Bud Backer

In April 2019 @Vanir Ausf B posted the below which I paraphrased: 
 
1) Friendly vehicles never block LOS/LOF for other friendly vehicles.
2) Operable enemy vehicles block LOF, but not LOS, from friendly vehicles.
3) Non-smoking KO'd vehicles do not block LOS/LOF for friendly or enemy vehicles.
4) Non-smoking KO'd vehicles block LOF, but not LOS, from any unit as long as the targeted unit is not a vehicle (ie: tank shooting at infantry or infantry shooting at infantry)
5) Smoking vehicles block LOS and LOF.
6) "Vehicles" means tanks, SP guns, and AT/Anti-personnel guns.

Glorious March to Victory Post # 10 - "The Nadir" (21-24)
  So in every engagement it is normal to have a low-point and for my troops this was right here.  Everything that can go wrong, does, and nothing really goes right.  Worse, it is the point that you can clearly see your mistakes...after you have already made them.  I have found that in this position it is where the true mettle (and metal) is tested and one must 1) admit the errors and 2) come up with a way out, cause no one else is not going to do it for you.
   So the decent started pretty innocently enough in turn 21:

That brave little BMP that is responsible for probably half the damage I have done to Bil thus far did not make it out.  It was completely out of AT3s by this point but I wanted that little crew to make it...sadly...

So at this point I am still pushing up that ridge in pursuit of Bil's forces.  My aim here is to keep the old man on his back feet in order to make sure he does not collect enough combat power to re-take the objective...and to kill as much as possible with a pretty potent force.  But then badness started to happen:

Ok, despite being on the wrong end of things, this shot is really cool.  That is a newly modeled Dragon missile about to take out a T62...oh, yes that's right, Bil has Dragons.

And they work.   Then down in the village:

Bil's creeping tank platoon sees one of my T62s first and well...ok, I can live with this.  Going to have to break a few tanks to make a tank omelet.   But as we move into Turn 22 it is time to admit that I have a long standing problem:

Yep, I am an over-extender always have been.  I do not know why the siren song of the offence always pull me in but it does.  And here it is in action.  My armor is taking off on my infantry in the best blitz tradition...and it is not a good thing.  But all is not bad news:

Down in the town, my second T62 takes out another M60.  So all in all, I tell myself, it is not that bad....oh foolish past The_Capt....so foolish.  Turn 23...sigh:

Right about here it dawns on me that maybe charging forward was a bad idea.  That is a second Dragon kill.  So I am thinking about holding up and letting my infantry catch up, right about here.  It is not all bad news though:

As the Soviet player, that is a very happy screen shot.  My MANPADs are doing their job.  But then I notice this:

Ya, so all those other icons up on the hill I have been tracking...but that is a new one and it is very bad news.  So I swing a couple T62s and a BMP over because maybe Bill is scratching around the backdoor.
Turn 24: as with most of these things...just a little too late.  An extra 30 seconds maybe but Bil's last tank platoon looks to have finally showed up.  Of course I suspected there was another one up here and of course it shows up in exactly the wrong place, at the wrong time.  And from here it just get uglier:

This is an interesting shot actually, first that is a second T62 (so 4 lost on that hill in about 3 mins) dying, but that is also a 73mm BMP 1 round actually hitting and penetrating an M60 (I think it was HEAT)...but not enough by a long shot:

So here the gods of war clearly are punishing me.  That BMP died for trying but those two explosions are AT3s that both miss (seriously?!)
Ok, so 'new plan' cause the old one clearly was not working.  I am going to have to swing what is left of my Teeth (now with quite a few knocked out....see that last BMP dying on the far right) and consolidate on the hilltop.  I will fend off this tank platoon, while at the same time really dig in on the objective.  The sad part is that right about here, I am out of offensive options.  I will need to play defense from here on out and am basically fighting to hold the objective.  
By this point I have a couple M60 kills, Bils M150s are pretty depleted, a couple M113s and a some scouts...oh and a Cobra.  That is not enough for 5 x T62s (half my force) and 2 x BMPs.  At least my screens and infantry are intact.  A side-note, Bil is really obsessed with the outskirts of the objective (that hashed blue line) and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.  Seriously, we are quite a few turns ahead as of writing this and he spends the next ten minute pounding the same  peice of real-estate, that basically has a single squad and MG team trapped in it.
Anyway, live, learn and love and all that.  I will post up the next series tomorrow...things do get better.
 

