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Playtesters Needed: "MG Raid on the Sielle"


Rinaldi

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Took a crack at doing a late-summer Scenario after replaying the CMBS Russian campaign. Liked the look and feel of the map, figured it could pass for the Lorraine's rolling hills and open sight-lines with a bit of work. Used it as an inspiration for recreating a semi-historical scenario. Treadheads will like this one.

Download HERE

Best played as Allied v. AI or H2H; note that the more experienced player should play as the Germans. Market Garden Expansion is required.

Map Size: 3008m x 1680m

Battle Size: Battalion-sized forces. Ample artillery, no airpower.

There is no Allied AI plan.

___

Take command of the famous 37th Tank Battalion and attached elements during their attack into the rear of the 553.Grenadier-Division on September, 1944. Alternatively, play against an opponent and try to frustrate the American's advances. 

Allied difficulty level: Low.

Axis difficulty level: High

Allied Briefing Excerpts:

1145 HOURS, 16 SEPTEMBER, 1944
Over the past ten days a battle of encirclement has been fought over the city of Nancy. On September 11, CCA/4th Armored Division crossed the Moselle and penetrated to an operational depth of over 20 miles. Over the last three days your taskforce, part of CCA, has been cutting across the rear elements of the 553.Grenadier-Division in a bid to link up with CCB. Despite having to abandon supply lines, CCA and CCB met one another on 15 September.
Now the combat commands are striking out with battalion sized task forces in every direction to wreak havoc on the Germans as they avoid encirclement. 

...

TF Abrams is relatively concentrated and marching along a handful of sideroads. Leading the vanguard of the column with “A” team is your XO, Major Edward Bautz, who has just reported to you that he has over-run and destroyed a small convoy. Bautz’s command is the better part of A/53rd Armored Infantry (-), Recon/37th Tank Battalion and A/37th.
Bautz believes and expects that there will be contact ahead at a ford, and you concur. You are moving up presently with an attached platoon of M18s from the 704th to take overall command. B/37th and B/53rd (-), along with Battalion mortars, should be on the scene shortly as well. 
Fires for your taskforce are provided by a battery of 105s and an attached battery of 155s. However, since abandoning CCA’s supply lines, HQ has been sparing with the issue of ammunition. All the guns are still at Arracourt and are immediately at your call.
A and B companies of the 53rd are less a platoon each, as you have out posted main escape routes with them earlier in the day.

...

TF Abrams, CCA, 4th Armored Division has been ordered to raid back across the River Sielle, with two objectives:
1. Maximize destruction (85%) of enemy forces as they retreat from the advancing 35th Infantry division. 
2. Seize and outpost the road with your infantry to prevent further exfiltration of the enemy.
3. Exit with armor; CCA/HQ has stipulated that all medium armor shall be kept in laager at Arracourt as a mobile reserve. 
4. Force preservation is key, your unit is in a salient beyond a salient and is wedged in between many enemy units. Ensure that you take minimal loss in men and material (15%)

 

Axis Briefing Excerpts:

1145, 16 SEPTEMBER, 1944
On 11 SEPTEMBER, 1944, enemy armored columns penetrated our MLR North on the R. MOSELLE and have advanced into the rear of our division. In conjunction with a bridgehead established South of our MLR, it is evident the enemy is attempting to encircle our division.
Division has been attempting to organize an orderly retreat, but confusion reigns supreme. Enemy aircraft roam at will and small convoys of mixed vehicles and pack-animals are frequently interdicted by mobile forces or airpower. 
At the same time, elements of the 15.Panzergrenadier, who were cut off on the North side of the Marne-Rhine canal are attempting to re-enter the battle. The situation is leading to a swirling battle with no defined front, and we simply can no longer keep up.

...

You are holding open a route-of-retreat. The mission is simple; continue to ensure it remains open. The operation is deemed to have no cost too high, counterattack or deny-by-fire the road to the enemy should you be pushed out of your positions.

...

You are commanding an adhoc kampfgruppe based mostly on whatever units were able to filter into the safety of the perimeter of Chateau-Salins. Your battlegroup is mainly made up of rear-echelon and corps-level formations and survivors from cut-up rifle units. Most of the men are shaken and confused by the confusing nature of the week’s battle, and almost none of them have their heavy weapons. You are expected to hold all approaches to the objective, and by necessity have pushed a company across the River Seille to occupy high ground there. 
The entire situation leaves much to be desired, but you have been able to construct rudimentary defensive works overnight, and the men at the very least are dug-in. You have bolstered your thin PaK-front by employing some AAA in direct-fire roles. The entire nature of your defense remains expedient in nature.
There is one positive however: Your battlegroup has priority of fires from several batteries emplaced at Chateau-Salins. Additionally, Corps headquarters is sending out small battlegroups of men from the 15.Panzergrenadier who were not able to regain contact with their own division. There is currently a unit marching towards you, but with the enemy JaBos out in force, when and if they arrive is another matter entirely. 

