Warts 'n' all Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 8 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Oh well. Damn, I can't cue up Peter Green because I did that 3 pages back. This one was a very bloody "Draw" for me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 8 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Oh well. Damn, I can't cue up Peter Green because I did that 3 pages back. This one was a very bloody "Draw" for me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 8 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Oh well. Damn, I can't cue up Peter Green because I did that 3 pages back. This one was a very bloody "Draw" for me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 8 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Oh well. Damn, I can't cue up Peter Green because I did that 3 pages back. This one was a very bloody "Draw" for me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 19, 2022 Share Posted July 19, 2022 3 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said: Damn, I can't cue up Peter Green because I did that 3 pages back. This one was a very bloody "Draw" for me. I could probably also have achieved a draw, but I had a series of bad luck, too: First I tried to reposition Panther 1 to flank the Shermans, but when it arrived in flanking position, it spassed out turning the turret back and forth even though it spotted the enemy tank right in front of it. Two shots from the Sherman did the good old trick of knocking out the gun, and then it was curtains for Panther 1. Meanwhile, I used my Panzer IV on the right flank, but it got hit by a rifle grenade and immobilised. At this point I was getting reckless and tried to send Panther 2 on a big flanking move, but it got spotted along the way and dispatched of. At this point, I quit But I restarted the mission today and of course was able to beat it easily due to knowing where the enemy would attack from. Still chalking it up as a loss and moving on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 20, 2022 Share Posted July 20, 2022 Ok, so on to "Cold Hearts at Froidcourt". It's a nice break with a small battle, and one where I'm on the attack again. I also liked that I could do some mounted infantry combat. I like the German halftrack infantry tactics, but it's rare that scenarios let me do that without having the map infested with AT guns and enemy tanks etc. It would have been nice if I had fewer support vehicles though. I feel I have too much firepower for such a small map. Get rid of the AA vehicles for example. The biggest problem I had with with the mission was that my setup zone went all the way to the church, and I actually put a team in there - the Amis set up in the same place so I was basically deploying right on top of them. All in all, it seems as if i'm supposed to go along the road and then through the forest, but i went the opposite direction, so when the mission was over, McCown was actually one of the few teams I had not encountered. He was surrounded though, so I consider him captured. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 Next mission: The one where you withdraw across the river and save the Tiger II. Well.. I lost the Tiger. Sent the crew in a truck, they got in, and then I sent the tank to defend with the infantry at the north edge of the village. I did knock out one tank destroyer, but then the Us infantry just swamped everything, immobilising the Tiger with 2 hand grenades, then finishing it off with a third. Meanwhile on the left flank, my small force holding the farm were just smashed by artillery. All in all, I'm puzzled about what I'm really supposed to do here. What kind of "fighting withdrawal" am I supposed to do? In game terms, there's no benefit from doing anything apart from just ordering all units to leg it as fast as possible. I guess I was supposed to pull the Tiger back across the river and defend from there, but I didn't think there'd be enough daylight for it to see anything. Maybe I was wrong? It's impossible to eyeball the graphics - it looked really dark even from the first turn. In the end, I retreated enough troops to get a "tactical victory", but I must admit I ceased fire with around an hour left on the clock. the mortars and AA guns would never be able to hold the bridge or even cause more than a couple of casualties. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted July 26, 2022 Author Share Posted July 26, 2022 I'd forgotten this one. So went back and had a read up on it. I used a kubelwagen rather than a truck, probably a lot quicker. I saved the Tiger, got a Total Victory, but lost the kubelwagen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Finally got back to continue this campaign. "Bouncing Baugnot" - I managed to win it but only got the town under full control in the last five minutes of the battle. Without the Tiger II I could not have done it, as you need to take on the Shermans head on at short ranges, and as always, the stationary defending tanks spot the moving attacking tank immediately and has time to hit it at least 5 times before the attacking tank can spot and return fire - even when the attacker is unbuttoned and the defender is buttoned. Also, the game's poor modelling of damage to optics rears its ugly head - a small AT gun hitting the front hull of a Tiger II should not cause damage to optics in the turret. Anyhow, I did manage to win it - 9 German dead and 9 wounded, against a total of about 150 casualties on the US side, was not a bad result. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 20 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Also, the game's poor modelling of damage to optics rears its ugly head Yes, I continue to get the same, plus of course the damaged main gun issue. I mainly seem to see this on Panthers and Tigers but maybe I just notice it more with them as high end assets. Discussed a few times elsewhere of course... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 1 hour ago, Vacillator said: Yes, I continue to get the same, plus of course the damaged main gun issue. I mainly seem to see this on Panthers and Tigers but maybe I just notice it more with them as high end assets. Discussed a few times elsewhere of course... It happens with all tanks from all sides, but it's mostly noticeable with the big German ones. Since when an Allied tank gets hit by a German gun, it usually doesn't survive. The most silly thing is the close defence weapon in the turret getting damaged by rounds bouncing off the front armour. This weapon basically just consists of a small hole in the roof to launch grenades, so it's not some delicate radio or optics. Yet it still gets damaged. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 21 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said: Since when an Allied tank gets hit by a German gun, it usually doesn't survive. A fair point but I have been playing with a lot of IS2s recently. Bouncing off is more commonplace than some other Allied tanks . 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 1 minute ago, Vacillator said: A fair point but I have been playing with a lot of IS2s recently. Bouncing off is more commonplace than some other Allied tanks . Ah, sometimes I forget the Soviets were part of the Allies Also because I don't have CMRT. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said: Also because I don't have CMRT Then you can guess my recommendation - get it . If you do I'd be happy to have a PBEM with your good self if you do that sort of thing. Edited January 5, 2023 by Vacillator 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 4 minutes ago, Vacillator said: Then you can guess my recommendation - get it . If you do I'd be happy to have a PBEM with your good self if you do that sort of thing. I used to, but haven't for a long while now. Thanks for the invitation - will remember it if I decide to pick up CMRT at some point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artkin Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 CMRT is by far the best title. The amount of content is staggering. The game also loves converted maps. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 I'm sure the designer has moved on by now, but I continue to fight through his extremely long and excellent campaign. It's rare that I have time to do a battle these days though. Latest battle: Kicking Coblenz There is not much to say about this one - from the briefing alone I realied very quickly that it's one of those "no hope" missions. Especially since I had pretty much no forces left to defend the little objective. Just one single LMG with a total of about 60 rounds, and one single Faust. But of course, that doesn't mean I will just skip the mission. I tried to be sneaky and deploy in a foxhole in the middle of the road, since there was a slight hull down situation. However, there's no way I could have held out against 5 Shermans and I don't know how many Amis. After my foxhole hopefuls had been decimated, I did the honourable thing and clicked Surrender. I heard that if you surrender to the Americans, you eventually get released and can enjoy Coca Cola and bananas while you write your memoirs, while if you get taken by the Russians... well... life will be different. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artkin Posted February 2, 2023 Share Posted February 2, 2023 I was playing this one split with a friend but we wound up stopping. It's a fantastic campaign. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 17 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Latest battle: Kicking Coblenz I remember during my pub crawl around Germany in 1989. I was sat at my campsite's bar in Koblenz, looking across at the Deutsches Eck when I saw a tourist coach from my hometown. I could have kicked myself. As for this mission it's been far too long to remember the details. I may have had more men than yourself. The results was a Major Defeat, so I obviously didn't "Surrender". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 (edited) Finally had time to continue. Mission: Fortress La Gleize. Many good things to say about this one. Huge, good-looking map, and an interesting location to defend. As a nice break from the previous mission, in this one I actually got quite a lot of tanks and other units to defend. Since the map is both large and very detailed, I took very long to finally decide on a defensive setup and place all the units. In the end though, much of this work was wasted, as I only faced one attack, and it came straight up the middle without much finesse, leaving my obsessive micro level setup useless. I had imagined that the attack would come from three directions. The attack itself came as tanks and mounted infantry, which doesn't play well in the CM engine when the map is full of forests and hedges. I did like that there was an initial bombardment and even use of smoke. That's rare to see in AI attack plans. The smoke locations were on the flanks of the attack though, leaving my KT to fire away on the attacking Shermans. Well, at least for a little while before its main gun was taken out. I then faced a bit of a crisis, because I had to bring over Panthers from the flanks to cover the gap. Eventually, the crisis was solved and I won as the US surrendered. They lost 16 tanks, I lost 0 - but several of my tanks had been heavily damaged. The main KT was completely covered with impacts - around 40 in all I think. Just by soaking up enemy fire it did a very useful job. One thing I wondered about was that the briefing said the rest of the Kampfgruppe would join sometime later during the battle, but they didn't show up. All in all a quite good mission, but I felt it could have been made better if the Americans had been made to dismount farther out instead of just being one big mass of tanks and halftracks moving into the killzone. Also, it would have been more interesting to have them attack on 2-3 different axes. For example, a thrust towards the farm on the right flank would have been nice, as well as across the bridge. One last thing: After the battle, I noticed there were several jeeps with US artillery spotters on various places on the map, but in places without LOS. For example, behind the big building on the far left flank beyond the bridge. I got the impression that they were meant to move into that building to direct artillery, but that the designer forgot to give them a move order. The map could also be good for a PBEM quick battle. It offers an interesting mix of long and short sightlines, and I could think of various different tactics for attack and defence. Edited February 11, 2023 by Bulletpoint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 @Bulletpoint I've gone back through my notes. The Amis threw in the towel with an hour still on the clock when I played it. I have a vague memory of establishing a defence out on the right which I didn't need. Then I slowly crept the tanks forward so that they could take the Amis in flank. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 OK, this was demoralising. After a long flanking maneuver and sneaking up on this tank, firing the Schreck, scoring pretty much a perfect direct hit, the critter then just turns around and guns down the tank hunters. I had to cease fire to check what damage had been caused: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 Actually when I began playing this penultimate mission "Hansen's Surprise", I thought it was not very good. It looked like one of those usual puzzle missions where you are hopelessly outgunned and need to handle the mission slowly and painfully like defusing a bomb. But after playing it through, I actually think it's actually a great little scenario. The battlefield is very open and controlled by Stuart tanks, and you don't have much AT to deal with them. I found myself asking "Why did the idiot Hansen decide to attack tanks with infantry while it's still light?" and then suddenly it dawned upon me: The mission starts at 15:00. It's the darkest time of the year. I have 2 hours to finish the scenario. I can just decide to wait. Those Stuarts are not as fearsome after dark... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warts 'n' all Posted February 12, 2023 Author Share Posted February 12, 2023 2 hours ago, Bulletpoint said: Those Stuarts are not as fearsome after dark... Even Ed Stewart managed a laugh when Little Jimmy Osmond called him "Stinkpot". Ah, we were all so much younger then. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletpoint Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 Finally managed to wrap up this monster. The last mission saw Peiper stumble back to German lines like a national socialist after a failed beerhall putsch. While I think it's interesting to include the exfiltration of forces after the fiasco, I don't think stealthy stuff is what the CM engine does best. Also, the big map promises several different ways to cross the river, but there's no real need for being clever, as you can just go straight up the left flank. Was surprised to see McCown as a prisoner, and I think it was a nice touch. However, I feel there should have been some kind of points penalty if I had lost him along the way. I didn't, but still. In conclusion, it's been a masterpiece of a campaign. Thanks again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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