Heirloom_Tomato

don´t tell you´re scared of that popgun toy?

Your amazing crew in the 20 mm AC halftrack is plenty of advantage, if you ask me! 😁

@Ted If you load up the Challenge Battle I posted for this weekend, Challenge Battle #5, check out how I assigned points to each side. It might help with what you are planning to do. I would be more than willing to help out if you would like. 😁

Over at the church there is a battle between a Staghound and the 20mm auto cannon halftrack. First, the halftrack shot in the wheels last turn takes some incoming rifle fire and reverses to safety. 

The sniper in the tower draws a bead, exposing his location to RH's men. It doesn't end well. A Staghound supporting D Company soon spots a 20 mm AC halftrack.
The Staghound crew opens fire with their MG's while the main gun takes careful aim. The 20mm AC is reversing out of trouble, hopefully he will be unaware of the danger he is in.
Uh oh, looks like that cannon is starting to draw a bead on the Staghound. He is reversing at full speed so any shots should be hasty and off target right? The Staghound takes careful aim and fires!

A clean hit! It misses everything important and the 20mm AC is able to return fire.
Not just return fire, but fire accurately, while reversing, just after taking solid hit to halftrack. Can the battle luck be any worse?? If you look closely there are two holes in the Staghound, one of which killed the driver.

Not only does the 20mm AC halftrack take a hit and kill my Staghound driver while reversing, somehow while all that is going on, he manages to spot the sniper in the church tower as well takes him and the spotter out with a perfectly aimed shot. 

Busy week Joe, but I can post one up tonight!
Minute 1:57-1:56
We will start on the left with C Company as it has been a while since their positions have been updated. The platoons have been moving in leap frog, one moving, the other two in over watch. They are almost to the edge of the objective, near the middle of town. A few more bounds and they should be on the objective. They have some contacts on the right side of the map, but still nothing ahead of them. They will continue this same movement until they secure the first line of buildings in the objective or make contact with RH's men.

Back to the church. The scouts I gave a face order to last turn decided they would sprint out of the tower, into the main part of the church and go all the way to the far end of the building. Before they even make it to the end, incoming fire first drops one man
and less than three seconds later another
That did not go as planned. Who is to blame for their deaths? Some PanzerGrenadiers! Note the snipers in the bell tower come under some sort of HE fire this turn, somehow RH has seen them moving up the tower. In the background, some men from D Company are rounding the corner of a house and making their way to the church.

The men from D company get close but those PzG nail another one of my men
He must have been the best friend to every man in the squad as a few seconds later, his squad mates turn tail and run away. Their fellow platoon mates and the remaining scout, pour fire onto the heads of the PzG, and while I see no one drop, one man appears to be starting to run away. Have I broken their will to fight??

Near the end of the minute, one of my Daimlers gets a bead on a fully loaded halftrack! HA HA revenge is ours
Except instead of hitting anything important or the passenger compartment, my gunner decided a road wheel needed a hole... I hope he gets a chance to fire again. This image also shows what appears to be a 20mm cannon halftrack. Could this be the one who killed the Preacher? Whoever he is, he draws a bead on a passing Daimler, takes aim and hits, killing the driver. The crew bail and run away.
Here is an overview of the positions of my men at the end of the turn.

I have taken a close up view of where I have seen RH's men so far. The buildings circled in red have had some infantry spotted running into them.
My analysis at this point of the battle leads me to believe I have found the one of RH's companies as well as some of his support vehicles. I have counted at least 6 halftracks including two support versions. While I have some solid contacts, like the fully loaded halftracks, others have been only a single man spotted here or there. I feel confident still with my plan laid out at the start of the battle, but I have more questions than answers.
Where are the rest of his men? Are they with this company and I have not yet seen them? Could they be just out of sight and next turn come rolling into view decimating my men? Or did RH split his forces into two battle groups and his other half is just infantry working their way in on the other flank of the map? Should I push in hard with my AFV's and another platoon of men from C company and attempt to crush his men by the church right away? If I do, will I leave my flanks exposed and potentially walk straight in to a trap? The answers to these questions and more in the next post.

Sorry for the delay in getting this battle up. Had some family commitments I needed to get done first.
Weekend Challenge Battle #5 features and American Engineer platoon clearing out a small village. It is for CMBN and features some units included in the Market Garden module. It is playable from the Allied side against three AI plans. Good luck.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k5v42gds4y7e2so/AADyXv9MCabs64EVeJJFv0jua?dl=0

For those keeping score at home, at this point in the battle I have lost a complete flamethrower team, a Bren carrier, three infantry and one driver. To my eyes, I have taken out three of his men and one wheel. I will need to see if I can make a blood board to keep track of the losses and will start to post it up with each turn. 

