Yet another CM campaign attempt

[JasonC]

Iron Duke has convincingly won the first fight of the campaign for the Germans.

[Iron Duke]

First engagement update:

After Action Report

Hauptman Guerrero "Iron Duke"

9 September 2001

Herr Colonel,

After receiving your Warning Order that Hauptman Alderdyce had fallen deathly ill, I immediately rushed to his Area of Operations (C-4) and took command of his forces there.

After studying the ground, I decided to create two platoon strong points covering the wings of my defense.

The southern platoon strong point, "Ulrich", consisted of:

1 Rifle Platoon

1 7.5cm Pak

2 Panzershreks

1 81mm FO

1 Truck

Lt. Ulrich was in command and his orders where to cover a large open area that contained a small victory marker.

The Northern platoon strong point, "Sattler", consisted of:

1 Rifle Platoon

1 2cm Flak

1 Panzershrek

1 105mm FO

Lt. Sattler was in command and his orders where to lie in wait in a reverse slope position covering another open area with a small victory marker.

My middle was left intentionally "open" as I had blocked the road with some felled trees and reinforced this with two anti-tank minefields. Covering these obstacles, positioned on the central hill and large victory marker, I had:

1 7.5cm Pak

1 2cm Flak

I had gotten word that a platoon of assault guns where to join me so I counted on them to plug the middle if needed.

To the right and left of Sattler I emplaced several anti-personnel mine fields to cover his wings. Covering these mines and the northern small victory marker, I emplaced 2 target reference points as I hoped the American commander would attempt to push through at this point, and I would be able to smash his forces and then counter-attack with Sattler.

As the battle began, the Amis probed my defenses all along my front with those little, but very dangerous M3A1 scout cars supplemented with a half-squads of riflemen. At first, the Amis concentrated on the southern portion of the map and Ulrich reported dismounts near the southern victory marker.

Fortunately, the assault gun platoon arrived right on time and I immediately dispatched 1 StugIIIG to bolster Ulrich’s defenses. I positioned it about 400 meters east of Ulrich and gave it orders to stop any vehicles that may push through Ulrich or through my “open” middle.

To the central hill I dispatched my only StuH42 as I had spotted several Ami dismounts making their way through the pines to the flank of my positions there.

My last StugIIIG I did not dare move until the American commander had committed to his advance. This commitment arrived within 9 minutes of spotting his first forces. Fortunately, he had committed to the Northern victory marker where Sattler awaited him. I spotted at least two platoons of "infantry?" moving into the wooded area that the Americans would use as their "jump off point" and base of fire. I knew success hinged on destroying his initial advance with surprise and violence of action. For this task, I called upon my two Forward Observers, my StuH42, Sattler’s strong point, and my remaining StugIIIG. The TRP I had positioned in the very woods where the Americans now committed came into it’s own for the remainder of the battle. With the combined fires from both Forward observers I was able to cause the majority of the casualties the Amis suffered in the engagement. His forward momentum was utterly stopped and was thrown back where he did manage to penetrate my MLR.

The Americans showed great tenacity in attempting to advance under my murderous fire and my heart goes out to them. Twice did they bear down on Sattler’s positions only to be thrown back by my armor and riflemen...thrown back into the hell that was the northern target reference point. To this attack the American’s added several M8 Greyhound armored cars and M5 Stuarts. Sattler’s 2cm Flak cannon was able to make quick work of the Greyhounds and held the Stuarts at bay while his men fought off the valiant American infantry. After this, I ordered Sattler to counter attack the northern victory location and capture it. He did so within 2 minutes. Ulrich was ordered to advance on the southern victory marker and capture it. (His team had not seen any more action in the battle since the American’s committed to the northern flag).

As typical of American flexibility, the Ami commander then moved his advance to my weak middle and with his lightning quick Stuarts, he was able to advance deep into the flank of my central position. Seeing that his armor was speeding away from the northern strong point, I immediately ordered my StugIIIG to move with all haste to a position where he would be able to cut off any attempt to exit off the map to my rear. In this he performed adroitly and managed to completely seal the middle. Careful placement of the 2 anti-tank minefields paid off in the last moments of the battle as those 2 fields managed to immobilize 1 Stuart and destroy 2 others. With that the battle ended and it is my great pleasure to inform you that the enemy has been met and destroyed.

The American’s suffered:

98 casualties, 20 of them "KIA"

2 Mortars destroyed

8 vehicles knocked out

He had 96 various men left and 1 operational Stuart. (We will need to find out how many of these we captured)

My losses where:

17 casualties, 4 of them "KIA" (Notification to the families needs to be made)

1 7.5cm Pak knocked out by American 105mm artillery.

The final score was:

83 to 7 resulting in an Axis Total Victory.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lessons Learned

Commitment of forces must only be made after enemy intentions are well known.

