Allies Side - 20 000 point Quick Battle DAR

[dungeontiger]

The Damlier seems to have dodged the proverbial bullet in the form of a faust projectile in the later part of the turn with it very luckily hitting a tree instead of the side of the vehicle.

Cool vid.

-F

Yes he did. Very cool, too bad next turn, as expected, the Stug smoked him. :-(

[dungeontiger]

So I watched the next turn from my opponent but have not issued orders yet. What I am doing is creating a giant composite bird's eye image of the battlefield. Its getting hairy and even hard for me to follow so this will help a lot. I plan to have that finished today.

So what happened in the turn? My Daimler got nailed from the Stug right in front of him as expected. The mighty Churchill continues to shrug off 75mm shells and get penetrating hits on Stugs.

Details soon.

[dungeontiger]

I spent far too long creating this overview image. I won't do this often. Maybe every 10 minutes of game play at most. Still, it is helpful for me as much as showing you guys what is happening. Since this is the first time I did this, tell me what you think. Can you get anything useful from it? Is the quality too low?

Note that it is not perfect. I manual stitched the images together in Photoshop. The screen shots and icons did not perfectly match in all cases. I think icons near the edge of the screen might move when you move the camera and that messes things up a little. It would be really nice if they provided a way to get this single image in the game since it is helpful for the player. Oh well.

So here's the image, comments after:

So I have the railway objective locked down. All the approaches are covered by Achilles and Churchills. Also I have advanced scouts across the river to warn me of when he launches his assault. I had expected it sooner. Perhaps I scared him when I smoked his halftracks! Looks like he is trying to get his infantry in front and / or is waiting for artillery (which would suck, no artillery please).

Below that you can see the area where my troop of Chruchills has been dueling with a number of Stugs and the flanking Panther he sent around to get me. The Churchills caused some damage on the Stugs, I just don't know how much.

You can see that the convoy was set out to attack the town. I'm really glad I intercepted that before it got there. I'd rather fight him out there instead of in the streets. My troop of flanking Churchills can hopefully inflict more damage and delay on that convoy.

The town is locked down good too. I have a squadron of Achilles on overwatch looking down at the approach to the town. Inside the town I have solid armor and recon.

I'm sending more Achilles and Churchills from the reserve around the town toward the area where the flanking Chruchills came from. They can either interdict the convoy if they get there early enough or attack it from the rear if he is already assaulting the town.

I might make a few short videos before issuing orders for this turn.

Gibson out!

[sburke]

wow, are you kidding? Nice overview! I had to zoom out to get a better perspective, but color me impressed.

[dungeontiger]

wow, are you kidding? Nice overview! I had to zoom out to get a better perspective, but color me impressed.

Thanks. That made my day and made it worth all the effort. :-)

[dungeontiger]

First, sorry no videos this turn. For some reason I could not capture more than 1 FPS. Watching the turn I would get 33 but as soon as I turn on recording it would chug. I will try to figure out what is going on. Even rebooting did not help. So, you'll just have to be satisfied with the giant overview image for now. Just to be clear, that image is the beginning of this turn - 1:45 - that is.

As expected, the Daimler in the convoy battle bought the farm. Sad but true. The element of surprise is lost now. He is screaming some Stugs ahead of the convoy to meet my flanking Churchills. I'm actually surprised that he is putting them so far out in front but I guess he wants to be sure I don't get to his soft underbelly...the infantry on trucks. We exchanged a number of rounds to no effect other than chopping trees. I learned that from Ian in previous games...trees are your friends. Even if they mess with your rounds, its still better to be in them.

