CMPzC Bulge '44 Crossroads Operation - Axis HQ

[Heinrich505]

The mod looks fantastic.

Heinrich505

[kohlenklau]

IT SAYS I ALREADY REPORTED ON TURN 30 TO 29.

I MUST BE IN SHELL SHOCK OR SOMETHING!

Anyway, here is a big picture commentary.

Not much changed since last time...shells landing, body parts flying up into the air.

The long range kill I am trying to line up. We'll see how it goes down. Maybe I am in his sights and will get whacked? I also have a small team in downtown BdF who are gonna try to make it into a larger building to check the fridge for leftovers. The death box is going strong. I guess this is sadly realistic. The bodies are piling up like cordwood.

Oh, up in the north I have several platoons who haven't hardly fired a shot, except way back at the beinning, gosh, remember PFC I.M.N. A$$hole? These troops are fatigued from climbing the freaking Appalachian Trail.

They are resting now...we'll see if they get stonked.

Out west we have some sad misfits with half a rifle, 1 boot, a helmet with a hole in it. That was the lucky helmet! Hansel and Gretel I call them. They wish they'd joined the U-Boat force where they had better chances of survival.

Oh, the footsloggers of the highly touted Skorzeny group ran into a small 2 man team and lost the Forward Observer. Yes, the guy with the thick schnapps bottle glasses, barely passed the FO course back in GuttersLagerDorfen.

They popped one of the 2 enemy and the last guy is cowarding in the snow.

[kohlenklau]

I will post some screenshots tonight.

1. The long range shot didn't really go down. He slowed out of the trees, never seemed to spot that M10 way out there and instead focused on an AA gun, but never fired at it, the AA gun shot back at him which spalled his armor a bit, he battened down his hatches, Turn ended, next turn he paused for 20 seconds and did an area fire to that AA gun and a reverse back into the trees, hey, I figured I would at least help out the boys over by the death box, but it went way high and as he reversed after that pause, a round hit out in front of him, so some TD had a bead drawn but missed. i hope he dont bog next turn, yowzer!!!

2. the death box: i tried to end around the most intense part of the fire but it seems slower than i hoped. moved the 4 afv's up in kind of a mutual coverage manner, they keep buttoning up, so my spotting is gonna be lousy. we'll see if i trade off some of mine for some of his or i loose it all.

3. 2 small teams made it into the building area. just checking for intel and c-rations.

[kohlenklau]

TURN 27:00 to 26:00

Mouseketeer roll call:

5th Companie: now 94, down from 112 due to shrapnel wounds (head missing type)

6th Companie: now 101, but was 97? WTF?

9th Companie: now 86, but was 63? Another WTF?

I trust these counts better. Previous counts may have been flawed due to excessive alcohol consumption.

Tanks: stays as 5 + 1 immobilized.

StuGs: 3 + 3 immobilized. another flawed count, I thought I had 2 runners before...

It is gonna be real ugly for somebody.

[kohlenklau]

TURN 26:00 TO 25:00

An exciting turn. Both charges of the light brigade more or less went down.

Down near the death box....

I had a StuG get bogged and then immobilized by bogging but then an M10 nailed it.

That M10 got nailed by a PZIV which then took out that brave young soldier in the above shot. He even got back in the chair after cowering down. A StuG off to his left fired and that cowered him. The PzIV got immobilized by grenades but she is firing away with the coax and the bow MG and firing HE. Another M10 is off to my left in that assault and another StuG has a fire order to get her. A few M20's are trying to draw fire and distract me....Did you ever see that Steven Segal movie where he is the ex-SEAL cook on a train going through the Rockies and the bad guys try to take the train over and he has this hot chick just drop her top in front of the bad guys to distract them. That is a distraction!

The brave young soldier:

[kohlenklau]

TURN 25:00 TO 24:00

The PzIV is still blazing away at anything that moves. Mostly GI's running away in panic I would imagine. From the top of the turn I did order him to do a brief area fire at a 30 cal LMG I spotted. He nailed it. I do have a few soldaten in the area, just less than a squad at each end of this fray near the death box.