Busy week Joe, but I can post one up tonight!
Minute 1:57-1:56
We will start on the left with C Company as it has been a while since their positions have been updated. The platoons have been moving in leap frog, one moving, the other two in over watch. They are almost to the edge of the objective, near the middle of town. A few more bounds and they should be on the objective. They have some contacts on the right side of the map, but still nothing ahead of them. They will continue this same movement until they secure the first line of buildings in the objective or make contact with RH's men.

Back to the church. The scouts I gave a face order to last turn decided they would sprint out of the tower, into the main part of the church and go all the way to the far end of the building. Before they even make it to the end, incoming fire first drops one man
and less than three seconds later another
That did not go as planned. Who is to blame for their deaths? Some PanzerGrenadiers! Note the snipers in the bell tower come under some sort of HE fire this turn, somehow RH has seen them moving up the tower. In the background, some men from D Company are rounding the corner of a house and making their way to the church.

The men from D company get close but those PzG nail another one of my men
He must have been the best friend to every man in the squad as a few seconds later, his squad mates turn tail and run away. Their fellow platoon mates and the remaining scout, pour fire onto the heads of the PzG, and while I see no one drop, one man appears to be starting to run away. Have I broken their will to fight??

Near the end of the minute, one of my Daimlers gets a bead on a fully loaded halftrack! HA HA revenge is ours
Except instead of hitting anything important or the passenger compartment, my gunner decided a road wheel needed a hole... I hope he gets a chance to fire again. This image also shows what appears to be a 20mm cannon halftrack. Could this be the one who killed the Preacher? Whoever he is, he draws a bead on a passing Daimler, takes aim and hits, killing the driver. The crew bail and run away.
Here is an overview of the positions of my men at the end of the turn.

I have taken a close up view of where I have seen RH's men so far. The buildings circled in red have had some infantry spotted running into them.
My analysis at this point of the battle leads me to believe I have found the one of RH's companies as well as some of his support vehicles. I have counted at least 6 halftracks including two support versions. While I have some solid contacts, like the fully loaded halftracks, others have been only a single man spotted here or there. I feel confident still with my plan laid out at the start of the battle, but I have more questions than answers.
Where are the rest of his men? Are they with this company and I have not yet seen them? Could they be just out of sight and next turn come rolling into view decimating my men? Or did RH split his forces into two battle groups and his other half is just infantry working their way in on the other flank of the map? Should I push in hard with my AFV's and another platoon of men from C company and attempt to crush his men by the church right away? If I do, will I leave my flanks exposed and potentially walk straight in to a trap? The answers to these questions and more in the next post.

I came across this collection of colour photos from WW2 in another forum and thought some here would find them interesting. 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4423218/The-Second-World-War-colour.html
 

I came across this collection of colour photos from WW2 in another forum and thought some here would find them interesting. 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4423218/The-Second-World-War-colour.html
 

I came across this collection of colour photos from WW2 in another forum and thought some here would find them interesting. 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4423218/The-Second-World-War-colour.html
 

had a go at battle2. Victory would have been even more complete if an AT crew who I thought I'd wiped out managed to knock out one of my StuGs.
Total Victory, 50 ok 16 casualties, 1000pts v 90. Spend most of Combat Mission WW2 series fighting as Germans, so was pretty confident beforehand. Cheers for putting this together.

Well, I am sad to see that this latest scenario did not get any more interest than it did.

Out of your releases, this is by far the best one I enjoyed while playing through it.

It presented the most challenges and interesting decisions one needs to have to make.


 

 
Recap below “Spoiler”


 

 

 
That latest scenario is much harder than my score reflects.

I had made the decision from the set up I was not going to follow his instructions to not bomb the buildings

I was looking at the map and with the forces I had, said to myself, no way, those buildings are the only thing that has a view to the ravine and open area I need to cross with my troops so they have to go.

I had made the decision to go up the left flank and the buildings were the only defensive terrain that had a good view. Remove them and I have a chance.

So I set the planes to bomb the two large buildings on the left with preorders before the battle and then was hoping to take out the ones on the right also if I had bombs left.

Needless to say the second the planes showed up I had the forest on the left side erupt in anti-aircraft fire. I thought there had to be at least 4 AA guns over there, only saw one with a hard spot on it so I was not sure what was in there, but I saw 3 firing at once for sure.

So one turn of air and I cancelled the bombing run, the result was the first two bombs missed and the 3rd hit, thus the one lost structure seen in the image. One bomb was left to use later.

