A New Beginning-Invitational Tourney

[Fuerte]

We are still just bombing each other with Jarmo. While the match with Shandorf couldn't go on any worse, with CDIC everything goes so well... so far. Cross my fingers. Berli launched a massive offensive, I have never seen such before. With smoke and everything. I expect him to suffer a lot of casualties. Hope.

[jshandorf]

Bah!

Manpie

I have finally seen the tanks has has been harrassing me with for the past 6 turns. Amazing. He also pounds me with some HUGE arty which has caused minor damage but annoying none the less.

Claymore

A corpse could get turns out faster. This battle is quite the struggle as we constantly manuver and the advantage tips from side to side as the battle rages. At this moment my little old M4 Sherman has a 30 meter side shot on a panther. Hopefully he doesn't miss but I suspect he will and thus will die a flaming death.

Fuerte

While things haven't went that well for Feurte it is just the beginning and I am sure I will find a way to screw this one up enough to get him back into the game.

Ketter

Turn 1 and we are blazing away at each other already. John has sent half squads forward to scout the area out first. Hmmm... It would seem to me that sprinting halfsquads forward into the fog right into the awaiting arms of my hamstertruppen is not the best "scouting" tactic to use.

Other

Nothing interesting to report. When something interesting happens in our games I will report on it.

Jeff

[ 08-24-2001: Message edited by: jshandorf ]

[John Kettler]

Response and an update

Shandorf,

Ah, but I have studied at the feet, fists, elbows and teeth of Fionn, from whom I learned extraordinarily painful lessons about the importance of recon. Yes, I had some lead elements moving quickly from cover to cover, but as the hail of inbound lead will soon show, I didn't send those men out unsupported. I took some chances because of the poor visibility conditions, but it didn't seem rash with the information I had at the time. Instead, what I did was take a calculated risk intended to quickly seize the crossroads. You simply got there first with your SS regulars, allowing you to gloat.

Okay, you've had your fun. Send me a turn!

Jarmo again disappeared, but since he came back this time after some charity party/music event, we've sent a bunch of turns (now game turn 5 of 25) winging back and forth. He appears to be probing the contested leftmost VL, to which I've thoughtfully responded

with mortar fire. Let me just say that it's scary stuff in the fog, especially short rounds. Either the FO needs a refresher course or the mortars need repair, for the group shot

looked more like Nebelwerfer fire than mortar fire. There are also indications that armor in the center rear on his side has begun to shift to my left.

There are no infantry firefights so far, and I appear to control two bridges outright, with a fourth also contested. This is per my tactical display, which may or may not be accurate.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone who fights under the agreements Jarmo and I reached, then gets this map, has serious work and stomach churning ahead, for it's a city fight with minimal infantry. Not the best way to go. Very exciting!

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

The long sought turn flow has finally arrived, and turns and missiles of many sorts are flying back and forth wreaking havoc on various recipients.

If my display is to be trusted, I now control 3 of 4 VLs in my battle against Jarmo. Mortar fire continues to pound the approaches of the leftmost VL, there is a real firefight raging across the river between an apparent Vickers MMG in a building overlooking the seemingly Canadian controlled third bridge, and my guys in buildings across the deep gulch. I'm doing minor repositioning of armor, and Jarmo appears to be moving some into the vicinity of the second bridge. His tactical intentions for that armor are presently unclear, being in a kind of swing position behind a heavy building allowing action against crossing either of the first two bridges or enabling a swift move in either direction. Will just have to see.

The battle vs. Shandorf is a chaotic mess even by the military standards for chaos in battle, and the support fires are only making things worse. The SS forces are in and around the crossroads on my far right. I'm in buildings and woods nearby. Mortar and heavier unknown fire is raining down, causing spectacular treebursts, sending men scurrying for cover and adding to the intense confusion of battle waged in the fog at distances ranging from spitting to 40 meters. He has committed some sort of light armor to the fray as well. Both sides have taken casualties, but the real damage has been to cohesion and combat effectiveness.

