dungeontiger

1:44 First, let me apologise for taking long to get tot this. I had some upgrades to my computer and that took me out for a few days and then I was distracted by the release of "Armor Kill" for Battlefield 3. I'm back now at. Not a good turn for me. Starting to lose Churchills. In the flanking Panther engagement it is amazing how dense the trees are. I think the did not see the immobilized panther right in front of him. My two Chruchills moved up but only one had LOS. First, I took out his commander, then he took out mine and destroyed me. He retreated. I debated whether or not to send out the remaining Chruchill to chase him. I figured I should. Let's see what happens next turn. Likely he will die. Here is a screen shot at the beginning of the turn: Here are a couple of screen shots in the middle of the turn. I managed to kill a crewman in the Panther. He managed to kill on Churchill before retreating into the woods. Here is a video of the engagement. http://youtu.be/JPGK-rMGt-8 The flanking Chruchill engagement did not go well. Lost a Chruchill there too. Plus my guys started bouncing shells off Stugs instead of killing them. Here's a video of that. http://youtu.be/Og0FMHyealc Now I also had orders / movement issues this turn. I love this game and it is brilliant, but sometimes the movement AI is foobarred. Even in the last video you can see a little bit of it. I would expect some erratic movement and confusion because you cannot see much from within those tanks. However no tanker in his right mind would drive like this: http://youtu.be/gjizzIE16qQ I call that video "Dumb Churchill turning his ass toward the enemy and backuping up" Here's a better one. I told this Achilles to get his ass behind the tree line, not ahead of it. He was about one or two tank lengths too far out on the ridge. My mistake of course, I should have been more careful with this positioning. However, now he drives in a complete 360 to get there while under an artillery barrage and fire from a Panther. He dies a well deserved death. http://youtu.be/hNKGVQ9Sh_s Yes, artilley is falling. He did have some. He made some good guesses about where to drop it but I don't think it will make a difference. The first barrage is one the railway near the small village across the river. I have a number of Stuarts clustered there but seem to be out of the barrage. It is possible that he is going to walk the rail line. If he does, I will have to move my Achilles and Churchill off the rail line till the rain stops. The second barrage is on the ridge where I had the Achilles. The interesting thing is that on this ridge, I had a set of Achilles last game against Ian that made a mess of his King Tigers. So he figured that I would put more there this game so he targeted a barrage there. Fortunately for me, the Achilles are farther along the ridge this time so his is missing...except for that one rotating Achilles that is out of position. Oh well. At least he will think he's nailing an entire troop. I edited my giant overview map to show roughly where the artillery is falling. There are two areas marked in yellow. BTW, I figured out why I was only able to capture 1 FPS last turn...I was trying to get too much of a broad shot to show the battle. Seems my [massive] computer cannot handle that. So, I will just have to do close in videos. You can see that even with the ones I have posted here they get choppy at times. BTW, my computer is a Vista-64 machine with an Intel i7 quad core and 12 GB of RAM. Plus I have new Radeon 4600 Series HD card. Scary. However I'm still not happy with my encoding (you can see that the videos in this message are all different settings as I try stuff out). I'm going to ask on the forum what people do for video.

Thanks! Having an epic sized battle is seriously fun and its even more fun to share with everyone as it unfolds.

You rock! Thanks for the feedback.

Good point. Opps. We'll see what happens now.... Thanks for the compliments!

