KG Peiper campaign question

[Sgt.Squarehead]

On 1/23/2021 at 9:55 PM, Vacilllator said:

Asmussen's Panzer IV now has a broken main gun and radio, and I only have 4 Panzer IVs?  Feel a bit short-changed, has anyone else ever noticed such a thing?

That is more than a litle bit odd! 

I didn't think subsystem damaged carried over like that.....How it could appear from nowhere I really can't imagine. 

You can't damage subsystems in the editor (other than tracks/wheels/engine via immobilistation).....Or if you can, I haven't got a scooby how to do it!

7 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

Earlier in the thread I said the missing Panzer IV was commanded by Teske.  Oddly I've just noticed that I now have a Teske commanding a Sdkfz 251/3.  Coincidence or something else?

  Almost certainly a coincidence caused by the game's random name generator.

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by Sgt.Squarehead

[Vacillator]

A quick update.  This (scenario 3 - Stavelot) is becoming one of the most frustrating battles I've played.  Despite my best attempts at traffic control, I have 'rubber-banding' of vehicles on the Ambleve bridge, plus 'pile-ups' (two Panzer IVs and two 251s melded into a single beast ) and a Panzer IV which drove underneath the bridge instead of onto it (what the ?).  I managed to reverse the Panzer IV and get it back onto the bridge but otherwise it's all a bit of a PITA.  And my infantry are taking the brunt without the armoured support.  I feel the need for strong expletives...

[chuckdyke]

1 hour ago, Vacilllator said:

A quick update.  This (scenario 3 - Stavelot) is becoming one of the most frustrating battles I've played.  Despite my best attempts at traffic control, I have 'rubber-banding' of vehicles on the Ambleve bridge, plus 'pile-ups' (two Panzer IVs and two 251s melded into a single beast ) and a Panzer IV which drove underneath the bridge instead of onto it (what the ?).  I managed to reverse the Panzer IV and get it back onto the bridge but otherwise it's all a bit of a PITA.  And my infantry are taking the brunt without the armoured support.  I feel the need for strong expletives...

For what it is worth, I know what you mean with bridges and also buildings. Not only with Stavelot. Place a waypoint in the middle of the bridge, with building place waypoints on the points of entry. I had a truck getting bogged next to a bridge.

[Warts 'n' all]

5 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

 I feel the need for strong expletives...

"Elizabeth, bring the gentleman a quart of your Entire Butt. He is having a hard time with his horseless carriages."

[Bulletpoint]

10 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

A quick update.  This (scenario 3 - Stavelot) is becoming one of the most frustrating battles I've played.  Despite my best attempts at traffic control, I have 'rubber-banding' of vehicles on the Ambleve bridge, plus 'pile-ups' (two Panzer IVs and two 251s melded into a single beast ) and a Panzer IV which drove underneath the bridge instead of onto it (what the ?).  I managed to reverse the Panzer IV and get it back onto the bridge but otherwise it's all a bit of a PITA.  And my infantry are taking the brunt without the armoured support.  I feel the need for strong expletives...

These bridge bugs are so frustrating. Strangely, when I played this mission just recently, I had no such problems at all. I guess you can't reload an earlier save?

[Warts 'n' all]

4 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

These bridge bugs are so frustrating.

They are indeed. I always Save before hitting the little red nipple if I've planned a bridge crossing move, just in case things go tits up. 

[Erwin]

I recall rarely experiencing these bridge problems.  I think the key is to make sure you have many short waypoints so that the vehicle is exactly lined up with the bridge before crossing and there is at least one waypoint on the bridge as well as exiting.  Also, space out the vehicles so that they can't pile up.

[Vacillator]

Thanks all.  Yes I could go back to an earlier save but I was trying to let it run its course and sort itself out.

Part of the problem is a knocked out US truck on the second half of the bridge.  It's at one side thankfully, but means the road is only one vehicle wide.  One Panzer IV got past with no problmes.  The next one however stopped while 'considering' how to get past the truck.  As it sat there, two Sdkfz 251s (a Stummel and a 17) starting edging into it from behind instead of also stopping.  Just for fun a third Panzer IV then did the same, with the result being the beast with not just two backs, but four - all mangled together!  I managed to extract the third Panzer IV and reverse it off the bridge, and the other vehicles started edging very slowly forward, with the second Panzer IV eventually freeing itself.  I then waypointed the third Panzer IV back onto the bridge, but unfortunately it decided to go through the road surface of the bridge instead and drive down the bank under the bridge.  I managed to reverse it again, back up onto the road in front of the bridge.