Once committed, all forces must attack in unison to achieve a "shock" effect and violence of action.

Armored forces must be kept mobile and flexible in their placement. Quick movements to other sectors are fundamental to success.

One good, combined barrage is greater in effect than several attrition based barrages when artillery supply is low or "fixed".

Direct and indirect fire weapons must always cover mines.

Economy of Force must always be utilized. If the battle can be won with 1 platoon (as in this battle) do not send 2 platoons.

I hope to hear that Hauptman Alderdyce recovers from his ailment and returns to us soon. I have relinquished command to Alderdyce’s XO and await further orders.

Sincerely,

---Guerrero

[ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: Iron Duke ]

[Iron Duke]

Any news from the second battle?? Did it happen?

[JasonC]

That was the only tactical fight generated by the first op-move (there were also some artillery bombardments, earlier). The second op-move is now in progress. I have the US orders, while the German team are still discussing their next moves.

[Iron Duke]

I understand that the Second round has taken place...any news/AAR's from that yet?

**Bump**

[YECoyote]

I misread my opponent's time, so now we will have to reschedule. I hope to have the fight finished on within the next day or so. With him being at GMT time, and I'm at GMT-8, it would seem a weekday fight is out of the question. I am hoping to hear from him when I get home tonight.

[JasonC]

The second and third tactical fights have been sent out. Leonard Dickens (Germans) faces Dirt Weasel (US) in one of them, while the second is scheduled to be James Morton (Germans) against YECoyote. Naturally, scheduling is a bit more difficult at the moment, so be reasonably patient. Some of the commander assignments might change to make it easier to find a match for a game-time, but that is the current plan.

The first of the two fights listed above takes place at one of the stream crossing sites, Germans defending a village near it. The second is a rematch on the same wooded road as the first round fight, with altered forces. When fights are resolved, I encourage posting AARs here.

[Triumvir]

Apologies for not posting from the American side but since I have been directly affected by recent events, I remain unable to put the words together.

[Jarmo]

Just occurred to me, were we going to use the not-fighting-till-the-end-but-instead-ceasefiring-system I suggested earlier. I totally forgot to ask when the fights were being arranged..

[Wreck]

B3: After Action Report

Expecting a tank battle, the Germans dug in and placed their heavy tank assets into places where they had long lines of sight. The plan was to show only one tank early on, hopefully getting a kill or two but not scaring off the enemy until he had committed his tanks to some line of advance.

Unfortunately, partisans had tipped off the American commander to the exact size and composition of the German defense, though, fortunately our positions were not compromised.

Our infantry, ordered to ambush American infantry, saw none. Five American tanks, clustered in a difficult-to-see location, shelled and knocked over several buildings in the villiage, including the historical old post office that was the German command post. Finally the German commander, fairly confident that no more than a platoon of tanks was likely to be attacking, advanced in his tank to contact. The Shermans, seeing his Panther, all fired their smoke mortars. Which may have been lucky for him, since even though hunting forward, he could unexpectedly see all five of them.

At this point, light American follow-on forces appeared on the road. (Their commander apparently had not gotten the word that the attack was off.) Three panthers opened fire, knocking out a Stuart and an M3A1 scout car, and burning a greyhound. They quickly scooted behind a smokescreen helpfully laid by the main force's mortars, then exited the battlefield.

Meanwhile the American tank platoon also withdrew.

After a bit more shelling on both sides, a cease fire was agreed to.

Americans: 3 vehicles KOed, 5 casualties, 1 KIA.

Germans: 3 casualties, 1 KIA

[Dirtweasle]

B3 - Allied AAR

TF DIRTWEASLE was ordered to "scout around" a suspected enemy concentration.

The Plan was to make the enemy show themselves, gather intel on the enemy at this AO while preserving the TF for future use.

Unfortunatley there was little room to manuveur on a rather smallish map, and the ground was wet making movement difficult.

Upon entering the AO the Allied commander was able to observe a Panther tank in a somewhat hull-down aspect overlooking the road aproach to the village in question. Sending scouts forward, the intrepid scouts noticed road-blocks, and snuck around a bit trying to locate the enemy suspected back in the tree line. The TF leader signalled the Arty FO to gain LOS to a suspected enemy MG nest, and direct fire into that and other areas susspected of conatining enemy forces. The arty FO had just adjusted fire to aanother suspected enemy location when a terse message was received that a nearby scout section was about to arive. Quickly, the FO called the battery and had them switch to smoke rounds. The TF Commander at this time also ordered the tank platoon to fire buildings suspected of housing enemy units. The first Panther tank moved up, and then two more Panthers came out of hiding. The TF Commander ordered his medium tanks to reverse while firing on the Panther, Several shots impacted the Panther but none got a anything but a full frontal facing, and reversed back out of sight and made a tactical withdrawl.

