White Manor AAR: c3k as ALLIES

[c3k]

We, the headquarters party, were enthralled by c3k’s mastery of the battlefield. As his aide de camp, I felt a great deal of pride in his accomplishments. We were just behind the front edge of the battle, barely sheltered from the fighting.C3k’s eyes flitted from his map to his radioman. He barked out short, crisp commands. Suddenly, the Charlie Company executive officer rushed into our bivouac.

“Sir!” he reported, “Charlie 1 and Charlie 2 are hitting some resistance. We’re taking casualties! We’re jammed up in a line behind the bocage. You’ve got to let us move. Jerry’s sure to hammer us!

C3k showed inhuman forbearance. Rather than give the implied rebuke in the executive officer’s report any credence, and to give that officer a chance to rethink his statement, c3k merely gazed at the situation map and continued to work on his cigar, ignoring his scotch much as he’d just ignored the other officer.

“Sir!” he continued, “didn’t you just hear what I said? You’ve got to let us pull some squads back!”

At this, c3k could brook his umbrage no longer. He slowly turned his head and fixed his icy glare upon the poor executive officer. A dread silence descended over the headquarters. Dripping with sarcasm, c3k asked him, “Perhaps you think you should be in command here?”

“N-n-noo, sir” he said.

“Really?” replied c3k, “because it seems like you think I’m making a mistake. Perhaps you don’t want to be up front fighting the Hun, but your men certainly want to be. Are you saying that I’m incompetent, or are you asking to pull back because you’re afraid? Are there others who feel this way in your company, or is it just you? I’ve been fighting since the Romans crossed the Rhine! I’ve fought every battle of the American Civil War! I’ve commanded sailing ships, iron-clads, the 6th Fleet! When Alpha Centauri was invaded, I was there!” he thundered. “I was at the Somme, at the bloodletting that was Verdun, and in the air over the muddy trenches! I dropped with the Starship Troopers and fought the Skinnies and the Bugs! I’ve raced Monte Carlo! I’ve fought across all time and space and you stand there and dare to tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing? Is that what’s happening here?”

I could see the blood drain from the executive officer’s face. As that happened, we all also heard his bowels let go.

C3k let a look of disdain cross his well-worn, handsome, yet rugged, features. ”Well,” he continued, “wouldn’t it be better if you could assault the enemy with the same vigor with which you’ve just assaulted our olfactory senses? Get back to the fighting and erase this incident from my memory by performing a suitable act of valor”

“Th-th-thank you, sir”, he stammered.

With a “Dismissed!” c3k turned back to the map and gave some more orders. The executive officer hurried back to the front. With a contemplative swirl of his scotch, c3k worked on his cigar and got back to the business of commanding the battle…

[Seedorf81]

You make me smile, C3K, big time.

Those AAR's are getting better and better and if this trend continues TV's will soon be obsolete.

[noob]

With a contemplative swirl of his scotch, c3k worked on his cigar and got back to the business of commanding the battle…

I think changing scotch to crotch would work well :- )

[noob]

I like your tactics, and the presentation is good, however i would like to see the text share the colour of the unit movement arrows / objective lines of the units it describes.

[c3k]

LOL. I can't be held responsible for what my aide de camp reports.

Regardless, once I post more, we'll see who had the last laugh.

[sfhand]

While I may have started the battle feeling this way:

it didn't last

[c3k]

^^^ LOL!

Well, let's see, where was I? Ah, yes: as the last turn ended there were some objects seen streaking down from the skies. An omen or a portent of the future? Lesser men would pause. I did not.

And...

Well, I realized my men could be confused by what was happening. I opened the common channel and broadcast a simple message to infuse them with vigor and to renew their courage:

...more, anon.

[c3k]

Continuing...

My exhortations have worked! They usually do...

So, 17 seconds into the turn and my left side is getting impacted heavily. There are lots of pins and cowering. There are a few casualties, but nothing too bad.

[c3k]

End of turn:

This has been a good turn for sfhand. He's very good with punishing artillery strikes. Of course, as a gamey bastidge, I'm sure he's using ahistoric missions and radio nets!

These two missions were well-timed and effective.

C1 will be difficult to move forward after this. They will be too brittle to attack, so I'll have to rely on guile, deception, manuever and overwatch. Bah. C2 is in much better shape. C3 took some hard hits on the flankers (closeups below). The rest of C3 is okay.

In order to keep my left flank as a viable threat, I'll have to consolidate and adjust their objectives. That wheatfield, with the line of Germans waiting, may not get crossed. I'll move C2 more towards the center road, towards the church. C1 will have to consolidate over by the Stuart on my far left and provide flank support. That'll be hard (moving them together): the HQ and half the platoon is pressed up next to C2. The other half is by the Stuart. I have limited sheltered movement for lateral manuevers.