Things are so bad, the troops so battle averse, that my proposal for summary field tribunals all around--for cowardice in the face of the enemy--was met enthusiastically by my opponent, whose troops are now referred to by him as "useless hamstertruppen." I have even choicer names for my men. The feldwebels and sergeants have their work cut out for them to get these miserable excuses for soldiers back to their duty.

There is some good news to report from the American side, though. While the martial insanity on the far right raged, my men quietly slipped in and took the church, the central and strong VL on the map. This gives me two of three VLs. I expect a counterattack soonest.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

I hate it when I'm right!

There was no counterattack on the church, but Shandorf's heavy fire support is now ranged in on my right and is blasting my positions mercilessly. A heavy building just took a single hit and blew to bits. Unfortunately, it was occupied at the time. American artillery is beginning to fall, but it's in the wrong place.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Treeburst155]

News from the front! CapitalistDogInChina has achieved a minor victory over Michael Dorosh. The final score, 55-41. Congratulation, CapitalistDog!!

Links to updated standings below.

Treeburst155 out.

[Fuerte]

It seems that I made huge mistakes in the game with Jarmo. I thought that I had more artillery than he, and that my artillery had made some impact to his positions... but no. I think that he has two 155 mm artillery units, ugh. My men were slaughtered. Game is almost in the end... I am going to lose this one.

Probably going to lose the game with Shandorf as well. I got my revenge, killed one of his tanks, but he destroyed my infantry platoon. I am trying now to bomb his units. He has at least two remaining tanks, at least one of them Tiger.

Also CDIC is not in so bad position as in the beginning. He got some infantry losses, but so did I. Does he have tanks or not? That is the question.

Berli launched a massive offensive, but I don't know if it is working or not. Hope not.

[jshandorf]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John Kettler:

There is some good news to report from the American side, though. While the martial insanity on the far right raged, my men quietly slipped in and took the church, the central and strong VL on the map. This gives me two of three VLs. I expect a counterattack soonest.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

LOL! Counter attack? This is battle is turning out to be really interesting.

Jeff

[ 08-27-2001: Message edited by: jshandorf ]

[jshandorf]

Ack! Double post! Nooooo!

Jeff

[ 08-27-2001: Message edited by: jshandorf ]

[Treeburst155]

Yes, Map B is a real good one. The map was inspired by Fionn Kelly awhile back. I put quite a bit of time into it. He described a map he thought would be fun and I made it. It's a keeper I think. Have Fun!!

Treeburst155 out.

[Fuerte]

Fortunately Jarmo is also bombing his own positions with that huge artillery. Does he have three 155s? This was our last turn... Shandorf got the flag, I hope that you enjoy holding it. I got too self-confident and greedy with CDIC, my Crodocile was destroyed. Shame. Fortunately I managed to fire his units twice, that must have hurt. Berli's offensive gained some results, he destroyed my Priest. Damned. Again too self-confident and greedy.

[Jarmo]

Claymore resurfaced from his mausoleum for a turn (his own words). I got a new glimpse of his tank roaming somewhere in the woods. His hidden screcks are trying to kill one of my cromwells, so far unsuccesfully. Remains to be seen if he still has fight left in him, looking good for me for now.

The fight with Fuerte ended to my tactical victory. In the last turn I managed to kill a Sherman 76 that got too close. Both of us tried to go over the elevated railroad several times. Every attempt was a disaster. I tried with fewer men and won for it.

Fuerte had shopped a potent AT force including a Jumbo and a 76mm AT gun, unfortunately for him I had a plain infantry force. Gebirgsjaegers backed up by 10 schrecks and the integral mortars. The arty was 1x150mm and 2x105mm.

