Defense of Monte Agnelli - DAR

[newlife]

Greetings,

Womble and I have started up a QB and I will be doing a DAR for my side. This will not be a symmetrical DAR so you're stuck with my side of the story. Normally history goes to the victor. Hopefully in my case victory goes to the histor, but we shall see. This is my first DAR and my first time playing Womble. I have no idea what I'm getting myself in to.

For those playing along at home, this is a US attack on standard German forces. We're using map 15 which looks quite nice, you all should try it. We bought huge forces (so something like 8900 pts for Womble and 5000+ points for me). Its also a loose rarity buy so we could see some of the less common items like naval gunfire. I don't know if Womble will use 1/5th of his points on the big guns, but its an option. We are not strict historians so our buys will be to win the game, not recreate anything. We will not use rockets per agreement but planes are okay (except neither of us expressed interest in purchasing them so don't expect them) (Womble may still surprise me there)

SitRep

I will be commanding a huge force of Germans tasked with hold the strategically important Mt. Agnelli and the surrounding area, including a large town that sits at the base of the mountain. I am to hold the town, peak, monastery, and the nearby farm that overlooks the town. Enemy forces are unknown, though we can expect 1-2 Battalions of infantry with 1-2 Companies of Armor and plenty of artillery. Its a lot of force in a very small space.

Map Overview:

The overhead map shows the Americans coming in from the east. No part of their deployment zone is visible to us at start. The general landscape is a general rise from east to west culminating in the peaks and spurs of Monte Agnelli.

Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.18.30 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

There is a sizable and open valley running from the SE corner to the western map edge which separates the farm from the rest of the map. The road coming from the SE corner to town essentially marks what is visible from the farm hill.

Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.40.49 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

This is the view of the American setup zone looking from the south so that you can see the hill they will be climbing. Not too bad for them. I don't expect exhaustion to play too big a role.

Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.51.06 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

Below is the view from the attackers setup zone. The initial grassy area is out of my view, and then the americans will have the northern orchards, the central orchards, and the ridge-line houses for cover towards the town objective.

Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 3.55.49 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

The most covered approach to town is through the Northern orchard. As you can see in the pic below, the orchard connects into a set of buildings and rock walls. From there you can enter the NE corner of town. This is the most obvious line of attack.

Screen Shot 2013-04-25 at 4.00.34 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

(This tour will continue a little latter)

[kohlenklau]

Thanks for doing this DAR!

Please select your level of peanut gallery feedback: none, light, medium, heavy, "wife-like".

[newlife]

Lol. I'll select medium.

I've a big enough ego that I can slough off too directive comments and the second guessing. I'll be making plenty of mistakes for folks to pick over. The only comments I'll discourage are anything based on info derived from any Womble posts if he starts up a thread.

I've a big work weekend so info will trickle in as I find time here and there to unwind by solving an impossible defensive setup (not really impossible). As I'll show in the future picks, while the town provides GREAT cover, the rest of the area (except the farm) provides vey little cover and concealment. Womble has 8900+ points to spend. He can level that town with 3000 points of bombardment and still have more points of units than me. I'll be countering with TRPs and off map artillery plus 7 Tigers. A comparative Pz IV purchase would give me 11 tanks. I'll take fewer tanks that are able to take multiple frontal hits than lots of tanks that can be one shot killed more easily. There are not a lot off ideal ATG positions as the map really needs to be larger to accommodate the open nature of the terrain. I'm even contemplating going on the offensive which will please c3k to no end. More on that later.

[Bil Hardenberger]

Nice map and with that short rage your Tigers should dominate. If anything I would say the map appears to be kind of small for the amount of forces you two are putting on it... I expect the action will be fast, brutal, and furious.

I also expect that town will be a hard nut for your opponent... especially with your seven Tigers.

What kind of force are you expecting to face? Combined arms? Mainly armor? etc...

[newlife]

With that many points on a small map, I expect high point value units. He could buy three battalions (darn an entire brigade!) of infantry, but they would be tripping over themselves. Instead I expect 1 battalion of infantry to take the town, a company of tanks (@20 runners) and the rest in artillery and other support. The artillery is an easy buy with such a clear cut objective and Soooo many points to spend. My only real question is when it will be called in. I'm hoping for turn 1 barrage, but if he's smart he'll do a turn 1 and turn 10 barrage hoping to catch my guys on the move as they fill in the ruins. My deployment zone pretty much follows the edge of town. I'll get a pic of that soon.

[newlife]

If anything I would say the map appears to be kind of small for the amount of forces you two are putting on it... I expect the action will be fast, brutal, and furious.

