Rinaldi

November 1944…

I think templating a company is a very strong and safe assumption, given its the smallest building block for Soviet tactics and that this is a default/packaged scenario, which is therefore more likely to reflect that. 

My two bits of best advice:
Target arcs are your enemy. 😉 Using them inappropriately leads to your units getting killed without doing anything. Their purpose is to prevent firing so only use them for scouts and observers that you don't want spotted. Otherwise just don't do it. Use the terrain. Read this: https://battledrill.blogspot.com/2015/11/mett-t-analysis.html or any of @Bil Hardenberger's AARs. Even if you don't write things down or go as deep as Bil doing any part of METT will make you a better player and you will quickly realize you should be doing it all every damn time.

Yeah and I have all along. The way he has used them makes me doubt myself  But if he still has that T-34 over on the right flank and didn't move it to join the others on the objective (the one on the highway was a 1944 model, the one on the right was a 1943 model so I know it wasn't that one) then I've spotted 5 so far (4 even if he has moved it) which would mean at least 2 platoons, so likely a company.
MMM

I think templating a company is a very strong and safe assumption, given its the smallest building block for Soviet tactics and that this is a default/packaged scenario, which is therefore more likely to reflect that. 

Have been silently enjoying but going to chime in because I know how much the occasional comment from the peanut gallery helps encourage these huge-effort DARs. I also realise I am largely preaching to the converted but indulge me.
Assuming its an entire platoon is smart and should always be the baseline assumption (or in the 4-tank troop formation, at least assume a wingman). Could equally be that he has spread out a troop of tanks forward(ish) to take shots of opportunity, however. 
Or it could be this - he may not have planned to take shots of opportunity but saw a lot of metal involved in shooting infantry on to the objective and decided to have a bite. I'm sceptical of that though due to the later spotted T-34s in the village environs itself. I think this may have been a preplanned deployment of armour in a strongpoint style fashion. 
Or it could be this. He could always be making a mistake. 

No worries boys, better safe than sorry and thanks for the lesson. 

This is correct, I believe. I know that SAWs (M249) were not introduced until 84-85 so beyond this time frame. That was the first change to having a squad level LMG. BARs were long gone by 79-82. Each fire team has a grenadier, and some squads have a Dragon launcher. 
Over the years there were a number of studies about putting M60s in squads, but it's too much for one person to effectively handle, unlike a BAR. So until the M249 came about, the usual practice in light infantry was to have 1 rifleman with an M16 in each of the two fire teams designated as an automatic rifleman. 
This is different than mechanized infantry.
Dave

A good post.
With the GWOT, it seems that Australia rarely sent more than a battalion and a handful of aircraft to overseas areas of operations let alone a full brigade of troops to take and occupy terrain alongside their allied partners. I've suspected logistics constraints, effectively not having a system in place for supporting ongoing larger scale deployments, also played/dictated Australia's contributions over the last few decades.
<-- Has not served a day in uniform (if you don't count cadets in high school ) so freely admit I'm an armchair general happy to be schooled.

Have been silently enjoying but going to chime in because I know how much the occasional comment from the peanut gallery helps encourage these huge-effort DARs. I also realise I am largely preaching to the converted but indulge me.
Assuming its an entire platoon is smart and should always be the baseline assumption (or in the 4-tank troop formation, at least assume a wingman). Could equally be that he has spread out a troop of tanks forward(ish) to take shots of opportunity, however. 
Or it could be this - he may not have planned to take shots of opportunity but saw a lot of metal involved in shooting infantry on to the objective and decided to have a bite. I'm sceptical of that though due to the later spotted T-34s in the village environs itself. I think this may have been a preplanned deployment of armour in a strongpoint style fashion. 
Or it could be this. He could always be making a mistake. 

The Sixty-Sixth Minute - Objective ROT
A reminder of the dispositions and numbering system:


The attack at KT4 seems to have emboldened my oppo as one of the contacts at the objective starts to move.

The next sequence of events all happen within about a second of one another.
1) B Trupp/2 Gruppe at the SBF position firm up the contact and get a burst of MG42 fire off. It's another T34-85.

2) In the meantime the T34 fires on the 251/17 on the road and destroys it, the shell entering the engine and impacting the ground some 30m behind the vehicle and killing the two crew inside.


3) The burst from the MG42 above takes out the tank commander.