The Twenty-Third & Twenty-Fourth Minutes – Saga of Tank Section 1
“If the tanks succeed, then victory follows.”
Heinz Guderian
 
Tank Section 1... quite an exciting turn to watch actually... well, it was for me.   
As tank 1/8 came around the corner it immediately spotted a T-62 presenting its flank.  It appears that Warren did not see their approach!! 


Kill 1 - T-62 While the crew of 1/8 was exchanging high-fives a BMP-1 popped into shooting range and fired it's gun... which surprisingly hit 1/8 and penetrated! 
 


Though shocked and surprised 1/8's crew got its siht together, neatly pivoted its turret and destroyed the BMP.  Damage from the BMP's gun  round was minor, though the crew would remain shocked for the remainder of the turn and would start to withdraw in the next.

Kill 2 - BMP-1 Tank 1/9 drove up alongside 1/8 and while it was dealing with the BMP, 1/9 spotted and destroyed another T-62... these were almost simultaneous actions.


Kill - 3 T-62 So overall a successful foray.  Warren did have some infantry teams in this area by the way... luckily none were in position to attack my tanks and they were following his armor up the hill.  After these two turns some of these teams started skedaddling back to the woods.
Tank Section 1 will now withdraw a bit and wait to see what Warren's response is.
 
One of the Dragon teams joined in the fun launching a Dragon at another BMP.


 
After these turns Warren started to pull back on this approach. The following image shows his high-water mark...  if he had kept pushing he would have run into my three M-150's kill zones... Warren's foremost BMP was meters from entering the killing zone of the M-150 shown in this image when it started to retreat.
The three surviving Dragon teams are withdrawing to their next line, in case the Soviets decide to push their luck.

Glorious March to Victory Post # 9 - "7th Outing Stretching" (19-20)
Ok, when I last left you, we had taken out one M60 and had a bead on the second...and of course it missed:

Well it wouldn't be a CM game if the gods of war were not against me.
Anyway  Not much really happens more this turn as we continue to position:

A shot on my left flank where I thought Bil was going to keep pushing (more on this later):

My heavy mortars are finally landing along that ridge, just as my teeth are starting push up the ridge, I hope they are causing someone pain.

So by end turn it all looks good, I am solidifying the position in the town.  Forces are advancing up the ridge unmolested  and I am pretty confident of my cover on Bil's axis of advance....and then I noticed this:

So that is a TOW missile streaking towards one of my few remaining T64s....
Turn 20.
  Well it would not be a CM game if the gods of war were not with me:

The basic TOW (the M901s are firing ITOW) did not penetrate my T64 but did immobilize it.  The good news is that in its current position it can still cover the ridgeline...so lemonade!  (Oh, check out the interface, it is really starting to shape up)
Ok, so turn 20 and mid-game...and Bil is getting weird:

It looks like he is hooking that tank platoon towards the town...which kinda left me scratching my head a bit.  For the rest of the turn we traded a lot of steel across the valley (you can see that little BMP-that-could's last AT 3 streaking at those M60s...and of course it missed).  Besides me bagging a hapless M113 on the ridge, most of the rest of the turn is positioning:

You can see here that my teeth are up out of that tree line and are ready to start fanning out, I am about as good a position as I can get in the town as that second dismounted infl platoon has managed to get into the objective zone pretty much unmolested.  So time for a mid-game assessment:

