Rollbahn D Part I, new Campaign

[Bulletpoint]

On to next mission: Buchholz.

Initial impressions: Briefing states it's freezing fog and almost no visibility, but the actual conditions are flurries and I can draw a target line for 300m.

Also, I just noticed that the Fallschirmjäger are listed as "rifle" and "motorized rifle" in their unit card when you click on them. Their Regiment HQ is listed as "Parachute" though.

[Bulletpoint]

Buchholz secured. I found this mission much better.

Enemy surrender.

Own casualties: 8 killed, 7 wounded.

Enemy: 49 killed, 29 wounded.

Used my Stummels to good effect. One of them had 39 kills. Only used Stummels and two platoons of Fallschirmjäger actually, so the mission is quite generous with the forces it gives you.

On second thought, I could have benefited from using the AA vehicle too, as it's better against buildings than the Stummels - I just like those support halftracks, so it's nice to see a mission where they can shine a bit.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Bulletpoint

[Vacillator]

3 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

I found this mission much better.

Yes I like Stummels too.  But I should not have read your full post .

[Bulletpoint]

4 minutes ago, Vacilllator said:

Yes I like Stummels too.  But I should not have read your full post .

Well, I was trying to hide spoilers by writing in white text on a white background - maybe it didn't work on your computer or phone?

[Vacillator]

Just now, Bulletpoint said:

Well, I was trying to hide spoilers by writing in white text on a white background - maybe it didn't work on your computer or phone?

Not your fault my friend, it was me being too curious.  I was aware of my misdemeanour (spelling?).

[Erwin]

I am a bit behind you guys but here is are brief comments about Mission 2.  Am enjoying this campaign.  There are never enough German attack campaigns.

 

******* SPOILERS ********

 

I found it easy to take the town, and then I simply sent one company north up the eastern woods, and the 2nd west and then north up the western woods.  It's hard to KO the bunkers without satchel charges unless Fausts are facing the front.  Actually regular inf can kill the small bunker crews by firing through the front arc. 

However, one can also simply go north up the eastern woods and then into the "triangular" woods at the north map edge without encountering any enemy and that is sufficient to "occupy" the objective without killing any bunkers or enemy units on the west side.  I did this and CF'd and got a Major Victory.  However, without looking at the map I will go back and try it the hard way - by advancing north up the western woods to KO the bunkers.  

BTW: I did look at the start of Mission 3 and found that if one CF'd immediately, one gets a victory.  May want to check the victory conditions...

 

[Bulletpoint]

A note on the difficulty level of the campaign so far: I actually appreciate that it's not super difficult.

I have played the games for years and can manage hard scenarios, but I think the game really could do with more easier battles for new players.

Also of course it matches the historical events at this point, with the possible exception of Lanzerath, but I'm not sure how much fact and how much fiction there is in that story.

[Warts 'n' all]

Played two, Won two. Now for Mined the Gap, which I am assuming in set on the London Underground. And will involve a crack Fallschimjager unit led by Mad Addy himself dropping behind Allied lines four stops short of Dagenham East. Or, possibly not.

[Erwin]

20 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Mined the Gap

Good one, Warts...  A nice "in-joke".

[Erwin]

Re Mission 2:

 

******* SPOILERS ********

 

I don't know if there are alternative AI set-ups/plans but it is strange that there are 6 bunkers etc in the western woods and absolutely no enemy in the eastern woods.  The other issue is that after capturing the town, there is something like 20-25 turns of nothing, just moving carefully thru woods until ones starts to detect the enemy positions in the western woods.  Otherwise another good mission.  I managed to lose 2/3 of my casualties trying to eliminate the bunkers and occupying the north objective completely.  But, my result was still a Major Victory, which I could have had just for occupying the triangular woods at the north edge.  On to Mission 3.

[Bulletpoint]

42 minutes ago, Erwin said:

The other issue is that after capturing the town, there is something like 20-25 turns of nothing, just moving carefully thru woods until ones starts to detect the enemy positions in the western woods.

Hmmm.. I thought that was quite good actually. The few enemies present in the town meant that I couldn't let down my guard while advancing... I think missions are often overloaded with enemies "just because the player must not be bored". Maneuvering is a part of warfare too.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

40 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said:

Hmmm.. I thought that was quite good actually. The few enemies present in the town meant that I couldn't let down my guard while advancing... I think missions are often overloaded with enemies "just because the player must not be bored". Maneuvering is a part of warfare too.

Totally agree with that.

I love recon and even if I don't find anything, I still enjoyed the experience of slowly working forward and hoping not to see the scouts get cut down.

[Erwin]

"I love recon and even if I don't find anything, I still enjoyed the experience of slowly working forward and hoping not to see the scouts get cut down.

I would agree with that comment.  But, one wants to see some action since it is a game.  While I also love recon missions, sneaking around etc. - my sense is that something should happen no less often than every 10-15 minutes or boredom sets in.

What did you guys think of Mission 3?

 

******* Possible Spoilers *******

 

Mission 3 is unusual in that it is a 45 minute mission in which all one has to do is move a column down the road to exit the map.  I led with a halftrack and that eventually got blown up by a mine.  But other than that, no enemy contact whatsoever and all others exited safely with 20 minutes left to go.

[theforger]

Re mission 3.

The Spitze lost 2x Panthers (Bersin and Bahrendt) before linking up with the Fallshirmjager in Lanzerath on the night of the 16th, a substantial element of Sternebeck's firepower.

So from a historical perspective I wanted to include it.

This could be considered self indulgent, but this process has been an education for me on what happened and when to the KG to try and get a deeper understanding.

