Spreading the Fausts Around

[landser]

I recently started the Blunting the Spear campaign. I played it several years ago, but don't recall much aside from the maps. I find forgetfulness a key component when playing a campaign a second time.

Anyway, in the second mission, with Radzymin Town and Rail Station, it seems all of my panzerfausts are in one squad. None of the other squads have them, and this squad has thirty. Is there a way to re-distribute these to other troops? Too late to do it in this mission, as there is only 30 minutes left on the clock. But if I encounter it again I wonder what can be done?

[A Canadian Cat]

One squad has 30 Panzer Fausts? Did you do that your self or did the game automatically do that?

No, you cannot give up equipment. But the game should not have done that on its own either.

[landser]

Now why would I do that?

No I didn't do it, intentionally anyway.

Buggers went and scarfed up all the fausts for themselves they did. If I cannot distribute them, I will redesignate this squad as the panzerfaustenjaeger and woe be to them.

 

And no mods aside from Juju's UI, as I suspect that is vital info. Engine 3.

Edited October 2, 2019 by landser

[A Canadian Cat]

4 minutes ago, landser said:

Now why would I do that?

No I didn't do it, intentionally anyway.

Buggers went and scarfed up all the fausts for themselves they did.

Meaning they buddy aided them? or The game started with them automatically assigned 30 Fausts?

I think you mean the latter but I want to be sure. If it is the later: Do you have a save? Do you have a save right before the second mission?

4 minutes ago, landser said:

And no mods aside from Juju's UI, as I suspect that is vital info.

Not really - mods don't typically mess with that stuff.

[landser]

I see, no buddy aid, and I can only imagine how long it would take to run 'round snapping up 30 panzerfausts off of fallen comrades. I only noticed it after starting the second battle. So I assume the game assigned them all to this squad. I do have a save, as I am playing that mission still. I can attach the save later if necessary.

[A Canadian Cat]

Hang on a moment. Where is the "30"?

This squad has 2 times 30k Panzer Fausts. If they had one there would be no number in the lower left corner. Do you really have 30 in the lower left corner and 30 in the lower right?

 

[landser]

Quite embarrassing it is. Yes, that is what I see. I thought this was the whole battalion's worth as none of the other squads seem to have them. I'll double check after I fire up the mission later, but I am sure I am seeing what you show and simply misunderstood. Thanks for the help.

[A Canadian Cat]

LOL oops - no worries caulk it up to fog of war - let me know if it turns out differently.

[Warts 'n' all]

At the top of the page I was very confused, as I am currently playing this campaign myself.

"30" should be the type of Panzerfaust. Although to be fair you are not the first to think that it meant the quantity.

[landser]

The thing is there was a time when I knew this was the type and not the quantity.  Perhaps what threw me (the excuse) is there is another squad in this campaign that has a 30k but the icon has a sort of cursive K on it. Not sure what it is. And the one with 30 is just a single, so no small number for quantity as well.  And the fact that there are so few in the battalion made me conclude all ended up in the same squad through some programming quirk or maybe gremlins.

 

How's the campaign going Warts? I drew the first but kept losses really low. I had played this campaign a few years ago but couldn't recall the enemy strength or disposition, so I was cautious, especially on the near side of the river. Lost just one tank, but a number of enemy tanks must have escaped due to me taking my own sweet time. Lost one FlaK to artillery.

On the second now with about 10 minutes to go. Probably going to get another draw, or maybe a tactical victory? Again low losses, two more Mark IVs, and the other FlaK to an air strike. They were ripping away at each other but the Sturmovik, or whatever it was, won. Great maps, great battles, with some fun long range tank duels. Longest kill so far at 2269 meters. Soviet submachine gun squads are murder in towns.

Next up, some Panther goodness. Big open map if I recall, but I'll see shortly.

[Ts4EVER]

The 30k is the Panzerfaust kurz, the older version. Also called a Faustpatrone.

[Warts 'n' all]

I've reached the final mission, which is going well. Lots of long range tank kills, whilst my arty is pummeling the hamlets, so I'm certainly hoping for a better result than I got four years ago. Of the previous four missions in three I did better than before. But, I took a good kicking in mission two. 

[landser]

I'd be interested to see your final campaign tally. But no obligation of course. I've managed to get through mission two in nice shape, with only the three tank losses as mentioned. But I also didn't go for all objectives. The writing was on the wall 10 minutes in to mission 2 and I decided to forgo the two farthest objectives. So that's why I expect a draw. I'm cool with that. I value my pixeltruppen more than the objectives, and I reckon that since poor scores won't end the campaign I may as well try to arrive at the final battle with as much weight as possible. But still a long way to go.

Did much better against the armor in mission two, as I reckon I let about half the tanks exit in mission 1. I'm finding if I can force the tank combat at long range the Mark IVs have an advantage, optically I would guess. Inside 1000m or so and the T-34s are a fearsome opponent. And the way they are tucked in to every nook and cranny makes weeding them out a challenge. Great job on these maps Pete and company!

[Warts 'n' all]

3 hours ago, landser said:

Great job on these maps Pete and company!