In the dueling engagement between the Churchills and the Stugs across the field, I scored a number of other penetrating hits. Still no smoking hulks but its gotta hurt none the less. That immobilized Churchill is still doing his job. I'm proud of that crew. Having high motivation, veteran troops clearly makes a huge difference. Normally my less experienced / motivated crews bail. The flanking panther is well within pouncing range now on that immobilized tank. I'd like to have him spin his turrent to face that direction, but the face comment is disabled when the tank is immobilized. Not fair! The trees must be really dense since I only have a sound contact and he's right there. The two troop mates of the immobilized tank are already facing the correct direction but again have very limited line of sight due to trees. I've ordered them to advance right up to the immobilized tank to defend him. Can the two Churchills defeat the Panther head on? I don't know. What I do know is that Panther is fully capable of eating my three Churchills in one turn.

In the last second of the turn I hear the screaming artillery sound. Damn intelligence! They said there was no opposing artillery! [ian and I engage in a large amount of psychological warfare and misinformation. I think this time he really did follow me and is calling artillery].

[Pete Wenman]

I'd like to have him spin his turrent to face that direction, but the face comment is disabled when the tank is immobilized. Not fair!

won't cover arc do this for you ?

Nice map and great reports by both you and Ian

P

[dungeontiger]

won't cover arc do this for you ?

Nice map and great reports by both you and Ian

P

Good point. Opps. We'll see what happens now....

Thanks for the compliments!

[Fenris]

I had to put it in paintshop pro to see it all at once but the overview is indeed excellent (edit - which is no problem at all, just a comment on the impressive size of the thing). Things are making a lot more sense now. It high-lights one of the positives of a large engagement, there are a few separate fights happening all at once. Very interesting.

I usually play German but for some reason I'm rooting for old Blighty in this one.

Good luck!

[dungeontiger]

I had to put it in paintshop pro to see it all at once but the overview is indeed excellent (edit - which is no problem at all, just a comment on the impressive size of the thing). Things are making a lot more sense now. It high-lights one of the positives of a large engagement, there are a few separate fights happening all at once. Very interesting.

I usually play German but for some reason I'm rooting for old Blighty in this one.

Good luck!

You rock! Thanks for the feedback.

[nathangun]

Hi,

Started reading this DAR two days ago and it's a brilliant read. Keep up the good work.

[dungeontiger]

Hi,

Started reading this DAR two days ago and it's a brilliant read. Keep up the good work.

Thanks! Having an epic sized battle is seriously fun and its even more fun to share with everyone as it unfolds.

[dungeontiger]

1:44

First, let me apologise for taking long to get tot this. I had some upgrades to my computer and that took me out for a few days and then I was distracted by the release of "Armor Kill" for Battlefield 3. I'm back now at.

Not a good turn for me. Starting to lose Churchills.

In the flanking Panther engagement it is amazing how dense the trees are. I think the did not see the immobilized panther right in front of him. My two Chruchills moved up but only one had LOS. First, I took out his commander, then he took out mine and destroyed me. He retreated. I debated whether or not to send out the remaining Chruchill to chase him. I figured I should. Let's see what happens next turn. Likely he will die.

Here is a screen shot at the beginning of the turn:

Here are a couple of screen shots in the middle of the turn. I managed to kill a crewman in the Panther. He managed to kill on Churchill before retreating into the woods.

Here is a video of the engagement.

http://youtu.be/JPGK-rMGt-8

The flanking Chruchill engagement did not go well. Lost a Chruchill there too. Plus my guys started bouncing shells off Stugs instead of killing them. Here's a video of that.

http://youtu.be/Og0FMHyealc

Now I also had orders / movement issues this turn. I love this game and it is brilliant, but sometimes the movement AI is foobarred. Even in the last video you can see a little bit of it. I would expect some erratic movement and confusion because you cannot see much from within those tanks. However no tanker in his right mind would drive like this:

http://youtu.be/gjizzIE16qQ

I call that video "Dumb Churchill turning his ass toward the enemy and backuping up"

Here's a better one. I told this Achilles to get his ass behind the tree line, not ahead of it. He was about one or two tank lengths too far out on the ridge. My mistake of course, I should have been more careful with this positioning. However, now he drives in a complete 360 to get there while under an artillery barrage and fire from a Panther. He dies a well deserved death.

http://youtu.be/hNKGVQ9Sh_s

Yes, artilley is falling. He did have some. He made some good guesses about where to drop it but I don't think it will make a difference.

