Rinaldi

Perhaps T-62s perform poorly because they are poor tanks, an avenue worth exploring @dbsapp  . Alternatively, a poor craftsman blames his tools, do you consider yourself a decent handyman?

If those videos teach us anything it's that "Soviet dictrine" in CM doesn't work.
Halpless virtually lost most of his tanks early in the game simply because they couldn't see enemy. 
Those theories on "Soviet doctrine" look nice and clever on paper, but the simple truth is if your units can't see enemy which is right in front of them they can't win.
Competition of blind and sighted person is predetermined. 

The thing that M60s sometimes don't see something doesn't change the fact that on average all Soviet tanks are much, much worse in spotting than their American opponents, and it makes them really uncompetitive. 
Your "Deathride to Schweben" video clearly illustrates it. 
Basically it shows just that: in present state Soviets in CM are doomed to fail. If you read comments section on Youtube, you'll see that they don't hesitate to speak out this obvious truth. 

I really don't get why they didn't make things like visability and weapons costomizable, while CM is quite mods-friendly in terms of skins and visual effects. Instead they chose to make it pro version feature.
And why "homesty is 60%"?😁 after thermals - maybe, but why it should be so before, it's a mystery foe me. 

It is now ready for release, thanks so much to both @AlexUK and @Vacilllator for their feedback, and to everyone else. 
I have done the following changes:
- Changed the formation to a British one equipped with Cromwells, as I had some mod-tagged stuff laying about for them and wanted to create more scenarios that feature such vehicles.
- Edited the road near the Chateau to avoid the way pointing issues.
- Mild changes to the scoring to ensure you cannot win without forcing a surrender or exiting as intended.
- Mild changes to AI plans.
- Removed superfluous buildings in the main village to provide more field of fire to defenders. 
I've contacted @Bootie on the Discord, and I am sure he will have this all uploaded ASAP. 
The scenario: https://mega.nz/file/ywhQHBBT#5jWUnGtkzsPH_yKbLHr2VcltDsH3IlLvC6rorXpdV-E
The mod: https://mega.nz/file/WppGhKDR#weXrnvL-yC1FAwluAoq29Ow-hynUnlCBQwhNyFDkLaY - this .brz contains mod-tagged skins so there is nothing further you need to do with your mods. 
 

It is now ready for release, thanks so much to both @AlexUK and @Vacilllator for their feedback, and to everyone else. 
I have done the following changes:
- Changed the formation to a British one equipped with Cromwells, as I had some mod-tagged stuff laying about for them and wanted to create more scenarios that feature such vehicles.
- Edited the road near the Chateau to avoid the way pointing issues.
- Mild changes to the scoring to ensure you cannot win without forcing a surrender or exiting as intended.
- Mild changes to AI plans.
- Removed superfluous buildings in the main village to provide more field of fire to defenders. 
I've contacted @Bootie on the Discord, and I am sure he will have this all uploaded ASAP. 
The scenario: https://mega.nz/file/ywhQHBBT#5jWUnGtkzsPH_yKbLHr2VcltDsH3IlLvC6rorXpdV-E
The mod: https://mega.nz/file/WppGhKDR#weXrnvL-yC1FAwluAoq29Ow-hynUnlCBQwhNyFDkLaY - this .brz contains mod-tagged skins so there is nothing further you need to do with your mods. 
 