...

The Germans largely slipped the noose at Nancy, as the two thinly stretched Combat Commands of the 4th Armored division simply could not form an iron-clad blocking position. That being said, the plight of the 553.GrenadierDivision was dire indeed, and the loss of material and manpower was egregious across the entire German Corps holding the Nancy position. The Americans may have had no choice but to let the Germans drip out of the trap in small bands of men, but they caused losses completely disproportionate to their own.
I wanted to capture that type of confusing Operational situation. Despite the ludicrous ineffectiveness of their improvised roadblocks, the Germans often showed quite a willingness to fight between September 11 and 14th, 1944. At Valhey in particular, the Germans managed to give a stiff fight and actually incur armor losses. 
Despite this, on Sept. 14th CCA only suffered around 60 casaulties between its two task forces, for at least 300 enemy casualties and 26 armored vehicles destroyed; the amount of thin-skins destroyed was numerous.
Good luck!

Spare no criticism, so long as it remains constructive, but do be mindful of the operational situation I'm trying to capture. Allied victory is based as much on getting the crossroads as it is getting armor off the map when that is completed. This means that for a H2H situation, even a mobility-kill is going to score the German player points. Finally, German forces are supposed to capture the generally confused nature of the 553 and its neighboring units - cohesion is not going to be the by-word when a division of armor is 20 miles behind your MLR - but don't worry, they eventually get units that can handle themselves.

Anyone who can offer a good set of alternative AI plans for the Axis is welcome to suggest them - I want a modicum of replayability.

Thanks in advance, guys. 

 

 

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Edited by Rinaldi
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Already received some feedback from playtests from the Proving Ground. Adjustments to be made prior to release:

1) Pretty up the map a bit more if possible, flavor objects.

2)Lower threshold for German losses from 85 to 60, so the Americans do not have to go hunting down several avenues of approach for enemy.

3)German reinforcements arrive at around the 15 minute mark, rather than at the same time as the American reinforcements

4) A single TRP will be added for the Germans

5)Americans currently must both exit with armor and keep losses lower than 15 percent. Surprisingly, two playtesters have suffered tactical defeats as the Americans under these conditions. May up the threshold to 25 percent so the Americans can absorb more losses, but it is still fairly stringent.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Slim, you have an insanely tough fight on your hands as the Germans here. You might not even be able to tactically hold the ground, just don't lose sight of the final goal of 'ruining armor' and you should do well. Looking forward to this. I'm still not sure if I'm entirely comfortable with keeping the Germans state as "Green" - even with high motivation it leads to tank fright too early I think. RC2 will most likely have them upped to Regular at the very least.

Edited by Rinaldi
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I'm still not sure if I'm entirely comfortable with keeping the Germans state as "Green" - even with high motivation it leads to tank fright too early I think. RC2 will most likely have them upped to Regular at the very least.

That remains to be seen, my major difficulty was having each PaK40 swamped by mass tank fire as soon as it opened fire. I managed to kill one Sherman, and I have one AT Gun left. I did place one gun in a completely stupid place, and lost it before it could shoot. If my guys break and run too often I'll let you know, but so far everything's going as I expected. It is late in the Normandy Campaign, and the Germans have been running for their lives for weeks, you can't expect them to stand and fight.

We haven't gotten to the first group of reinforcements yet, so I'll report back once some more units have arrived. We'll be playing again this weekend.

Maybe bumping them up to regular experience, but with low motivation might be better?

Edited by SLIM
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  • 1 month later...

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to post a new video, and some thoughts on the scenario so far. My Combat Mission buddy (who shall remain nameless by request) came over for New Years Eve drinking, and some Combat Mission was played.

Once again, being the more experienced player, I am playing the Axis side. My opponent is playing the Americans, and also recorded the gameplay seen in this video, except for one small bit. I had the video recording done from the Allied side to avoid potential spoilers.

 

Some miscellaneous thoughts:

  • Regular experience with Low motivation would be a better option for the starting German forces than Green experience. The opening of this battle, all the way up to the current game time of 50 minutes remaining has basically been a one-sided slaughter fest. The only real option for the German player is to delay as long as possible, feeding troops into the meat grinder just to slow the Americans down, and hoping for reinforcements to arrive.
  • HOWEVER, if that is the intention of the scenario design, then no change should be made.
  • On the last turn of our session, my opponent reported a huge amount of reinforcements. This actually contributed to the ending of the game session, because while quite drunk at the time, he refused to "sort out" the chunk of reinforcements until next time. Given that military units on a road march never arrive at the battle area en masse, separating the American reinforcements into a few small chunks, and spacing them out over a few turns allows a player to more easily incorporate the arriving forces into their own OOB.
  • The arrival of the reinforcements was a bit of a shock, mostly because my opponent forgot they were arriving, and had already felt capable of finishing the mission with the forces at hand. Granted, we still don't know what German forces will be arriving yet.
  • So far, the terrain seems good for the mission at hand. The large open spaces leading up to the river are proving to be an obstacle. The first time my opponent tried a recon probe towards the river crossing, MG42 fire caused several casualties to troops in the back of a halftrack, and made him think twice about advancing. If I have any complaints, it's about a general lack of practical fighting positions for the defender. There are only a few patches of trees available, and not much hard cover of any type. The majority of the ground is so open there's no practical way to use it.

