Monty's Mighty Moustache

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Minutes Minute fourteen was quite quiet, everyone was advancing or repositioning in minute fifteen things started to hot up. KG LINKS The HTs start to move across the bridge overwatched by the 251/17 and the StuG. The infantry are at the crossroads. There's a lot of open space on the approaches to NAI1. KG ZENTRUM The infantry and vehicles pull back and reposition. As they do so something goes bang behind them. It looks like a mortar shell so I was right to reposition. Now this cannot be a called in mortar as the Soviets take about a week and a half to organise such things so either it's an on-map mortar team firing direct, in which case it's a terrible shot, or it's pre-planned. This happened right near the end of the fifteenth minutes so I'm guessing Grunt has called a pre-planned area fire with a delay of 15 minutes. Will see what transpires over the next few minutes. KG RECHTS The rest of the infantry have caught up with the scouts so they start to push ahead a bit. B team from 1st squad approach the treeline at NAI4. Suddenly a crack rings out. A MG gunner (why is it always the MG gunner!) from 2nd squad that is moving up is killed outright. My first casualty. B team get the spot in the trees off to the right. This is confusing for a number of reasons. How did the scouts get so far without getting shot? Why did this OP shoot? If they have the spot then a small covered arc would allow them to gather intel without giving themselves away and given the conditions I don't think I would have seen them until I stumbled upon them. They may have just moved up from other positions, or perhaps this is one of many teams he has in the treeline (although I doubt it). Interesting. Nevertheless the 251/17 is going to plaster the area with fire next turn and all the infantry are going to drop and see if they can spot them and return fire. SITMAP MMM

I must admit the planning and movement to contact stuff is always my favourite bit of any battle. The tension! Thanks, I often find myself getting a bit lost reading some AARs so I thought I’d include it with every turn, I may cut them down when things start kicking off to concentrate on certain localised battles but we’ll see how it goes. Me too! What’s not mentioned is my movement methods but I’ll start adding that in where appropriate. On the whole if they have decent overwatch and the ground is relatively open then I’ll use short QUICK dashes with listening halts, but if I am approaching a suspected enemy position, am in close terrain or in the open with no idea where the enemy is then I’ll HUNT, with listening stops of course. I just need to remember to be patient as I quite often think scouting is taking too long but it always pays off when I take my time. MMM

There are. Still when the briefing says he has no armour I was expecting that to be a fib but the surprise is ruined now. I quite like those “Oh c**p, they’ve got a <insert scary weapon>!” moments. MMM

SITMAP Now that I know the town is occupied I've somewhat satisfied NAI2, I'll reposition KG ZENTRUM to investigate NAI3. MMM

The Thirteenth Minute KG LINKS 2nd Squad leapfrogs 1st (there are only two squads in this Zug) as a HT moves up to provide support. Kein kontact! KG ZENTRUM The scouts push forwards and we soon get some spotting contacts heading away from us back towards town. I expected him to do this, I am a bit surprised that he would man an OP with what I suspect is an AT rifle team but then they probably are pretty well suited for the job. Then, a shot that looked like it came from the town! We have our first confirmed spot! An HQ unit. KG RECHTS The scouts approach NAI4 having cleared the danger area without incident. Overwatched by the rest of the Zug and the armour section. They make the treeline and will take some time to rest while the rest of the Zug is brought up, infantry first. I'm really surprised there was no response, unless of course Grunt has impeccable self control and has any OPs on extremely short cover arcs (which is what I would do). MMM

Exactly. I guess the game wouldn't be much fun if it just told you how to win the battle would it? I must admit I have, on occasion, agreed with the plan after doing my analysis. But it doesn't happen often. MMM

The Twelfth Minute All in all a disappointing turn. Nothing happened so I'll be brief and no images because again, nothing happened. KG LINKS Still no contact so I'll keep advancing by bounds, scouts out front followed by the remainder of the Zug until I reach the intersection, then I'll turn my attention toward the buildings. KG ZENTRUM Everyone hit the snow but no more shots fired and no contacts. I will move the scouts on the next turn to see if I can provoke a reaction. KG RECHTS The scouts are almost at the trees at NAI4 now. I'm going to move them into the trees and not stop short as it will hopefully provoke anyone who is hiding in there to do something rash. No contact thus far though. I'm thinking of mixing up my armour force a bit. I currently have a Panther and a StuG assigned to KG RECHTS but I m already in contact in the center so I might swap the StuG for the Panther that is with KG ZENTRUM so I have both panthers on the right flank and should he get a spot on my armour then all he, hopefully, will see is a StuG. Decisions, decisions. I'm a bit surprised to not have spotted anything on NAI4 yet but there may yet be some Soviets in the vicinity. MMM