Some questions for Jim Storr.
Starting with something non-contentious. You indicated that you and your brother developed a method in your gaming that reduced the "God's Eye View" factor and it seems allowed for actual surprise to occur on the game board. Would you care to tell us what you did to achieve this?
In your footnotes you reference particular games you and your brother played (e,g. "Battle 164, 12 January 2003." - pg. 231). Are these games referred to in the footnotes available somewhere to examine? If so, where? If not, why the footnote?
More contentious:
On page 149 you state: "Soviet artillery fire would probably be very heavy but inaccurate, and its fire planning crude." I don't feel you properly justified this comment in the preceding text and to be frank I find it doubtful for two reasons. First the importance that artillery has played in Russian and Soviet military tactics. And second, your assessment suggests a low standard of training. I know that the Soviets had artillery academies devoted to producing artillery officers. These were academies with four year programs that produced company/battery grade officers with engineering degrees. I can't imagine that such an education would produce incompetents. My wife's deceased father was a colonel in the Soviet artillery and was on the faculty of such an institution. He was a university mathematics student when he was recruited into the Soviet Army. Perhaps I am wrong, so can you explain why an army that prized artillery, seems to have placed it high in their tactical system and seems to have invested quite a bit in the education of its artillery officers would produce and be satisfied with such dismal results as "... heavy but inaccurate [fire], and its fire planning crude"?
Regards.

uh
yes it's 302 instead of 502
my old mind is omnibilized by German heavy tank battalions
 
I forgot to specify the church is St Pierre de Caen
with the pun of course 😉

I've no idea, me old china. That's for other people to answer. And remember, you can always put me on your Ignore List.

He does look a lot better since he stopped dieting.....Looked positively gaunt back then! 
PS - @Warts 'n' all tease each other a bit, his avatar is Cromwell and I'm from Worcester.....Back in the English Civil War, Worcester was a Royalist redoubt:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Worcester 
When Cromwell's goons finally got into Worcester they properly vandalised the place.  Some of the vandalism has been left 'as was' and is now a prominent feature in the dining hall of a rather posh local school:

A couple of points on this.

A representative line from the Gefechtsausbildung der Panzergrenadiere (Helmut von Wehren, 1944), translates as:

"The squad fights mounted from the vehicle, as long as enemy fire, terrain and mission permits."

There has been a very common trend, both on this forum and elsewhere, of focusing more on the first part of that sentence than the last.
Indeed, that same manual has a lot of examples of squad attack, and the majority of them are dismounting for combat, with the SPW in support.

I'd suggest that the circumstances where "dropping grenades from the halftrack" are reasonable are going to be those similar to the use-case of the Flamm SPW 251/16 - e.g., used as a reactive force against a counter attack (as per that Panzergrenadier training film, which itself is rather optimistic), and employed against the enemy occupied trenches after the firefight has been won. You can see this kind of situation rather more clearly in Combat Mission that something with the granularity of the WRG rules - since spotting can be on an individual soldier basis, it's not impossible that you can "clear" a trench position, but actually miss an enthusiastic individual with an ATR, who could recover and shoot you in the rear.

A burst of flame or two against an "empty" trench is a quick way of ensuring that there's no surprises waiting for you. This is going to be of chief importance when under significant time restraints, as with the counter-attack example. In that kind of use-case you're trying to seal up the breach in your lines very quickly, before the follow-on forces can exploit it. The expectation, though, is that the fight has been won, so any enemy extant are having some kind of emotional event, and you can reasonably expect to roll up to within grenade range of these trenches without return fire.
Further, the above manual was produced in 1944, but would have been derived from earlier in the war. Earlier in the war, infantry-held AT options were limited, and that's inevitably going to be the chief concern with this.


The second is the essay that John Curry wrote in the back of his publication of the Contact! rules, about the way the BAOR intended to fight. I've asked him for sourcing, since it's the best description I've read for the BAOR doctrine from the strategic to the combat team level. He mentioned that "This should be considered first hand testimony. I was there as an officer. I worked with a number of units and I was briefed on lots of things including the BAOR operational plan."

In that, he discussed the relative paucity of offensive doctrine in the BAOR. Specifically in terms of dismounting FV-432s, and how close this should be to the objective. In that essay, he makes the claim that opinions on this varied, and there wasn't a definitive answer in the British doctrine.


For what it's worth, my opinion on this is that whilst dismounting inside grenade range gets you across the last 300 yards, it represents a tremendous risk. You can't ever know for certain that 100% of their AT assets are supressed or out of action, especially from the back of a vehicle, so leaving the vehicle blind and potentially under fire seems like a huge roll of the dice to me.