Anyway, current situation is that I have two Panzer IVs acrosss the bridge and heading into town, two Sdkfz 251s still jostling each other on the bridge, and the third Panzer IV and a whole car park full of halftracks behind it, all waiting for the bridge to clear.  I have probably lost at least 10 minutes at the bridge, at least as far as the armour goes.  My troops, on the other hand, crossed earlier and are making good progress into the town, but without much support from the armour.  This is about to change however.

Think I'll continue from where I am.  If I run out of time or infantry I might feel justified in going back to an earlier save.

And I think I recall reading a thread about similar problems in a later battle of this campaign...

Edited January 29, 2021 by Vacilllator

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I had a nightmare with the twin bridges in the second mission of the CM:SF Canadian campaign.....In the end I was moving vehicles to one end of the bridge and giving them a single movement waypoint to the other side.  Every time I added extra 'legs' to the movement order 'Bridge-Bug' would set in and the vehicle would stutter back and forth during the replay and dump the uncompleted move order for the next turn.

FWIW

Edited January 29, 2021 by Sgt.Squarehead

[Vacillator]

38 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

I had a nightmare with the twin bridges in the second mission of the CM:SF Canadian campaign.....In the end I was moving vehicles to one end of the bridge and giving them a single movement waypoint to the other side.  Every time I added extra 'legs' to the movement order 'Bridge-Bug' would set in and the vehicle would stutter back and forth during the replay and dump the uncompleted move order for the next turn.

FWIW

Yes that sounds very familiar.  Another 10 or so minutes in (with every other one repeated once I see the rubber-banding) I now have the third Panzer IV and the Sdkfz 251/17 heading into town.  The Stummel is still holding up all the other halftacks on the bridge...

How I'd love a quart of Elizabeth's Entire Butt right now .

[Warts 'n' all]

2 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

How I'd love a quart of Elizabeth's Entire Butt right now .

Sadly, Elizabeth says that her beer doesn't travel very well. In fact the lazy mare won't even roll a hogshead down to the Derby Gate if I fancy a drink on the waterfront.

"I heard that, Noddle Head."

[Vacillator]

18 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Sadly, Elizabeth says that her beer doesn't travel very well

It's not that far to Somerset, particularly on a horseless carriage .  Unless there's a bridge anywhere on the route .

[Vacillator]

On the upside of all of this, I'm starting to like night-time battles - you can see where you're being shot at from .

[Vacillator]

On the off-chance that anyone might be following this (yes I know, unlikely), I thought I'd just add a few words.

 

Mild spoiler alert - look away now if you care about that.

 

After most of my vehicles wasting many, many minutes at Stavelot bridge, and the infantry ahead of them paying the price, I did eventually get all the vehicles that were still able to move over the bridge.  Always the optimist, I had decided to capture the Square and hopefully open up the way to getting my hands on all of that lovely fuel waiting for me up the Francorchamps road.  Sadly, with dwindling infantry I felt obliged to halt that push once I had a few halftracks and a couple of Panzer IVs dominating in the middle of the square.  And sad it turned out to be, as the presence of hidden 'Klingons' within the green zone was to deprive me of that objective and the fuel option.

Final result, SS total victory, but no option for fuel.  Oh well, on to the next battle.  Supposedly I won't see what's left of the Spitze again, but I'm not sure that applies to my badly depleted infantry as well or just the Panzer IVs (of which two were now sitting in rather large holes, but I won't go into detail).

One rather odd positive, as has been discussed in another thread, I was previously labouring under the misconception that Sdkfz 251/2s had to dismount their mortars before they could use them (based on an old superceded 'feature' I'd read about for the orginal Fortress Italy).  Thanks to @akd I now know better, and will hopefully be able to make much better use of them in future .

[Warts 'n' all]

Your next Spitze-less battle is a biggy. From what I recall it is only the Stummels that carry forward into it.

[Vacillator]

On 2/6/2021 at 1:09 PM, Warts 'n' all said:

From what I recall it is only the Stummels that carry forward into it

Interesting comment!  I thought both Stummels had survived Stavelot, and on starting Stoumont I had three Stummels (two up front which could be re-located further forward during setup onto a selection of what look like three small purpose-made zones, and one further back with the Panthers which could not). 

Curious, I thought I'd check who was the new guy, only to find that I'd lost one in Stavelot and not even noticed as it was near the end - presumably I was looking the other way or charging my glass at the time!