The StuG near the PzIV is mobile and slowly moving up in short sections. He also is firing at targets. On the other end of that foxhole line, the StuG that was aiming at the M10, well it had a buddy. Another M10. My StuG fired at the first sighted M10 and hit it like 5 times, it still doesn't look all the way dead. Meanwhile GI's are dumping a boxcar of grenades on these assault gun troopers. The 2nd M10 is kinda dazed and moving around trying to line up the shot, which it does finally accomplish at the end of the turn. Quite exciting and I suppose you all can watch it at noob's 25 cent all-night peep show theater.

[kohlenklau]

I'm at my non-CM morning coffee laptop, just mentally reviewing what I should be doing in the next turn.

2/3 of the game is nearly over. The goal is to destroy his forces and take control of this hex.

I know where at least 2 of his M10's are, 1 in the south near the death box and 1 headed out of town to the north. Probably he has more infantry with them, so I have to take to the chase and go after them. And screen the forest for any little bunny rabbits that need their ears pinned back,

The shell shocked axis infantry farther south-east of the death box spot a US 30 cal in the woods which looks to be getting hit by their own artillery. Right now it is just 1 Kar98 firing at him, but I am moving an MG34 over to the same vantage point. Maybe there are US Hansels und Gretels wandering in the woods? I will also have the Skorzeny group swing up counter-clockwise to screen that area.

Right about now I need 50 snowmobiles. And a Luft Aufklarungs Wagen! I need a small drone.

[kohlenklau]

I was thinking that maybe my counts went up due to buddy-aid?

Or the counts were wrong due to inebriation?

[kohlenklau]

TURN 24:00 to 23:00

Finally, I have a situation where "I" am dealing out death and destruction.

It might not last long. We have our...hold on, let me say this very clearly.....we have our... ears cocked... for the sound of his artillery about to rain in on our parade.

The charge of the ready reaction force has kind of dwindled as the kubelwagen blew a tire and the driver is fumbling around in the trunk with the spare and the jack.

The trucks slow to pass him and maybe the whole thing will be nixed here in a few turns. I've got guys on foot making better progress!!

The 6th Companie Bohemians up north, taking a good and sweet long time to recover from "walking!!" are still sitting it out for a spell; playing with frost flowers and writing letters home. They'll come back from this battle and all the rear echelon types will ask, "Wow manner! Vas it really tough?" They only have to quietly look them back in the eye and say, "Ja..."

We have some squads up there still toting their initial ammo load out! Saving those Reichsmarks for the war effort! Way to go fellas...

Hey! I gotta tell you. This last turn..brave young soldier's 40mm all of a sudden starting turning towards the PzIV...then the PzIV slowly turned towards him and then lowered the barrel and whammo!! it was all over, a red cross and a droopy barrel.

He sure had guts that kid...

This aint brave young soldier, this is a shot from farther away, the line of 40mm's feel the crunch and start to surrender...an M10 is still out there in the smoke und fog....

[kohlenklau]

Mouseketeer roll call:

5th Companie: Down near the death-box and now down to 82, down again from 94, which was down from 112 due to continued shrapnel wounds and now some infantry action near the death-box.

6th Companie: hanging out up north, now amazingly 102, up from 101, which was up from 97? WTF? Maybe they are breeding clones?

9th Companie: In the west and in the death-box area as part of the hammer and anvil tactic. Now down to 73 from 86, but was once up from 63? Another WTF?

[kohlenklau]

I've got claymores rigged in the trees and Huey Cobras on call but the VC are still slipping through the net like fish down on the muddy Mekong...

[kohlenklau]

I guess some of those US Army footsloggers don't wanna spend the rest of the war in a POW camp. They are walking out and trying the ol' escape and evade.

But I have a few of my old shell shocked PTSD squad remnants out in defensive lines.

