Road to Montebourg Question

[postfux123]

In the 4th scenario my paratroopers have to defend some positions for some time and retreat afterwards.

Since there is no transport for the ATGs I ask myself wether it is wise to abandon the guns and retreat the crews.

I am also not sure what happens if some guys stay in the fight to cover the retreat.

Are they considered dead only for calculating the scenario outcome or will I miss them in the rest of the campaign. Might influence my decision who gets to stay behind.

Any input on that?

[Lille Fiskerby]

Maybe this video can give you ideas to win the mission :

[postfux123]

Maybe this video can give you ideas to win the mission :

Thanks for the link. I will watch it when I have finished mine. Dont want any spoilers right now.

Right now I have 4 casualities, a bit more than 10 min on the clock, knocked out 2 tanks and lots of german pixeltroopers are lying around or running in the wrong direction. More are coming, I know.

I have a good chance to stabilise my right flank after a plunder of mine that led to crisis and did cost the life of 3 valiant paratroopers. If this fails its time to get out.

Even if I hold the position I should get points for retreating so I wonder how this is done well campaign and mission points wise.

[Hister]

I don't know how it is calculated but I left some guys to stay put and defend so that the rest could retreat. Sent the defending survivors to exit area and got total victory.

[postfux123]

I don't know how it is calculated but I left some guys to stay put and defend so that the rest could retreat. Sent the defending survivors to exit area and got total victory.

Thanks for your answer. Do you now if the left behinds are considered dead in further missions and whether its wise to abandon the ATGs and exit the crews for this reason?

[YankeeDog]

You need to exit your units.

The way "Exit Zone" scenarios work is that any units eligible for Exit that do NOT exit by the end of the scenario are considered casualties and therefore will probably provide points to your enemy (assuming the enemy victory conditions include a casualty points condition, which they usually do).

The AT Guns do not carry forward to future missions, so once you start to pull pack it's best to abandon them and save the crews.

There are two ways to win the Turnbull's Stand mission:

(1) Give the Germans a bloody nose without taking too many casualties yourself, and get most of your survivors off the map before the end, or

(2) actually cause enough casualties to the Germans to force a global surrender. A global surrender will negate Exit Zone condition. This would be extremely difficult but is probably possible.

As to your specific situation, it sounds like you have definitely caused enough damage to the Germans, and preserved enough of your force, to win handily if you pull back and exit now. It does not sound to me like you are likely to be able to actually force a surrender as this generally requires achieving 75%+ casualties on the enemy force.

[postfux123]

Great answer YankeeDog, thanks a lot.

I dont think i can force a surrender. Guess I see if i can hold the line a little longer before pulling everyone out.

[postfux123]

Took one more casuality and decided to give up the position, worked beautifull. Got the TD, killed some more germans and got everyone out, Turnbull last.

30 killed, 39 wounded, 2 tanks and one tank destroyer out of comission vs 4 killed 1 wounded amounted to a tactical defeat.

I didnt get points for enemy casualities and he got 500 for the objektive.

[YankeeDog]

It's a tricky scenario. Looks like you scored a tactical defeat mostly because the Germans managed to achieve the objectives before the battle ended. If the Germans hadn't gotten the objective points, you probably would have had at least a tactical victory.

If you time it right, it is possible to withdraw quickly enough that the Germans fail to reach the objectives before you finish your withdrawal. Remember to hit Cease Fire as soon as you're done withdrawing.

Plan your positioning and routes carefully for a quick exit. Try to save some of your mortar rounds to use for immediately prior to withdrawal as they can pin down and stop the forward line of enemy infantry while you start to bug out.

Defending aggressively and keeping the enemy a distance from the objectives until you start to withdraw also helps. Once you've nailed the AFVs, pay particular attention to destroying or routing the forwardmost, mobile enemy units (i.e., assaulting squad infantry) that are likely to achieve the objectives first.

[postfux123]

Thats a tough one, but extremly entertaining to play.

I tried again and this time put some effort in holding the objektive.

I took one casuality like before - exactly the same soldier, must have been a bullet with his name on it. Nailed the TD again, stabilised the flank and actually repelled the attack. I left a LMG team of three man and a team consising of a sniper and a rifleman to cover the approach and keep the Germans running.

3 armor down, 38 killed, 37 wounded vs 2 killed 3 wounded (did some buddy aid after retaking my lost position). Now it was a tactical victory.