Thanks George, I'm glad you're enjoying it. MMM

The Eleventh Minute KG LINKS Having cleared the woods and farm 2nd Zug push over the bridge, led by 1st Squad. The 251/17 moves into an overwatch position. It can't quite see into NAI1 from here but it can cover the approaches. KG ZENTRUM Kontact! The scouts come under fire from some scrub ahead of them towards NAI2. It was a few shots, fired singly and sounded like quite a large caliber, perhaps a Soviet AT Rifle? They all missed and none of my troops seemed to notice and we didn't get any sound contacts, I've added a symbol for where I think the shots were coming from. I will stop everyone now and see if we can resolve the contact and see what we're up against. KG RECHTS The scouts are almost across the open ground and into NAI4, I've been leapfrogging the supporting infantry and HTs. The armour is back but close enough to be brought up quickly to engage any threats. NAI4 is a large area to investigate so I'm planning to bring the other platoon in 3rd Kompanie (it only has 2) to help once I know there's nothing really nasty waiting for us. SITMAP As I said in the center everyone is going to stop and go to ground to see if we can work out who is shooting at us. I also am in position to get eyes into NAI2 now anyway and I don't want to push my luck. On the left and right we will continue to probe. MMM

The First Ten Minutes - Aufklarung "Are you sure this is what you saw Blackadder?" "Absolutely. I mean there may have been a few more armament factories, and not quite as many elephants, but…" Nothing. Nada. Zip. Or nichts as I should say. On the left, let's call them KG Links for the time being, there is a patch of woods directly by my setup zone and a small farm that overlook a bridge leading to NAI1 so they went on foot to check both the woods and the building for enemies. No sign so they continue toward the bridge. In the center, KG Zentrum drove up to the scrubland in their halftracks and then dismounted to probe forward. I've got all the troops in this kind of formation with a skirmish line out front of scout teams (where I have them) and split off teams from the squads on either side, all overwatched by the halftracks. The armour is being held back for now. I can't let the skirmish line get too far ahead because of the weather and the restricted visibility. On the right KG Rechts advanced in much the same way, they drove to a small hill and dismounted then set up overwatch so the scouts can advance over the open ground towards NAI4. MMM

Yes I've had to add him to the ignore list while this battle is going on so I don't get any more spoilers. I really didn't want to but I knew it was coming. Calling it a DAR and stating on the first post that this is in progress so no spoilers, and then asking chuck nicely to avoid spoilers again a bit later when he was leaning that way clearly wasn't enough. I know he means well but it's annoyed me, especially as the only 85mm guns the Soviets have available are on tracks. Oh well, onwards and upwards. I may work this into an update later. MMM

Yes it does indeed but I always make my own assessment even when playing the AI, and I usually end up doing something different to what the briefing suggests. I just don't like the idea of charging over that hill straight off as it will probably mean heavy casualties to capture it. I've not ruled it out but I'm going to investigate other options first and hopefully give him something to think about too. Thanks for letting me know they have 85mm guns by the way, nice spoiler . MMM

