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Blunting the Spear Campaign discussion "spoliers"


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So I have played this Campaign 3 times.  I found the maps ingeniously crafted.  and very difficult to spot almost anything from a distance, and found the Russian infantry most troublesome even after taking point blank HE fire from my tanks.

 

#1. Radzymin "Across the Rzadza" Right Flank Attack.  Awesome map, nice little surprise with 3 T-34/85 in your rear if you don't spot them.  Getting across the River you will have to be patient.  The 2 AT guns are hard to spot.. even after 3 different artillery bombardments one was still operational and took out a Pz.IV tank.  The town across the river is integrated  with a lot of troops.. all packing SMG's.. so close in fighting is bloody at best.. even after 2 bombardments of heavy artillery its hard to dislodge the enemy or even break them. 

In the end.. lost 1 Tank, 1 SPW 251/9 7KIA and 15 WIA. "Saving the game helps.."  Enemy 110KIA, 25WIA 13 T-34 and 2 trucks

 

I performed a 2 Prong attack, Discovered the 3 Hidden Tanks in a Grove of Trees by one of my dismounted Platoons... The other side went through pretty much an empty town.. and the tanks dispersed on the far right side.  There was a brief Tank vs Tank engagement where we knocked out 4 T-34/85 in a clearing on the Right side of the map.. 2AT guns in a small wooded area.. was problematic and delayed my entire infantry and advance by about 30min. or more.  There was another brief tank engagement to across the River near the Rail line.. and in the town across the River... this is where I lost the SPW. and a couple crew men on 3 different tanks.. luckily I had 5 Panzers in Over watch  that quickly dispatched the T-34.85's.  The Town across the River was pounded by Tanks, and Artillery.. however this is where all my KIA, and most of my WIA occurred.

 

#2.Radzymin Town and Rail Yard: Right Flank Attack:  Again Awesome map. 

Again I performed a 2 prong attack.. however because you have to wait for KG Baker.. I was unsure of how I was going to do this at first.  Luckily I set up 2 tanks on the Far left set up area near a small farm hamlet.  surrounded by trees.. they would eventually take out 2 T-34/85 in a wood line adjacent the road.. my MRA  Main Route of approach through the suburbs and then into the City itself.  I sent an entire platoon of Pz. IV tanks to the far right to hook up with KG Baker and support that side.. which would be my Right Hook.. my main advance as I found the suburbs crawling with Infantry and tanks.. Lost 2 Vehicles in the suburbs, and 1 AFV (Halftrack).  Lost one of my PzIV tanks to the right flank.. as they have around 5 T-34/85 in perfect position covering the landscape up to the treeline and swamp area.  3 T-34/85 left the area where KG Baker initially arrived from.. I had gotten some of my tanks in position. by then and took them out..

 

In Short it came down to house to house fighting in the city, point blank Tank fire and Artillery to extract the enemy from their positions.

In the end I lost 2 Pz IV, 12KIA, 25WIA 2 Vehicles and 1 AFV..  the enemy 129KIA, 169 WIA or missing. 17 T-34 and 3 vehicles.

 

#3 Dybow Kolonia Left Flank attack:  Another great map and the first use of the Panthers in mass.

 

Again 2 Prong attack.. far left and far right.. the middle is obviously a killing Zone...  To make a long story short.. the T-34/85 can spot very good inside woods.. lol  something that my tanks cannot do.  Anyways. the Left side you will be surprised very quickly by two T-34's so use cover and the defilades as much as you can.. SMOKE is your friend.. and so is blasting suspected wood lines where there may be AT guns or Tanks.  USE your TRP as much as you can if you need to... the pre sighted TRP's are a godsend.

 

Be wary of the wooded tree line to your right flank.. it looked suspicious in the beginning anyways.. so read your mission briefings.  I blasted it with heavy Artillery.. and when troops were spotted leaving.. I knew there was more there.. small tank engagement.. and lost a Panther.. close range.. about 500m  Range is your friend.. but they are so close to your set up area... also a crazy Duck shooting incident happened as on the Right flank about 6 or so T-34 were basically crossing the T if you will.. right in front of an entire Company of Panthers.. needless to say.. not one Russian tank survived the onslaught.