Guess I am ready to watch the video .

[postfux123]

Just fast forwarded through the video and have to admit I owe my success to completly misunderstanding my orders .

I "defended" the forward objective with two LMG teams and retreated them as soon as they got serious incoming. The AI refused to take it and concentrated on my right channelling them into some great killing zones and attacked my center through the cornfield - they never knew what hit them. My left was a ATG and the two LMGs providing security - never fired a shot.

[Hister]

Yeah, different outcomes due to AI plans. Would be interesting to see this scenario employ new AI triggers included in 3.0.

Glad you made it work postfux123.

[Lille Fiskerby]

These "exit troops before the end" missions are the most difficult for me and

it took me a long time to find out to cease fire when the last man had gone

of the map.

If you play the Road to Nijmegen campaign there are a mission of the

same kind, think its called "Papenberg" something to look forward to

if you ever play that campaign, then you have to exit a whole

company of paratroopers !

LF

[postfux123]

If you play the Road to Nijmegen campaign there are a mission of the

same kind, think its called "Papenberg" something to look forward to

LF

One road after the other .

Greatly enjoyed the scenario. My "unconventional" approach brought the chance to harass the enemy on the approach breaking up the attack a bit and some dirty close combat in the end making me value every single .45 bullet. All with lots of great positions to find and the need to shift your sparse forces now and then. Was intense from start to the end. Chapeau to the designer.

Its a pity campaign missions cant be played as battles since this has some replay value.

[mjkerner]

One road after the other .

Greatly enjoyed the scenario. My "unconventional" approach brought the chance to harass the enemy on the approach breaking up the attack a bit and some dirty close combat in the end making me value every single .45 bullet. All with lots of great positions to find and the need to shift your sparse forces now and then. Was intense from start to the end. Chapeau to the designer.

Its a pity campaign missions cant be played as battles since this has some replay value.

Sure they can, postfix, you just need to get Mad Mike's Scenario/Campaign Organizer. It will pull all the scenarios out into a folder, along with other goodies from a campaign, a voila, you have the individual battles to load into your game's Scenario folder.

[Warts 'n' all]

Sadly, I can't get Mike's organizer to work. I think it might something to do with Windows 8 not liking Java.

[mjkerner]

Warts, send me a Dropbox invite (mark2039-@-att.net [no dashes, of course]) and I'll pop the Road to Montebourg scenarios in for you.

[General Jack Ripper]

Maybe this video can give you ideas to win the mission :

Thanks for the bump!

[Mad Mike]

Sadly' date=' I can't get Mike's organizer to work. I think it might something to do with Windows 8 not liking Java.[/quote']

Warts 'n' all, what version of the tool did you try to use? Was it the latest as per the link in my signature (see below)?

If not, you could try this and see if it works with this version. You should obviously have Java installed for the tool to work, but I can't see any reason why it shouldn't work under Windows8 and you're the first to report this problem.

Anyway, PM me if you still can't get it to work and if you want to look into this further.

Cheers,

Mike

[Warts 'n' all]

I was trying to use 1.5... When I looked at the campaigns... It wouldn't give me the option of opening the folders with Java or with your organizer. Even though I had both installed neither appeared on my list of "apps".

[Pak40]

In the 4th scenario my paratroopers have to defend some positions for some time and retreat afterwards.

Since there is no transport for the ATGs I ask myself wether it is wise to abandon the guns and retreat the crews.

I am also not sure what happens if some guys stay in the fight to cover the retreat.

Are they considered dead only for calculating the scenario outcome or will I miss them in the rest of the campaign. Might influence my decision who gets to stay behind.

Any input on that?

Quite frankly this is the only (or one of the very few) battle in this campaign where you actually defend. The rest of the battles you're attacking. Since AT guns aren't exactly an offensive weapon then there's a good chance you wont see the AT guns again. I hope that's a good enough clue. Plus, IIRC, the battle briefing hints that the guns are expendable.

[Warts 'n' all]

Thanks for the offers of help Mark and Mike. This Old Limey Luddite re-installed both the organizer and Java, and, unlike a month ago, it worked. It was probably me doing something wrong last time. Although I think most of the campaigns are great just as they were designed, I've tweeked a couple of the things that I felt weren't quite right. That being said, I expect that the AI will still give my arse a good kicking..haha.