The first barrage is one the railway near the small village across the river. I have a number of Stuarts clustered there but seem to be out of the barrage. It is possible that he is going to walk the rail line. If he does, I will have to move my Achilles and Churchill off the rail line till the rain stops.

The second barrage is on the ridge where I had the Achilles. The interesting thing is that on this ridge, I had a set of Achilles last game against Ian that made a mess of his King Tigers. So he figured that I would put more there this game so he targeted a barrage there. Fortunately for me, the Achilles are farther along the ridge this time so his is missing...except for that one rotating Achilles that is out of position. Oh well. At least he will think he's nailing an entire troop.

I edited my giant overview map to show roughly where the artillery is falling. There are two areas marked in yellow.

BTW, I figured out why I was only able to capture 1 FPS last turn...I was trying to get too much of a broad shot to show the battle. Seems my [massive] computer cannot handle that. So, I will just have to do close in videos. You can see that even with the ones I have posted here they get choppy at times. BTW, my computer is a Vista-64 machine with an Intel i7 quad core and 12 GB of RAM. Plus I have new Radeon 4600 Series HD card. Scary. However I'm still not happy with my encoding (you can see that the videos in this message are all different settings as I try stuff out). I'm going to ask on the forum what people do for video.

[dungeontiger]

Nothing much to report this turn. Not images or videos necessary.

His artillery barrage on the village near the Stuarts is doing nothing as is his artillery barrage near the Achilles. Useless. I see that the crew of the Stug bailed so the Achilles took it out last turn before dying.

His flanking Panther is retreating down the tree line. No LOS. I sent my last good Churchill in that troop forward to hunt him, but he backed off. Chicken!

In the flanking Churchills, my guys are the chickens. They have popped a lot of smoke and are backing up. One of my guys shrugged off a number of shells. Man these guys are tough when you are not facing King Tigers!

So I'm not going to do too much. I know he's going to wait till his barrages finish before assaulting and I'm already ready. I might move up more Churchills into the town.

[Chris Ferrous]

Amazing stuff.

Surely though neither of you intended to engage your armour at about 15m range?

Did both sides just blunder into each other?

[dungeontiger]

Amazing stuff.

Surely though neither of you intended to engage your armour at about 15m range?

Did both sides just blunder into each other?

Well you'll have to see what Ian says on his thread. I can only estimate. I do not think it was random. He must have known that I had at least one Churchill there since I have been shredding Stugs from that position for a while. I don't think he knew I had 3 however. Will be interesting to compare notes when the game is over.

[dungeontiger]

Churchills are even more amazing than I thought. Watch this video of one of my flanking Churchills taking multiples from multiple shooters and suffering multiple penetrations and still hang in there. Granted the driver is dead and the crew is finally panicking, but they are tough. Watch the video. Its amazing.

http://youtu.be/aDyIJyouDFQ

The flanking Panther must now be called the fleeing Panther. I took the HQ of the dead Churchill and moved them towards his last known position (yes, I bearded move, but war is hell...sorry). I was able to see him retreating his Panther. I can only hope that means his gun is disabled. Chicken!

Artillery is still falling and still doing nothing. He is also dropping a few rounds on the objective with the railway crossing - to no effect. However, up near where the first barrage came down, he is moving in. One of my advanced Humbars got nailed and then the crew got gunned down without really seeing what happened. He's clearly assaulting so I must be careful. Also, my Stuart took from from a 105 assault gun and some Stugs. I'm reversing them. I hope he crosses the railroad and gets nailed by my waiting Achilles and Churchills.

In the middle of the battlefield I got LOS on a truck with lots of infantry. I think a Stuart put a ton of MG fire threw it. Now it is backing up. Sucker! I'm causing mayhem for sure. However the true test is coming soon. He's going to assault my objectives and I can only hope that I have laid out a good defense. I still have a number of Churchills in reserve including the command group in case I need to reinforce.

