Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

[Preacher]

I am not ashamed in the least to admit that i just replayed Last Defense from the German side (for the 4th time - the only side/scenario i had yet to win) and used a massive smoke mission to secure the victory. I know, i know, prior knowledge. But, hey, it was GREAT practice for using 81 and 105 smoke. I began the scen by disembarking my 105 spotter in the rear wooden building, setting him to call a smoke mission atop the hill. A few turns later and the entire enemy side of the river was a cloud. I moved one Stug III (late model) around the bend in the road and used it to flatten the two 'ambush' houses with HE. The house on the left obliged and dissapeared into a pile of rubble. The one just past the wall on the right caught fire, driving a bazooka team ("there you are!") out into the wheat field. From there he launched his full load of ordnance befoer going to ground and dying.

Meanwhile, I moved the other Stug III up to the bend in the road and began pummelling the objective house and wooded area on the German left. The Tiger entered the fray as well, set to hunt down the road and search for MG positions. My HTs remained loaded and moved to the edge of the woods on the left (hide and wait). B and C platoons crept thru the woods on the right, with C being on the extreme flank.

Things went well (as they should since i've played this scen many times ). The Stug III and Tiger made short work of the 2 squads around the obj house on the left while the other Stug hunted towards town. The last 'zook caught him halfway between the demolished house and the edge of town. He missed and one HE blast destroyed him. He then moved to the edge of town off the road on the left with his gun JUST laying to the right side of the large building on the left.

The other Stug continued his demolition duties on the left while I prepared an 81 smoke mission to cover the open ground between the woods line where the HTs were and the obj house (there was a very stubborn squad in there). I actually timed the disembarkation quite well (to my surprise). It coincided nicely with the arrival of the smoke. D platoon then advanced unscathed across the open ground just in time to catch the stubborn Ami squad as they were withdrawing from the obj building. Bad news for them.

I lined my HTs up on the road on the left flank in order to hide them from the hill and to have them in a position where they could quickly move and provide suppressing fires for D platoon.

Soon an M18 appeared on the road, having advanced in front of the smoke screen. The Stug next to the building fired and missed. The M18 did the same. 2nd shot from the Stug penetrated the lower hull. Dead M18. In the asme turn, however, another M18 was skirting the hilltop to my left. He caught my other Stug out in the open ground on the left and fired a few rounds. Both missed, so i reversed the Stug behind the 81 smoke screen. Whew!

At the start of the next turn, the 3rd M18 appeared between the 1st two and acquired the 'hidden' Stug. His angle was JUST such that he could glimpse the Stug around the smoke screen. BOOM! one shot-one kill. I then hunted my remaining Stug around to the left side of the building he was using for partial cover. He eased into the scattered trees there and, after wasting a .30 cal at point blank range and surviving a few tossed grenades from who knows where, he acquired the M18 (the one who killed his buddy) and fired. He missed, the M18 missed. M18 missed again! Stug didn't! 2 dead M18s. He hunted about 2 meters farther forward and acquired the final M18. He missed but the M18 didn't. 2 dead Stugs. And, much to my dismay, shortly before my Stug acquired him, he had brewed up my Tiger. My 'armor' now consisted of 4 HTs.

I used the Hts as overwatch for D platoon from the objective house all the way to the stone wall and into town. They performed well. D platoon took the large buildings on the left of the town. From there, they pummeled all american infantry in sight, whether coming or going.

on the right flank, b and c platoons had eased up thru the trees and behind the wall (respectively) in order to prepare to enter the town. C platoon provided suppressing fires for b platoon as they took the two rightmost house in the town. Next C platoon went sq by sq into town, each overwatching for the others (with a little help from teh HTs).