First, sorry no videos this turn. For some reason I could not capture more than 1 FPS. Watching the turn I would get 33 but as soon as I turn on recording it would chug. I will try to figure out what is going on. Even rebooting did not help. So, you'll just have to be satisfied with the giant overview image for now. Just to be clear, that image is the beginning of this turn - 1:45 - that is. As expected, the Daimler in the convoy battle bought the farm. Sad but true. The element of surprise is lost now. He is screaming some Stugs ahead of the convoy to meet my flanking Churchills. I'm actually surprised that he is putting them so far out in front but I guess he wants to be sure I don't get to his soft underbelly...the infantry on trucks. We exchanged a number of rounds to no effect other than chopping trees. I learned that from Ian in previous games...trees are your friends. Even if they mess with your rounds, its still better to be in them. In the dueling engagement between the Churchills and the Stugs across the field, I scored a number of other penetrating hits. Still no smoking hulks but its gotta hurt none the less. That immobilized Churchill is still doing his job. I'm proud of that crew. Having high motivation, veteran troops clearly makes a huge difference. Normally my less experienced / motivated crews bail. The flanking panther is well within pouncing range now on that immobilized tank. I'd like to have him spin his turrent to face that direction, but the face comment is disabled when the tank is immobilized. Not fair! The trees must be really dense since I only have a sound contact and he's right there. The two troop mates of the immobilized tank are already facing the correct direction but again have very limited line of sight due to trees. I've ordered them to advance right up to the immobilized tank to defend him. Can the two Churchills defeat the Panther head on? I don't know. What I do know is that Panther is fully capable of eating my three Churchills in one turn. In the last second of the turn I hear the screaming artillery sound. Damn intelligence! They said there was no opposing artillery! [ian and I engage in a large amount of psychological warfare and misinformation. I think this time he really did follow me and is calling artillery].

Thanks. That made my day and made it worth all the effort. :-)

I spent far too long creating this overview image. I won't do this often. Maybe every 10 minutes of game play at most. Still, it is helpful for me as much as showing you guys what is happening. Since this is the first time I did this, tell me what you think. Can you get anything useful from it? Is the quality too low? Note that it is not perfect. I manual stitched the images together in Photoshop. The screen shots and icons did not perfectly match in all cases. I think icons near the edge of the screen might move when you move the camera and that messes things up a little. It would be really nice if they provided a way to get this single image in the game since it is helpful for the player. Oh well. So here's the image, comments after: So I have the railway objective locked down. All the approaches are covered by Achilles and Churchills. Also I have advanced scouts across the river to warn me of when he launches his assault. I had expected it sooner. Perhaps I scared him when I smoked his halftracks! Looks like he is trying to get his infantry in front and / or is waiting for artillery (which would suck, no artillery please). Below that you can see the area where my troop of Chruchills has been dueling with a number of Stugs and the flanking Panther he sent around to get me. The Churchills caused some damage on the Stugs, I just don't know how much. You can see that the convoy was set out to attack the town. I'm really glad I intercepted that before it got there. I'd rather fight him out there instead of in the streets. My troop of flanking Churchills can hopefully inflict more damage and delay on that convoy. The town is locked down good too. I have a squadron of Achilles on overwatch looking down at the approach to the town. Inside the town I have solid armor and recon. I'm sending more Achilles and Churchills from the reserve around the town toward the area where the flanking Chruchills came from. They can either interdict the convoy if they get there early enough or attack it from the rear if he is already assaulting the town. I might make a few short videos before issuing orders for this turn. Gibson out!

So I watched the next turn from my opponent but have not issued orders yet. What I am doing is creating a giant composite bird's eye image of the battlefield. Its getting hairy and even hard for me to follow so this will help a lot. I plan to have that finished today. So what happened in the turn? My Daimler got nailed from the Stug right in front of him as expected. The mighty Churchill continues to shrug off 75mm shells and get penetrating hits on Stugs. Details soon.

