Vanir Ausf B Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 It sounds like your game is playing out similar to my own. 16 of my 24 casualties were from that one 60mm mortar firing directly (surprise, surprise). My entire MG42 team was killed by a single round. The enemy troops in the chateau can be easily dealt with by either the 234/1 or a 'schreck team given an area fire order on the top floor. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 8, 2012 Author Share Posted October 8, 2012 Vanir Ausf B, While my casualties have not, thankfully yet reached such numbers, I believe I'm in a terrible tactical bind--without worrying about the mortar. I believe I've suppressed it for now. Unfortunately, I'm taking fire from at least 90 degrees and above as well. I can't advance, have likely lost my best infantry weapon, and my 234/1 has already survived several AT grenade attempts. While I caught some of the Americans on the hop, far too many are in position to completely wreck my ability to move forward, yet are not engagable by the troops I still have protected by the bocage, "thanks" to a bocage stub. Am going to have to get both creative and lucky in a hurry! That said, I think the rational move right now is a fighting withdrawal. That is what I'd certainly do were this a ROW tournament game, but this is not. The job remains, though my force has been badly hurt where it matters most--smack in the teeth. Regards, John Kettler P.S. Noticed your tip only after posting. Here's hoping I actually get to use it! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 I can't advance Why not? I did, and did so after sustaining heavier loses to the 60mm mortar than you have taken. Your 234/1 will be of limited use in that terrain but you don't really need it. Your Grenadiers have a significant firepower edge over the US squads, especially in the close terrain. And now that you are past the stage of the AI plan where the US forces do their Charge of the Light Brigade reenactment they are probably in poorer shape than yours. Don't be a George McClellan. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted October 8, 2012 Share Posted October 8, 2012 If you really don't think you can push them off the objective you may be able to win right now with a cease fire, even with the objective contested. This scenario awards victory points for destroying a percentage of enemy forces and keeping your own losses below a percentage. You have likely already met the former. I don't know how many men you can lose and still meet the latter but I know 24 is too many. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 Vanir Ausf B, I got briefly excited, then suffered a morale plummet when I compared my present position (not on the objective or even close) to the Americans (some men on the objective and more on the way; am taking fire from upstairs and the manor entrance, as cases in point). There is no doubt I've issued some serious pain, notably the flamed Stuart, but I don't see how I'm to advance given the lumps my Landser have taken. I need to turn things around, but presently, I haven't the faintest as to how to achieve this. I like your idea, but alas, I can't even attempt it! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 The north-south road the US forces advance on along the eastern edge of the large field turns towards the southeast before turning straight east as it goes off the right side of the map. That small section of east-west road is bordered on its southern edge by an east-west running section of bocage. That section is the key piece of terrain you need to start your advance. A squad placed on the southern side of the bocage has a clear line of site down the length of the road until it turns straight north. Any US units lurking there can be quickly routed with enfilade fire as they will have no cover. Once the road is clear to the turn your troops can move up the road. There is a hole in the bocage before you get to the turn that your men can move through into the wheat field on the north side. From there you can move north along the line of bocage pushing the US units northward as you advance. The 234/1 can provide suppression fire on the 60mm mortar and any nearby units. The break in the line of bocage on the western side of the field where the road passes through makes for a nice keyhole position. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 It's over! I wouldn't call it a debacle, but it's certainly not a glorious feat of German arms, either. Part of it I blame on a Homeric mistake I made. No, not the great poet--Homer Simpson! You see, I'd turned off the trees to be able to see anything in the bocage, which is how I managed to miss the fact that I was already on the edge of the Orchard. D'oh! Hard to distinguish between radioactive green and highlit radioactive green in such close terrain. The flanking squad got cut to ribbons. The HMG-42 was finished off by 60mm mortar and rifle squad fire. I HATE the 60 while stuck in a Norman lane not able to hide from the fire and not being able to determine where said fire came from. The icing on the cake was the losing the blissfully unaware 234/1 to a bazooka well outside his cover arc and right. How blissfully unaware? Three ranging rounds, all long and exploding in the bocage, before putting a shot smack through the tiny turret side. With no infantry to speak of left, my HMG-42 abandoned (everyone hit) and the 234/1 panicked and with a casualty, I opted for the Cease Fire. I believe I took 22 casualties and would likely have had a draw had my 234/1 not come to grief. The Aufklarungs Spahpanzer did not distinguish itself, firing a few cannon bursts at the MG in the house, then backing up clear out of LOS and very nearly into a 60 shoot a few minutes prior. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Kettler: 0 CMBN: 3. Is that about right? It sounds like you exposed the 234/1 to enemy fire by either driving right up to the bocage or by placing it up in the gap where the road goes through rather then keeping it back and using the gap as a keyhole. If you sent a squad around to the right side late in the game unsupported then I'm not surprised it came to a grim end. I sent one squad over there at the beginning to check any advance up the eastern road before it could gained the east-west running bocage line facing my setup zone. In fact it was there that the first shots in my game were fired. If you sent all 3 squads to the west side of the VL to start with then the US troops would have been well entrenched by the time you came back. At a minimum you would have needed the 234/1 to provide fire support to drive them off. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Vanir Ausf B, I exposed my 234/1 to enemy fire when I came up out of the sunken road and into the Orchard proper. Am not oriented to the map in terms of compass directions, so will say that this was just past the bend in the road on which the German force is advancing. Am talking about the area with no bocage on the immediate right and wooden fence coming off the road, roughly halfway up the road toward the manor house. That was a desperation move anyway, for the HMG-42 was already finished off, most of my infantry was shot up, my Panzerschreck teams were devoid of LOS to anything identifiable, so it was basically Fast moving the 243/1 with cover arc up (but not wide enough), covering that move with a whole three Landser I still had functioning. As I said, desperate, especially with fire lashing down from the chateau. Call the lane decorated with bullet slashed PanzerGrenadiers! Shall do better next time! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Jack Ripper Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 The bit about having the trees turned off reminds me of some mistakes I made early on. You might try out the setting "nearby trunks only" which will display all trees except those within about 100m of the camera location, which will be displayed as tree trunks. If that setting is still too hard to use for situational awareness, then my advice is to get in the habit of turning on the trees at the start of the orders phase, do a quick terrain survey, then turn them off again to issue orders. Also, don't be afraid to hit the ceasefire button as soon as it becomes apparent that you cannot advance. Sometimes the preservation of your own forces can be more valuable than any terrain objectives. Also, don't be afraid to run down the clock. Personally, I estimate the amount of time it would take to reach my objectives at a walking pace (cmd:MOVE), and I try to reach the objective in that amount of time. If I have 60 minutes to complete a scenario, and I estimate a walking time of 20 minutes to reach the objective, I allow myself to "waste" 40 minutes with things like artillery calls, air support, area fire, shoot and scoot with tanks, and area reconnaissance. There are many times I have been playing a scenario where I would need to soften up enemy positions with area fire for as much as 15 minutes, before being able to advance to the objective with only a few minutes left on the clock. I even had one game where I didn't hit my 'occupy' objective until there was only one minutes left. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 14, 2012 Author Share Posted October 14, 2012 SLIM, Capital advice! I am quite prepared to, and do, run down the clock. I've learned the hard way, though, that such late in the game moves in this game can be disastrous. Nowhere is this better seen than in what happened to 18 Platoon. There, everything went by the manual--until it all fell apart in the space of two terrible minutes. In this, CMBN bears a strikingly horrid resemblance to being ambushed in the jungle, with concentrated firepower brought to bear, at point blank range! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 "Once more unto the breach..." SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Today's mission is Americans on the attack! Am running recon, to include "gamey MG jeeps," in Cats Chasing Dogs. Since my force is composed of M8 Greyhounds and jeeps, I think I can actually fight this engagement and retain my sanity. May also get it finished sooner rather than later. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 I ran a search and found nothing on it. Is there a way to minimize the game without Quitting and Ending the game? If so, it'd make reporting the battle both easier and faster. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenAsJade Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 IMHO Cat's Chasing Dogs is a broken scenario, FWIW. A beautiful map, a beautiful story, but misconceived victory conditions, which left me with a sad "WTF?" sensation at the end. YMMV. You should be able to alt-tab away from CMx2 on a PC, I think. GaJ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 GreenAsJade, Hmm. Maybe that explains why I initially tried to write Dogs Chasing Cats! I wonder whether Alt-Tab will work on a Mac. Shall give it a try and will let you know. I've been intrigued by the Cav intermittently since I saw the TO&E decades ago in those wonderful silhouette depictions in AFV-G2, later followed by a very good online account I read and posted somewhere on the forums. Regards, John Kettler Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 GreenAsJade, Alt-Tab does not cut it on my Mac. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanir Ausf B Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I don't even remember what the victory conditions were in Cats Chasing Dogs, but playing as the US I do recall thinking it was one of the easier scenarios I've played. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 GreenAsJade, Alt-Tab does not cut it on my Mac. Regards, John Kettler Try whatever key combo you use to swap between full-screen applications that aren't CM... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 16, 2012 Author Share Posted October 16, 2012 womble, Don't know what those are. Have posted question to my longtime friend and Mac Power User, and have also asked Tech Support for help. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 womble, JyriErik over at Tech Support came through big time! For the Mac, it's Command-Tab and works like a champ--in both directions! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Jack Ripper Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 SLIM, Capital advice! [snip] In this, CMBN bears a strikingly horrid resemblance to being ambushed in the jungle, with concentrated firepower brought to bear, at point blank range! Regards, John Kettler Glad to be of help, and that analogy is often proven correct, as I have learned rather painfully on many occasions. Good luck on your next battle. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 23, 2012 Author Share Posted October 23, 2012 SLIM, It's heavily overcast, rainy, I have no idea where the enemy is, and I'm advancing while waiting to have my Cav shot up. I'll take that luck! Appreciate the good thoughts! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 23, 2012 Author Share Posted October 23, 2012 SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Contact! One of my MG jeeps went racing up the road north and found the foe almost immediately. My men got the drop on a brace of big German armored cars, hosing the lead vehicle ( Puma, I believe) in the side of the turret and possibly hurting it some (spalling), whereupon the recon jeep wisely reversed out of LOS behind a stand of trees. The same thing happened with another jeep given similar orders, but which arrived later, having had farther to go. The turret side of the Puma got hosed again, with more spalling as a result. The outcome was far worse, though. This jeep took an estimated 5cm (absolutely not 2cm fire) HE round and was killed outright, with, I believe, everyone aboard killed. The jeep is now both a flaming datum and funeral pyre! I certainly did NOT expect contact this early, but I failed to remember it's a scenario, rather than a H2H with back of the board setup zones as the norm. Am now going to have to figure out how to get eyes forward--without out getting said eyes wiped out! If I can get a decent LOS from someone with a radio, I may be able to call down fire on my tormentor via the organic 60mm mortar. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 23, 2012 Author Share Posted October 23, 2012 A most exciting and somewhat terrifying turn! In an effort to develop the situation, I brought up a mortar and issued what I hoped was the right command to dismount the mortar team so I could set up to provide support. Amazingly, considering I was baffled by the complete absence of anything resembling a mortar team icon, as opposed to that of the jeep, this worked! Meanwhile, I pushed forward a couple of MG jeeps (why don't they have .50s?) to play peekaboo, shoot, reverse games from behind the wall and did something similar with the HQ M8 on the road. I practically came unstuck when the turn began. Seems I ran into a platoon plus of Germans, with at least three big ACs visible. Gack! Fortunately, the hasty attack plan came together beautifully. The mortar jeep rolled smartly forward, and the team dismounted. After closely resembling a stomped anthill's occupants reacting, the guys actually got to more or less where I'd planned. The other mortar jeep and the command jeep were brought up, too. The hero of this piece is the HQ M8--which proceeded to scare me silly by rolling out into plain view (no idea why it went so far), then backed out, turned right, then rolled forward again. This somehow brought multiple targets into view. The Puma which had been hit before by MG fire was left alone, but a 37mm drilled into the side of the second AC (side penetration) down the line running from the crossroads, followed shortly by two penetrating hits thereafter on the bow on third AC. When the second one hit, the AC blew up, with the crew leaving in haste. The M8 again shifted targets, returned to the second AC and pumped another round into it, setting it afire, but not exploding. Next thing I know, my men are squawking about enemy infantry. No idea where it came from or what it represents. My jeeps also managed to shoot up the wheels on one of the ACs. For the loss of one MG jeep, I have practically wiped out a German armored recon platoon possessed of much nastier weapons than mine. I plan to bring my mortar into action next turn and probably, in light of the ever expanding mortar in direct lay discussions, will likely area target only. Am not even sure I have LOS, so this may be moot. Doesn't matter that much, since I have highly trained eyes with binoculars and a radio in case shouts and hand signals get missed. All in all, a great turn! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 23, 2012 Author Share Posted October 23, 2012 Sigh. It looks like, as a general rule, the .30 MGs on the jeeps are correct. A very nice force breakdown. http://web.archive.org/web/20080801081611/http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/Reconnaissance/united_states_cavalry_reconnaiss.htm Wiki, for this unit, at least, indicates that at least some of the jeeps could have .50s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/106th_Cavalry_Regiment_(United_States) Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.