Heirloom_Tomato

There was some discussion about target orders and what we are doing for this battle. I have not given any of my men target arcs and beyond giving the 2 inch mortars target orders, all my men have been fire to fire at will. The following screens show why this is so important for a battle such as this one with no visual clues about the enemy beyond what I can see.
Minute 1:55-1:54
The men in C Company have been continuing to work their way into the town, ever closer to the objective. With most of this turn passing with no action once again in their sector, suddenly 8th platoon opens fire. But what are they shooting at?
Look closely to the left of the Bakery! Some dismounted infantry are trying to get into position. My men fire, revealing their positions, but see no enemy fall.

This is the only action in C Company's sector this turn. The men will be given orders to spread out and seek more contacts. Hopefully we can do some serious damage to RH over here before he has a chance to get setup.

In the centre the men of 13th platoon all flee their over watch positions clearly in full view of a Stummel for better cover.

Can they all make it safely?

Everyone makes it to safety but one man. The most important man of this section, the Bren gunner. If it isn't the leader, it is always the @#$%@ lmg gunner!

His lose was not in vain! The Staghound was watching them flee for safety and somehow managed to spot where the enemy rounds came from. Can you spot RH's men?

Here, I will give you the full zoom view. Does this help?

Lets try that again, but this time with the trees turned off.

There he is! A marksman with a scope. Is he a dedicated sniper, or just the marksman in a PzG squad? Who know and who cares, my Staghound send him some 37mm HE love. After this round hits, the marksman disappears from view. I can only hope it took him out, but the shot appears to have hit a little low. Does the little 37mm HE round pack enough punch to penetrate the wall and cause casualties? Sure would have been better to see the round sail through the window and straight into the sniper.

 

Over by Sexton's house, my 2 inch mortars have started to have some effect. The tree has lost all its leaves, the wall turned to rubble and RH's men start to flee. I will adjust the aim of the mortar and hope to catch a few of his men in the open next turn.

I have two Staghounds in this area and with 10 seconds left in the turn, they get a spot.

Can it be? Please oh please be who I think it is...

HAHA! It is the 20mm AC halftrack. He is reversing again and with no time left on the clock, the Staghound fires!

A solid hit again, but this time it appears to have done some more serious damage. Say, where did the driver go....hehehehe....

It is now time to take this DAR into dangerous waters, unbuttoned halftrack gunners and their totally useless shields. I should be able to be dropping these guys like flies, am I right? D Company's 14th Platoon has been spotting behind a house near the church. It appears they have spotted something. One man is peeking around the corner of the house and is taking aim.

A closer look down his rifle sights reveals his target, an unbuttoned halftrack gunner blazing away. Ah fresh meat.


He steadies his rifle against the side of the house, takes careful aim, exhales slightly and gently squeezes the trigger.

His shot is away and somehow he manages to miss.

A Bren gunner from 15th Platoon, high in the houses to the left of the church also has a spot on the gunner. He blazes away and only manages to hit the gun shield. The ricochets fly off harmlessly into the sky.
 
So what gives?? What did I do wrong?? I thought these guys were bullet magnets. I thought they died within seconds of being exposed. I thought they didn't stand a chance. I thought those gun shields were useless. Maybe it is only when they are under my command that they die like flies but when the enemy uses them they are safe? 

Minute 1:54-1:53
This 20mm Ac halftrack.... WOW! With his drivers dying screams still echoing in his ears, he turns the gun and fires off another amazingly accurate burst of fire.

Once again striking another Staghound with incredible ferocity. I lose the driver and the radio operator. Shortly after this picture is taken, the remaining crew bail and run for cover.

Finally RH's gunner can stand it no more. Grabbing the picture of his girlfriend from near his gun, he takes one last look at his driver before bailing and seeking shelter.

I can only hope all his halftracks are not as difficult to knock out as this one was.

Over at Sexton's house I sneak an assault section in for a better look. They see some men still present and open fire. Other than a few rounds fired harmlessly over the German's heads, nothing happens.

C Company was given orders to spread out and seek higher ground in an attempt to welcome RH's men to this side of town. Here are their positions at the start of the turn

And again at the end. The Daimler seen in this last screen shot was within line of sight and of the men who had made contact last turn. He heard their shouts of "Enemy Spotted" and their rifle fire so raced over to offer support. C Company Commander has now been made aware of RH's men in the town and begins to direct some other AFV assets under his control to help support his men.

This turn ends with little other action occurring. 

I had to post this.

I have never seen 1 tank take out 4 targets with 1 shell. SU-85 vs 3 x Puma and 1 x 250/9

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.