C3 Flankers, closeup, at the end:

And some others...

[c3k]

Well, that's the left side. Over on the right, not too much happened (comparatively).

I moved my tanks up into the "Key Field". I closed up B3's dispersed teams onto the the tall grass field. My demo team (after opening the bocage gap for the tanks) ran back to the "The Dip" to try to give buddy aid and recover some demo charges...

Above, you can see that I've moved some teams up on the right side of the initial bocage block, the mirror image of the C3 flankers. Those guys, on the right, are from B1. They will infiltrate and sweep the bocage block. Then they'll have covered positions to put fire across the paved road. The remnants of C3 will move up and join B1 over there and add their firepower to the assault. B2 is still totally uncommitted. I'm across the first road and in a good position to leverage sfhand out of the village whenever I choose. I'll secure this zone and then leapfrog over the next road. That will have me in an "L"; the lateral base extending from C1 on my left, across to C3/B1. The upright will be B3 and, once I commit them, B2. Can I surround sfhand? "Cannae", "Cannea"? Oh, I think I can...

Buddies...

I'm seeing some motion in the German lines. All the movement I see is from my left to my right. That means it's a race: sfhand is trying to reposition troops. My men look back over their shoulders at me. I interpret the looks on their faces to mean that they are eager for me to order them to rush forward so that they can win the race. How fortunate that I have such eager men!

[c3k]

Turn 15, 1:05:00 to 1:04:01

An overview:

I'm going to hold on my left (as if I have a choice with all that artillery!), and keep working the right.

The plan is to get into the Bocage block with B1. B3 will take the tall grass field. C3 is yellow, B1 is blue, B3 is green.

[c3k]

B1: I've got teams up on the bocage. They wave on their buddies that it's clear. They move up, pause, then plunge into the gap!

...and an explosion rends the air.

Crap. Mines. I won't send anyone else through. Yes, I'm getting soft. The survivors make it and start looking around.

Meanwhile, I've also sent a team around the back side, along the road. I'll keep them close to the bocage for cover...

Crap. More mines. Grr...

Anyhow, this is what the first guys found near the sunken drive:

I'm not taking any fire here, so it may be clear. I'll have my men find out.

[c3k]

Across the road, same turn, B3 is busy.

Here are the Germans that are right up at the bocage (red circle in the overview two posts up):

The plan is for one squad, plus, to take this field. I've got B3 stretched a little. They'll have to do for now, but I can relieve them with B1 once the bocage block is cleared.

More Tall Grass:

And on the side:

And with 16 seconds left in the turn, I get this surprise:

If I hold position, well, that gives sfhand time. I don't want sfhand to have time. I want him to feel pressure. An unrelenting squeeze that makes him scream at his computer and dread opening up the next turn lest he lay his eyes upon more mayhem and destruction. I will press, oh, yes, I will press. Usually artillery isn't all that effective. This was a big one, 105-ish. Meh. I'll get my men up under it so that sfhand has to call it off. Or I'll find his spotter and kill him. My men thank me.

[c3k]

Some overviews and planning after 16 turns.

First, C3...

Next, their immediate neighbors, B1...

In order, B2...

And B3...

[c3k]

Bringing it all together, the big overview. There are a lot of arrows going on, but this gives the idea of what my plan is.

The tanks are the multiplier. Where they go, success will follow. That field (post above w/B3 team in blue entering it) cutting into the village is a good "cut" into the middle of any defense. It splits the village into a front half and a back half. I'll see about holding the front half, and containing/eliminating any Germans in there, while I try to get a foothold in the back half with B2. Then B2 will have the Germans surrounded. Their only "out" will be the light woods out the back left (from my view) of the village. Once they're out there, they'll be easy pickings.

Ken

[c3k]

Gents,

Real life is slapping me around. As you've noticed, my rate of posting this AAR dropped off. So, I will summarize and end it.

B3 in the tall grass was pounded in the next few turns by what seemed like 2 dozen or more 150mm rounds. They were grateful to me to've been part of such a wonderfully effective artillery strike. You're welcome.

The C3/B1 push up the middle (just right of the road) was held up by what seemed to be a half platoon. I killed them all. (The Germans, I mean. )

B1 then pushed past the "cut" field. There were some Germans there, but they were eliminated with a combination of tank machinegun fire and close assault infanty.

B2 pushed up, as planned. There was just one "bump" of resistance, then there was nothing left.

Here's the map:

And then, the end screen:

sfhand played well. His artillery use was very good! Each of his 4 concentrations inflicted casualties, confusion, morale hits, and caused delays. I exploited a weakness in his defense. That led to my eventual success. One mistake can be deadly...

