SDG Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg was the first CM2 game that I have purchased. I remember playing the KG Peiper campaign and giving up halfway through cause i was a CM noob and the AI kept kicking my ass. Couple years forward, I am now a semi-competent at the game, own all of the CM2 titles and finished most of the campaigns. I thought to myself, hey, you never got around completing the Peiper one, so lets do it! The first 4mission went well, I could keep my losses to a minimum. Then comes mission 5, Stoumount.. OH MY GOD. Contrary to what the briefing states ("you can approach the city unnoticed"), the 0 visibility is a real hinderance and and an incredibly deadly phenomenon (you practically have to bump into a tank to spot it). This, combined with the uneven terrain (the enemy is in oftentimes in defilades, and once in the city you cant really cover your inf when entering buildings), makes this map into a bloodbath. Oh and lets not forget that the force ratio is almost 1:1. I was so frustrated that I started savescumming, sg. that I never do in CM. (I have just finished CMRT Broken Shield and the "long" Soviet campaign and had no issue achieving total victory without reloading once). All in all, how do you tackle this scenario?? I took the southern approach, did some artillery preparation, entered the city, used suppressing fire, then killed anything that popped up with the panthers/whirebelwind/20mm. This approach ceased to be effective when you reach the "cathedral" and start meeting the enemy armor tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the city proper. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vergeltungswaffe Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 In urban terrain even more than anyplace else, follow the mantra... Never send a team anywhere a scout hasn't been. Never send a squad anywhere a team hasn't been. Never send a platoon anywhere a squad hasn't been. Never send armor anywhere infantry hasn't been. When you have time and opportunity, never send anyone artillery hasn't been. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted July 20, 2021 Share Posted July 20, 2021 If this is 'Storm on Stoumont', that's what I'm doing next. Will let you know how I get on... However for me this is mission 4 so perhaps the earlier choices make a difference? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDG Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 13 hours ago, Vacilllator said: If this is 'Storm on Stoumont', that's what I'm doing next. Will let you know how I get on... However for me this is mission 4 so perhaps the earlier choices make a difference? 1. Die Spitze 2. Command decisions (I chose to stop and rest for the night) 3. Bridge over the Ambieve 1 4. Bridge over the Ambieve 2 (opted to capture the supply depot) 5. Storm on Stoumont If its mission 4 for you, then youll have it easier, as the battle will begin in the early afternoon and the weather will be "overcast" as opposed to "misty" (i.e. you wont have to fight in pitch black conditions in the fog..) https://www.combatmission.lesliesoftware.com/FinalBlitzkrieg/Campaigns/Kampfgruppe Peiper.html Anyways, do let me know how you ll fared. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDG Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 17 hours ago, Vergeltungswaffe said: In urban terrain even more than anyplace else, follow the mantra... Never send a team anywhere a scout hasn't been. Never send a squad anywhere a team hasn't been. Never send a platoon anywhere a squad hasn't been. Never send armor anywhere infantry hasn't been. When you have time and opportunity, never send anyone artillery hasn't been. Funny thing is, that I have completed both of the ("long") CMRT Fire and Rubble campaigns (each of them involving MAJOR urban combat) without too much of an issue. And now this verdammt Belgian village is kicking my ass. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 45 minutes ago, SDG said: If its mission 4 for you, then youll have it easier, as the battle will begin in the early afternoon and the weather will be "overcast" Yes, starts 1345 and visiblity is good. I'm almost in position to attack after brushing aside a few outposts, so things will liven up very soon. Earlier I chose to attack Stavelot immediately and then move West immediately (this may not have been a choice if I remember correctly - it was a while ago - as I didn't fully clear the main Square, so wasn't offered the fuel depot option). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bozowans Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Yeah that was an extremely tough mission. I played it months ago and beat it but took heavy losses. There were such huge numbers of Americans defending the town that it seems impossible to not take heavy losses. I had the King Tigers that you get from capturing Stavelot in the previous missions, which helped me get through a couple of tough spots at least. I took the southern approach as well. I tried to wrap around the town, enveloping it from the south, hoping to get around the US flank and rear, but the US defenses were much denser and extended out a lot farther that I thought they would, so it ended up kinda turning into a brute force push straight into the town anyway. It seemed like every building had guys in them, plus foxholes around them with even more guys. Some of the enemy armor tucked away in the town was hard to deal with. For a couple of them I just had my King Tigers brute force their way up to them and blast them point blank. Others I managed to flank with my infantry and hit them with panzerschrecks. I wonder if attacking from the north instead would be better or worse. I didn't want to go too far off road because of the mud, but maybe it would be worth the risk. The horrible visibility means you can move around unnoticed and pick your approach, but the moment you bump into someone and the shooting starts all hell will break loose. They will see you and cut you down in seconds. It seems the most you can hope for is to move forward slowly and carefully and have as many of your guys as possible in good positions, stationary and ready to return fire before the shooting actually starts. In a normal CM scenario, I try to spread my infantry way out and have them probe the enemy defenses all across the map to figure out where they are, weak spots etc. Then I take out their heavy weapons with my own tanks and artillery etc, then regroup and concentrate everyone together for the final push. That doesn't really work in this scenario though. It's a big map and you can't really afford to spend ages sneaking and probing around in the dark. If you spread too far out, no one can support each other either. So I tried to keep my forces concentrated together. If I had to try it again though, I might consider keeping my forces even more concentrated and densely packed than before. There are huge numbers of Americans, but they are spread all over town and can't all support each other in the dark, so if I keep my own forces densely concentrated and focused on one spot, I can achieve local superiority and punch through that one small part of the US defenses and then keep going into the rear or start rolling up the enemy lines from there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 12 minutes ago, Bozowans said: Yeah that was an extremely tough mission. La la la, my fingers are in my ears (or rather over my eyes).... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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