"Road to ST-LO" Combat Mission Tournament

[Panzertruppen]

<p align="center"><font color="#FF0000" size="5">The Blitzkrieg Wargaming Club

Proudly Presents</font></p>

<p align="center"></p>

<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman">The Blitzkrieg

Wargaming Club's first Combat Mission tournament is now open for sign-ups. This

is a four round sudden death, or knock-out, tournament. Players

must achieve at least a draw to advance to the next round. All the battles in

the tournament will be custom scenarios that are characteristic of the Normandy

hedgerow fighting of 1944. The Round One scenario will not be emailed out until

the tournament begins. The "Road to ST-LO" Tournament begins on

November 6th, so sign-up while there's still time!</font></p>

<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman">Visit the Combat

Mission section of the <a href="http://www.theblitz.org">Blitzkrieg Wargaming

Club</a>.</font></p>

<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman">Don Panzertruppen

Maddox

Blitz CM Deputy

Custodian</font>

[This message has been edited by Panzertruppen (edited 10-21-2000).]

[-Havermeyer-]

!!NOTE THE TOURNAMENT HAS ALREADY STARTED AND IS CLOSED!!

What do you think of the force balance?

What of the map? (The map has advantageous terrain for both participants, IMO)

Which is most important when working up the tactical approach (either on O or D) in this game:

1) The initial setup?

2) The time available?

3) Rate of offensive advance?

4) Use of a fluid defense?

[This message has been edited by -Havermeyer- (edited 11-16-2000).]

[Ron]

SPOILERS

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>What do you think of the force balance?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Definitely favors the Germans. The Panther clearly outclasses anything the US has, presenting a stone wall as the US force has little room for maneuver. The US has numerous support weapons though, but being Green they aren't that useful.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>What of the map?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Again IMO it favors the German defender. The US force is restricted to three avenues of approach, two of which can be easily defended by the German AT gun and Panther. The terrain and conditions limit off-road movement lessening the appeal of the third. Already I have had three vehicles bog, one leading to an immobilization.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Which is most important when working up the tactical approach (either on O or D) in this game<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For the offense: Luck, no two ways around it.

For the defense: Well my opponent has been pretty passive which has proven to be very successful so probably not much more than that is needed.

Just my grumbling two cents.

Ron

[Bruno Weiss]

I would tend to agree. The map and force distribution slightly favor the Germans. I don't believe the Panther is an insurrmountable problem, but what is an unbalance to me is the bogging problem. The wet bogging conditions coupled with the bocage, is too much of a limitation on the Allied force. In as much as the bocage acts as a channeling mechanism in the first place, add the bogging problem, and unless your willing to risk the liklihood of losing your armor to the mud, your left with a parade down Times Square infront of the hidden German guns. Doesn't mean you can't win as the Allies, but it does mean extra circumstances must fall in favor of the Allies to enable them to win.

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"Gentlemen, you may be sure that of the three courses

open to the enemy, he will always choose the fourth."

-Field Marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke, (1848-1916)

[pucker]

I have just finished my game ending up with a draw.

I to feel that the germans had the advantage. Both in tanks and the ground conditions.

First dis-advantage is the M10 (the only tank with a gun capable of knocking out the Panther) has a Green crew.

Both the bocage and mud made it difficult to co-ordinate attacks. My Support Sherman got bogged down for three turns, which in the end robbed me my victory.

Saying that, it was very enjoyable game to play.

[Panzertruppen]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the candid comments. For those that are interested you'll be happy to note that Wild Bill and the boys from Boot-n-Tracks will be providing the scenarios for rounds two, three and four. I think most everyone knows how good Wild Bill's scenarios are and these scenarios are designed specifically for the tournament. The extra effort from these guys are greatly appreciated.

For those that came out on the short end of the stick on Hell's Doorstep, I hope it was at a minimum an enjoyable game.

Don

[Juardis]

Well, it is at this point that I must step in. As an allied player, I thought I was scrogged initially after looking at the map (and I still may be). But I have taken out his Panther already (just so you know there was no spoiler there). I'm on turn 11 of 18 turns right now and I have control of the center VL. Near as I can tell, he was setup to defend that VL come hell or high water given everything I've killed there. I'm not really sure I know what could've stopped me from taking that VL given what I did to take it. Sure, I took losses (my armor is almost gone), but I have enough forces left to push on to the other VL, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.