9. Time, Initial Plans and First Turn TIME - This battle has 2 hours, no idea if the time is variable or not but this is a large map so it feels a bit tight. It's 1pm in January so I'm not expecting the light to fade too much but the visibility could draw in and the battle advances. Something to watch out for. INITIAL PLANS - OK so now we have all this info, what am I going to do? Good question. First of all, how would I defend this map if I were the Soviets? Well I'd keep the companies together so let's template based on the Cavalry regiment which has 4 squadrons (company equivalent). I would have one squadron in Obj ROT, one near OBJ GRAU, one near KEY TERRAIN 4 and one in reserve. I would place a piquet line/OPs forward on KEY TERRAIN 1, 2, 3 and 7 and have them fall back when contact is made. His heavy weapons I would expect to be covering the most dangerous avenues of approach and to me those are AoA1, AoA4 and AoA2 leading on to AoA5. I would be shocked if there wasn't something nasty lurking in the trees at KEY TERRAIN 6. However, he can't be everywhere! I said I was going to stick to German doctrine as much as possible so while this map is screaming out for a command-push style attack I'm still going to do some aufklarung and try and find the schwerpunkt that I can then mass my forces and attack, hopefully causing some confusion and panic along the way. To that end I've identified some NAIs that need some eyeballs on them. I included Obj ROT as a NAI as I just want to make sure he has forces in there, I would be stunned if he didn't but you never know. For task assignments I've split my forces to probe forward and see what's in these areas. They will be lead by one Zug of mechanized infantry with some armour support but the armour will be keeping back, only to be brought forward when needed or when it's safe to do so. That being said the following have been tasked: NAI1 and NAI5 (if they don't all get murdered investigating NAI1) 2 Zug/2 Kompanie 1 x StuG NAI2 and NAI3 1 Zug/2 Kompanie 1 x Panther NAI4 2 Zug/3 Kompanie 1 x Panther 1 x StuG The rest of the troops will stay in the assembly area ready to be brought forward once I have more info and a plan of attack. My hope is these will be enough eyeballs to effectively spot and also enough firepower to perform some limited offensive action and defend themselves should they need to. It also has the benefit of being quite a large force for scouting so it may make Grunt think I'm attacking across a broad front. I've just realised I have an armour section going with 2/2 to NAI1 on the above diagram, it's only a StuG and I can't be bothered correcting it now, I'll update it on the next diagram. PANZER MARSCH! Finally, we're on the way! Some screenshots from the first turn for you: Next time...movement to contact! MMM

8. Terrain concluded - Key Terrain and Cover and Concealment KEY TERRAIN - The Key Terrain for this battle are positions that offer observation and fire onto multiple avenues of approach or dominate a particular avenue such that it can't easily be bypassed and must be dealt with. I will examine each in turn but this map shows the Key Terrain for this battle: KEY TERRAIN 1: The same hill mentioned in the last post on observation SW of Obj ROT. It dominates the surrounding area and AoA2 and AoA3 are observable from it. In truth it can be bypassed quite easily by avoiding those avenues but I include it here because it is so dominant. KEY TERRAIN 2: This scrubland/woods offers good visibility onto AoA3 and AoA4 and in conjunction with KEY TERRAIN 3 creates a nice bottleneck on AoA4. There's also a small farm that offers shelter and cover overlooking AoA4 (all pictures taken looking towards my positions/axis of advance). KEY TERRAIN 3: Scrubland just to the South of KEY TERRAIN 2 that creates a bottleneck on AoA4. KEY TERRAIN 4: Dominates AoA1 and will have to be cleared if that AoA is to be utilised at all. KEY TERRAIN 5: Obj GRAU. It dominates AoA4 and offers great cover and concealment. It could be bypassed but not easily. KEY TERRAIN 6: The treeline and Obj BLAU. It offers great observation onto AoA5 and it has an objective on it which I shouldn't really ignore. KEY TERRAIN 7: Thus numbered because I forgot about it when numbering. On AoA1 it dominates a stream crossing and offers observation (just) onto AoA2. The road also narrows here and passes between buildings and wooded areas. COVER AND CONCEALMENT Last, but certainly not least I'll look at cover and concealment as it relates to the map in general and the avenues of approach and the Key Terrain in particular. Frankly, if it wasn't for this snowstorm I would be in big trouble. There isn't much in the way of concealment when attacking to the East on this map, the enemy on the other hand has plenty of wooded areas to move his forces through or behind and lots of buildings to use as cover. There is KEY TERRAIN 1 that masks the view from the town to the South but that's the only major piece of dead ground I can move through (that I've spotted). I stated earlier that the blizzard may be a problem as it will draw me into short-range fights, but it's also a problem for him as it prevents him from seeing and hearing what I'm up to at any great distance. Likewise I'll have issues spotting too, it remains to be seen how this will all play out, it should be fun. Next up...I'll complete the METT-T analysis by looking at time and how I think he will be defending, and then use that to form an initial plan. MMM

7. Terrain continued - Observation Now I have identified some obstacles along the avenues of approach I can identify some smashing spots for the dirty Ivans to watch what I'm up to, and perhaps lob a shell or two at my forces. As alluded to in an earlier post there are a lot of trees, so not surprisingly a lot of the identified spots are in...the trees! Just to the SW of Obj ROT is a hill. This hill wraps around the south side of the town and impairs visibility to the SW and S, it also provides a fantastic reverse slope defence for the town and great visibility in all directions. I would be stunned if he didn't have some units sitting there watching everything, it would be the first place to receive some arty love if I had it, but I don't. Boo. Looking towards ROT from the SW Looking West from the hill toward my setup zone Looking South from ROT, note the hill limits visibility to that direction Looking West from ROT, anyone fancy charging over that hill towards some Soviets in fortified positions? There's an Iron Cross in it for you! Next up...time to identify the Key Terrain (spoiler - that hill is definitely on the list). MMM

