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Bloody Gulch!


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Ok..so anyone played this mission?...What tactic did you use?

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I first advanced my troops in halftrack near the bridge..There is a forest on the left so I disembarked my troops ready for the attack the amis launch...The thing is all I got is panzerfausts so the tanks are a problems..Plus they send me tons of infantry with awesome suppressing fire from their 60mm..So setting my mg42 isnt a good plan.My HT arent good as support either as they get shot by the shermans pretty easily...Should I just rush at the start..or hold then proceed with sweep..

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Ok..so anyone played this mission?...What tactic did you use?

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I first advanced my troops in halftrack near the bridge..There is a forest on the left so I disembarked my troops ready for the attack the amis launch...The thing is all I got is panzerfausts so the tanks are a problems..Plus they send me tons of infantry with awesome suppressing fire from their 60mm..So setting my mg42 isnt a good plan.My HT arent good as support either as they get shot by the shermans pretty easily...Should I just rush at the start..or hold then proceed with sweep..

I got a tactical victory first go - I had no idea a counter attack was imminent. I was expecting lots of resistance around the bridge.

I proceeded carefully up the left side of the road with everything. I wanted to avoid having to pick through much forest, as I didn't have many men - but the forest overlooking the bridge obviously needed to be thoroughly cleared out.

So, using overwatch and cover I moved up to the forest edge, then began to creep my infantry through it spread out, while my vehicles stayed back.

My plan was to clear the forest, then secure the bridge with the HT guns and support weapons overwatching the infantry. So they were close to the forest, but behind it.

When my infantry got to the far side of the forest, I suddenly got many contacts of Ami's running across the open towards the forest I had just crept through (from a smaller forest which I assumed was their starting point.)

I lay down fire ASAP trying to catch them in the open. I drove several vehicles around the forest at high speed to provide cross-fire on the exposed enemy. I hustled up my MGs and set them up 1 action square into the forest to pour more firepower on them while they were pinned in the open. I avoided crossing the road, and focused everything on those infantry - I didn't want to get into any entanglements that weren't necessary.

That's about when the shermans showed up, and dispatched several of my HTs and ACs. I wasn't expecting that, but the losses were worth the damage they inflicted. I searched around for something to dispatch the shermans, but there was nothing. As you point out - only 30m fausts. So unless the shermans happen to drive within 30m of a forest edge, I had no hope. I resolved to simply avoid the shermans.

However, it didn't matter in the end because after a round or two of backing away from the shermans, a platoon of panthers showed up.

I used these reinforcements to engage the shermans directly, and with some new infantry that came with them, also secure the area around the bridge, and suppress American assets in the forests to the right of the road.

My panthers destroyed 1 AT gun and 5 shermans for the loss of one Panther, damaged gun controls on another, and one was de-tracked.

All-in-all my biggest problem was it was quite time consuming clearing out the forests around the bridge so I could be assured of a successful occupy. I rushed some vehicles and a small number of infantry to secure the final occupy objective - I had no time clear it of enemies, but I think it was defended by only a MG jeep, so it was quickly dispatched and I succeeded at that objective too.

My biggest losses, IMO, were the infantry that cleared out the forest. Even though I worked hard to try and pin the Ami's in the open, a couple squads got into the forest causing night-time forest fighting to occur, which was just a slaughter. Yes I lost a handful of HTs and ACs, but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. (I assume this is why its called Bloody Gulch) The infantry were a terrible loss though. I just wish I'd been able to pin down those squads before they got into the trees.

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I've played this through a few times now. It's quite a challenge even when you know what to expect because the American advance is quite rapid and can take either flank depending on the ai plan. The last replay I kept most of my infantry well behind the lines - only the HMG teams and a couple of scouts forward past the bridge to alert me of any trouble. I advanced my panthers up the road, and kept them just behind the bridge and covered by hedgerows on either side. I advanced two armoured cars past the bridge and followed the road to an opening in the hedge. There I used cover arcs to keep them facing potential lines of advance. I set a couple of artillery plans going and lay in wait.

It resulted in a tactical victory for me by the time limit. I lost a couple of halftracks and had damage to two panthers, but I inflicted a lot of damage. My panthers were reasonably well protected by the hedgerows and I could fire through them - the Americans could not in the most part. I knocked out all their armour with relative ease although I had much more trouble with infantry in the wooded areas. In the end I think If I recall I inflicted about 120 casualties and had 4 shermans destroyed. I also advanced my armoured vehicles to the victory location at the end of the map and bypassed the AT gun and the infantry in that area.

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Good mission this and good campaign too. I love the way the breifings are so vague and misleading representing the germans lack of recon/intel assets.

In this mission I took a few HT's on a wide right hook and spread them out in the field to hose anything that moved. I advanced up the road with my AC's and a few more HT's and stuck a platoon of inf in the woods to the right of the road before the bridge. When the attack came in I just pushed my halftracks and AC's up to the bocage to my right and blasted everything that went past, I think one of my AC's managed to damage 2 sherms with its 20mm by moving to the bocage, firing until the sherm aims its gun and then reversing.

My halftracks in the feild to the right managed to kill most of the inf that got through and then reversed into the ditch when the sherms came. One of the shermans was almost on top of them and about to wipe out all 5 vehicles when the cavalry (panthers) showed up. After that its easy. Personally I wouldnt bother trying to clear woods that are occupied. Just load your men up into vehicles and bypass them.

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