Needless to say, my mortars and one remaining bomb on the plane were used to clear the woods of all the guns I exposed on the left flank. While the woods received that attention, I ordered the infantry to infiltrate up to the walls on my side of the ravine but had them stay hidden til I dropped the one remaining heavy bomb on the woods, then I started my attack immediately after the bomb drop, exposed my infantry and then started assaulting on the left flank.

One Machine Gun was firing back from those buildings up on the ridge at that point.

Just after starting this action there was a welcome surprise of armor appearing, I had the Stewart go into action immediately to solve my problem with infantry fire from those overlooking buildings on the ridge. Now that kept the machine gun fire from there quiet, I only used light fire against it so as to not damage any more structures per the requested orders given.

The enemy also receives armor support about at this time. So the 76er’s become the tool to take care of that.

So as long as you get the jump on the enemy armor this is not a problem. If you lose this duel, this battle can become much uglier very quick I would suspect.

So I pushed the left flank and became aware of how well my arty and bomb run did on that area, finding I had removed more than I knew even existed in those woods.

The enemy was not done trying to hold on to this location and another little group of reinforcements arrived.

After handling them. I sent the Stewart up the left flank to where I had my infantry, with the Stewart leading the way and the infantry in support I crossed behind the vines to the structures on the ridge right flank and did my final mop up operations.


 

 
After thoughts:

If I had not exposed the enemy location from the very early start of the battle, this would have been a much harder challenge. There is a large likelihood if the woods are not pre-bombed before any assault, friendly losses are going to add up from what is there in defenses.

I should have thought about hitting the left flank woods from what we are told in his briefing, but I didn’t.

So in truth, I was lucky in this engagement in that I made a terrible decision, had my air power exposed to the full effects of the enemies defenses and instead of suffering from poor decisions, turned it into my advantages.

So it never hurts to be a little lucky.


 

Hi, appreciate you putting this together. Gave this 3x attempts to test your plans. All 3x times I got all the Germans. But didn't get a win 1st time, in hindsight versus the toughest AI plan, took too many casualties. Got a tactical victory 2nd time, 26x men ok,  and total victory on the third with just one killed. Very enjoyable thanks!

Nice little scenario, thanks.  I have a quick question for the Soviet grogs out there: Why does the soviet SG43 MMG have a Deploy time of 26 secs and a Packup time of 0 secs?  I understand the weapon is on wheels so it should be easy to get going, but wouldn't that obtain, at least partially, for setting up as well?  By comparison the M1919A4 30 Cal has a setup time of 21 secs and a packup time of 14 secs.  This weapon has a separate tripod that needs to be placed first but the setup time is less than the SG43.  What part of this am I missing?    

Great job making this tiny scenario for the Russians. For me it highlights what Combat Mission is so good at. Which is giving your orders and then that suspense of watching the minute play out.   The twilight setting adds to that theme. Also with such a small amount of men to control it also makes it much more engrossing somehow for me.   Keep them coming

The Flyers? Really? Hometown team not good enough for you? 😀 Last spring must have driven you nuts.

As I continue to add to this story, feel free to chime in with your tactics suggestions and what you think you see developing on the battlefield. If there is an area of the map you would to see a screen grab from, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Turn 1:

C Company on the left hustles to their first positions. A Staghound rumbles past in the background taking up an overwatch position.

On the right, the scouts in the first carrier race to the church.

The route up into town looks clear... but is it? Can you see the enemy in this pic??

Turn 2:
On the left, C company continues to take up positions, no enemy seen. On the right the story is completely different.

First Carrier with the scouts, rounds the corner and speeds off to the church. Enemy halftrack in the distance!

Second Carrier with the snipers and the Preacher reach the corner and begin to turn just before the clock runs out. 

They don't make it. 20 mm autocannon fire rings out and the Preacher goes up in flames. All the snipers make it out alive, several with severe burns. They are given orders to double time it to the church and hopefully safety.

Overview of the battle just before the preacher goes up in flames.

Dynamic weather for me is the top of my low priority list. I really want to see snow squalls and thunderstorms roll in, ground thaw in a Spring scenario, freeze up at night in a Fall/early Winter setting. 
Oh and farm livestock. I really want to see a nice pasture full of grazing cattle with a Sherman racing across the background, chickens freaking out of the hen house when a GI busts in, pigs feeding in the apple orchard as an FO calls in fire on a distant target. But whoa be unto Battlefront if they get the genetics wrong. If we see any Norwegian Landrace in Normandy... I will demand a full refund!

