Canadians Attack! - BigDork vs Tiresias AAR

[BigDork]

Once again my armies are about to go to battle against Tiresias. I've done my setup and the battle is soon to begin.

[BigDork]

SETUP

I've taken command of some brave Canadian lads who's job over the next hour is to assault a German held village. Once again my frequent foeTiresias will be commanding the Germans.

This map is great and challenging. Separating the setup zone and the village is a large hill covered with orchard. If I was to just charge straight at the village I am pretty sure I would suffer horrible losses. So I've had to figure out another approach.

The plan is to break my forces up into three parts. One company (purple) will swing wide using the land to keep hidden from the village and attack it from the left. This force will lend support to my main force and hopefully provide some distraction and force Tiresias to split his men some. Another company (orange) will follow the road from the setup zone and push in from the bottom. My armor will be close behind in support of this main push. The red force is a recon platoon that has been charged with holding our side of the hill. If I've learned anything from my previous battles with Tiresias it is that he's not afraid to go on the attack while playing defense. I need them to keep my mortars (green) safe so they can be available to rain HE down on whatever the Germans have waiting for me.

The link below is a video I made of the battlefield. The first pass shows the route Bravo Company will take. The second pass is Alpha Company and the final pass shows where the recon platoon will be heading. If anyone wishes to check it out closer it's map 044 in CMFI.

Here's a view of the village I'm tasked with taking. The close in buildings are going to be difficult to take. My tanks and their high HE loads are going to be key in flushing out the Germans.

My force is a reduced infantry battalion with 2 companies, a pioneer section, mortar section, and MG section. I also have a recon platoon I've added for more infantry support. Backing them up is four Sherman V tanks and a M10 Wolverine.

Here's a look at the spaghetti that is my turn one orders. I have a lot of men scattering everywhere. I do have a slight fear of a turn one barrage aimed at the front of my setup zone. If he does do that this will be a quick battle.

And here's Bravo Company laying in wait for the order to charge forward.

[Gpig]

Go Canucks! Especially that snorkel-equipped platoon.

Gpig

[iMolestCats]

Elite canadian (Snorkel-Equipped) river crossing platoon.

[BigDork]

Turn 1

The battle begins with the screeching of incoming artillery and the unmistakable sound of the Luftwaffe overhead. Not how I wanted to start things off.

During setup I had some concern over a first turn artillery strike so I had spread my men out some. I'm thankful I had the forethought to at least do that. It may have saved some lives but there have been some casualties this first round. The worst was among my mortar teams. Thankfully none have been eliminated but there have been losses.

Suddenly the scream of a diving plane drowned out the artillery falling. I winced in anticipation of the explosion. It was a big one! God was on my side though. Despite impacting only a couple meters from my Wolverine there was no damage. I would have been very upset if I'd lost my only M10 in this battle. I don't know what kind of armor Tiresias has and I'm not sold that the Shermans would be enough.

My biggest concern was over Bravo company. They have to cover a lot of open ground and a well positioned tank or gun could really wreck havoc on my infantry. At the end of the first minute there hasn't been a single shot fired their way.

Turn 2

When setting up my mortars I intentionally put this one team in a different location just in case Tiresias called in a barrage like the one we're facing now. It was a great idea in theory but in practice... fail. This barrage is basically impacting the entirety of my setup area and no one is safe.

The Luftwaffe pilot comes around for another run, this time targeting one of my Shermans. Again it's a near miss that does not take out my armor. I'm feeling extremely fortunate and lucky that I didn't lose a tank to that plane... yet. I'm not sure if there are any more bombs or if it will come around and strafe. My Shermans might be able to take a strafing run but the Wolverine would be done for.

Orders

Bravo company continues on over the open ground. I'll continue to push them until they can get behind some terrain to catch their breaths. The first platoon of Alpha company is moving along the river scouting ahead to ensure things are clear for my armor. I'm also continuing to move my recon forces along the hill and into position in case Tiresias tries anything cute.

[$Pec5]

I am surprised that you two did not agree to a turn 1 bombardment of the attacker's deployment zone. Does Terisias typically start the game off with a set-up zone bombardment when he plays defense?

[$Pec5]

Typo in the last post. I meant to say:

I am surprised that you two did not agree to a rule prohibiting a turn 1 bombardment of the attacker's deployment zone

[BigDork]

I've never really set house rules before a PBEM. I never been in a circumstance where I felt it was necessary. Even this bombardment doesn't change that. We also didn't say anything about purchases so for all I know there's a platoon of Tigers waiting for me over the hill. Part of the game, part of the war.