So far, things have gone as well as they could have. I willingly sacrificed a platoon of troops, to entice my opponent to deploy his infantry. I was then able to drag him into an infantry engagement that lasted for about 15 minutes. However, my troops Green experience, and the large numbers of tanks available to the Americans made it impossible to do more than demonstrate in front of my opponent. I withdrew, waited a couple minutes, then engaged again. A miraculous shot from a Panzershreck caused my opponent to withdraw behind a smokescreen. I used that opportunity to buddy aid my casualties, and withdraw deep into the woods.

There are 50 minutes remaining in the scenario, and the American reinforcements have arrived, to the tune of another Battalion. To be honest, unless some hardcore reinforcements arrive for the German side, I'm no longer capable of contesting the map. The sheer amount of firepower available to the Americans, exacerbated by the lack of defensive terrain, is already making things look like a disaster.

As I said before, these are my opinions from playing the German side, and they reflect my own personal opinions. From what I've seen so far, playing this scenario against the AI as the Americans should be a snap. I am a fairly experienced player, and I have my hands full fighting this out as the German side, I hold no hope for the AI to put up more than token resistance. Granted, the AI will also fight to the death, so that might make for a stiffer fight.

So far, I'm having one hell of a good time. The insurmountable obstacle is the one most rewarding.

I'll post more after playing more.

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Hey thanks for continuing with this. My other two playtesters just finished their match as well and both basically reached the same conclusions as you. Without spoiling too much for you, I'll probably be reducing the American reinforcements to two odd platoons that arrive in seperate intervals, or doing away with that entirely and having them start on the map. Having just playtested it myself, its an assessment I agree with. It gets excessive and cluttered for no real reason for the Americans. 

I'm unsure of how to complicate the terrain further for the German defenders asides from deepen treelines and add a few more gullies, however. 

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Well, I think if you split the existing American reinforcements into three groups, and space them out over a few turns it would be fine. It's not the amount of reinforcements that was the problem, just having all of them show up in one huge lump that cause sudden drunken brain distress.

As far as the terrain goes, maybe more areas of tall grass, some bushes packed into low lying spots, some individual trees or small clusters scattered around.

For example:

Obviously the crop fields themselves would be smooth, but any areas not regularly mown, or left to fallow would have tall grass. Bushes would grow in low spots with lots of water, like the river edges, or low gullies. Individual trees or groups would be left in spots as wind breaks, or simply left standing when it's not worth the farmer's effort to cut them down.

Once football playoffs start, I'll probably get more of this done. Dad loves beer and football, well, who doesn't? ;)

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  • 1 month later...

Just wanted to report in, my playtest of the scenario finally finished.

The Americans scored a major victory. Dad simply plowed through any resistance left with a wall of Shermans, pushed his infantry onto the objective, then ran his tanks back to the exit zones.

SPOILER: (Highlight to reveal.)

The arrival of the SturmGeschutz was a welcome surprise, but they were all wiped out while causing minimal damage. Playing as the Germans, I expected more reinforcements than just a few StuGs. See below:

3)German reinforcements arrive at around the 15 minute mark, rather than at the same time as the American reinforcements

I think that is an excellent idea. Bringing the reinforcements in earlier will allow the German player to make better use of his existing weapons, and allow him to deploy the reinforcements. As the time sits now, by the time the reinforcements came in, I had already lost control of the vast part of the map. So the reinforcements were stuck in their arrival zone.

SPOILER: (Highlight to reveal.)

The infantry that arrived basically just sat in the woods because there was nowhere they could move to and not be observed.

Anyway, I guess that's it from my end. This was an enjoyable scenario, I think the length, size of map, and the forces available are good. Just need to space out the U.S. reinforcements a bit so they can be easily integrated into the fight without breaking the pace. And like I said, maybe more tall grass and bushes to create more potential concealment for the infantry. It's very difficult and frustrating to push troops around wide open spaces when tanks and machineguns are everywhere.

The concept of the raid is a good one, get in, smash things up, get out. That leads to an enjoyable battle that offers a nice change from simply "capture the objective".

Edited by SLIM
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  • 5 years later...
6 hours ago, 37mm said:

This one too @Rinaldi

This one was rough around the edges and should never have been published in its current state. Sadly I don't have access to it, it's on a hard disk somewhere back in Canada, gathering dust. I never uploaded it to my cloud. Sorry, 37mm. 

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