Kettler and I are stalking each others in the foggy town. Some shooting with small arms and tank guns. Little casualties so far. Kettler is dropping mortar fire to where he thinks my men are. Crossing the ditch in the middle seems impossible, but we'll see..

[ 08-27-2001: Message edited by: Jarmo ]

[John Kettler]

Jarmo and I have now finally reached something

remotely resembling a conventional battle, with identified armor in use on both sides. This turn several new Canadian infantry positions popped up in the center, and they're

exchanging fire with my troops across the gulch. Meanwhile, I'm trying to blast away an MMG team from a heavy building and he's got an apparent Firefly returning the favor on some of my troops. The acute lack of infantry, limited crossing options for tanks, short LOS from fog and numerous buildings make for quite a finger chewing game of stalk.

The good news here is that the tactical display shows me as owning all the VLs, a happy state which I'm sure won't last long.

I still haven't figured out what Shandorf's heavy fire support consists of, but it has caused me considerable pain and lots of disruption. My own mortar fires seem to have semistabilized my far right, in that the pattern is now falling in such a way as to severely inhibit movement near the crossroads and punish the ill protected. I got a lovely straddle and some sort of hit on what may be a Luchs, but it's still coming. He appears to be

shifting armor rightwards on the lateral road leading to the crossroads to reinforce the first AFV, which appears to be ready to push forward in a drive designed to seize my rear VL. To the left of the newly arriving AFV even

more SS infantry is moving up on a combat line, having crossed the lateral road. I've done some moving of my own, but am not yet ready to say where.

Shandorf is vastly amused that my own mortar pattern outliers are falling in my area, but I rather doubt he likes having the mean point of impact squarely athwart the crossroads. Even though he's mauled me, I delight in reporting that I killed some of his infantry outright and put more to flight on my far right. Possibly because of additional armor nearby, with or without troops, the church VL now shows as contested. Messages from Shandorf suggest that things aren't exactly peachy in the SS camp either.

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

I just got a movie from Shandorf a little while ago. It shows further mutual abuse via

mortars/artillery, the confirmed arrival of an

apparent jagdpanzer (ensconced behind the lateral road on the next perpendicular road, and did I mention what looks like at least a platoon of SS infantry a bit to the right of the church covering the flank and left approach to his new AFV?

Himmler's new boys have moved across the road in a three up configuration and are deployed primarily in houses. Shandorf may not have had enough infantry for a counterattack, but he sure seems to have enough for an attack.

Things were also spiced up somewhat by my infantry deployment across the rightmost road which just happened to coincide with a probe forward by what may be a Luchs. The resultant burst of fire from the AFV prompted a quick crossing of the suddenly exposed road segment, followed by an urgent dive for cover.

I thought I had him fairly pinned down, but Shandorf is on the move. He seems to be trying to envelop the left flank of my forces on the right. I've shifted some troops to deal with this, but the artillery still crashing down is making it difficult and dangerous to get my men to the right places at all, let alone quickly.

Right now, things are very much up in the air, but I expect a push soon. It could come on one of several axes. Let's keep Shandorf guessing where I think that might be, shall we?

Regards,

John Kettler

[ 08-29-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

[Capitalistdoginchina]

The Hummel has been avenged, his buddies just took out a Churchill Crocodile. Thats 250 or so points thank you very much The Croc did flame a few of my grunts, but its a fair exchange for me.

In all my PBEM games i never faced a Croc before, but in this tourney i have faced 3 :eek: That makes a hatrick of dead crocs - all at the hands of the humble Panzerschreck team.

With confidence and morale boosted I am back in the battle....now where are those other 2 Churchills hiding Fuerte?

CDIC

[Fuerte]

Thanks Jarmo for the game... I learned something for sure. First, the elevated railroad provided a lot of cover. I had no idea that you had so many units there. Second, I had no use for my tanks in this map... and you had a lot of panzerschrecks there!

Shandorf is giving me no mercy.

I have a bad feeling that the match with CDIC is going fast downhill as well.