So basically, I was worried that Bil was going to push a tank platoon, or more into A0.  This would have been very bad for me, as from that position they can  1) pound the town unmolested and 2) make life for my Teeth miserable as I would have to watch their back and front.  Instead Bil looks like he is taking A1 route, which is really kind of strange but I am sure there is a clever ploy here somewhere.  A1 is semi-covered.  My screen S1 cannot see it until it is right in the town, but S2 will get some clean shots.  I also repositioned both infantry and 2 x T62s to cover this approach.  So basically, I am not sure what Bil is hoping to do with 3 x M60s in closing terrain here.  My next biggest concern is him making a hard push on A2 with that second tank platoon.  I also have infantry and a single T62 in the town on this route but S1 can cover it very well.  A2 has more cover if he uses the wood line but again we are talking almost entirely tanks trying to take a built up area.  
If you look on the bottom left there is that worried looking blue guy, that is scouts and APCs that appear to be lining up for some sort of woods push but between my Teeth and that little det of recon, I am pretty sure I can keep them busy.  Again keeping in mind there is probably another troop of armor up on that ridge somewhere. 
So here at mid-game, I expect Bil to use whatever is left of his arty (which still has DPICM) to pound the town in a hope all my infantry die so he can drive in with tanks and few scouts.  I have laid down two arty lines perpendicular to A2 approach but they are around 15mins out.  I have spread my infantry out on ground floors, mostly hiding to weather the arty and will keep my screens S1 and S2 up to make life difficult in the approach.  
My Teeth are going to push towards those scouts and APCs, but I always have the option to swing them towards A2 if Bil makes a push.  Bils dilemma right now is that he cannot seem to get enough combat power into the town and cover my Teeth at the same time...let's see how long we can keep it up.

M60A1 comes loaded with four rounds of WP. That means a tank platoon's got 20 rounds of smoke at its disposal. If you're looking to make a 'bold tactical move' you might be able to accomplish it behind a smoke screen.

The Nineteenth & Twentieth Minutes
“The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions”
A Book of Five Rings - Miyomoto Musashi

Starting to get HOT... this is a long one.. so buckle up!!  
These two minutes of action unfold a lot of important developments for this battle.  On my right, 2nd Platoon/s tanks made it to the low ground that composes the Short Option...

...one of them gets a spot on Warren's star killer BMP-1P in the treeline across the map and after some back and forth missed shots it finally lands one... damn fine shooting for a vanilla M-60A1 on the move.

 
One of 3rd Platoon's M-150s spots and fires at the T-64A that was beaten up by 1st Platoon's Tank Section 2 last turn (and again in these turns) as it withdrew through the woods into the open ground... the M-150 does hit with its TOW.. but the T-64 shrugged off even that blow.  However.. I would be surprised if any of Warren'e two surviving T-64As have a working gun now.  


 
On my left Warren is indeed up to something, the action was preceded by an artillery strike on the the woods in this area.  Sadly the only casualty was the Scout team that was calling in my Cluster mission... isn't that the way it always works?

...initially three BMP-1s and two T-62s broke cover.

The 2nd Platoon leader team fired a Dragon at one of the BMPs.. which missed long.


The BMP then oriented on the 2nd platoon Leader's M113, which was caught too far forward and put one gun round through it's front armor... killing the vehicle and it's crew.


 
After reloading, 2nd PL's Dragon gunner took aim at the T-62 traveling with the BMP and succeeded in killing it.  FYI, the Dragon firing animation is still a work in progress, so I am keeping zoomed out from it.  Hopefully losing this tank will make Warren pause or change his tack towards my Scout teams.

Remember that my units on my far left were originally meant as a decoy.. and hopefully his attack will orient itself on them and away from my main combat power. 
 
By the end of the twentieth minute there were five T-62s (including the dead one) and five BMP-1s identified... so I think at least two Platoons of tanks and two platoons of BMPs.  I suspect these BMPs do not contain any infantry, so this is probably meant as an armored raid into my rear.  That's how I see it at this point in the game anyway.

I have started moving 1st Platoon's Tank Section 1 across the map to hopefully hit his attacking force in the flank, or better.. the rear.  It'll take a few minutes for them to get into a position where they can begin hunting.

