit a Stug at range. We've exchanged a few rounds so I don't think he's dead. The Stug got a penetrating hit on me to little effect, thankfully. Here is a shot of my hitting him and then him hitting me. Things are heating up a bit on the railway crossing objective. I destroyed another half track and likely damaged a Stug and assault gun. Sadly, he got a lucky hit and immobilized a Churchill. Fun is going to start. I have a solid defence on this railway objective. However, I worry that my defence of the Town objective is not solid enough. He's attacking from two sides with tanks and infantry. I do have reserve armor but not a lot at this point. Just a troop or two of Achilles, the command group and another troop of Churchills and some recon cars. One possible outcome is that I manage to tie him up at the Town objective and destroy his attack on the Railway Crossing objective. Then I could try and attack his Road Crossing objective. He would never leave it undefended, but my reserves might be enough. We shall see. - Gibson out.

Sorry about that, I could have made it more obvious I guess. Glad you found him.

Oh ya! Score one for the Brits!

Well I feel like the Black Gate just opened up and the armies of Mordor are belching out. At this town objective, where he smoked my Staghound, he also smoked a Stuart and a mortar carrier crew I had left over which I sent to investigate. Now I can see there are at least 3 Panthers and a number of Stugs. That's the most Panthers I've seen in one place yet. This is what it looked like at the start of the turn. Remember, at this point I don't know what's there. Could be a bunch of trucks for all I know. This is where the Stuart bought it: And here is the largest amount of armor I've seen there yet: Seems perhaps the attack by the railway is a diversion and this is where the main force will come down. I will have to repoint the Achilles to face these guys and retreat my recon because I know what is coming and not much they can do about it. Speaking of Achilles, one of mine on overwatch took out a StuH 42. In the last second it went up in a spectacular explosion. You can see the shooter and target in opposite corners of this image: Now my immobilized Churchill might be experiencing his last few seconds of life. The fleeing Panther (and a buddy) are in among the smoking hulks of a bunch of dead Stugs. I had called this the dueling Chruchills. The Churchill bounced a round of a Panther but took a partial penetrating hit that killed the commander and paniced the crew. I give them 15 seconds of life remaining. We'll see. - Gibson Out

So not too much to report. Going to make it a quick one. More Stugs were zipping along the edge of the map to get around the town. My brave Churchill commander, the lone one left from the crew, fired his Sten at a couple of passing Stugs to make them button up. I was going to record it but it did not look that good after all. On the railway objective he destroyed a Stuart, I took out a half track and I think another Stug. Starting to heat up on this side, but still no real serious engagements. - Gibson Out.

1:40 Twenty minutes in. I predict another five minutes and things are going to get seriously hairy. So, his harassing artillery in the Railway Crossing objective is causing small causualties. Nothing worth noting. His assault is advancing. Again (yes again) he had a 20mm half track leading the charge. My Stuart took him out nicely at medium range. Surprisingly he has decided to cross out of his objective. If he had planned to that I would have expected him to do that a while ago. Fortunately my Staghound witnessed it (well more correctly heard it). Unfortunately the Stag and its crew are now dead and I did not get eyes on. No idea if its infantry, trucks or what. Time will tell. I'm moving the Churchill covering my immobilized one in that direction. I am also moving a Stuart or two in to interdict. The Staghound did his job and like so many of my recon vehicles they will recieve a posthomonous medal. Assault on the Town objective is beginning. He is moving two Stugs to flank the town. I have a troop of Churchills laying in wait for them behind a small rise. I have also advanced my Achilles on overwatch a bit so they have better LOS. - Gibson out.

After many, many more hits this turn that unstoppable Churchill is dead. Likewise the remaining tank in his troop that was just behind him is also dead. They survived withering fire. I just don't think they inflicted that much damage. Now he is free to deploy his convoy to assault the town. See the image below for an idea of how I have it defeated. The fleeing Panther really is fleeing. Either I scared the crap out of him or his gun is disabled. I'm hoping both. He is still pounding the railway with artillery and harrassing the town. He will be attacking soon from across the river. This is what my position looks like. I think in both cases I am well prepared. If [when] he sends in his infantry I'm expecting to shred him. Time will tell...

Churchills are even more amazing than I thought. Watch this video of one of my flanking Churchills taking multiples from multiple shooters and suffering multiple penetrations and still hang in there. Granted the driver is dead and the crew is finally panicking, but they are tough. Watch the video. Its amazing. http://youtu.be/aDyIJyouDFQ The flanking Panther must now be called the fleeing Panther. I took the HQ of the dead Churchill and moved them towards his last known position (yes, I bearded move, but war is hell...sorry). I was able to see him retreating his Panther. I can only hope that means his gun is disabled. Chicken! Artillery is still falling and still doing nothing. He is also dropping a few rounds on the objective with the railway crossing - to no effect. However, up near where the first barrage came down, he is moving in. One of my advanced Humbars got nailed and then the crew got gunned down without really seeing what happened. He's clearly assaulting so I must be careful. Also, my Stuart took from from a 105 assault gun and some Stugs. I'm reversing them. I hope he crosses the railroad and gets nailed by my waiting Achilles and Churchills. In the middle of the battlefield I got LOS on a truck with lots of infantry. I think a Stuart put a ton of MG fire threw it. Now it is backing up. Sucker! I'm causing mayhem for sure. However the true test is coming soon. He's going to assault my objectives and I can only hope that I have laid out a good defense. I still have a number of Churchills in reserve including the command group in case I need to reinforce. God save the King!

Well you'll have to see what Ian says on his thread. I can only estimate. I do not think it was random. He must have known that I had at least one Churchill there since I have been shredding Stugs from that position for a while. I don't think he knew I had 3 however. Will be interesting to compare notes when the game is over.

Nothing much to report this turn. Not images or videos necessary. His artillery barrage on the village near the Stuarts is doing nothing as is his artillery barrage near the Achilles. Useless. I see that the crew of the Stug bailed so the Achilles took it out last turn before dying. His flanking Panther is retreating down the tree line. No LOS. I sent my last good Churchill in that troop forward to hunt him, but he backed off. Chicken! In the flanking Churchills, my guys are the chickens. They have popped a lot of smoke and are backing up. One of my guys shrugged off a number of shells. Man these guys are tough when you are not facing King Tigers! So I'm not going to do too much. I know he's going to wait till his barrages finish before assaulting and I'm already ready. I might move up more Churchills into the town.

I have been using Fraps to capture videos and then processing them with Handbrake before uploading them to YouTube. If I have the time to do serious editing, I will use Adobe Premiere but that is only if I really want to add text or stitch some videos together. I have not been entirely happy with the results. They are often choppy and 'laggy'. What do you guys use and what settings do you use? Thanks for your thoughts.