Yes he did. Very cool, too bad next turn, as expected, the Stug smoked him. :-(

For the Daimler at the convoy battle, not only did he live, he got a penetrating side hit on a Stug! The Stug retreated so its not dead...I just hope it is combat ineffective. However, he bounced a ton of MG rounds off another Stug that is slowly traversing to face it....they were face to face in the last second. I'm guessing the Daimler is going to die in the first few seconds of the next turn. Unlikely the Stug is going to miss at that range. I guess I can only hope he gets a shell that passes straight through it. That happens sometimes with high velocity shells and thin armor. Never one to give up, I ordered it to fast move toward the convoy and the road this time. I'm hoping the trees provide cover if he survives against that Stug. Also, it seems to be the fastest way to get out of the Sug's covered arc. You can watch the action in this video: http://youtu.be/hVvcO1cBocY Here's an embedded image (yes, an embedded image!) showing the final state of things. Now there is an interesting battle going on between a line abreast troop of Chruchills and a ton of Stugs and a few Panthers. It has been going on for a couple of turns now. I think I have mangled a few Stugs though it is hard to say since there are no burning hulks [yet]. I did get a penetrating hit on the turret of a Panther...what luck that was! Let's hope he's combat ineffective too. One of the Stugs did hit my Chruchill and immobilize it...that's the first real damage I've had on my major combat units. NOTE: I consider my major units to be the Churchills and the Achilles. I can tolerate losses of other units but not these guys. Now he is zooming another Panther around to try and flank me. I can't move the immobilized unit, so instead I'm just turning his two troop-mates to face him. It could end very bad for me. We'll see. He's a screenshot of the end of turn showing the Chruchills and the flanking Panther: Here's another shot of the flanking Panther to give a perspective of where the battle is at: The convoy where I destroyed the two half tracks seems to have stalled...maybe now I regret having no artillery. In any case it is giving me time to prepare. I have all the lane ways and road ways covered. Anything coming into view is going to get nailed by an Achilles (those guys are deadly) or a Churchill. He can't attack head on. He's nuts. If he's smart, he will flank me by approaching from where the flanking Panther is. Maybe that is what he intended to do and I disrupted him. I don't know. Here's a shot of what my setup looks like: Overall I am doing not bad. Better than I expected. I have interdicted his convoy and caused havoc with a few recon vehicles. I have stalled his convoy of assault near the railway crossing and I hold all the objectives. Well, one of them, the road crossing is just a Staghound touching the edge but it still counts. I think I have the initiative and so far I am happy with my choice of units. Not missing infantry yet. Thanks for watching! Its starting to get exciting.

First let's talk about that convoy. From my perspective it did not go so well for me. I had hoped to chew up a number of trucks with the Bren but it was not meant to be. Seems there were way more Stugs then I expected. Also, I had thought that I was at the end of the convoy but seems I was in the middle. Watch the poor Humbar turn around only to get nailed from the rear: http://youtu.be/iy-20QEI8OE In this video you can watch down the road and clearly see the Germans scrambling to dismount their trucks. They take a lot of fire from the Daimler that is approaching so that's not too bad. Note that the audio is awesome in this clip. You can hear the gun blasts, the ricochets and the crackling fire. http://youtu.be/DKr2neAdRgE This last video is taken from a higher angle and shows the context of the battle. You can see the railway objective in the upper right hand of the screen and the road crossing objective just at the edge of the upper left. You can also see the TON of armor units I have just in this one location. This is a MASSIVE engagement. http://youtu.be/h4PYz07Lm1w Intel reports [meaning I squeezed it from my opponent] that he did take some bad casualties. I'm not so sure since for him bad casualties are any casualties. I want serious blood! He did say too that he had some blue-on-blue casualties so at least I caused lots of confusion. That's good. The convoy is stalled and they are shooting at each other. So if you look carefully, I had 4 recon cars approach the convoy. I only have one left. He"s up close and surrounded by assault guns. The best thing to do I think is reverse. I hope he can survive, but I don't expect it. And just for fun, here is a short video of a Stuart going up against 2 Stugs and losing....complete with screaming crew at the end (might not come through in conversion). http://youtu.be/HHnDxURXj4M I have a turn waiting for me so I will check it out now. In consideration of the recent comments on the thread I will try to do a mix of screenshots and videos.