That leaves me with Berli, come on, you are my only hope!

[jshandorf]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John Kettler:

I just got a movie from Shandorf a little while ago. It shows further mutual abuse via

mortars/artillery, the confirmed arrival of an

apparent jagdpanzer (ensconced behind the lateral road on the next perpendicular road, and did I mention what looks like at least a platoon of SS infantry a bit to the right of the church covering the flank and left approach to his new AFV?

Himmler's new boys have moved across the road in a three up configuration and are deployed primarily in houses. Shandorf may not have had enough infantry for a counterattack, but he sure seems to have enough for an attack.

Things were also spiced up somewhat by my infantry deployment across the rightmost road which just happened to coincide with a probe forward by what may be a Luchs. The resultant burst of fire from the AFV prompted a quick crossing of the suddenly exposed road segment, followed by an urgent dive for cover.

I thought I had him fairly pinned down, but Shandorf is on the move. He seems to be trying to envelop the left flank of my forces on the right. I've shifted some troops to deal with this, but the artillery still crashing down is making it difficult and dangerous to get my men to the right places at all, let alone quickly.

Right now, things are very much up in the air, but I expect a push soon. It coulod come on one of several axes. Let's keep Shandorf guessing where i think that might be, shall we?

Regards,

John Kettler

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmm... The artillery that has you pinned down is YOUR artilery John. I stopped firing my arty after a couple turns of pounding. Your arty is so out of LOS that it is falling on your side also.

Game Updates

Ketter: Other than bombing his own troops I have the current front well fortified. John has taken a timid approach my scouting with half squads and snipers. This has cost since by the time scouts out my position I am already in position waiting for his advance. And with the LOS being so crappy he needs to bring his troops within small arms range to engage me with any effectiveness therefore almost nullifying the advantage of his initial scouting.

All in all this battle goes well.

Manpie: This is quite a fustrating battle now that i have confirmed the King Kitty roaming the battle field. Hopefully I will get a gun damage on it.

Fuerte: while he has taken out on of my tanks I am not too concerned as of yet. I have his advanced reigned in and I am funneling him towards his doom. Muahahahah!

Galanti: His play is timid so far so I may have the upper hand just yet. Not much has happened to speak of so I am stil waiting for something to sink my teeth into.

Claymore: The fool. He sent me the previous turn to the turn I send him. Doh! I resent the correct turn. I suppose I will have to wait another week for the reply. Regardless I have a 30 meter side shot on his Panther and I expect that M4 to miss and then die a horrible death.

I need more games. I will be sending out more challenges since it seems some of the people I have challenge never responded. Spineless bastards.

Jeff

[Ari Maenpaa]

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

Manpie: This is quite a fustrating battle now that i have confirmed the King Kitty roaming the battle field. Hopefully I will get a gun damage on it.

Jeff<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Heh, hopefully your hands will be full of work when that Firefly horde tries to chase my cat.

Our match has been quite tranquil to this date, so it'll very likely get a ferocious climax in the end, I guess.

At least I'll keep waiting for torrential steel rains on my positions in the very near future

Ari

[Berlichtingen]

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

That leaves me with Berli, come on, you are my only hope! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

As you can plainly see, I am coming. Note, I have also debunked the theory that Germans do not use their Panzerfausts

[Jarmo]

Went through a few more turns with Claymore. This has been one manuever fight. My Cromwells trying to keep their distance just right, his infantry trying to close in. Arty falling all around. He has one spotter left somewhere. So do I.

I lost one more cromwell. I thought I saw his spotter and drove by to kill it. Turned out I had seen a schreck. On the bright side, I killed his remaining tank, a flammpanzer. I think I'm giving more than taking, but both of us have been hurt bad.

Waiting for Kettler's turn. Nothing has happened since the last report.

[John Kettler]

Shandorf says I'm still mortaring my own guys?

