Fire and Rubble DAR: BFCElvis vs Ithikial_AU - German Side

[Ithikial_AU]

Minor update of sheer and utter madness because I'm sure if he hasn't already BFCElvis has started to gloat (I know I would have).

Ithikial's grand Panzer plan falls dead in a heap. The two Panzer IV's take lead and pincer the known Sherman. It's facing towards OBJ Beer to the south. It's utterly confused spotting both Panzer IV's he poor commander and gunner are shell shocked. The turret finally begins to move. The Sherman at 'Dead Tank Corner' gets the first aimed shot off and instead of going for the rear of the turret places one directly in the centre of the hull! It ricochet's off the hull.

Sherman slowly moves it's turret and single shots the Panzer IV. Immediate catastrophic explosion.

The JzPzIV directly behind then takes a hit in the rear engine and is knocked out. I think my last JzPzIV(A) is safe since there's literally four tank wrecks lined up between it and the offending Sherman.

Meanwhile behind the other Sherman has a panic attack (the crew are rattled) and pops smoke and begins to reverse rather than taking a shot at the rear hull and turret of the Sherman!

Luckily for me it's the end turn and I quickly put a stop to that nonsense. You will stand and fight or your will die. I'm not nice to my pixeltruppen.

Now to go grab a drink.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Ithikial_AU

[Holien]

Intense

[Combatintman]

19 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

Now to go grab a drink.

Included in the module?  Now I'm interested ...

[Ithikial_AU]

Relief. Sweet Relief.

It's important to note that everything posted yesterday and this evening takes place in two minutes of game time.

North

Elvis' Sherman puts another round into the knocked out JzPzIV as it tried to get a shot onto the surviving JzPzIV(A). Meanwhile the timid PzIV halts as ordered and lines up the Sherman. It then took a hit from an unseen AT Gun, it has to be only light calibre (luckily) as the round ricochets off the front hull. Their morale holds long enough and they drill a hole straight through the rear of the Sherman knocking it out in one.

The PzIV's morale breaks, it pops smoke and retreats, taking another ricochet from the unseen AT gun as it retreats to safety behind the buildings.

South

Meanwhile in the last turn (the same as sheer craziness in the last post), my other PzIV takes it's chances and charges through the smokescreen it's deployed hoping it's enough to block the LOS from the SU-85 that is only meters away. (Pic below it's right next door to the knocked out T-34).

I get momentary spots on a huge clump of Soviet infantry in the street trying to scavenge weapons. I have more important priorities, saving KG @benpark.

In the following minute the PzIV gets into position and starts blasting the buildings providing sweet relief to my pinned down Pioneers. Two Soviet squads fall to a barrage of HE and MG fire from the PzIV. Tide turns quickly in this back alley.

The SU-85 starts to move through the same smokescreen I deployed earlier to try and get around to the rear of my PzIV. I can't see it but the smoke is slowly drifting west which reveals it (I suspect bogged in a crater). KG @mjkerner's 'Wall of Aluminum' Fallschirmjaegers let loose with around 4 Panzerfausts. The final one hits the roof of the SU-85 and it's enough to knock it out.

It's a near thing, all the Fallschirmjaegers go to ground and panic immediately after firing the Panzerfausts - so poor is their morale state. They hold position but are not watching the main approach to OBJ Beer.

There's also some scattered small arms fire in the centre and Elvis is actually causing a few casualties compared to these two flank engagements which is holding my attention. I am pretty confident that the SU-85 was Elvis' last piece of armour and he's taken another serious hit to his infantry reserves with the PzIV redployment. I've received no message from Elvis so unsure if he is giving up or going to keep pushing with his infantry. One slight push at OBJ Beer...

For now...

Edited July 28, 2020 by Ithikial_AU

[Heirloom_Tomato]

These last few posts are what makes this game so enjoyable and at other times so incredibly frustrating to play. When Lady Luck shines on your men and what had the potential to be a disaster for you instead turns into one for your opponent; hard to beat that. Yet we all know the feeling of being in Elvis's chair.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Looked like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for a bit there...

[Bubba883XL]

17 hours ago, Combatintman said:

Included in the module?  Now I'm interested ...

Hahah! I want a combat mission mug now ! Lol

[Ithikial_AU]

Message from Elvis. No surrender or ceasefire. We fight to the death.