Understood. That's why I asked. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

OK. I understand. I'll try to do a mix then. This big turn though is all videos. Works best to see the dynamic nature of this turn. Will be up soon.

Excellent!

You guys must be good luck. I never have this much success against Ian. First fun news is that the troop of Churchills I moved out of cover bagged a Stug. First a Panther fired at them and missed, then the Stug fired a number of rounds and missed badly...well one hit the wheels to no effect. The Churchill crew stood there ground (I hate that phrase now) and fired back getting a penetrating hit. I believe the Stug in the background getting a weapon mount hit was from one of my Stuarts. I'm reversing him....a 37mm at that range cannot take out a Stug. Here's the video of the exchange: http://youtu.be/ttK1Le-qjL4 The next bit of news is even more exciting...and intense. One of my advanced scouts stumbles into a German convoy. What luck! It was the last few seconds of the turn so no fire yet...just anticipation! Watch it unfold in the video below: http://youtu.be/nGGHGHF3ouo I ordered the Humbar to wheel around and go up the road a bit. Its only got a Bren so I don't know how much havoc I can cause. It will be interesting. Clearly he is going to dismount his infantry. I hope surprise counts for something. Also, at the head of the convoy he has at least one Stug. I hope I can decimate the platoon before he can wheel around and get me. The far armored car near the top of the video is a Daimler II with a 40mm gun. I also have another Humbar with a Bren close. I don't know if they can get there in time to do anything but I'm trying. Watch next turn...its going to be something. Usually Ian plays his turns early in the morning and I play mine in the evening. Perhaps tomorrow morning you can see what happens in his thread from his point of view and mine later that night. (fingers crossed)

Question: Do you guys like the videos or not? I will probably do some no matter what because I know Ian likes to watch them after the fact, however, if you guys are not really interested I won't do as many. If you are not interested in videos I will just take a few screen caps instead. Let me know if you have an opinion. Thanks for following!

Yes I see. Sorry for the trouble. I did not realize (or remember) that I could put html in here. I should have done that in the first place. Future images will be done this way (as you suggested). This turn however will not have them. My screencaps did not work well. Instead I have a couple of videos. I'm processing them now with handbrake.

Nothing much to show for these two turns. I just see more contacts and I am moving out more units to met the threat. I hear from my opponent that the next turn (he sees the results before me) that stuff got real. So, I will be checking that turn out tonight and maybe posting some exciting videos or images.

Nothing too exciting. He's got a large convoy of vehicles come up behind the half tracks I wiped out. I'm taking another 2 troops of Chruchills out of reserve and moving up to this location. I'm also retreating the 3 Stuarts so they don't get taken out but the armor in his convoy. Also, he seems to have gotten a few Stugs across the river and near the town. Bad news.

You might find this entertaining. http://youtu.be/NHxcX08aRJs Note I hate videos. I have lots of trouble figuring out which format to convert it too. I created this in Adobe Premerie and converted it using Handbrake. It is very dark but remember this is at dawn and I did up the brightness significantly in the video. It captured darker (with Fraps) than what I see on my screen.

I just wanted to add a note here to remind everyone that this weekend was the 70th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid. I don't think I have to tell people here what happened and why it is important day to remember for Canadians. Instead, I wanted to say "we remember" and "thanks" to those who participated.

I'm very pleased with the performance of my Stuart crew. Not only did they manage to get that 20mm half track they were hunting, they also managed to bag another in the process and wiped out all the fleeing crew members to boot! Kind of mean they nailed the last crew member with the main gun.... I'm working on posting a video. He's lost his forward eyes which is nice and I can see a convoy of stuff coming in behind the dead half tracks. I need to get some serious fire power over there...3 Stuarts, no matter how well crewed, cannot handle Panthers. My troop of Churchills I dispatched is just about to cross the river and be in position in time. If not, I will retreat the Stuarts and wait for him to assault the Railway objective and face 4 Achilles waiting in ambush. In the center of the map, near the Road crossing my White scout car took fire and eventually died. I did not see the shooter but I suspect it is from the same group of Stugs that nailed the Staghound. Near the Town object is a sound contact of some sort. I'm not pleased that something made it there without my knowledge. I need to know what is is. I'm taking another troop of scout cars out of reserve and sending them to investigate. The Stuarts in the town are closer, but I want to leave them there just in case something else pops up.