 
Back on my right, Warren has pushed at least one T-62 forward to blunt my tanks coming up the stream route.  Spotted by the same M-60A1 that just took out the BMP, with this result:


So to recap... if Warren pushes towards my Scout teams on my far left.. then that suits me.  It's less fire power for him to devote to blunting my tank movement on my right. 

My scouts and M-150s (which are withdrawing as fast as they can) will transition into a Delay operation now.
 
Final bit of action... on my right, 1st Platoon's 2nd Tank Section (tank 1/7) took a penetrating hit from the T-64B across the valley (should be the final undamaged T-64 on the map).  The M-60 suffers one casualty and minor damage.  Damn... well hopefully I can pull it out of the line before it gets hit again.

The Fifteenth through Seventeenth Minutes
“I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack."
Isoroku Yamamoto
 
The fifteenth minute saw the loss of another M-150.. I swear the track of that ATGM fired from the BMP-1P... it's like magic the way it hugs the ground comes over the top of the hill and hits him in the lower hull.. must be a crack gunner!  Pretty sure I was hull-down to that BMP and T-64B too.  C'est la guerre. 

Pushing on... 
So over the next few turns Warren, who has finally figured out that the central approach is masked from my view, has been pushing his T-62 Company and some BMPs far forward...

...is he planning on defending the town?  Pushing into my rear area?  If the latter.. then I have no defense.  Just don't have the combat power available to fight off a determined push. 
What to do.. what to do... well first of all, I need to confirm one or the other.  If I need to react and push some support units over towards my M-60s for protection then so be it, but I plan to continue my movement with the tanks.  That, hopefully, will force him to redeploy the assets in the center, maybe weaken any attack into my rear area.
In the above image.. note the contact icon (BMP) which Warren has pushed forward... very close to one of my Dragon teams.  Bad news.. the visibility here is very dodgy and it'll be tough to get eyes on that BMP unless it moves forward.  I am pretty sure this is one of his remaining BMP-1P's that I lost sight of a few turns ago.  Probably followed up by the BRM-1.

Appreciate the feedback!  I would love to do the Deep option.. however those three BMPs and the T-64A would eat me alive without something substantial to suppress/distract them.  It's a long drive from the assemble area to the attack point... and all of it within his line of fire.  
I am thinking of doing the Short Option and then seeing how he reacts.. a strong reaction might just leave the Deep option available for a second phase of this movement... regardless the Short option would get his attention, and I could flank the line those BMPs and T-64A are sitting on... he would have to dislodge them.  
Just got back from a little trip, I will try to get the next turn report up soon, as there have been some developments that could force me to move my tanks out earlier than I had planned.  Coming soon!
Bil

The Fourteenth Minute - Spoiling Attack Plan
“Be like water making its way through cracks.
Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.”
Bruce Lee
Bruce said it… “…adjust to the object…”, that is how I play… remaining flexible and adjusting my planning according to the enemy position and movements.  For several turns now I have been building to something… and the moment is close to when I put it all into action.
The 14th Minute
This one changed the battlefield calculus some.  Warren has moved a BMP-1 platoon and the surviving, undamaged T-64A to the tree-line overlooking the approach I wanted to move my M-60s down.  This complicates the approach, but doesn’t change my mind.  I may have to delay my move for a few turns so I can drop a mix of cluster munitions and standard artillery on this position.  But then again... I may start a movement through some masked terrain, or under a smoke screen to keep him busy and interested.

I don’t know if Warren has spotted my tanks starting to assemble, or if this is in reaction to my 1st platoon tanks, which up to this point have been pretty effective.  From that position though, Warren cannot spot my 1st Platoon tanks, so he is probably attempting to close his left flank.   
In this turn I had moved my 2nd Platoon Tank Hunters forward into Hull Down positions to cover the center-right of Warren’s force.  Immediately the M150 highlighted below spotted and fired one TOW at the BMP-1P indicated.  It missed long but is reloading for another shot next turn.