Guess it's time to pull mortar maintenance and have a few people reamed/shot for good measure. The mean point of impact is right where it needs to be, so why should rounds be dropping short by some 100 meters? This goes double considering how many turns I've fired. I await his next turn. I'd love to take away some of his evident smugness, too.

Jarmo's movie to me epitomizes my entire ghastly day in which everything was a nightmare. Things aren't going well in the game at present.

My careful siting of armor and infantry alike has failed to prevent multiple problems. His infantry (squad?) is somehow now across the gulch, in a stone house by the leftmost bridge, near which lies an unfortunate victim of a short round and subsequent treeburst--my 234/1, killed earlier when I was complaining about worn tubes. I expect a close assault on my AFV there shortly. Compounding my woes is the hit on my AG by an unknown party. My bet's a previously unseen PIAT team firing from a building near the third bridge. I look forward to giving Jarmo some of his own.

I sent him a turn at 3:06 p.m. PDT Tuesday.

Regards,

John Kettler

[jshandorf]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John Kettler:

Shandorf says I'm still mortaring my own guys?

Guess it's time to pull mortar maintenance and have a few people reamed/shot for good measure. The mean point of impact is right where it needs to be, so why should rounds be dropping short by some 100 meters? This goes double considering how many turns I've fired. I await his next turn. I'd love to take away some of his evident smugness, too.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Seriously, John, I haven't fired any arty since that initial barrage of 120mm. Since then all the arty has been yours, and it is falling on both sides I might add.

Even with a good LOS an arty spread will deviate +/-50m on the E-W axis. With BAD LOS that number approaches +/-100m. But hey.. its your arty. Drop it where you want to.

Mr. Smug himself,

Jeff

[Treeburst155]

Hmmm....I didn't know arty spread increased as quality of LOS decreased. I was under the impression that greater RANGE caused less accuracy. Maybe that's due to the lower quality of LOS at range. Very interesting.

[Capitalistdoginchina]

Oh my, Fuurte has opted for massive firepower, 3 churchills (One croc) and high caliber arty...seems like 4.5inch plus? I can determine that with so many points spent on high firepower he must be thin on infantry....this could be his weak link, i may be able to exploit this providing my troops survive the onslaught - casualties are quite high, but so is our confidence after knocking out the dreaded Crocodile

[John Kettler]

Having tired of mortaring all and sundry, as so gleefully described by Shandorf, I have now switched to pounding Shandorf with heavy artillery. Not only do the big shells

seem to be landing where I point them, but I hear Germans screaming in pain! The rightmost crossroads have become decidedly unhealthy, as one of Shandorf's squads found out when a shell blew up in its face.

His presumed Luchs is looking more and more like an H-39 or some such. Every time it fires into a house there's a fairly prominent explosion. 20mm doesn't do that.

There was and is a vicious firefight going between my guys in what I believe is the caretaker's cottage on the hill near the church and Shandorf's boys in a big wooden building at the hill's base and a smaller adjacent building. Shandorf has some sort of unit now in the church proper, as one of my scout elements learned while crossing the stone wall surrounding the church yard. His center armor's on the move again, too.

He's putting very strong pressure on my center, but I suspect his attack on my far right is getting/will receive such severe punishment that it'll be forced to stop and maybe even retreat. That'll release a bunch of troops with whom I can cause all sorts of mischief.

I await a movie turn from Shandorf.

The situation with Jarmo remains in flux. Both of us are shifting armor. He remains outposted

with a Firefly behind a building near the second bridge, but appears to be deploying multiple AFVs to the center of town behind and between the two center bridges.

Infantry fires continue to be exchanged. Presently, I'm attempting to deal with forward Canadian elements in scattered trees near the gulch, close by the second bridge. Several previously firing Canadian elements have gone to ground, temporarily I'm sure.

The situation at the first bridge remain tenuous.

Jarmo also owes me a movie.

Regards,

John Kettler