It's also worth considering tactical problems such as these: http://armchairgeneral.com/tactic-101-103-bradley-platoon-attack.htm

Where the (modern) Bradley platoon is dismounted a full 2km away from the objective, to make the most use of the Bradley's weapon systems, with the mounted element advancing once the dig-in BMP has been removed. Clearly this increases the time of this platoon attack significantly - pushing it up to 90 minutes, but I suspect it's a good indication of what this kind of thing should look like.


Incidentally, there were two things which I really hoped Battlegroup would do, and was disappointed to see that it didn't really do either. The first was a comparative study on the various NATO concepts of the battlegroup, for instance how British, US and German doctrine differed on the subject, especially at the Combat Team and Battlegroup level. My sources on the Bundeswehr are distressingly limited, and the aforementioned John Curry, uncited essay is the best I've seen on the BAOR. I'm desperate for more on this subject.

The second is a lot more rigor around outlining your methodology. I'm very much a proponent of the power of wargaming as a instructive or investigative tool, but it's extremely hard to understand your conclusions in this case. There's a lot of telling, but not much showing. To use the IFV assault example, I'd have hoped to have see some diagrams and discussion illustrating your attempts to make IFVs work under the WRG rules, and where and when those failed, even if the examples were only representative. Without that grounding, it's very hard to engage with the argument, because an argument isn't really being made - there's no listed assumptions or method to base things on, so the only element the reader has is the claimed result.

Much appreciated, thanks so much. Sadly I feel more like the hunted than hunter at present - as you'll see. 
1809-1810
On the right flank
Spotting rounds from my mortars begin to range in on the Pak43, and though these spotting rounds land well behind target, given the accuracy of the barrage on the Pak40 a moment ago, I'm quite confident that this fire mission will ultimately be on target. Whether it has effect, is another matter. The Lieutenant calling in on the Pak43 also reports another notable contact, yet another Panther spotted all the way on the left. A Panther in hiding, among the Orchard on Farm 002's land. 

On the left flank
C Coy of The Rifles advance through the copse of trees and prepares to advance to contact.

While the Battlegroup's assigned FOO hauls bottom to the OP I identified in my previous post:

I am anticipating a bit of an affray developing in the next 10 to 15 minutes for Farm 001 and, perhaps, even Objective TOM proper if Draper decides to push elements forward into the dead ground in support of Farm 001's garrison. In anticipation of escalation of violence, I am moving No. 9 Troop/C Sqn of the Dragoons, which is in a support by fire position on the right, to the left of the Squadron's positions. This will improve their field of fire in support of the dismounts. 
This is pretty much a soft admission that I am committed to COA1 at this point, the terrain is really just too good here viz-a-viz the large forces I need to put through this area, in contrast to the much congested COA2. In any event, I can still shift a troop to the right with relative haste if I need to. 

1810-1811
The lead section of C Coy cross the first part of the river without incident, with the dismounted scouts covering their right flank. These infantrymen draw fire, briefly, from an extremely optimistic Landser without incident. 


The Cromwells and Firefly of No 9 Troop begin their move to their new position, bumping gently over the rougher ground as they move - as always - in masked terrain as much as possible.
 

1812-1813
On the left
The scout section begins to identify enemy fighting positions, likely the same that gave them that first bloody nose earlier. These positions are fairly spread out and appear to form a picquet line. Not too surprising. 2" HE, smoke and Bren-gun fire will be placed on them to conduct a recce by fire as soon as practicable. 
No. 8 Platoon, part of C Coy, begins to take MG fire as they cross the first water obstacle. This platoon was the trail element of the company and now that James is likely alert to the movement of men, they are getting a naturally hotter reception. The fire is not on target and the platoon is in defilade before it can inflict any harm. 

The real dilemma is how to get up and over the raised road, seen in the background above, that separates these two tributaries of the river. This pseudo-causeway presents a fairly small, but extremely exposed, bit of ground to cross. The MG fire is well beyond range that even an entire company of small arms can effectively suppress (in fact it would be about as effective as spitting straight up in the air), so I will put my hope in 2" smoke and section-level smoke grenades to obscure as much as possible. 
On the right
A Dingo slips past the north village and begins to ford the water obstacle...no booms of cannons or the sharp crack of a high velocity gun. So far, so good, right? 