From a game play perspective absolutely acknowledge, apart from maybe admiring the scenery and a developing sense of foreboding, there's little for the player, but I also didn't want to automatically rob you of the two Spitze Panthers either.

Thankfully from a players perspective there's no more of these type of scenario's in the remainder of the campaign.

[Warts 'n' all]

It was, as said above "unusual". Both of my half-tracks were damaged by mines with the gunners becoming casualties. But, that is certainly better than having two Panthers vanish into thin air. O.K. time for "Bloodbath in Buchholz".

[Bulletpoint]

On 5/8/2021 at 10:51 AM, Warts 'n' all said:

Both of my half-tracks were damaged by mines with the gunners becoming casualties.

Did you trigger an AT mine with the halftrack and only lost the gunner? When my halftrack hit mines, they seem to get completely obliterated, killing everyone on board.

[Bulletpoint]

Honsfeld mission complete.

Spoilers:

I had 11 killed and 7 wounded. Started out being a bit rash and opened the firefight straight from the beginning, then rushed two halftracks across and deployign at the hedge straight in front of the Amis. Won the ensuing fight with some casualties, but only because I had lots of vehicles in overwatch. Lost one AA halftrack to a Greyhound, but apart from that one I was able to beat the remaining hounds by setting up a tank poining at their locations and then baiting them by opening fire with a scout team.

I liked that the mission had me avoid the main town and leaving that to follow-up forces. All in all a very good scenario.

[theforger]

there's a picture on page 137 of Then And Now which took me sometime to work out where about in Honsfeld it was taken, because in the shot the Grenadiers and SPW are heading back in to the town from the north west against the direction of the offensive. Thanks @Bulletpoint for the feedback on your progress.

[MOS:96B2P]

On 5/5/2021 at 1:27 AM, theforger said:

there's 30 or so related scenarios available over the next 6 months in the 3 campaigns that give a large variation in degrees of difficulty. 

+1.    Wow.  I just saw this and had to read it a few times to make sure I was understanding it.  About 30 scenarios spread out in three campaigns!?!?  Also it seems like you are attempting to be historically accurate with both maps and TOE.  This is a massive undertaking.  Thank you. 

I really enjoyed your other scenario, Mission to Maas, which in part inspired the CMRT mini-campaign Alarmeinheiten.  I have not had a chance to play Rollbahn yet but both @Bulletpoint and @Erwin, who are veterans of the game, seem to like it.  Those two generally notice EVERYTHING and give valuable feedback so I'm sure this will be another good one.  I look forward to having time to play through this one.  Thanks again. 

[Bulletpoint]

One thing I would generally like to seee is more US troops surrendering in these first missions, as they did historically. But they usually fight to the death. A recommendation would be to maybe decrease their morale a bit

[Erwin]

About 30 minutes into Mission 4 and am loving this one so far!

 

**********  SPOILERS  **********

 

LIke some of you I love recon and have a SOP about moving cautiously but fairly quickly - one has to accept that in CM2 recon is generally a suicide mission no matter how careful one is.  It took almost 25 minutes to reach the first objective.  The Briefing aint kidding about one has to stumble over the enemy to find him.  My recon guys stumbled almost inside an enemy foxhole b4 they saw it (or the US fired) and the recon died.  The enemy positions were then wiped out by the Panthers and Stummels plus HMG longer range fire.  Even when inf finally occupied one of the foxholes, there was a live US cowering there that no one saw.  Re his fate...  let's just say he shoulda surrendered. 

So, yes, the US seems to fight to the death whereas as Bulletpoint mentioned historically I thought the US surrendered quickly in the early days of Wacht Am Rhine.

With 1 hour and 25 minutes left, am now sending troops north into the northern woods and then west to take out the 2nd closest objective, which may give me good LOS to the third objective.  Will be doing more recon by fire as now we know how hard it is to spot the enemy (until they fire).

 

[Warts 'n' all]

9 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

Did you trigger an AT mine with the halftrack and only lost the gunner? When my halftrack hit mines, they seem to get completely obliterated, killing everyone on board.

No, I was trying to be clever and went off-road. So they both hit anti-personnel mines. Thankfully the track damage didn't stop them from moving, and my tanks were able to steer a safe path between the mine markers.

In the meantime I am loving Mission 4. Some casualties but not the bloodbath I was fearing.

[Erwin]

Mission 4 is my favorite so far.  One has the opportunity/has to do recon so as to not stumble on enemy positions (they are very hard to spot). 

 

******* SPOILERS ********

 

Recon guys get KIA a lot cos they usually can't spot any enemy until within a few meters.  But, then one can easily blow up the enemy inf using tanks and Stummels from range.  After 1 hour, 1st and 2nd (the station) objective taken - cost 5 inf casualties for each - so total 10 so far incl a tank CO (fighting unbuttoned).   Also can see enemy defenses in foxholes in the woods road by the 3rd objective.  Hope the 81mm mortars will finally be useful here. 

But, the road thru the woods to the 4th exit objective could be nasty - all close range stuff.  As an experiment I CF'd at this point and got a Major Victory.   Looked at Mission 5 and noticed that the ammo for the Stummels was not replaced.  All other units seem to have ammo back at 100%.  

However, will carry on with Mission 4 and see how I do.

 

[Bulletpoint]

10 minutes ago, Erwin said:

Looked at Mission 5 and noticed that the ammo for the Stummels was not replaced. 

I think my Stummels were rearmed though. If I remember right, there's a random element to which units get replenished.

[Erwin]

FWIW everything else (tanks, SPW's and inf) all at 100%.  Stummels' ammo were they were at end of Mission 4. If random it's odd that both Stummels similarly affected.