We are definately maxing out the points for the map. In one of his emails, Womble requested loose rarity to allow for less used units such as naval artillery. So I countered that we should do a huge attack so that he had the points to actually buy it. His response was that he probably wouldn't spend THAT many points on artillery in a QB, and normally I would agree with him. However, we may have created a perfect storm of conditions that the 6 inch naval guns may not be a bad idea here. If he can level a building with every hit, it won't take long before the town is a smoking pile of ruins and anybody caught in there dazed and confused (more likely just dead).

It's also why I'm contemplating an offensive. The southern valley is a near perfect setup for a reverse slope defense. Plenty of cover and positions on my side, a mostly bare ridge on his side. A big, VERY open valley in between where a single 81mm mortar team could decimate large numbers of infantry and tanks would be exposing their flank to at least one, possibly multiple keyholed AT assets. This is my strongest area that I can defend with the least amount of units and those units have multiple places to hide making a prep bombardment either a giant guessing game or a large overuse of rounds covering all possible areas.

Hence, its the perfect place to launch an attack from! I can cover my own advance there with just a few assets and take the SE ridge road with Tigers (and support infantry). From there Womble will be challenged to move on the town without exposing his flank to the SE road. If he tries to flank the Tigers on the road, the back-up assets can make that challenging for him. If it gets too hot, they just backup into the valley to regroup. Essentially, I'll exploit the fact that I can more safely use the mostly exposed ridge than he can (due to the superior Tiger Frontal armor).

Two Tigers will be left on the North side of town to bolster that side with mobile AT assets.

[A Canadian Cat]

Hence, its the perfect place to launch an attack from! I can cover my own advance there with just a few assets and take the SE ridge road with Tigers (and support infantry). From there Womble will be challenged to move on the town without exposing his flank to the SE road. If he tries to flank the Tigers on the road, the back-up assets can make that challenging for him. If it gets too hot, they just backup into the valley to regroup. Essentially, I'll exploit the fact that I can more safely use the mostly exposed ridge than he can (due to the superior Tiger Frontal armor).

Two Tigers will be left on the North side of town to bolster that side with mobile AT assets.

Sounds very interesting. I have not seen any one attack straight away from a defensive QB. And with a bunch of Tigers. I am looking forward to this!

[kohlenklau]

" It's a wasted trip baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers."

[newlife]

Nice quote, I'd forgotten about that movie. Speaking of Tigers, this just seems wrong on so many levels...

Screen Shot 2013-04-28 at 10.09.02 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

Womble is still sussing out his attack plans, which is fine by me as I'm still sussing out mine. I've got my purchases mostly planned out.

1 reduced infantry Battalion (2 full companies, 1 heavy company minus the Pioneers)

1 reinforced Heavy Tank Plt. (7 tigers)

2 batteries of 120mm mortars

random assortment of TRPs, mines, and foxholes

Man those points go quick...

[newlife]

So while I wait for womble to give his several thousand troops orders, I should get going on describing my setup. First, I give you the overview of the setup zone:

Screen Shot 2013-04-29 at 9.30.31 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

I get to setup in town, but can't put any troops in really advanced positions without running them out there turn 1. The setup zone does extend just a tad further than town which will allow for some mines, which I end up taking advantage of.

North of town, I can setup along a rock wall that borders an orchard. The problem here is that there is no real place to retreat to. The north west corner of the map is pretty open with just some brush to hide amongst. I do end up defending this wall, but I'll get to that later.

South of town the deployment zone curves to the west. As the entire southern valley is pretty open this normally isn't such a great loss. Under my current plan, it does mean my attacking infantry have to leg it a little farther. Yes, I've committed to the attack, and its in this area. It would have been nice to be able to start further east on the farm hill as there is cover there, but oh well.

So here's the overall plan:

Battleplan.001 by pj olandt, on Flickr

3rd Company defends the town, with 1st Plt. holding the rock wall north of town, 2nd Plt. holding the NE corner of town with 3rd Plt. holding the SE corner of town. The Heavy weapons Plt. holds the monastery with 2 HMGs in the NW corner of town. The mortars are near low rock walls behind the Monastery and will indirect fire.

2nd Company will push forward in the south with 4 tigers to secure the SE ridge. 3rd Plt. will remain in the SW corner of town to serve as a reserve for either company. 2 ATGs and 2 inf guns are sighted to support the advance along with 2nd Co mortars.

