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CM Final Blitzkrieg - AXIS (Attack) BETA Battle Report


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Ok, I have posted the time on the pictures. I may not do it every time, but I will try to remember when the action hots up.

First the situation in the town. More teams move up. HQ took a risk and crossed the road. They lost a guy to firing from the building at the end of the street ( red line ). My timing was slightly off, the halftrack was supposed to arrive and hose it down earlier. It will now drive to the end of the yellow arrow firing at the building the whole time and debark its passengers. Orange circles indicate 2 platoon who are doing the right hand side street.

Drilling is also moving up to pay its way.

CMFB 110 left2.png

As the assault goes in  ( still slowly ), the men in the woods attempt to reach the first buildings on the right. The ones at the building have discovered that it is being shelled. No matter, they need to recover from being Tired first anyway. The Stummel has driven up and is in ( I hope ) a hollow and is able to target the building where the .50 cal is. My own HMG's move up for better LoS.

CMFB 111 left overview.png

On the right, the Veteran Panther has reached his covering position, other one is coming up soon. On the right, scouts have reached the small wooded area. They need to crawl up to the lip of the rise to see the forest behind.

CMFB 112 right overview.png

Edited by Baneman
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More from the front.

As we move further into the town, the halftrack I ferried the last team with fires on the building at the end of the street. 2 men scarper out the back door. Later, a 3rd is seen heading out towards my positions (inset). One last look I expect.
Drilling is arriving shortly and will cover the right hand road which also gives it some good LoS beyond the town. Teams continue to move forward in bounds.

CMFB 120 left1.png

The .50 cal jeep that has been giving my guys in the woods grief goes down to an HE round from my Stummel. One casualty was caused, but the jeep was also KO'd.

CMFB 120 inset2.png

Edited by Baneman
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Centre left, you can see the positions of the teams that have reached the edge of town. Another jeep was seen pulling back and heading down the road. if he keeps going that way, my Drilling might see him. Also of interest is 2 tank crew brazenly watching my comings and goings. 2 Teams have eyes on them. The range is 240m. They are ordered to open fire to drive them away. We'll see now how accurate these MP44's are at 240-250m ( will be good to know ). Given the accuracy of Russian SMG's at 200m, I'm hopeful.

CMFB 120 jeep1.png

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... Your methodical assault through the town on the left is good stuff.

Hehe, "methodlcal" is driven, to some extent, by the increased need for men to catch their breath. Not so bad now they're in town, but open ground is a fatigue-sink.
In most cases, I'm now accepting the need to get there even if they're Tired and have to spend 2 turns or more recovering. Good tactical practice though
;), it forces you to bound your teams properly :lol:

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(...) but open ground is a fatigue-sink.

Yes, indeed...I think this game will force us all to use "Quick" a bit more judiciously, eh?

Big Kitty serves as a wonderful deterrent to Bil's Hellcats cresting that ridge over on your right, but it would be a pity to see her limited to such a defensive role (even if that was her primary role in RL...:D). I know you must be itching to see her in action...but yes, I know -- all in good time...

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Another slow turn.
I'm posting an overview showing the two town VL's in relation to my slow-motion assault. Also, men in the forward left building saw another jeep that had presumably taken shelter there from the Stummel shelling. They fired at it and hit, but missed the passengers and their MP44 rounds weren't enough to do more than make it drive away.

CMFB 153 obj.png

CMFB 150 new jeep.png

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Too many high angle screenshots you say ?
Allow me to remedy that. First we have the noble Stummel, gazed on appreciatively by the teams working their way through the woods.

CMFB 152 action.png

And then, on the far right, my scouts crawling up to the ridgeline.

CMFB 151 scouts.png

Edited by Baneman
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Baneman,

  It is all good - overview and on the ground.  I especially like the one of the scouts.  You get a real feel for the terrain, the work done on the map, and the immersive feeling that you are crawling right along with the pixeltruppen and seeing what they are seeing.  The close-up behind the jeep in town looked very good too.  You are showcasing this nicely, in addition to the battle action.