[JoMac]

34 minutes ago, Ithikial_AU said:

Message from Elvis. No surrender or ceasefire. We fight to the death.

 

Then, "Flatten Arnhem"...err, I mean save Berliner :-)

[Ithikial_AU]

The Ostwind opens fire. Does enough to make the Soviet aircraft miss it's target.

[Warts 'n' all]

Those Dutch-style buildings look somewhat out of place in Berlin to my old eyes. But, still a good action shot.

[Ithikial_AU]

Minor update. He has another tank. One less Panzer IV. My reaction...

[Ithikial_AU]

Bullets to the left of me, bombs to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you...

There's at least two aircraft flying overhead dropping bombs and raining .50 caliber rounds. Three bombs so far. The Ostwind is working overtime. No sign yet that I've scored any hits but those large 37mm shells are from the Ostwind are causing the aircraft to veer off target most of the time.

North

As per my little teaser I thought I had this flank in the bag. The Panzer IV started roaming shooting up every Soviet infantry spot it had. Then out of no where a heavy round at close range took it out in one hit from a gap between the buildings. I've had no spots in that location and swear a tank couldn't squeeze through that gap!

Soviet watches Volkssturm, Panzer watches Soviet.

Then he added some fuel to the fire.

Meanwhile KG @Bootie moves across the main street and starts a close range firefight with handful of troops. Their morale is already shattered and they break quickly when coming under fire. Their leader rouses them multiple times but they'd rather bury their heads in the ruined buildings than shoot their guns.

Meanwhile the Soviet aircraft are focusing on my forces at the end of the street on my side of the map but the only kill they've got is a lone ammo truck.

 

Centre

Actually very quiet. The JzPzIV amongst the other tank wrecks is still safe and has been destroying a number of infantry remnants but nothing much else has happened.

 

South

Elvis takes many casualties as my PanzerIV in the south moves up and saves KG @benpark. It then comes under attack from the aircraft with many hits, but luckily only strafing and not from bombs.

Meanwhile Elvis drops a heavy load of mortars right on top of OBJ Elvis causing a few casualties and causing my entire 'Wall of Aluminum' to hunker down and panic again. THye poke their heads up just in time to see Elvis' recon element that is quickly taken down.

"... it was in this moment that Ivan realised, he f****** up."

The main attack in the south comes but not where I expected. I run into the main Soviet infantry force which is still on the main road creeping forward behind the wrecked T-34. A brutal short range firefight opens up but my last Panther in the area manages to spot the fire and unloads MG and HE fire into the blob of infantry, breaking up the approach. I'm counting my lucky stars here since my fallschirmjaeger are questionable at this point. I'm surprised Elvis had no idea I still had the Panther here.

With that I send the last PanzerIV in the south (that just survived the air attack), down the main Soviet road to join the JzPzIV. It's time to go hunting that OT-34. Revenge will be surved this night.

Finally the map. The number of stars reflecting enemy fire really picked up in these last ten minutes.

10 mins on the clock.

[Ithikial_AU]

The next turn after the above update...

 

[Ithikial_AU]

We're close gents. Probably one last big update once it's all done and dusted.

[jtsjc1]

Great news thanks Ithikial! 

[Aragorn2002]

On 8/13/2020 at 7:35 AM, Ithikial_AU said:

We're close gents. Probably one last big update once it's all done and dusted.

I take it you're referring to this DAR, not to the module itself?

[Ithikial_AU]

3 hours ago, Aragorn2002 said:

I take it you're referring to this DAR, not to the module itself?

The DAR. The battle has ended. Update coming most likely this weekend.

[Aragorn2002]

2 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

The DAR. The battle has ended. Update coming most likely this weekend.

Okay, thanks. Enjoyed this battle. I wasn't sure urban fighting would be interesting to watch, but i was wrong. Great battle.

[Ithikial_AU]

@BFCElvis  German AAR Video

 

 

[Ithikial_AU]

And just like that it’s all over.

 

(Just to prove that yes Volkssturm are indeed in the game. )

There isn’t much different in terms of positioning of each of the Kampfgruppe compared to my last update with a battle map image.

A victory is a victory but it was damn close. I never saw the human wave assault coming towards the end to try and break into OBJ Beer. My pixeltrüppen Fallschirmjäger were panicking quite heavily after that – a second wave right behind it would have meant a contested objective and a different outcome. Virtually all of my infantry and panzers are rattled morale wrecks.