[newlife]

Normally I wouldn't put 1st Plt. in such a vulnerable spot with such a hard retreat.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.07.43 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

But with the manpower I have I didn't want to overload the town with likely heavy bombardment. It's already a target rich environment. So the plan here depends upon the strength of contact. If his main thrust is not coming from the NE, then I hold this wall and retreat north if necessary. I want to funnel him all towards the middle. There is a Tiger using a small building to guard its right flank and is sighted to have a good view of likely armor approaches through the NE orchard.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.08.42 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.09.06 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

My welcoming party for Womble:

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.44.31 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

This plus a full plt. should do a number on forces coming this direction. The Tiger on overwatch from the mountain spur will also be able to help out in part here.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.18.28 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

If womble makes a hard play for this wall, then the guys will just have to get back to town the best they can. I'll attempt some smoke missions to cover this retreat, but mostly I'm expecting these guys to get chewed up, just AFTER they do a number on the enemy.

[newlife]

2nd and 3rd Plt. will hold the most likely approach to town. I bought about 14 antipersonnel mines to deny the enemy the use of a rock wall and to break up any assault through another vineyard. The two red dots are TRPs sighted to catch troops on the move instead of their gathering point across the field. The americans will be attacking uphill and the hill levels out just before town. I want my guys ground level so that enemy tanks will have to come much closer to get a bead on my guys. The tanks can see the 3rd story from a distance, much harder to see the 1st story. Therefor, I won't really be engaging his troops while they are in the central orchards.

Everyone in town is hiding out on the first floor of the building they're in. There is no more than a single team per building. I expect to lose some teams here, I'm just hoping that it won't be complete annihilation.

2nd Plt. 3rd Co highlighted.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.36.39 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

3rd Plt. 3rd Co highlighted

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.37.15 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

[Bil Hardenberger]

I must have missed your reasoning for splitting your Tigers up like you are doing? Would be interested in your explanation.

[newlife]

Here you see some elements of the northern attack group and the some support elements.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.49.06 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

The northern task group of 2nd Plt 2 Co and 2 Tigers will head immediately along the road and tree plantation to the buildings on the SE ridge. The Tigers will get there by the end of turn 2, the infantry by turn 3 or 4. The Plt tank HQ will sit back under a tree on overwatch. Once the attack is successful, this tank will reposition into town.

I am blatantly ignoring best practice of key-holing the two AT guns. They are sighted to help cover the SE ridge while the Tigers are on the move. If an early swarm comes over the ridge these are needed to help eliminate/occupy enemies while the tigers react. After I've taken the SE ridge these will help guard against tanks trying to get in behind the Tigers on the ridge. For this to work, they needed good sighting of most of the ridge. Should my assault fail, these will be easily spotted and taken out by indirect fire. I'd rather they help the initial assault succeed than be key-holed, risk them not helping the Tigers if the enemy doesn't pop up in the right hole and having the assault fail.

In contrast, the Infantry guns ARE keyholed. Each has a little window of ridge to cover, including seeing a building or two on the ridge. I intend for these guns to lay a shell or two into these building on turn two when they are likely being newly occupied by the Americans. The guns have HEAT rounds for anti-tank action, but in this case they are back-up. I hope to use them for indirect fire on the north part of town after the ridge has been taken. These guns are sighted to hit frontal armor of tanks and as such even though keyholed are not ideally set-up. Again this is the risk I'm taking for the offense.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.50.19 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

The southern attack group is another platoon and the final 2 Tigers. They have a straight drive along the bottom map edge to the SE corner. As you can see, there is a small valley between the farm hill and the map edge that can not be seen from the rest of the map. This is one of the reasons why I'm attacking here. This is a likely attack route that I'm hoping to nip in the bud. Near the SE corner the ridge ends which means Womble will be briefly in view of my ATGs and Northern attack group before they reach cover. I have my two 81mm mortars on this side hitting this area with light direct-fire missions in case he lays down smoke here. The mortars should continue to fire through the smoke providing at least a small harassment fire.

southern attack group from my perspective

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.51.20 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

They view from the SE corner, with my southern attack group approaching this position on the left of the picture.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.52.12 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

[newlife]

Finally comes the brave HQ support team.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 3.21.15 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

These guys actually volunteered to sit up on the mountain top spotting for me. I wish I had been audio taping when they spoke up! I quote "We're not able to call in artillery, are mostly useless on our own, and you won't miss us if a first turn bombardment wipes us off the top of the mt."

Such good guys. I'll hate to lose them.

