Tiger Poaching.

[Desertor]

This is the third battle of the Kampfgruppe Engel Campaign.

Spoiler Alert!

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First of all I want to thank Mr. Nelson for this awesome campaign, I came back to it after some play with Market Garden module, in order to check the new game engine improvements.

The first two battles went like a breeze, just lost some troops and a Lynx, much better than my previous try.

I told myself that the odds for at least a tactical victory were in my side, plenty of troops and enough tanks and AFV to make pay with blood every piece of real state to the enemy.

Well, things went wrong every time I played it...

I devised a plan to get back the Tiger that worked fine, laying a linear barrage in front of the Tiger position, and a circular one behind effectively suppressing the scattered enemy screen.

The Pioneers launch an frontal attack to the enemy positions and a convoy formed by the Lynx, a Panzer, and an armored transport with the Tiger crew on it dart towards the Tiger position, in order to seize it.

It works, and the Tiger its mine again.

The enemy screen around the Tiger surrender to my combined attack and the Pioneers blow some bocage to let the tanks return safely to the main line of resistance without risking the dirt route again.

After that the sh@t blows the fan, everytime.

I have tried most tactics I know to delay the enemy, but nothing works, the arty barrages from the enemy fall in force anywhere my platoons are spotted, and even falling back after every skirmish didn't work...

I would like some advice to win this one.

Thank you in advance.

[Vencini]

1) Artillery smoke over the king tiger place: you will blind enemies and hide your units while get into the tiger

2)Use ingeniers (mounted in vehicles if possible) to open holes to the tiger position and reach directly to the tiger most quickly possible.

Here some post of help(do a search in CMBN forum).I love this campaing too.Thanks to the designer.

-http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104024&highlight=Kampfgruppe+Engel

-http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=109147&highlight=Kampfgruppe+Engel

Hope that helps. Saludos! ;-)

[Desertor]

Thank you Vencini, the recovery of the Tiger is not the problem, I get it every time...

It is after I got it when my tactics fail.

I will check the links and let know you the issue...

[Kenzie]

I just finished this campaign a little while ago and I really enjoyed it.

Strangely enough, I had very little trouble dealing with the American attack on that mission. Virtually all of my losses were taken during the first few minutes in my attack on the Tiger position.

All I remember is that I relied very heavily on that Tiger for the ensuing battle, driving it back and forth to deal with different threats as they popped up. The hedgerows provide great cover for the tanks, and I kept my infantry tucked away and hidden as long as possible.

They dropped a lot of artillery around the positions I held during my opening assault, but I didn't get much trouble from them after that. My infantry kept their heads down and did not really fire very much during the whole thing. I used them to spring a couple of big ambushes, with whole platoons opening fire all at once, but I relied almost entirely on the tanks for that battle.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but that Tiger racked up so many kills it was almost absurd.

[GJR144]

What worked for me was to do the obvious and get the street under control. Because the street allows to dominate the whole battlefield and with holding the street you can influence the speed of the enemy's adavance. IIRC only the street gives the cats the wide LOF they need.

Concentrate the tank forces on the street; the Panther leads, while the PzIV are behind and keep it's flanks secure.

SPOILER ALERT

When you have the Kingtiger move it on the street. But I was very cautious because I guessed this was probably what the scenario designer expects the player to do. Therefore i covered the move of the KT on the street with smoke to secure his left side.

With the street under control the battle is a controlled withdraw, with KT and Panther being closest ot he pressing enemy. The PzIV behind them make sure no infantry can come close. Keep an infantry shield with binocs and good vision capabilities around the tanks but use the infantry mainly to guide the tanks.

When enemy infantry comes dangerously close, it's time to retreat a bit again.

IIRC from the main street there was a way torwards the right side of the map, which was covered by bocage. The area of the crossroads was a great position for the two cats for quite some time, and it allows to move a PzIV (concealed from the bocage) to the right, waiting behind the bocage for any enemy units trying to drive by on the right side. But do not forget the two minutes the PzIV needs to come back to the main street, once the crossroad position can't be held any longer.

