zinzan

That is not a pool, it is an emergency firefighting water storage tank!

Just back from a meeting with your professional colleagues in the military AT world over in sunny Glen Coe. Great bunch.
 
Your thread (and Seinfields's excellent scenario) has been the motivator for a wee campaign project I've just started and following a SPW company on a series of small engagements. So mostly the level of action you are fighting right now, on smallish maps (no more than 2km x 2km). That's what I like about this forum is the creativity just sparks stuff off

1. I own CMBN and all add-on's and I have had them constamntly installed for longer than any other game (except Civ IV) on my PC and I've played them for more hours than any game (other than Civ IV).
 
2. I'd hate to guess what the cost per hour of gaming this works out as but I GUARANTEE it's a better rate than any other form of (paid) entertainment I've taken part in.
 
3. Considering I own a huge backlog of games whose play time is less than 2hrs and whose combined cost is 5-6 times the cost of ALL the Combat MissionTitles I'd say CMBN is value for money.
 
btw: I plan to purchase CMFI, CMRT & CM:Bulge eventually but I have soooo much more playing in CMBN before I get bored of it.
 
ANYWAY short version CM is GREAT

1. I own CMBN and all add-on's and I have had them constamntly installed for longer than any other game (except Civ IV) on my PC and I've played them for more hours than any game (other than Civ IV).
 
2. I'd hate to guess what the cost per hour of gaming this works out as but I GUARANTEE it's a better rate than any other form of (paid) entertainment I've taken part in.
 
3. Considering I own a huge backlog of games whose play time is less than 2hrs and whose combined cost is 5-6 times the cost of ALL the Combat MissionTitles I'd say CMBN is value for money.
 
btw: I plan to purchase CMFI, CMRT & CM:Bulge eventually but I have soooo much more playing in CMBN before I get bored of it.
 
ANYWAY short version CM is GREAT

0720 TO 0725 HOURS – TURNS 20-25
 
SPOILERS FOLLOW*****************
 
CONTACT!
Date Time Group: 250722Jun44.
Location of contact: Exact location NK, IVO wood Grid 157224.
Location of observer: Crossing field Grid 157224.
Target description: UNK, friendly forces engaged by small-arms, assessed as Enemy rifle section.
Action by target: Engaging with deliberate fire.
Action by own forces: Have exited contact area and intent is to observe before continuing on task.
 

 
Additional activity – fire orders were received by my mortars at 0721 hrs and spotting has commenced. First round impacted approximately 50m South (in Grid square 156223) of designated target area (Obj FRITZ) at 0722 hrs.
 

 
CONTACT!
Date Time Group: 250723Jun44.
Location of contact: Grid 154226.
Location of observer: Grid 156220.
Target description: Single HMG in foxhole.
Action by target: Engaging half-tracks with burst fire.
Action by own forces: Will switch fire to suppress.
 

 
Additional activity – 2 Zug HQ radio operator KIA from HMG fire.
 
Enemy Situation:
 
Enemy use of HMG was not part of assessed COAs, however it is sited in a location consistent with initial assessment. COA 1 remains the assessed most likely COA based on this and other identified contacts. Enemy HMG possibly replaces previously assessed 3 x LMG teams. According to TO&E, each HMG team comprises 4-5 x soldiers and 1 x HMG. Options are that this is a single HMG team in a Rifle Company or that this will be from one of the two HMG platoons from the Rifle Battalion. The platoon comprises 3 x HMG teams. I assess the latter to be the most likely COA.
 
Here is the updated kill tracker - I've reorganised the scratch pad, updated the overall assessed numbers and combat effectiveness percentages. Keeping on top of your planning and tracking documents is key during execute - they are 'living' documents - and there is no point having them if you don't update them continuously
 

 
Mortar on target 0724 hrs
 
Situation as at 250725Jun44 (End Turn 25)
1 MG Team on Line EVA at Grid 159227 and manoeuvring to suppress building at Grid 158228.
2 Zug scouts at Grids 158224 and 159225. They are still being engaged by the enemy IVO Grid 157224.
2 Zug is in the process of concentrating IVO the small copse at Grid 159222. Once firm there, 2 Zug  will advance mounted to Line EVA. 2 Zug has now suffered 2 x MG gunner KIA in engagements with the Enemy HMG at Grid 154226. Additionally, 1 x soldier from 2 Section is KIA from the same contact.
1 Zug has moved to Line EVA at Grid 159227. Sections are dismounting in preparation to commence assault on Obj BERLIN.
4 Zug Sdkfz 251/17 firm at Grid 154220 preparing to move to Line EVA.
1 Mortar Team embarked on truck on Line EVA at Grid 159227. 2 Mortar team at Grid 153220 engaging identified anti-tank rifle team and assessed scout team IVO Obj FRITZ at Grids 155223. On completion of mission, mortar team will embark on a truck and join 1 Mortar team IVO Line EVA.
 