I have to second that. The maps are brilliant.

[landser]

I've only seen three of them so far this go-round and I am loving the sort of combat these maps dish out. A mix of long range gunnery duels and close in urban fighting. But so far the urban isn't too dense for me. A perfect mix.

In order to deflect attention from the fact I thought one of my squads carried 30 panzerfaust... I'll turn this in to a thread about Blunting the Spear. Spoliers to follow.

First though, I actually paid attention and answered my own question. There are both panzerfaust model 30 (designated by the 30) and 30k (designated by the K) in this mission. You all know that already.

I finished the second mission, and because time ran over, I was able to capture all objectives. Scored a minor victory. I saw that the Soviets scored 300 points for two terrain objectives which were not labeled on the map and 400 points for Friendly. What is that, they stayed above their casualty threshold, or something else? No worries, just curious to how it's scored.

The Russian aircraft made a return right as time ran out and went nuts. First it attacked one of the knocked out (and burning) Russian tanks. Then it came back to strike a couple of my Mark IVs, causing a few casualties, several penetrations, and the tanks were abandoned. But because it went to overtime I was able to remount the crews. If I had run out of time, would these tanks (abandoned but with surviving crews) have carried over as part of the core force?

 

That aircraft also attacked my pioneer platoon, heretofore uncommitted in the campaign and mounted in tracks under the cover of trees way at the back of the map. That was a tough one to take

I lost two Mark IVs in this battle (I mean permanently considering the re-mounts), and both were knocked out by this well-positioned T-34/85. Clearly though we got our revenge. I committed the mass of my armor on the right, and you see the result. There are two more penetrations on the left turret from a flanking Mark IV who also got a spot. All hits were during the same WEGO segment and brutal it was.

 

 

And a cool shot which I would caption with "You ain't kidding"

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by landser

[Bozowans]

I just finished that same mission a couple days ago!  I still haven't started the next mission yet.

I seem to be a much more aggressive player than you. I took 70 casualties and lost several tanks but I forced a Russian surrender and got a total victory with 15 minutes to spare. They took more than 4 times the casualties that I did, losing 300+ men including around 40 captured and 16 tanks destroyed. Some of those Russian tanks were ridiculously well hidden and hard to spot, even after they had fired. I haven't played the WW2 games in a long time and I had gotten used to the open deserts and advanced optics of Shock Force 2, so it really surprised me to see my tanks blown to bits again and again by invisible T-34s. It was a lot tougher than the first mission. My useless AA half-tracks all got wiped out by the Soviet airplanes as well.

Red Thunder is really interesting to me because the Soviet infantry get no real anti-tank capabilities like bazookas or panzerschrecks, so I can be much more aggressive with my tanks. I tried doing "thunder run" style maneuvers, just charging my tanks straight down the city streets at high speed and without infantry support, having them wreak havoc in the Soviet rear areas. Sometimes it worked surprisingly well. You can just drive straight up to enemy occupied buildings and blast them point blank and there's nothing they can do about it. When it came time to assault the objectives, I would lead with the tanks and have the infantry jog along behind, trying my best to use the tanks as cover. The Soviet infantry were mostly helpless and got slaughtered. Those T-34s were brutal though.

[landser]

9 hours ago, Bozowans said:

 

I seem to be a much more aggressive player than you.

George McClellan would be a more aggressive player than me I think. But I think it paid off in the desired manner. Lost the two tanks, a couple of tracks, 15 KIA and 27 WIA while knocking out 13 Soviet tanks and causing around 220 enemy casualties and 16 prisoners. I want to preserve my force if I can to carry on through the remainder of the campaign. Or that's usually my goal when playing core-force campaigns. I don't always pull it off, and manage my share of debacles, but I was pleased with the outcome here.

You're right about the Russian infantry anti-tank capability. But they also have sappers with satchels. I saw in the map review they were deployed astride one of the avenues in the center of town. I had chosen to ignore that part of town so they suffered a few losses to my artillery but otherwise remained hidden and saw no combat, and didn't drop any bombs on my engine decks. This part of the town must have held the two 'hidden' objectives which were  Radzymin West and Radzymin Park. With no visible objectives I saw no compelling reason to commit myself there and the Russian scored some points for it as a result.

Had a look at the third mission and I hope my Panther gunners bring their A game as it's wide open. Set my TRPs and did terrain analysis but yet to set up and start. Should be interesting, especially if the Russian has committed his armor here (and you know he has)

Edited October 4, 2019 by landser

[landser]

Oh man, battle three. Not sure if anyone cares much about what happens in my campaigns, but this is the sort of stuff I enjoy reading so I'll put it out there.

Did the terrain analysis for the third battle, this one the 'right flank force' with Panthers. Big, open map, and when you see it you think well now this will place a premium on gunnery. Got all set up, with the idea to just get eyes on the right flank, and push up the left with the limited starting units. It's only the leading element of the kampfgruppe, with a platoon of Panthers and mostly HQ type units.