Back near the death box, the US artillery still keeps pounding down. I think this is the big stuff, 155mm or maybe 8 inch. Not too accurate but I see a red cross now and then...

I want to make some new Bulge maps. Anyone out there? Did you download the mod yet? What kind of Bulge battles are you interested in?

[kohlenklau]

The Battle of Baraque de Fraiture is over.

The Battle of CMPzC is just beginning..........

[kohlenklau]

It is finished!!!

Wow!!

What a ba$tard of a fight.!!

Noob's artillery juts makes me want to poke him in the ear with a knitting needle!!!

I am a dumba$$!! I could hardly see the fire roads. I wandered in the forest like some Gypsie! Oh well, lessons learned!

Drinking Vodka, give me some lee way,...

I am happy that I finally just rushed in and encountered his inner elements.

The death box sucked but finally I was on top!!!!

[Rastamon]

Kohlenklau - Thanks for an entertaining AAR. That arty is going to be tough for the Germans in the Ardennes.

I posted a couple of thoughts on the CMPzC system in Noobs thread.

Keep the AARs coming!

[mjkerner]

I want to make some new Bulge maps. Anyone out there? Did you download the mod yet? What kind of Bulge battles are you interested in?

Team Cherry, Foy, Elsenborn Ridge, just to name a few, Phil.

[Erwin]

I know it's a ginormous amount of work, but a campaign that simulated the Ardennes offensive (Axis vs AI) in miniature (ie company-battalion level) through some of the critical engagements would be awesome.

[Heinrich505]

kohlenklau,

Really nice AAR you and noob put together. I followed it with great interest. The screenshots are great and really give us all something to use while waiting for the Bulge episodes to materialize.

I really enjoyed your commentary as well. Are the "Steely Dan" crew back at the truck and chilling to "Rikki Don't Lose That Number?"

Heinrich505

[kohlenklau]

Erwin,

Well, the sad thing about campaigns is that they are only vs the AI, right?

So, all that AI work is a pain and then it might not be so great and everyone complains.

I think H2H is the best since I took the plunge some 4 months back. Now I would only create H2H scenarios for such a "Taste of the Ardennes" Scenario Pack.

Or maybe as QB's with AI as US defender.

[kohlenklau]

Heinrich,

I guess my last few days of AAR's kinda dribbled off but I did deploy them and they dismounted. I think they hauled up the road listening to "Black Friday"....

[Broadsword56]

Don't give up -- You can use some of the aspects of the campaign-making tools in the editor to create some excellent operational/tactical scenarios for HTH play, without AI or having to make a full-fledged CMx2 campaign in the original sense of the word.

The idea is this: A regiment or brigade task force gets a mission to accomplish something -- an attack, let's say -- and let's say in an 8-hour window. That's your operation cycle.

Using a master map and the campaign tool's ability to carry a regimental OOB across linked battles, you could cut out the submaps map for some shorter (4 hour), battalion-level scenarios and then have them branch to new scenarios with new frontlines/other submaps depending on how each of the two lead battalions fared in their initial attacks. Using the campaign OOB eliminates the bookkeeping.

You can have the third battalion + additional assets of the attack force be an optional reinforcement. You can set it up as a reinforcement on *both* of the initial battle submaps. Set up a protected/screeened area for the reinforcement to arrive in, with very tiny cover arcs. You and your opponent have to agree to pretend it's not really there until it's commited to the battle. The owning player can then commit it (or elements of it) to either battle -- once it's moved or shoots, it's considered committed and then can't be used in the other battle. Your arrival time for the reserve/reinforcement force on either submap is a function of how far it would have needed to travel to reach the jumpoff point. You could even set up both of the initial battalion battles and play them at the same time (alternating turns between the scenarios) to get that feeling of events happening simultaneously. That would also give you more flexibility in committing all or parts of your reserve to either battle as it develops.