 
Spoiling Attack Plan
My initial goal in this fight was to clear Warren’s left flank (my right) and open it up for a tank heavy spoiling attack into his center. 
I am not interested in the Dolbach objective... my objective is the Soviet force.  My intent is to kill as much of his long range firepower as possible, then his infantry won’t matter.    

All of my positioning up to now was in support of this move.  The 2nd and 3rd Platoon’s tanks have joined the 1st Platoon’s tanks on my right and are currently in their assembly area, or entering it.  What I wanted to do was, using my 1st Platoon tanks as over-watch, drive all eight of the 2nd and 3rd Platoon tanks deep into Warren’s left flank and then drive toward the center, disrupting his assault on Dolbach and hopefully attrit him to the point where his combat power is significantly reduced.
The way I see it I have two Courses of Action (COAs):
COA 1 – Deep Attack.  This was what I had hoped to do, but with Warren’s flank security position this one comes with increased danger for my tanks. COA 2 – Short Attack.  I actually like this one as well, it will unhinge Warren’s flank security and force him to react to my move, plus it will provide some pressure on the center and Dolbach. Follow on Force.  Regardless of which COA I decide on, I do intend to follow the 2nd and 3rd Platoon tanks with 1st Platoon’s tanks as indicated in the planning map below.
I have moved two platoons worth of scouts to my left flank for a dual role:
As a decoy force The scouts, armed with Dragons as flank security and a reserve I have called in my attack helicopter support on the main enemy assembly area, but that is still several minutes away. 

Canister or Beehive rounds are terrifying, and yes, 400m is a good number. We practiced with them in our 105 artillery battery. They would be used in an artillery battery for last ditch self defense. A battery of 6 guns firing a volley of Beehive rounds to the front will turn anything not armored out there to mince meat. Imagine an infantry company trying to assault the battery and facing 60000 flechettes flying through the air.  And then a second volley for anything still moving. 
For a tank, it could be used in assault but also as close defense if you had dismounted infantry attacking. 
Of course it you are in the artillery and ever have to use them it means that things are really, really FUBAR.
Dave

March to Glorious Victory Post #7 - "Take Me Out to Decadent Capitalist Balls Game" (16-17)
Short update/follow up:

So at the end of turn 17, that is 10 T62s, 7 BMPs, 2 x dismounted inf pls, 1 x mounted inf pl and some scouts on the other side of the valley...I think we can call this a horde.  Total casualties were 4 infantrymen.
So plan now is pretty simple.  I am going to shore up the town with the dismounted infantry and a tank platoon.  A counter-attack for them is a certainty.  I will also leave the covering force in place for now.
The rest of the force, 7xT62s, the BMPs and an infantry platoon are going to push up Slot 2 and execute the "Kill Bil" portion of the plan.  I can see an armor icon up there so my guess is Bil has a tank platoon with M150s on that ridge and two tank platoons on the left.  I am going to get all up into Bil's business up top and then work my way to the left.  Bil can either get in the game or just keep hiding out in that wood line.  Not sure how this will end but I am getting the value of Soviet doctrine, they were not interested in playing "hidy-peeky-blamo", more "blamo-charge-more blamo"

March to Glorious Victory - Post #6  "The Devil's Red Right Hand" (12-15)
First off I apologize for the long return on this one, beyond Bil's glacial return pace, the main reason is that nothing really happened on the Soviet side of this thing.  I am sure Bil is doing a frame-by-frame Warren Commission-esque analysis (because that is what int nerds do) but frankly he has already missed his early victory boat.
When I left you we were discussing options and landed on the least suicidal of the bunch given the somewhat less-than-optimal starting position.
The only question left is "what will Bil do?".  I have thoughts on this but let's leave them til the end (someone remind me if I forget).
So the only interesting thing to happen before the big push was the loss of another T64

This little fella bought in on my left, which was unfortunate but I also observed something interesting before the kill.  