 

The outcome was 12KIA 12 WIA, 2 vehicles 1 AFV and 1 Panther. (crew survived)  Enemy 101 KIA, 166 WIA or Missing, 33 vehicles, and 23 tanks destroyed. NOTE:  2 prong attack, used defilades, smoke for covering your advances, and flushing out the enemy.. there was a left Side tank engagement to the RIght side of the map.. T-34/85 hidden in the woods that can miraculously shoot out of a wooded area with great effect... although no Panther was destroyed.. the Panthers returned fire and won only because I brought more guns to bear per target.. Optics is the first thing to go..LOL even though the Germans could repair them in about 15min or less.

 

#4 Attack on Cimene :  Right Flank Attack.. Damn.. Right Flank again....

This was a short engagement... again a two prong attack..

My losses were 5KIA, 5 WIA, and 2 AFV lost..   The enemy lost 26 KIA, 50 WIA or Missing, 22 Vehicles, 2 T-34/85 and 3 AFV.  

NOTE:  Its obvious the main road is a Nightmare... and there was no way I was going down the road.. so I had the left side Prong take all Objectives. until I could secure the RIght flank itself.. it took a long time to get my Right side Flank to the town of Cimene, but there was a short crisp engagement.. and that was that.  First encounter with Su-85's and they took out a couple of my AFV's  but they are susceptible to Artillery.

 

#5 Stary Jankow.  Left flank Attack:  This scenario is a REAL Mother..Focker.. LOL

 

Again 2 Prong Attack.. far Left side, and Far Right side.

Left Side.. 2 Platoon of Panthers, and 1 Company of Infantry.

Right Side 2 Platoon of Panthers, 1 Company of Infantry, and also the Recon Platoon.  The Middle is covered by the remaining Panthers which really cant see crap.. sucky Over watch.. but I was not going to move much more forward as they said the enemy had TD's  which meant SU-85, SU-122 or ATG.

 

Left flank.. All I can say is the 2 ATG in the fracking trench are SUPER HEROS.. the trench looked suspicious.. and had intermittent contacts there.. so I barraged them with 3 different bombardments of 120 and 81mm mortar fire.. yep they lived and took out two Panthers with 57mm ZIS guns.. and another Panther was rendered useless as the main gun was put out of action.  infantry attack.. they use canister shot.. the guns are flanked by a HQ SMG squad and a HMG on the right side.  It took the better part of a Platoon with Heavy casualties to succeed there.  WTF.. is all I had to say.. they can see you.. you can not see them.. even with infantry watching the place knowing they are there.. nothing.. you move. you die.. you still can not see them.. LOL  I had to have a beer after several saved games.  The Touch area.. on the Left side objective is covered by infantry in building and two short barreled well hidden Infantry guns that can possibly immobilze your tanks.. or kill crew very fast.. keep buttoned up.. and artillery the area.

 

Right side is a disaster area.. LOL

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Awesome. Re-making this campaign w/ different TOE atm and play-tested the 1st mission. Very nicely done, coupled with triggers I get a real sense of urgency to extend the attack yet not extend too much to leave open flanks.

 

In the 1st mission how did u deal with the 3 T-34s in the woods close to setup zone.. dismounted infantry assault or drive the PzIVs into the woods?

 

Also there should be a 6th mission "Crushing the Third Corps"? That's the one where you get to fininish leftover opfor units from all the previous scenarios apparently.

Edited by Skwabie
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  1.  

    Awesome. Re-making this campaign w/ different TOE atm and play-tested the 1st mission. Very nicely done, coupled with triggers I get a real sense of urgency to extend the attack yet not extend too much to leave open flanks.