4) One of the overwatching Panthers spots the T34 about this time, rotates, and fires.

He scores a hit on the turret at a range of 310m.

The T34 doesn't move, doesn't brew up and nobody is seen exiting the vehicle. The turret is still pointing to its left at turn's end so he may have a cover arc set up, I need more info in order to do a proper BDA.
Elsewhere on the objective 1 Kompanie get a foothold and start advancing down sector A.


1 Zug are providing cover fire along with the Tiger and take out a man in B3.


Shortly thereafter what looks like a team is seen retreating from B3 towards C3. He seems to be falling back from sector B.

The dispositions are turn's end.

SITMAP

The lone tank on the left flank is curious. Why only one T34? I am going to assume that there is a platoon over there but perhaps not as he must've known about the StuG as it was firing on the treeline not that long ago so if it were to be dealt with he'd need to send more than one tank given the disparity in optics and spotting. Hmmm.
Interesting too that he waited until that attack went in before poking his head out on the objective, but he only did it with one T34 when I know he has at least 2 over there (I'm assuming has has T34s now that I've seen at least a platoon's worth). Maybe he was testing the waters, it will be interesting to see what happens next, but if he was going to commit more than one you'd think he would have done so on this turn. That's 3 confirmed spots on T34s thus far, and I know he has at least one more on the objective so he's got more than a platoon in the AO, I'm comfortable with my assumption that he has a company of them for now.
I've updated the blood board to show my losses. I haven't updated his yet as I don't know if those T34s are knocked out or not.

For support I'm going to send 4 Zug of 2 Kompanie from the SBF force to KT4, they are not needed at the SBF position anyway.
On the objective I'm continuing to push and am keen to see what he does with that other T34.
MMM

I often use 'the tank dance' when I'm brassing up fixed defences.....Target Briefly 15secs/Pause 15secs, Move 1m, Target Briefly 15secs/Pause 15secs, Reverse 1m, Target Briefly 15secs/Pause 15secs, Move 1m, etc. etc. until either all the targets, or my tank, are dead! 

Just being able to stack 'Target Briefly' commands (without movement) would get us close, you could engage four tiles in a turn.

I have been creating a series of scenarios covering a portion of the 82nd Airborne's experience in Normandy from June 6th through 10th, 1944. The goal is to complete a series of 16 scenarios plus variants. Currently #1 through #7 plus #11 and #16 have been completed. The last one is a 'what if?' scenario but the others are all historical. There is a mix of single and multi-player versions. All are posted at FGM's Scenario Warehouse.
The project was stimulated by my playing another designer's 'Amfreville' scenario. This was extremely well done and was adapted to CMBN's diagnonal/orthogonal map reality distorting system. I have an obsession with creating better fit maps and decided to do so with Amfreville and two related la Fiere Causeway scenarios, similar to what I did with the scenario 'Bloody Buron' with my 'Bloody Buron Overhaul'.  Falaise's 22.5 degree roads have been a tremendous help in eliminating the saw tooth effect from roads that run in non-diagonal or non-orthogonal directions. Once I got started the map grew way larger than originally planned, stretching from Les Landes in the west, across Cauquigny and the La Fiere causeway, to the railroad crossing east of La Fiere on the road to St. Mere Eglise. Like my huge master map Pont Hebert to Les Hautes Vents, all of my maps are use accurate 5 meter contour maps from a web site in France and aerial photos of the landscape make in the 1950's before most of the bocage, apple orchards, farms and communities changed too much.

Several important consideration for this mission and for entire CMBS:
- you have UAV that can spot targets and call for artillery fire 
- you have plenty of artillery 
- you have two Mi24s in this mission 
- you have an advantage because Russians have thermals and Ukranians don't
I would say that the key to this mission is to spot targets with UAV, supress troops with artillery strikes and kill the rest using thermals advantage.
 
 
 
 
 

The Sixty-Seventh Minute
KT4
A quite turn after the disaster 1 Zug endured last time.
The screen pulls back under overwatch from the StuG and they get away clean.

A hatch opens on the T34 and we see the crew running into the trees. Only two survivors were seen but the tank appears to be knocked out.


We also get a spot on the infantry retreating back into the woods. I wonder if he's trying to push Broken troops up and they are panicking at the first sign of bullets coming their way?

On the right the 251/17 fires on the ATG location while it backs away to get out of range.