Tiresias actually hasn't done this before. He said he was trying some different stuff this time. The CAS and the 1st turn arty was a bit of a gambit. Honestly the bombardment didn't do a lot of harm but that could be because I was anticipating it. Those are shells that he possibly could use later in the battle to cause some hurt. The CAS has proven a bad purchase since so far it's only caused one infantry casualty. Of course if those bombs had hit it would be a totally different story.

[BigDork]

Turn 3

At first I thought things were over and my men were momentarily safe. Then I heard that damned plane off in the distance. I was certainly nervous as it got closer and closer. Was this a strafing run or was there going to be another large explosion? Was I about to lose one of my tanks? I was most concerned about my Wolverine. I have 4 Shermans and while the loss of one would hurt, I have others. But the destruction of my single M10 would be hard to deal with.

I saw as the bomb fell from the sky. I breathed a momentary sigh of relief as I saw it heading for my Shermans instead of the Wolverine. I was elated when I watched the third bomb fall harmlessly between my two tanks. I think Hitler needs to check the eyesight of his fly boys.

Orders

That was all the excitement this minute. Other than that it was another 60 seconds of my men moving forward. 2 of the 3 platoons of Bravo Company have made it to some relative safety and will take a breather before moving out. The straggling platoon should join them next turn. I've also dispatched one of the Shermans that was acting as overwatch to move forward and set up for the next leg of my advance.

Near the village, my recon units and one of the platoons of Alpha Company continue to expand my perimeter on my side of the hill. I only want them moving a little more forward for now. They will have to wait on Bravo Company to do a lot more marching before I'm ready to try and push around that ridge line. In the mean time I just need to hold ground and stop Tiresias if he tries to go on the attack.

[BigDork]

Turn 4

Four minutes in and finally my guys get into the battle.

As my recon team approaches the house on the ridge they spot movement on the second floor. As they get closer they ID the German and it looks to be a forward observer! As they get within a few feet of the house the Bren gunner opened up, taking out the spotter.

A few moments later after we stormed into the house the radio operator tries to make his escape. As he comes down the stairs he's met by the combined fire of a Tommy and a Bren. A huge early battle victory for me. If Tiresias only had one FO and any arty that was dependent on that unit, he now has no access to it. And even if he just has some smaller stuff, having to use HQ units instead of FOs is still better for me.

Unfortunately just as my men were having a quick celebration for clearing out the house a whiz of bullets flies through the window taking out my Bren gunner. At first all we have is some sound contact from the trees beyond the ridge.

As the surviving team members take cover and collect themselves they spot a MG42 team well entrenched in foxholes and well placed on the other side of the ridge line. Tiresias put them in a great position to make any move I want to make over the ridge to flank the village difficult until they are neutralized. Thankfully for me I am in no rush to do that. For now I need to set up a perimeter.

[BigDork]

Don't miss turn 4 on the bottom of the last page!

Turn 5

As the 4th minute ended the unmistakeable sound of a Luftwaffe plane in a dive could be heard. The suspense of knowing what would happen next is one of the awesome things of this game. Thankfully for me, what happened next was much like the other 3 bombs to be dropped. The German bomb landed near my tanks but not on them. This last one impacting in almost the same location as the one before it. The Nazis are 0 for 4 on bombing my tanks. Maybe they should invest some research in GBUs.

As the minute goes on there are two explosions that have me slightly concerned and curious. The first happens near Bravo Company. I spot a larger sized explosion in the woods near where my men are taking a break. Thankfully for me I opted to hide them on the other side of the hill and not in the trees themselves. This seems to be too quick to be from a spotting round unless Tiresias judged what I was doing on round one and called in arty then. My guess is it is either a field gun or a assault gun of some sort. I'll have to be cautious. That size of HE could cause some pain.

Another explosion happened in front of the lead elements of Alpha Company near the village. Again I don't know if this is a spotting round or something shooting at me. Since I'm not pushing forward here yet I have time to suss out what is going on and deal with it accordingly.

The German plane had time to swing around for another run before the turn ended. Out of bombs the pilot switched to his cannon. My heart stopped as I heard the plane diving in and the guns open up. For some reason unknown to me the pilot fired on my weapon team HQ instead of the Wolverine mere meters away. The only casualty was the HQ commander but in the scheme of things I got of very, very lucky. I only hope this plane is running low on fuel and has to leave soon. My luck cannot hold out forever.

Orders

I've ordered the HQ unit for the recon team to take up position in the house on the ridge. I have them sneaking in with the hope that the MG won't spot them. I want to try and call in some 81mm pain on their location. Other than that I am moving the second Sherman from his overwatch position along the river to catch up with Bravo Company. They are starting to recover and I need to get them moving in the next couple turns. This broad flanking maneuver is going to me time consuming and I want to have enough time left to still assault the village and not just banzai in.

[BigDork]

Turn 6

Everyone pay attention on how not to play the game. This turn Tiresias gets some of his money worth out of that plane that has been harassing me.