Issued the opening orders to get eyes forward leaving the armor hidden in the trees until I could get some spots and see what's where. Got spots on a few T-34/85s and issued orders to the tank platoon to inch forward to the edge of the trees on turn 2. I hope I could keep my tanks from being spotted until at least they could open fire.

Pressed go and the Panthers dutifully moved forward and got spots and opened fire. The platoon conspired to miss their first eight shots, and at the end of the WEGO segment two were knocked out and two were reversing, with casualties, and essentially out of the fight.

I sat back and said aloud "Perhaps if I built a large, wooden badger"

So yeah, I restarted and kept my armor keyholed to await the rest of the KG. This time it went much better, my boys shot well, and 20 minutes in we've lost just one while knocking out a number of T-34s. The Panthers have shrugged off a lot of turret hits, so I'm somewhat fortunate that so many are still in the fight really. But they are, and combined with the generous artillery on call, things are going well so far. I still need to get on the objectives, but those are all soaking up HE at the mo, so no hurry with an hour left. But if it's like most of my campaigns I will dawdle too much on the approach and be forced to rush them at the end.

[MOS:96B2P]

1 hour ago, landser said:

Pressed go and the Panthers dutifully moved forward and got spots and opened fire. The platoon conspired to miss their first eight shots, and at the end of the WEGO segment two were knocked out and two were reversing, with casualties, and essentially out of the fight.

+1.  Interesting stuff.  Thanks for sharing.  I wonder what caused the eight misses.  Just bad luck or something else.......... 

[landser]

Trees.  Some T-34s are positioned behind a tree line opposite the left side of the setup zone so it was a combination of obstruction --physical and sight I reckon. Range was around 1150m. But it's certainly an outlier. I could re-run that turn a hundred times without having eight straight misses I would think. The T-34s didn't miss and scored penetrations straight away. Later, those hits became ricochets, so such is war.

The difference is I can restart if unhappy.

[Warts 'n' all]

That kind of start would have been a tad annoying for anyone.

[landser]

Haha no doubt. If you caught the Monty Python reference, that's how I felt like when Arthur asks Bedivere "who leaps out of the rabbit?', my well laid plan had come to naught.

But it reveals one of CMs strengths in that it never plays exactly the same way twice ya know? Not randomness, but maybe variability is the right word?

[landser]

The scale of these battles is interesting. On many CM battles once you get the infantry in the fight, they remain on their feet the rest of the battle. Moving forward, but on foot. In this campaign, having a battalion on such big and open maps means you need to move your infantry companies with transport or they'll take forever to get where you need them and be exhausted and late when they arrive. I've enjoyed the whole operational feel to it, coordinating this transport, clearing it's way and providing overwatch. The left flank force has a lot of halftracks, but the right flank force have trucks, which are highly vulnerable of course, and it takes a good plan and planning to get these troops to the positions you want them and in a timely manner. I usually avoid big battles for this sort of reason, this sort of micro, but for whatever reason I am really digging it in Blunting the Spear. Oftentimes you bring a platoon forward to unload, assault an objective, clear it, then remount in a different location to set off to the next one.

After restarting the battle to erase my nightmare second turn, I ended up scoring a total victory, with the AI surrendering with 34 minutes on the clock. My artillery was highly effective in this one. The TRPs were well placed and I was able to keep pounding the enemy's strongpoints through the battle. Tank losses were 26 to 1. I had 20 casualties, and some of those were caused by aircraft. I was surprised when the battle ended, but after seeing the map review and how effective the artillery had been, I would have thrown in the towel too if I were the Russian.

Who knows how much differently it would have gone had I accepted the loss of the Panther platoon? After the mulligan though it could hardly have gone better for the Germans who shot well and shrugged off the hits the T-34s got early on that could have swung the battle had they penetrated instead.

[Artkin]

I totally gave CMRT's maps some love early on.

Dont forget benpark make all of orshanets!

[landser]

Yes, I said Pete and company, because frankly I don't know who made up the rest of the team, but everyone who had a a hand in making this campaign has my thanks. Authors, map makers and testers all did a fantastic job as I am having a great time playing Blunting the Spear. The maps dish out a sparkling brand of combat, with a nearly perfect blend of long range gunnery duels and close-in combat. The huge, open maps bring me out of my comfort zone and have me conducting the battles in a more grand style, battles of maneuver in the operational sense, or it imparts that feeling, even if it's still a tactical problem at heart.

Having tank battalions armed with high velocity 75s gives the player a hell of a lot of firepower, and combined with the strong artillery support gives the player all the tools he needs to overcome it, as long as the tactics are sound. My cautious approach to Combat Mission battles is working well, preserving my forces. With an hour and twenty minutes on the clock there is ample time to play properly, with recon and maneuver. And as mentioned last post I am enjoying the whole problem of effectively getting, and keeping, my infantry in the fight.

I moved to engine 4 for CMBN, but my CMRT is still on engine 3. I suspect the answer is no, but I was wondering, if I upgraded to engine 4 could I reload a save of a turn already played to see the F/O kill stats? I'm very interested to see the numbers from the artillery in that last battle.