The Btln. Headquarters sits bravely behind these guys by a good 180 meters in a nice little rock wall box. Once the support team either bites it, or proves there is no danger, the HQ can move up to call in artillery.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 3.25.49 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

[newlife]

The observant will notice no 1st company. I couldn't afford them, but instead of deleting 3rd company I deleted 1st in the off chance I can make Womble think I have an extra company.

I did the same with the Tiger platoon, keeping 3rd plt. instead of 1st. I doubt Womble will think I have a FULL Tiger company.

Some random notes, all units are Regular, Fit, Normal motivation, and +-0 leadership. It was easier setting them all to the same thing than forever juggling values with a near battalion worth of units. I think I upped the motivation on the two southern ATGs with the few leftover points.

I have two 1st turn 120mm mortar missions on the NE and middle orchards. Each is set to a single gun and harass. I also notified Womble of this under the assumption this is a harass mission that has been going on for a little while in anticipation of this attack. (That and so he didn't call me a gamey bastard). Although I'm using 7 Tigers and attacking down a map edge while defending for my very first DAR, so I might have already ruined my reputation right there. Natch, I should have bought rockets or planes to seal the deal.

If I wasn't clear earlier, the goal of the attack to take the SE ridge is to deny use of the ridge buildings on the offensive while confining his attack space into a dense package for my artillery to pound him. We'll see if this actually succeeds!

[newlife]

I must have missed your reasoning for splitting your Tigers up like you are doing? Would be interested in your explanation.

Almost missed your post. I split the Tigers into the Northern 2 and the southern 5.

The Northern 2 are positioned for the following reasons:

The Tiger near the stone wall is set to harass forces coming through the NE orchard. This Tiger can also reposition itself to have the building cover its left flank and shoot at units moving towards town.

The Co sits up on the hill to help out Tiger 1 from a distance and kill things.

The southern plt. is further subdivided into 2 pairs and the HQ. The Northern pair is rushing to take position behind the ridge buildings. Their left flank will be protected early on by the natural curve of the hill and orchards. I guess there is an outside chance of an early tank barnstorming up the road into position on their far left, but I'm betting against it. Anything coming over the hill from Womble's setup zone in the south will be in LOS of 3 Tigers (2 moving, 1 stationary) 2 ATGs and potentially 2 Inf Guns. It will be interesting to see if he does a 1st turn Armor push up that hill. The southern pair of Tigers will cover his SE corner and if needed after minute 1 can swing left for shots over to the SE ridge.

As to why I did this? I'm crazy.

I'm betting a great deal on the superior frontal armor of the Tiger, and that he'll need a great many more Shermans than he may be committing to this side. Of course his main push may be on the south side betting that I didn't cover it as intensely and I'll see 10-20 Shermans popping up over that ridge turn 1. In that case I might lose 1 or 2 Tigers on the northern attack arm. If the main thrust is here, the CO Tiger can reposition quickly to help out, leaving just the northern most Tiger alone.

So 6 of the Tigers can operate in concert, even if they are located in separate places. Turn 1 I am doing some gambling that they may be temporarily out of position.

Does this answer your question? I know you have intel background (and hence a much deeper appreciation of what is going on) so I'm not sure if I'm properly understanding the level of your question. The setup is in so I can't change anything, but I'd love to know what you would have done differently.

Thanks for asking!

[newlife]

I must have missed your reasoning for splitting your Tigers up like you are doing? Would be interested in your explanation.

After a little thinking I believe I have a better answer to your question. Essentially, what are the objectives of my attack? I have three:

AttackObjectives.001 by pj olandt, on Flickr

Objective A:

The Primary Objective is to occupy the SE ridge and buildings upon it. This accomplishes three things.

First it flanks any attack from the E through the central orchard. The hill curves away but holding objective A greatly hampers things.

Second, getting a MG into the 3 story building on the ridge gives a powerful overwatch position to whoever controls it. I'd rather be that person.

Third, it prevents a left hook by the attacker to the south of the city and entry there in an attempt to bypass any massive fortifications on the NE side of town.

Objective B:

The secondary objective is denial of the southern protected map edge to the enemy. This area could be used by enemy armor to pop up and back at will destroying my southern flank. Even if enemy tanks here never pushed forward to the Farm, they would make holding Objective A impossible, resulting in the loss of the Tigers from a flank or rear shot if they were not immediately withdrawn.

Objective C:

The Tertiary objective is to secure Objective's A flank. Objective A can be held if C is not taken, but tank and infantry movement would be severely hampered and tanks would be forced to face towards C using the buildings to shield them from the north, or face to the north using the building to shield them from the E.