So my mistake here is so very simple and something I know better than to do. I have an entire platoon clumped up together and just waiting for something bad to happen to them. I made fun of the Luftwaffe pilot a lot in the past few minutes but he set up for a painfully beautiful pass this turn.

That hurts. That hurts a lot. I basically lost an entire platoon in one strafing run. I'm still happy I didn't lose the M10 but I'm not sure I'm happy with the trade off and there's still no guarantee that the German plane won't come around and inflict some more damage next turn.

Orders

Many in Bravo Company are still at "Tiring" so I'm letting them recover for at least one more turn before they move out. On the opposite side of the battlefield my recon HQ unit was able to crawl into the building where we killed the FO and have radioed in some artillery on the MG42. It's going to be about 8 minutes but that's okay, I have time.

[sburke]

ouch man that hurts. CM giveth and CM taketh away..brutally.

[Freyberg]

Ouch! That was brutal! Nice AAR btw

[mjkerner]

Uh oh, someone's going to be Court Martialled!

[A Canadian Cat]

Wow - that really was unfortunate. I tried out air support for the first time recently. I bought strafing only no bombs. My opponent brought 5 or 6 M10s to the battle. The pilot never hit one of them. He chewed up some infantry but never an M10. Now to be fair my opponent mostly kept the M10s out of the way which actually helped me a lot so it turned out OK.

[noxnoctum]

Haha wow, that hurt.

Something I've learned (the hard way) is to always keep as much dispersal as possible, even if it means some of your men are out in the open rather than in cover behind some trees. If you have to keep them hidden, then just give your formation more depth.

I've yet to actually witness an airstrike in CMx2. Can you see the actual plane?

[A Canadian Cat]

No, you cannot see the plane. If you move the camera to ground where the shells are landing and point up you just see the shells streaming down.

The effect on the ground is pretty dramatic.

[BigDork]

I'll throw up a YouTube video of the attack in the morning so you can watch the carnage. I'm still pretty bummed about the whole thing. Mostly because it would have been very easy to avoid by not bunching my men up so much.

I made it a point during my setup of spreading my men out against any artillery barrages and then I go and group up a whole platoon when I know there's a plane overhead. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

[BigDork]

[BigDork]

Turn 8

Tiresias continues to bring the pain to my men as they come under a new round of mortar fire. I believe he's using a large area target so it's not the most focused of barrages but it's still causing some casualties. Some of the casualties are the recon squads I'm using as a line of defense against any push he may make. There's one unit though who's just having a bad day. My lead infantry squad finds themselves not only under a mortar barrage but that damned Luftwaffe plane comes around for another pass and fires on my infantry. I'm glad it's not my armor but still, I'm another squad down.

Orders

Bravo company is starting to move out again. While the artillery and strafing missions hurt it's a long battle and we're only minutes into it. My men have time to recover, regroup, and push the attack. Considering the points Tiresias put into the arty and plane I'm still feeling decent about my chances.

I am still smarting about losing that platoon. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

[BigDork]

Turn 9

When will this plane leave me alone? For the 7th minute my men are harassed from the air and there's nothing I can do about it but pray he runs out of fuel soon.

As I heard the plane open up I noticed the impacts right behind my HQ Sherman. My heart stopped momentarily. But as I watched the bullets just plink off my tank I relaxed. Despite multiple hits my armor survived unscathed. Apparently the cannons on the plane aren't big enough to do much damage. Good for my Sherman but potentially bad for my tank destroyer.

Orders

Last turn's arty strike is over and my men are starting to recover. B company is continuing to move forward and I'm waiting for my mortars to blast the MG42 I spotted earlier. Basically not a whole lot has changed from last turn.

[BigDork]

Turn 10

Another turn, another strafing run. The flyboy must have realized that his guns weren't going to do much against my Shermans because he returned to firing on my infantry. I've lost yet another squad of recon. My men in the center certainly are taking a beating.

Orders

Here's an overview of things.

Not a whole lot is different other than Bravo company making their way around. I think in another 10 minutes or so we'll be ready to start moving on the village. Before that I think I want to make some noise on the other flank to have Tiresias think I'm up to something there. By then that MG42 should have been taken out by my mortars. There's only a few minutes left until that barrage starts.

[Fenris]

Crap, that's tough going! I've never seen aircraft, in my limited experience with them, be that effective.

-F

[Erwin]

Re aircraft causing inf casualties. Carpet bombing, yes. But, I have wondered if fighter aircraft strafing was really more for harassing and killing vehicles or aircraft on the ground and it was fairly easy for inf to hide and be invisible. However, in CM2 it seems that aircraft can have a huge impact on inf.

Anyone know the RL WW2 stats?