Not for me...."When a man with a Staghound mets a man with a Stug, the man with the Stug always wins..." [Clint Eastwood fans will get the reference]. The Stag did its job and spotted his defenses, it just was not supposed to die. He has at least one Stug nicely positioned in a treeline on overwatch. His first shot went high and landed behind the Stag. The Stag still did not spot the shooter. I cannot blame the 7 second spotting cycle for this one. The Stug is well hidden. The second shot penetrated and went right through. You can see that since there is a second giant hole behind him. At this point the Stug is spotted by the 3rd shot takes out the Stag. First blood for the Germans. http://kingtigerbooks.com/combat_mission/epic1_53_stag_hit.jpg For the half track I was hunting, I messed up the orders - I issued a hunt order which is next to useless in this game (in my opinion). The Stuart advanced, caught a fleeting glance of the half track screaming away and stopped. It then lost contact and sat there. What I wanted of course, was for it to keep going. This turn I issued a fast move order. He's also screaming ahead into the the waiting arms of the other two Stuarts in the troop. Clearly he's scouting and I'm going to make him pay eventually. http://kingtigerbooks.com/combat_mission/epic1_53_railway.jpg As a side note, the orders in this game need to get more complex. Don't get me wrong, I'm not slagging the game - its the best out there - but it can always be improved. On the Town side, there are still not contacts and I have good sighting. This could mean that he's going to level the area with artillery soon (remember we have an agreed upon 10 or 15 minute delay on artillery). In the last epic battle we did on this map, I leveled (I mean LEVELED) the town with battleship artillery. Either he's afraid I'm going to do it again or he's planning on hitting me with large caliber rockets. http://kingtigerbooks.com/combat_mission/epic1_53_town_no_contact.jpg Still its an opportunity I don't think I can afford to miss. I'm going to send a force of Chruchills and Achilles around and either ambush him or go after the Road crossing. The force is screened with a troop of armored cars so I should not be surprised like King Tigers or something. http://kingtigerbooks.com/combat_mission/epic1_53_town_plan.jpg

Well that 20mm half track sure wants to die. He drove right past my Stuart forward scout. Why did he drive right past me and I only spot him after? Probably that lame 7 second spotting interval. They should really drop that for play my email games. Annoying. Anyway, ordered the Stuart to hunt him down. http://kingtigerbooks.com/combat_mission/epic1_54.jpg I'm tempted to send a whole ton of Churchills across the river to intercept him, however, this may just be a feint. His main force might be going toward the Town, not the Railway. In the Town I am positioning a Stuart to watch the approach and sending some more armored cars around to see if he has sent anything this way. No other contacts yet.

The Mighty Chruchill! That Panther managed to get 3 shots off at my Chruchill. The first 2 hit the turret to no effect. That's impressive in my books. The third shot when high and missed just before my Churchill dropped to lower terrain and the Panther lost LOS. A new contact near where that half track was - a Stug III. Personally, those are my favorite weapons in the game. I've lost a few due to not having a turret, but I think the low profile is worth it. I will have to be careful with those. So it seems that his main force is going to cut across and attack the Road objective. I am sending a few more troops of Churchills to renforce. I'm trying to decide which is the best place for me to engage him. Since I reached the objective first and have advanced scouts, I can choose the terrain. I haven't yet found a nice location to cover the approaches. When I do, I will put the Achilles there. I think, so far, I have the tactical advantage. My scouts are ahead and nothing can get by without me spotting it and I hold 2 out of three objectives. Going to be interesting.