Thanks Cpt, I appreciate the encouragement. I definitely underestimated how much work it is but once I found my editing legs again (used to do a lot of photo and video editing a few years ago) it's getting easier. MMM

6. Terrain continued - Obstacles I like to look at obstacles in a couple of ways. The first is to look at them in a general way to see if there's anything that will curtail my ability to move and secondly I look along each Avenue of Approach to see if there are any obstacles to movement there. I will mostly look at obstacles that will inhibit vehicular movement in this battle as my force is mechanized and that's where the majority of my firepower is going to come from so without the support of these heavy weapons the sledding will be tough. a) General observations In general there are a lot of wooded areas in the AO but they are mostly passable by vehicles although it will be slow. I've highlighted some terrain that will inhibit movement or block it altogether, these are mostly areas of marsh (the larger areas) that are completely impassable to vehicles but are passable by infantry, albeit they will be exhausted crossing it and it slows them down to a crawl. I'll be avoiding these. The marshes are connected by a boggy stream, it is passable in some places and impassable in others but to be honest I'm going to avoid it if at all possible as the risk of bogging will be a bit too much for me to accept. The other obstacle to mention is the weather, it's only light snow on the ground but those 70 ton Tigers may still have issues. It is also snowing heavily so I'm not sure if that will have an effect later in the battle. b) Obstacles on the AoAs When looking at obstacles along the AoAs I look for pinch points, anywhere that will funnel my forces and make it hard to navigate that would be ideal to set up an ambush: bridges, roads between buildings etc. I've marked such areas with green circles in the image below. For the eagle-eyed amongst you I've marked the entirety of Obj ROT as an obstacle as it is behind a reverse slope and dominates AoA2, so much so that it is a serious problem as it also offers good cover and concealment to observe any movement along that corridor. The next step in the process is to look at where the enemy can observe the AoAs and the obstacles along them, that should help identify Key Terrain. MMM

5. Terrain Continued - Avenues Of Approach A bit unorthodox I suppose but this is the way I think about such things when doing terrain analysis, I still use OCOKA but not necessarily in the traditional sense. First, after a good nosey around and getting a general feel for the map (see the last part), I like to have a think about what are my likely avenues of approach. I've identified 6 on this map from my jumping off point. AoA1 Straight up the highway. Boom! The road is paved so it would offer very fast travel straight into Obj SCHWARZ and into the enemy's rear. Bridge over the "Boggy Stream" which is passable to vehicles but as Luke once said, "I have very a bad feeling about this". The highway rises to the East AoA2 There is a road that runs straight from my jumping off point alongside the boggy stream and up to Objective ROT and beyond. It would allow quick movement towards Obj ROT. AoA3 The ground straight ahead of the jumping off point is scrubby with lots of trees and bushes. The Southern side provides a covered approach to Obj ROT. On the North side of the AoA On the South side of the AoA AoA4 This avenue skirts the South side of the AO and would allow for a dive deep into the rear to Obj GRAU. Once at Obj GRAU then it would be a trek through the wood, or a drive along the road, to the North to the other objectives. It would bypass Obj ROT and would be out of sight for any units in the town so they would be unable to interdict without leaving their nice cosy nest! AoA5 Once past Obj ROT there are a couple of different routes I could take. One is to attack across the open fields towards Obj BLAU (reused the screenshot as it sums it up perfectly). AoA6 No pictures for this one, it's simply a drive straight through the trees towards Obj GRAU, with the same options available to me to continue the attack. As far as enemy avenues of approach go they are the same but in reverse, I'll need to be especially vigilant not to get overextended should I push down AoA1 or AoA4 as he could counterattack down the other flank and he could move extremely quickly down AoA1 with it being a paved highway. That was a lot of work, but hopefully now I've got my GIMP legs back under me (it's been a while) the next few I should be able to rattle out quite quickly. Next...Obstacles (it will make sense, I hope, when you read it). MMM

Many thanks, glad you’re enjoying it. I forgot to give the map size earlier, it’s 3km x 2km. MMM