 

Pic - The "Wall of Aluminum." It seems like a solid line but all of these troops are rattled and hanging on by a thread.

 

The scene of the crime:

 

 

Things that I felt worked:

          Rushing holus bolus towards OBJ Beer from the opening as per my initial plan. My pixeltrüppen had to run quite a way and a Soviet Tank showing up in the right place at the wrong time would of meant utter failure in the first two minutes. I was expecting Soviet tank riders to be rushing towards the objective at the same time as me, but I was lucky BFCElvis decided to take a slower approach.

-       Slicing and dicing the map down those main roads running down the centre of the map by the JzPzIV’s and other vehicles. This prevented or at least slowed down the redeployment of Soviet Armour through most of the battle. Infantry managed to slip around the back unnoticed but good terrain analysis up front meant I could be pretty confident and squeezing Soviets into a slither of the map from early in the battle limiting their options.

-        The map. You’re going to enjoy @benpark ‘s Berlin effort once you get your hands on it. Once you’ve had your IS-2 and King Tiger fix do yourself a favour and load up one of the two Berlin master maps (but go grab a coffee for 20+ mins) and just go exploring. It’s a masterclass of urban map making.

-          The new TacAI changes are just in time for the more urban fighting that is coming with this module.

 

     The final death toll at the 'Intersection of Death.' I felt this personal objective to lock down this part of the map with my own armour worked very well.

 

Things that didn’t go well:

-          I got a bit lax midway through the battle with my vehicles thinking I was on top. It was entertaining but there was quite a bit of waste there.

-          We agreed no off map assets (except the aircraft to show off the Ostwind) so I took infantry guns thinking they could still provide some heavier on map indirect support beyond 81mm mortars. That didn’t work as the map was too tight with the multistory buildings and too small. Bad selection on my part. Oh well.

-          I started running out of ammunition towards the end and didn’t manage some of my squads the best as a result.

 

Finally, how all of the Kampfgruppe Commanders faired at the end of the battle:

-          @Hapless = Dead and crispy. Shot through the head by a Soviet LMG fire. His tank crew followed him to the grave late in the battle after being taken out by the last remaining Soviet piece of armour on the map. The tank went up in flames and was doused by a flame thrower for good measure.

-          @DoubleD= Dead and burning in his tank. Didn’t stand a chance with a single catastrophic shot to the hull.

-          @Josey Wales = Dead. Shot down in the street after exiting his armoured car.

-          @Bootie = Alive! Spent the last ten minutes cowering under a window from a wave of SMG fire. He’ll have some mental scars but has survived the war.

-          @mjkerner = Alive and shooting. He raced up to the ‘wall of aluminium’ after the human wave assault to try and rally his men. They didn’t really listen to him but he’s joined the front line getting a few shots off with his pistol in the last few minutes.

-          @benpark = Alive. Spent the whole battle back at OBJ Vodka living the life relaying fire missions to mortar teams.

Big thanks to @BFCElvis for an entertaining and bloody battle.

Thanks for checking in everyone, if there are any final questions post them below and I will see what I can do. Oh and no I have no idea about pre-orders or when it will be ready.

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Ithikial_AU

[waffelmann]

Can't watch the video ...it says something about private...

 

 

EDIT:

Works now!

Edited August 18, 2020 by waffelmann
Corrected!

[Heinrich505]

This was great!  Thanks so much to you and BFC Elvis for going at it tooth and nail.  It was really cool naming your battle groups after so many of our vaunted CM personalities.  

It was a nice showcase for the upcoming equipment and troops.  The map is so nicely done.

Your tactics came to the fore when you started taking control of long avenues of fire down the streets.  That really limited Elvis's reactions.

If the NKVD didn't summarily execute Elvis after his bold human wave failed, I suspect he will be banished to some tank factory in the Ural Mountains, making sure tank production makes the daily quota.

Thanks for posting this.  It was great fun.

Heinrich505

[mjkerner]

Minime survived!  But sounds like he hung back a bit until the end. Whaddya think, Ith...up against the wall, or Iron Cross? Great DAR reporting, both and Elvis. Extremely enjoyable!

[jtsjc1]

Awesome! I like the balls on the Russian who goes prone to throw a grenade at the Panther. Also at about the 1:00 mark was that a Puppchen?