Then suddenly there is a slight impact in a tree forward of the ford - a rifle grenade, most likely? The only nearby structure is a Barn, and the likely source of the rifle grenade. The overwatching Daimler II is ordered to spray it down briefly, whilst the Dingo carries on fording. 
Further behind this lead pair of armoured cars is the Troop leader, motoring forward in his own Daimler II. As he moves, he spots - astonishingly - a Puma in west village (the same one, I suspect, that had a brush with death earlier). He takes a shot on the gallop, harming nothing save the big blue sky.

He takes no return fire and, in any event, carries on without further incident this turn. Two cruisers follow up behind him, with a trailing third remaining in overwatch in the hope that Puma makes a third appearance. 
A slow burn on this one guys, I do apologise for that - but I also think you'll appreciate that much more than me dashing myself to pieces mindlessly. The heat does turn up, I assure you. 

Much appreciated, thanks so much. Sadly I feel more like the hunted than hunter at present - as you'll see. 
1809-1810
On the right flank
Spotting rounds from my mortars begin to range in on the Pak43, and though these spotting rounds land well behind target, given the accuracy of the barrage on the Pak40 a moment ago, I'm quite confident that this fire mission will ultimately be on target. Whether it has effect, is another matter. The Lieutenant calling in on the Pak43 also reports another notable contact, yet another Panther spotted all the way on the left. A Panther in hiding, among the Orchard on Farm 002's land. 

On the left flank
C Coy of The Rifles advance through the copse of trees and prepares to advance to contact.

While the Battlegroup's assigned FOO hauls bottom to the OP I identified in my previous post:

I am anticipating a bit of an affray developing in the next 10 to 15 minutes for Farm 001 and, perhaps, even Objective TOM proper if Draper decides to push elements forward into the dead ground in support of Farm 001's garrison. In anticipation of escalation of violence, I am moving No. 9 Troop/C Sqn of the Dragoons, which is in a support by fire position on the right, to the left of the Squadron's positions. This will improve their field of fire in support of the dismounts. 
This is pretty much a soft admission that I am committed to COA1 at this point, the terrain is really just too good here viz-a-viz the large forces I need to put through this area, in contrast to the much congested COA2. In any event, I can still shift a troop to the right with relative haste if I need to. 

1810-1811
The lead section of C Coy cross the first part of the river without incident, with the dismounted scouts covering their right flank. These infantrymen draw fire, briefly, from an extremely optimistic Landser without incident. 


The Cromwells and Firefly of No 9 Troop begin their move to their new position, bumping gently over the rougher ground as they move - as always - in masked terrain as much as possible.
 

1812-1813
On the left
The scout section begins to identify enemy fighting positions, likely the same that gave them that first bloody nose earlier. These positions are fairly spread out and appear to form a picquet line. Not too surprising. 2" HE, smoke and Bren-gun fire will be placed on them to conduct a recce by fire as soon as practicable. 
No. 8 Platoon, part of C Coy, begins to take MG fire as they cross the first water obstacle. This platoon was the trail element of the company and now that James is likely alert to the movement of men, they are getting a naturally hotter reception. The fire is not on target and the platoon is in defilade before it can inflict any harm. 

The real dilemma is how to get up and over the raised road, seen in the background above, that separates these two tributaries of the river. This pseudo-causeway presents a fairly small, but extremely exposed, bit of ground to cross. The MG fire is well beyond range that even an entire company of small arms can effectively suppress (in fact it would be about as effective as spitting straight up in the air), so I will put my hope in 2" smoke and section-level smoke grenades to obscure as much as possible. 
On the right
A Dingo slips past the north village and begins to ford the water obstacle...no booms of cannons or the sharp crack of a high velocity gun. So far, so good, right? 