The left side:

I placed the ATG on the far left side at the woods edge, protected from infantry by two HMGs with LOS over the open field; a weak infantry platoon was placed to the far left map edge forward to identify any possible enemy units moving along the wood on the left; IIRC I also had a Lynx supporting this infantry.

Once the enemy units tried to move across the open field, they found themselfes in a devastating crossfire from the front and from almost behind. No chance to cross this field alive.

Very clever scenario with great action. IMO "Kampfgruppe Engel" is the best campaign i have ever played.

[Desertor]

Thank you for your advice GJR and Kenzie, but reading your post I have the feeling of reading the AAR of another battle .

In my game the AI is on steroids, multiple lines of advancement, rolling arty barrages, the M10 getting kills from very long distance, and even my AT gun concealed between hedgerow and houses, with a very narrow LOF getting nailed every time, I will try again in WEGO, even my wife ask me: is it the same battle again dear?

[Karabekian]

I simply an all the way to the last row of bocage (the right side road ends at a building where my AT gun got to stay (IIRC the default deployment for it)) and placed most of my troops there, mortars to the extreme left. A Pz IV backed the AT gun from as far back as possible.

The middle road I kept with a few AT armed infantry and half tracks at the crossroads.

The entire right flank (from the middle road all the way to the right) of the map was held by a sniper team, halftrack and the King Tiger (I placed it to the right of the hill).

I managed to get most of my vehicles out but my infantry had some heavy casualties. Lost the AT gun (but no crew) and in a furious battle to the right I lost the King Tiger and its driver (the tank got immobilized as I was about to pull it off the map, just 200m from the EXIT zone!). Unfortunately I lost a Pz IV retrieving the Tiger (to a lowly Bazooka).

[Kenzie]

Thank you for your advice GJR and Kenzie, but reading your post I have the feeling of reading the AAR of another battle .

In my game the AI is on steroids, multiple lines of advancement, rolling arty barrages, the M10 getting kills from very long distance, and even my AT gun concealed between hedgerow and houses, with a very narrow LOF getting nailed every time, I will try again in WEGO, even my wife ask me: is it the same battle again dear?

You were playing in real time? That might have made it a bit more difficult. At least with me, I have a lot of trouble keeping track of everything going on unless it's in WEGO.

I think I kept my AT gun in its default starting position, but I didn't use it very much because the bulk of their forces pushed against my right flank, on the other side of the road from the AT gun. Keeping my tanks parked directly behind the hedgerows would conceal them long enough for them to always get the first shot off, which is usually more than enough for the big heavy German tanks.

Perhaps there are multiple AI plans that it can choose from and I just got lucky with mine, because I was very surprised at how easy it was. The briefing said something about how the enemy advance was so powerful that it cannot be stopped, only delayed, but I managed to stop their advance cold without even having to retreat from the start line.

Their tanks were usually destroyed very quickly by my tanks firing from behind the hedgerows, and they had a big mass of infantry push against my right flank. I had a full platoon of infantry plus a HMG team and a couple of tanks open up on them more or less all at once at pretty close range, with mortars called in a few minutes later around their avenue of approach. This pretty much shattered their advance on that flank for good within a matter of minutes. I remember thinking "That's it?" The briefing made it sound scary enough that I thought I had only wiped out their first wave, and they would be sending subsequent waves at me any minute, but they never came.

I was able to withdraw to the edge of the map without difficulty, but there was one pretty epic moment when I forgot to pack up my AT gun until it was nearly too late. I forgot how long it would take to pack the thing up, and it took so long that the crew came under small arms fire as they were pushing the gun toward the halftrack, but miraculously no one was hit. They were able to hitch up the gun successfully while under fire, and then I got the hell out of there.

Tanks firing from behind hedgerows seem so effective in this game. The last mission of the campaign was incredibly difficult because of this.

[Desertor]

Yes Kenzie, I play mostly in real time, even if my rig is gasping for air some times, I just love it, watching the action like a war film.

But this time it's a WEGO, I need to win this one...