thilio Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 For those interested in this battle, dating from 2018. https://www.hatten1945.com/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfgang500 Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 "Ordnung im Chaos" by Gen. d. PzTr Hermann Balck, who was commanding the whole thing, is also worth reading, as it gives some background information on the circumstances prevailing in German High Command at the time. The English translation is ISBN 978-0813161266. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 1/14/2024 at 7:53 AM, thilio said: For those interested in this battle, dating from 2018. https://www.hatten1945.com/ Thanks for that. Having just played it as a PBEM against @cbennett88 I was very interested. In our PBEM I was the US, but I'll stop there in case I drop any spoilers. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thilio Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 Finished with the Germans against the AI with a minor victory. This is an excellent scenario very pleasant to play, thanks to the designer Jon Martina. There are many tactical options, you choose where to send your troops. I ran out of time to conquer the Western Hatten objective, having been too cautious to advance in the city. The German player is reinforced with 150 mm howitzers that are not mentioned in the briefing. Spoilers…. It is a scenario that is in two very different parts. The first infantry-based game in urban terrain was rather easy with a strange plan of the AI in which all his troops converged towards the church. They were surrounded and destroyed. The objectives were conquered with very few casualties, most of my infantry and tanks were not used. The enemy’s objectives are not the same as yours, so an advice is to occupy the whole city and not just your objectives. Another advice is to move quickly to approach the western part and to position the units that can direct the artillery as soon as it arrives because using the howitzers takes a lot of time. When the reinforcements arrive, the time limit of one hour is a bit fair if you play too carefully. The objective is to take the western part of Hatten, attacking Rittershoffen seems unrealistic. It is possible to cross the railway downstream from the station and head directly with the tanks on the objective while the panzergrenadiers infiltrate the city. Bypass the city further west does not seem a good idea because the enemy is in force on this side. I was surprised by the lack of a counter-attack especially on the northern part of the city. Some tanks approached but did not attack. So it doesn’t seem necessary to leave too much troops behind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacillator Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 (edited) Spoilers here as well... Without going too much into detail, in our PBEM with me as US I ignored the 'hang back and wait for the rest of your forces' suggestion, and sent a lot (but not all) of the guys in Rittershoffen immediately up to the front in Hatten. They had a tough time against things like the flammpanzers, but delayed German progress quite well. At the same time a German long-flanking move on my left got to the outskirts of Rittershoffen but was halted there, while a move on the right was deflected into Hatten (largely by my 57mm guns, say no more), to be reinforced shortly after by the seemingly huge German reinforcements (lots of Panzer IVs and more). One group headed up the middle behind my front line but was gradually and then fully taken out by carefully positioned Shermans, mostly from my reinforcements. The rest of the panzers continued to advance towards the church in Hatten, with a bit of attrition either way. My infantry were tough, and took out various vehicles with bazookas, and right at the end I got a demo charge on a flammpanzer - nice! A surrender soon followed as it was apparent things were going in my favour. As I also had another set of Shermans (9 or even 12 I think) just about to come on, I think that was a reasonable call. All in all, a great PBEM, and quite an epic battle, which I thought for a long while was going against me. EDIT: just checked the tank count, 5 US lost versus 25 German lost but that doesn't tell the whole story. Edited March 1 by Vacillator 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thilio Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 It seems more difficult for the germans against a human player. Against the AI it was very enjoyable except the time limit too tight (it's frustrating when you are so close to the objective). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thilio Posted March 2 Author Share Posted March 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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