God save the King!

[dungeontiger]

After many, many more hits this turn that unstoppable Churchill is dead. Likewise the remaining tank in his troop that was just behind him is also dead. They survived withering fire. I just don't think they inflicted that much damage. Now he is free to deploy his convoy to assault the town. See the image below for an idea of how I have it defeated.

The fleeing Panther really is fleeing. Either I scared the crap out of him or his gun is disabled. I'm hoping both.

He is still pounding the railway with artillery and harrassing the town. He will be attacking soon from across the river. This is what my position looks like.

I think in both cases I am well prepared. If [when] he sends in his infantry I'm expecting to shred him. Time will tell...

[dungeontiger]

1:40

Twenty minutes in. I predict another five minutes and things are going to get seriously hairy.

So, his harassing artillery in the Railway Crossing objective is causing small causualties. Nothing worth noting.

His assault is advancing. Again (yes again) he had a 20mm half track leading the charge. My Stuart took him out nicely at medium range.

Surprisingly he has decided to cross out of his objective. If he had planned to that I would have expected him to do that a while ago. Fortunately my Staghound witnessed it (well more correctly heard it). Unfortunately the Stag and its crew are now dead and I did not get eyes on. No idea if its infantry, trucks or what. Time will tell. I'm moving the Churchill covering my immobilized one in that direction. I am also moving a Stuart or two in to interdict.

The Staghound did his job and like so many of my recon vehicles they will recieve a posthomonous medal.

Assault on the Town objective is beginning. He is moving two Stugs to flank the town. I have a troop of Churchills laying in wait for them behind a small rise.

I have also advanced my Achilles on overwatch a bit so they have better LOS.

- Gibson out.

[dungeontiger]

So not too much to report. Going to make it a quick one.

More Stugs were zipping along the edge of the map to get around the town. My brave Churchill commander, the lone one left from the crew, fired his Sten at a couple of passing Stugs to make them button up. I was going to record it but it did not look that good after all.

On the railway objective he destroyed a Stuart, I took out a half track and I think another Stug. Starting to heat up on this side, but still no real serious engagements.

- Gibson Out.

[dungeontiger]

Well I feel like the Black Gate just opened up and the armies of Mordor are belching out. At this town objective, where he smoked my Staghound, he also smoked a Stuart and a mortar carrier crew I had left over which I sent to investigate. Now I can see there are at least 3 Panthers and a number of Stugs. That's the most Panthers I've seen in one place yet.

This is what it looked like at the start of the turn. Remember, at this point I don't know what's there. Could be a bunch of trucks for all I know.

This is where the Stuart bought it:

And here is the largest amount of armor I've seen there yet:

Seems perhaps the attack by the railway is a diversion and this is where the main force will come down. I will have to repoint the Achilles to face these guys and retreat my recon because I know what is coming and not much they can do about it.

Speaking of Achilles, one of mine on overwatch took out a StuH 42. In the last second it went up in a spectacular explosion. You can see the shooter and target in opposite corners of this image:

Now my immobilized Churchill might be experiencing his last few seconds of life. The fleeing Panther (and a buddy) are in among the smoking hulks of a bunch of dead Stugs. I had called this the dueling Chruchills. The Churchill bounced a round of a Panther but took a partial penetrating hit that killed the commander and paniced the crew. I give them 15 seconds of life remaining. We'll see.

- Gibson Out

[Baneman]

Dang, that's a good long shot for the Achilles.

[dungeontiger]

Dang, that's a good long shot for the Achilles.

Oh ya! Score one for the Brits!

[John Kettler]

Baneman,

I looked in vain for the victim--until I discovered I'd missed the scroll bar! Now, it makes sense.

Regards,

John Kettler

[dungeontiger]

Baneman,

I looked in vain for the victim--until I discovered I'd missed the scroll bar! Now, it makes sense.

Regards,

John Kettler

Sorry about that, I could have made it more obvious I guess. Glad you found him.