These two T64s soaked up over a dozen hits between them from those M60s on the ridge.  Clearly not bullet proof but from the front these beast are very hard to kill.  This also speaks well for the Plan, as I would rather Bils tanks pinging off my T64s rather than killing my BMPs and T-62s. 
So here was ol Bil's shot to end this thing about 13-14 mins in:

You can see here we are all bunched up moving into position for the slot.  If Bil had DPICM'd this traffic jam, that pretty much would  have been it.  The bridge may have saved a couple but it would have been a bloody massacre.
But he missed that boat.

Turn 14 and I can start to breathe, the troops moving up the slot saw no direct fire.  Bil is lobbing shells into the area but frankly the steel soldiers of mother Russia give exactly zero F's about artillery.

All that arty has about 2-3 casualties on me so far but I am sure it makes the old man - sitting in a faded bathrobe, the one from the 70s, his old-lady slippers, old man underwear with the torn waistband - feel better.   By end of Turn 15, we are about 1/3 through.

So on the far side of the slot we have pretty much a tank pl and 3 x BMP.  In turn 16 I should be at 50%.  The dismounted pl on my left is looking good and pretty much unmolested.  They are going to link up with that scout pl and be my hands.  You can see on my left I have a screen in place of 2 x T64s and about 4 BMPs, that is a very good position in case Bil gets frisky on my left, which based on that smoke I am guessing is a possibility.  The biggest threat now is a DPICM strike but I am less worried about it now as my Tank Coy and BMPS are spread out and moving fast, so at worst I may take a few casualties.  Main concern now is getting that inf platoon on my right into those buildings.  The HQ and squad did get pinned so I need them to get going.
And let's not forget the Eyes on my Right.

 So I have 2 x T64s on the right with good LOS (I just noticed one got immobilized, which is a pain but it is in a solid position).  That little BMP in the little clump of woods nails another M150.  These guys on my right can actually cover the ridgeline and the left, so pretty happy with that for now.  I am very happy at nailing the M150s.  It may seem odd to a bunch of tank nerds but these thing are actually more dangerous right now.  They have TI, so can see through smoke and those TOW are not going to take 6 hits to kill me.
So now what?  Well finish moving through the Slot and then we spread out and start the knife fight in the woods.  So what is Bil going to do?  Well my bet is he is looking longingly at my left flank, two or three columns of smoke are singing sweetly to him do doubt...I welcome him to try.
Next he could focus on the village and do a center push but in about 120 seconds I am going to have 2 x Inf platoons at near 100% with options for tank and BMP support.  Bil has ACR scout teams, M113 which are basically halftracks and a bunch of M60s who will not do well in an urban fight. 
So that leaves the woods on my right.  Here he has better approaches but if thing go even half decently I will have a another Soviet infantry pl back up by a lot of armor for this little dance against Scout teams, who are not really designed for this sort of thing.  So all in all, I am liking my odds...but...and there is always a but....the next 120-180 second have to go well.  That and I know that Bil has Cobras...so this thing is not over yet.
 

One of the really cool elements of this title is the shift from "smoke is my best friend!" to "smoke just blinds my men as I die from targets I can no longer see."
This is part of the technological shift Warren has mentioned a few times. In 79 there are essentially no vehicles with sights that can see through smoke, so the use of smoke can be very important to blind enemy positions and protect your men in the open. 
However, by the end of the titles timeframe (82) there are a handful of vehicles on the US side (Abrams, Bradleys, M60A3 TTS, M901s are the big ones that come to mind) that all have thermal imagers and can see through smoke no problem. The Soviets employing smoke to conceal their men will not work against these threats. Anyone who has played CMSF2 or CMBS is aware of this. 
Luckily for Warren, Bil has very little assets that have thermal imagers, so heavy use of smoke will likely benefit him greatly. Just thought I would point out that dynamic. It is another element of this title that makes it unique. 

All this talk of people without pants makes me think this is Fulda Gap: Burlesque. 