Then suddenly there is a slight impact in a tree forward of the ford - a rifle grenade, most likely? The only nearby structure is a Barn, and the likely source of the rifle grenade. The overwatching Daimler II is ordered to spray it down briefly, whilst the Dingo carries on fording. 
Further behind this lead pair of armoured cars is the Troop leader, motoring forward in his own Daimler II. As he moves, he spots - astonishingly - a Puma in west village (the same one, I suspect, that had a brush with death earlier). He takes a shot on the gallop, harming nothing save the big blue sky.

He takes no return fire and, in any event, carries on without further incident this turn. Two cruisers follow up behind him, with a trailing third remaining in overwatch in the hope that Puma makes a third appearance. 
A slow burn on this one guys, I do apologise for that - but I also think you'll appreciate that much more than me dashing myself to pieces mindlessly. The heat does turn up, I assure you. 

Much appreciated, thanks so much. Sadly I feel more like the hunted than hunter at present - as you'll see. 
1809-1810
On the right flank
Spotting rounds from my mortars begin to range in on the Pak43, and though these spotting rounds land well behind target, given the accuracy of the barrage on the Pak40 a moment ago, I'm quite confident that this fire mission will ultimately be on target. Whether it has effect, is another matter. The Lieutenant calling in on the Pak43 also reports another notable contact, yet another Panther spotted all the way on the left. A Panther in hiding, among the Orchard on Farm 002's land. 

On the left flank
C Coy of The Rifles advance through the copse of trees and prepares to advance to contact.

While the Battlegroup's assigned FOO hauls bottom to the OP I identified in my previous post:

I am anticipating a bit of an affray developing in the next 10 to 15 minutes for Farm 001 and, perhaps, even Objective TOM proper if Draper decides to push elements forward into the dead ground in support of Farm 001's garrison. In anticipation of escalation of violence, I am moving No. 9 Troop/C Sqn of the Dragoons, which is in a support by fire position on the right, to the left of the Squadron's positions. This will improve their field of fire in support of the dismounts. 
This is pretty much a soft admission that I am committed to COA1 at this point, the terrain is really just too good here viz-a-viz the large forces I need to put through this area, in contrast to the much congested COA2. In any event, I can still shift a troop to the right with relative haste if I need to. 

1810-1811
The lead section of C Coy cross the first part of the river without incident, with the dismounted scouts covering their right flank. These infantrymen draw fire, briefly, from an extremely optimistic Landser without incident. 


The Cromwells and Firefly of No 9 Troop begin their move to their new position, bumping gently over the rougher ground as they move - as always - in masked terrain as much as possible.
 

1812-1813
On the left
The scout section begins to identify enemy fighting positions, likely the same that gave them that first bloody nose earlier. These positions are fairly spread out and appear to form a picquet line. Not too surprising. 2" HE, smoke and Bren-gun fire will be placed on them to conduct a recce by fire as soon as practicable. 
No. 8 Platoon, part of C Coy, begins to take MG fire as they cross the first water obstacle. This platoon was the trail element of the company and now that James is likely alert to the movement of men, they are getting a naturally hotter reception. The fire is not on target and the platoon is in defilade before it can inflict any harm. 

The real dilemma is how to get up and over the raised road, seen in the background above, that separates these two tributaries of the river. This pseudo-causeway presents a fairly small, but extremely exposed, bit of ground to cross. The MG fire is well beyond range that even an entire company of small arms can effectively suppress (in fact it would be about as effective as spitting straight up in the air), so I will put my hope in 2" smoke and section-level smoke grenades to obscure as much as possible. 
On the right
A Dingo slips past the north village and begins to ford the water obstacle...no booms of cannons or the sharp crack of a high velocity gun. So far, so good, right? 

Then suddenly there is a slight impact in a tree forward of the ford - a rifle grenade, most likely? The only nearby structure is a Barn, and the likely source of the rifle grenade. The overwatching Daimler II is ordered to spray it down briefly, whilst the Dingo carries on fording. 
Further behind this lead pair of armoured cars is the Troop leader, motoring forward in his own Daimler II. As he moves, he spots - astonishingly - a Puma in west village (the same one, I suspect, that had a brush with death earlier). He takes a shot on the gallop, harming nothing save the big blue sky.