This was a great map and a fun battle. (Hey, I won. Of course I think it was fun!)

Sorry for the suddden wrap up, but time presses...

Ken

[sburke]

So Fordo volunteers to take the ring to Mordor and the whole company shamed by their fighting agrees to help him. The company is formed... next page

Frodo returns to the shire after having successfully destroyed the ring. The end.

Yeah I think that is how Tolkien meant to write it. LOL good show c3k, am pissed though as I got far too many laughs from this and it's already over. Now what am I supposed to read when I am supposed to be working?

[poesel]

So Fordo volunteers to take the ring to Mordor and the whole company shamed by their fighting agrees to help him. The company is formed... next page

Frodo returns to the shire after having successfully destroyed the ring. The end.

Yes, that's what happened. Didn't you see the film?

[sfhand]

This has been an awesome AAR! WE WANT MOAR!!!

Once again you have shown a great ability to quickly recognize a situation and quickly exploit the opportunities the situation presents (plus you write a great AAR). I don't think you prevailed due to my oversight however, I think you won because you played really well. The beauty of playing pbems with very good players is it, hopefully, allows me to become a better player myself, so, thanks for the lessons Ken, they are much appreciated. (and even though you don't know it yet, you have had some nice luck in our current game...)

As I recall Macisle wanted some feedback on the scenario, so I'm going to offer this. As the German player I found myself overly reliant on the placement of trp's. I will be the first to admit I am pretty clueless when it comes to deciphering the puzzle presented by many maps, so for a player of my caliber (that would be spitwad), having one or two stugs and 2-4 trp's instead of ~10 trp's and one atg would allow the defender hope of recovery should the defensive plan be exploited.

I am pretty disillusioned with the current implementation of redeploying atgs, and on a map like this one, with multiple avenues of approach, having just one top notch at asset which is unreliable in redeployment as well as extremely vulnerable once its position has been given away seems a difficult challenge to overcome given the platoon of tanks the Allies have. Another minor niggle would be the Axis player should have a half track or two for schreck resupply.

[womble]

I am pretty disillusioned with the current implementation of redeploying atgs, and on a map like this one, with multiple avenues of approach, having just one top notch at asset which is unreliable in redeployment as well as extremely vulnerable once its position has been given away seems a difficult challenge to overcome given the platoon of tanks the Allies have. Another minor niggle would be the Axis player should have a half track or two for schreck resupply.

Without passing any judgement on the use of shrecks in the current instance, they're pretty good against Stuarts, and the engagement ranges on the map do seem to allow for their potential use. If, of course, the Allied player has any holes at all in his infantry cordon that's defending the Stuarts from said Shrecks... Us AAR readers didn't get to see where the Shreck threat got applied/negated, as we didn't see much of the tanks in action. Was it that Ken stopped the shrecks getting in reach of the tanks, or that there just weren't enough shrecks to cover the frontage?

I'm not sure I've seen any resupply for shrecks. The half tracks I've seen carry Fausts. It's the US halfies that have 'proper' tubes rather than one-shots. Perhaps there are vehicles with shreck ammo in them in the CW module?

[Baneman]

...

I'm not sure I've seen any resupply for shrecks. The half tracks I've seen carry Fausts. It's the US halfies that have 'proper' tubes rather than one-shots. Perhaps there are vehicles with shreck ammo in them in the CW module?

Nope, schrecks are "WYSIWYG". You only get 1 Faust per Halftrack too.

Schreck resupply is out there with the Grenade resupply and the 7.92K resupply ie. the Wishlist.

Interesting and well written AAR, too bad it glossed over the breakthrough, but we all get hammered by rl from time to time.

I like sfhand's Stug idea, a decently mobile ATG - although its gun is bigger than the 50mm in the scenario. Maybe replace the ATG with a Puma to keep the calibre similar ?

[noob]

I am pretty disillusioned with the current implementation of redeploying atgs, and on a map like this one,

I've played this as the Axis, and i think swapping the ATG for a Marder would not hurt this scenario.

[sfhand]

Without passing any judgement on the use of shrecks in the current instance, they're pretty good against Stuarts, and the engagement ranges on the map do seem to allow for their potential use. If, of course, the Allied player has any holes at all in his infantry cordon that's defending the Stuarts from said Shrecks... Us AAR readers didn't get to see where the Shreck threat got applied/negated, as we didn't see much of the tanks in action. Was it that Ken stopped the shrecks getting in reach of the tanks, or that there just weren't enough shrecks to cover the frontage?

I'm not sure I've seen any resupply for shrecks. The half tracks I've seen carry Fausts. It's the US halfies that have 'proper' tubes rather than one-shots. Perhaps there are vehicles with shreck ammo in them in the CW module?