Thuringia. Right beyond Fulda Gab. Same landscape. It always depends if you are in the valley or on a hill. But there are many hills with just agricultural fields, not all have forests on top. And there you can have wide and far views.
The point is there IS open space for 3000m tank duels. Not everywhere, everytime, maybe even more often not - but certainly not just in "rare" cases.

This is an excellent essay on how these tanks seem to balance in the game. The T-64 should be treated with a LOT of respect, and not just a little fear, by the US player.
When you do get frontal hits on a T-64, it seems to take several strikes to destroy it. 

ok, I was referring to a M60 A3 version before.
So just to tease you with the forth coming game.
I did a quick test  of dueling tanks, pool table conditions at 1300 meters.
T64A VS M60A1 (WITH NO EXTRAS)
ALLOWED COMBAT FOR ONLY ONE MINUTE.
Both tanks unbuttoned
 
Results.
T64a was the first to spot and fire
30 tanks tested.
11 - M60A1 losses
1 -T64A LOSS
 
BILL WAS RIGHT IN THAT THE T64A IN THIS TEST ANYWAY WAS ABLE TO WITHSTAND MORE HITS THAN THE M60
AND THAT WAS A FACTOR FOR THE RESULT.
 
 
 
 

I've played M60A2 alot because the one scenario I got into the title fields  M60A2. There's lots to criticize about M60A2. The slow rate of fire, the inaccuracy of the low velocity conventional rounds, the long flight time and limited range of the missile. And that thing I talked about above - this happened to me just 5 minutes ago. 

In the real world M60 series gun depression was -10 degrees, T72 was -6 degrees. This actually caused problems on M60A2. On an incline at max depression a M60A2 tank commander wouldn't be able to see over the turret nose so they had to include a very tall cupola to get him high enough to peer over it. Take a guess what's usually the first thing to get hit on an M60A2.

The T-64 is a bad-ass tank.  Take M-60A1s of any flavor (and I have all three types in this game) against it one on one on a flat map and the T-64 wins the majority of times.. mainly because its armor is so tough against the rounds carried in the M-60A1... not until the M-60A3 and M-1 does the curve start to flex the other way due to the superior ammo and optics they carry.
What you are seeing now is a difference in positioning... my M-60s are all hull down, Warren's tanks are not.. plus he is moving into my line of sight, mine are stationary most times... a moving tank is easier to spot.  My tanks are keyholed... his are set up in non-hull down positions in treelines.. now I'm a fan of treeline positions for armor, but I will take a hulldown position over them any day.  One T-64A presented its flank to me in front of the trees.. it lasted seconds after getting spotted.
On average it is taking me multiple rounds to kill the T-64s, in the case of the most recent T-64A it must have taken 8-10 hits (lost count) over two turns before the tank was destroyed... if it had been the T-64A firing at my M-60A1, the M-60A1 would have been destroyed with the first hit in most cases.
Bil

M48's!!!

Thirteenth Minute - The Board is Set
 
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
Art of War, Sun Tsu
 
Minute 13:
1st Platoon's Tank Section 2 continued to harass the two T-64As on the Soviet left (my right) flank.  These are the two T-64s that took a beating in the 12th minute... and they each take several more rounds into their front hull and turret, both backing into the woods the whole time.

T-64A (right side) manages to escape.. but it has to be damaged.  I am considering it a mission kill until I know otherwise.  If it pops back up later I will address it then.
T-64A (left side) takes a penetrating hit at the end of the turn.. and this one kills it:

 

CURRENT SITUATION
This is a busy image, and I apologize for that. 
Enemy Situation:
Recon Company remnants are pushing forward and are on my extreme left. Warren's dismounted infantry and scouts continue to push toward Dolbach, supported by the Recon Company BMP-1Ps/BMR-1 and the Infantry Company's BMP-1s BMP-1s in overwatch are starting to move forward some, but are remaining behind the infantry for now T-62 Company is still being held in reserve, but is moving forward slightly T-64B Platoon is down to one fully functional tank and one wounded and probably gun damaged tank T-64A platoon is down to one wounded and probably disabled tank
My Support Plan:
2 of my 3 available M-106 Mortars are starting to drop rounds in front of the Soviet infantry.  Timing with indirect fire is always a challenge, but I am liking how this is shaping up
One of 155mm batteries is dropping spotting rounds for a linear fire mission as shown below.  Fire for effect should start in a couple turns.
I do have more planned, but am saving that for the next report!  Yes, I will finally let you in on the planning that I have been working toward for several turns now... stay tuned! Finally, some Tank Porn!!
BMP-1P:

BMR-1 (Recon Company CO's ride:

Eleventh & Twelfth Minutes – “…damn your eyes.”
 