4. Terrain - General Observations "God, it's a barren, featureless desert out there!" "The other side, sir!" I will be using OCOKA to do my terrain analysis but first some general thoughts on the terrain. The terrain on the whole is quite flat and rolling, there’s not a lot of dead ground but there are marshes that are impassable to my vehicles dotted around the place. There is also an abundance of trees for the enemy to hide in and overwatch the open ground. The ground rises towards the East with Obj BLAU in particular being quite prominent. The open ground that there is is dominated by woods and treelines and smaller, sparser areas of scrub and trees that all make for good hiding spots. Looking NW back towards Obj ROT Looking E towards Obj BLAU and the treeline Another view of Obj BLAU from the woods to the South The approach to Obj GRAU on the South side of the AO A word about the visibility. Ordinarily on a map like this the sightlines would be great but as it is the blizzard is limiting the visibility to about 350m. This is going to be a close quarters scrap (probably). Next..OCOKA time, I'll start as I always do (perhaps a wee bit unorthodox) with identifying the Avenues of Approach. MMM

There's a whole thread dedicated to reading material, this comment in particular has links to the appropriate field manuals from the time period. I'd recommend FM 71-7 The Tank and Mechanized Infantry Company Team (1977) as a good starting point, it really helped me. Pre-reading recommendations

Yeah I'm aware of the German for platoon, I forgot to use it however so I will from now on so thanks for the reminder. I also know all the Hanomags have radios, I assumed everyone did so I didn't mention it but maybe I should have. The tanks all have radios too as do the Bn, Plt and Coy HQs and the HQ support units and 2ICs. Plenty of radios which is more than can be said for the Soviets. I have noticed the reverse slope, that's all to come in the next instalment when I do the terrain analysis. Can I ask that you be careful with any descriptions of the scenario so as not to ruin it for me and others? MMM

3. Troops I have a battalion(-) of mechanized panzergrenadiers with the support of a ragtag platoon of armour. I created a sheet with my OOB (yes, I am that anal): Curiously, and this is something I only noticed on turn 18 or something, two of the platoons do not have a leader, I'll highlight which of them when I get to the turns. They have the HQ team but none of the soldiers are marked as "Commander" so they have no C2 contact with the Coy HQ even though there's a radio man and all the squads are marked as out of contact too. I'm not sure if this was intentional or if the reduction is strength is randomized and the Plt HQs were randomly chopped but it's something I'm going to have to manage. The Panzer Coy HQ being off the map means that the tanks are cut off from the Bn HQ too via radio so I'm going to plonk the Bn HQ Support team next to the Panzer Plt HQ with everyone up so they can share info about the place. The troops are about 20% reduced but in good condition, nothing there worries me but I expect the reds to have more men. This force is highly mobile and I have good long range firepower with the number of MGs my guys are toting but in this weather it may not help that much. I have no fire support and am expecting no reinforcements, I have to work with what I've got so it's imperative that I keep my armour alive as they will be my prime supporting fire assets. No charging off into the snow for you Hauptmann! They are equipped with radios at the platoon level and upwards, all the Hanomags are equipped with radios as is the armour. Next...terrain analysis! MMM

Actually I interpreted "fluid" as changing, so I'm not expecting just a cavalry regiment at all but we'll see. I'll do my "what would I do in his situation" when I do the terrain analysis.

2. Enemy "Enemy shmenemy" -- MMM The briefing states that the enemy OOB is unknown and the situation is "fluid", whatever that means. It does say that it is estimated that the area is held by a cavalry regiment but I have learnt over the years that these things can be misleading so the initial part of the mission will be to uncover as much info as I can about the enemy and his positions. What I do know is that it's the Soviets with all their pros and cons. They will likely be quite closely bunched due to the weather and their C2 being mostly verbal and visual and of course they lack organic effective AT assets but excel at short-range firefights, which might be a problem given the weather! For fun I templated a cavalry regiment and they consist of: 1 x recon platoon 1 x sapper platoon 4 x cavalry squadrons each w/ 3 platoons, 1 MG platoon, 1 SMG platoon, 1 AT Rifle platoon 1 x mortar squadron 1 x infantry gun battery 1 x AT company That gives a total of 583 men, 4 x 45mm AT guns, 4 x 76mm infantry guns, 3 x 82m mortars, 12 x AT rifles, 8 x MMGs. But it's fluid. Hmmm. It’s not mentioned if they are entrenched or have any armour to hand so I'm expecting anything. As for my opponent himself I have not attacked against his defence yet, in the other two games we've played he was the attacker and was quite cautious so it will be fun to see how he sets out his defence. Next...troops! (yes I know it's supposed to be terrain but I have this info more readily to hand with screenies.) MMM