Once in town, b and c plats consolidated their positions (church) and prepared for the assault on the final obj (the large bldg to the right of the main road. This flank was well protected by 2 squads in or near the small wooden house on the far right, so i used b plat to roll it up. Using some errant smoke from the earlier 105 mission, I advanced b plat squad by squad into a small patch of trees. Once there, 2 squads established a fire base while the 3rd - and strongest - went in for close assault. It worked well and the 2 squads were overwhelmed (they were quite depleted already). Having secured c platoon's flank, i turned my attention to the assault on the objective. As far as i could see, there was only a .30 cal holding the objective with a rifle squad in the trees nearby providing support. I concentrated all of b platoon's fire on the rifle squad while using c platoon to suppress the MG. The rifle squad withdrew under withering fire (i've always wanted to say that! ), allowing me to turn my full attention to the MG. After 2 turns of heavy fire, he finally went to ground (still, though, he hadn't lost a man!). Using the same technique as earlier, i sent my strongest squad in. The MG lost 2 men to a grenade and decided he'd had enough. Obj taken. C platoon consolidated on the objective and rested.

Go ahead and ask: Where were the HMGs? Instead of trying to get them to the front like i have tried in the past (unsuccesfully), I kept them back in the woods near the bend in the road. From there they did a magnificent (!) job interdicting the Ami reinforcements. Their role was key, in my opinion. Nothing could cross the road from left to right without crawling (or dying). This bought me precious time to maneuver into position and properly execute my assaults on the right flank (the most important flank in this instance). The reinforcements that did arrive were somewhat 'weary' from the journey, too.

The last few turns were spent trying to round up POWs. There were several that I thought I could 'influence.' I got a few, but also lost 3 of 4 HTS in the process

Great fun. And I'm not ashamed of what I did It was a good learning experience.

Question for Steve, Charles, Fionn, or whoever: How long does smoke last? It seems that some of it began to dissipate near the end of the fight. Or am i crazy?

Preacher

P.S. I hope this makes sense. Sorry for the length, but this game really intrigues me!

[This message has been edited by Preacher (edited 11-02-99).]

[Herr Oberst]

Preacher-man, I look at all this replay as a way to develop tactics, and see just how to order some of those complicated things the AI does so well.

Like race HT's up, drop the PzGren's, then reverse out of there, providing cover fire for the next HT coming in behind. Takes alot of orchestration of moves, timing, and pathways. How many traffic jams have you seen? I see at least 2 per scenario due to speed differences between units.

My standard tactic is to get a set of PzGren's (3 or 4 squads) up in the woods to the left, then reverse the HTs back to privode cover fire for them and hose the building over there. PzGrens start hosing the buildings as well, with MG42's that got dropped off the tanks at the outcropping of woods near the center of the map.

Then come the heavies, V style, Stg, Tiger, Stg and have them hose the buildings on their way by.

Get the armor shielded from the hill as fast as I can, then break down any occupied buildings nearby with HE. And really work on the US Inf near the wall.

Advance the other sets of troops along the right, using the woods for cover. Flank the wall. Spotters come down through the woods to the center of the map, and wait until called.

Last game, I waited until I saw the reinforcements peek over the ridge, then targeted the woods areas just downhill from them. Sure enough, 2 minutes later, as they reached a set of woods, 81mm started dropping on them.

At the same time, my armor was playing cat & mouse with the Hellcats on the ridge. They got one Stg & 2 HTs, and a wounding on the Tiger, but the Tiger crew stuck it out for the rest of the scenario and ended up smoking all 3 hellcats.

If I had a decent screen capture tool, I could have gotten a really good shot of the Tiger hunting a Hellcat up on the ridge, while the US Infantry across the river started routing away with 81mm falling all around them. Really good scene to watch. I replayed it like 10 times.

At the end, just for pure gratification (and to get rid of the nagging 60mm crews) the Tiger took a tour up on top of the hill, overlooking the valley. Ahh, Thy name is Total Victory, and thy taste is sweet! (even if it took me 4 tries to get it)

[Scott]

I like sending my HT's to the left flank as well in the Last Defence...once the troops have dismounted, it's easy to provide suppression fire for them from the HMG's, or to cover the road and prevent American reinforcements from get into town easily.

In the Reisburg scenario, as the Germans, I like using smoke once the Americans have taken the outer perimiter of the town. I set up a smoke screen and split the Ami force into two or three...forcing them to advance blind into my kill zones and pop up at point blank range. It's quite devastating to them, and saves me ammo as well...