 
Updated Friendly Force Tracker
 

 
Synch Matrix Update
 

 
So my thoughts on the above …
 
Apart from the appearance of the HMG (and I had considered it as a possibility in Question 1), the enemy laydown is pretty much conforming to my assessed COA 1 which gives me confidence in terms of how the rest of the laydown will look and also that the plan to defeat the enemy is therefore fit for purpose. I’m just surprised that the HMG took so long to unmask – had it done so earlier I would certainly have allocated one of my mortars to start stonking Obj DIETER. It also seems to be my luck in this battle that just as I think – time to get moving, another threats unmasks. Murphy’s law of combat is strong with me in this one.
 
It goes without saying that it is disappointing that I haven’t hit my timelines but from an instructional and planning perspective my tardiness has illustrated the value of Decision Points/Decision Lines and branch planning. As I said earlier when discussing my decision – I am determined to see the original plan through to demonstrate the value of planning although I have to admit that clearing Obj HERMANN is going to be difficult to achieve due to time and space considerations. Although hope is not a viable course of action, if I can force a surrender then it becomes a moot point.
 
My casualties, while obviously disappointing, are light and I have no real concerns about combat effectiveness or being able to resource and therefore complete the CLEAR and SECURE of Main Wood and I should be poised along Line EVA ready to start that task in the next five minutes or so.

I just get tired of people complaining about the cost of this type of gaming. In my calculation it is one of the cheapest forms out there. 

Shah don't tell Steve that

Of course your comparison with the price of movies doesn't really work because movies aren't worth even close to $10 an hour.

Although, when the Bulge game comes out, you're supposed to have traffic-jams !

That's what I tell my boss too  

Aggressive, rude - it is certainly less than polite. If you really can´t see that yourself, then we' re probably at the core of the problem.

Thanks for the update Steve. Especially nice to hear talk about 4.0 engine, and look forward to see what new features will be added.

Boy, that makes zero sense. So far BFC has been pretty consistent if they call it a patch it just has bug fixes. If they call it an upgrade it just adds features that were not in the game before.

I don't see why you guys insist on wilfully ignoring the evidence and making yourselves unhappy.

probably a good time to wrap this one up.  Either a rational explanation has changed Daz's perspective or it hasn't.  Either way there is no place for this to go but down.
 
The longer these threads go on, the greater the chance of it devolving into negative stuff.

kevinkin - well you may not be complaining, but I will.  Barren, sterile, pointless, nothing to do with CM, always jumping in and trashing promising threads.  Not referring to any person, just to talking politics at the dinner table.  Give it rest, for the love of God.

There seem to be a few tutorials doing the rounds of late … so you’re going to get another one – on planning. So if you’re somebody who wondered how it is done, or are somebody who casts a rudimentary eye over the ground, skims through the orders and then just launches across the line of departure with the view to developing a plan on the hoof and wants to change this – then this is the thread for you.
 
The vehicle for the tutorial is SeinfeldRules Assault Position Mission.  The associated thread is here:
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/119212-seinfeldrules-scenario-thread/page-1
 
The mission can be downloaded from here:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d85cs6w3xeeg0oi/AD%20Assault%20Position.zip?dl=0
 
What do you get from this thread – simply put it will delve into the planning process and then roll into an AAR. I am playing this as designed so Axis attacker versus the AI. So without further ado, let’s crack on with it. Also I’d be grateful if people could refrain from posting spoilers on this mission if you’ve played it – I haven’t yet – which is kind of the point of stepping through the planning process first!!!!
 
I will warn you that I am no means an expert on military planning but have been around it enough to know how it works. I will cut corners with it here and there but this isn’t necessarily about military doctrine, it is about giving you guys an understanding of some techniques to help you plan your battles should you have a mind to do so.
 
Clearly questions (that do not contain spoilers) are welcome but many of my answers might be ‘I’ll come to that later’.

Outstanding.  Love your map overlays.. nice to see a pro in action.
 