The Landsers recover enough to get up and move but are soon fired upon from the treeline by both a MG and the ATG. No casualties are caused though.



Objective ROT
A reminder of the numbers and the situation at the end of last turn.


The T34's driver's hatch open, we don't see any of the crew but this one appears to be knocked out too. One thing I didn't notice last time is these are not the 1943 model (different gun).

The Tigers are being moved up slightly to be able to see further back into the objective and...

I take one of them and park it next to the buildings so it is covered on the right and it can keep an eye on the open space to the East.

On the objective 2 Zug of 1 Kompanie continue to push into the objective.

We soon get a spot on the infantry in B2 and shots are exchanged.

1 Zug also get the spot and start firing.

The enemy soon sees the error of their ways and decide to surrender.

The HQ unit that has been camped between A1 and A2 soon gets spotted too.

Unfortunately one of the Panthers also spots him and fires a 75m shell at him, hitting one of 2 Gruppe's men. Must add some cover arcs!

The HQ team does not last long however.

1 Zug comes under fire from E2 as it advances from another HQ team. The overwatching troops and Tiger do their job and quickly take him out.


He is definitely un-assing B sector as we see 1 HQ team and an infantry team retreating across the road.

We even get a HQ team that looks like it came from sector E. Is he running away or consolidating in sectors C and D?

"What about the other tanks?" I hear you say. Well first of all we get a sound contact on the third member of the platoon back in the trees, so they are moving!

They are indeed, backwards! They retreat back into the fields behind the objective, they are out of range of my infantry so I don't know if they stopped in the final position shown in this image or if they kept going.

The dispositions are the end of the turn.

SITMAP

I've updated the blood board now I've confirmed that those T34s are at least abandoned. We'll see if he recrews them. 

Over at KT4 I'm going to give it a few more minutes and see if anything else pokes its head out but it may be that that flank s quite open, so I'm thinking of dashing up there and grabbing Obj SCHWARZ. I'll need a bit bigger force than I have over there right now so I'll have to wait until ROT looks secure and then I can start to split my forces.
On the right not much is happening but I may have found a way to advance, the scrub on the right is out of sight from the farm buildings, it may be a narrow corridor I can get up, but again until I have a better hold on ROT I won't do anything over there.
MMM

@WimO's work is amazing, the cards are superb and amazing realism
The small details sometimes let me think that he is lying and that he is not a Dutchman living in Canada but a resident of Saint Lô or Cherbourg with a fine knowledge of his territory.
La fière

watched  her masteur map on Pont hebert, she's crazy !
Pont Hebert  under heavy bombardment seen from Le Coquet

The map is so precise that I made a scenario where the goal for these 2 paras( @JM Stuffmod)  is to find a farm for a meeting with the resistance, that without compass, it is broken (see top right) using the stars and aerial photo!!!

well done and thank you Kandu for your great work 👏

I have been a member of the RSL for 10 years and was in the ARA for eight with two tours of Afghanistan and one of Iraq under my belt champ.  I know what I am talking about and have had numerous discussions of a similar ilk with members of my profession and veterans in the RSL.

Having found out that the local pub only stocks Cinzano, the boys go off in search of some Biere de Garde.

super , thanks
the french wiki is not as accurate about english units
What are you looking for on the search engine, 11AD, Challenger ...

I seem to remember reading that Challengers were available at the time of the landings, but something, possibly their length made Fireflies a better bet for AFVs in the initial waves.
PS - Quick check on Wiki reveals the issue:
"No provision was made for deep wading, before the design went into production; as a result, the A30 could not be landed in the initial phase of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Challenger crews had to wait until July 1944, when Mulberry harbours were operational and ports had been captured."
PPS - This:
"The 10 issued to the 11th Armoured Division appear to have finally caught up with the division in late July or early August 1944 and were initially issued to the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry Divisional Armoured Recce Regiment, then to the replacement 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars from August 17th 1944. In service, they proved popular and their crews preferred them to the Firefly for their speed and agility. It is also worth noting that for all the Challenger had a very high turret, overall the Firefly was about the same height."

Having played quite a number of games in fog last year, I can confirm that it certainly did make a big difference on spotting and therefore the distance at which firefights erupt (CMFB and CMFI games IIRC).
Makes for some interesting dynamics. 

🤔 I'm pretty sure it makes a big difference. If it's not that would be a bug for sure.

Fooling around in Photoshop.