He takes no return fire and, in any event, carries on without further incident this turn. Two cruisers follow up behind him, with a trailing third remaining in overwatch in the hope that Puma makes a third appearance. 
A slow burn on this one guys, I do apologise for that - but I also think you'll appreciate that much more than me dashing myself to pieces mindlessly. The heat does turn up, I assure you. 

Superb AAR, enjoying it very much. Good hunting commander!

From my latest blog post, read it here: https://rinaldiaars.blogspot.com/2022/01/encountering-unexpected-resistance-one.html
 

Yes. IIRC positive is towards the base of the round, negative is towards the nose.
That's a great video. I think it demonstrates particularly well the key principle of closing with the enemy. Advance, advance, advance and shoot as much as possible! It's served me well in scenarios though I haven't had the chance to dig into the campaign yet.

Oh quite - hitting the thing at all at that distance was lucky, setting the ammo off was also somewhat lucky (but then hitting a BMP in the side/rear means you're quite lucky to be hitting *something* meaningful, and they are crammed with ammo and fuel - they're really only designed to take hits from the front, if at all) 

Thanks guys. I had no clue a grenade round was so effective. 

That really was a lucky shot. Those things rarely go on target in my experience. Just hit at the right place to really ruin that crew's day. 

HEDP is a shaped charge, which is more or less synonymous with HEAT. (It's just naming convention really)
Plus it's rated for 63mm of penetration, and while the post-effect won't be great owing to the round size it's more than capable of destroying a BMP.

They should have "skipped" putting someone who was four stops short of Dagenham East into power in the first place. And remember children, don't trust a guy who hangs around pubs and never drinks beer.

A quiet set of turns, the building calm before the storm I should hope.
1806-1807
The stonk on the Pak40 goes in, blissfully on target. Rounds straddle the trench, hopefully injuring the crew or forcing them to hide. A direct hit is likely in its future as the barrage is ongoing as the turn ends. 

While the artillery goes in the remaining three cruisers from 10 Troop, C Squadron 5RIDG (which has been forward supporting C Coy of the Rifles) shifts left and coils up near the copse of trees. My intention is to move them into overwatch positions among the trees if the need arises. They are liaising with the Companies 2IC who remains mounted in a halftrack. 
The scouts, for their part, have begun to ford the second little tributary and probe towards Farm 001. 
Overall, there's very little to report on the right this turn, asides from the fact that the German mortar barrage continues to hammer that offensive piece of French terrain. I am, naturally, perfectly content for my opponent to expend indirect ammo in that way. 
1807-1808
The lead dismounted scouts are ambushed as they push up to a raised dirt road, losing (inevitably) a Bren gunner. He is killed outright by a MG at point blank range, situated in the reverse slope of the raised road. They do not actually spot the offending MG and therefore automatically continue with the pre-planned "hunt" waypoint given to them. This promptly gets the section leader shot; wounded by a rifle. The third able man reports possible contact - but from a different direction and location than expected. There seems to be more enemy contact further to the right, in addition to the MG to the front. 

Draper has evidently outposted the immediate vicinity of Farm 001. The surviving man crawls back to the rest of the section. 
In fact, this turn I detect similar outposts on the extreme right flank as well. I am not sure if these were already known due to pre-battle intel or some intensely lucky scanning by the armoured car crews, but in any event Draper clearly has units forward of the water obstacle across the entire area of operations. I am speculating that most of these are squad-sized tripwires at best, rather than forward fighting positions.
1808-1809
On the right "OAK" is reached and touched by an armoured car without incident.

I think the time has arrived to slowly start applying some actual combat power from my massive tactical reserve. I've identified a good OP for the battlegroup's FOO to bring some supportive fires down on the area in and around Obj "TOM". This will help support the movement of dismounted C Company, surely, and more importantly help organise smoke missions to facilitate a crossing by the heavier units. 
Below you can see the selected position, with the mortar stonk still falling on the Pak40s fighting position still on going in the distance.