So I split the Tiger Pltn and 2nd Co essentially into three parts so that the northern attack group can secure Objective A immediately. The southern group secures objective B on the way to C providing flank security for the northern group. A separate detachment is necessary due to the possibility of a smoke mission allowing enemy tanks into the mini valley between the farm ridge and the southern map edge. Any such attempt will be met with the southern task force. The final group is the standoff firebase that supports both groups from the rear.

[Bil Hardenberger]

The two-Tiger sections seem like they will be mutually supporting so I can understand those. Your opponent is going to have a cow when he sees them.

My main question was about the other three.. they seem widely spaced and it does not appear that they will be able to support each other. Maybe I'm wrong about that.. and you do have some good units to support them so I'm sure it'll be fine.

Even one Tiger is going to be a tough nut for your opponent... I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

[newlife]

Now I got ya.

The northern most Tiger might end up being left on an Island and is my weakest position. The central Tiger near the mountain is pictured in the shot below. To the far left of the pic you can see the northern most Tiger. Whether or not this rear Tiger will be able to support the northern most is a question of spotting. The Northern most Tiger can't really support the central rear Tiger, but the central rear Tiger is so far back and has the Mtn top to its right shielding it from the southern half, that I'm pretty sure it will be fine. It's greatest threat will be immobilization by a bombardment. If things get too hot frontally, it can just reverse behind the mountain.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.18.28 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

The southern singleton Tiger is situated far back and can reverse into an orchard for additional protection. It's also essentially supported by the two advancing groups. In the pic below, there are three Tigers. (I didn't clarify this the first time). On the left side, you can see the waypoints of a Tiger coming from the nearest setup zone to head down the road to objective A. The central Tiger will motor out straight ahead. The right Tiger (plt. HQ) under the tree will sit in place on overwatch. It's in very little danger of being flanked and has great visibility to support the others.

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 2.49.06 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

[c3k]

This looks like a great DAR. I love the scale. With all those forces on that map, there will be plenty of mayhem.

Thanks.

[newlife]

I'll give one thing to Womble, his troops are cool cucumbers:

Screen Shot 2013-05-11 at 4.01.33 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

More to follow...

[newlife]

Turn 1 Sit Rep:

All right! Here we go. Anticipation of immediate of action was not without reason, although it's not the 20 on 5 tank action I was worried about.

Two recon jeeps pop over the SE corner deployment hill heading for the southern map edge mini valley. 4 of 5 tanks had visual, one got a shot off that went high, and the MG fire mostly went wide except for a late penetration on the jeep carrying a bazooka team. The screen shot below shows the SE corner situation.

The 2 jeeps are visible in the bottom left. In the upper left you can see the two Tigers of the southern attack group. You can pick out the dust trail of the northern attack pair just under the mountain top label. In the upper right you can see the american artillery starting to hit.

Screen Shot 2013-05-11 at 4.20.18 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

I'm guessing Womble has now spotted these tanks...

Screen Shot 2013-05-11 at 4.17.08 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

[Baneman]

I'm guessing Womble has now spotted these tanks...

Hahaha, great shot - and sure to please c3k as they are attacking !

If they follow his usual advice, expect to have the treads of at least one tank clogged with "bits" as they charge forward and throw themselves at it. Can't wait to see the result

[newlife]

Over at town, the artillery is falling. The picture below gives you a sense of what is being targeted. This is the view from the east (so the attackers view). He has small caliber (I'm pretty sure his 60mm) targeting the northern rock wall and the bush line just south of the city, 4 tubes on each area. Then he has 4 guns of some sort of 105 or 107 mm hitting the small advance cluster of buildings. I choose not to place anyone here as it had bad escape routes and poor forward visibility. So these rounds will do nothing and I hope he keeps those up for a while.

He has another 4 gun battery of 105 landing on the front line of buildings. I do have guys here and suffered 4 casualties (one team has now panicked). Continued shelling of this area will eventually break the teams I have in the forward buildings.

The two clouds at the bottom of the screen are my harassment rounds of 120 landing. These most likely hit nothing, but it will certainly make Womble worry about where to advance. I'll keep these going only for another minute or 2 as the 120mm mortar section has a 4 minute delay on my TRPS (add in another minute for cease fire orders), and I want to hit him with those.

Screen Shot 2013-05-11 at 5.02.52 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr

On the left of the shot above you can see some of my infantry east of his 60 mm fire on the south side of town. These guys cleared the beat zone just in time as you can see below...

Screen Shot 2013-05-11 at 4.59.02 PM by pj olandt, on Flickr