     

    In the 1st mission how did u deal with the 3 T-34s in the woods close to setup zone.. dismounted infantry assault or drive the PzIVs into the woods?

     

    Also there should be a 6th mission "Crushing the Third Corps"? That's the one where you get to fininish leftover opfor units from all the previous scenarios apparently.

    Ah yes the first mission, this was very fun the first time around.. obviously replaying this campaign you know where about stuff is but it still does not go your way.

Well what happened was my Left flank in the first mission consisted of a Company of infantry, 1 platoon dismounted and scouting the buildings and wood lines in a leap frog.. The 4 Pz IV tanks I had to the left flank initially sped off with some infantry attached down the road.. and through the woods via the almost hidden dirt road that will eventually connect to House and small I think apple orchard.  (well it looked like an orchard area).  The dismounted infantry I had leapfrogging made it all the way to the small group of Houses adjacent a roadway that parallels the river..(basically the group of houses on the left side of the map near the roadway.. in front of these houses to the left would be the one house and the orchard.. another small patch of trees, and to the almost center of these houses would be a large wooded area.. and to the right of the wooded area is a small cluster of buildings.. then a clearing.. and then further right would be the small bridge.. hopefully that explains the positioning of my dismounted infantry in some detail.

 

the dismounted platoon leader was in one of these buildings near the roadway.. and spotted armor in the tree line about 3 minutes of being positioned.. or maybe 2 minutes I cant remember off hand.  I was like crap.. All of  my tanks went to the left.. I pulled one out and near the Orchard area, while the other three were already engaged by that time with  2 T-34/85 in the town.. I pulled the Platoon Leader tank near the edge of the building so it had a clear line of Sight to the wooded area.. if they moved to the roadway, I wanted to blast them.

 

I had reinforcements arrive and put around another Platoon of Pz.IV tanks in Ambush position behind the buildings and in the woods just in case there was infantry along with the tanks.. was not sure. The 3 T-34/85 to my surprise rushed out of the woods and across the road with haste.. to my Horror, my infantry in the area scrambled to hide.  The one PzIV on the flank near the house fired at the side of one of the beasts and put it out of action... the other two tanks made it as far as the clearing behind the group of houses where they were quickly met by no less then 6 PzIV tanks... unfortunately for the soviet crews they were cut down immediately by the other half of the company of Infantry.

 

That was a winded.. what happened in detail but I almost had an anxiety attack when the tanks decided to all of a sudden leave their nest.

 

That is awesome you are making a 6th mission.  I have to say this is a very fun campaign, and has its challenging moments.

Edited by GhostRider3/3
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 Ghostrider - good to read you are enjoying this. As Skwabie states there is a 6th mission already in the campaign - I'm not sure how you will have missed it.

 

I made the large master map for missions 1-5 as well as then making the first two missions.

 

I must admit they were challenging missions to make, given the need for them to be enjoyable and yet challenging for a wide range of players. The additional requirement to ensure that some Red Army forces exited the maps in good order was particularly tricky to get right. In the end I got it working pretty well for armour, but the infantry units stand little chance in getting off the map given the distance to be covered and open nature of the maps.

 

I think it's fair to say that of all the missions I've made to date only one mission was harder to get right than these two, and that's in Black Sea so you'll have to wait for that one.  ;)

 

Deep Spoilers

Both M1 and M2 have 19 x T-34 in play together with the 2 ATG on each map. These are different units and so in these two missions both are at full strength. To kill 13 and 17 of these respectively is probably as close to perfect as you can get, given some units start to move off map very early in proceedings, allowing for trigger placement and attacker options.

 

Most comments on these two missions are regarding how tough they are, so if nothing else you show it can be done with minor German losses - a good result.

 

P

Edited by Pete Wenman
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 Ghostrider - good to read you are enjoying this. As Skwabie states there is a 6th mission already in the campaign - I'm not sure how you will have missed it.

 

I made the large master map for missions 1-5 as well as then making the first two missions.