Ken established fire superiority very quickly in every encounter. Most of the time my guys couldn't see what was shooting at them until it was too late (this really surprised me, btw). I had no luck in lining up a high probability shot with the schrecks I had, mostly due to them being gunned down by infantry.

Thanks for pointing out my error re: half track schreck resupply; it was a bad assumption on my part. But like I said, it wouldn't have affected the outcome of this battle.

[JonS]

Yes, that's what happened. Didn't you see the film?

http://oglaf.com/ornithology/

[Macisle]

Thanks again, C3K, for the super-entertaining AAR!

Now that you’ve wrapped things up and folks, including Baneman, are posting here about how to improve the scenario, I guess we can use this thread for that topic, rather than spread it across multiple threads. There are so many things that we could discuss… Hmm… Well, I guess the core issue from which a direction will stem is deciding on what side of the scale gets the weight: “realism” or “fun gaming.“

The first path would mean sticking with the original concept of very “typical” situation where German Grenadier grunts use FoW and artillery to force the attacker to give up for the day. My understanding is that, in this situation, where the area is being held by an infantry division, armor would not be available. So, improving the scenario in that direction would primarily be a question of adding casualty points to put more realistic constraints on how aggressive the attacker can be. After that, things like unit mix, time limit, and objectives could be tweaked to fine tune things. Let’s call this “Option R.”

The other path would mean loosening up on, or drifting away from the original concept in order to focus more heavily on adding scenario elements that make for a fun gaming experience. Let’s call this “Option F.” Under this path, for example, Grenadiers could become Panzer Grenadiers and the Germans could get some tanks. Or, some a-historical AFVs could be given to the Grenadiers. This option is likely to be more fun to play for the general player, at the expense of painting itself more into a “Quick Battle” type of force-mix (albeit human-selected, the AI would choose 3 mortar teams and a bunch of tanks!).

There are, of course, probably many more “paths” to identify, but my mind sees these two as the dominant, because Option R tends to write itself. If the scenario is depicting typical German infantry fending off an American attack in bocage country, then they are by definition likely to be outnumbered and without armor support. The US is by definition pretty likely to have armor support and very likely to have plenty of artillery. The Germans therefore must base their defense on their own artillery, as they cannot hope to stop the attack otherwise. The US will have a huge advantage in small-arms firepower, both for protecting its tanks and for pushing forward without them, should they fall to German AT assets. German defenders will melt away under this firepower, unless they can deliver knock-out punches with arty.

Unfortunately, the scenario in its current form does not penalize the attacker point-wise for casualties taken. Therefore, while the attacker will suffer a loss in force morale following effective defensive artillery, he can still keep pushing forward in a very unrealistic way as long as he has enough troops—which is very likely, given what he starts with. Baneman’s Tactical Victory represents a realistic outcome—but would have happened much sooner in the real war. C3K’s post-artillery deep drive south seems unlikely (I’m in NO way trying to take away anything from his brilliant play here) to occur in the real world. Having suffered the arty losses he did prior to it, his commander would almost certainly call it a day at that point. In fact, by real-world standards, the most “realistic” AAR battle-result shown for this scenario so far might well be Ithikial’s. In that one, his Amis took big arty lumps early and promptly ceasefired (and then, in the real world, the US would flatten the whole area with its own arty and then walk in to mop up the shell-shocked remnants).

So, yet another newbie scenario designer smashes up against the age-old dilemma: “Realism” vs. “Fun.” As stated above, the current scenario idea could successfully be brought into proper play balance with casualty points (and a reduction in the time limit). Furthermore, it could also be made more fun by doing things like moving some of the German arty on-map. But as I see it, doing so would still leave a fundamental problem…

The problem is that sticking to the core situation of German infantry on the defense in the bocage, it seems inescapable that artillery becomes the key factor in who wins or loses. And, THAT puts a damper on the fun factor. Arty can certainly help decide a scenario outcome without being a negative. However, when it becomes THE key factor, it has a negative impact on the vitality of a scenario. For the side that loses, it feels like a cheat, and for the winner—well, he’d usually rather be winning with his small arms and tanks.

Therefore, at this point, I’m more inclined to open things up and go for Option F.

I want to reduce the importance of defensive arty to a factor, rather than “make or break.” I do want to keep the scenario as primarily being an objective-based infantry fight—but perhaps with some AFV toys for the defender, too.

Also, I’d really like to see the White Manor area come to prominence as the climactic battle location. Currently, if it sees combat at all, the defenders tend to be on their last legs, making for anti-climax. That means perhaps fundamentally altering the objectives and/or unit mix so that the defender will have adequate force there to make for a juicy final showdown.

Anyway, I’ve got to end this post here, as I’m out of time for the day. I look very forward to continuing the conversation and moving the scenario to bigger and better places!