Interesting that all of your Avenues of Approach avoid the restricted terrain until the large wood mass in the upper right corner which you obviously plan to enter.  I just find it interesting that you are not using them as interim objectives... if you run into enemy activity in one or more of them you will have to clear them anyway to enable your main combat power to bypass (if that is indeed your plan).
 
Looking forward to the threat assessment.

Bill - I'm probably preaching to the converted but the IPB process requires drawing Mobility Corridors (MCs) and then deriving Avenues of Approach from those MCs - they should be drawn over areas where manoeuvre is unrestricted. Now I haven't slavishly followed the doctrine in deriving my AAs (had I done so AAs 1,2 and 5 would have been the only ones on the schematic) and I have skimped a lot on my labelling of AAs (more likely MCs to be honest) for simplicity, but the ones I've come up with reflect AAs I can use (albeit with some constraints) with the force mix I have.
 
If you think I am a pro - I urge you to write my annual reports
 
Thanks for your comments btw

The in-game difference between early and late T34-85 is BIG. From slow hand-cranked turret to a turret motor so blazingly fast that Beta testers initially thought the numbers must be off. The late war T34-85 seems to be a perfectly capable combat tank. Gamer's often make the error of thinking of tanks as knights of the battlefield engaging in individual combat. Especially on the Eastern front it was less a duel than a gang rumble. It wasn't so much T34 vs Panther as T34 battalion vs Panther company.

Yep, I used that, as well as:
 
anon., The 8th Armoured Brigade (Hannover, Germany, 1946)
anon., 82nd Airborne Div, Field Order No.11, 13 Sept 1944
anon., The story of the Twenty-Third Hussars, 1940-1946 (Husum, Germany, 1946)
Beale, Peter, Tank Tracks, 9th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment at war 1940-45
Bellamy, Bill, Troop Leader, a tank commander's story
Blacker, Gordon A., Iron Knights, the U.S. 66th Armored Regiment in WWII
Boscawen, Robert, Armoured Guardsmen
Bouchery, Jean, The British Solder, vol 2: Organisation, armament, tanks and vehicles
British Army of the Rhine, Battlefield Tour, Operation Neptune, 43 (W) Division, Assault crossing of the River Seine, 25-28 August 1944 (June 1947)
Delaforce, Patrick, The Black Bull (p.134-168)
Delaforce, Patrick, Monty's Marauders
Delaney, Douglas E., Corps Commanders
Ellis, L.F., Victory in the West, vol I (p.465-476)
Ellis, L.F., Victory in the West, vol II (p.1-29)
Essame, H., The 43rd Wessex Division at War 1944-1945
Forty, G., The British Army Handbook
Guderian, Heinz G., From Normandy to the Ruhr with the 116th Panzer Division in World War II
Hargreaves, Richard, The Germans in Normandy
Hills, Stuart, By tank into Normandy
Hinsleym F.H., British Intelligence in the Second World War, v.3, pt.2
Holborn, Andrew, The 56th Infantry Brigade and D-Day (p.163-186)
Horrocks, Brian, Corps Commander
Jary, Sydney, 18 Platoon
Kite, Ben, Stout Hearts, the British and Canadians in Normandy 1944
Leakey, Rea and Forty, George, Leakey's Luck.
Luck, Hans von, Panzer Commander
Ludewig, Joachim, Rückzug, the German retreat from France, 1944
Meyer, Hubert, The 12th SS, the history of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division, vol 1
Meyer, Hubert, The 12th SS, the history of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division, vol 2
Middlebrook, Martin, Arnhem 1944, the Airborne Battle
Moulton, J.L., Battle for Antwerp
Nafziger, George F., The German Order of Battle; Panzers and Artillery in WWII
Peters, Mike, and Buist, Luuk, Glider Pilots at Arnhem
Picot, Geoffrey, Accidental Warrior, in the front line from Normandy till Victory
Reynolds, Michael, Sons of the Reich; II SS Panzer Corps; Normandy, Arnhem, Ardennes, Eastern Front
Reynolds, Michael, Men of Steel; I SS Panzer Corps; the Ardennes and Eastern Front, 1944-45
Roberts, G.P.B., From the Desert to the Baltic (p.200-212)
Stanton, Shelby L., World War II Order of Battle
Zetterling, Niklas, Normandy 1944
 

Battlepack 1: The Great Swan
Northern France and Belgium
September 1944
 
In just two months, between 6th June and mid August, the Allied armies in Normandy destroyed the cream of the 1944 German Army. Following this resounding defeat the Allies bounded across France in just a few days. It is during this period of stunning advance that Battlepack 1: The Great Swan is set, following the advance of the British 2nd Army from the Seine River, through Belgium, and all the way to the high water mark of the advance along the Meuse and lower Rhine.
 