The Scout section roared onto the scene and nearly got a flanking shot at the Panther that was engaging the Tank Platoon. Smoke rounds began to fall and discharge smoke, but not enough as the 3 Panthers poured fire at the Scout Section running for cover.

Several minutes went by without another shot being fired as TF DIRTWEASLE waited to hear back from HQ if more Arty was available, the radio was jammed or shot up, and with no additional arty support the TF commander ordered his units to withdraw save an LP/OP detail to keep an eye on the enemy.

No infantry was wounded, as the only casualties were all from the mech. scout section that arrived late for the party.

[Dirtweasle]

** SUGGESTION **

1) Game files need to be started by the GM. This will make prelim arty possible, and also make FOW more realistic.

Make a 30 turn CM game for a say 20 turn tactical engament like we just had, have the commanders place their units blind, then the GM can see the set up add a crack / elite arty FO to fire a few rounds her and ther and withdraw. The battle then starts on turn 10 or something.

[JasonC]

Actually, I played through the artillery barrage and reported the results, but naturally only to the guys under it - just what the shooters could see was reported back to them. I've done so for every operational scale use of fire support assets so far (there have been several). And in this case, the German side started out with various initial conditions due to the prior operational scale barrage. So I don't think the 30 turn with 10 by me idea is necessary. But thanks for the suggestion.

[YECoyote]

ALLIED AAR.

After the Recon TF was forced to withdraw due to heavy casualties, I am tasked with the 2nd attempt to break through the wooded road in OP-Square C4.

Under my command was:

[[CLASSIFIED]]

With such limited grunts, I decided to divide my TF into 2 groups. 1st group was the Assault Team, consisted of [[CLASSIFIED]]. 2nd group was the Support By Fire Team (SBF), consisted of [[CLASSIFIED]]. The FOs, placed in an area with good visibility. Assault Team was to approach the town by heading up the west woods. The SBF was to take the little house on the East, left a small team to hold it, and proceeded to the East woods overlooking the objective.

The battle started real quiet. nothing happened in the first 5 minutes. I had laid a cover of smoke to help the Assault Team make it into the West woods unharmed. As they enterd the wood, all hell broke lose behind them. Apparently the Germs had miscalulated the artillery attack. While all this was happening the SBF team was making good progress. They had blown up the house, and were moving to the East woods.

At the 10th minute mark, 1st real casualty was recieved. Sgt LaVita Sherman was hit by a hidden Pak. Lucky for us, we had called in Artillery strike at that same area moment's before. In 2 minutes, the PaK was KO'ed.

15 minutes into the fight, the SBF team was ambushed by a combination of hidden Rifle squads and 2 Stugs. In 2 minutes, most of the team was routed, or captured. Fortunately (if you can call it that), the Germs did not press their advantage. I had enough time to move a BAZ team into place and KO'ed one of the Stugs in the rear. I also shifted the artilery attack onto the dug in Rifle squads. Over at the West Woods, contact was made with another Stug. It was quickly taken care of with a perfect shot from Sgt Doe's Sherman. But the Sgt was too eager, and moved his tank within range of a Schreck team. He tried to reverse his direction, but it was too late. Boom, a Front Hull pentration.

10 minutes of constant shelling from the [DELETED] FOs, most of the Germs defending near the West Woods started running into the open, into another patch of wood. Thinking that I had broken their resolve, I ordered the rifle squads to press forward to the main objective. I also sent 1 squad to take care of that schreck team that had KO's Sgt Doe's tank. I was right, there wasn't much there to defend after almost 150 shells had dropped in the area.

The story of the demise of the 3rd Stug is a strange one. I had moved one of the supporting Sherman up closer to the remnant of the SBF team. He sighted a Stug on the road moving to the main objective. The sherman took 2 shots. The Stug finally realized something was shooting at him, so he turned to bear his gun on the Sherman. Then the Stug did the strangest thing, he turned away without shooting, and proceeded to make a slowest get-away in the history of automotive transportation. Finally, after missing the first 5 shots, the Sherman scored a side hit to end the comedy.

After the last Stug was taken out, the Germs decided to retreat to preserve as many men as he possibly could. The fight had lasted 18 minutes. the last 2 minutes, we already broken out the beer and started partying.

The final tally count was:

Allied

27 wounded/10 KIA

2 shermans KO'ed

Axis

43 wounded or killed

1 gun destroyed

3 Stugs KO'ed

1 Truck abandoned

This was a Major Victory for the Allied.

[[EDITTED BY HIGH COMMAND]]

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: YECoyote ]

[Iron Duke]

Could we get the commanders names that fought in this second battle(s)?

I know some:

YECoyote Allied (C4)

Dirtweasle Allied (B3)

Who fought on the German sides in these battles?

[YECoyote]

I fought against James Morton.