   And...it seems very cold.  Am viewing with a sweater on.  ;)

Heinrich505

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Ok, things are getting more interesting. I finally have eyes on the ridge Bil has been behind and he's left a few scouts and what looks like the Jumbo Sherman to cover my side.

I played a hunch and moved forward my 251/17 alongside the forest to help eliminate eyes. My assumption here is that, thwarted in his earlier attack, Bil has decided to pull back and go to ground on this flank. I'm going to have to move through the woods on the map edge, to this end I will ( next turn ) be pulling Big Kitty back from the ridgeline and heading across to crest the ridge on the mapedge :ph34r:

First, a forgotten picture from the earlier phase of the town assault

CMFB 150 town assault.png

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And the detail as described above.

On the extreme left, we see a couple of men scurry into a gully. Then the spotting team begins to take .50 cal fire from what is presumably another jeep. Orders are to return fire when/if they lift their heads. Remaining teams are pushing through the forest and flanking the gully.

CMFB 152 forest.png

In the centre, an HMG team reaches the house and heads up to the 2nd story. Immediately they can see 2 jeeps and a leftover cover guarding tank.

CMFB 151 eyes.png

Edited by Baneman
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Bad news - Bil obviously decided that it was time to bring out the mind-reading apparatus.

Apparently anticipating that I would think he would pull back on my right. he pushed forward again with the 2 surviving Hellcats and the 2 Shermans.
He has worked out to the millimetre how far he can come without being visible to my JagdTiger ( frustratingly a few feet lower than Bil's Hill ).

This forward push enabled him to have eyes on the area between the central houses and the wood. My Panther ( only just this turn ordered to move up to this position - hence my assumption of mind-reading ) arrived there and immediately died ( never got a spot on enemy tank ). The culprit - the Jumbo, I think - must have spotted it immediately it turned off the road, as it basically fired the moment the Panther stopped moving. Somehow it managed to hit below the glacis ( standard Panther weak spot ), which caused total death to all the crew and the 4 men of 5 Company HQ riding it ( they didn't have even the 2 seconds to get off ).

Seriously :(

This leaves a serious dilemma - his tanks can see and shoot down to my side due to their faint height advantage. My own tank(s) can't see or shoot back.
I probably cannot now move the JagdTiger either as it would have to travel laterally to reach the map edge. He can probably see the area it would have to travel laterally.

Looks like stalemate on this flank - he can't advance further without risking Kitty, I can't push forward without facing his HE ( for infantry ).

On my left, another tank appeared in his rear, probably moving up to engage my 251/17 ( now trapped by the re-emergence of his tanks on the heights ).

In sum then, it seems he had at least 8 tanks/TD's ( 5 Hellcats, 1 Jumbo, 1 Easy Eight and 1 UI Sherman ) to my 4.
It's now 5 to 3.

Now Allied armour being cheap is a given, but with 8, he must have skimped on infantry, so I should find the bulk of them defending the town ( I don't see how holding any ( many ) of them further back would have helped, given that I'll be lucky to reach the 2nd line of VL's in the time available.
It will be interesting to see how the MP44-armed VG guys fare in the house-to-house ( and forest ).

Pics later tonight, for now, I have to try to think of some way to see over the extra 3-4 feet that Bil is using to dominate the right flank.


I guess this proves the value of Bil's scientific map reading and so forth vs my own "wing-it" style.
Those 3 feet or so of height difference is killing me. If I could see across "Bil's Hil", the JagdTiger would be in business.

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Also don't be constrained by conventional wisdom of having always to move forward.

Cheers - certainly Bil does not feel constrained to sit still on the defense :lol:

If there's anyone who's not reading both threads ( do people do that ? ), feel free to offer advice ;)  <looks for someone to blame:lol:>

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What about smoke? What's your status on that resource?

Eh, normally I use a good amount of smoke when attacking, however, the fact that the wind is Medium and blowing directly towards Bil, convinced me that it would be mostly a waste.

This was borne out by the fact that the surviving 2 Hellcats on my right both popped smoke when their buddy was hit, but the smoke was almost invisible and vanished within a turn. :(

So I left it at what the onboard mortars have ( 11 smoke rounds each = 44 - but widely dispersed due to their locations ).

 

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