Huzzar - great fun

[slysniper]

I just had to give some praise to this battle, over the many years of war gaming, there is just some battles and scenario's that stick out and are very memorable.

This battle is one of them on my list. Not likely for my opponant.

But the design is fantastic. to a well done map. To the early portion of the battle that is a scouting and securing a path for your main forces, to the major battle. I just enjoyed how the battle flowed from one aspect to the next.

below the photo's I will dicuss or brag about how my battle went.

First: as you look at the stats, it is very one sided, This is not the likely norm for this battle. I would atticipate the Allied side normally taking a heavy beating.

So I must admit it is likely one of the best battles that I have crafted such a one sided win.

spoilers below.

In the early battle playing as the American, I found not only was I to get units to the enemy side of the map and scout it, but that he was doing the same to my side of the map. Armed with M8's and stewarts I found I was up against some nasty Puma's . But with the fotunes of battle I managed to get the jump on most of his units and somewhat secured my side of the map, losing only one Stewart.

My forward units were jeeps that I had sent to find paths to the enemy rear. I managed to roll them on both flanks to the enemy rear. They became valuable assets once they debarked the jeeps and were my eyes for what main forces the enemy had entering the map and battle areas.

When my main forces arrived I started a main probe up the left flank since the right was hard to access plus it was appearing the enemy might be stronger than me on that flank and I had not secured that side so there was a chance he was moving into my rear on that half of the area.

I soon spotted he had Stugs and Panthers as the backbone of his force, where as of course I was strapped with Shermans with a few with the 76's that might be able to do damage to the enemy front armor. But the task of crossing the bridges was becoming a very ugly concept to have to take on.

So I became very interested very quickly if there was one of the paths that might not be guarded well. My left flank had my M8 and stewarts ready to go, so I started a agressive probe on the side to see what might happen.

What happened was I was finding roads generally covered with enemy halftrack filled with troops heading for the river. Needless to say, it was turning into gurrilla warfare with my light armor poping around corners or intersections, taking out some light transport and then getting the heck out of there before he could get something there that would put a hurt on me.

I fould that even with the amount of troops available, there was just to many areas for him to try and cover.

My objective turned away from the game location goals and became one of shear find and destroy the enemy and force him to commit forces to secure his right and rear flank in that area.

As this started to develope I continued to shift main forces to that side of the map, now having Shermans ready to try and assault the town from that direction. But I started to find that the infantry was doing a better job of leading there. They would become the threat to his stugs not my Armor.

He had 6 Stugs, most located on his right flank, the area I was trying to take. If memory serves me right He only lost one to one of my 76's, he was peaking through a bocage to my side of the river and lost him. One other was lost to a 75 Sherman because of exposing his flank to my sherman on my side of the river as he became focused on my attack from the left flank. The rest was lost to Bazook'a's as I recall.

As the battle progressed it was becoming a issue for him in that he was not able to stop me from infiltrating his areas and that he could not shift forces.

He did try at some point to shift a Panther from his right to left flank, with my eyes in his rear, it was a known move . I pulled a 75 Sherman into a ambush location and was able to bag a Panther moving down the road to give aid.

The main town, no question had German defenders, but in game terms, the one thing that is not fare, is that the Americans have a boat load of Arty. You can actually shell the town from the early part of the game to the end, which I did. Not very fun, for the enemy, just shear frustration. If I was to tweek the game, some of the arty just needs to go. Too much power for the allies there. But I know the designer likes his scenarios to be historically accurate, so this is not a complaint.

As the battle went to the ending stages. It was time to focus on taking the town. By this point I had bagged 6 Stugs and one Panther and still had not lost a single main battle tank.

I stormed the town with Armor, something I generally do not do. But what great fun when you have such a firepower advantage. To keep his left flank Panthers from spotting and nailing me. I had fired some smoke at the edge of town to block his viw. You see the screen shot as i have 6 or 7 tanks withyin town and supporting infantry also.

I did slip within the last few minutes and forgot to redo my smoke screen and finially lost a Sherman to a Panther, It saddened me since I had hopes of winning this battle with somehow not losing one main Battle Tank.

Just one I had to share, it is so rare to have one play out thus.

[xian]

That's one hell of a result - well done.

Your opponent has some serious explaining to do ;-)

[slysniper]

That's one hell of a result - well done.

Your opponent has some serious explaining to do ;-)

I will not expose his name, we play often.

We are into our next battle, maybe he will get a little revenge in this one. He is doing well so far.

as for this battle, it was not his best moment. But in general, he uses good tactics. It comes down to at times we just make choices that do not aid us. In the CMX2 engine, I think the aspect of the fog of war is much more real. This battle was ther perfect example of it. I was able to keep much of my troop movement unrevealed to him. many times he did not even know where I had struck from as to unit locations.

[Hilts]

Yes, I agree with you. Huzzar is a great battle and in my top five. I played as the Germans and also achieved a major victory in PBEM. So clearly both results are possible with the right tactics, which is precisely what we want from a scenario. My compliments to the designer!

[GSX]

I think I mentioned this when the game originally came out. This is one of the best scenarios, and Maps for CMBN. If you like this one and have CW, try CW-first Clash by the same author, George McEwan.

Cheers

[slysniper]

I think I mentioned this when the game originally came out. This is one of the best scenarios, and Maps for CMBN. If you like this one and have CW, try CW-first Clash by the same author, George McEwan.

Cheers

There is the difference, you are done with the scenarios in a flash, I on the other hand will never run out of fresh ones to play. I am just getting to the point where CMBN was getting a little hard to find new ones.

I generally save what sounds like good ones for H to H play, play maybe a few against the AI and play the campaigns. Since CW came out. I have played 2 scenarios vs the AI. Playing 2 HtoH at the moment, starting a 3rd shortly. But they can take a couple of months.

I find other times setting up my own little battles to do what ifs, or maybe run some test.

I am in no rush to not enjoy the expearence or have the time to waste sitting down and trying to run through everything we have as quickly as possible.

I finished that battle about a month ago. that was only the second email game we have done against each other in the new system. Maybe part of the reason I was able to get away with as much as I did against him.

Anyway thanks for the suggestion, I like his work. As for balence and scoring.

Some times I am not so pleased there. but that aspect of a game is sooooo Hard to get right. Normally seeing actual game results is the only way to see what is needed to get that about right. thus revised versions of releases.

Sometimes it is good to be slow.

[A Canadian Cat]

I agree. Huzzar! is a classic. My friend and I really enjoined it. In the end I won as the Americans. In my case my plan was to move my forces to the right side via a ford. After loosing 5 vehicles including 3 Shermans I changed gears and attacked on two flanks (my force was split) my initial scout forces played havoc with my opponent's stugs as they moved up (I put all my recon deep in his rear area). That coupled with a hero green crew that took out a bunch of stugs. Allowed me to get through on my left and roll across the map.

Awesome scenario. Nice job only loosing one Sherman!

[slysniper]

bump

I just wanted to let George McEwan get a little praise for his work, doubt he has seen this since I would expect him to have commented.

[George MC]

Hi Guys

Many thanks for the fine praise - very much appreciated I've been away the past few days and missed this. I'm please to see that the scenario has given so much enjoyemnt to players.

He! I'm impressed t your performance in this Slysniper - you lived up to your name in that game by the sound of it!

Cheery!