 

I must admit they were challenging missions to make, given the need for them to be enjoyable and yet challenging for a wide range of players. The additional requirement to ensure that some Red Army forces exited the maps in good order was particularly tricky to get right. In the end I got it working pretty well for armour, but the infantry units stand little chance in getting off the map given the distance to be covered and open nature of the maps.

 

I think it's fair to say that of all the missions I've made to date only one mission was harder to get right than these two, and that's in Black Sea so you'll have to wait for that one.  ;)

 

Deep Spoilers

Both M1 and M2 have 19 x T-34 in play together with the 2 ATG on each map. These are different units and so in these two missions both are at full strength. To kill 13 and 17 of these respectively is probably as close to perfect as you can get, given some units start to move off map very early in proceedings, allowing for trigger placement and attacker options.

 

Most comments on these two missions are regarding how tough they are, so if nothing else you show it can be done with minor German losses - a good result.

 

P

 

Good to hear, I think I forgot about #6, its been awhile.  I try and keep written records of all my campaign battles... my little bit of OCD. :)   I know I got lucky on the first map, the 3-T-34 that were hidden could have done terrible damage to my entire Left Flank had they not been spotted.  I come close to the time allotted on pretty much every mission, guess I am just a cautious player and do not trust what I see, and I feel I have to literally engage almost every tree line.  The second scenario, again I was lucky to spot a couple T-34's early, and the tanks that engaged them, survived a couple near misses and a couple hits from Tanks I never saw in the wood line right in front of them.. those tanks would be dispatched later by moving around to their rear.  I literally obliterated the suburbs with heavy artillery, and my only saving grace was the tanks were buttoned up.  When the majority of the T-34's starting to retreat I was already on their heals, and shooting them in the rear or Side Hull were easy kills.. most were destroyed in the town near the Railyard area trying to scurry to the rear. 

 

It was fun, I cant wait to actually use some of these Maps.

 

Cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

 Ghostrider - good to read you are enjoying this. As Skwabie states there is a 6th mission already in the campaign - I'm not sure how you will have missed it.

 

I made the large master map for missions 1-5 as well as then making the first two missions.

 

I must admit they were challenging missions to make, given the need for them to be enjoyable and yet challenging for a wide range of players. The additional requirement to ensure that some Red Army forces exited the maps in good order was particularly tricky to get right. In the end I got it working pretty well for armour, but the infantry units stand little chance in getting off the map given the distance to be covered and open nature of the maps.

 

I think it's fair to say that of all the missions I've made to date only one mission was harder to get right than these two, and that's in Black Sea so you'll have to wait for that one.  ;)

 

Deep Spoilers

Both M1 and M2 have 19 x T-34 in play together with the 2 ATG on each map. These are different units and so in these two missions both are at full strength. To kill 13 and 17 of these respectively is probably as close to perfect as you can get, given some units start to move off map very early in proceedings, allowing for trigger placement and attacker options.

 

Most comments on these two missions are regarding how tough they are, so if nothing else you show it can be done with minor German losses - a good result.

 

P

Ok just did Mission #6.  (I admit I restarted this mission because I had serious issues with spotting targets Unbuttoned and with recon troops... probably just a weird unlucky set of circumstances.

 

#6 Crushing the 3rd Tank Corps. 

 

START:  I started off with a two prong attack.  Panther's on the Left Side supported by the initial troops.. I believe around a Company.  Right Side is supported by Pz IV tanks and around a Company of SPW mounted troops.. with a Heavy weapons Platoon.  x2 SPW 251/9 and x2 HMG

Initial Fire Mission:  Right Side Crossroads and small group of buildings I blasted with 150mm. and continued the Barrage with 120mm Mortars all along the Road wood line (Going my Right to Left).  The Next group of buildings I used 105mm, and the group of trees in front more 120mm,  Behind this particular group of buildings there were some unknown contacts so I used another area fire with 105mm. then continued to where there was at the far left multiple contacts used 120mm and 81mm mortars in that area.. My thought was at least I may suppress whatever is in the tree line facing me.  I then used Smoke on the right side clearing area to try and hide my main movement.