“There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry.”
George Armstrong Custer
 
Minute 11:
This might have been a pivotal turn and Warren must be reeling... his email simply said, “…damn your eyes”.  Warren is a pretty confident guy, but it could be that I am getting under his skin now.
Planned moves for this turn…
Tank Section 1 was moving to the rear slightly to improve their Hull Down status to the T-64Bs near NAI3 Tank Section 2 was moving forward to aggressively interdict the enemy vehicles near NAI2.. note that at the end of the last turn I had one BMP-1P spotted on this flank and this was the only enemy vehicle identified on this flank. Note the identified enemy units important for this turn’s resolution. Also note that the T-64B tagged in the following image, is NOT the same one I beat up on last turn.  I ordered my M-60s to ignore that one and concentrate on this second tank further back in the tree line.
For each of the following overall images, the firing unit is circled in white, the target is circled in yellow.

Tank Section 1 – 1/9: 
At the end of last turn this tank left a round in the air, and this turn it connected with a BMP-1…


Kill #1
 
Tank Section 1 – 1/8: 
Manually targeted the T-64B in the tree line… first round was a penetration but several HEAT rounds later this T-64B was knocked out.  Tough bastards.
Note that in this image, a T-64A has been spotted on Warren’s left flank (my right).


Kill #2
 
Tank Section 2 – 1/5: 
The T-64A was moving laterally in front of the treeline… it was an easy two rounds into its flank.



Kill #3
Note the BMP-1P in the background of the above image…
 
Tank Section 2 – 1/6: 
At the end of the turn, this tank finally killed the last of the Recon Platoon BMPs that was on this flank (this was the BMP that killed my M-150 last turn).  It took two rounds to kill it... a third set it alight.


Kill #4
Note the knocked out T-64A in the background.

 
Finally at the end of the eleventh minute, my 1st platoon’s recon scouts spotted a platoon of T-62s… this will be his final reinforcement.  These are located just beyond the overpass and behind the line of BMP-1s overwatching the infantry swarming toward the town.

 
 
Minute 12:
No images this turn… but in the twelfth minute Tank Section 2 (1/5 and 1/6) spot two more T-64As in the trees near the one destroyed last turn next to the BMP-1P… they hit them both several times (one received a gun hit), no penetrations and both were alive at the end of the turn, but they had both moved back and away from the line.. one or both of these tanks might be severely damaged and will be engaged again next turn.
 I've been building to this.for a while, but now... 
...Warren’s left flank is open.

Yes, average graphics, as in:
Awful fog rendering The worst-looking shadows I've seen in any game Plowed fields that give a moire effect when viewed from certain angles High-detail texture and terrain object rendering that stops way shorter than it should for those with high-end systems Nonexistent proper 4K resolution support None of those things have anything to do with Fog of War. Yes, the gameplay is still great, but the graphics are definitely lagging behind in certain areas.

Ok let's go with The Plan:
I am going to push some BMPs into a screen to try and take out those M60s on the left, also will re-push my T64s on the left.  Then I am going to 1) continue to push dismounted infantry forward and 2) push the Tank Coy and a mounted Inf Pl into a slot I call "Slot 2.5".  That is some dead ground (I hope) that is also covered by my Eyes on the right.  Once we make it to the dead ground in valley center we fan out and start pushing (I have an arty line up there too to screen).  So this turn I will position to the Slot and push out the screen, then next turn we go for it.  Wish me luck and see you on the other side.