Using my sweet Photoshop skills, you can see my basic plan. I planned to take companies of infantry, C company on the Left represented by the Green arrow and D company on the Right, represented by the Blue arrow. The Red arrow in the centre is where the AFV's will be travelling. I plan to seize the church to use as an observation post and possible strong point. Once I have cleared the right side of the map, including the church and surrounding buildings I will wheel left and attempt to push as far through the town as possible. The AFV's are in the middle to help the first company to come into enemy contact. 
Each motorized rifle company comes with three platoons of three sections of 9 men, and one 2 inch mortar per platoon. Each Platoon also has one section with a PIAT. When I chose the men, I left selected all my men and vehicles as regular, with high motivation and left the leadership settings at Typical.

Each Rifle company also came with two tubes of 81mm mortars in carriers. They have 58 rounds of HE per tube and 8 smoke rounds. 

These are my AFV's, 9 Bren carriers, 4 Staghounds, 3 Daimler II and 2 Humber IV. While we had agreed to only take AFV's with two rubber wheels, RH made an exception for the little Bren carrier, if I win this battle, he will claim I cheated and take the victory by default. All of the AFVs are split fairly even into two platoons, one under each company. They will be working in close proximity to each other and should be able to help spread communication through all my ranks. 
The Bren carriers are part of the scout platoon of the Recce Regiment, so they came with a 2 inch mortar and rounds. There is a know, documented and hopefully fixed in the upcoming patch, issue with these mortars. The scouts can acquire them, but then they are not able to use them. To avoid this problem, I unloaded all my scouts and gave the rounds to the platoon level mortars. They started the battle of with 9 HE and 9 WP rounds. They now have 26 HE and 13 WP each. Each company then has 78 HE rounds and 39 WP rounds for the 2 inch mortars and 116 HE rounds and 16 smoke rounds for the 81mm mortars.
You have probably noticed I did not take any independent machine gun teams. Each Bren carrier has 2000 rounds for their Brens, the Staghounds have 7000 rounds for their mg's and the Daimler and Humbers are also carrying 2-3000 rounds of mg ammo. My plan is to use them as mobile mg's and other than the Brens, they have the bonus of their main guns to help clear out any serious opposition and any enemy AFV. The Staghounds have a 37 mm main gun, while the Daimler and Humbers come with a 40 mm gun. Gunners in Bren carriers seem to be quite well protected, hopefully a little better than the German halftrack gunners will be!

Here are my orders for turn one. The 81mm mortars and Company HQ's will remain stationary, everyone else is heading out to find RH and his men.

As a surprise for RH, I have hired some special janitors for the church. These two Brens will be heading on FAST for the church. There are two Crack Scout teams, 2 Elite sniper teams. The sniper teams will be given orders to climb the steeple and get eyes across the map while the scouts will take the lower floors to provide some cover. No, that is not a spare tire for the Bren carrier but rather an Elite flamethrower team, nicknamed The Preacher. I hope to have The Preacher in the church before RH shows up and he can rain down fire and brimstone from the pulpit onto RH's men! 

I work in a barn and usually come home dirty and smelly. I promise not shower before I write up these posts. As for the intermittent mortar fire.... I live in a household with 7 females, one of whom is learning to drive. Does that count?

We didn't add any additional game play rules to the battle other than the ones stated. I am pausing the replay turn a lot to try to get good angles for screenshots. Nothing is going to get me lambasted worse than setting up an idea like this and then posting horrible pictures. I am also watching the turn over and over again, from as many different positions as possible, all in an attempt to understand what each unit can see or not see. 
As for letting the AI choose what targets to shoot at, right now that is how the battle has been going, mortars being the sole exception. I am actually a little afraid of giving a unit a target command only to have them blindsided and ambushed by an enemy I never saw.

Here is this weekends Challenge Battle.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k5v42gds4y7e2so/AADyXv9MCabs64EVeJJFv0jua?dl=0
Since the first battle had issues with scoring and the second battle arrived late, this battle will be the start of a revamped Weekend Challenge battle process. All Entries will be given points based on the following scoring:
Total Victory: 10 points
Major Victory: 8 points
Minor Victory: 6 points
Tactical Victory: 4 points
All other scores: 2 points
First player or players to get to 40 points will be in the running for the tomato seeds. To qualify, you must submit your FIRST play through only, playing on Iron mode. To qualify, please post a end game screenshot only of your results by 11 pm EST Monday night. Please also keep any spoilers to a minimum.  For this battle only, please post a second screen shot, with all the icons OFF, of the houses in town. Points will be deducted if you have caused severe damage to the houses.