[ScoutPL]

Arent you guys kinda ruining the campaign FOW by discussing each battle from each side right after it's complete? Or is JasonC handling all the upper echelon planing/decision making?

[Iron Duke]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Arent you guys kinda ruining the campaign FOW by discussing each battle from each side right after it's complete? Or is JasonC handling all the upper echelon planing/decision making?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, yes we are! Damnit! :mad:

[Jarmo]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ScoutPL:

Arent you guys kinda ruining the campaign FOW by discussing each battle from each side right after it's complete? Or is JasonC handling all the upper echelon planing/decision making?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm doing the strategic planning for the allies, I forgot who's the axis bossman. The FOW is kind of ruined anyway when we get the end game screen.

[Dirtweasle]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ScoutPL:

Arent you guys kinda ruining the campaign FOW by discussing each battle from each side right after it's complete? Or is JasonC handling all the upper echelon planing/decision making?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, there is no FOW. Even more peculiar is the CM battles are delievered unlocked and wide open. I don't mind it in this context too much, as there does'nt seem to be anyone else complaining about the experience. It seems to be more of a TCP/IP battle club kind of thing. At least that's my take on it. No formal orders really, just kind of; go forth and slay dragons... Maybe I'm missing something, I'm not complaining, it seems to be fun, and with you more involved cmapaign, and the CMMC thing, this seems to be more of a Miller Lite, is all.

[Dirtweasle]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JasonC:

Actually, I played through the artillery barrage and reported the results, but naturally only to the guys under... So I don't think the 30 turn with 10 by me idea is necessary. But thanks for the suggestion.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

30 + 10 was simply an example, could be 25 + 5, or whatever makes sense. My point is there were no wounded squads, no shocked / disrupted, squads, no destroyed / unmanned heavy weapons, no crated areas just some burning buildings. The way we are doing it in this campaign there never can be, only the clean removal of an asset.

The other benefit is you would assign passwords, have the player place his troops, fire the arty (if used by the player), and then ship the game back to the players to start the TCP/IP tactical battle. The players could go in and study the map, etc hopefully before placing there troops, and certainly while waiting for the TCP/IP to get arranged, bu they would *NOT* be able to study the opponents forces and decide how to conduct the battle.

If you like it the way it is where the games are left open, that's fine by me, but if you are thinking there should be greater FOW you have to do either the above or tourny save the game I guess. The example above gives you the ability of making a more realistic situation I think.

[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Dirtweasle ]

[ScoutPL]

"I'm doing the strategic planning for the allies, I forgot who's the axis bossman. The FOW is kind of ruined anyway when we get the end game screen."

I disagree. All you learn is the opposing sides casualties which a good intel officer could get a handle on from interviewing participants or counting the bodies or wrecks left on the field.

Also, in an operational campaign the desire to live to fight another day would be much higher, no more last minute rushes by two vehicle crews and a couple ammoless bazooka teams just to get that last VP location. Since your TO&E carries over from battle to battle, forces who are losing the fight would be more inclined to withdraw from the field in good order, further clouding the intel picture.

But when each side offers a briefing at the end of the fight, detailing the size of the force and its composition, then it wouldnt take some one who was trying to figure out where you're strongest (and weakest) on the campaign playground. Thus taking away the whole cloud of doubt and tension that makes operational warfare such a thrilling gamble. I realize this isnt really what JasonC set out to emulate, but I felt like throwing my two cents in anyway.

[Jarmo]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I disagree. All you learn is the opposing sides casualties which a good intel officer could get a handle on from interviewing participants or counting the bodies or wrecks left on the field.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You can view the map after the fight and see all the units on the map. Only those that have been withdrawn remain a mystery.

[argie]

I suggest you to go to the CMMC page in the CMHQ to take a look on how is handled the FOW in CMMC. Is in the Academy page, in one of the manuals (the 1 or the 2, I think). Basically, the battles never reach the end, are finalized bfore to reach the AAR screen by players, letting GMs do a Cease Fire to look at the map and pour te Intel to the players. Works great in CMMC.

Also, GMs starts games and make pre bombardment, when fitted.

[Iron Duke]

I hope to dear God we do not start emulating the CMMC in any way, form, or fashion!! (I was a GM in the CPX...man what a cluster-fu(k...nothing but red tape, wherefores, whatnot's, and bullsh*t)

I will concede that at this moment the FOW is VERY wide open, but it, IMO, does not detract from the overall experience...this thing is hella-fun, and that's the way I hope it remains.

I think by sending out the battles "tournament" saved and then perhaps limiting our AAR's (mine especially because I am the biggest culprit) we could close the FOW down some, but I'll leave that up to Jason and the A/G commanders. I just fight here.

I truly hope, ScoutPL, that your tournament of which I am a part, does not give me the same experience as the CMMC did...that would be a damn shame.