So I guess it's all in how you play it as the allies as to whether you view it as balanced or not. Personally, I felt the allies had the advantage since I could pick and choose where and when to attack.

Don, great little battle (but then again, I'm winning right now )

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Jeff Abbott

[Panzertruppen]

<DIV>Don, </DIV>

<DIV> </DIV>

<DIV>This is absolutely correct and Adrian should advance. He neglected to

eliminate my de clawed panther  at the end and it cost him a victory, (My panther chose to target infantry attacking from the rear instead of the Chaffee  in front and took a gun hit. <G> ) but that was just one of the quirks in combat mission. I've had games where I or my opponent have held a victory objective with a less than a half dozen panicked troops when the opposing troops were in the flag range with a full platoon. Overall he played an excellent game and deserves to move on.

I noticed on the CM discussion board that you had asked about the scenario balance and there was a little grumbling that it favored the Germans. I had agreed on playing this scenario till I read some of the comments.   1) There was the bogging question, Adrian ran my flanks and caught me with too many areas to cover. I had played for the bog by covering all the roads to the center and right hoping to tag a vehicle coming up the road or force him off the road.  He moved off the road early before my ambush  and as soon as I saw my opponent was moving well through the mud on my right , I realized I had played the scenario wrong. His greyhound actually made it up the slope behind the right hedgerow and tried to attack from the rear but got cut down. I can't say bogging was an important factor here 2)There was also a mention of green troops. My troops had a tendency to break under fire easily even under clear command control. I had a couple of full squads break after suffering 1-2 casualties and one panicked after being fired upon. The funniest was my schreck bolting from an ambush position behind a

forward building when Adrian' s jeep drove up the hill at fast speed. The schreck bolted before even taking fire. <G> So I'd have to say the troops experience was not a major factor in our game.

Earlier I had thought the scenario was pro-German to a degree because of time constraints, until I saw the ground traversed by Adrian in the time allotted. So after seeing another close score and  with the way my troops behaved and given that my

opponent could drive my flanks, I doubt the scenario was imbalanced toward the Germans any longer. I do think my opponent could have made short work of me by driving the center under a  cloud of smoke but that will be a possible result unexplored.

Now earlier I had asked about a loser's

tourney. The  sudden death is great for competition but also can leave some sore losers due to the nature of CM.  I think Sudden Death is more fitting for the CC system. In CM, while good field tactics are essential to the game, the element of chance still plays a role and because it is a point based game, results can be inconclusive. I'm thinking here of the message on the board where a  result was decided by one point. I also know that a few of the tourney members are not very experienced in CM. I've just completed a game with one tourney member and that was his first PBEM game. My last reason is though competition is admirable, it can sometimes lead to those sore feelings. Playing double-blind mirrored games or a set number of double/blind games with several

tourney members round robin style can be less cutthroat and more telling in a game like CM in my opinion. is it possible to add a loser's tourney for us less competitive,  more fun loving players. I don't think the work would be overdemanding if double-blind QB's were used with set points and  conditions. I also think some club members would volunteer  some help and instead of  using a web page like the St Lo's updates could be posted on the message board. Is it feasible?

Also Adrian is playing me in another and said he needed a boot game. Can the tournament game be counted toward the ladder as his boot game?

Sam Moon

</DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for the speedy reply.</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All tournament games also count as regular ladder

games. You don't need to report it again, I'll take care of updating both the

ladder, and the tournament page.</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sounds like you guys had a fairly interesting battle. I totally agree that sudden-death can be a frustrating experience, especially since the opponents were randomly matched. The only reason I decided to run the tournament that way is the length of CM PBEM games. In CS you could finish a PBEM in a few days if both sides put in the effort. In CM it takes a long time to finish a game because of the huge amount of emails necessarry for each turn. As it is the tournament is only four games, but will take almost four months to complete! If I had done mirror games we wouldn't be finished until late next year. I just don't think most players would be able to commit to such a long process. Although the sudden process isn't as fair as we would all like, I think it may be the lesser of two evils. Now if we had a reliable TCP/IP

system...well, that would change things quite a bit. That may not be too far in

the future.</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Of course there will be other CM tournaments at the Blitz. This is just the first one. The Blitz has a long history of tournament play among its members so I'm looking forward to having several others before too long.</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Don Panzertruppen Maddox</FONT></DIV>

<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>CM Deputy Custodian</FONT></DIV>

[This message has been edited by Panzertruppen (edited 11-18-2000).]