The first phase of the Great Swan occurred when the 43rd Wessex Division seized a crossing over the Seine at Vernon in an opposed assault crossing. The battle here lasted several days, and the first 24 hours in particular were considered to be very dangerous for the British troops. However the bridgehead was stabilised and then gradually expanded to make room for follow-on forces. Prelude, the first battle of the Campaign Amiens Tonight, is a semi-historical examination of the difficulties of pressing back the determined German resistance which was able to make good use of the thick forests along the Seine river banks.
 
Shortly afterwards the British forces exploded out of the bridgehead and began racing across Northern France and into Belgium. From the first German resistance to the breakout was weak and disorganised - they were too busy fleeing back towards France to form a cohesive front. Engagements during this period tended to be small scale, and highly confusing. The Copse is a tiny scenario that takes a hypothetical look at one of these minor engagements. Overnight the advancing Allies generally rested, and prepared for the next day’s advance, while the Germans continued their relentless withdrawal. Celer et Audax and Nulli Secudus look at what happens when small British force disposed in hasty defence finds itself in the path of some withdrawing Germans in the middle of a rainy night or on a misty morning.
 
During the advance to Amiens the 11th Armoured Division was ordered to advance through the night without rest, culminating in an astonishing advance of 48 miles in just 24 hours. Tallyho follows the vanguard of this drive as they approach the location of a temporary halt at dusk. The next day found 11th Armoured at Amiens, embroiled in bitter city fighting (The Somme), and then pushing out of the city into the open ground across the river (To the green fields beyond). This was not the end of the war, and the Division soon found itself heading east once more (And the beat goes on).
 
Within days the lead elements of XXX Corps, made up as always by the armoured cars, found themselves in the region known as ‘the Crossroads of Europe’, a place where famous battles to decide the fate of nations have been fought since time immemorial (A crossroads near Brussels).
 
Soon after reaching Antwerp and the Belgian boder the advance petered out, stopped more by the logistical strain of leaping forward 200 miles in a few days than by increasing German resistance. Field Marshal Montgomery famously tried to kick-start the stalled advance with Operation Market-Garden. Those battles have been dealt with elsewhere in Combat Mission. However, in the weeks prior to the launch of Market Garden there were about a dozen planned airborne operations, all opf which were cancelled when they were overtaken by events. But what if the advance had been halted in the vicinity of Brussels?
 
One of the planned and cancelled airborne operations was LINNET II, which was to seize bridges over the Meuse west of Aachen, and open a route into Germany. A group of “what if?” fictional scenarios looks at how this never-fought battle might have played out. The flat ground between the Meuse River and Albert Canal would have provided excellent landing grounds (Drop Zone CHARLIE), while securing the river crossings was dependant on holding the high ground just east of the Meuse against counter attacks (LINNET II). As this operation was never launched, the exact details of Operation Linnet II are vague, and this vagueness has been exploited to look at the effect of differences in the detailed organisation of British and American ground and airborne forces when given the same ground and objectives, fighting against the same enemy.
 
Following the failure of Market Garden the British made a concerted effort to close up to the Rhine along its lower reaches before the onset of winter. This phase of the campaign saw a partial reversion to positional warfare, and the re-emergence of deliberate attacks against strong defences (Swansong). Often these attacks were supported by the specialist armour of the 79th Armoured Division (Hobart’s Funnies). With the onset of bad weather at the end of September the frontlines became static, and the heady days of The Great Swan became an increasingly distant memory.
 
In total Battlepack 1: The Great Swan contains over 25km2 of brand new, highly detailed handcrafted mapping.

Hmm, that license plate is suspicious. Could this be a German anti-tank unit in disguise?

Ah well, as I said in another thread, "I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."



Michael

As was already said, the squad leader isn't going to hand off his binoculars to two guys who've basically been told to walk point and see who shoots at them.

If you look close, that pattern in the middle makes an ominous formation...

Thank you for doing me the honor of an AAR battle, Bil. I've learned a great deal from you over the years. Can't believe I finally got up the nerve to challenge you.

Good game. I got lucky.

Thanks for all you have done, and continue to do, for the Combat Mission community.