I'm hopeful that Pak40 is toast, which means we now are dealing with two ATGs known to me from starting intel on the left flank: one in TOM and the other on Hill 204.1. From the above position we can put down some speculating fires on the area to try and stir up some movement and determine the status of the enemy guns, if possible.  

Thanks for the patience, it has been a bit of a crazy week and a half back for me and I didn't have the time to type this all up. Let's get back into it. Last update, we were engaging a Puma which had made a sudden appearance...
1803-1804
All the action is on the right this turn.
The Puma reverses a few feet, just so that the OP can still see it but not the Cromwell, who does not fire a second time. This Puma is soon joined in the west village by a Panther, but the position the big cat takes makes it no immediate threat. 

Enemy artillery fire begins to fall on my right rear at this point, impacting along the muddy riverbed the armoured cars used to move forward. I don't recall seeing any spotting rounds so it seems self-evident that there's a reference point in this dead ground. Right idea, wrong timing from my opponent here; he's punching empty air. 

1804-1805
More movement is reported on either flank this turn. More Panthers are spotted moving along a road behind Farm 002, and again in front of Hill 206.5. OBJ Tom is being built up into quite the Hornet's nest. Likewise, an OP spots a single German moving through west village, armed with just a pistol - someone of import, perhaps?
For all the weaponry facing me, I don't believe Draper really has a clear idea of what is going on. The recce have continued to push up without further incident. 
1805-1806
The call for fire is finally approved on the Pak43. Another 'fire for effect' is satisfyingly called on the Pak40 - and I strongly suspect and worry the mission on this latter AT position shall be off target. 
On the left, C Coy of the Rifles is preparing to ford the first of the two smaller river tributaries and has begun to dismount in anticipation of that. Their harbour is the treeline in which the carrier section had earlier established an OP/LP, you will recall.

On the right, the lead armoured cars have pushed up practically to the edge of the north village, which we know from our starting intel is occupied, without event. The west village continues to play host to its two dangerous armoured guests, but neither have pushed forward into threatening positions this turn either. 
I think it's time for a SITREP.

I think a picture is starting to firm up of Draper's defensive disposition and his intention re: the Panthers. It appears that "THORN" - the sandy ford on the left - is being dominated by fires from high ground near Farm 001 and 002, and the adjacent orchard. I'm a bit surprised so far, as none of my movement - if he can see it - has really suggested "I'm heading there now!" but given that he has a Pak40 covering the stone bridge leading to Farm 001, he likely feels confident he has this much better route covered. Anti-tank guns are like good and bad things, they tend to come in threes, and so far we've identified two Pak40s that can fire into the area leading up to Farm 001. Contrary to some, and I put this mildly, strange beliefs, anti-tank guns are tough to spot at range and tougher to kill when placed in fortifications and we know for a fact the Pak40 on Hill 204.1 has survived a considerable barrage already. I dare to hope the Pak43 on OBJ DICK will be knocked out, but that is equally doubtful given it is entrenched and in a good position. 
At this point I think its safe to say Draper has evenly distributed his defences. This makes selecting a course of action a bit frustrating. I've been able to bring up the entirety of the C Company tactical group, less the loss of that unfortunately exposed Cromwell, up to a position where they can get into action. So I am starting to lean towards COA1, the left flank. By contrast, B Company team remains stuck behind Hill 207.8, with the trailing Firefly. I'm well aware that trying to move over that ground once more risks fire from the Pak43. Every shot it gets will help it get on target and its only a matter of time before it strikes a fully loaded HT. The movement will only result as well in these infantry being dumped in front of a Panther (possibly more) in west village. So things appear, for now, a bit stuck. I will press forward on the right with what I have up there, but there's only so much they can do without infantry. At the very least, and despite the massive risk it poses, I want to test the fordability of the river in front of the west village. I should be able to do this while remaining out of sight of the Panther.