 

1.  I brought the entirety of the Right flan down the main road toward the enemy and then dashed down a side road that looked to get me possibly behind the enemy's MLR  (Main Line of Resistance), (Since I had terrible misfortune the first time with my panthers spotting abilities)  I also tasked 1 Panther Platoon to accompany the Right Flank, the rest of the Left flank and Panthers took up positions amongst the buildings on the Left, hidden by trees and such.. They were my counter-attack force and reserves.

   A.  The Company of Soldiers on the Left used their trucks to get  to the main wood line on the far left,.. and it was a long process, but I thought it best to use troops on that side as they are harder to spot... so I sent a Company toward those nasty units I could not spot well.... Long process moving troops.. many turns later they reached the small group of buildings on the far left side surrounded by trees.. I split my teams into Tank Hunter groups and proceeded to knock out 2 T-34/85 and 1 ISU-122 or 85.. 1 Panther had luckily spotted another T-34/85 and knocked it out at 1765m using a total of 4 rounds.  German Reinforcements had already arrived and were awaiting instruction just to the left of the main group of buildings near the clearing.

 

Meanwhile at Right Flank, my Initial plan seemed to work brilliantly.. lol, as my 1plt of Pz IV had made is way and crossed the rail tracks under cover of a lot of smoke rounds.. I did not want to get hit by a train of 85mm shells my recon team had spotted x2 or so T-34/85's on the tracks. the Platoon of Pz IV had success in dispatching x2 hidden Su-76 but one of the Pz IV was hit from unknown location and exploded.. fortunately most of the crew made it out, minus the commander.  The Su-76 was found hidden in some woods and dispatched by infantry.  I decided to await the Reinforcements and consolidate before my assault on the crossroads village area, when they arrived we bombarded the tracks where the x2 T-34/85 were with 150mm and again used some smoke to help cover some advancing infantry now to the immediate left flank of the enemy...  the x2 T*34/85 were dispatched and we uncovered there Btn HQ, and other HQ main units along the rail line.. they were met with 75mm rounds and infantry from the rear... I had at this time an entire Company covering the main rear area behind both main villages.

 

The Germans took some casualties losing a Kubelwagon?? no idea.. I think from a LMG,... the small pond area and its immediate area were pounded again with 81mm mortar after 3 tracks took mg fire.  The Village and crossroads were finally taken, and the extent of damage from the 120mm, 150mm and 81mm rounds were evident, there were trucks on fire, huge craters, buildings destroyed and carnage everywhere.. Soviet losses were immense but they fought bravely inflicting around 20 casualties in the area, and the loss of 1 AFV. 

 

The tanks and a platoon of Spw mounted grenadiers followed by x2 HQ tracks with weapons, and x2 Spw251/9 Stummels  kept traveling on the opposite side of the tracks.. the 1 Panther Platoon now in the lead (dismounting troops to cover a section of woods)  kept traveling and dispatched the remaining tanks in the rear or on the roads.. small firefight but the Panthers are fearsome carts. 

 

The Left side now began its movement to link up with the rest of the Right side elements.. I had around 8 Panthers and 5 Pz IV in the middle area at the far end of the map... they moved as well engaging the rest of the armor elements the Russians had to offer.. lost another Pz IV and damaged 2 of the Panthers... the forward observer and the two HQ tank commanders. unleashed pretty much hell on the wooded areas with whatever artillery I had left which was a lot... there were a couple of more minor infantry engagements  and some more casualties.. soviet infantry is nasty at combat ranges.. of up to 350m 

 

I guess we did enough damage as it just ended the scenario after about an hour and 30minutes of play.

 

Next will be the Russian Campaign.. and am for sure downloading some good stuff I have seen from the repository.

 

LOL I seriously need to work on organizing my AAR's

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