Depending on which territory objectives get captured by either of the front-line battalions, the campaign tool can be used to branch the action to other submaps and import campaign units to reflect the evolving positions of the regimental-level battle, as you set up the subsequent scenarios.

This way, you could still get the ease of playing smaller, battalion-scale battles but have them happen in the wider context of the regiment/brigade's operation.

It's not as comprehensive or detailed as the PzC method of ops, but can work to make HTH scenarios more linked and "operational," and/or become a mechanism for setting up CM battles generated by a boardgame/Vassal module that uses regimental scale and hexes too large to be comfortably played within CM (for example, in the Bulge I'd highly recommend Ardennes '44 second edition -- that's the one I have and plan to use when I get around to the Bulge some day.)

Sburke has suggested an innovative way of arranging the territory objectives on each of the submaps like this, with these point values:

Obj 3 40 Pts ................................ Obj 2 30 pts

................... Obj 1 20pts.................

"The battle rages for as long as the attacker feels capable of pushing forward. Their goal would be to achieve as many of the objectives in the 4 hour window as they think they can at as low a cost as possible. When the point comes that the attacker feels they have achieved what they can, both sides ceasefire. The campaign is branched based on the point value they achieved from the various objectives. Plan the points well enough and you could have a number of possible alternatives with the ground taken reflecting them.

"If you ceasefire and get 20 points your frontline is at objective 1.

"If you get 60 points you go to map 2 and a frontline that includes 1 and 3.

"If you get 50 pts you go to map 3 and a frontline that includes 1 and 2.

"If you get 90 points your frontline is all the way to objectives 2 and 3.

"Your forces would carry over and the assumption being you had to regroup, replenish etc and the next battle is say in the afternoon, another 4 hour scenario. Theoretically you could do this and create a fairly large campaign. It may become an accelerating loss for the defender, but that is actually fairly realistic and could reflect what little reserve the defense has or not. The upside of doing this is your forces can automatically carry over with incurred losses, supply issues and so on and you don't have to track them."

[kohlenklau]

Broadsword,

Has anyone created such a campaign yet? It sounds interesting....

[Broadsword56]

No it's just a concept-in-progress that we've been kicking around.

Sburke and I have already played with the "optional reinforcements" arrangement in CMBN and it was an excellent addition to our last op-tac battle.

But there were a number of things that got us thinking about this use of the campaign tools: As master maps become more widely available, and as the series moves to epic urban settings like Nijmegen, Stalingrad, etc., we wanted to experiment with some other ways to play operationally over those large areas and have things carry over. Also, I had bought Ardennes '44 and because it's regimental scale, I'll need a different system for setting up battles than I've used in op games where the counters have been battalions or companies. I don't like to play with forces of more than a battalion-plus at a time, and nobody enjoys the body-counts and bookkeeping required to track a large battle for an operational campaign.

[kohlenklau]

You should talk to noob. He can best articulate what CMPzC offers for your concerns.

I think the body-count is easy as pie. I did it often for this last battle. Takes only a few minutes. The CMPzC oob editor is also very easy to find your unit and change headcount.

Nothing is perfect but I hate to reinvent the wheel so to speak and CMPzC seems to me to really offer the CM gamer a great chance to play the Operational level and still dive down to enjoy his tactical cake.

For example in my CMPzC Sicily '43 Ribera battle, the Italian Blackshirt company that is assaulting me has just prior been attacked by some P-38's. They took losses and this is automatically reflected in the OOB and then can be very quickly manually adjusted in the CM OOB when you do tactical battle.

CMPzC shows a nice 2D or 3D map and you can see the objectives and why you are there and the issues on the flanks and reserve units waiting to be employed.

Someone had an AAR going that showed Vissal or Vassal with US airborne in D-Day Normandy. I gotta see if anything new has happened there....

[kohlenklau]

I e-mailed noob and asked him to swing by this thread, drop a few coins in the bucket for the widows he made lately and join in this discussion about Broadsword's concept-in-progress....